Jul 24

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

Jul 24, 2020 Week: 30 Day: 206

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

Wind:   8mph\Gusts:  13mph  Visibility:  10mi

Nearest lightning:  6mi.; Nearest active fire:  66mi. 

Extreme Risk of Fire          

Record High: 91°[1937]   Record Low: 39°[1995]

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

 

Today’s  Quote

"Success is not final;

failure is not fatal:

It is the courage to continue that counts."

-Winston S. Churchill

 

Random Tidbits

There is a bubble of debris in Earth's orbit. The U.S. Space Surveillance Network and other organizations track roughly 750,000 pieces of "space junk" as they orbit the Earth, some moving as fast as 17,000 miles-per-hour.

Human activity and interference on the Earth's surface, from mining activities to shipwrecks, have led to the creation of over 200 new minerals. Simonkolleite, a glowing mineral first discovered in a mine in Arizona, was formed by the mixture of natural properties like water and mining artifacts.

 

Remember these movie quotes?

#4       "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

Judy Garland              The Wizard of Oz    1939

 

Observations This Week

National Scrabble Week: 18-25  Link Cancelled due to COVID-19
National Moth Week: 18-26 Link
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week: 18-25
Captive Nations Week: 19-25 
Everybody Deserves A Massage Week: 19-25 Link 
National Independent Retailers Week: 19-25 Link  
National Zoo Keeper Week:19-25 Link  Cancelled due to COVID-19
RAGBRAI: 19-25
Women in Baseball Week: 19-25 
International Lace Week: 20-24  Link  Cancelled due to COVID-19
National Baby Food Week: 22-25  Link Cancelled due to COVID-19
Comi Great Texas Mosquitos Days: 23-25  Link  Cancelled due to COVID-19
Comic Con International: 23-26 Cancelled due to COVID-19 To be virtual
Garlic Days: 24-26 Link  Cancelled due to COVID-19
National Parenting Gifted Children Week: 24-26 Link  Cancelled due to COVID-19
World Rope Skipping Week: 24-8/3  Link
National Little League Baseball Week: 25-8/23  Link   Cancelled due to COVID-19

 

Observations for Today

Amelia Earhart Day

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Pioneer Day Link
Cousins Day

International Self Care Day  Link
Lumberjack Day 
National Drive-Thru Day
National Tequila Day
National Thermal Engineers Day  Link  
Tell an Old Joke Day

Tequila Day  Link

 

My Rambling Thoughts

Monsoon weather has brought rain this week to our parched forest. Looks like today will be no different. Yeah!

The United Daughters of the Confederacy have asked our governor to return their monuments here in AZ. They were given to AZ in 1961 on the 109^th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. 1961, by coincidence <?>, was the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. This also gives Gov. Ducey a reprieve from having to make any decision on the monuments. I’m sure he is relieved since he is a great supporter of President Trump’s agenda. It should be noted that AZ was not even a state until 1912, long after the Civil War.

I have some acquaintances who live in Portland. The husband is a lawyer, the wife a well-known freelance photographer. They have 2 pre-teen boys. They seem even more confused than I am about what the Federal Troops are doing in Portland. According to them, the news stories are not telling a true story. It is not as bad as some news organizations (FOX) are saying. However today, the Mayor met with protesters in open space. Someone decided that tear gas would help. The mayor said “I’m not afraid, I’m pissed off.” I sure hope this is worked out sooner than later.

 

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

Looking at a telephone, and looking at the 3 letters for each number, decode this phone number to see what celebrity is named: 623-6662

 

Historical Events

1534 Jacques Cartier lands in Canada, claims it for France

1567 - Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate and replaced by her 1-year-old son James VI, after the sudden death of one husband and the quick marriage to another.

1701 - Detroit was founded by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.

1823 - Slavery was abolished in Chile.

1824 Harrisburg Pennsylvanian newspaper publishes results of 1st public opinion poll, with a clear lead for Andrew Jackson

1847 - Brigham Young brought 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, establishing Salt Lake City.

1901 - Writer O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) was released from prison in Columbus, Ohio after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.

1911 American explorer Hiram Bingham discovers Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas

1917 Trial of Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari begins in Paris for allegedly spying for Germany and thus causing the deaths of 50,000 soldiers

1935 - The Dust Bowl heat wave reached its peak, with temperatures of 109°F (43°C) in Chicago, Illinois and 104°F (40°C) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

1950 - Cape Canaveral Air Force Station opened with the launch of Bumper rocket 8. The first 7 Bumpers were launched from White Sands, New Mexico.

1967 First modern hospice St Christopher's founded by Dr. Cicely Saunders in London, England, beginning of modern palliative care and the hospice movement

1974 - The United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they ordered him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor,

2002 - Democrat James Traficant was expelled from the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 420 to 1 (CA Representative Gary Condit didn't vote against him).

2015 US President Barack Obama begins an historic 2 day visit to Kenya

2019 Special counsel Robert Mueller reports to the US Senate that President Trump was not exonerated of obstruction of justice and that Russia interfered in US election to benefit Trump

2019 Facebook agrees to pay $5 billion fine, largest ever for violating consumer privacy, to the US Federal Trade Commission

 

Birthdays Today

84 - Ruth Buzzi, American comedic actress

@77 - Bella Abzug, American lawyer and politician (d. 1998; heart disease)

74 – Gallagher [Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr.], American comedian

69 - Lynda Carter, American actress, 1972 Miss World USA

@68 - Alexandre Dumas, French novelist and playwright (d. 1870)

52 - Kristin Chenoweth, American actress and singer

@39 - Amelia Earhart, American pilot and author (disappeared 1937)

38 - Elisabeth Moss, American actress

38 - Anna Paquin, Canadian-New Zealand actress

 

Puzzle Answer

Madonna

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Jul 23

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

Jul 23, 2020 Week: 30 Day: 205

86004:   H 77° \ L 54° \ Average Sky Cover: 75%

Wind:   5mph\Gusts:  4mph  Visibility:  10mi

Nearest lightning:  12mi.; Nearest active fire:  67mi. 

Extreme Risk of Fire          

Record High: 92°[1996]   Record Low: 37°[1987]

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

 

Today’s  Quote

"You only live once,

but if you do it right,

once is enough."

-Mae West

 

Random Tidbits

Approximately 25 gallons of water are needed to produce 1 pound of wheat. Around 2,500 gallons of water are needed to produce 1 pound of meat. Many vegetarians argue that more people eating a meat-free diet would lower the strain that meat production puts on the environment.

Some scientists consider the Earth to have entered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene; an age where human activity causes more changes to the Earth's ecosystems than natural forces.

China's ridiculously fast industrialization and population growth required massive amounts of water. As a result, 28,000 of the country's 50,000 rivers have dried up over the last 30 years.

 

Remember these movie quotes?

#5           "Here's looking at you, kid."

Humphrey Bogart          Casablanca  1942

 

Observations This Week

National Scrabble Week: 18-25  Link Cancelled due to COVID-19
National Moth Week: 18-26 Link
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week: 18-25
Captive Nations Week: 19-25 
Everybody Deserves A Massage Week: 19-25 Link 
National Independent Retailers Week: 19-25 Link  
National Zoo Keeper Week:19-25 Link  Cancelled due to COVID-19
RAGBRAI: 19-25
Women in Baseball Week: 19-25 
International Lace Week: 20-24  Link  Cancelled due to COVID-19
National Baby Food Week: 22-25  Link Cancelled due to COVID-19
Comi Great Texas Mosquitos Days: 23-25  Link  Cancelled due to COVID-19
Comic Con International: 23-26 Cancelled due to COVID-19 To be virtual

 

Observations for Today

Gorgeous Grandma Day 
Hot Enough For Ya Day
National Intern Day  Link  
National Refreshment Day  Link 

National Vanilla Ice Cream Day

Sprinkle Day

Yada, Yada, Yada Day

 

My Rambling Thoughts

Today would have been my dad’s 106^th birthday. He was raised by a single mom with his older sister after his father died on Christmas Eve when he was 5. He dropped out of high school, joined the Navy, served for 2 years then returned and finished high school where he met my mother. They were married after her graduation. He was drafted into the Army during WWII. He helped with clean up in France. He returned from the war, attended accounting school, worked for Armour & Co. as an accountant. He always helped out his sister and her family, his mom, who lived with us for several years, adopted 2 amazing baby boys [my little brother and I], finished our basement with the help of friends and neighbors, and worked full time until his mid-70’s. His last career was the warehouse manager at Ridge Home, for the handicapped. He passed at 80. He was a great husband, an excellent father, who cared about many. Still missed.

Nice Monsoon yesterday, it kept things cool. Today looks like more of the same. No complaints on the weather.

I first learned of John Muir when I was in 6^th grade. I learned about his amazing career as an environmentalist and that he started Sierra Club. Today, Sierra Club has ended its ‘blind reverence’ to him. Turns out he also made many racial epitaphs toward Blacks and Native Americans. I always wondered why Sierra Club was mostly white. The organization has admitted that they have a much less than stellar work environment for minorities. They are promising to change that. I will wait and see.

I just don’t get it…States are leaving up to their school districts to figure the reopening of schools. This is crazy. The American school system is made up of many districts…some large, some very small. None have the resources to get experts to determine a ‘safe’ opening. The current Federal guidelines are not even a little help. AZ is planning to open on Aug. 19, but the head of Education expects that date to move. As a former administrator and teacher, I know the work done before schools open…contracts for food, hiring staff, setting up in-service training, developing a school year calendar, setting up sport’s schedules and practices, accepting delivery of supplies and books…and the list goes on. There are many laws regarding the number of days of instruction, required classroom time, having certified staff, class size… I can not imagine what teachers and administrators are going through trying to open safe schools when the dates change every few weeks. So glad I’m retired.

 

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

Delete one letter from the word GROWING so the remaining letters spell a new word. Repeat this process until you are left with one letter.

 

Historical Events

1829 - In the United States, William Austin Burt patented (#5581X) the typographer, an early typewriter.

1926 - Fox Film bought the patents of the Movietone sound system, for recording sound onto film.

1950 -The Gene Autry Show debuted on CBS.

1961 - The Sandinista National Liberation Front was founded in Nicaragua.

1962 - Telstar relayed the first publicly transmitted, live, trans-Atlantic television program, featuring CBS's Walter Cronkite and NBC's Chet Huntley in New York, and the BBC's Richard Dimbleby in Brussels.

1972 - The United States launched Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite. The spacecraft was turned off on January 6, 1978, due to overheating.

1984 - Vanessa Williams became the first Miss America to resign when she surrendered her crown after (earlier) nude photos of her appeared in Penthouse magazine.

1995 - Comet Hale - Bopp is discovered, and was visible to the naked eye on Earth in 1996.

1999 - Space Shuttle Columbia launched on STS-93, with Eileen Collins becoming the first female space shuttle commander

2012 - Earth had a near miss with a solar flare. Had it occurred a week earlier, it could have wiped out communication networks, GPS and electrical grids.

2019 Investigation launched after no girls born in three months in 132 villages in Uttarkashi district, India, with sex-selective abortions suspected as the reason

 

Birthdays Today

@83 - Haile Selassie, Ethiopian emperor (d. 1975)

@81 - Arthur Treacher, English-American actor, television personality (d. 1975)

@70 - Raymond Chandler, American crime novelist and screenwriter (d. 1959; pneumonia)

58 - Woody Harrelson, American actor

58 - Eriq La Salle, American actor

55 - Slash, English-American guitarist and songwriter

47 – Marlon Wayans, actor

@46 - Philip Seymour Hoffman, American actor (d. 2014)

31 - Daniel Radcliffe, English actor

 

Puzzle Answer

Growing, rowing, owing, wing, win, in, I

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