Jul 12

☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆

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

Jul 12, 2020 Week: 29 Day: 194

86004:   H 90° \ L 54° \ Average Sky Cover: 70%

Wind:   8mph\Gusts:  16mph  Visibility:  10mi

Nearest lightning:  3.9mi.; Nearest active fire:  68mi. 

Extreme Risk of Fire          

Record High: 94°[2002]   Record Low: 39°[1952]

Jul Averages: 82°\52° (8 days with rain)

 

Today’s  Quote

"You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself any direction you choose."

-Dr. Seuss

 

Random Tidbits

General Tso’s Chicken

While there’s some debate over where this popular “Chinese” dish was invented, one thing is for certain: It wasn’t invented in China. A Taiwanese man named Peng Chang-kuei claimed to have invented the sweet and savory dish in the 1950s when serving U.S. military leaders. He then brought the recipe to his New York restaurant where it became a favorite of politicians like Henry Kissinger. Kissinger was supposedly one of the first persons ever to try General Tso’s chicken, and he helped boost its popularity nationwide.

It might have been named after a Chinese military leader, but that’s the extent of the dish’s link to China.

 

Remember these movie quotes?

#26     "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?"

Mae West     She Done Him Wrong         1933

 

Observations This Week

Tour de France: 27-7/19  Link  Moved to August due to COVID-19
Nude Recreation Weekend: 5-12 
Creative Maladjustment Week: 7-14 Link 
National Vodka Week: 12-18  Link
Operation Safe Driver Week: 12-18 
 Link
Sports Cliché Week: 12-18 Link   Cancelled due to COVID-19 cancelling the Major League Baseball Games.

 

Observations for Today

Different Colored Eyes Day

National Pecan Pie Day

Night of Nights (Maritime Radio)  Link
Simplicity Day Link

 

My Rambling Thoughts

Heat wave has done hit us. It was 92 just before noon. I broke down and set up my portable swamp cooler in the living room. Gotta keep semi-cool somehow. The clouds are dark, so hoping for an afternoon and/or evening monsoon.

Not surprised, just disappointed, that Trump helped another ‘good buddy’ just before he was headed to prison. Roger is grateful I’m sure.

I sure hope that someone, anyone in the administration will step up and do something about our country’s response to Covid. More testing is needed. More on what Covid does to the body. More action, less talking. It is not a picnic living in the hottest spot for the virus…

 

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

It’s 7:00 AM. You are asleep and there is a sudden knock on the door.

Behind the door are your parents who came to have breakfast. In your fridge are bread, milk, juice, and a jar of jam.

What will you open first?

 

Historical Events

927 - Æthelstan, King of England, secured a pledge from Constantine II of Scotland that the latter would not ally with Viking kings, beginning the process of unifying Great Britain. This is considered by most historians to the closest thing that England has to a foundation date.

1543 - King Henry VIII of England married his sixth (and last) wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace.

1862 - The Medal of Honor was authorized by the United States Congress. In 1990, Congress designated March 25 annually as "National Medal of Honor Day."

1894 - Eight units for the measurement of electrical magnitudes were adopted in US law when President Grover Cleveland signed an Act of Congress “to define and establish the units of electrical measure” for the ohm, ampere, volt, coulomb, farad, joule, watt and the henry. #standards

1920 - The Panama Canal was formally dedicated, although it had the first ship pass through several years earlier.

1954 President Eisenhower put forward a plan for an interstate highway system

1960 Congo, Chad and Central African Republic declare independence

1962 - The Rolling Stones performed their first concert, at the Marquee Club in London, England, United Kingdom.

1970 Thor Heyerdahl crosses the Atlantic Ocean on the raft Ra II, arrives in Barbados from Morocco after 57 days

1990 - Norther Exposure debuted on CBS

1998 South African President Nelson Mandela accompanies Queen Elizabeth II on a coach drive through the streets of London

1997 - Oz premiered on HBO

2002 - Monk premiered on the USA Network

2013 Malala Yousafzai addresses the United Nations and calls for worldwide access to education

2017 World's largest iceberg (later christened A68) breaks away from Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica, about 6,000 sq km in length

 

Birthdays Today

@93 - Milton Berle, American comedian and actor (d. 2002)

@85 - Herbert Zim, American naturalist, author, and educator (died in 1994)

83 - Bill Cosby, American actor, comedian and felon

@83 - Joe 'Curly Joe' DeRita, American actor, #6 of the 3 Stooges (d. 1993)

@77 - George Eastman, businessman, founded Eastman Kodak (d. 1933)

@73 - Louis B. Mayer [Lazar Meir], Russian-American film producer, co-founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (d. 1957; cancer)

72 - Richard Simmons, American fitness trainer

69 - Cheryl Ladd, American actress

@65 - Oscar Hammerstein II, American director, producer, and songwriter (d. 1960; cancer)

62 - J. D. Hayworth, American politician, radio host

@55 - Julius Caesar, Roman politician and general (d. 44 BC; stabbed)

@44 - Henry David Thoreau, essayist, poet, and philosopher (d. 1862, TB)

42 - Topher Grace, American actor

 

Puzzle Answer

The door

☆    ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆

 

 


Jul 11

☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆

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

Jul 11, 2020 Week: 28 Day: 192

86004:   H 93° \ L 57° \ Average Sky Cover: 60%

Wind:   5mph\Gusts:  7mph  Visibility:  10mi

Nearest lightning:  713mi.; Nearest active fire:  68mi. 

Extreme Risk of Fire          

Record High: 92°[2003]   Record Low: 40°[1979]

Jul Averages: 82°\52° (8 days with rain)

 

Today’s  Quote

"The greatest glory in living lies

not in never falling,

but in rising every time we fall."

-Nelson Mandela

 

Random Tidbits

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Spaghetti and meatballs is an invention of Italian immigrants who moved to America at the turn of the century. They were making a lot more money in America than they were in Italy. Eating became less about necessity and more about getting the food to taste as good as possible.

With more affordable meat, traditional meatballs went from being marble sized to too big to fit into your mouth. In the late 1800s, there wasn’t much variety in the local grocery stores, especially when it came to pasta shapes. There was, however, plenty of spaghetti and tomato sauce. The three became forever intertwined.

 

Remember these movie quotes?

65                   "Elementary, my dear Watson."

Basil Rathbone         The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes     1939

 

Observations This Week

Tour de France: 27-7/19  Link  Moved to August due to COVID-19
Be Nice To New Jersey Week: 5-11 
National Farriers Week: 5-11 

National Theraputic Recreation Week: 5-11  Link  
Nude Recreation Weekend: 5-12 
Creative Maladjustment Week: 7-14 Link 

 

Observations for Today

Bald Is In 

Bowdler's Day
Carver Day  Link  Cancelled due to COVID-19
Cheer Up the Lonely Day
Day of The Five Billion
 Link
Grange Day 
Make Your Own Sundae Day
National Blueberry Muffin Day

National Mojito Day

National Rainier Cherries Day Link
Slurpee Day or 7-11's Birthday Link Cancelled due to COVID-19
World Miniature Golf Day 
Link
World Population Day

 

My Rambling Thoughts

Record highs expected throughout AZ this weekend. Flag will be cooler than the Valley, but still hot. Clouds and fans are helping…somewhat.

Weekly shopping trip went well. Besides grocery stuff, at Sam’s I found a nice pair of short pants for the cruise. Never too early to start getting prepared.

Attention decision makers: Going to a store for 20 minutes of shopping IS NOT AND WILL NEVER BE the same as putting children and adults in a school building for 5-6 hours every day. Anyone deciding to open our schools without major precautions must then sit in the school classroom for a week. One more thing: it is odd that all the discussions about opening schools are being held virtually? Does anyone expect the virus to become less a problem in a month?

Congress authorized the Small Business Administration to distribute billions in taxpayer dollars to give help during the Covid pandemic. One of the small businesses helped was the US Roman Catholic Church, who have never paid any taxes. They got between $1.4 billion and $3.4 billion. Much of the money went to the dioceses with huge court-ordered payments for cases against priests found guilty of child abuse. Somehow, this doesn’t seem right.

 

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

Each of the three lines of letters below spell words with a weather connection, but the letters have been mixed up. Four letters from the first word are now in the third line, four letters from the third word are in the second line and four letters from the second word are in the first line. The remaining letters are in their original places. What are the words?

 

H A T E D P R I O G

T A U N T E R E N M

W E W R H O R F A N

 

Historical Events

1796 - The United States took possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty.

1798 - The United States Marine Corps was re-established (they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War).

1889 - Tijuana, Mexico, was founded.

1893 - The first cultured pearl was created under the direction of Kokichi Mikimoto, in Japan.

1921 - Former President of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court - the only person ever to hold both offices.

1960 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was published in the United States.

1972 - The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky began.

1975 - Chinese archeologists announced the uncovering of a 3-acre burial mound concealing 6000 clay statues of warriors. The "Terracotta Army" and their regalia dating from 221 to 206 BC, near the ancient capital of Xian.

1977 - Martin Luther King, Jr. was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

1979 - America's first space station, Skylab, was destroyed as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.

1991 - The 'eclipse of the century ' solar eclipse cast a shadow stretching 9,000 miles from Hawaii to South America, lasting nearly seven minutes in some areas.

2011 - Neptune, the eighth planet from the sun, completed its first full rotation of the sun since its discovery in 1846.

2012 - Astronomers announced the discovery of Styx, the fifth moon of Pluto.

2015 Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escapes from Altiplano maximum-security prison west of Mexico City via a specially constructed 1.5 km tunnel from his cell to a nearby house

2018 Oldest stone tools outside Africa discovered in Lantian country, western China, estimated 2.12 million years old made by hominins

2019 US stock markets reach new records, the Dow tops 27,000 points for the first time and the S&P 500 hits 3,000 points

 

Birthdays Today

@86 - E.B. White, [Elwyn Brooks White]American essayist and journalist (d. 1985)

@86 - Tab Hunter [Arthur Andrew Kelm], American actor and singer (d. 2018)

86 - Giorgio Armani, Italian fashion designer, founded the Armani Company

@85 - Yul Brynner [Yuliy Borisovich Briner], Russian-American actor and dancer (d. 1985)

@80 - John Quincy Adams, American politician, 6th President (d. 1848)

@69 - Bonnie Pointer, American singer (d. 2020; cardiac arrest)

67 - Leon Spinks, American boxer

@62 - Bardaisan, Syrian astrologer, scholar, and philosopher (d. 222)

61 - Richie Sambora, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

61 - Suzanne Vega, American singer-songwriter

57 - Lisa Rinna, American actress

@54 - Robert the Bruce, Scottish king (d. 1329)

44 or 45 - Lil' Kim [Kimberly Denise Jones], American rapper

27 - Rebecca Bross, American gymnast

 

Puzzle Answer

Waterproof, Thundering, Weatherman

☆    ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆     ☆

 

 


Followers

Total Pageviews

Blog Archive

About Me

My photo
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.