Jan 31

 

Ready to Welcome February!

Jan  31, 2021  Week: 5  Day: 31	Local:  H 44°\ L 14°\Ave. Sky Cover: 5%
Wind:   4mph\Gusts:  5mph	Very Low Risk of Fire           Active fire:  59mi
Nearest lightning:  836mi.	Record: 63°[2018]   Record: -25°[1916]
Visibility:  10mi	Jan Averages: 44°/16° (4 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind,

if they do not enter into our daily lives?

~E. M. Forster

Random Tidbits

The highest denomination bill ever printed was a $100,000 note that was printed from December 18, 1934 to January 9, 1935. It was used for transactions between Federal Reserve Banks. President Woodrow Wilson was pictured on the front.

A Little Humor

Q What dog can tell the time? A watch dog!

…

A robber broke into my house last night looking for money... I woke up and started searching with him

True Things

Traffic came to a stop as police in Tulsa, Oklahoma chased and tased a naked man running along the highway. Police arrested and charged James Jackson with indecent exposure, obstructing justice, and burglary.

Drivers slowed and pulled over when they saw Jackson, 24, walking naked down the LL Tisdale Parkway. At least a couple of passengers recorded the incident with their cell phones. One video shows Jackson slamming his fist on a car as it passes by. He appears to try and open the driver side door of a truck that stopped to avoid hitting him.

Jackson continued to walk down the highway and starts to sing before a police officer arrives and attempts to take him into custody. Jackson ignored numerous commands to stop and get on the ground by Tulsa police officers. That's when an officer unsuccessfully used his Taser to subdue Jackson.

In a video Jackson is seen removing the wires from his body and running away again.

A second officer shows up and also uses his Taser. The two officers eventually get him on the ground and carry him away.

Jackson might have been having a mental episode or was under the influence of drugs, according to police.

Weekly Observations

Sundance Film Festival	28-2/7
US Nationals Snow Sculpting Days Angouleme International Comics Festival  Link	28-31
Catholic Schools Week	31-2/6
Meat Week	31-2/6

 

Today’s Observations

Appreciate Your Social Security Check Day
Backward Day

Brandy Alexander Day

Eat Brussel Sprouts Day

Grammy Awards
Inspire Your Heart with Art Day
National Hot Chocolate Day

Street Children Day Link  Link 
World Leprosy Day

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

I got about 3” of powder snow last night. Easy to remove from my vehicle. Now the sky is blue, and it is warming up. Next storm due mid-week.

Rep Taylor-Green is sure in the news. I see she also posted that the horrific California fires were caused by Jewish Laser Beams. The press has been interviewing adults from her district. Many are glad they voted for her and hope she continues her rhetoric that will eventually heal our country. I don’t recall when I was told I would be living in an alternative universe.

My first safari and a visit to Robben Island were highlights of my Focus Travel Club/HLO trip to South Africa years ago. It is a beautiful country with wonderful people and great safaris. The new variant of Covid is giving the country a bad name. So sad.

 

Daily Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

Until I am measured, I am not known. Yet you miss me when I have flown.

What am I?

Historical Events

1865 – Congress passed the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in America.

1958 – The United States launched its first successful orbiting satellite, Explorer-I.

1961 – The United States launched a 4-year-old male chimpanzee named Ham on a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket into test suborbital flight. Ham landed safely about 17 minutes later.

1992 – ABC Sportscaster Howard Cosell retired.

1993 – The Super Bowl (broadcast on NBC) featured Michael Jackson marking the first time there was ever a solo performer during the show.

1995 President Bill Clinton authorizes a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.

2001 In the Netherlands a Scottish court convicts a Libyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed into Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

2006 US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor retires and is replaced by Samuel Alito

2017 US President Donald Trump fires Attorney General Sally Yates after she instructs Justice Department officials not to defend Trump's travel ban

2018 trump administration formally suspends the Clean Water Act

2019 Colonization of the America's in the late 1500s killed so many people it cooled the planet and led to a "Little Ice Age", according to a scientific report published in "Quaternary Science Reviews"

2020 United Kingdom formally withdraws from the European Union (Brexit)

Birthdays Today

@97 – Carol Channing, American entertainer (d. 2019)

@84 – Norman Mailer, American journalist and author (d. 2007)

@78 – Garry Moore [Thomas Garrison Morfit], comedian, game show host (d. 1993; emphysema)

@70 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (d. 2008; lung cancer)

74 – Nolan Ryan, American baseball player

@67 – Pearl Zane Grey, American author (d. 1939; heart failure)

@53 – Jack Roosevelt ‘Jackie’ Robinson, baseball legend (d. 1972; heart attack)

51 – Minnie Driver, English actress

48 – Portia de Rossi, Australian-American actress

40 – Justin Timberlake, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor

@31 – Franz Schubert, Austrian pianist, composer (dd.1828; typhoid/syphilis?)

Puzzle Answer

Time.

 

Jan 30

 

2021…at last

Jan  30, 2021  Week: 4  Day: 30	Local:  H 45°\ L 15°\Ave. Sky Cover: 70%
Wind:   8mph\Gusts:  13mph	Today’s Historic Ave. Temp.: H 43°\ L 18°
Nearest lightning:  1356mi.; Active fire: 59 mi	Very Low Risk of Fire      Visibility:  8mi
Record: 66°[1971]   Record: -19°[1979]	Jan Averages: 44°/16° (4 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?

~Rose Kennedy

Random Tidbits

It is suspected that the largest counterfeiter of U.S. currency is the nation of North Korea.

Martha Washington is the only woman whose portrait has appeared on a U.S. currency note. It appeared on the face of the $1 Silver Certificate of 1886 and 1891, and the back of the $1 Silver Certificate of 1896.

A Little Humor

Q Why did the apple turnover?  Because it saw the jelly roll!

...

If anyone wants any chiropractic magazines- let me know. I have back issues.

True Things

A man and woman have been arrested in central Florida after police say they stole more than $300 worth of meat from a grocery store.

Deputies reported that 48-year-old Doris Rowe and 54-year-old Kenneth Edwards drove 26 miles to a Winn-Dixie store in DeLand where a store manager saw Rowe stuffing meat products and other items into her pants.

Deputies say the manager stopped Rowe and she hit the manager in the neck, dropping pork ribs, two packs of detergent and three water filters. Rowe fled the store and got into Edwards' truck. Deputies apprehended them at a traffic stop. Both were charged with grand theft and robbery.

Deputies found ribeye steaks, ground beef, bacon, pork ribs and a gallon of bleach in the car valued at $361.

Weekly Observations

Clean Out Your Inbox Week Idiom Week  National School Choice Week  Link  Snowcare for Troops Week Ally Week Link National CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists) Week	24-30
National Medical Group Practice Week: Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering Cancelled	25-30
Sundance Film Festival	28-2/7
US Nationals Snow Sculpting Days Angouleme International Comics Festival  Link	28-31

 

Today’s Observations

A.F.R.M.A. American Fancy Rat & Mouse Assoc. Day
Croissant Day Link
Fruitcake Toss Day Link 
Inane Answering Message Day
National Croissant Day

National Inane Answering Message Day

National Seed Swap Day 

Yodel for your neighbor’s Day

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Got gas this morning, just as the storm started moving. I had hoped for a few days break that would allow some of the snow to melt. Oh, well. The weather guy says it is a fast-moving storm…a real ‘dump and run’.

It is warm enough that the huge icicles out my office window are dripping. Some are dripping constantly, others only every few seconds. It is very relaxing and calming to watch. When they fall, they will land on the porch roof, so no danger of hurting someone. My neighbor had a couple on the porch roof. He broke them off and stuck them in the snow. The three of them are each about 4’ long and have a circumference of about 2”.

I’m having a hard time deciding which is worse: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Q-anon lady or the idea that the Republicans put her on the Education Committee in the House. This is the lady who believes the school shootings have been made up. Guess I should be happy that the Republican leader gave her a stern talking to.

 

Daily Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

What do you throw out when you want to use it but take in when you don’t need it?

Historical Events

January 29, 1979 Texas Shooting: Teenager Brenda Spencer is considered the first modern-day school shooter. In the midst of her shooting spree, she actually answered a call from a journalist and said her reasoning was “[I] don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.” She then resumed, killing 2 and injuring 9.

 

1790 – The first boat designed as a lifeboat was tested on the River Tyne.

1868 – Charles Darwin’s book, Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, was published.

1933 – Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.

1948 – Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse.

1958 – The first two-way, moving sidewalk (1,425 feet long) was put in service at Love Field Air Terminal in Dallas, TX.

1968 – The North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong began the Tet Offensive.

1972 – British Paratroopers open fire on and kill fourteen unarmed civil rights/anti-internment marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland. It was commemorated by the US with 1983’s Sunday Bloody Sunday.

1973 – KISS played their 1st show at the Coventry Club in Queens New York.

2007 – Microsoft released Windows Vista.

2017 Scientists in central China reveal oldest known human ancestor - 540-million-year-old Saccorhytus in a fossil.

2019 Continuous 24-hour church mass lasting 97 days to prevent deportation of Armenian asylum seekers ends after Dutch authorities reconsider at Protestant Bethel Church in The Hague

2019 Peter Paul Rubens’s 1608 drawing "Nude Study of Young Man with Raised Arms" sells for $8.2 million at auction in New York.

2019 Scientists reveal discovery of cavity six miles long, 1,000 feet deep under Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica, leading to fears it might collapse and raise sea levels by two feet.

2020 The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern at a meeting in Geneva

Birthdays Today

91 – Gene Hackman, American actor, author

@86 – Dick Martin, American comedic actor (d. 2008)

84 – Boris Spassky, Russian chess player

80 – Dick Cheney, American businessman, and politician

70 – Phil Collins, English drummer, singer-songwriter, producer, and actor

@63 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President (d. 1945; stroke)

63 – Brett Butler, American actress

47 – Christian Bale, Welsh actor

41 – Wilmer Valderrama, American actor

Puzzle Answer

An anchor.

 

Jan 29

 

2021…at last

Jan  29, 2021  Week: 4  Day: 29	Local:  H 50°\ L 15°\Ave. Sky Cover: 45%
Wind:  2 mph\Gusts:  4mph	Today’s Historic Ave. Temp.: H 43°\ L 18°
Nearest lightning:  2534mi.; Active fire: 59 mi	Very Low Risk of Fire           Visibility:  10mi
Record: NA°[. ]   Record: -12°[1932]	Jan Averages: 44°/16° (4 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

Nature will bear the closest inspection.

She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf,

and take an insect view of its plain.

~Henry David Thoreau

Random Tidbits

THE NIXON PIGEON MASSACRE.

Richard Nixon didn't want his 1973 inauguration to be marred by a bunch of annoying pigeons. He requested that tree branches along the parade route be treated with a chemical called Roost No More, which would supposedly make the birds' feet itch so they wouldn't want to perch above Tricky Dick's motorcade. The inaugural committee spent $13,000 to comply with this anti-pigeon policy, but Nixon got a bit more than he expected.

The pigeons didn't just sit on the branches, they wolfed down the Roost No More, which proved to be highly toxic to birds. Instead of dealing with the minor hassle of live pigeons roosting in trees, Nixon's parade was marred by the macabre spectacle of dead and dying pigeons littering the route.

A Little Humor

Q Where do bees go on holiday?                                 Stingapore!

~I really want to start a new diet- but I've got too much on my plate right now.

Weekly Observations

Clean Out Your Inbox Week Idiom Week  National School Choice Week  Link  Snowcare for Troops Week Ally Week Link National CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists) Week	24-30
National Medical Group Practice Week: Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering Cancelled	25-30
International Hoof-Care Week  Link	26-29
National Mentoring Summit Link	27-29
Sundance Film Festival	28-2/7
US Nationals Snow Sculpting Days Angouleme International Comics Festival  Link	28-31

 

Today’s Observations

Curmudgeons Day
Fun at Work Day 
Freethinkers Day [Thomas Paine Day]
National Big Wig Day Link  
National Carnation Day

National Corn Chip Day

National Pre-school Fitness Day Link
National Puzzle Day

Seeing Eye Dog Day
Thank Your Mentor Day  Link
Thomas Paine Day

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

The sun is shining as we await tomorrow’s dump of more snow. I decided to head out and shop. I took off and tried and tried to get my vehicle out of 4WD-Lo. I pulled forward, I backed up several times after turning the 4WD knob. I slowly drove to the Nissan Dealer about 2 miles from my home. I pulled in, the guy got in put it in N, turned the knob, put it in D and it was all good. I have had this vehicle for many years and never had this problem. I felt a tad stupid. I hardly ever use the LO setting, except in deep snow. We haven’t had that for years.

I got what I needed and headed home. Tomorrow, before the snow, I’ll hit Sam’s and fill with gas.

I have amazing icicles from my top roof, some reaching to the porch roof and most are a couple of inches wide. I haven’t seen this many for several years.  Also, the roof snow goes out from the edge of the roof a good 4”. Now the weather guy says to expect another 8” over the weekend. BLAH!

Some readers my wonder why I post the nearness of lightning and the nearest fire every day. It’s because fire is a real danger here. There were 2500 fires that burned 978,000 acres in AZ in 2020. 82% were man-caused, the rest by lightning.

Yesterday I got a text message from ‘AZ-dot’ with no phone number. The message said my driver’s license had a problem and to click the link to correct it. I didn’t because I knew that the Dept. of Transportation in AZ never sends text messages and certainly would not use lower case in their name. And I knew that MVD under DOT took care of driver licenses. Later in the day I saw on the Phx news that it was a scam to collect personal information. Glad I didn’t click on the link. The report said that many did click. This morning I got an email from MVD warning me of the scam.

Daily Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

What runs all around a backyard, yet never moves?

Historical Events

1845 – Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Raven’ was published in the New York Evening Mirror.

1856 – Queen Victoria established the Victoria Cross to recognize acts of valor by British military personnel.

1861 – Kansas became the 34th state.

1886 – Karl Benz patented the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.

1924 – The first US patent (#1481813) for an ice cream cone rolling machine was issued to Carl R. Taylor of Cleveland, Ohio

1959 – Walt Disney’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ was released. The Beauty, Princess Aurora, only appeared on screen for about 18 minutes as an ‘adult’, but she was actually a sixteen-year-old.

1967 – The Mantra-Rock Dance (the ‘Ultimate High’) took place in San Francisco and features Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, Allen Ginsberg, and others.

2009 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich was removed from office following his conviction of several corruption charges, including the alleged solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.

2015 Malaysia officially declares the disappearance of missing flight MH370 an accident

2020 Number of COVID-19 cases passes those of SARS with over 7,700 cases in China confirmed, with 170 deaths

Birthdays Today

@93 – Harriet Tubman, Civil Rights Leader (d. 1913)

81 – Katharine Ross, American actress

@72 – Thomas Paine, One of the Founding Fathers (d. 1809)

76 – Tom Selleck, American actor

71 – Ann Jillian, American actress

67 – Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host, actress, and producer

@66 – W.C. Fields (William Claude Dukenfield), comedic actor (d. 1946; hemorrhage)

@62 – Edward Abbey, American writer (d. 1989; after surgery)

@59 – William McKinley, American politician, 25th President of the United States (d. 1901; assassinated)

53 – Edward Burns, American actor

51 – Paul Ryan, Politician

46 – Sara Gilbert, American actress

@41 – Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright, short story writer (d. 1904; TB)

Puzzle Answer

A fence.