Sep 26. 2012


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

Flagstaff Almanac…  
Week: 39/ Day 270:   Today: High   71°…Low 51°
Records: High   85°(1947)…Low 24°(1959, 1901)
Averages: High  70°…Low 39°
Wind: average:   9mph;  Gusts:  29mph
Today’s average humidity:  48%

Quote of the Day…

Today’s  Historical  Highlights…
2009 - Typhoon Ketsana (2009) hit the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, 
            Laos and Thailand, causing 700 fatalities
1995 - "George" magazine premieres, published by John F Kennedy Jr 
1990 - Motion Picture Association of America creates new NC-17 rating
1988 - NYC's Rockefeller Center declared a national landmark
1970 - The Laguna Fire starts in San Diego County, California, burning 175,425 
             acres (710 km²)
1962 - TV comedy series "Beverly Hillbillies" premieres on CBS
1960 - 1st of 4 TV debates Nixon & Kennedy took place (Chicago)
1960 - Longest speech in UN history (4 hrs, 29 mins, by Fidel Castro)
1901 - Great Britain annexes Gold Coast (Ghana)
1892 - 1st public appearance of John Philip Sousa's band (NJ)
1772 - New Jersey passes bill requiring a license to practice medicine

♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪.. 
How many can you identify?…answers in Today’s Birthdays

Free Rambling Thoughts…   
A great weather day…lots of sunshine…good day for a walk.
 
I learned early in my supervisory job that face-to-face meetings were better than phone calls. It was so much easier to ‘read’ the meeting when everyone was sitting around a table. I also learned that when talking to board members, face-to-face always beat a phone call. Many times I would invite tribal officials to talk to our students. Sometimes it was done over the PA system and other times by visiting classrooms. Visiting was always better. For one thing students and staff hearing a voice over an intercom system didn’t always pay attention…especially with long winded speakers. This comes up because President Obama did not meet with any foreign leaders before or after speaking at the UN. The foreign leaders traveled a long way to get to the opening of the UN and Obama was right there. Not sure why he didn’t meet with other leaders present, but I hope he made the right decision…especially with the issues in the Middle East.
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)
give out British coins (8,5)
Rebus…
Can you figure out what this means?

Lifestyle  Substance…     
Do you remember this?

Read This Headline Carefully!!
Two Sisters Reunite After Eighteen Years at Checkout Counter
Do you know what this word means?
What is this not so common name of a common object?
bibliophilia
Gorilla:

Great Melodies…:
Beethoven isn’t typically thought of today, among musicologists, as a composer with the ability to compose lyrical melodies along the lines of the next entrant. Beethoven was able to make a mountain out of a molehill. He composed themes or motifs, and was the primary precursor to Richard Wagner’s leitmotifs. But, now and then, Beethoven sang out a melody to rival anyone’s. The final movement of his 9th Symphony is one of the most famous moments in musical history, and everyone in the civilized world can hum its tune.
Harper’s Index…         
Estimated decrease in metric tons of cocaine consumed in the US each year between 1998 and 2008: 102
Unusal Fact of the Day…
The small "You Are Here" sticker that indicates your position on a map has a name — it's called an ideo locator.
Found on You Tube… 

Joke-of-the-day…Edward Hale, while chaplain of the U.S. Senate, was asked, "Do you pray for the senators?" He quickly replied, "No. After getting to know the senators, I pray for the people."  
Rules of Thumb…   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
ESTIMATING THE AGE OF A LOBSTER…Estimate the age of a large lobster by multiplying its weight, in pounds, by seven.    
Yeah, It Really Happened…
Lincoln Journal Star- Nehemiah Winters, 35, pleaded no contest to stealing a can of beer from a woman sitting on her front porch in Lincoln, Neb. The 21-year-old victim said Winters walked up to her twice and asked for her beer. She refused, but when he returned a third time, he revealed something in his waistband that she thought was a knife and gave him the beer. She then called police, who arrested Winters with a partial can of beer and what turned out to be a fork.
Bonus
The Oklahoman Oklahoma City police arrested Ginger Lynn Johnson, 33, for stabbing her boyfriend in the stomach and back with a power drill.
Somewhat Useless Information…   
Lost in translation:
  • While the 'Got Milk?' campaign may have gotten more Americans to buy dairy products, it didn't work out quite as well in Mexico, where the phrase sounds something more like "Are you Lactating?"
  • Coca-Cola may be a household phrase in the West, but Chinese know the soda company, transliterated into English, as 'ke kou ke le'. Ko-ka-ko-la was already taken by people who 'bite the wax tadpole'
  • Puffs Tissues: In German, 'Puffs'  is the colloquial term for 'whorehouse,'
  • Pepsi's slogan "come alive with Pepsi" doesn't quite work in China, where some took it to mean "bring your ancestors back from the grave,"
  • Coors' slogan "turn it loose" may have been gold in America, but it was a laughing stock in Spanish-speaking countries, where it translated into "get loose bowels,"
  • KFC's signature phrase, "finger-lickin' good," doesn't quite work in China, when tranlated they wanted to "eat your fingers off."
  • Ikea discovered that their Redalen bed -- named after a Norwegian town -- is, in fact, the Thai word for getting to third base.
  • Jättebra, an Ikea plant pot, closely resembles the Thai slang word for 'sex'
  • The Ford Pinto may well have been an iconic car, but that didn't stop Brazilians from turning the product away. You see, 'pinto' is slang for 'tiny male genitals' in Brazil,

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…                                                                      
Johnny Appleseed Day—his birthday 1774
National Good Neighbor Day
National Pancake Day
National Women's Health & Fitness Day
Shamu the Whale Day
World Maritime Day
Today’s Events Through History…  
2000’s
 2008 - Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy becomes first person to fly a jet engine-powered wing across the English Channel
1900’s
1997 - An earthquake strikes the Italian regions of Umbria and the Marche, causing 
            part of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse
1994 - Switzerland bans racist propaganda
1986 - William Hubbs Rehnquist, sworn in as Chief Justice of Supreme Court
1984 - Pres Reagan vetoes sanctions against South Africa
1980 - Cuban government closes Mariel Harbor ending "freedom flotilla"
1972 - American Museum of Immigration dedicated
1968 - 1st broadcast of "Hawaii Five-O" on CBS-TV
1965 - Queen Elizabeth decorates Beatles with Order of British Empire
1961 - Roger Maris hits HR #60 off Jack Fisher, tying Babe Ruth's record
1957 - Bernstein & Sondheim's musical "West Side Story," premieres in NYC 
1950 - UN troops in Korean War recapture South Korean capital of Seoul
1946 - 1st edition of Tintin (Kuifje), publishes until June 1993
1945 - All old Dutch banknotes declared invalid
1934 - British liner Queen Mary is launched
1914 - Federal Trade Commission formed to regulate interstate commerce
1907 - New Zealand and Newfoundland each become dominions within the 
            British Empire
1800’s
1892 - Diamond Match Co patented book matches
1890 - US stops minting $1 & $3 gold coin & 3 cent piece
1872 - The first Shriner’s Temple (called Mecca) was established in New York City
1700’s
 1706 - Miskouaki, an Ottawa from Mackinaw, meets with the Marquis de Vaudreuil. 
            He tells him the Miami and the Ottawa have bee fighting each other near Detroit.
1600’s
 1687 - The city council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange's invasion 
              of England, which became the Glorious Revolution
1675 - Troops under Virginia Colonel John Washington and Maryland Major Thomas
            Trueman surround the main base of the Susquehannock Indians. They are 
             there to discover if the Indians are responsible for attacking colonial      
             settlements. Trueman calls out the Susquehannock for a conference under a  
             flag of truce. Five Chiefs come out of their fortified position to talk. They deny
             being involved in the attacks. Trueman has them led away and killed. Trueman 
             gets off with a minor fine from the Maryland Assembly for this act.
1500’s
1580 - Francis Drake with Spanish treasure returns to England
Before 1000CE
 46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix 
                in accordance with a vow he made at the battle of Pharsalus

Today’s Birthdays…                                                           
In their 30’s
 Serena Williams, tennis player (13 grand slams) is 31
In their 50’s
Melissa Sue Anderson, Cal, actress (Little House on the Prairie) is 50 
Linda Hamilton, actor {Terminator] is 56
In their 60’s
Lynn Anderson, ND, country singer (I Never Promised you a Rose Garden) is 65
Olivia Newton-John, Cambridge England, singer (Lets Get Physical) is 64
In their 70’s
Donna Douglas, [Dot Smith], Pride La, actress (Beverly Hillbillies) is 79
Winnie Mandela-Madikizela, South African anti-apartheid protestor is 76
Kent McCord, LA California, actor (Officer Jim Reed-Adam 12) is 70
Remembered for being born today
Cosme Argerich, Argentine physician, founder of the Medicine School of 
        Buenos Aires b. 1758
John Chapman, [Johnny Appleseed], frontier nurseryman b. 1774
T S Eliot, St Louis Missouri, poet/dramatist/critic (Waste Land-Nobel 1948) b. 1888
George Gershwin, [Jacob Gershvin], Bkln, composer (Rhapsody in Blue) b. 1898
Edmund Gwenn, Wales, actor (Miracle on 34th Street) b. 1875
Jack LaLanne, exercise mogul (Juice Tiger) b. 1914
Julie London, Santa Rosa California, actress (Nurse McCall-Emergency) b. 1926
Pope Paul VI, [Giovanni Montini], 262nd Roman Catholic pope b. 1897
George Raft, NYC, American actor (Each Dawn I Die, Scarface, Some Like It Hot) 
      b. 1901
Marty Robbins, Glendale Az, singer (Devil Woman, I Walk Alone) b. 1925
Today’s Historical Obits…                                                           
Daniel Boone, frontiersman — 1820 — at 85
James Fitzmaurice, Irish aviation pioneer —1965 —at 67 
August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer —1868 —at 77
Richard Mulligan, American actor [Burt-Soap]— colorectal cancer —2000 —at 67
Robert Palmer, English singer [Duran, Duran]—heart attack—2003—at 54
George Santayana, US philosopher/poet (Last Puritan) — 1952 — at 88
Bessie Smith, singer — car crash —1937 — at 43
Levi Strauss, American clothing manufacturer —1902 —at 73 
Taichang, Emperor of China [Ming Dynasty] —questionable —1620 —at 38  
Answers…                                                                                                                                            
Do you know what this word means?
Love of (reading and collecting) books; to be distinguished from bibliomania, which describes the (pathologically) obsessive impulse to hoard books (from the Greek biblion = scroll, book)
What is the rhyming answer?
Dispense pence  
Rebus
Turn the other cheek
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 25, 2012


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

Flagstaff Almanac…  
Week: 39/ Day 269:   Today: High  73 °…Low 43°
Records: High   85°(1947)…Low 25°(1918)
Averages: High  70°…Low 39°
Wind: average:   4mph;  Gusts:  30mph
Today’s average humidity:  42%
Quote of the Day…

Today’s  Historical  Highlights…
1988 - Florence Griffith Joyner runs Olympic record 100m in 10.54s
1962 - Sonny Liston KOs Floyd Patterson in 1st round for heavyweight title
1954 - Francois "Doc" Duvalier wins Haitian presidential election
1933 - 1st state poorhouse opens in Smyrna, Georgia
1926 - Henry Ford announces 8 hour, 5-day work week
1897 - 1st British bus service opens
1861 - Secretary of US Navy authorizes enlistment of slaves
1789 - Congress proposes Bill of Rights (10 of 12 will ratify)

♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪.. 
How many can you identify?…answers in Today’s Birthdays

Free Rambling Thoughts…   
A day of clear sky and cloudy sky and clear sky. A day of a couple of light rains. A day of some gusty wind to bring in the rain. Most of the day was nice weather, but the rains put a damper on much outside activity. Libya seems to have opened up more problems. The good news is the Libyan people and government are now searching out the militants that killed our ambassador and three other Americans. The bad news is that our government was not listening to the civilian Americans, including the Ambassador that this attack was coming. CNN, a news organization walked around the consulate after the attack and found the Ambassador’s personal diary. They read it, reported the newsworthy items, and returned it to the family. Our government is saying they should have returned it to them and should not have reported its information. Sounds to me like a bunch of bureaucrats, including the FBI, dropped the ball big time. Also sounds like bureaucrats are pointing fingers at CNN to draw attention away from their failures. It’s time to figure out what went wrong and take action to prevent future events of this magnitude.
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)
Deliberately avoid daylight (4,3)
Rebus…
Can you figure out what this means?

Lifestyle  Substance…     
Do you remember this?

Read This Headline Carefully!!
Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Experts Say
Gorilla:

Great Melodies…:
Dawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra…Richard Strauss
Inspired by Nietzsche’s treatise of the same name, Strauss wrote this tone poem in 1896, and it is in 9 parts. Almost no one is familiar with more than the first part, “Dawn” or “Sunrise.” It is world famous because of Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Elvis Presley also used it to open his concerts. It has been used in films, film trailers, and parodied so many times that even Ray Stevens, the country-comedy songwriter, used it once, with chickens “buck buck buck-AWing” the opening chords.
Harper’s Index…         
Amount the average worker spends annually on coffee: $1,092 ($2.90/day)
Unusal Fact of the Day…
The Halifax, Nova Scotia explosion which killed 2,000 people occurred on December 6th, 1917, and was the largest man-made explosion until the first atomic bomb was dropped in 1945—a ship of explosives.
Found on You Tube… 

Joke-of-the-day…
A man is recovering from surgery when the Surgical Nurse appears and asks him how he is feeling.
"I'm O. K. but I didn't like the four letter-words the doctor used in surgery," he answered.
"What did he say," asked the nurse.
"Oops!"  
Rules of Thumb…   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
BUILDING A DOCK…Figure $20 a square foot per deck space plus $750 per piling when building a dock.    
Yeah, It Really Happened…
Everett, Washington - 44-year-old Renee Bishop-McKean is accused of trying to decapitate her sleeping husband with an electric saw in a bizarre revenge plot.
The couple had been living apart but jurors were told the woman invited her husband over and told him to sleep on a mattress that she had wrapped in plastic. That should have been his first hint that something wasn't exactly right.
In the middle of the night the woman attacked her husband with the saw, but the noise woke the victim and he was able to fight her off. But she wasn't finished. Upon realizing the saw wasn't going to work she then attacked him with a hatchet and mallet, striking him on the head.
But she was still unable to kill him.
Bishop-McKean told police an attacker must have entered the home through an open window, found the saw and attacked her husband, however Deputy Prosecutor Paul Stern noted the window was locked. He called the woman's theory the "Tinkerbell did this" defense. Police found evidence that Bishop-McKean had purchased the saw, hatchet and mallet shortly before the attack and stock-piled bleach and a supply of large garbage bags. Jurors needed less than three hours to find her guilty of first-degree assault and attempted murder.  
Somewhat Useless Information…   
  • In 1944, the H.W. Lay Company became one of the first snack food makers to advertise on television, with a cartoon character called Oscar, the Happy Potato. It was never explained how Oscar was happy to be sliced wafer-thin and deep-fried in a vat of boiling oil. 
  • Sweet potatoes aren't potatoes at all, but vine roots. They're also unrelated to yams.
  • After 35 years of puffing, Mr. Potato Head officially gave up his pipe in 1987 in conjunction with the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout.
  • Ore-Ida, the leading potato processor in the United States, is named for the Oregon/Idaho border, where most potatoes are grown. The company made a miscue in 2002 when they attempted to lure kids with colored Funky Kool French fries to match the colorful ketchup being produced by Heinz.
  • NBA star Anthony "Spud" Webb got his nickname because it was short for Sputnik, a nickname his grandmother had given him as a child.
  • To further distance themselves from other brands, Pringles began officially referring to its product as "potato crisps" in 1991.  

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…                                                                      
Gold Star Mother's Day [for those who lost a son or daughter in war]
Math Story Telling Day
National Comic Book Day
National One-Hit Wonder Day
National Voter Registration Day
National Woman Road Warrior Day [to honor and recognize the nation's      traveling businesswomen](World) Ataxia Awareness Day [ lack of voluntary coordination of muscle       movements]~Rwanda: Republic Day (1961 abolition of monarchy)
Today’s Events Through History…  
2000’s
2008 - China launches the spacecraft Shenzhou 7
1900’s
1990 - Saddam Hussein warns that US will repeat Vietnam experience
1973 - 3-man crew of Skylab 3 make safe splashdown in Pacific after 59 days
1956 - 1st transatlantic telephone cable goes into operation (Scot-Canada)
1956 - Transatlantic telephone cable (Newfoundland-Oban) is used
1934 - Lou Gehrig plays in his 1,500th consecutive game
1926 - NHL grants franchises to Chicago Black Hawks & Detroit Red Wings
1919 - President Woodrow Wilson is paralyzed by a stroke
1912 - Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York
1906 - In the presence of the king and before a great crowd, Leonardo Torres 
            Quevedo successfully demonstrates the invention of the Telekino in the port 
            of Bilbao, guiding a boat from the shore, in what is considered the birth of 
            the Remote control
1800’s
 1890 - Congress establishes Yosemite National Park (California)
1866 - (Leonard W) Jerome Park opens in Bronx for horse racing
1829 - Failed assassination attempt on Simon Bolívar
1700’s
1793 - Near Knoxville, Tennessee, a group of around 300 Chickamaugas, including 
           Captain Bench, Doublehead and John Watts, attack Alexander Cavett's fort. 
           Cavett, and three other men are guarding ten women and children. After a few 
           Chickamaugas are killed, John Watts calls for a parley. He promises not to kill 
           the settlers, if they surrender. Finding their situation hopeless, the settlers give 
           up and open the fort. Against the wishes of Bench and Watts, Doublehead kills 
           all of the settlers except one boy saved by Watts. The boy meets his own death
           a few days later by another angry Indian.
1780 - Benedict Arnold joins the British
1714 - The five Iroquois Nations send the Governor of New York, a letter. They tell 
             the Governor, that the Tuscaroras join the Iroquois Confederacy. Long ago, 
             they had moved away. Now, they return.
1600’s
1639 - 1st printing press in America
1500’s
1513 - Vasco Nunez de Balboa is 1st European to see Pacific Ocean
1400’s
1493 - Columbus sails with 17 ships on 2nd voyage to America

Before 1000CE
303 - On a voyage preaching the gospel, Saint Fermin of Pamplona is beheaded 
          in Amiens, France

Today’s Birthdays…                                                           
In their 40’s
Scottie Pippen, Hamburg Ak, basket forward (Bulls, Oly-2 gold-92, 96) is 47
Will Smith [The Fresh Prince], actor/rapper (Men in Black, Independence Day) 
     will be 44
In their 50’s
 Heather Locklear, actress (Stacy-T J Hooker, Sammy Jo-Dynasty)   will be 51
In their 60’s
Michael Douglas, actor (Coma, Wall St, Jewel of the Nile) will be 68
Robert Gates, American Secretary of Defense is 69
Cheryl Tiegs, Minnesota, model (Sports Illustrated) is 65
Anson Williams, LA California, actor (Potsie-Happy Days) is 63
In their 80’s
 Barbara Walters, journalist, talk show host will be 83

Remembered for being born today
William Faulkner, New Albany Mississippi, author (Sound & Fury-Nobel 1949) b. 1897
Christopher Reeve, NYC, actor (Superman, Somewhere in Time)  b. 1952
Ethel Rosenberg, American Communist b. 1915
Lope K. Santos, Filipino writer and labor leader, Father of the Philippine National Language and Grammar b. 1879
Shel Silverstein, American humorist and author b. 1930

Today’s Historical Obits…                                                           
Don Adams, American actor and comedian—2005—at 82 
Mary Astor, actress (Cynthia, Meet Me in St Louis, Fiesta)—1987--at 81
Bob Considine, newscaster (Tonight! America After Dark)—stroke—1975--at 68
Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist, Nobel Peace Prize--ovarian cancer
      —2011-- at 71
Walter Pidgeon, actor (Forbidden Planet, Mrs Miniver)—1984—at 87
George Plimpton, American writer and actor—heart attack—2003—at 76
Coco the Clown, [Nikolai Poliakov]—1974—at 74
John B Watson, US psychologist/behaviorist—1958—at 80

Answers…                                                                                                                                            
What is the rhyming answer?
Shun sun
Rebus
To see red
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.