6-14-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 165 / Week: 24 

June Averages: 78° \ 42°
Today: Average Sky Cover: 0% RED FLAG
    H 79°… L 48°… Ave. humidity: 24%
    Wind: ave:   3mph; Gusts:  35mph  
    Average High: 79° Record High:  92° (1974)
    Average Low: 41° Record Low:  25° (2001)
        
Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1642 - 1st compulsory education law in America passed by Massachusetts

1777 - Continental Congress adopts Stars & Stripes replacing Grand Union flag
1834 - Sandpaper patented by Isaac Fischer Jr, Springfield, Vermont
1846 - California (Bear Flag) Republic proclaimed independence from Mexico
1850 - Fire destroys part of San Francisco
1881 - Player piano patented by John McTammany Jr (Cambridge, Mass)
1907 - Norway adopts female suffrage for middle class women only
1938 - Dorothy Lathrop wins 1st Caldecott Medal (kid books author)
1940 - Auschwitz concentration camp opens (3 million killed there)
1942 - Walt Disney's "Bambi" animated movie is released Thumper's 1st job
1954 - Pres Eisenhower signs order adding words "under God" to the Pledge
2013 - Hassan Rouhani is elected President of Iran

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫  

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Windy, windy day. Couldn’t keep the front door open in the afternoon, as the wind kept slamming it shut. My wrist is much better today…and only one pain pill.

FB had a post from a HS class member that they are making a full length movie about Freddie Stienmark, another of my classmates. Freddie was an incredible athlete who passed during his senior year at Texas of bone marrow cancer. There has been a book out about him for over a decade. Now another classmate has written a screen play that will be out in the future. Should be quite a movie. I must say I was a little shocked when I read that the classmate writing the screen play lives in Phoenix and is a big Tea Party leader down there. Guess I won’t be contacting him in the near future.

My brother and his wife sent me a nice package with gifts from their trip to Russia. A CD, some Russian Tea, a beautiful Christmas decoration—a painted egg, some chocolate, and a Russian collapsible silver shot glass in a case. Very cool. Everything will be enjoyed. They always find unique stuff.

 

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

If

PACK + KNIT + STAY + ELMO = KITE
Then
THAW + FLIT + GNAT+ DIET = ?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Burl Ives 'Big Rock Candy Mountain'

 Che Guevara speech at UN 1964

Little Old Log Cabin In the Lane

Short art history video about Mary Cassatt

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

Percentage of Chinese millionaires who plan to emigrate or have already emigrated: 64

Minimum amount that Chinese citizens have moved in offshore bank accounts since 2002: $1,000,000,000,000

Unusual Fact of the Day

Until coffee gained popularity, beer was the breakfast beverage of choice in most urban areas of the United States.

Presidential Fun Facts…

James Knox Polk: Graduated University of North Carolina (1818). Greatly expanded the western U.S. in 1848 through a treaty with Mexico ending a two year war and giving the U.S. control over most of present-day Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Before the advent of anesthetics and antiseptic practices, Polk survived a gallstone operation at age 17.

Ben Franklin on Character…

Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

Common misused words...

They're and their--Same with these; they're is the contraction for they are. Again, the apostrophe doesn't own anything. We're going to their house, and I sure hope they're home.

Pen Names of famous authors…

Stephen King--Pen name: Richard Bachman

Even Stephen King has written under a nom de plume. The king of horror published seven novels under his pen name, the first one published in 1977. He says, “I did that because back in the early days of my career there was a feeling in the publishing business that one book a year was all the public would accept.” King explains that he came up with his pseudonym on the fly while on the phone with his publisher. He had a Richard Stark book on his desk, and a Bachman Turner Overdrive song was playing. He combined the two names and Richard Bachman was born. The move allowed King to publish several novels a year. In 1985, a bookstore clerk named Steve Brown noticed the similarities between the two author’s styles and, after some snooping, determined that they were the same person. Stephen King soon confirmed this, and announced that Bachman had died of “Cancer of the Pseudonym.”

The World as 100 people…

Nutrition:

Overweight--21
Adequate--63
Undernourished--15
Starving --1

Joke-of-the-day

A tour bus driver drives with a bus full of seniors down a highway, when a little old lady taps him on his shoulder. She offers him a handful of almonds, which he gratefully munches up.

After approx.15 minutes, she taps him on his shoulder again and she hands him another handful of almonds. She repeats this gesture about eight times.

At the ninth time he asks the little old lady why they don't eat the almonds themselves, whereupon she replies that it is not possible because of their old teeth, they are not able to chew them. "Why do you buy them then?" he asks puzzled. Whereupon the old lady Answers, "We just love the chocolate around them."

Rules of Thumb:   

THE RULE OF CLOSED-TOE SHOES

The louder the noise a pair of closed-toe women's shoes makes on a hard floor, the less comfortable the shoes.

Yeah, It Really Happened

The Washington state Medical Quality Assurance Commission says it has suspended the license of a Seattle anesthesiologist accused of frequently exchanging sexually explicit texts during surgeries.

A statement issued by the state Health Department says Dr. Arthur K. Zilberstein is accused by the commission of compromising patient safety by his "preoccupation with sexual matters" while he was on hospital duty.
In addition to the allegation of sexting during surgeries when he was the responsible anesthesiologist, the commission has accused Zilberstein of improperly accessing medical-record imaging for sexual gratification and having sexual encounters at his workplace.
Because what is sexier than an x-ray picture of your johnson.

Somewhat Useless Information   

Food and sex have been linked throughout history. Some foods are thought to have sexual powers because they resemble human genitals. Casanova was said to offer oysters to his potential partners to whet their sexual appetite.

Several ancient cultures viewed the apple as a feminine symbol and found a resemblance between the two halves of a vertically cut apple to the female genital system. Alternatively, an apple cut horizontally resembled a pentagram, which was considered key in revealing knowledge of good and evil.

Ancient Egyptian priests would eat figs at the moment of their consecration ceremonies. The Indians consecrated the fig tree to Vishnu, and the fig tree sheltered Romulus and Remus (the traditional founders of Rome) at their birth. The fig is also a fertility symbol and the Arab association with male genitals is so strong that the original word "fig" is considered improper.

Calendar Information        

This Week’s Observances:

8-14

International Clothesline Week
National Body Piercing Week
National Flag Week
Jim Thorpe Native American Games
Men's Health Week
National Automotive Service Professionals Week

12-19

Nursing Assistants Week

12-15
Superman Days
US Open Golf Championship
Duct Tape Days

13-20

National Hermit Week

14-22
Worldwide Knit (and crotchet) in Public Week

Today Is  

Army's Birthday—1775 founded
Dollars Against Diabetes Day(s): 14-15  
Family History Day
Flag Day --1777

International Young Eagles Day
Magic Circles Day 
Missing Mutts Awareness Day 
National Bourbon Day  
Pause for the Pledge Day
Pop Goes The Weasel Day Banana Split Days: 13-14  
Poultry Festival 13-14  
Queen's Official Birthday
(World) Blood Donor Day 
World Juggling Day  
Worldwide Knit (and crotchet) in Public Day  
**
Rice Planting Festival (Japan)

Today’s Events through History  

1923 - Recording of 1st country music hit (Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane)

1962 - The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris - later becoming the European Space Agency.
1989 - Nolan Ryan becomes 2nd pitcher to defeat all 26 teams
1989 - Zsa Zsa Gabor arrested for slapping Beverly Hills motorcycle patrolman

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Marla Gibbs, actress (Florence-Jeffersons) is 83

Joe Arpaio, still sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona is 82
Donald Trump, billionaire/master builder (Trump Towers) is 68
Eric Heiden, US speed skater (5 Olympic gold medals 1980) is 56
"Boy George" O'Dowd, androgynous vocalist (Culture Club) is 53
Yasmine Bleeth, actress (Baywatch) is 46
Chris Onstad, American cartoonist is 39

Remembered for being born today

1811-1896 - Harriet Beecher Stowe, author (Uncle Tom's Cabin)

1864 -1915 - Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist (Alzheimer Disease)
1909-1995 - Burl Ives, folk singer/actor (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
1919-2009 - Gene Barry [Eugene Klass], actor (Bat Masterson)
1925-2004 - Pierre Salinger, newsman (ABC)/press secretary (John Kennedy)
1928-1967 - Ernesto "Che" Guevara, revolutionary and physician

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Kurt Waldheim, Austrian politician and statesman, 2007, @88

Mary Cassatt, American Impressionist artist, 1926, @82
Marlin Perkins, TV host (Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom), 1986, @81
Alan Jay Lerner, Broadway librettist, cancer, 1986, @ 67
Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian poet/essayist (Nobel 1959), stroke, 1968, @66
Max Weber, German sociologist/economist/historian, Spanish Flu, 1920, @56

Brain Teasers                                         

WIND.

Take the last letter of the first word, second to last letter of the second word, etc.
PacK + knIt + sTay + Elmo = KITE
ThaW + flIt + gNat + Diet = WIND.

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  §

 

6-13-14

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

Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 164 / Week: 24 

June Averages: 78° \ 42°
Today: Average Sky Cover: 2% RED FLAG
    H 81°… L 41°… Ave. humidity: 31%
    Wind: ave:   5mph; Gusts:  14mph  
    Average High: 77° Record High:  92° (1974)
    Average Low: 41° Record Low:  30° (1976)
        
Quote of the Day

                              or maybe 1926 when Native Americans could vote

Today’s Historical Highlights

1373 - Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of Alliance (world's oldest) signed in London

1774 - Rhode Island becomes 1st colony to prohibit importation of slaves
1828 - Simon Bolívar proclaimed dictator
1865 - Pres Johnson proclaims reconstruction confederate states
1866 - US House of representatives passes 14th Amendment (Civil rights)
1886 - Fire destroys nearly 1,000 buildings in Vancouver, BC
1888 - US Congress creates Department of Labor
1898 - Yukon Territory of Canada organized, Dawson chosen as capital
1920 - Post Office says children could not be sent by parcel post
1927 - Ticker-tape parade welcomes Charles A Lindbergh to NYC
1933 - German Secret State Police (Gestapo - Geheime Staats Polizei) established
1942 - The United States opens its Office of War Information.
1956 - After 72 years, Britain gives up Suez Canal to Egyptian control
1979 - Sioux nation receives $100 million in compensation for Black Hills SD
1990 - Nelson & Winnie Mandela welcomed in NYC
2005 - A jury acquits Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫  

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

So a couple of days ago I woke up with a sore right wrist. No big deal, as I figured I had slept on it wrong. It didn’t get better, or worse, until early this morning. I woke up about 5am and it really hurt. I have a high tolerance for pain, so when something is in pain to me, it really is in pain.  I took one of my unused pain pills from my foot pain of a few months ago. At 8a, it still really hurt, so I headed off to the Urgent Care place. I must have been asked at least 4 times if I sleepwalked. I don’t, or at least I don’t think I do. Anyway, after X-rays, they gave me a pain shot, a script of more pain pills and a Velcro wrist brace. The PA said I had some ‘old’ bone chips in my wrist, and that the radiologist would read the X-rays tomorrow and she would call me. I told her I was 65 and all my bones are old-er. She said it might be gout or it might not be. HMMM. The pain is much less so I’m not worried.

I am getting tired of Congressmen who play Monday morning quarterback. Now many are upset over the mess in Iraq. Many Americans didn’t understand Bush’s need to invade, except to get rid of tyrant and find some WMDs that didn’t exist. We had supported Hussain for decades. Then we pulled out and now the conservatives are saying we left with no plan to keep Iraq democratic. There was sectarian violence before we invade, it continued while we were there, and is still there now that we are gone. We now hear about ISIS, a new radical group that Al-Qaida had kicked out of their group because ISIS was too violent.  

We had our weekly lunch and I got lots of sympathy for my wrist. Mary has workers tearing out her patio and putting in pavers. Cheryl is awaiting her new French door window—at a cost of $450 for one of the two doors. Seems they have to take out the window that didn’t break and the blind that didn’t break and install a new ‘unit’ which is 2 pieces of glass and the blind. She did get a free car wash at Sam’s because no one there could get the machine that swipes the cards to work. She needed a wash since the water shortage in Williams will not allow anyone to wash a vehicle or water anything outside.

 

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

When you behead a word, you remove the first letter and still have a valid word. You will be given clues for the two words, longer word first.

Example: Begin -> Sour, acidic

Answer: The words are Start and Tart.

1. Shut -> Misplace; fail

2. Open -> Glass container
3. Unusual; lightly cooked -> They exist
4. Prevent from spoiling -> Holding back
5. Broken glass -> Unyielding
6. Dampen; cushion -> Frequent
7. One who leases -> Go into

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

christophers basil Rathbone

dean martin and paul lynde

Mary Wickes

Vintage 1955 Fran Allison commercial

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

Total number of new workers introduced in to South Asian economies each month: 1,000,000

Unusual Fact of the Day

While its popularity in America is fairly recent, margarine dates back to 1860s France, when Emperor Louis Napoleon III offered a prize to anyone who could design a cheap butter substitute.

Presidential Fun Facts…

John Tyler: Graduated College of William and Mary (1807). Vice President under Harrison. First vice president to assume office after the death of a president. He was a Whig, but the Whig party disowned him after he vetoed banking bills supported by the Whigs. In January 1843, the Whigs introduced impeachment resolutions in the House, but the measures were defeated. Tyler served as president without being a member of any political party. He was a grand-uncle of Harry S Truman.

Ben Franklin on Character…

Industry. Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

Common misused words...

It's and its

It's is the contraction of it is. That means it's doesn't own anything. If your dog is neutered (that way we make the dog, however much against his will, gender neutral) you don't say, "It's collar is blue." You say, "Its collar is blue." Here's an easy test to apply. Whenever you use an apostrophe, un-contract the word to see how it sounds. In this case, turn it's into it is. "It's sunny," becomes, "It is sunny." Sounds good to me.

Pen Names of famous authors…

Evan Hunter--Pen names: Ed McBain, Hunt Collins, Curt Cannon, Richard Marsten, D.A. Addams, and Ted Taine
Novelist Evan Hunter wrote both crime and science fiction using his own name and multiple pen names. Born Salvatore Albert Lombino in 1926, the author legally changed his name to Evan Hunter in 1952, but saw the most success from the work he published under the pseudonym Ed McBain. Beginning in 1956, he used that name for the majority of the crime fiction he wrote as part of the long-running 87th Precinct series. In a 2005 obituary for Hunter, who died of cancer at age 78, The New York Times explained that Hunter initially moved away from his (very Italian) birth name due to prejudice against writers with foreign names.

The World as 100 people…

Continent:

Africa 15
Asia 60
Europe 11
North America 5
South America 9

Joke-of-the-day

A preacher was standing at the pulpit giving his Sunday sermon when a note was passed to him. The only word written on the sheet was IDIOT. Looking up at the congregation, the preacher smiled and said: I have heard of men who write letters and forget to sign their names but this is the first time I will see a man sign his name and forget to write the letters. 

Rules of Thumb:   

WEARING JEWELRY AND MAKE-UP

Teenage girls should lay out the jewelry they want to wear, then put away one-third of the items. For make-up, they should lay out everything they'd like to use, then put away all but two items.

Yeah, It Really Happened

PERTH, Australia (UPI) - Australian police arrested a man and charged him with drunk driving after he was found riding a motorized beer cooler while under the influence of alcohol. The 22-year-old was driving the cart down the middle of a quiet street in the suburbs on Friday night. The motorized cooler – known in Australia as an esky – did contain alcohol at the time. "This motor vehicle would only be able to travel at very low speeds, the lighting devices on said vehicle would be negligible and make it very difficult for other motorists to see," police said in a statement, according to the Telegraph. Other Australians have been arrested for operating eskys while intoxicated in the past. A 38-year-old was arrested for drunk driving his motorized cooler back in March and a 23-year-old lost his license for nine months following a 2011 esky incident. In the 2011 case, the young man took his "extreme cooler" for a "test drive" on a main road.

Somewhat Useless Information   

Both Chevy Chase and Michael Keaton turned down the role of Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray's character).

Bill Murray's role was originally written for John Belushi, but he died while the script was being written.

Ray Parker Jr.'s theme song for the film was a No. 1 hit for three weeks. Huey Lewis later sued Ray Parker Jr. for plagiarism, due to similarities between the Ghostbusters theme song and Lewis' "I Want a New Drug."

The original trailer featured a 1-800 number, not a 555 number, which led to a prerecording of Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd. They got 1,000 calls per hour, 24 hours a day, for six weeks.

The marshmallow goo that explodes onto William Atherton is actually 50 pounds of shaving cream.

The guns for the proton packs were originally wands. The wands were changed to laser guns to make it more believable that the Ghostbusters created their gear from practical equipment.

Calendar Information        

This Week’s Observances:

8-14

International Clothesline Week
National Body Piercing Week
National Flag Week
Jim Thorpe Native American Games
Men's Health Week
National Automotive Service Professionals Week

12-19

Nursing Assistants Week

12-15

Superman Days
US Open Golf Championship
Duct Tape Days

13-20

National Hermit Week

Today Is  

Banana Split Days: 13-14  

Blame Someone Else Day
Friday the 13^th
Kitchen Klutzes Of America Day
National Juggling Day
Poultry Festival 13-14 
Work@Home Father's Day: 13  

Today’s Events through History  

1930 - 1st Nudist Colony opens

1933 - 1st sodium vapor lamps installed (Schenectady NY)
1953 - KOAA TV channel 5 in Pueblo-Colorado Spgs, CO (NBC) 1st broadcast
1970 - Beatles' "Let It Be" album goes #1 & stays #1 for 4 weeks

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Richard Thomas, actor (John Boy-Waltons) is 63

Tim Allen, Denver, comedian (Tim-Home Improvement) is 61
Ashley & Mary Kate Olsen, twin actress (Michelle-Full House) is 28

Remembered for being born today

1786-1866 - Winfield Scott, army general (Union)/presidential candidate

1863-1935 - Lady Lucy Duff Gordon, English fashion designer
1865-1939 - William Butler Yeats, Ireland, poet (Wild Swans at Coole-Nobel 1923)
1892-1967 - Basil Rathbone, Johannesburg South Africa, actor (Sherlock Holmes)
1903-1991 - Harold "Red" Grange, "Galloping Ghost" of football
1910-1995 - Mary Wickes, American actress
1918-1996 - Ben Johnson, actor (Chisum)
1926-1982 - Paul Lynde, comedian (Uncle Arthur-Bewitched)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Henry Middleton, American president of the Continental Congress, 1784, @67  

Edward Bowes, radio host (Major Bowes Amateur Hour), 1946, @ 71
Don Bolles, US journalist (Arizona), car bomb, 1976, @47
Benny Goodman, clarinetist/bandleader (King of Swing), heart attack, 1986, @77
Fran Allison, actress (Kukla, Fran & Ollie), 1989, @81
Tim Russert, Meet the Press moderator, heart attack, 2008, @58
William S. Knowles, American chemist and Nobel laureate, 2012, @95

Brain Teasers                                         

1. Close -> Lose

2. Ajar -> Jar
3. Rare -> Are
4. Preserve -> Reserve
5. Shard -> Hard
6. Soften -> Often
7. Renter - > Enter
8. Emigrate -> Migrate

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  §