11-24-11

FYI: Blue text is a link… click on any blue text for more information!

Today’s “Geez”                                                               .

1871 - National Rifle Association organized (NYC)

1947 - John Steinbeck's novel "Pearl" published

1947 - Un-American Activities Committee finds "Hollywood 10" in contempt because of their refusal to reveal whether they were communists

1948 - Ireland votes for independence from UK

1963 - 1st live murder on TV-Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald

♪♪ Happy Birthday To:♪♪                                     .                     

 

Free Rambling Thoughts                                                      .

I got the pie baked…so I’m ready for Thanksgiving. Good times, good friends, good food. I hope everyone is ready.

NPR Sunday Puzzle…(answers at the end of post)                            .

Think of five words related to a given category whose first letters spell out "court." For example, if the category was girls' names, the answers could be (C)onnie, (O)lga, (U)ma, (R)achel and (T)ina.

This puzzle has many answers—the ones at the bottom are just a sample

1.     US state

2.    Magazines with 1 million+ circulation

3.    ___ House: 

Wuzzles…What concept or phrase do these suggest?                         .

   

Rules of Thumb                                                             .

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

• Subtract five from the age of a child to determine his or her grade in school. Conversely, add five to the grade of a child to determine his or her age. A fourth grader, for instance, is usually nine years old.

Hmmmmm                                                                      .

• Rank of “don’t know”, “none” and “Bill O’Reilly”, respectively, among America’s most trusted political journalists: 1. 2. 3

Somewhat Useless Information                                               .

• If the earth were the size of an apple, it would feel as smooth as a billiard ball.
• Traditionally, the third wedding anniversary is called the leather anniversary.
• The opposite sides of Las Vegas-standard dice always add up to seven.
• The football huddle was first used in the 19th century by a team at a college for the deaf.
• The whip was the first man-made invention to break the sound barrier.
• Margaret Thatcher held the office of prime minister of Great Britain longer than any other person in the 20th century.

Yeah, It Really Happened                                                .            

VALLEJO, Calif. - Police in California said three would-be carjackers were foiled because the vehicle they targeted had a manual transmission. Vallejo police said the men, at least two of them armed with handguns, approached a man in front of his home around 7:10 p.m. Saturday while he was unloading groceries from his car, the Vallejo Times-Herald reported Monday. Police said the attackers, each around 20 years old, forced the man to the ground and took the keys to his car, then fled after discovering they were unable to operate the stick shift.

Guffaw…or at least smile                                                    .

Ladies and Gentlemen, hobos and tramps, cross eyed mosquitoes and bow legged ants, I stand before you yet sit right beside you to tell you a story I know nothing about. Admission is free; so pay at the door pull up a seat sit on the floor. One sunny day in the middle of the night to dead boys got up to fight. Back to back they faced each other drew their swords and shot each other. A deaf policeman heard the noise, he went and killed those two dead boys. A blind man saw it all looking threw a knot in a brick wall, while talking to his wife on a disconnected telephone. If you don't believe this lie is true ask the other blind man he saw it too. He lives in a two-story house on a vacant lot.

Searchin’ “You Tube” I found                                             .     

 Pat Morita discusses his days as a stand-up comedian

Daybook Information                                                         .

…Happening This Week:

18-24

National Farm-City Week 

20-26 

Better Conversation Week

Church/State Separation Week

National Bible Week

National Family Week

National Game & Puzzle Week

Today Is                                                                    .

Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day

Thanksgiving Day or National Day of Mourning

Turkey-free Thanksgiving

Use Even If Seal Is Broken Day

~*~

Today’s Events                                                               .

Arts

1859 - Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species"

Athletes

1957 - Cleve Browns' fullback Jim Brown sets club record of 237 yds rushing

1960 - Wilt Chamberlain pulls down 55 rebounds in a game (NBA record)

1991 - Monica Seles, sets female tennis record winning $2,457,758 in a year

Business

1869 - American Woman's Suffrage Association forms (Cleveland)

1971 - Dan "DB" Cooper parachutes from a Northwest AL 727 with $200,000

Education

--

Indigenous People

1713: Father Junipero Serra is born. During his lifetime he establishes many of the missions in California

1812: As a young boy, Spemicalawba (called Captain Logan or High Horn), is captured by General James Logan. General Logan raises him until he is returned to the Shawnee during a prisoner exchange. Tecumseh's nephew, he tries to temper Tecumseh's feelings toward the Europeans. Spemicalawba scouts for the Americans during the war of 1812. He is killed on this date during a scouting expedition. Buried with military honors, Logansport, Indiana is named after him.

Politics [International]

1655 - English Lord Protector Cromwell bans Anglicans

1995 - Ireland votes to end 70-year-old ban on divorce (50.28% to 49.72%)

Politics [US]

1896 - 1st US absentee voting law enacted by Vermont

1932 - In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens

1954 - Air Force One, 1st US Presidential airplane, christened

1964 - For 1st time since 1800, residents of Wash DC permitted to vote

1969 - Lt William L Calley, charged with massacre of over 100 civilians in My Lai Vietnam in March 1968, ordered to stand trial by court martial

1979 - US admits troops in Vietnam were exposed to the toxic Agent Orange

1993 - Brady bill passes establishing 5-day waiting period for handgun sales

Religion

--

Science

1434 - Thames River freezes

1715 - Thames River freezes

1874 - Joseph F Glidden patents barbed wire

1903 - Clyde Coleman of NYC patents automobile electric starter

Today’s Birthdays                                                            .

Artists: [Authors, Composers]

1925 - William F. Buckley Jr, American conservative author and commentator (National Review, Firing Line)

1888 - Dale Carnegie, author (How to Win Friends & Influence People)

1826 - Collodi, [Carlo Lorenzini], Italian author (Pinocchio)

1864 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter (At the Moulin Rouge)

Athletes

--

Entertainers [Actors, Singers…]

1917 - Howard Duff, actor (Flamingo Road, Knots Landing)

1911 - Kirby Grant, Butte Mont, actor ( Sky King)

Katherine Heigl, actor is 33

1868 - Scott Joplin, US, entertainer/composer (The Entertainer)

Dwight Schultz, actor (A-Team) is 64

Entrepreneurs & Educators

1853 - Bat Masterson, American gunfighter

Political Figures

1921 - John V Lindsay, (Mayor-R/D-NY, 1965-73)

1784 - Zachary Taylor, (Whig) 12th Pres (Mar 5, 1849-July 9, 1850)

Scientists & Theologists

--

Today’s Obits                                                            .

1807 - Joseph Brant, Mohawk leader dies at 65

1991 - Freddie Mercury, British singer (Queen), dies of AIDS at 45

2005 - Pat Morita, American actor (Karate Kid…) dies at 73

1963 - Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK's assassinator, shot dead by Jack Ruby

1980 - George Raft, actor (Scarface, Johnny Angel, Mr Ace), dies at 85

Answers                                                                .                                                                           

NPR Sunday Puzzle

US state: CN, OK, UT, RI, TX

Magazines Cosmo, Oprah, Us Weekly, Reader’s Digest, Time

___ House:  Court, Out, Upper; Ranch, Tea

Wuzzle

Stepchildren

A bull in a china shop

Geography lessons

Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.

All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site has mistakes and sadly once out the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.

§     AND THAT’S ALL FOR NOW     §

11-23-11

FYI: Blue text is a link… click on any blue text for more information!

Today’s “Geez”                                                                .

1783 - Annapolis Maryland, becomes US capital (until June 1784)

1863 - Patent granted for a process of making color photographs

1904 - 3rd Olympic games close in St Louis

1936 - 1st issue of Life, picture magazine created by Henry R Luce

1942 - Coast Guard Woman's Auxiliary (SPARS) authorized

1964 - Vatican abolished Latin as official language of Roman Catholic liturgy

1974 - 60 Ethiopia gov’t officials executed

1992 - 10,000,000^th cellular telephone sold

♪♪ Happy Birthday To:♪♪                                              .

 

Free Rambling Thoughts                                                      .

It warmed back up in Flag. Nice to have good weather and be able to run errands with the window open and the heater off. I wore one of my Ethiopian T-shirts today and several clerks commented on it.

My brother is almost ready for his big opening. He now has a like page on  Face Book  and soon the website will be up. Sure is strange to see our family name on such a nice line of furniture. He is still smiling, so guess it hasn’t taken too much of a toll on him. What a task he has ahead.

I’m still suffering with finding the right TV channels since the cable company upgraded. While I have a bunch of junk in the package, I do have some favorite stations and favorite shows. I guess I will learn the new channels someday. Thank goodness the main TV downstairs has a search function to find what I want. I’m too cheap to have a box on my upstairs TV’s. If a show is not available upstairs I just record it and watch it later. Most of my TV watching is just for having the noise.  Speaking of TV, a new study shows that those who watch Faux News are less informed than people who don’t watch any news on TV. Not a surprise to me. I seldom watch their channels and usually do quite well on Fareed Zakaria’s news quiz each week. What I found most bothersome with the results of the poll…that Fox News viewers were less likely to know that Egypt had overthrown its government than those who didn’t watch the news. And they were more likely to think that Syria had overthrown its government. Uniformed people vote.

NPR Sunday Puzzle…(answers at the end of post)                             .

Name the well-known island concealed in consecutive letters of each sentence. For example: "Helga is a saucy Prussian." The answer: "Cyprus."

1.     It was the defendant I guarded.

2.    Listen to Rita’s maniacal laugh.

3.    The plane made a nice landing.

4.    It’s Motrin I’d add to the shopping list.

5.    These are the decors I could live with.

6.    Did the baseball get a hit I wondered.

7.    The german hat tanked at the fashion show.

8.    Conan, tuck Ethan in bed.

Wuzzles…What concept or phrase do these suggest?                          .

   

Rules of Thumb                                                              .

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

• All putts break toward the water because the slope of greens is contoured for drainage.

Hmmmmm                                                                     .

• Percentage decrease in tweets by US elected officials in the week following ‘Weinergate”: 28

Somewhat Useless Information                                                .

• The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead."
• Parker Brothers once sent an armored car with one million dollars of the MONOPOLY game money to a marathon game in Pittsburgh that had run out of funds.

Yeah, It Really Happened                                                   .

MOSCOW - Officials with the Russian Defense Ministry said all military units are being provided with badminton equipment to help them sharpen their skills. Alexander Schepelev, head of physical training for the ministry, said about 10,000 rackets and tens of thousands of shuttlecocks are being purchased for the units to help soldiers with their eye muscles, cardiovascular strength and reaction speed, RIA Novosti reported Monday.

"Badminton is very useful for every soldier without exception. But it will be particularly useful for shooters and snipers," Schepelev said.

However, Alexander Khramchikhin, deputy director of Russia's Institute of Political and Military Analysis, said playing the sport would likely only benefit soldiers by providing a way to relieve stress. The move comes after President Dmitry Medvedev posted a clip to his official blog of a badminton game he played with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Medvedev said in the clip, which was aimed at children, the sport "develops your physical form, eye coordination, accuracy and reactions."

Guffaw…or at least smile                                                     .

He asked for a putter, then drove three hundred yards onto the green. Then he asked for a driver and drove the ball to within two feet of the cup. Then he asked for a niblick and got the ball into the cup.

“Now I’m in trouble,” he told the caddie.

“Why?”

“I don’t know what club to use to get it out.”

Searchin’ “You Tube” I found                                                 .     

Walter Cronkite Presents Life Magazine Photos

Daybook Information                                                         .

…Happening This Week:

18-24

National Farm-City Week 

20-26 

Better Conversation Week

Church/State Separation Week

National Bible Week

National Family Week

National Game & Puzzle Week

Today Is                                                                     .

Dr. Who Day (1st broadcast-1963)
Fibonacci Day (because the first numbers of the Fibonacci Series are 1, 1, 2, 3.  The Fibonacci sequence adds the previous 2 numbers to get the third.)

National Cashew Day

Tie One On Day

~*~

Japan: Labor Thanksgiving Day (an occasion for commemorating labor and production and giving one another thanks)

Today’s Events                                                               .

Arts

1644 - Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship, and written by John Milton is published

1903 - Enrico Caruso US debut (Metropolitan Opera House, NY) in "Rigoletto"

Athletes

1876 - Columbia, Harvard & Princeton form Intercollegiate Football Assn

1887 - Notre Dame loses its 1st football game 8-0 to Michigan

1960 - Dodgers outfielder Frank Howard is voted NL Rookie of Year

1988 - Wayne Gretzky scores his 600th NHL goal

Business

1889 - Debut of 1st jukebox (Palais Royale Saloon, San Francisco)

1960 - Tinseltown dedicated its Walk of Fame at Hollywood Blvd & Vine St

Education

--

Indigenous People

1868 - Custer and the Seventh Cavalry leave Camp Supply looking for "hostiles" in the Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma). There are 800 soldiers who start this march in a heavy snow storm.

1877 - While authorities are attempting to arrest an Indian named Naught, who is accused of shooting two teamsters, other Indians become agitated. One of them shoots Alex Rhoden, who is walking across the street at the time, in Nalad City, Idaho. This incident leads to the Bannock War.

Politics [International]

1867 - The Manchester Martyrs were hanged in Manchester, England for rescuing two Irish men from jail.

Politics [US]

1903 - Colorado Governor James Peabody sends the state militia into the town of Cripple Creek to break up a miners' strike.

1921 - Pres Harding signs Willis Campell Act (anti-beer bill) forbidding doctors prescribing beer or liquor for medicinal purposes

1945 - Most US wartime rationing of foods, including meat & butter, ends

Religion

1584 - English parliament throws out Jesuits

1906 - Joseph Smith, leader of the Mormon Church, convicted of polygamy

1971 - China People's Republic seated in UN Security Council

Science

1334 - St Clemens Flood: Dike breaks at Flemish/Zeeuwse/Dutch coast

1654 - French mathematician, scientist, and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal experiences an intense, mystical vision that marks him for life.

1835 - Henry Burden patents Horseshoe manufacturing machine (Troy NY)

1852 - Just past midnight, a sharp jolt causes Lake Merced (SF, CA) to drop 30' (9m)

1897 - Andrew J Beard invents "jerry coupler," to connect railroad cars

1897 - Pencil sharpener patented by J L Love

1948 - Dr Frank G Back (NYC) patents lens to provide zoom effects

Today’s Birthdays                                                            .

Artists: [Authors, Composers]

1883 - Jose Clemente Orozco, Mexican painter (Epic of Culture in New World)

Athletes

Oscar Robertson, NBA guard (Cin, Milwaukee, Olympic-gold-1960) is 73

Entertainers [Actors, Singers…]

Miley Cyrus, singer, actress is 19

Steve Landesberg, comedian/actor (Barney Miller) is 66

1888 - Harpo Marx, [Adolph], actor/comedian (Marx brothers)

1917 - George O'Hanlon, actor (Calvin-Life of Riley, voice of George Jetson)

David Rappaport, actor is 60

Robin Roberts, American television reporter is 51

Entrepreneurs & Educators

--

Political Figures

1902 - Aaron Bank, American OSS officer and founder of the US Army Special Forces

1859 - Billy the Kid, [William H Bonney], criminal

1943 - Andrew Goodman, civil rights worker, murdered in 1964

1804 - Franklin Pierce, 14th Pres (1853-1857)

Scientists & Theologists

1924 - Colin Turnbull, British anthropologist in Africa: 1^st ethnomusicology expert

Today’s Obits                                                            .

1992 - Ray Acuff, country singer (Wahbash Cannonball), dies at 89

1872 - Ten Bears (Parra-Wa-Samen), US poet/Comanche chief, dies at 82

1982 - "Reverend" Grady Nutt, actor (Hee Haw), dies in plane crash at 47

1902 - Walter Reed, US bacteriologist (Yellow Fever), dies  of ruptured appendix at 51

1995 - Junior Walker, tenor saxophonist, dies of cancer at 64

Answers                                                                .     

NPR Sunday Puzzle

1.     It was the defendant I guarded. ANTIGUA

2.    Listen to Rita’s maniacal laugh. TASMANIA

3.    The plane made a nice landing. ICELAND

4.    It’s motrin I’d add to the shopping list. TRINIDAD

5.    These are the decors I could live with. CORSICA

6.    Did the baseball get a hit I wondered. TAHITI

7.    The german hat tanked at the fashion show. MANHATTAN

8.    Conan, tuck Ethan in bed. NANTUCKET

Wuzzle

Sign on the bottom line

I am ahead of you

Tipsy (tip ‘c’)

Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.

All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site has mistakes and sadly once out the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.

§     AND THAT’S ALL FOR NOW     §