Memorial Day 2023

 

Memorial Day 2023

Flagstaff Almanac

Week 22 Day 149	Ave. Sky Cover 5%\ Visibility  28mi.	Flagstaff Today  73° \ 37°
Wind  2mph \ Gusts  16mph	Nearest active fire: 23miles	Nearest Lightning:  331mi
Air Quality: Moderate Risk of fire: Extreme	May Averages: Flagstaff: 68° \ 34° May Average: 3 Days of moisture	Sunshine

Today’s Quote

Memorial Day this year is especially important as we are reminded almost daily of the great sacrifices that the men and women of the Armed Services make to defend our way of life. -Robin Hayes

Weekly Observations

22-6/4   National Seat Belt Reinforcement Week Link 24-30 Fleet Week 25-31 Week of Solidarity With The People of Non-Self-Governing Territories 26-29 Old-Time Player Piano Weekend  Link Mudbug Madness Days   National Polka Weekend Link  28-6/3  Black Single Parents Week 28-6/4 National African Violet Week 29-9/4 National Marina Days (From Memorial Day to Labor Day)  Link

Daily Observations

Ascension of Baha'U'llah Coq Au Vin Day Hamburger Day Link  International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers Learn About Composting Day Memorial Day (Observed) National 529 Day  Link National Alligator Day Prayer for Peace Memorial Day Put A Pillow On Your Fridge Day Link

Today’s Thoughts

A great weather day…again. No complaints

Memorial Day is an American holiday honoring the men and women who died while serving in the military. My parents knew it as Decoration Day. It began in the years following the Civil War and became a national holiday in 1971. It has come to mark the beginning of the summer season.

I see lots of posts on Facebook that I ‘like’ or that make me laugh or I enjoy and I want the person who posted it to know I enjoyed it. I thought it showed appreciation without having to say anything. Yesterday I was in a very good mood and liked a lot of posts. Suddenly I was told by Facebook that I was restricted for 24 hours for ‘something’. All I had done was ‘like’ too many posts. I took some minutes to review community standards and found another site where people talk about community standards. It was there I learned that Facebook will restrict its members posts if there are too many emoji responses within a timeframe. The guess is that this is to prevent bots that are not real people from turning a post viral. There must be a better way to prevent bots from the Facebook site. Guess I’ll change my strategy to make the machine happy. I would complain to Facebook, but it is free, and they can have whatever rules, no matter how ridiculous. Algorithm 1, Me 0.

Our local daily newspaper, the AZ Daily Sun, has been published since 1898 as the Coconino Sun and since 1946 as the Daily Sun. Flag has grown a lot since those days. Our population is at a little over 75,000. When I arrived here in 1971 it was about 42,000. The price of the paper has gone up so that a paper subscription is about $300/year. I switched to the e-edition a few years ago. They had gone from printing 7 days a week to 6 days a week with no Monday paper. Today, the e-edition said that in mid-June the print paper would be going to 3 days a week and home delivery would be through the mail. It is a sad commentary for a university town.

Enjoy

Ocean Trivia

The largest species of shark, the Whale shark, is named after another large sea-dweller, and the species can reach lengths as large as 60 feet.

Origins of State Names

Texas

Texans have that sweet southern charm, so it’s fitting that its name translates to “friends or allies.” Spanish explorers encountered the Native American Caddo tribe in present-day Texas in the 1540s, and are believed to have interpreted their word teyshas as the tribe name, recording it as Teyas or Tejas. While the errors were corrected and the usage stopped over time, the name eventually lived on. “Friendship” has even been the Texas state motto since 1930, so if you don’t have a pal from Texas already then be sure to find yourself one.

Historic Events

• 1886 – John Pemberton placed his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, in The Atlanta Journal.
• 1919 – Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity was tested (and later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin.
• 1953 – Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, became the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which is at 29,035 feet above sea level.
• 2004 – The National World War II Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.

Birthdays with some quotes

@100 – Leslie Townes “Bob” Hope, English-American actor, singer, producer (d. 2003)
“No one party can fool all of the people all of the time; that’s why we have two parties.”– Bob Hope @71  – Tenzing Norgay, Mountain climber (d. 1986; stroke)
67 – LaToya Jackson, entertainer
70 – Danny Elfman, American singer-songwriter
“… you hear the beginning of a melody, you should kind of know it’s going to lead down this path. It should start feeling like a friend, like familiar.”– Danny Elfman
65 – Annette Bening, American actress
@63 – Patrick Henry, American lawyer, politician, 1st Governor of Virginia (d. 1799; intestinal disease)
“United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.”– Patrick Henry
@62 – G.K. Chesterton, English essayist, poet, playwright (Father Brown)(d. 1936; heart failure)
“The truth is that it is only by believing in God that we can ever criticize the Government. Once abolish the God, and the Government becomes the God.”– Gilbert K. Chesterton
“A society is in decay, final or transitional when common sense really becomes uncommon.”– Gilbert K. Chesterton
47 – Daniel Tosh, American comedian
“They say money doesn’t buy happiness. That phrase should end with ‘just kidding’.”– Daniel Tosh
@46 – John F. Kennedy, 35^th President (d. 1963; assassinated)
48 – Mel B (Melanie Janine Brown), English singer-songwriter
“You never can expect what people’s reactions are going to be. You can only hope that everyone feels the way that you do.”– Melanie Brown
34 – Riley Keough, American model