Apr 7


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

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪ 

Today’s  Historical  Highlights
1798 - Mississippi Territory organized
1902 - Texas Oil Company (Texaco) forms
1922 - Naval Reserve #3, "Teapot Dome," leased to Harry F Sinclair
1926 - Forest fire burns 900 acres & kills 2 (San Luis Obispo California)
1933 - Prohibition ends, Utah becomes 38th state to ratify 21st Amendment
1934 - In India, Mahatma Gandhi suspended his campaign of civil disobedience
1940 - 1st black to appear on US stamp (Booker T Washington)
1954 - Pres Eisenhower fears "domino-effect" in Indo-China
1959 - Oklahoma ends prohibition, after 51 years
1966 - US recovers lost H-bomb from Mediterranean floor 
1978 - Guttenberg bible sold for $2,000,000 in NYC
1984 - The first meeting between the eastern and western Cherokee since the 1800s
1990 - Michael Milken pleads innocent to security law violations
 
Free Rambling Thoughts   
A very good day to be out and about. Lots of errands completed, including filling the gas tankouch.

I’m a little confusedabout Easter. I was on Facebook, chatting with the tour guide from Ethiopiaof the Ethiopian Coptic Church. He is very religious and almost became a priest in the church. I mentioned that it was Good Friday. He said that Sunday is Palm Sunday in Ethiopia. I get that they are on an entirely different calendar, but it is usually a few years and months different than ours. Strange that both Christians believe in the resurrection, but differ on when to celebrate it. More knowledge on my part is certainly needed. I’m sure other Orthodox Christians celebrate both Easter and Christmas at different timewhy?

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

NPR Sunday Puzzle
Given a four-letter word, name another four-letter word that starts with the last letter of the given word. When the two words are read successively, overlapping on the shared letter, they'll spell a familiar seven-letter word. For example, given "prop," the answer would be "pose"; put together, the two words form "propose."
1.     Term:
2.     Aver:
3.     Port:
4.     Earn:
5.     Fort:
6.     Stew:
7.     Lamp:
8.     Pars:
9.     Mess:
10.  Grim:
11.  Cord:
12.  Bill:
13.  Grad:

Riddle of the day
You are in a room where there are no metal objects except for two iron rods. Only one of them is a magnet. How can you identify this magnet? 
Anagram: unscramblenumbers represent the number of letters in each answer word

Lifestyle  Substance     
Harper’s Index         
Price the Berkeley College Republicans charged whte men for baked goods at their September ‘Increase Divesity Bake Sale: $2
Price they charged Black men: $0.75
Found on You Tube 
         Grand Canyon Sunrise
Planet Earth—

Joke-of-the-day
Girl: You remind me of the sea.
 Boy: Why? Because I'm so wild and romantic?
 Girl: No. You make me sick.
Rules of Thumb   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
Radial tires get two to three miles per gallon more than bias-belted or bias-ply tires.
Yeah, It Really Happened
 What is it about bats and heavy-metal musicians? Ozzy Osbourne famously interacted with a bat in another way back in 1982, but now a member of heavy metal band Torche is wishing he never came in contact with one of the winged creatures.
“Ok so... A bat peed in my eye,” guitarist Andrew Elstner wrote onhis Facebook page March 29. “Whether or not you think I'm telling the truth is irrelevant at this point. What I'm worried about now is rabies. A bat. It pissed into my eye. [God] help me.”
The musician was staying at a friend’s house in St. Louis when he discovered a trapped and frightened bat in one of the rooms.
  "I switch on the overhead light/ceiling fan combo and what I think at first is a shadow being cast from the spinning fan blades turns out to be a freaking bat,” the musician explained. “It circles the room a few times at light speed, and on one of the turns, dive bombs my head and squirts a little nervous pee into my eye. Holy [expletive]. I'm laughing but run to the sink and attempt to flush my eye out. I'm pretty sure I'm fine but...Not the most common of occurrences.”
Elstner initially brushed it off, but, at the recommendation of both his parents and doctors, the musician went to the hospital to be treated a day later.
He added, “With rabies, you have a short window to get treated, and beyond that, it is incurable and 100% fatal. Having said all that, I feel like I'm getting treated for a unicorn bite. Bunch of nonsense.”
Elstner told msnbc.com that his treatment "wasn't so bad." "I had five (shots) totally and while I'm generally terrified of needles, the nurse was pretty attractive so that helped."
The guitarist, whose Florida-based band is on the road promoting the April 24 release of their new album, “Harmonicraft,” has since swapped his own Facebook profile photo for that of a fang-baring bat, and has continued to find humor in the situation, posting various updates and coverage of his story to fans.
“The bat peeing in my eye story has finally achieved critical mass,” Elstner wrote Wednesday, when his story was picked up by Pitchfork Media. “What a truly strange, though now harmless, event in my life.”
He told msnbc.com, "I had written that post just for my friends because I thought the story was hilarious."
Somewhat Useless Information   
According to the Venerable Bede, Easter derives its name from Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring.
In Medieval Europe, eggs were forbidden during Lent. Eggs laid during that time were often boiled or otherwise preserved. Eggs were thus a mainstay of Easter meals, and a prized Easter gift for children and servants.
Orthodox Christians in the Middle East and in Greece painted eggs bright red to symbolize the blood of Christ. Hollow eggs (created by piercing the shell with a needle and blowing out the contents) were decorated with pictures of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and other religious figures in Armenia.
Hares and rabbits have long been symbols of fertility. The inclusion of the hare into Easter customs appears to have originated in Germany, where tales were told of an "Easter hare" who laid eggs for children to find. They also baked cakes for Easter in the shape of hares, and may have pioneered the practice of making chocolate bunnies and eggs.
After their baptisms, early Christians wore white robes all through Easter week to indicate their new lives. Those had already been baptized wore new clothes instead to symbolize their sharing a new life with Christ.
In Medieval Europe, churchgoers would take a walk after Easter Mass, led by a crucifix or the Easter candle. Today these walks endure as Easter Parades. People show off their spring finery, including lovely bonnets decorated for spring.

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
4-10
Hate Week
7-15
National Robotics Week
Passover Week
Bat Appreciation Week
National Library Week
National Networking Week
Orthodox Holy Week
Pan American Week
Consider Christianity Week

Today Is                                                                      
International Beaver Day
International Pillow Fight Day
International Snailpapers Day It's about rejoicing in print newspapers, in their very materiality, their very papery feel and smell, the very stuff of newsprint.
Metric System Day
National Beer Day
No Housework Day
Tangible Karma Day
World Health Organization Day since 1948

Today’s Other Events                                                             
Before 1000CE
30 - Scholars' estimate Jesus crucified by Roman troops in Jerusalem
>< 
1500’s
1509 - France declares war on Venice
1600’s
1652 - Dutch establish settlement at Cape Town, South Africa
1700’s
1788 - 1st settlement in Ohio, at Marietta
1800’s
1830 - President Jackson has submitted a bill that would call for the removal of most of the Indians in the southeast to lands west of the Mississippi. In a speech today, Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen, denounces the bill. He asked the Senate when was it ever proclaimed "that the right of discovery contained a superior efficacy to all prior titles?"
1900’s
1906 - Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.
1923 - 1st brain tumor operation under local anesthetic performed (Beth Israel Hospital in NYC) by Dr K Winfield Ney
1927 - Using phone lines TV is sent from Wash DC to NYC
1953 - 1st west-to-east jet transatlantic nonstop flight
1953 - Dag Hammarskjoeld of Sweden elected 2nd UN general-secretary
1963 - Yugoslavia proclaimed a Socialistic republic
1969 - Supreme Court strikes down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material
1969 - The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1
1977 - Consumer Product Safety Comn bans "TRIS" flame-retardant
1980 - Jimmy Carter breaks relations with Iran during hostage crisis
1994 - Vatican acknowledges Holocaust (Nazis killing Jews) for 1st time
1999 - The World Trade Organisation rules in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas
2000’s
2001 - Mars Odyssey is launched
2003 - U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's regime falls two days later
2009 - Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
In their 90’s
Ravi Shankar, Benares India, sitar player (Sounds of India) is 92
In their 80’s
Daniel Ellsberg, whistleblower (Pentagon Papers)/patriot is 81
James Garner, Norman Oklahoma, actor (Rockford Files , Bret Maverick)
is 84
In their 70’s
[Edmund G] Jerry Brown Jr, (34th Gov- CA) is 74
Francis Ford Coppola, Detroit, director (Godfather, Apocalypse Now) is 73
David Frost, Tenterdon England, TV host (That Was the Week That Was) is 73
Wayne Rogers, Birmingham Ala, actor (M*A*S*H, House Calls, Chiefs) is 79
Swami Shantananda, Hindu Saint, Philosopher, Disciple of Swami Sivananda, Founder of Temple of Fine Arts is 78
In their 60’s
John Oates, NYC, rock guitarist/vocalist (Hall & Oates-Rich Girl ) is 63
In their 50’s
Jackie Chan, martial art actor (Rumble in the Bronx ) is 58
Tony Dorsett, NFL running back (Dallas Cowboys, Heisman Trophy) is 58
In their 40’s
Bill Bellamy, American actor and comedian (Fled, How to be a Player, Joey Breaker) is 47
Russell Crowe, Wellington, New Zealand, Australian/New Zealand actor (A Beautiful Mind, Gladiator) will be 48
Remembered for being born on this day
Hugh Blair, Scottish preacher and man of letters in 1718
Walter Camp, Ct, father of American football (Yale) in 1859
Marjory Stoneman Douglas, environmentalist (1st Lady of Everglades ) in 1890
Billie Holiday, [Eleanora Fagan], Balt, singer (Aint Nobodys Business) in 1915
Will Keith Kellogg, American cereal manufacturer in 1860
Francis C Lowell, founded 1st raw cotton-to-cloth textile mill in 1775
Walter Winchell, Harlem NYC, newscaster/columnist (Untouchables) in 1897
William Wordsworth, England, poet laureate (Prelude) in 1770
Francis Xavier, saint/Jesuit missionary to India, Malaya, & Japan in 1506

Today’s Obits                                                           
Dave Arneson, Co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons dies of cancer at 61 in 2009
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, French priest/theory/saint, dies of exhaustion at 67
Phineas T Barnum, US circus promoter (B & Bailey), dies at 88 in 1891
Jim Clark, of Scotland, world driving champ, dies at 32 in race car in 1968
El Greco, Spanish painter (View of Toledo), dies at 72 or 73 in 1614
Barry Nelson, American actor dies at 89 in 2007

Answers                                                                                                                                            
Brain Game: Close Up Picture

Riddle of the day
You can hang the iron rods on a string and watch which one turns to the north (or hang just one rod).

NPR Sunday Puzzle
1.     Term:
a.      termite
2.     Aver:
a.      average
3.     Port:
a.      portray
4.     Earn:
a.      earnest
5.     Fort:
a.      fortune
6.     Stew:
a.      steward
7.     Lamp:
a.      lamprey
8.     Pars:
a.      parsnips
9.     Mess:
a.      message
10.  Grim:
a.      grimace
11.  Cord:
a.      cordial
12.  Bill:
a.      billion
13.  Grad:
a.      gradual
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 6: Tartan Day


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

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪ 
                    Returns tomorrow
Today’s  Historical  Highlights
1808 - John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company
1868 - Brigham Young marries his 27th & final wife
1869 - 1st plastic, Celluloid, patented
1889 - George Eastman places Kodak Camera on sale for 1st time
1906 - 1st animated cartoon copyrighted
1925 - 1st film shown on an airplane (British Air)
1930 - Hostess Twinkies invented by bakery executive James Dewar
1938 - Teflon invented by Roy J Plunkett
1954 - TV Dinner was 1st put on sale by Swanson & Sons
1957 - NYC ends trolley car service
1980 - Post It Notes, introduced
1992 - Serbian troops begin siege of Sarajevo
 
Free Rambling Thoughts   
Another Fire Warning todayI’m not sure if the NWS has changed it notification from Red Flag to Fire Warning. I checked around but couldn’t find anything. Whatever you call it, we have low humidity and high winds. There was a small fire in the forest today, quickly put out by our alert FPD and Forest Serviceit was a campfire of a transient. Really, a campfire, in the middle of the afternoon on a windy day? They think they have the fire starter. As I was out and about today, I found an truck with one of those ladder cages that rises up, changing a street light. Not a job I would want on such a windy day. I did get a lot done, even with the wind. Such is life in Flagstaff in the spring.

Some good news: Mary, from the retirement group, went to my tax guy and really liked him and the servicesaid it was the best, and fastest tax session they ever had. I so hate to recommend people to friends..it doesn’t always turn out this well. Then Mary told me that she went to AT&T with her phone. She told them the problem and ended with ‘what are you going to do to fix this?’ The guy offered her a new phone for a couple of hundred dollars. She said that didn’t fix the problem and just cost her money. The manager was called inlong story short, she got a new phone, just like the one she bought a couple of months ago.  She is happy. Gotta stand up to these corporations.

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

NPR Sunday Puzzle
Every clue is an anagram for the name of a Shakespeare character. For example, given, "real," the answer would be "Lear."
1.     Moore:
2.     Pairs:
3.     Ailer:
4.     Anger:
5.     Thelma:
6.     Ascare:
7.     Tropia:
8.     Stealer:
9.     Proposer:
10.  Ancestral:

Riddle of the day
What year comes next in this sequence: 1973 1979 1987 1993 1997 1999

Anagram: unscramblenumbers represent the number of letters in each answer word

Lifestyle  Substance     
Harper’s Index         
Chances that a school has lowered its proficiency standards to inflate test scores since 2005: 1 in 2
Found on You Tube 
        Gustave Moreau
Planet Earth—

Joke-of-the-day
A man hasn't been feeling well, so he goes to his doctor for a complete checkup. Afterward, the doctor comes out with the results.
"I'm afraid I have some very bad news," the doctor says. "You're dying, and you don't have much time left."
"Oh, that's terrible!" says the man. "Give it to me straight, Doc. How long have I got?"
"Ten," the doctor says sadly.
"Ten?" the man asks. "Ten what? Months? Weeks? What?!"
"Nine..."
Rules of Thumb   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
There is no such thing as a minor accident on a motorcycle.
Yeah, It Really Happened
NEW YORK - A car that hit a guardrail on a New York road was photographed with a bumper sticker proclaiming the motorist is the only good driver "on the planet." The car, which was smashed on its front end and flipped over after colliding with the guardrail in a northbound lane of the FDR Drive at 9 a.m. Sunday, was photographed bearing a bumper sticker reading, "Why am I the only one on the planet who knows how to drive?" the New York Post reported Monday. Police said the male driver, who was alone in the car, was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.

 Somewhat Useless Information   
The three smallest bones in the human body are found in the middle ear: the malleus, the incus, and the stapes.
Wrist fractures are the most common broken bone injury in people under the age of 75. After that, the hip moves into first place.
Infants are born with up to 300 "soft" bones, many of which harden and fuse together as the baby grows. As an adult, a typical human adult's body contains 206 bones.
Stuntman Evil Knievel earned a place in the record books by having broken 35 bones during his career. He's suffered more than a dozen surgeries to repair them, including one to rebuild his pelvis after he shattered it during a motorcycle jump attempt in 1967.
The tingling you feel when you hit your "funny bone" occurs when the ulnar nerve hits the humerus bone in the arm. It's uncertain whether the "funny bone" nickname came about due to the strange sensation, the name of the bone itself, or both.
Men and women have the same number of ribs: 24. Fourteen true ribs connect to the spine and the sternum, six false ribs connect to the spine and the bottom true rib, and four floating ribs connect only to the spine.             

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
4-10
Hate Week

Today Is                                                                      
Army Day
Drowsy Driver Awareness Day
Hospital Admitting Clerks Day
National Day of Hope
National Student Athlete Day
National Walk To Work Day
New Beers Eve
Tartan Day
National Tartan Day honors and celebrates Scottish culture and the role it has played in the development of the United States. Canada has been celebrating Tartan Day since 1993 and the U.S. Senate officially passed it into law in 1998.
There are three groups of people that came from Scotland to America -- the Lowland Scotts, the Highland Scotts, and the Scotch-Irish. Each of these groups has influenced American culture. They've passed on Scottish last names, introduced the sport of golf, shared the sounds of the bagpipes, and made tartan a fashion staple!
Tartan is a crisscrossed pattern of horizontal and vertical bands woven into cloth. It is made by weaving colored threads at right angles to each other. The Dress Act of 1746 attempted to ban tartan and other aspects of Gaelic culture in order to bring people under tighter government control. The law was repealed in 1782 and tartan became symbolic as the national dress of Scotland.
Teflon Day
>< 
Good Friday for Western World Christians
Passover begins at sunset for Jewish
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Day

Today’s Other Events                                                             
Before 1000CE
46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) in the battle of Thapsus
>< 
1300’s
1320 - The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath
>< 
1600’s
1672 - France declares war on Netherlands
1700’s
1789 - 1st US Congress begins regular sessions, Federal Hall, NYC
1792 – Chickamauga Chief Captain Bench, and followers, will attack settlements near Holston. After killing 4 people, he will leave a declaration of war beside the bodies. A former friend to Europeans, the death of his great uncle, Old Tassel, at the hands of whites, turned his heart to war.
1800’s
1862 - Battle of Shiloh, Union defeats Confederacy in SW Tennessee
1886 - City of Vancouver BC incorporated
1875 - Black Horse in one of several Southern Cheyenne being sent to prison from the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency (later called Fort Reno) in west-central Indian Territory, to St. Augustine, Florida, for his part in the uprisings in Indian Territory, and Texas. While handcuffed, he attempts to escape into the rest of his tribe. He is pursued, and mortally wounded, by the Army guards under Captain Andrew Bennett, 5th Infantry
1896 - 1st modern Olympic games open in Athens Greece [3/25 OS] American, James Connolly, wins 1st Olympic gold medal in mod history
1900’s
1909 - North Pole reached by Americans Robert Peary & Matthew Henson
1947 - The first Tony Awards are presented for theatrical achievements
1976 - 1st quadrophonic movie track: "Ladies & Gentlemen the Rolling Stones"
1982 - Largest crowd ever to see a baseball game in Minn 52,279
1984 - 1st time 11 people in space
1994 - Liberal Supreme Court Justice Blackmun (Roe v Wade) resigns
2000’s
2004 - Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from the post by impeachment
2005 - Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani becomes the Iraqi president; Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari is named premier the next day
2006 - NZSL (New Zealand sign language) is made an official language of New Zealand
2009 - A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L'Aquila, Italy, killing at least 253

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
In their 70’s
Roy Thinnes, actor (Invaders, Falcon Crest, Gen Hospital) is 74
Merle Haggard, Bakersfield California, country singer (Death Valley Days) is 75
James Dewey Watson, chemist (co-discovered structure of DNA) is 74
Billy Dee Williams, Harlem NYC, actor (Chiefs, Empire Strikes Back) is 75
In their 60’s
Marilu Henner, actress (Taxi, Man Who Loved Women, Eve Shade) is 60
John Ratzenberger, Bridgeport Ct, actor (Cliff Clavin-Cheers) is 65
>< 
In their 40’s
Paul Rudd, American actor (Clueless, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) is 43
In their 30’s
Zach Braff, actor (Scrubs) is 37
Tim Hasselbeck, American football player is 34
Remembered for being born on this day
Ivan Dixon, NYC, actor (Car Wash, Hogan's Heroes) in 1931
Philip Gosse, intentor of institutional aquarium, writer (Omphalos) in 1810
James Mill, Scotland, philosopher/historian (Hist of British India) in 1773Jean- Gustave Moreau, French painter in 1826
Baptiste Rousseau, French playwright/poet (Sacred Odes & Songs) in 1671
Raphael Sanzio, Italian painter/master builder (Madonna Sistina) in 1483


Today’s Obits                                                           
Bobby Hutton, US Black Panther leader, shot to death at 17 in 1968
Wilma Mankiller, Native-American activist, chief of the Cherokee Nation dies of pancreatic cancer at 64 in 2010
Raphael [Sanzio], artist (Sistine Madonna), dies on his 37th birthday of fever in 1520
Richard I, the Lion-hearted, King of England (1189-99), dies of gangrene at 41 in 1199
Tammy Wynette, American singer dies of blood clot at 55 in 1998

Answers                                                                                                                                            
Brain Game: Close Up Picture

Riddle of the day
2003: they are prime years

NPR Sunday Puzzle
1.     Moore:
a.      Romeo
2.     Pairs:
a.      Paris
3.     Ailer:
a.      Ariel
4.     Anger:
a.      Regan
5.     Thelma:
a.      Hamlet
6.     Ascare:
a.      Ceasar
7.     Tropia:
a.      Portia
8.     Stealer:
a.      Leartes
9.     Proposer:
a.      Prospero
10.  Ancestral:
a.      Lancaster
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.