Nov 18, 2012

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 46/ Day:    

Today: High   53°…Low 27° Averages: High  67° Low °

Records: High   67°(2007)…Low -10°(1964)

Wind: ave:   16mph; Gusts:  34mph Today’s average humidity:  46%

Quote of the Day:

Today’s Historical Highlights:

1st English printed book "Dictes & Sayengis of the Phylosophers"—1477

1st newspaper Sunday color comic section published (NY World) "Origin 

     of a New Species," by Richard Outcault—1894

1st Unitarian minister in US ordained, Boston—1787

Apollo Theater (Academy, Bryant) opens—1920

Bkln toymaker Morris Michton names teddy bear after Teddy Roosevelt—1902

College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 27 injured at Texas A&M University 

     when a massive bonfire under construction collapses—1999

J Edgar Hoover describes Martin Luther King as "most notorious liar"—1964

Mark Twain publishes "Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"—1865

Mussolini's forces leave Abyssinia/Ethiopia—1941

Old St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated. Stood 4th - 16th century—326

St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated—1626

William Tell shoots apple off his son's head—1307

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

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

Free Rambling Thoughts:   

Had a great lunch (late birthday) with Martha this afternoon. We had some great conversation and a good meal at the local Sizzler. So nice to have such good friends. Started out as a nice day, then those chilly winds came in…took all the fun out of being outside. 

This Gaza Strip thing seems to be something that will be in the news for quite some time. Looks like Egypt is the answer to creating a cease fire. Whatever it takes, as this centuries old disagreement is not going to go away.

Game  Center: (answers at the end of post)

NEW! Duplicate Letter Puzzles Five letter words

Find common words with certain letters duplicated in the given positions. V stands for a duplicated vowel, C stands for a duplicated consonant, L stands for any duplicated letter, and _ stands for any letter

Example L _ L _ L is Rarer

C _ _ C C

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Unusual Uses for Everyday Things: Lemon Juice

Sanitize a chopping block.Eliminate the browning that occurs when cut fruit sits out too long.Remove tough food stains from plastic and light-colored wooden cutting      boards.
Fade tea stains on cloth.
Decorate on the cheap. Fill a glass bowl with lemons for a sunny      centerpiece. Or display a row of them along a windowsill.Relieve a sore throat. Cut a lemon in half. Skewer one half over a medium flame      on a gas stove or an electric burner set on high and roast until the peel      turns golden brown. Let cool slightly, then mix the juice with 1 teaspoon of honey.      Swallow the mixture.Brighten laundry whites. Add 1/2 cup lemon juice to the wash cycle of a      normal-size load.

Old Saying Explained:

DYED IN THE WOOL…Wool that was dyed before it was woven kept its color better than wool dyed after weaving of 'dyed in the piece'.

Ok, then?

TV Theme Songs you may remember:

The Simpsons - Danny Elfman

Read This Headline Carefully!!

Organ Festival Ends in Smashing Climax

America’s Historical Buildings:

Prairie Home Companion:

Powdermilk Biscuits and more

Harper’s Index:         

Percentage of Russians who say that having a strong leader is more important than democracy: 57

Ruminations:

So a hipster walks into a bar…that I was holding…and swinging

Unusual Fact of the Day:

A sculpture of Darth Vader's head appears on the outside of the Washington National Cathedral as a grotesque (similar to a gargoyle). Click to see it

Found on You Tube: 

• The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

• Flowers and Trees (1932)

Joke-of-the-day:

A man was driving along the highway, and saw a rabbit hopping across the middle of the road. He swerved to avoid hitting the rabbit, but unfortunately the rabbit jumped in front of the car and was hit. The driver, being a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulled over to the side of the road and got out to see what had become of the rabbit. Much to his dismay, the rabbit was dead.

The driver felt so awful, he began to cry. A woman driving down the highway saw the man crying on the side of the road and pulled over. She stepped out of her car and asked the man what was wrong. "I feel terrible," he explained. "I accidentally hit this rabbit and killed it."

The woman told the man not to worry. She knew what to do. She went to her car trunk, and pulled out a spray can. She walked over to the limp, dead rabbit, and sprayed the contents of the can on to the rabbit.

Miraculously, the rabbit came to life, jumped up, waved it's paw at the two humans and hopped down the road. 50 meters away the rabbit stopped, turned around, waved at the two again, hopped down the road another 50 meters, turned, waved and hopped another 50 meters.

The man was astonished. He couldn't figure out what substance could be in the woman's spray can!! He ran over to the woman and demanded, "What was in your spray can? What did you spray on that rabbit?"

The woman turned the can around so that the man could read the label.

It said: "'Hair spray restores life to dead hair. Adds permanent wave."

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

FITTING A SHOE…You should have a thumb's width of space between the longest toe and the tip of your shoe.   

Yeah, It Really Happened

TIERP, Sweden - A Swedish preschool said a 105-year-old woman received an acceptance letter to its class because she was born in '07 -- but it turned out to be the wrong '07. The Central School in Tierp said Anna Eriksson, 105, received one of the letters that were sent to more than 60 local children who were born in 2007, The Local.se reported Thursday. Marinna Eriksson, principal of the school, said the population registry provided the school with the names and addresses of the children, and no one noticed one of the letters was being sent to Anna Eriksson, who was born in 1907. "Her daughter got in touch and she and I both thought it was pretty funny. The two of them and I could see the humor in what happened," the principal said. The principal said the senior citizen is still welcome to attend a school open house for prospective students. "It would be fun if Anna Eriksson wanted to come here to meet the school's leadership and have coffee," she said.

• Somewhat Useless Information   

• The most played song on American radio during the twentieth century was You've Lost That Loving Feeling which was written by Barry Mann, Phil Spector, and Cynthia Weil.  Although recorded by different artists, the song is the only one in history to be played over 8 million times on the radio. That amounts to about 45 years if the song was played back to back!  Three songs were played 7 million times: Never My Love, Yesterday, and Stand By Me (in that order).

• The Carpenters signature song, We've Only Just Begun, was originally part of a television commercial for a California bank.  The music played in the background of a scene in which a newlywed couple had, of course, just begun their lives together.  Richard Carpenter saw the commercial and sculpted it into the classic song that we know today.

• Why do ostriches bury their heads in the sand?  They actually don't.  In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of eighty years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand (or attempted to do so). 

• A South Korean movie theater owner decided that the movie The Sound of Music was too long.  His solution?  He shortened the movie by cutting out all of the musical scenes!

• In four separate instances between October 1987 and February 1988, small pink frogs rained down from the sky on to various parts of Great Britain.  Scientists are still uncertain as to where these frogs originated, although some have traced them back to the Sahara desert.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

12-18  

National Global Entrepreneurship Week ►World Kindness Week ►National Young Reader's Week

16-22

National Farm-City Week

18-24

National Bible Week►National Family Week►National Game & Puzzle Week ►Better Conversation Week

Today Is                                                                      

Married To A Scorpio Support Day
Mickey Mouse Day (1928)
Push-button Phone Day (1963)
Occult Day
Transgender Day of Remembrance
~Latvia: Independence Day (1918)
~Oman: National Holiday (Islamic New Year)

Today’s Events through History  

"Flowers & Trees" receives 1st Academy Award for a cartoon—1932
31 die in a fire at King's Cross, London's busiest subway station—1987
Ayatollah Khomeini charges US ambassador/embassy espionage—1979
Bonnie Prince Charlies troops occupy Carlisle—1745
Copyright office issues its 10 millionth registration—1960
Great Ballcourt at Chichen Itza is dedicated by the Maya—864Members of the Hillabi Clan of the Muskogee Creeks have offered to      surrender to General Andrew Jackson with Scots trader Robert Grierson      acting as intermediary—1813Penn is 1st to restrict abortions after Supreme Court gave states the      right to do so—1989
Russia officially ratifies the Kyoto Protocol—2004Sandy Koufax announces his retirement, due to arthritic left elbow—1966
Southern sea floods 72 villages, killing estimated 10,000 in Netherlands—1421 United Kingdom, the Local Government Act 2003, repealing controversial      anti-gay amendment Section 28, becomes effective—2003
Vasco da Gama reached the Cape of Good Hope—1497

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 70’s

Linda Evans , actress (Dynasty, Big Valley, Beach Blanket Bingo) will be 70

Brenda Vaccaro, Bkln NY, actress (Cactus Flower, Sara, Paper Dolls) is 73

In their 60’s

Jameson Parker, actor (American Justice, Simon & Simon) will be 65

In their 50’s

Sinbad, [David Adkins], Benton Harbor MI, actor (1st Kid, Vibe) is 56

In their 40’s

Owen Wilson, American actor (Meet the Parents, Zoolander) will be 44

Remembered for being born today

Imogene Coca, Phila, comedienne (Your Show of Shows, Grindl) (1908-2001)

Dorothy Dix, pseudonym of US journalist Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer (1861-1951)

George Gallup, Jefferson Iowa, public opinion pollster (Gallup Poll) (1901-1984)

Eleanor Gonzaga, Empress of the Holy Roman Empire (1630-1686)

Asa Gray, Sauquoit NY, botanist (Flora of North America) (1810-1888)

Johnny Mercer, Savannah Ga, lyricist (Moon River, Old Black Magic) (1909-1976)

Alan B Shepard Jr, East Derry NH, Rear Adm USN/astro (Merc 3, Ap 14) (1923-1998)

James E Sullivan, founder (Amateur Athletic Union) (1862-1914)

Sojourner Truth [Isabella Baumfree], abolitionist/feminist (1797-1883)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Chester A Arthur, 21st pres (1881-85)—cerebral hemorrhage—1886—at 56

Niels Bohr, Danish physicist (atom, Nobel 1922)—heart failure—1962—at 77

Cab[ell] Calloway, US band leader/actor (Missourians)—1994—at 86

James Coburn, actor (Great Escape)— heart attack—2002—at 74

Jim Jones, US pastor, leader of Jonestown Cult—commits suicide—1978—at 47

Joseph P Kennedy, JFK/RFK/TMK father—1969—at 81

Marcel Proust, French author (Recherche du Temps Perdu)— pulmonary abscess—1922—at 51

Harold J. Stone [Harold Hochstein], American actor—2005—at 92

George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, English statesman—1590—at 62

Answer: Anagram sentence

C _ _ C C is Fluff

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  §

Nov 17, 2012

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 46/ Day: 322   

Today: High   57°…Low 33°

Records: High   70°(1981)…Low -1°(1964)

Averages: High  50° Low 23°

Wind: average:   2mph; Gusts:  14mph

Today’s average humidity:  50%

Quote of the Day:

Today’s Historical Highlights:

680 Jews arrested (293 hanged) in England for counterfeiting coins—1278

Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse—1970

English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason—1603

Leonids meteor shower peaks (150,000+ per hour) —1966

Lincoln begins 1st draft of his Gettysburg Address—1863

Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple 

   of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre (The police then kill the assailants) —1997

Remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland are evacuated 

   to the mainland—1953

Union of Banana Exporting Countries (UPEB) forms—1974

US House of Representatives approve NAFTA—1993

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

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

Free Rambling Thoughts:   

A quite day here in Flagstaff. At least it was nice enough to take a short walk.

 

As I get old-er I notice how so many of my childhood and early adulthood products are no longer produced. Now, I was never a big Twinkie Fan, but I was a Hostess Cupcake and Ding Dong fan. Now it looks like none of these will be around much longer. I still remember jumping on my bike on Saturday morning, riding down to a small neighborhood store a few blocks away, buying a package of Hostess Cupcakes for 7 cents and riding home to share them with my little brother as we watched Huckleberry Hound on TV. I must admit I haven’t bought any for many, many years, but always smile when I see them on the shelf. I guess I just assumed the next generations were still buying them.

 

Amazing to me how all the rats desert Romney’s ship. From ‘the best we have to offer’ to ‘he doesn’t know what he is talking about’ in a week. Looks to me like a majority of American voters saw though his crazy plans on Election Day. Now his political supporters are realizing it. Better late than never, just better never late.

 

The Gaza Strip is about 140 square miles, governed by Palestinians. It still isn’t clear if other Muslim countries will step up their effort to stop the Palestinians from bombing Israel. Praying for peace.

Game  Center: (answers at the end of post)

Anagram Sentences:

What are the missing words? 6 letter anagrams

I had to ______ a friend to help me ______ for my lost dog, but she was being too ______ to be found.

Note: New word puzzle begins tomorrow.

Lifestyle  Substance: 

Unusual Uses for Everyday Things: Disposable Diapers

• You can make your own gel by removing the sodium polyacrylate from a disposable diaper. Fireproof small items in your home by dipping a diaper in some water then wrapping it around the object that needs protection. Sodium polyacrylate that absorbs many hundreds of times its own weight in water. 
• Diapers are good at absorbing disconcerting volumes of filth. Next time you spill an entire bowl of cereal, milk and all, onto your travertine, try using a diaper to clean up the mess. 
• Diapers to bear in the garden, cut open the diaper to get the sodium polyacrylate out. You can apply it directly to the soil, or if you'd like to be more conservative, you can wrap the polymer in some cheese cloth to get the absorption effect without getting sodium polyacrylate all up in your dirt. Or just bury a wet diaper.
• When a flood is imminent, people start shoveling sand into bags to build makeshift levees in order to keep the rising water at bay. Shoveling sand into a sack is hard work. And sand doesn't expand much as it absorbs water. But toss some sodium polyacrylate into a sack and you've got a flat-packable, self-inflating flood control bag that requires only the flood water itself to expand to full, water-blocking size.
• Unless you've got a diaper on hand you can save a wet book or magazine. Just open the diaper up, insert it in between the dampened pages, and let the sodium polyacrylate slurp up your delicious autumn treat. Close the book around the diaper, prop the book up out of the sun, run a fan, and wait.
• A freezer bag. Some alcohol. Some water. And a diaper. Apart, they are merely a normal shopping trip. When combined, however, they form a Megazord of ice-packy goodness. Dribble a cup of alcohol into the diaper. Then soak it in water. Bag it. Freeze it. Slap it onto an aching body part or into your lunch box.

Old Saying Explained:

DON'T LOOK A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH…This old saying means don't examine a gift too closely! You can tell a horse’s age by looking at its teeth, which is why people 'looked a horse in the mouth'.

Ok, then?

TV Theme Songs you may remember:

Hill Street Blues - Mike Post

Read This Headline Carefully!!

Soviet Virgin Lands Short of Goal Again

Sacred Mountains Around the World:

Celtic Music:

Irish tavern music

Harper’s Index:         

Number of days a juvenile penguin eluded Japanese authorizes after escaping from an aquarium in March: 82

Ruminations:

The quickest way to lose all faith in humanity is to read the comments section for almost anything on the Internet

Unusual Fact of the Day:

Ian Murphy is the king of the old-school computer hackers. In 1981, he and three accomplices broke into the AT&T phone system and changed its internal clocks so that customers would get midnight discounts in midday, while late-night callers got stuck with outrageous bills. For the incident, Murphy became the first hacker to be charged with a computer crime.

Found on You Tube: 

• Esther Rolle Black Jesus (Part 1 of 3)

• Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Joke-of-the-day:

Little Johnny watched, fascinated, as his mother smoothed cold cream on her face. 'Why do you do that, mommy?' he asked.

'To make myself beautiful,' said his mother, who then began removing the cream with a tissue.

'What's the matter?' asked Little Johnny. 'Giving up?'

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

LOBSTER TAILS …A lobster tail should always curl. If this does not happen, the lobster is dead or dying. If the tail does not curl on a boiled lobster, the lobster was dead before it was boiled.   

Yeah, It Really Happened

An Oklahoma teen convicted of manslaughter has sentenced to 10 years of probation, with requirements that include regularly attending church.Tyler Alred, now 17, had been drinking when he crashed a pickup truck at around 4 a.m. on Dec. 3, 2011, Tulsa World reports. The accident killed Alred's friend, 16-year-old John Luke Dum, who was a passenger in the vehicle.

Alred was not legally drunk, but because he was below the legal drinking age, he was still considered to be driving under the influence of alcohol. The high school student pleaded guilty in August to a charge of manslaughter as a youthful offender.

"I did not want to do what I did," Alred told the court prior to his sentencing. "I want to change my life."

Members of Dum's family did not want to see Alred behind bars, the Muskogee Phoenix reported. "We don't need to see two lives wasted for a mistake," Dum's sister, Caitlin, wrote in a statement.

Instead of sentencing the teen to prison time, Judge Mike Norman gave him a 10-year deferred sentence. In order to stay out of prison, Alred must graduate from high school; graduate from welding school; take drug, alcohol and nicotine tests for a year; wear a drug and alcohol bracelet, take part in victim's impact panels, and attend church for the next 10 years.

This last requirement "raises legal issues because of (the separation of) church and state," University of Oklahoma law professor Randall Coyne told the Tulsa World.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• There is one slot machine in Las Vegas for every 8 inhabitants.

• The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off

• Tipping at a restaurant in Iceland in considered an insult.

• Undertakers report that human bodies to not deteriorate as fast as they used to. The reason, they believe, is that the modern diet contains so many preservatives, that these chemicals tend to prevent the body from decomposition to rapidly after death. 

• The Nike "swoosh" logo was designed by University of Oregon student Carolyn Davidson in 1964 - four years after business undergrad Phil Knight and track coach Bill Bowerman founded the company they originally called Blue Ribbon Sports. Ms. Davidson was paid $35 dollars for her design.

• The penny and the Sacajawea dollar are the only coins currently minted in the United States with profiles that face to the right. All other U.S. coins - the half dollar, quarter, dime, and nickel - feature profiles that face to the left.  

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

11-17 

American Education Week ►Geography Awareness Week ►National Hunger & Homeless Awareness Week

12-18  

National Global Entrepreneurship Week ►World Kindness Week ►National Young Reader's Week

16-22

National Farm-City Week

Today Is                                                                      

• Homemade Bread Day
• Playmobil's National Day of Play
• Family Volunteer Day
• National Adoption Day
• National Day of Play
• National Survivors of Suicide Day 
• National Unfriend Day
• Take A Hike Day
• World Prematurity Awareness Day 

Today’s Events through History  

1st TV condom ad aired (FOX- TV) —1991  

Church of England organizes in New England—1785

Delta Phi fraternity, America's oldest continuous social fraternity, was founded at Union College in Schenectady—1827

Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy become overnight success on radio—1936

Election is authorized to approve a Constitution and By-Laws for the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town of the Creek Indian Nation of the State of Oklahoma—1938

General Meeting of UN refuses admittance of China PR—1965

Kmart Corp. announces it is buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion USD and naming the newly merged company Sears Holdings Corporation—2004

NBC cuts to show "Heidi," misses Raider's rally to beat Jets, 43-32—1968

Notre Dame finally lost a football game after nearly 25 year—1928s

Part of Pontiac's army surrenders at the Muskingham River—1764

Pres Nixon tells AP "...people have got to know whether or not their pres is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook"—1973

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 70’s

Gordon Lightfoot, Ontario Canada, folksinger (Sundown) is 74

Martin Scorsese, Queens, New York, director (Raging Bull, The Departed) is 70

In their 60’s

Howard Dean, American politician is 64

Danny DeVito, Neptune NJ, actor (Taxi, Ruthless People, Twins) is 68

Tom Seaver, pitcher (NY Met, 300 game winner, Cy Young '69 '73 '75) is 68

Lorne Michaels, [Lipowitz], Toronto Ontario, comedian (SNL) is 68

In their 50’s

RuPaul [RuPaul Andre Charles], drag queen/model/actor (RuPaul Show)is 52

In their 40’s

Daisy Fuentes, model/MTV veejay (America's Funniest Videos) is 46

Remembered for being born today

Rock Hudson[Roy Harold Scherer, Jr], actor (Pillow Talk, A Farewell to Arms) (1925-1985)

Louis XVIII, 1st post-revolutionary king of France (1755-1824)

Bob Mathias, Tulare California, decathelete (Olympic-gold-1948, 52) (1930-2006)

August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician (1790-1868)

Lee Strasberg, Austria, acting coach/actor (And Justice for All) (1901-1982)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Catherine the Great [Catherine II], Empress of Russia (1762-96)—stroke—1796—at 67

Esther Rolle, actress (Good Times)— diabetes—1998—at 78

Answer: Anagram sentence

I had to enlist a friend to help me listen for my lost dog, but she was being too silent to be found.

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  §