4-19-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 109  / Week: 16 

Today: L 34°…H 55°… Ave. humidity: 39%

     Wind: ave:   5mph; Gusts:  8mph  

     Average Low: 28° Record Low:  10° (1917)

    Average High: 59° Record High:  77° (1989)

           

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1770 - Captain James Cook 1st sights Australia

1775 - American Revolution begins - shot "heard round the world"

1861 - Lincoln orders blockade of Confederate ports (Civil War)

1897 - 1st American marathon ran, John J McDermott wins in 2:55:10 (Boston)

1909 - Joan of Arc receives beatification

1911 - George Bernard Shaw's "Fanny's First Play" premieres in London

1923 - New Egyptian law allows suffrage for men, except soldiers

1932 - President Herbert Hoover suggests 5 day work week

1943 - Bicycle Day - Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately takes LSD for the first time.

1945 - Rodgers & Hammerstein musical "Carousel" opens on Broadway

1982 - 11th Boston Women's Marathon won by Charlotte Teske of Ger in 2:29:33

1982 - Rosie Ruiz, marathon race cheater, arrested for forgery

1987 - Jacqueline Blanc, sets women's downhill ski speed rec (124.902 mph)

1993 - Branch Davidians in Waco Texas dies in fire after 51 day siege

2005 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI 

2011 - Fidel Castro resigns

 

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫  

How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

A quite Friday to end the week. Did some house cleaning/straightening today. Lazy since I stayed up last night watching movies. Sent a little time, about an hour, leaning more about Windows 8.1. Slowly getting it.  Guess you can teach an old-er dog new tricks.

So many here in the US don’t seem to understand, or want to understand a different culture. The very sad sinking of the Korean ferry has many shaking their heads, wondering why the youth listened to the authorities who said not to evacuate and then the suicide of the Vice-Principal who did survive but couldn’t live with the fact that so many of his charges did not. While I don’t begin to understand that culture, I can recognize that complete obedience to elders and the importance of protecting your charges is utmost in that culture’s survival.

 It is Good Friday and I had a childhood memory. As a pre-teen my mom would load up my brother and I and meet Marie and her brood of 6 or 7 at various Catholic churches. We were not Catholic, but Marie and her family were. Her husband, Jim, had introduced my mom to my dad. They all remained friends for many years until Jim and Marie moved to Tucson and became over the top Catholic. I was always one who enjoyed the splendor of a church, the burning incense, the candle lit sanctuary, and all the traditions of entering a Catholic church.  Every time I enter a church while on a trip, I remember those Good Friday visits to magnificent Denver churches. Great memory for sure.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers
Based on the clue in parentheses, find a four-letter word that can be inserted backwards into the blank to complete a longer word.
Example: di____ve (a defeat)
Answer: dissolve ("A defeat" gives you LOSS, which is placed backwards in the blank: di_SSOL_ve.)

1. ey____es (stood up)

2. li____er (open meshed fabrics)

3. r____ant (body part)

4. for____b (distance)

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Jayne Mansfield on visiting U.S. troops

Maria Sharapova on Her Game Sound Effects

Mr Green Jeans with music

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore

OK Then…

Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.

Benjamin Franklin

Harper’s Index 

Percentage of black students in Illinois who attend school where whites make up less than one percent of the student body: 41

Unusual Fact of the Day

Heil Honey I'm Home! a British show about the escapades of Hitler, Eva Braun, and their Jewish neighbors, was canceled after one episode in 1990.   

Joke-of-the-day

During training exercises, the Lieutenant driving down a muddy back road encountered another car stuck in the mud with a red-faced colonel at the wheel.

"Your jeep stuck, sir?" asked the Lieutenant as he pulled alongside.

"Nope," replied the Colonel, coming over and handing him the keys, "Yours is."

Rules of Thumb:   

The Psychotherapy rule

It is time to stop when you forget your appointment and are not bothered by it.

Yeah, It Really Happened

CULPEPER, Va. (UPI) - A Virginia jury has ordered a 53-year-old man to pay $5,001 to his former coworker after he admitted to putting something in his coffee -- and it wasn't cream and sugar. A jury in Culpeper County Circuit Court ordered James Carroll Butler to pay Michael Utz for spiking his coffee pot with pee in March 2009 while they were both working at the town's wastewater plant. The jury found that Butler, who had worked at the plant for 17 years before leaving in 2009, had "personal ill will and spite" towards Utz. When the tainted coffee pot was tested, lab results revealed that the strange brew contained urine and fecal material. The plant mechanic had been seeking $378,000 in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages. "I done something I am very much ashamed of to a co-worker for [reasons, which are] stress-related [and] things going on in my life on and off the job. I am very much ashamed of my stupid and childlike behavior," Butler wrote in a letter from March 2009. Utz's attorney, Michael Sharman, told the Star Exponent that his client is "really, really happy about the victory and he's glad it's done."

Somewhat Useless Information   

In 2012, Americans spent nearly $2.1 billion on Easter candy, while Halloween sales were over $2 billion; Christmas, more than $1.4 billion; and Valentine's Day, over $1 billion.

Ninety million chocolate Easter bunnies are produced each year.

In 1953, it took 27 hours to create a Marshmallow Peep. Today it takes six minutes. Yellow Peeps are the most popular, followed by pink, lavender, blue, and white.

Jellybeans did not become an Easter tradition until the 1930s. They were probably first made in America by Boston candy maker William Schrafft, who ran advertisements urging people to send jellybeans to soldiers fighting in the Civil War.

Hot cross buns were among the earliest Easter treats, made by European monks and given to the poor during Lent.

Pretzels were originally associated with Easter. The twists of a pretzel were thought to resemble arms crossed in prayer.

Calendar Information        

Today Is                                                                      

John Parker Day

National Hanging Out Day

Passover / Pesach (Jewish)

Patriots' Day (Fla)       

Today’s Events through History  

607 - Comet 1P/607 H1 (Halley) approaches within 0.0898 AUs of Earth

1910 - Halley's comet seen by naked eye 1st time this trip (Curacao)

1934 - Shirley Temple appears in her 1st movie, "Stand Up & Cheer"

1975 - India launches 1st satellite with help of USSR

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Hugh O'Brian, [Krampke], actor (Wyatt Earp, Search) is 88

Elinor Donahue, actress (Father Knows Best, Get a Life) is 77

Tim Curry, actor (Rocky Horror Show) is 68

Al Unser Jr, Indy-car racer (over 10 wins) is 52

Ashley Judd, actress, activist is 46

James Franco, actor, director is 36

Kate Hudson, actress (Almost Famous, You, Me and Dupree) is 35

Hayden Christensen, Canadian actor (Star Wars) is 32

Maria Sharapova, Russian tennis player is 27

Remembered for being born today

1832-1918 - Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, 1st lady

1903-1957 - Eliot Ness, untouchable (FBI agent-Chicago)

1920-1978 - Frank Fontaine, comedian (Crazy Guggenheim)

1930-1994 - Dick Sargent, American actor (Bewitched)

1933-1967 - Jayne Mansfield, [Vera Jane Palmer], actress (Fat Spy)

1935-2002 - Dudley Moore, actor (10, Arthur, Bedazzled, 6 Weeks)

 

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Simon Fraser, Canadian explorer, 1862, @86

Roger Williams, English theologian and colonist, 1684, @84

Hugh "Lumpy" Brannum, Actor (Mr Green Jeans), cancer, 1987, @77

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl (Beaconsfield)/novelist, 1881, @ 76

Charles Darwin, naturalist (Origin of Species), heart disease, 1882, @73

George Gorden Noel "Lord" Byron, poet, sepsis, 1924, @36

 Brain Teasers                                         

1. eyesores (ROSE - ey_ESOR_es)

2. listener (NETS - li_STEN_er)

3. resonant (NOSE - r_ESON_ant)

4. forelimb (MILE - for_ELIM_b)

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  §

 

4-18-14

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

Flagstaff Almanac: Day:   / Week: 16 

Today: L 36°…H 69°… Ave. humidity: 24%

     Wind: ave:   9mph; Gusts:  12mph  

     Average Low: 29° Record Low:  16° (1978)

    Average High: 59° Record High:  79° (1989)

           

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1506 - The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid.

1775 - Paul Revere & William Dawes ride warning the "regulars are coming!"

1783 - Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, 8 yrs to the day since it began.

1853 - 1st train in Asia (Bombay to Tanna, 36 km)

1861 - Battle of Harpers Ferry, VA

1879 - Trial of Standing Bear-Crook on Indians citizen rights begins

1902 - Denmark is 1st country to adopt fingerprinting to identify criminals

1924 - 1st crossword puzzle book published (Simon & Schuster)

1925 - World's Fair opens in Chicago

1949 - Republic of Ireland withdraws from British Commonwealth

1958 - A US federal court rules poet Ezra Pound released from an insane asylum.

1968 - 178,000 employees of US Bell Telephone System go on strike

1968 - London Bridge is sold to US oil company (to be erected in Arizona)

2013 - Two earth-like planets are discovered orbiting the star Kepler-62

 

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫  

How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Figuring out Windows 8.1…made some big breakthroughs this morning and am much more comfortable with the show thing.

Our group got together for a good lunch at Red Lobster. Mary is expecting her sister and her high school boyfriend this next week in Phoenix. Should be a good weekend for her. Cheryl is also having visitors—her grandson, his girlfriend, her parents and a couple of her brothers. They are only visiting Cheryl and her grandson will stay with her next week while the other family stays at a motel. They are planning on doing Bearizona, Grand Canyon, and other local sites. Cheryl has been busy preparing her house for visitors. It is always clean, but she wants it sparkling for the visitors.  I shared my Cuba pics and they seemed to enjoy them…iPad was great for that.

I returned home to see that HOA group with their little notepad standing in front of my house writing away. I asked what the problem was…the bitchy lady asked why I had tape on an upstairs window that is a tall, narrow window in the stairwell. I explained that the tape was put there by the fix it   man about 6 years ago because the window won’t close properly. I also mentioned that I was tired of their inspections, since the pine needles keep piling up in their big rock solution in our front areas and they are doing nothing about that mess. She made some silly statement that she had written up the tape before. I said she hadn’t. Then the guy said, I think we wrote it up for the next unit, because we didn’t know that the window was for your unit. Idiots never looked at a drawing of the building to see who had what window. Since the same guy owns my unit and the one next door, I know they didn’t write it up in the past, or the window would have a better solution. Oh well, small minds love to deal with this kinda stuff.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Decipher this phrase:

FAIRY

WOLF

DUCKLING

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Hayley Mills – Pollyanna
• Thor Heyerdahl interview / Easter Island "INSIDE RAPA NUI"
• Kilborn's 5 Questions 2004.02.25 Eric McCormack
• Jane Leeves and Guest Star Dave Foley

OK Then…

A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice.

Bill Cosby

Harper’s Index 

Number of the 17 people bitten my LA Sheriff’s Dept. dogs in the first half of 2013 who were Black or Hispanic: 17

Unusual Fact of the Day

The tallest giraffe of today is less than one-third the height of the tallest dinosaur from the past.                           

Joke-of-the-day

A sweet little boy surprised his grandmother one morning and brought her a cup of coffee. He made it himself and was so proud. He anxiously waited to hear the verdict on the quality of the coffee. The grandmother had never in her life had such a bad cup of coffee, and as she forced down the last sip she noticed three of those little green army guys in the bottom of the cup.

She asked, "Honey, why would three little green army guys be in the bottom of my cup?"

Her grandson replied, "You know grandma, it's like on TV, 'The best part of waking up is soldiers in your cup.'" 

Rules of Thumb:   

SAFE FOLLOWING DISTANCE

 Leave three 'Mississippis' of space between your car and the car in front of you. It works at any speed. They pass a fixed object, e.g. telephone pole. You count 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi. Adjust distance accordingly.

Yeah, It Really Happened

DAVIS, Calif. (UPI) - If CO2 levels continue to rise as expected, staple crops like wheat, barley and potatoes could become less nutritious. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, conducted a field study showing wheat crops were less efficient at converting nitrates into proteins under conditions of heightened CO2 levels. Previous studies have shown that CO2 inhibits the assimilation of nitrates in plants, but this is the first time the phenomenon has been demonstrated in field-planted crops. "Food quality is declining under the rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide that we are experiencing," said Arnold Bloom, lead author of the new study and a professor in UC-Davis's Department of Plant Sciences. "Several explanations for this decline have been put forward, but this is the first study to demonstrate that elevated carbon dioxide inhibits the conversion of nitrate into protein in a field-grown crop," he added. Bloom and his fellow researchers -- including two scientists from the USDA's Arid-Land Agricultural Research Center in Arizona -- estimate that in the coming decades the proteins available for human consumption in wheat, rice, tubers and other grains will decline by roughly 3 percent. This latest study, published in the online journal Nature Climate Change, arrives only a few weeks after a group of international scientists estimated crop yields will decline by 2 percent each decade as the planet continues to warm.

Somewhat Useless Information   

A nap is known to be a short period of sleep, usually after lunch or during working hours. Napping was found to be both physiologically and psychologically beneficial. But what’s the duration of the ideal nap? Well,  according to NASA the perfect nap should last 26 minutes!

God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, also known as the Decalogue, which are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and Christianity. The Ten Commandments include instructions related to morality, as well as prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, theft, dishonesty, and adultery, which all of them make in total 297 words!

Calendar Information        

Today Is                                                                      

Adult Autism Awareness Day

International Amateur Radio Day

National Stress Awareness Day

National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day

Passover (Jewish - begins at sundown)

Pet Owner's Independence Day

Third World Day

<> 

Patriot's Day (Mass. and Maine)

Independence Day (Zimbabwe-1980 from Rhodesia)

 

Today’s Events through History  

1521 - Diet of Worms: Cardinal Alexander questions Maarten Luther

1676 - Sudbury, Mass attacked by Indians

1934 - 1st "Washateria" (laundromat) opens (Fort Worth, Tx)

1983 - 12th Boston Women's Marathon won by Joan Benoit Samuelson in 2:22:43

1983 - A lone suicide bomber kills 63, at US Embassy in Lebanon

1994 - 23rd Boston Women's Marathon won by Uta Pippig of Germany in 2:21:45

 

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Barbara Hale, actress (Della Street-Perry Mason) is 92

Hayley Mills, London, actress (Parent Trap, Pollyanna) is 68

James Woods, actor (Salvador, Against All Odds) is 67

Jane Leeves, actress (Murphy Brown, Daphne Moon-Fraiser) is 53

Conan Chris O'Brien, TV host (Late Night) is 51

Eric McCormack, Canadian-American actor (Will and Grace) is 51

Melissa Joan Hart, Sayville NY, actress (Clarissa, Sabrina) is 38

America Ferrera, American actress is 30

 

Remembered for being born today

1480-1519 - Lucretia Borgia, murderess (poison)/daughter (Pope Alexander VI)

1857-1938 - Clarence S Darrow, defense attorney at Scopes monkey trial

 

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer, 2002, @87

Dick Clark, radio and television personality, 2012, @ 82

Albert Einstein, Nobel laureate, aneurysm, 1955, @76

William King, US VP, TB, 1853, @67

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American socialite, 1942, @67

Ernie Pyle, American journalist, Japanese machine-gun fire, 1945, @45

Brain Teasers                                         

The good, the bad, and the ugly

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  §