5 Feb

 

5 February 2023

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 6 Day 36 \ Ave. Sky Cover 5% \ Visibility 21 miles Flagstaff Today 54° \22°  Wind 5mph \ Gusts 10mph 
Air Quality: Moderate \ Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 515mi \ Nearest Lightning 2157mi
Feb. Averages for Flagstaff: 47° \ 19° \5 Days of moisture
Sunshine

Today’s Quote

 

Monthly Observations

Pet Dental Health Month
Plant the Seeds of Greatness Month
Pull Your Sofa Off The Wall Month
Relationship Wellness Month
Responsible Pet Owner's Month  Link
Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month
Spay/Neuter Awareness Month
Spunky Old Broads Month
Sweet Potato Month (see also November)
Wise Health Care Consumer Month
Worldwide Renaissance of the Heart Month
Youth Leadership Month

 

Weekly Observations

1-5

US Nationals Snow Sculpting Days
1-7

Women's Heart Week
World Interfaith Harmony Week
2-8

Publicity for Profit Week
4-11  

Freelance Writer Appreciation Week
5-11

African Heritage & Health Week
Burn Awareness Week Link  
Children's Authors & Illustrators Week
5-12  

Dump Your Significant Jerk Week

Daily Observations

Adlai Stevenson Day Link
Grammy Awards Day
California Western Monarch Day
Disaster Day
Move Hollywood & Broadway to Lebanon, PA Day
National Chocolate Fondue Day
Nutella Day
Shower With A Friend Day Link
Tu B'Shavat-6
Weatherman's [Weatherperson's] Day
Western Monarch Day Link
World Animal Reiki Day  Link
World Nutella Day Link
World Read Aloud Day

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Warming up and snow and icicles are melting. I took my vehicle over to the free car wash at the dealership. Nice to get all the winter road grime off.  

Some flights cancelled due to the Chinese ‘weather’ balloon passing over east coast. I wonder if the US will shoot it down when it hits the open water of the Atlantic. Probably wouldn’t be able to retrieve much, but it would be out of commission.

Pope Francis is visiting The Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. Over 1 million attended a mass in Congo where 62% of citizens are Roman Catholic.

Large African Cities…

Arizona is a great state…

·        The westernmost battle of the Civil War was fought at Picacho Pass on April 15, 1862, near Picacho Peak in Pinal County

·        There are 11.2 million acres of National Forest in Arizona, and one-fourth of the state forested.

·        Wyatt Earp was neither the town marshal nor the sheriff in Tombstone at the time of the shoot-out at the O.K. Corral. His brother Virgil was the town marshal.

·        On June 6, 1936, the first barrel of tequila produced in the United States rolled off the production line in Nogales, Arizona.

Facts…

Cleopatra Isn’t Egyptian

Although she ruled Egypt as pharaoh from 51 BCE to 30 BCE, Cleopatra wasn’t of Egyptian descent. She was instead Greek, specifically Macedonian. Cleopatra was the last of a line of rulers of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, a dynasty founded by her distant ancestor Ptolemy I Soter. While the kings of this dynasty often fashioned their names after its originator, Ptolemaic queens preferred names such as Arsinoë, Berenice, and of course, Cleopatra (hence the “VII”).

Although Cleopatra wasn’t ethnically Egyptian, she does hold the honorable distinction of being the only Ptolemaic ruler who could actually speak the Egyptian language — along with half a dozen or so other languages. 

Slang Origins

1984: Wastoid

Meaning: someone who uses drugs

John Hughes’ seminal classic “The Breakfast Club” is much-loved for its depiction of the angst and social isolation of one's teenage years. It also deftly uses teen slang from the ‘80s, and seems to have coined some of its own, like wastoid. The word combines “wasted” (being intoxicated) and “-oid” (a suffix meaning "like that").

Mysterious sites…

Stonehenge (England)

No list of mysterious sites would be complete without the Neolithic monument at Stonehenge, which is known worldwide and continues to mystify visitors. The enormous stones are estimated to have been placed between 2500 BCE and 2200 BCE. Hundreds of even older burial mounds have also been uncovered in the surrounding area. Some of the stones come from several hundred miles away in Wales, leading archaeologists to speculate how they were transported. Others are from nearer parts of Wiltshire. What was Stonehenge’s purpose? Many believe it was a spiritual site, and people still flock to it as the sun rises on the summer solstice, when sunlight rises above the Heel stone at Stonehenge and falls directly onto the middle of the circle.

Historical Events

1852 – The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opened to the public.
1919 – Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith founded United Artists.
1924 – The Royal Greenwich Observatory began broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal.
1985 – The Punic War, which began in 149 BC, ended when the mayors of Rome and Carthage signed a treaty in Tunis, Tunisia.
1993 – President Bill Clinton signed The Family Leave Act (effective Aug 5, 1993).

Birthdays Today

@87 – Red Buttons (Aaron Chwatt), American comedic actor (d. 2006)
@86 – Hank Aaron, American baseball player (d. 2021)
“My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling bad or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.”– Hank Aaron
@83 – William S. Burroughs, American novelist, short story writer, essayist (d. 1997)
@82 – John Carradine, American actor (d. 1988)
@81 – Barrett Strong, American soul singer-songwriter (d. 2023)
80 – Roger Staubach, American football player and sportscaster
Spectacular achievements come from unspectacular preparation.– Roger Staubach
“Only temporary success is achieved by taking short cuts.”– Roger Staubach
80 – Nolan Bushnell, American engineer, founded Atari, Inc.
@76 – Hiram Maxim, American engineer, invented the Maxim gun (d. 1916)
75 – Christopher Guest, American actor, director
“I am interested in the notion that people can become so obsessed by their world that they lose sense and awareness of how they appear to other people. They’re so earnest about it. But that’s true of so many things.”– Christopher Guest
@71 – John Witherspoon, American patriot, invented the word ‘Americanism’ (d. 1794)
@69 – Stephen J. Cannell, American actor, producer, screenwriter (d. 2010; melanoma)
“Since I was the stupidest kid in my class, it never occurred to me to try and be perfect, so I’ve always been happy as a writer just to entertain myself. That’s an easier place to start.”– Stephen J. Cannell
@65 – Adlai Stevenson II, American soldier, politician, diplomat (d. 1965; heart attack)
“My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.”– Adlai Stevenson
62 – Tim Meadows, American actor
61 – Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress
“You know, you really do choose your existence in a way.”– Jennifer Jason Leigh
59 – Laura Linney, American actress
56 – Chris Parnell, American actor, comedian
54 – Bobby Brown, American singer
52 – Sara Evans, American country singer
@17 – Trayvon Martin, (d. 2012; killed by police)