Apr 3


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

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪ 

Today’s  Historical  Highlights
1776 - Washington receives honorary Ll.D. degree from Harvard College
1868 - An Hawaiian surfs on highest wave ever, he rides a 50' tidal wave
1930 - Ras Tafari becomes Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
1952 - Dutch Queen Juliana speaks to US Congress
1958 - Fidel Castro's rebels attacked Havana
1973 - The first portable cell phone call is made in New York City, United States
1975 - Bobby Fischer stripped of world chess title for refusing to defend
 
Free Rambling Thoughts   
Another less than nice weather day…clouds, very cool strong wind, no moisture. Ah, spring in Flagstaff is always something.

The tour guide we had in Ethiopia chatted with me today on Facebook. Nice. He is young, like 27. The government gave in some land in Northern Addis and he is busy building a home. He plans to get married when the house is finished. Tourism is not the best right now, following a couple of serious incidents with foreigners recently. These incidents occurred nowhere near where we visited. I had sent him the Amharic tongue twister I posted the other day. He said it was a good one and that his girlfriend really liked it. Cool.

Getting up to the second news on the internet and TV certainly has its drawbacks. The teenager killed in Florida is a good example of not enough, too fast. Everyday there is a new ‘discovery’. The cops had all this information and appear to have handled the case poorly, at best. However, with each new ‘discovery’, all the ‘experts’ are re-interviewed about the ‘new’ discovery. It seems to me, that after all this, even the guy who did the killing would want a day in court. It he was within the law, he should be in court to prove it.

The Supreme Court has ruled that ‘strip searches’ are acceptable when someone is being placed in a jail. Justice Kennedy wrote that since 13million people are jailed every year, the jailers need to protect themselves and those in jail from danger. He also said that a strip search decision relates to close visual inspection of a person’s body without touching. Hmmm…sounds a little excessive to me.

Game   Center   (answers at the end of post)
Brain Game—A close up picture of what?

NPR Sunday Puzzle
Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase that contains the consecutive letters "E-L-M." Specifically, the first word will end in "E-L," and the second word will start with "M." For example, given "publication that a person with wanderlust might read," the answer would be "travel magazine."
1.     Sort of plant where Pittsburg worker might work:
2.     A person who runs a Hyatt or 4 Seasons:
3.     Food giant that is best known for its canned fruit:
4.     Amplifier that clips onto one’s clothing:
5.     A cooper:
6.     Discoloration left on a floor by the back of a shoe:
7.     Old time actor/singer who starred in ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ and ‘Gypsy’:
8.     Former NY Senator succeeded by Hilary Clinton:
9.     What Areatha Franklin sings in church:

Riddle of the day
A woman proves in court that her husband was murdered by her sister, but the judge decides that the sister cannot be punished. Why?

Anagram: unscramble—numbers represent the number of letters in each answer word

Lifestyle  Substance     
Harper’s Index         
Minimum amount the US government overpaid for federal services in 2010: $26,000,000,000
Found on You Tube 
    His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica    
Planet Earth—

Joke-of-the-day
The Teacher had asked the class to write an essay about an unusual event that happened during the past week.
Little Johnny got up to read his. It began, "My daddy fell in well last week."
"Good Lord!" the teacher exclaimed. "Is he OK?"
"He must be," said Little Johnny. "He stopped calling for help yesterday."
Rules of Thumb   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
If the interviewer talked more than you did, then the interview went well.
Yeah, It Really Happened
KANSAS CITY, Kansas — A Kansas man was struck by lightning hours after buying three Mega Millions lottery tickets, proving in real life the old saying that a gambler is more likely to be struck down from the sky than win the jackpot.
Stampede!
Bill Isles, 48, bought three tickets in the record $656 million lottery Thursday at a Wichita, Kan., grocery store.
On the way to his car, Isles said he commented to a friend: "I've got a better chance of getting struck by lightning" than winning the lottery.
Later at about 9:30 p.m., Isles was standing in the back yard of his Wichita duplex, when he saw a flash and heard a boom -- lightning.
"It threw me to the ground quivering," Isles said in a telephone interview on Saturday. "It kind of scrambled my brain and gave me an irregular heartbeat."
Isles, a volunteer weather spotter for the National Weather Service, had his portable ham radio with him because he was checking the skies for storm activity. He crawled on the ground to get the radio, which had been thrown from his hand.
Isles had been talking to other spotters on the radio and called in about the lightning strike. One of the spotters, a local television station intern, called 911. Isles was taken by ambulance to a hospital and kept overnight for observation.
Isles said he had someone buy him 10 more tickets to the Mega Millions lottery on Friday night. While one of the three winning tickets was sold in Kansas, Isles was not a winner.
Officials of the Mega Millions lottery, which had the largest prize in U.S. history, said that the odds of winning lottery were about 176 million to one. Americans have a much higher chance of being struck by lightning, at 775,000 to one over the course of a year, depending on the part of the country and the season, according to the National Weather Service.
Isles, who is out of work after being laid off last June by a furniture store, said he did once win $2,000 in the lottery and will keep playing.
"The next time I will use the radio while sitting in the car," he said.

Somewhat Useless Information   
The map of Virginia City, Nevada that burned during the opening credits of Bonanza was turned sideways so that East was at the top instead of North.

Michael Landon was the only main male cast member who had a full head of hair, but his locks had actually gone prematurely grey by the time he was 20 years old. The chestnut brown color he sported on Bonanza was thanks to Clairol Ash Brown.

Dan "Hoss" Blocker was famous for ruining takes because he'd frequently forget to remove his Rolex wristwatch before filming a scene.

Pernell Roberts had been a staunch supporter of civil rights since his childhood in the segregated South. When his six-year contract with Bonanza was up, he refused to renew it because he though the show perpetuated racist and sexist stereotypes.

The 10-gallon hat that was Hoss's trademark was originally plopped on Dan Blocker's head as a joke when he was first being fitted for his Bonanza wardrobe. However, the hat so suited the 6'4" actor that it soon became his trademark.

Lorne Greene as Ben Cartwright was featured on a Canadian postage stamp in 2006 as part of a "Canadians in Hollywood" commemorative series.

Calendar Information        
…Happening This Week:
1-7
The APAWS Pooper Scooper Week
Golden Rule Week
Holy Week
International Pooper-Scooper Week
Laugh at Work Week
National Blue Ribbon Week

National Public Health Week
National Week of the Ocean
National Window Safety Week
Medication Safety Week
2-7
Testicular Cancer Awareness Week
Explore Your Career Options
The Masters Tournament
Today Is                                                                      
Find A Rainbow Day
Pony Express Day
Tweed Day
World Party Day
Don't Go To Work Unless It's Fun Day

Today’s Other Events                                                             
1700’s
1730 - The Cherokee village of Nequassee, modern day Franklin, North Carolina, Sir Alexander Cuming will oversee a ceremony making Chief Moytoy the "Emperor of the Cherokee." This will be his final step in having the Cherokee acknowledge the sovereignty of King George II of England.
1790 - Revenue Marine Service (US Coast Guard), created
1800’s
1848 - Thomas Douglas becomes 1st SF public teacher
1860 - Pony Express began between St Joseph Mo & Sacramento CA
1861 - White settlers have started moving onto Sioux lands, near New Ulm, Minnesota. In an effort to improve their illegal standing, today, they petition President Lincoln for protection against the Indians.
1882 - American Old West: Outlaw Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford
1900’s
1910 - Highest mountain in North America, Alaska's Mt McKinley climbed
1918 - House of Reps accepts American Creed written by William Tyler Page

“I believe in the United States of America, as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies”  — William Tyler Page

1922 - Stalin appointed General Secretary of Communist Party
1948 - Harry Truman signs Marshall Plan ($5B aid to 16 European countries)
1955 - The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.
1968 - N Vietnam agrees to meet US reps to set up preliminary peace talks
1974 - 148 tornadoes The Super Outbreak are reported over an area covering a dozen states occurs…death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured.
1977 - Egyptian Pres Anwar Sadat 1st meeting with President Jimmy Carter
1982 - UN Security Council demanded Argentina withdraw from Falkland Islands
2000’s
2004 - Islamic terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves.
2009 - Australia formally adopts the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
In their 80’s
Doris Day, singer/actress ("Sentimental Journey") "girl next door" (Pillow Talk) is 88
In their 70’s
Jane Goodall, London England, ethologist (studies African chimps) is 78
Marsha Mason, St Louis Mo, actress (Blume in Love, Cinderella Liberty) is 70
Wayne Newton, American singer is 70
In their 60’s
Tony Orlando, NYC, singer (& Dawn-Tie a Yellow Ribbon) is 68
In their 50’s
Alec Baldwin, actor is 54
Eddie Murphy, Bkln NY, actor (SNL, 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, Raw) is 51
David Hyde Pierce, NY, actor (Niles Crane-Fraiser)  is 53
In their 40’s
Picabo Street, skier (Olympic-gold-94) is 41
Remembered for being born on this day
Lyle Alzado, NFLer (LA Raiders)/actor (Oceans of Fire, Hangfire) in 1949
Jan Berry, LA California, rock vocalist (Jan & Dean-Deadman's Curve) in 1941
Marlon Brando, Omaha Neb, actor (Superman, Godfather) in 1924
John Burroughs, writer/nature enthusiast (Burroughs Medal namesake) in 1837
Iron Eyes Cody, Tulsa OK, actor (Black Gold, Ernest Goes to Camp) in 1904
T. Pelham Dale, Anglican clergyman prosecuted for Ritualist practices in the 1870s  in 1821
Bud Fisher, American cartoonist (Mutt and Jeff) in 1885
Virgil Grissom, Mitchell Ind, Lt Col USAF/astronaut (Merc 4, Gemini 3) in 1926
Edward Everett Hale, US, clergyman/author (Man without a Country) in 1822
George Jessel, toastmaster general/entertainer (Diary of Young Comic) in 1898
William Macy "Boss" Tweed, corrupt political boss (NYC) in 1823

Today’s Obits                                                           
Johannes Brahms, German composer/conductor (Brahms's Lullaby ), dies of cancer at 63 in 1897
Milton A Caniff, US cartoonist (Terry & the Pirates, Steve Canyon), dies at 81in 1988
Christ, crucified (according to astronomer Humphreys & Waddington) in 33
Bruno Hauptmann, convicted Lindbergh baby killer, executed at 36 in 1936
Jesse James, outlaw, shot dead at 34, in St Joseph Mo by Robert Ford in 1882
Pinky Lee, kiddie host (Pinky Lee Show), dies of heart attack at 85 in 1993
Carl Stokes, 1st black mayor of a major US city (Cleve), dies of cancer at 68 in 1996
Sarah Vaughn, jazz singer, (Round Midnight)dies of lung cancer at 66 in 1990

Answers                                                                                                                                            
Brain Game: Close Up Picture

Riddle of the day
The sisters are Siamese twins

NPR Sunday Puzzle
1.     Sort of plant where Pittsburg worker might work:
a.       steel mill
2.     A person who runs a Hyatt or 4 Seasons:
a.      hotel manager
3.     Food giant that is best known for its canned fruit:
a.      Del Monte
4.     Amplifier that clips onto one’s clothing:
a.      lapel mic
5.     A cooper:
a.      barrel maker
6.     Discoloration left on a floor by the back of a shoe:
a.      heel mark
7.     Old time actor/singer who starred in ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ and ‘Gypsy’:
a.      Ethel Merman
8.     Former NY Senator succeeded by Hilary Clinton:
a.      Daniel Moynihan
9.     What Areatha Franklin sings in church:
a.      gospel music
Anagrams

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  ☺

Apr 2


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

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪ 

Today’s  Historical  Highlights
1827 - Joseph Dixon begins manufacturing lead pencils
1866 - Pres Johnson ends war in Ala, Ark, Fla, Ga, Miss, La, NC, SC, Tn & Va
1877 - 1st Easter egg roll held on White House lawn
1917 - Jeannette Rankin becomes 1st women member of US House of Reps
1954 - Plans to build Disneyland 1st announced
1978 - Velcro was 1st put on the market
2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid. Their attack is thwarted.
 
Free Rambling Thoughts   
Another sunny but very windy, with winds close to 50mph around my house. Temps dropped about 20° since yesterday. The wind also blew most of the night. Not a great day to be outside. All this wind is bringing us more wind and no moisture. What a waste of good wind and  a good Sunday.

Flagstaff’s little town attitude has a dark secret that seldom make the local paper or the local news. We have a problem with intoxicated people having to be taken to the local hospital, or to jail, or to a shelter. Our local community does have a Facebook page, called Flagscanner that opens up the wound. Last year when I first saw ‘Man Down’ posts I feared that it was either racial or worse. The guy who runs the page only does his ‘man down’ count every couple of months. After that first post, he as fully explained why he does it, and warns everyone that if they post anything racial or culturally biased, the post will be removed and the writer will be banned from the site. OK, good for him. He also posted that each ‘man down’ costs about $7200 in ambulance, police, fire department, and hospital costs. The weekend isn’t over yet, but since noon Friday, there have been 12 ‘man down’ calls. This is horrific. Some of the ‘man down’ reports are coming from downtown sidewalks, some in city parks, some in less obvious sites like wooded areas within the city limits. The other day I was driving to our new WalMart and an ambulance and fire truck were on the side of the road. As I drove by, they were carrying an intoxicated male up from a nearby wash. That one never made the newspaper or news shows. No one is going to fix the issue until they know about it. I’m sure the paper, city government, and others feel that this will tarnish our image. So Sad!

Game   Center   (answers at the end of post)
Brain Game—A close up picture of what?

NPR Sunday Puzzle
For each category, name five items, each one beginning with a different letter in the word "Aries," the first Zodiac sign in spring. For example, given the category "elements on the periodic table," the answers could be "argon, radium, iron, einsteinium and silicon."
1.     European countries:
2.     Old Testament names:
3.     TV sitcoms:
4.     Terms related to poetry:

Riddle of the day
The following sentence is false. The preceding sentence is true.
Are these sentences true or false?

Anagram: unscramble—numbers represent the number of letters in each answer word

Lifestyle  Substance     
Harper’s Index         
Amount of the $1 billion Emergency Homeowner’s Loan Program returned to the Treasury after its allocation deadline passed: $568,000,000
Found on You Tube 
      David Copperfield Magic Trick 
Planet Earth—

Joke-of-the-day
Don't steal, the Government hates competition!
Rules of Thumb   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
People will lapse into silence after every 20 minutes of conversation.
Yeah, It Really Happened
 PARADISE, CA - A California man said he was attacked by a mountain lion while out hiking and he was rescued by a mother bear. Robert Biggs, 69, of Paradise said he went out hiking and gold panning Monday morning near Whiskey Flats, and stopped to watch a mother bear with a yearling and a cub sitting on a stream bank, ABC News reported Friday. Biggs said he was turning to leave when a mountain lion jumped onto his back. He said he hit the lion on the head with a rock pick and he turned to see the mother bear grab the mountain lion by the neck and throw it to the ground. The hiker, who suffered a wound to his arm, said the lion fled after a brief struggle. "I think the lion was stalking the bear's cub and I got in the way," Biggs said. "The bear walked calmly back to her cub after, and I wrapped my arm up with a T-shirt and went gold panning before I went home."     
         
Somewhat Useless Information   
David Copperfield is most famous for making the Statue of Liberty disappear, levitating over the Grand Canyon, and walking through the Great Wall of China. The youngest person ever admitted to the Society of American Magicians, Copperfield (born David Seth Kotkin) was teaching magic at New York University by the age of sixteen.
In 2003, David Blaine lived in a transparent case suspended 30 feet in the air on the south bank of the River Thames for 44 days, apparently without any food or sleep. His only nourishment was provided by a tube which carried water into the case.
The Magic Castle, a classy Victorian mansion and private club for magicians in Hollywood, California, features Irma, an invisible ghostly piano player who can play almost any song suggested by visitors.

Calendar Information        
…Happening This Week:
1-7
The APAWS Pooper Scooper Week
Golden Rule Week
Holy Week
International Pooper-Scooper Week
Laugh at Work Week
National Blue Ribbon Week

National Public Health Week
National Week of the Ocean
National Window Safety Week
Medication Safety Week
2-7
Testicular Cancer Awareness Week
Explore Your Career Options
The Masters Tournament

Today Is                                                                      
International Children's Book Day
National Love Our Children Day
National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day
Reconciliation Day to patch up relationships
Tangible Karma Day
Tater Day ( It's Sweet Potatoes) 
World Autism Day

Today’s Other Events                                                             
1300’s
1513 - Florida discovered, claimed for Spain by Ponce de Leon
>< 
1700’s
1792 - Congress establishes Philadelphia mint US authorizes $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle & 2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins & silver dollar, ½ dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime
1800’s
1819 - 1st successful agricultural journal ("American Farmer") begins
1865 - CSA Pres Jefferson Davis flees Confederate capital of Richmond, VA
1884 - London prison for debtors closed
1900’s
1902 - 1st motion picture theater opens (LA)
1905 - Cairo-Capetown railway opens
1921 - Prof Albert Einstein lectures in New York City on his new theory of relativity
1968 - Senator E Mccarthy wins Democratic primaries in Wisconsin
1971 - Sci-fi soap opera "Dark Shadows" concludes an almost 5 year run
1975 - A 3 day National Conference on Indian Water Rights is convened today in Washington,D.C. Representatives from almost 200 tribes will attend the meeting.
1978 - TV show "Dallas" premieres on CBS (as a 5 week mini-series)
1980 - Wayne Gretzky becomes 1st teenager to score 50 goals in a season
1992 - John Gotti found guilty in death of Paul Castallanos
2000’s
2002 - Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated. A siege ensues.
2004 - Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March
2006 - Over 60 tornadoes break out, hardest hit is Tennessee with 29 people killed.

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
In their 70’s
Sharon Acker, Canadian  actress is 77
Leon Russell (Claude Russell Bridges), pianist/singer (Carny)  is 71
In their 60’s
Emmylou Harris, country singer (Together Again) is  65
>< 
In their 40’s
Rodney King, Sacramento California, black motorist beaten by LA cops is 47
In their 30’s
Adam Rodriguez, TV actor (CSI) is 37
Remembered for being born on this day
Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author of 150 fairy tales in 1805
Charlemagne, 1st Holy Roman emperor in 742
Buddy Ebsen, Belleville Il, actor (Beverly Hillbillies , Barnaby Jones ) in 1908
Alec Guinness, London England, British actor (Bridge on River Kwai) in  1914
Dabbs Greer, Fairview Mo, actor (Gunsmoke,  Little House on the Prairie ) in 1917
Jack Webb, Santa Monica California, actor (Joe Friday- Dragnet) in 1920

Today’s Obits                                                           
Boudouin I, of Bologne/Edessa, 1st crusader/king of Jerusalem dies of food poisoning at about 60 in 1118
Esther Morris, suffragist and first female American judge dies at 89 in 1902
Georges Pompidou, French president, dies of cancer at 62 in 1974
Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, Holy Roman Emperor dies of stroke at 63 in 1272
Tomoyuki Tanaka, producer (Godzilla), dies of a stroke at 86 in 1997
Ray Teal, actor (Sheriff Roy Coffee-Bonanza), dies at 74 in 1976
Pope John Paul II (Karol Józef Wojtyła), Polish Roman Catholic Pope dies at 84 in 2005

Answers                                                                                                                                            
Brain Game: Close Up Picture

Riddle of the day
Neither, it's a paradox. If the first is true, then the second must be false, which makes the first false; it doesn't work.

NPR Sunday Puzzle
There are other answers that are correct
1.     European countries:
a.      Austria, Russia, Ireland, Estonia, Spain
2.     Old Testament names:
a.      Abraham, Ruth, Isaac, Esther, Sarah
3.     TV sitcoms:
a.      All in the Family, Rhoada, I love Lucy, Ellen Seinfield
4.     Terms related to poetry:
a.      anapest, rhyme, iambic, elegy, sonnet
Anagrams


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  ☺

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Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
I retired in '06--at the ripe old age of 57. I enjoy blogging, photography, traveling, and living life to it's fullest.