Jul 22

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

Jul. 22, 2019 Week: 30 \ Day: 203

86004:   H 87° \ L 54° \ Average Sky Cover: 30% 

Nearest wildfire:  6mi. Nearest lightning:  297mi

Wind:   11mph\Gusts:  21mph

Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 92°[1996]   Record Low: 38°[1995]

Jul Averages: 82°\542° (8 day with rain)

Today’s Quote

If you think it's hard to meet new people,

try picking up the wrong golf ball.

Jack Lemmon

Observances This Week

6-28
Tour de France

18-25

Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week

20-24

National Scrabble Week Link 

20-28

National Moth Week Link

21-27

Captive Nations Week
International Lace Week  Link

National Independent Retailers Week Link  
National Zoo Keeper Week Link

RAGBRAI

Observances for Today

Casual Pi Day  (22/7)
Fragile X Awareness Day
Global Hug Your Kid Day
Hammock Day

National Penuche Day

Pi Approximation Day

Rat-catcher's Day
Spooners (Spoonerism) Day

My Rambling Thoughts

 Another warm day, thank goodness for open windows, slight breeze, and efficient swamp cooler. A forest fire just broke out about 6miles from where I live, with a mountain between me and the fire. Lots of smoke, lots of dark sky, just announced evacuations of residents near the fire. I knew it was dry, but the amount of smoke from this 5+ acre and growing fire is unbelievable. Outside is suddenly looking like we are in the middle of an eclipse. Looks like several planes are dropping water. Facebook is blowing up with updates for us locals. Several offering corrals for livestock from the fire area. Such great people live here.

Our discussion group recognized that nuclear weapons are here to stay. Those countries that have them won’t give them up, those countries that don’t have them still want time. Holding a nuclear weapon does help prevent attacks.  Nuclear treaties are the only answer, for without them, the world be more chaotic. No treaty is ever perfect, just ask the indigenous people of this continent. Remember physics? For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction…same is true when one country withdraws from a treaty. Good discussion.

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of this page

Analogies are comparisons. Complete each analogy below. Here is an example: Ear is to hearing as eye is to?   Sight.

1. Cardinals is to St. Louis as Dodger is to?

2. A.M. is to before noon as P.M. is to?

3. Three is to triangle as 8 is to?

4. Tear is to tore as see is to?

5. Springfield is to Illinois as Austin is to?

Today’s Highlighted Historical Events

1500’s

1515 First Congress of Vienna settles issues between Poland and Holy Roman Empire - rise of the Habsburgs influence

1600’s

1686 City of Albany, NY chartered

1800’s

1864 Battle of Atlanta: General Sherman's Union side defeats Confederate troops under General Hood, with 8,449 Confederate and 3,641 US casualties

1900’s

1933 1st solo flight round the world 7d 19hrs (Wiley Post)

1955 Richard Nixon becomes the first US Vice President to preside over a cabinet meeting

1960 Cuba nationalizes all US-owned sugar factories

1963 Sarawak achieves independence from British colonial rule

1967 Jimi Hendrix quits as opening act of the Monkees' tour

1988 500 US scientists pledge to boycott Pentagon germ-warfare research

2000’s

2015 'Oldest' Qur'an fragments discovered in collection of Birmingham University, radiocarbon testing dates to AD568 - AD645

2018 US President Donald Trump threatens Iran in an all-caps tweet of "consequences" in response to speech by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

Highlighted Birthdays Today

1763 James Geddes, 

American Engineer (Erie Canal), born in Carlisle Pennsylvania (d. 1838: @75)

1844 William Archibald Spooner, English Oxford Don and reverend and inventor (spoonerisms), born in London, England (d. 1930: @86)

1849 Emma Lazarus, 

American poet ("New Colossus" - on the base of Statue of Liberty), born in NYC, (d. 1887: @38: cancer)

1890 Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, 

American matriarch, mother of JFK, RFK & Ted, born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1995: @104)

1898 Stephen Vincent Benét, 

American author (d. 1943: @44: heart attack)

1908 Amy Vanderbilt, 

American authority on etiquette (Complete Book of Etiquette, Complete Cook Book), born in NYC, (d. 1974: @66: fall from buiding)

1922 Dan Rowan 

[Daniel Hale Rowan], 

American comedian (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), born in Beggs, Oklahoma (d. 1987: @65: lymphoma)

1932 Oscar de la Renta, 

Dominican American fashion designer (Coty Hall of Fame-1973), born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (d. 2014: @82)

90’s

91- Orson Bean,

American actor and comedian (To Tell the Truth), born in Burlington, Vermont

80’s

85- Louise Fletcher,

actress (One Flew over Cuckoo's Nest), born in Birmingham, Alabama

70’s

79-Alex Trebek,

game show host, Jeopardy

73- Danny Glover,

American actor and activist (Lethal Weapon, The Color Purple), born in San Francisco, California

72- Don Henley,

Rock singer, The Eagles

72- Albert Brooks,

comedian (Broadcast News, Lost in America), born in Los Angeles, California

60’s

64-Willem Defoe,

actor

50’s

56- Rob Estes,

American actor

55- David Spade,

American comedian and actor (SNL, Tommy Boy, Black Sheep), born in Birmingham, Michigan

55- John Leguizamo,

Colombian American actor (Mambo Mouth, Whispers in the Dark), born in Bogotá, Colombia

0’s

6- Prince George of Cambridge,

son of Prince William and Catherine, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, England (3rd in line to the English throne), born in London, England

Highlighted Historical Obits Today

90’s

@94-2001 Frances Horwich,

American educator and television personality (Ding Dong School)

80’s

@89-1967 Carl Sandburg,

poet (Abraham Lincoln: Prairie Years)

@84-2008 Estelle Getty,

American actress (The Golden Girls, The Golden Palace), dies of Lewy body disease

60’s

@69-2013 Dennis Farina,

American actor, dies from a pulmonary embolism

@65-1932 Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.,

American theatre producer (Ziegfeld Follies)

Puzzle answer:

1. Los Angeles

2. Afternoon

3. Octagon

4. Saw

Jul 21

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

Jul. 21, 2019 Week: 30 \ Day: 202

86004:   H 84° \ L 54° \ Average Sky Cover: 10% 

Nearest wildfire:  11mi. Nearest lightning:  173mi

Wind:   15mph\Gusts:  37mph

Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 92°[1937]   Record Low: 38°[1924]

Jul Averages: 82°\542° (8 day with rain)

Today’s Quote

Real knowledge is

to know the extent of one's ignorance.

Confucius

Random Tidbits

There are two suborders of whales to which all species of whales belong: toothed whales and baleen whales. Toothed whales include sperm, killer, and beluga whales, and they prey on large fish in deep waters as their main source of food. Baleen whales include blue and humpback whales, and they are filter feeders that feed on small organisms such as krill and plankton by straining large amounts of sea water through a comb-like structure in their mouth called a baleen.

While ancient fishermen used the meat of whales for food, in the modern era whales were primarily hunted for oil and whalebone, a term used for the baleen. Whalebone was used to make corsets, umbrella ribs, handles, and brushes, while the oil was used for cooking, candle wax and, much later, making margarine.

Observances This Week

6-28
Tour de France

15-21

Rabbit Week

18-21

Comic Con International
Hemingway Look-Alike Days   Link 
World Lumberjack Championships

18-25

Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week

19-21

National Parenting Gifted Children Week Link

20-24

National Scrabble Week Link 

20-28

National Moth Week Link

21-27

Captive Nations Week
International Lace Week  Link

National Independent Retailers Week Link  
National Zoo Keeper Week Link

RAGBRAI

Observances for Today

Celebration of The Horse Day: 19-21 
Robin Hood Day: 19-21  Link

Anne Hutchinson Memorial Day

Fast of Tammuz
Lake Superior Day  
Legal Drinking Age Day
Lowest Recorded Temperature Day (-128.6F Antarctica) 
National Be Someone Day Link
National Creme Brûlée Day

National Ice Cream Day

National Junk Food Day

No Pet Store Puppies Day

My Rambling Thoughts

Readings for my discussion group are impressive, but very lengthy. I’ll be able to update the Focus website tomorrow…for sure.

I have always enjoyed socializing with people with many different beliefs, different cultures, and backgrounds. I have never understood how some people want to get rid of any people who are the tiniest bit different themselves.  The readings I’m doing on Nuclear Policy, have me even more confused. It appears to many that the only way to prevent war with others is to have a bigger bomb than anyone else. The belief seems to be that we are born with enemies who are out to destroy us, and our job is to be able to destroy them before they destroy us. I find this very disturbing. I refuse to believe that were born with enemies. Just look at a group of kids playing together. I understand that there is always the kid who likes to fight, but that kid is always in the minority. When no one intervenes, that kid will gravitate to a group that also likes to fight, just like most kids gravitate to kids who don’t fight. Only time will tell if nuclear weapons will save our planet, or destroy it.

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of this page

I have two coins, one is marked George I and one is marked George IV. One is genuine but one is a forgery. Which is the forgery?

Today’s Highlighted Historical Events

1700’s

1798 Napoleon Bonaparte wins Battle of Pyramids in Egypt (Battle of Embabeh) against Mamluk rulers, wiping out most of the Egyptian army

1800’s

1846 Mormons found 1st English settlement in California (San Joaquin Valley)

1853 Central Park in New York created when New York State Legislature puts aside more than 750 acres of land on Manhattan Island

1900’s

1920 Irish Nationalist and Loyalists engage in street fighting over the issue of Irish independence from Britain, though Loyalist are reinforced by 1500 British Auxiliaries and 5800 British troops

1925 John T. Scopes found guilty of teaching evolution in the “Scopes monkey trial”, Dayton, Tennessee, fined $100 & costs

1930 US Veterans Administration forms

1949 US Senate ratifies North Atlantic Treaty by a vote of 82-13 (NATO)

1951 Dalai Lama returns to Tibet

1954 At Geneva, France agrees to independence of North & South Vietnam

1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike becomes the world's 1st female head of state elected in modern times, as Prime Minister of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)

1969 Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to step on the Moon at 2:56:15 AM (GMT)

1983 World's lowest-ever natural temperature recorded −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F; 184.0 K) at Soviet Vostok Station, Antarctica

2000’s

2007 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the series by J. K. Rowling is published worldwide. 11 million copies sell in 24 hrs

2017 White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigns after opposing appointment of Anthony Scaramucci

Highlighted Birthdays Today

0’s

1899 Ernest Hemingway,

American author (The Old Man and the Sea, Nobel 1954), born in Oak Park, Illinois (d. 1961: @61: suicide)

1920 Isaac Stern,

American-Ukrainian violinist (debut San Francisco Symphony), born in Kremenets, Ukraine, Soviet Union (d. 2001: @81)

1924 Don Knotts,

American actor (Andy Griffith Show, 3's Company), born in Morgantown, West Virginia (d. 2006: @81)

1938 Janet Reno,

first woman US Attorney General (1993-2001), born in Miami, Florida (d. 2016: @78: Parkinson’s)

1951 Robin Williams,

American actor and comedian (Mork & Mindy, Jumanji, Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2014: @63: suicide)

70’s

73- Ken Starr,

American lawyer who Investigated Bill Clinton (Starr Report), born in Vernon, Texas

71- Cat Stevens

[Steven Demetre Georgiou; Yusaf Islam],

 rock vocalist (Peace Train), born in London, England

71- Garry Trudeau,

political cartoonist (Doonesbury)

40’s

41- Josh Hartnett,

American actor and movie producer, born in St. Paul, Minnesota

Highlighted Historical Obits Today

90’s

@91-1998 Robert Young,

American actor (Father Knows Best, Marcus Welby, M.D.)

70’s

@75-1967 Basil Rathbone,

British actor (Sherlock Holmes), dies of heart attack

@74-1998 Alan Shepard,

American astronaut and 1st American in space, dies of leukemia

60’s

@69-1982 Dave Garroway,

TV host (Today Show), suicide

30’s

@37-1796 Robert Burns,

Scottish poet (Auld Lang Syne), dies of rheumatic heart condition

Puzzle answer:

George I. A coin would not be marked George I because at the time it was produced it would not have been known that there was going to be a George II.