Sep 24. 2012

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

Flagstaff Almanac…  

Week: 39/ Day 268 :   Today: High   77°…Low 45°

Records: High   86°(1945)…Low 25°(1940)

Averages: High  71°…Low 39°

Wind: average:   3mph;  Gusts:  25mph

Today’s average humidity:  40%

Quote of the Day…

Today’s  Historical  Highlights…

1968 - "60 Minutes" premieres on CBS-TV

1955 - Pres Eisenhower suffers a heart attack on vacation in Denver

1934 - 2500 fans see Babe Ruth's farewell Yankee appearance at Yankee Stadium

1895 - 1st round-the-world trip by a woman on a bicycle (took 15 months)

1841 - Britain obtains Sarawak from Brunei (James Brooke appointed Rajah)

1789 - Congress creates Post Office

1625 - Dutch attack San Juan, Puerto Rico

♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪.. 

How many can you identify?…answers in Today’s Birthdays

Free Rambling Thoughts…   

Angio-edema is a pain in the butt. Last night about 9pm my tongue started swelling. I popped my pill and went to bed about 10:30. Got up at midnight and took a second pill. Finally got some sleep starting at 4am. Swelling was down when I got up at 7am. But all day I’ve been tired and not feeling like doing much of anything. A good night’s sleep tonight and I’ll be back to normal. I did watch all my Sunday news programs and feel better informed, not happy, just better informed. Salman Rushdie is making the rounds plugging his new book, about his life after the publication of his first book. He sure has some interesting perspectives. Guess I’ll watch the Emmy’s tonight…too lazy for anything that requires thinking.

Game  Center: (answers at the end of post)

What is the rhyming answer?

Answer the following clue in two rhyming words (e.g. an obese feline is a fat cat) If only one number is given, the answer is a word featuring internal rhyme (e.g. voodoo)

hag's space (5,5)

Rebus…

Can you figure out what this means?

Lifestyle  Substance…     

Do you remember this?

Read This Headline Carefully!!

Smokers are Productive, but Death Cuts Efficiency

Gorilla:

Great Melodies…:

Minuet in G Major…Christian Petzold

Everyone thought for centuries that Johann Sebastian Bach composed this minuet for his wife, Anna Magdalena, but he actually included it from Petzold into the notebook which bears her name. He never intended it to be thought of as his work. He intended the notebooks only for his wife, who had musical talent he wanted to cultivate. She often copied his scores for his orchestras. The pieces in the notebooks are comparatively easy to play, and the only reason we think of the piece as Bach’s work is because, on his death, his wife was so poor she sold all his manuscripts that she could find. Some went to butchers to wrap meat.

Harper’s Index…         

Estimated percentage of orders submitted by high-frequency stock traders that are cancelled: 95

Unusal Fact of the Day…

The Harlem Globetrotters were originally a Chicago based team (1927). They did not play a ‘home’ game in Harlem until the 1968.

Found on You Tube… 

Dr Seuss: Rhymes and Reasons

Joke-of-the-day…

There were 3 men who were working on a bridge. One of the worker's name was John, the other one's name was Randall, and the last one's name was Joe. So one day when the 3 men were taking a lunch break, they all opened up their lunch box and saw what their wives had gave them for lunch. When John opened his lunch, he saw that he had peanut butter and jelly, so then he said, "If my wife gives me the same lunch tomorrow, I'm going to jump off this bridge. Then Randall opened his lunch and saw that he had spaghetti and meatballs. So then he also said the same thing as what John said. Then when Joe opened his lunch he saw that he was having a chicken salad. So then he said that he too was going to jump off the bridge if he got the same lunch the next day. So the next day, all 3 men had the same lunch from yesterday and they all jumped off. A week later when the funeral was scheduled, John's wife said, "If my sweetie- pie told me he wanted a new lunch, he should have told me!” then Randalls wife said "Why did he do it? Why??” then Joe's wife said, "Why did he jump off the bridge? He packed his own lunch!"

Rules of Thumb…   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

TOM TAYLOR'S RULE FOR SUCCESSFUL DISSERTATIONS #1…Select a topic on which there is little related literature.   

Yeah, It Really Happened…

TORONTO - A legal squabble has resulted in a Canadian debt collection agency making demands on a competitor to pay its lawyers' fees. The unusual situation -- in which a collection agency pursued another -- began in 2010 when one of Canada's largest debt-chasers, iQor Canada, contracted with a Toronto legal firm to help with wrongful dismissal issues, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp, reported. The law firm billed iQor almost $55,000 for its services, but it wasn't paid, the report said. The lawyers then enlisted rival Credit Control Central, which began making phone calls and sending letters to its competitor to collect. In May 2011, iQor paid $50,677 of its legal bill, short by $4,374, the report said. In turn, the legal firm went to small claims court to get the difference and won. Credit Control Central President Don Vence told the CBC the situation was peculiar for the debt-chasing business. "It's a dichotomy to have a company calling other companies for money, or individuals asking them to live up to their financial commitments when they themselves don't," he said.

Somewhat Useless Information…   

• Martin Van Buren was the eighth vice president (1833-1837), serving under President Andrew Jackson. Van Buren helped to organize the Democratic Party. His first language was not English but Dutch. He was believed to wear corsets. He was elected to the presidency in 1836.

• Richard Mentor Johnson was the ninth vice president (1837-1841), serving under President Martin Van Buren. Although Van Buren won the Electoral College vote, Johnson came up short when Virginia’s electors refused to cast their ballots for him. For the first and only time, the US Senate had to decide the vice presidential contest, picking Johnson on a party-line vote.

• John Tyler was the 10th vice president (1841), serving less than a month under President William Henry Harrison. When Harrison died of pneumonia, Tyler became the first vice president to become president after the incumbent’s death. His popular nickname was "His Accidency." He believed in states’ rights and ended his career serving in the Confederate Congress.

Calendar Information…        

Happening This Week:

22-29: Banned Books Week / National Dog Week / National Keep Kids Creative Week / Remember to Register to Vote Week / International Women's E-Commerce Days

Today Is…                                                                      

Family Day - A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Kids
Festival of Latest Novelties
Family Health and Fitness DayPunctuation Day
R.E.A.D. in America DaySchwenkfelder Thanksgiving [1734 Pennsylvania Dutch]~Cambodia: Constitutional Declaration Day (1993)~South Africa: Heritage Day
~Guinea-Bissau: Independence Day (1973 from Portugal) 

Today’s Events Through History…  

2000’s

2007 - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gives a controversial speech 

            on the campus of Columbia University

1900’s

1997 - Drug kingpin Ramon Arellano Felix placed on FBI's 10 most-wanted

1988 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee of USA sets heptathlon woman's record (7,291)

1988 - Carl Lewis runs world record 100m (9.92 sec)

1979 - CompuServe began operation as 1st computer information service

1977 - 1st broadcast of "Love Boat" on ABC-TV

1969 - Trial of "Chicago 8" (protesters at Dem Natl Conv) begins

1957 - Eisenhower orders US troops to desegregate Little Rock schools

1954 - Tonight Show premieres on NBC 

1924 - Boston, Massachusetts opens its airport

1800’s

 1881 - Henry Morton Stanley signs contract with Congo monarch

1853 - 1st round-the-world trip by yacht (Cornelius Vanderbilt)

1819 - Lewis Cass negotiates a treaty (7 stat. 203) for the United States with the 

            Chippewa. For $1000 a year, the services of a blacksmith, and provisions, 

            the Chippewa give up a large section of land. The treaty is signed in Saginaw, 

            Michigan.

1700’s

1789 - US Attorney General Office is created

1789 - President George Washington appointed John Jay the 1st Chief Justice

1600’s

1683 - King Louis XIV expels all Jews from French possessions in America

1657 - 1st autopsy & coroner's jury verdict is recorded in state of Maryland

Before 1000CE

787 - 2nd Council of Nicaea (7th ecumenical council) opens in Asia Minor

673 - Synod of Hertford opens; canons made for English Church

Today’s Birthdays…                                                           

In their 30’s

Morgan Hamm, American gymnast is 30
Paul Hamm, American gymnast is 30

In their 50’s

 Kevin Sorbo, actor (Hercules Legendary Journeys, Kull The Conquerer) is 54

In their 60’s

 "Mean" Joe Greene, NFL tackle (Pittsburgh Steelers), Coke spokesman is 66

Remembered for being born today

Konstantin Chernenko, USSR leader fifth General Secretary of the Communist 

     Party b. 1911

F Scott Fitzgerald, St Paul Minn, author (Great Gatsby) b. 1896

Jim Henson, Greenville Miss, muppeteer (Sesame Street, Muppet Show) b. 1936

Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian politician, religious figure, and political leader 

      of the 1979 Iranian Revolution b. 1902

John Marshall, Va, 4th Supreme Court Chief Justice b. 1755

Linda Eastman McCartney, NYC, Mrs Paul McCartney, rocker (Wings-Ram) b. 1941

Jim McKay, Phila Pa, sportscaster (ABC's Wide World of Sports) b. 1921

Don Porter, Miami Oklahoma, actor (Russ Lawrence-Gidget, Ann Sothern 

      Show) b. 1921

Today’s Historical Obits…                                                           

Theodore Geisel, children's author (Dr Seuss)—cancer--1991--at 87

Clive Morton, actor (Goodbye Mr Chips, Moonraker)—1975-- at 71

Sumner Welles, US diplomat (Good Neighbor Policy)—1961--at 68

Answers…                                                                                                                                            

What is the rhyming answer?

Witch niche

Rebus

 Show till you drop

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  §

Sep 23, 2012

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

Flagstaff Almanac…  

Week: 39/ Day  267:  Today: High   78°…Low 41°

Records: High   83°(1949)…Low 20°(1912)

Averages: High  71°…Low 40°

Wind: average:   2mph;  Gusts:  24mph

Today’s average humidity:  40%

Quote of the Day…

Today’s  Historical  Highlights…

2004 - At least 1,070 in Haiti reported killed by floods due to Hurricane Jeanne1977 - Cheryl Ladd replaces Farrah Fawcett on Charlie's Angels1973 - Former Argentine President Juan Peron returns to power1962 - ABC's 1st color TV series-Jetsons
1957 - White mob forces 9 black students who had entered a Little Rock high school in Arkansas to withdraw1941 - General de Gaulle forms government in exile in London1897 - 1st frontier days rodeo celebration (Cheyenne Wyoming)1862 - Lincoln's Emancipation is published in Northern Newspapers1839 - The Cherokee Nation's Supreme Court is established

♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪.. 

How many can you identify?…answers in Today’s Birthdays

Free Rambling Thoughts…   

Lots to do on this first day of Fall. Kept myself busy most of the day. Still more to do.
 This summer sure went by fast. I guess it’s time to start watching for snow. Next week is the average week we get our first snow here in Flagstaff. Sure doesn’t feel like it, but at 7000’ things can and do change very fast. Of course I know that there will still be many warm days ahead, even after the first snow. Happy to see that both Colorado and NAU, my two Alma matres, won their football games. I watched the last quarter of the CU game and it was amazing, down to the last few seconds. NAU wasn’t on TV but won be a big 10-point margin.

Game  Center: (answers at the end of post)

What is the rhyming answer?

Answer the following clue in two rhyming words (e.g. an obese feline is a fat cat) If only one number is given, the answer is a word featuring internal rhyme (e.g. voodoo)

a public meeting on the subject of propriety (7,5)

Rebus…

Can you figure out what this means?

Lifestyle  Substance…     

Do you remember this?

Read This Headline Carefully!!

Safety Experts: School Bus Passengers Should Be Belted

Do you know what this word means?

What is this not so common name of a common object?

Yips

Gorilla:

Great Melodies…:

Overture to William Tell--Gioachino Rossini

This is a particularly long overture to an opera, lasting about 12 minutes. It is in 4 parts (last part above), and the last three are very well known: a depiction of a storm, with a famous trombone passage; the morning after the storm, “a call to the cows,” and “a call to arms.” It is now said as a joke that a musicologist is someone who can listen to this finale and not think of The Lone Ranger, because the producers chose the finale as its theme. It’s primarily anapestic (short-short-LONG), which is an instant galloping horse rhythm.

Harper’s Index…         

• Total advertising revenue of the US newspaper industry in 2011: $23,900,000,000

• Of Google: $36,500,000,000

Unusal Fact of the Day…

The average piano has about 230 strings. Each string averages about 165 pounds of tension, with the combined pull of all strings equaling over eighteen tons.

Found on You Tube… 

Tribute to Chief Dan George[1899-1981]

"Checkers" Speech

Joke-of-the-day…

“What am I supposed to do with this?” grumbled the motorist as the police clerk handed him a receipt for his traffic violation. “Keep it,” the clerk advises. “When you get four of them, you get a bicycle.”

Rules of Thumb…   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

 ODD NUMBERS ARE MORE BELIEVABLE…Odd numbers are more believable than even, even more believable than those divisible by 5.   

Yeah, It Really Happened…

NEW YORK - A New York college student said he suffered a sprained neck when he was struck by a mattress that fell about 30 stories to the sidewalk. Jesse Scott Owen, 18, said he was walking in the city around 12:45 p.m. Tuesday when the mattress fell from a building and hit him on the head, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday. "This was the most absurd thing that ever happened to me," the King's College freshman said. He said the impact knocked him unconscious. "I woke up and people were putting me on the mattress," he said. "I asked where the mattress came from and they said, 'You were knocked out by it.'" Witnesses said the mattress may have been carried by winds from the rooftop spa of the Setai Wall Street. A manager at the Setai did not respond to an email requesting a comment, the Daily News said. Owen was taken to the New York Downtown Hospital with a sprained neck and a possible herniated disc.            

Somewhat Useless Information…   

• In 1978, the USPS began offering first-class stamps marked with a letter code "A" instead of its denomination, 15 cents. The code advanced with rate increases as follows: "B" (18 cents, in 1981), "C" (20 cents, later in 1981), "D" (22 cents, 1985), "E" (25 cents, 1988), "F" (29 cents, 1991), "G" (32 cents, 1994), and finally "H" (33 cents, 1999). The series was then discontinued.

• Few Americans take advantage of the Media Mail rate available at the local post office. Media items (books, audio, and video recordings, CDs and DVDs, and more) that are not considered advertising materials may be sent at a much cheaper rate than first-class mail.

• By sending an envelope and money for postage to the postmaster at a post office where a stamp is being issued, you can receive free First Day Covers, which are specially postmarked "first day of issue" and are considered collectible.

• In 1975, a unique tie-in allowed post offices in both the United States and the Soviet Union to sell two pairs of stamps with the same design. They were issued in honor of the Apollo-Soyuz space mission that year, in which crafts from the two nations linked together and shared time in space. 

• Canada uses two-letter postal abbreviations just like the United States. Here's the list: Alberta (AB), British Columbia (BC), Manitoba (MB), New Brunswick (NB), Newfoundland and Labrador (NF), Northwest Territories (NT), Nova Scotia (NS), Nunavut (NU), Ontario (ON), Prince Edward Island (PE), Quebec (PC or QC), Saskatchewan (SK), and Yukon Territory (YT). 

• Flat-rate Priority Mail is a bargain for items that fit the post office's requirements. If a 70-pound item fits into one of the two flat-rate box sizes provided by the USPS, you can send it cross-country for under $10. Using Priority Mail to send a larger item of the same weight will cost many times as much over the same distance.

Calendar Information…        

Happening This Week:

22-29: Banned Books Week / National Dog Week / National Keep Kids Creative Week / Remember to Register to Vote Week / International Women's E-Commerce Days

Today Is…                                                                      

Celebrate Bi-sexuality Day
Checkers Day [pull out the Game board]
Dogs In Politics Day [for 1952 Nixon Speech]Hug a Vegetarian DayInnergize Day (Day after the Autumn Equinox)
Libra BeginsLove Note DayRestless Legs Awareness Day
~Saudi Arabia: Kingdom Unification (1932)

Today’s Events Through History…  

2000’s

2002 - The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox ("Phoenix 0.1") is 

            released

1900’s

1979 - Jane Fonda & 200,000 attend anti-nuke rally in Battery Park, NYC

1976 - Ford-Carter TV debate

1969 - 1st broadcast of "Marcus Welby MD" on ABC-TV

1964 - "Fiddler on the Roof" with Zero Mostel premieres in NYC

1957 - "That'll Be Day" by Buddy Holly & Crickets reaches #1

1926 - Gene Tunney beats Jack Dempsey in 10 for heavyweight boxing title

1908 - University of Alberta opens

1800’s

1879 - Richard Rhodes invented a hearing aid called the Audiophone

1845 - 1st baseball team, NY Knickerbockers organize, adopt rule code

1806 - Lewis & Clark return to St Louis from Pacific Northwest

1700’s

1779 - John Paul Jones' "Bon Homme Richard" defeats HMS Serepis

1600’s

1642 - Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass, 1st commencement

1500’s

1519 - Hernán Cortés and his army arrive at the gates to the Mexican city of Tlascala.

            A large crowd turns out to the the Spaniards.

1400’s

1459 - Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, 

            is fought at Blore Heath in Staffordshire

  

Today’s Birthdays…                                                           

In their 30’s

Matthieu Descoteaux, Canadian ice hockey player is 35

In their 50’s

Jason Alexander, actor (George-Seinfeld) will be 53

In their 60’s

Julio Iglesias, Spain, singer (Of All the Girls I Loved Before) is 69

Paul Petersen, Glendale California, actor (Jeff Stone-Donna Reed Show) is 67 

Mary Kay Place, actress/country singer (Mary Hartman!) will be 65

Bruce Springsteen, [Boss], Asbury NJ, rock musician (Born in the USA) is 63

In their 90’s

Mickey Rooney, American actor is 92

Remembered for being born today

William Archer, Scotland, writer (Green Goddess), critic b. 1856

Ray Charles [Robinson], Albany Ga, singer/pianist (Georgia) b. 1930

Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire b. 1215

Walter Lippmann, NYC, journalist/political writer (Men of Dystany) b. 1889

John Lomax, Miss, folk song collector/ethnomusicologist b. 1867

William C McCool, San Diego California, Lt Cmdr USN/astronaut b. 1961

William H McGuffey, educator (McGuffey Readers) b. 1800

Walter Pidgeon, New Brunswick Can, actor (Mrs Miniver, Madame Curie) b. 1897

Today’s Historical Obits…                                                           

Cliff Arquette, comedian (Charlie Weaver)—stroke—1974—at 68

Robert Bloch, screenwriter (Psycho)—cancer—1994—at 77

Bob Fosse, choreographer (All the Jazz)--heart attack—1987—at 60

Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and creator of psychoanalysis—1939—at 83

Chief Dan George, actor (Harry & Tonto, Little Big Man)—1981—at 82

John Wesley Powell, US geologist (Grand Canyon)—1902—at 68

William Marsh Rice, American philanthropist and university founder—1900—at 84 

Answers…                                                                                                                                            

Do you know what this word means?

Half physical ailment, half psychological/ psychosomatic condition: the golfer's equivalent of the writer's block

What is the rhyming answer?

Decorum forum

Rebus

See for yourself

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  §