Mar 20--1st day of Spring

FYI: Click on any blue text for a link to more information!

Today’s  Historical  Highlights

1616 - Walter Raleigh released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guyana

1816 - US Supreme Court affirms its right to review state court decisions

1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" published (Boston)

1864 800 Navajo, mostly women, children and old men, begin the 300 mile march to Fort Sumner and the Bosque Redondo Reservation, in east-central New Mexico. The group would pick up 146 additional NAVAJOs during the march. A powerful snow storm strikes the ill-equipped marchers during the trip. By the time they reach the new reservation, 110 Navajo will have perished.

1934 - Female Babe Didrickson pitches hitless inning for Phila A's in exhibition game against Brooklyn Dodgers

1942 - Gen MacArthur vows, "I shall return"

1954 - 1st newspaper vending machine used (Columbia Pennsylvania)

1969 - Beatle John Lennon marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar

1984 - Senate rejects amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools

1990 - LA Lakers retires Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's #33

2006 - Cyclone Larry makes landfall in eastern Australia, destroying most of the country's banana crop

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪                     

 

Free Rambling Thoughts   

Turned out to be a great day…sun came out, snow stopped after dropping about 29”, and I have great neighbors.  There are about 9 townhouse units in our building. Our parking is right in front of the units. The HOA shovels the sidewalks and clears the parking lot very well. The only problem is that if a parking space is empty, they pile up the show against the sidewalk. With any storm, since our units basically face East, the snow just never melts. One of our neighbors is a construction guy. This morning, while I was cleaning off my ride for the third time, he was out there with a small front end tractor, removing the piles of snow against our sidewalks. He stopped and said he was tired of waiting two or more months for it to melt. I agreed and thanked him, then I took off to run some errands. When I got back he had cleared ALL the snow form all the parking spaces on our side. Very cool.

 Back at Christmas, my brother and his wife were going to a Chicago nail salon for a mani-pedi. I was with them, and decided I would try it. In my entire life, I had never done it. We actually went to two salons, since the first was not very well ventilated. Had I been alone, I would have thought they were all like that. The second salon was nice. I had a nice chat with a 20 something Vietnamese girl who cut my toenails, massaged my feet and calves, and then did my hands. My feet felt really good as did my hands. I decided today, I would try it again. I went to the mall, for a haircut, and stopped at the nail salon. A very nice older Chinese woman did it.  Again, my feet and hands are great. This is so much better than trying to cut my own toenails. I’m not like my retirement group ladies who get one every month but after about 3 months it is nice. Who knew? And yes, it is a little embarrassing for an old guy to sit there, but the massage chair lets me get over that real fast. Then I stopped at the hair salon and only had to wait about 10 minutes for my haircut. Not many people were at the mall so it was a good day all the way around. As I was leaving the all about 12:30, both the hair salon and the nail place were packed.

Game   Center   (answers at the end of post)

Brain Game

NPR Sunday Puzzle

This puzzle is called "test." Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase in which the first word starts with "T-E" and the second word starts with "S-T." For example, if the clue is "cut of beef that is often grilled or barbecued," the answer would be "tenderloin steak."

1.      Where shows are taped for broadcast:

2.      City thoroughfare between 9^th and 11^th:

3.      Construction material that has been heat treated to make it stronger:

4.      University in Nashville:

5.      Long time Alaska senator, defeated in ’08:

6.      A piece pounded into the ground to make a camp shelter:

7.      Sieve like device used to brew Peko or oolong:

8.      According to an old gas station slogan—You can trust the man who wears the ___:

9.      Dental procedure to align canine or molars:

10.   What Alaska and Hawaii had before 1959:

11.   A facility from which Morse code messages were once sent:

12.   Refusal of Union truck drivers to work:

Wuzzles  What concept or phrase do these suggest?

Lifestyle  Substance     

Planet Earth—

Found on You Tube         

The Ancient World in London - Spring Equinox at Stonehenge

Harper’s Index         

Minutes of television that the average British dog watches each day: 50

Joke-of-the-day

It was the first day of school, and the first grade teacher decided to see how much her students knew about math.

 “Steven, can you tell me what is 3 and 2?”

Steven said, “That’s when you should watch very, very carefully before you swing at the next pitch.”

Rules of Thumb   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

For capturing pythons, anacondas, boas and other large constrictors, it is wise to have one person for every 4 or 5 feet of snake.

Somewhat Useless Information   

Dolphins are Cetacenas. There are 32 species of ocean dolphins and 5 species of river dolphins.

Orcas grow up to 6.1 meters long and they are named as whales because their size, but they really belong to the toothed cetacean family just like dolphins do.

Yeah, It Really Happened                 

Miami: They wore orange – and got fired for it.

So say four former employees of the Elizabeth R. Wellborn P.A. law firm in Deerfield Beach who were terminated after they came to work in orange shirts on Friday, the company’s pay day, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports.

They said they’ve worn orange shirts on pay days for the past few months so they would look like a group when they went out afterward for happy hour, the newspaper reported. Janice Doble, 50, of Sunrise said she was looking forward to the gathering after a busy week.

“Orange happens to be my favorite color. My patio is orange," she told the paper. “My lipstick was orange today.”

Unfortunately for Doble and 13 other employees, an executive viewed things very differently. He told them that he understood there was a protest involving orange, and because they were all wearing the color, they were fired, the Sun Sentinel reported.

One person immediately denied being part of a protest and explained the happy hour connection, but after the law firm’s honchos discussed the matter outside the room, they returned and said everyone was fired, said Lou Erik Ambert, a litigation paralegal.

"There is no office policy against wearing orange shirts. We had no warning. We got no severance, no package, no nothing," said Ambert, 31, of Coconut Creek. "I feel so violated."

A spokeswoman for the firm said it had “no comment at this time,” according to the Sun Sentinel.

Calendar Information        

…Happening This Week:

18-24

National Animal Poison Prevention Week

National Inhalant and Poisons Awareness Week

19-25

Act Happy Week

American Chocolate Week

Wellderly Week

Today Is                                                                      

Alien Abduction Day

Atheist Pride Day

Bed-in For Peace Day

Corn Dog Day

Festival Of Extraterrestrial Abductions Day

First Day of Spring Ostara (Spring Equinox)

Great American Meat Out Day

Kiss Your Fiancée Day

National Agriculture Day  

National Jump Out! Day To encourage kids, and adults, to be more active

National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Proposal Day

Snowman Burning Day

Won't You Be My Neighbor Day

Persia (Iran): Now Ruz--(Persian New Year) Same day as the Vernal Equinox

Tunisia: Independence Day (1956 for France)

Today’s Other Events                                                             

Before 1000CE

141 - 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet

> 

1300’s

1345 - Saturn/Jupiter/Mars-conjunction: thought "cause of plague epidemic"

> 

1600’s

1627 - France & Spain signs accord for fighting protestantism

1699: Continuing his exploration up the Mississippi River, today, French explorer Lemoyne d'Iberville will visit the village of the Houma Indians.

1700’s

1760 - Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings

1800’s

1815 - Napoleon enters Paris after escape from Elba, begins 100-day rule

1886 - 1st AC power plant in US begins commercial operation, Mass

1897 - 1st known intercollegiate basketball game, Yale beats Penn 32-10

1900’s

1911 - National Squash Tennis Association forms (NYC)

1933 - Dachau, 1st concentration camp, completed

1935 - "Your Hit Parade" made its debut on radio

1952 - Final ratification of peace treaty restoring sovereignty to Japan

1956 - Union workers ended a 156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp

1967 - Supremes release "The Happening"

1968 - LBJ signs a bill removing gold backing from US paper money

1976 - Patricia Hearst convicted of armed robbery

1982 - Joan Jett & Blackhearts' "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" goes #1 for 7 wks

1988 - David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly," premieres in NYC

1991 - Supreme Court rules unanimously employers can't exclude women from jobs where exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially damage fetus

1994 - El Salvador's 1st pres election following 12-year-old civil war

1996 - Erik & Lyle Menendez found guilty of killing their parents

1996 - UK admits humans can catch CJD (Mad Cow Disease)

2000’s

2003 - Invasion of Iraq by American and British led coalition begins without United Nations support and in defiance of world opinion

2006 - Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 90’s

Carl Reiner, Bronx, comedian (2000 Year Old Man , Dick Van Dyke Show) is 90

> 

In their 70’s

Hal Linden, [Harold Lipshitz], actor (Barney Miller , Blacke's Magic) is 75

In their 60’s

Bobby Orr, Parry Sound, Ontario, HOF NHL defenseman (Boston Bruins) is 64

Pat Riley, Schenectady NY, NBA coach (Lakers, Knicks, Heat) is 67

In their 50’s

Holly Hunter, actor (Broadcast News, The Piano) is 54

Spike Lee [Shelton Jackson Lee], Atlanta, Florida, American film director (Mo Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X) is 55

Remembered for being born on this day

Jack Barry, Lindenhurst NY, game show emcee (Joker's Wild) in 1918

Balthasar Bekker, Frisian theologist (Examiner of Comets) in 1634

John D Erlichman, Politician (Nixon aide, Watergate) in 1925

Henrik Ibsen, Norway, playwright (Peer Gynt, Hedda Gabler) in 1828

Werner Klemperer, Cologne Germany, actor (Col Klink -Hogan's Heroes) in 1920

Ozzie Nelson, Jersey City NJ, actor (Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet ) in 1906

Michael Redgrave, Bristol England, actor (Browning Version, Lady Vanishes) in 1908

Jerry Reed, Atlanta GA, singer/actor (Bat 21, Smokey & the Bandit)  in 1937

Fred Rogers, Latrobe PA, children TV host (Mr Rogers' Neighborhood) in 1928

Today’s Obits                                                           

Liz Carpenter, American feminist writer dies at 89 in 2010

Grace Hefner, mother of Hugh Hefner (Playboy), dies at 101 in 1997

Chet Huntley, newscaster (NBC Huntley-Brinkley Report), dies of lung cancer at 62 in 1974

Stewart Udall, American politician, environmentalist dies at 90 in 2010

Giuseppe [Joe] Zangara, electrocuted for assassination attempt on FDR at 33 in 1933

Answers                                                                                                                                            

Brain Game

NPR Sunday Puzzle

Oops, yesterday’s #3 answers should have read

Mite, race, mini: ter:

a.      termite, terrace, termini

1.      Where shows are taped for broadcast:

a.      television studio

2.      City thoroughfare between 9^th and 11^th:

a.      tenth street

3.      Construction material that has been heat treated to make it stronger:

a.      tempered steel

4.      University in Nashville:

a.      Tennessee State

5.      Long time Alaska senator, defeated in ’08:

a.      Ted Stevens

6.      A piece pounded into the ground to make a camp shelter:

a.       tent stake

7.      Sieve like device used to brew Peko or oolong:

a.      tea strainer

8.      According to an old gas station slogan—You can trust the man who wears the ____:

a.      Texaco Star

9.      Dental procedure to align canine or molars:

a.      teeth straightening

10.   What Alaska and Hawaii had before 1959:

a.      territorial status

11.   A facility from which Morse code messages were once sent:

a.      telegraph station

12.   Refusal of Union truck drivers to work:

a.      Teamster’s strike

13.   Lying:

a.      telling stories

Wuzzle

Zeros

Terminals

Cleaning up after the kids

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 Is All for Now  ☺

Mar 19

FYI: Click on any blue text for a link to more information!

Today’s  Historical  Highlights

1644 - 200 members of Peking imperial family/court commit suicide

1748 - English Naturalization Act passes granting Jews right to colonize US

1822 - Boston, Mass incorporated as a city

1883 - Jan Matzeliger invents 1st machine to manufacture entire shoes

1917 - US Supreme Court upheld 8-hr work day for railroad employees

1942 - FDR orders men between 45 & 64 to register for non military duty

1975 - Penn is 1st state to allow girls to compete with boys in HS sports

1979 - House of Reps begins live TV broadcasts via C-SPAN

1993 - Supreme Court Justice Byron R White announced plans to retire

2004 - 3-19 Shooting Incident: Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪                     

 

Free Rambling Thoughts   

The weatherman was correct…lots of snow. Woke up to a foot, and it’s been snowing most of the day…must be up to about 18” here. We sure need the moisture, but wish it hadn’t come all at once. Well most will melt by June. Highways into and out of Flag have been closed on and off since last night. All schools will be closed tomorrow, adding another day to their spring break. Most city stuff is closed tomorrow too. I have to laugh a little as some in this town think we should be a ski destination. Real ski destinations don’t shut down with a foot and a half of snow. They make sure everyone can get to the mountain, if it is safe, they keep restaurants, and entertainment venues open. They keep the streets and sidewalks open so people can spend their hard earned money at the local businesses. Not my problem as I just enjoy watching the snow fall, the birds feed, and the trees load up with snow.

My Colorado blue spruce is really weighed down and is a much narrower tree than usual…it’s really beautiful and will do fine..it’s from Colorado after all. I had planned to get a haircut sometime this weekend or on Monday…Guess those plans are shot all to hell. I’ll be a little shaggy until my hair cutter returns to work next weekend. 

The home show is this coming weekend…and surprise…it’s free all weekend. That’s one way to get people to come back...good business plan. Friday has always been free for old-er folks, but now everyone can join in. Can’t wait to get there.

Game   Center   (answers at the end of post)

Brain Game

NPR Sunday Puzzle

You are given three four-letter words. Think of three letters that can precede each of them to complete familiar seven-letter words. For example, given "each," "rove" and "lode," the answer would be "imp" for "impeach," "improve" and "implode."

1.      Riot, grin, lice:

2.      Gain, rack, rage:

3.      Mite, race, mini:

4.      Roof, lace, tile:

5.      Verb, pane, fuse:

6.      Soon, arch, eyed:

7.      Loon, last, dish:

8.      Dual, nite, sped:

9.      Rice, size, able:

10.   Loin, suit, pose:

Wuzzles  What concept or phrase do these suggest?

Lifestyle  Substance     

Planet Earth—

Found on You Tube         

The Big 5 | Animals

Harper’s Index         

Number of ‘designer vagina’ operations piad for by the British National Health Service last year: 2,000

Joke-of-the-day

A man goes to the police station wanting to speak to the burglar who broke into his house the night before. ‘You’ll get your chance in court,’ says the desk sergeant.
‘No, no, no! says the man. ‘I want to know how he got into the house without waking my wife. I’ve been trying to do that for years!’

Rules of Thumb   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

Gram for gram, it costs about 10 times as much to properly dispose of laboratory chemicals than it did to buy them in the first place.

Somewhat Useless Information   

Psycho is the first movie to show a woman (Janet Leigh) in just a bra and slip. 

Not long before filming began, Colin Clive broke a leg in a horse riding accident. Consequently, most of Dr. Frankenstein's scenes were shot with him sitting.

 The Blob was originally going to be called The Glob. The name was changed when it was discovered that cartoonist Walt Kelly had already used that title. 

The mask in Scream is based on an Edvard Munch painting entitled "The Scream." 

Some theatergoers watching The Blair Witch Project experienced nausea from the handheld camera movements and actually had to leave to vomit. In some Toronto theatres, ushers asked patrons who where prone to motion sickness to sit in the aisle seat and to try not to "throw up on other people."

Yeah, It Really Happened                 

ELKHART, Ind. - An Indiana woman said she found what she believes to be a feather in one of the chicken McNuggets she purchased from McDonald's. Raquel House said she bought the four-piece McNuggets Tuesday from the McDonald's on Cassopolis Street in Elkhart and she discovered the feather-like object when she took a bite from the second nugget, WBND-TV, South Bend, reported Thursday. "I started to feel like there was hair in my mouth, and that's when I saw that there was white hair on my tongue; and I looked at my food, and there was feathers coming off the nugget," House said. She said the incident has left her feeling nauseous. "I was really upset, I mean, now I've kind of calmed down but to me this is just being a responsible citizen in our community and that's just letting people know what's going on," House said. Harry Smith, owner of the McDonald's franchise in Elkhart, said Tuesday the matter is being investigated. "We take matters regarding food safety and quality very seriously and caution anyone from jumping to conclusions. Upon learning about this claim, we immediately began the process of collecting the facts. Our customer's health and safety is paramount," he said.

Calendar Information        

…Happening This Week:

13-19

Campfire USA Birthday Week

18-24

National Animal Poison Prevention Week

National Inhalant and Poisons Awareness Week

19-25

Act Happy Week

American Chocolate Week

Wellderly Week (Well Elderly)

Today Is                                                                      

Let's Laugh Day

National Chocolate Caramel Day

National Quilting Day

Operation Iraqi Freedom Day (2003)

Perigean Spring Tides

Poultry Day

Purim (Jewish - begins at sundown)

Swallows Return to San Juan Capistrano Day

Iran: National Day of Oil

US: Florida: Save the Florida Panther Day

Today’s Other Events                                                             

1200’s

1279 - A Mongolian victory in the Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China

> 

1500’s

1571 - Spanish troops occupy Manila 1628 - Massachusetts colony founded by Englishmen

1600’s

1687 - Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men

1700’s

1775 - 4 people buried by avalanche for 37 days, 3 survive (Italy)

1800’s

1831 - 1st US bank robbery (City Bank, NY/$245,000)

1840: The Southern Cheyenne hold several white prisoners. They request a meeting to discuss peace, and to trade prisoners. Today, 65 Comanche, including Muguara, and 11 other Chiefs, bring 1 prisoner, Matilda Lockhart, to the San Antonio council house. They tell the white representatives, Hugh McCloud (Adjutant General of the Texas Army), William Cooke, and William Fisher, that each prisoner must be released through an additional meeting. Lockhart was mutilated, while in Comanche hands, and this incenses the whites. Armed men surround the Indians, and tell them they will be hostages until all white prisoners are released. A fight erupts, and 7 whites, and 33 Comanche, including all of the Chiefs, are killed. The other Comanche are captured, but the story gets back to their tribe.

1895 - Los Angeles Railway established to provide streetcar service

1900’s

1915 - Pluto photographed for 1st time (although unknown at the time)

1925 - Angelo G Roncalli (Pope John XXIII) becomes a bishop

1928 - "Amos & Andy" debuts on radio (NBC Blue Network-WMAQ Chicago)

1938 - Toronto Maple Leafs score 8 goals in 5 minutes

1949 - 1st museum devoted exclusively to atomic energy, Oak Ridge, Tn

1956 - Biggest NBA margin of victory - Minn Lakers-133, St Louis Hawks-75

1958 - Britain's 1st planetarium opens at Madame Tussaud's in London

1968 - Howard University students seize administration building

1969 - Chicago 8 indicted in aftermath of Chicago Democratic convention

1978 - 50,000 demonstrate in Amsterdam against neutron bomb

1984 - John J O'Connor named 8th archbishop of NY

1985 - "Spin Magazine" begins publishing

1987 - Bonnie Blair skates ladies world record 500 m (39.43 sec)

1988 - 2 British soldiers lynched in Belfast North Ireland

1994 - Largest omelet (1,383sq ft) made with 160,000 eggs in Yokohama Japan

1996 - Winnie Mandela divorces Nelson after 38 years of marriage

2000’s

2001 - The Bank of Japan issued a monetary policy known as quantitative easing, which stimulated the Japanese economy after the burst of the dot-com bubble.

2002 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 2) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities.

2008 - GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye was briefly observed

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 70’s

Ursula Andress, actor (She, Sensuous Nurse) will be 76

In their 60’s

Glenn Close, actor (The Big Chill, Fatal Attraction) is 65

Mario J. Molina, Mexican chemist, Nobel laureate (Antarctic ozone hole) is 69

Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, LBJ's daughter is 68

Sirhan Sirhan, Palestinian-born assassin is 68

In their 50’s

Bruce Willis, actor (Moonlighting, Die Hard) is 57

Remembered for being born on this day

Tige Andrews, American actor (Capt Adam Greer-Mod Squad) in 1920

J Jay Berwanger, 1st Heisman Trophy winner (1935) in 1914

William Jennings Bryan, "The Great Commoner" orator/statesman in 1860

Wyatt Earp, sheriff (OK Corral) in 1848

Adolf Eichmann, Ruhr Germany, Nazi Gestapo officer in 1906

Johannes Magnus, last Catholic Archbishop of Sweden in 1488

Roy Roberts, actor (Petticoat Junction, Lucy Show) in 1900

Aleksei M Romanov, 1st Romanov tsar of Russia in 1629

Earl Warren, (Gov-R-Ca)/14th supreme court chief justice (1953-69) in 1891

William Morton Wheeler, American entomologist, myrmecologist, pioneer in ethology in 1865

Today’s Obits                                                           

King Alexander III of Scotland dies after fall from horse at 45 in 1286

Edgar Rice Burroughs, sci-fi author (Tarzan of the Apes), dies at 74 in 1950

John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, Scottish royalist dies at 81 in 1717

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction author and inventor dies at 91 in 2008

Luther Ingram, American soul singer and songwriter dies of heart failure at 70 in 2007

Charles K. Johnson, President of the Flat Earth Society dies at 77 in 2001

Rene-Robert Cavelier La Salle, Fren explorer (Louisiana), killed at 43 in 1687

Anne Klien, fashion designer, dies of breast cancer at 50 in 1974

Jeff Ward, drummer (9 Inch Nails), commits suicide at 30 in 1993

Answers                                                                                                                                            

Brain Game

NPR Sunday Puzzle

1.      Riot, grin, lice:

a.      Cha: chariot, chagrin, chalice

2.      Gain, rack, rage: bar:

a.      bargain, barrack, barrgage

3.      Mite, race, mini: ter:

a.      termite, terrace, miniter

4.      Roof, lace, tile: rep:

a.      reproof, replace, reptile

5.      Verb, pane, fuse: pro:

a.      proverb, propane, profuse

6.      Soon, arch, eyed: mon:

a.      monsoon, monarch, moneyed

7.      Loon, last, dish: bal:

a.      balloon, ballast, baldish

8.      Dual, nite, sped: gra:

a.      gradual, granite, grasped

9.      Rice, size, able: cap:

a.      caprice, capsize, capable

10.   Loin, suit, pose: pur:

a.      purloin, pursuit, purpose

Wuzzle

• Apple turnover
• Once around the clock
• Rising inflation

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 Is All for Now  ☺