20 March

 

20 March 2023

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 12 Day 79 \ Ave. Sky Cover 60% \ Visibility 15 miles Flagstaff Today 58° \25°  Wind 7mph \ Gusts 13mph 
Air Quality: Fair \Very Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 249mi \ Nearest Lightning 1733mi
Mar. Averages for Flagstaff: 51° \ 23° \6 Days of moisture
Mostly cloudy

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

  22-4/8
  Lent
 19-4/16
  National Cherry Blossom Festival Link  
19-25
  American Chocolate Week Link
  National Agriculture Week
  National Animal Poison Prevention Week Link  Link
  National Inhalant and Poisons Awareness Week  Link   Link
  National Poison Prevention Week Link
  National Protocol Officer's Week
  World Folktales & Fables Week
20-26
  Act Happy Week
  International Teach Music Week
  National Fix A Leak Week  Link
  National Fragrance Week Link
  Shakespeare Week Link
  Wellderly Week

Daily Observations

  Alien Abduction Day
Bed-in For Peace Day (Beatles - John and Yoko)
Day of Happiness
Earth Day
Great American Meat Out Day Link
International Astrology Day
International Day of Happiness Link  Link
French Language Day Link
National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Link
Ostara (Spring Equinox)
Proposal Day Snowman Burning Day
Ravioli Day
Spring (Vernal Equinox) 5:24 pm EDT
Well-Elderly or Wellderly Day
World Flour Day Link
World Frog Day Link
Won't You Be My Neighbor Day
World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People Link
World Sparrow Day  Link
World Storytelling Day Link 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Getting ready to have my taxes done. Getting paperwork together.  

Welcome spring! It’s been a long winter and I’m ready for warmer weather with no snow. I’m sure our town will be a little more snow, but hoping for the best.

I’m starting to follow the French opposition to raising the retirement age. After 36 years in the Federal Civil Service, I was able to retire at 59 with a decent pension. Workers need to be able to be in a pension program that allows them to work hard, earn money to live on, and be able to retire so they can enjoy their life. My dad’s career as an accountant at  meat packing companies, always paid into a decent pension. In his career he worked for at least 4 different meat packers and was able to collect a pension from each one. He and my mom had a great retirement, and my mom was taken care of the rest of her long life after he passed. It is possible today too. Instead of having the profit be the bottom line, employees should be at the top of the list.

I’m tired of the ‘will he or won’t he be arrested?’ news coverage. Our justice system still works, no matter what the answer to the question.

Enjoy…

Facts…

Platypuses look funny and cute, but they can poison you with a spur on their feet. 

More Slang origins…

Far out

If something is far out or "out of sight," it's meant as a compliment. You approve of it. But only in the figurative sense.

Beauty in our 50 states…

29. Maryland

It's hard to say anything necessarily bad about Maryland since it's got all the aspects of scenery you look for in a state. The mountainous west is almost an extension of West Virginia with dramatic green hills and blooming fall colors. Along the Atlantic beaches and the tributaries of Chesapeake Bay, the state has 600 miles of coastline—almost double what Texas has on the Gulf of Mexico—while the pastoral farmland and vineyards along the eastern shore in Talbot County rounds out the idyll.

Historical Events

1760 – The Great Boston Fire of 1760 destroyed 349 buildings, but no reported deaths.
1916 – Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity was published in Annalen der Physik.
1923 – The Arts Club of Chicago hosted the opening of Pablo Picasso’s first US showing.
Typically the March equinox falls on this date when both day and night are of equal length.

Birthdays Today

@103 – Vera Lynn, English singer, actress (d. 2020)
@98 – Carl Reiner, American actor, director, producer, screenwriter (d. 2020)
“Writing is the basis of all, because creating something that didn’t even exist before is like taking an empty canvass. It is a wonderful thing to make something out of nothing. You’ve got an empty page, you’ve got an idea, and then you start typing and that is the most thrilling thing of all. And then if it becomes a movie or something else that’s a plus, but the original writing of it is what’s very exciting.”– Carl Reiner
@91 – Hal Linden (Harold Lipshitz), American actor
@76 – Edgar Buchanan, American character actor (d. 1979; stroke)
75 – Bobby Orr, Canadian ice hockey player
@74 – Fred Rogers, American children’s television host (d. 2003; cancer)
“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.”– Fred Rogers
@71 – Jerry Reed, American singer-songwriter, actor (d. 2008; emphysema)
@69 – Ozzie Nelson, American actor, bandleader (d. 1975; liver cancer)
@66 – Jack Barry, American game show host, producer (d. 1984)
66 – Spike Lee, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
“I believe in destiny. But I also believe that you can’t just sit back and let destiny happen. A lot of times, an opportunity might fall into your lap, but you have to be ready for that opportunity. You can’t sit there waiting on it. A lot of times you are going to have to get out there and make it happen.”– Spike Lee
65 – Holly Hunter, American actress
“In some ways, it would be nice to stay younger, but I feel pretty happy about growing older… Personally, I don’t have a lot of the regular hand-ups with getting older that some people do. I’ve never tried to disguise my age. People find out anyway.”– Holly Hunter
@61 – Ted Bessell, American actor and director (d. 1996; aneurysm)