Apr. 4

 

Happy Easter!

 

Apr 4, 2021   Week: 15    Day: 94                            

Visibility: 10 miles

Ave. Sky Cover: 5%

Local: H 71°\ L 38°

Nearest Lightning: 1009mi.        

Wind:  7mph/ Gusts:  4mph

High Risk of Fire:  Active fire:  189mi

Record: 74°[1961]  Record: 5°[1977] 

Apr. Averages: 60°/27° (3 days w/moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.

~Alfred Whitney Griswold

Random Tidbits

The origin of the Easter Bunny can be traced back to 13th-century, pre-Christian Germany. The Teutonic deity Eostra was the goddess of spring and fertility, and feasts were held in her honor on the Vernal Equinox. Her symbol was the rabbit because of the animal's high reproduction rate.

These legends were brought to America in the 1700s, when German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania Dutch country.

In Medieval Europe, churchgoers would take a walk after Easter Mass, led by a crucifix or the Easter candle. Today these walks endure as Easter Parades. People show off their spring finery, including lovely bonnets decorated for spring.

A Little Something to Think About

They paint the Eiffel Tower every few years, in 2018, they used 60 Tons of paint.

At 986 feet, the Eiffel Tower was nearly double the height of the world’s previous tallest structure, the 555-foot Washington Monument.

Common Words: New Meanings

Negligent  (Adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

Lymph  (V.), to walk with a lisp.

True Things

Man bitten by deadly pet snake

Doctors in North Carolina said they used four vials of antivenin to treat a man who was bitten by his unusual pet: a deadly green mamba snake. The University of North Carolina Rex Healthcare in Raleigh contacted the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, S.C., after a man came in reporting that he was bitten by his pet green mamba, a venomous species native to Africa. "[If] you get bitten by a green mamba without antivenin, your chances of survival are very low," Sean Foley, curator of herpetology said. "It's a neurotoxic venom, so it's going to affect your breathing." A cooler packed with 10 vials of antivenin was flown via helicopter to UNC Rex, where doctors used four vials to treat the man. Foley said the incident highlights the dangers of keeping venomous pets. "They are out there as pets. I don't know how common it is. It's not something I would ever want to have as a pet," he said. "They are not particularly aggressive, but they are really fast, and they can be difficult for an untrained person to work with. It's not something I would personally want to have at home, that's for sure."

Monthly Observations

 

Informed Women Month
International Black Women's History Month 
Link
International Customer Loyalty Month
International Guitar Month 
Link
International Twit Award Month
IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) Month 
Link
Jazz Appreciation Month
Keep America Beautiful 

Library Snapshot Month

 

Weekly Observations

Passover [Jewish]

Thru 4/4

National Cherry Blossom Festival Link

Thru 4/10

APAWS Pooper Scooper  Week
Golden Rule Week
Laugh at Work Week
Medication Safety Week
Testicular Cancer Awareness Week 
(aka Get A Grip Day!)  Link

 

 

1-7

National Robotics Week Link 

3-11

Bat Appreciation Week 
National Dental Hygienest Week
 Link
National Library Week
Hate Week

National Blue Ribbon Week
Link  (Child Abuse)
National Public Health Week
National Window Safety Week

 

 

 

4-10

 

Today’s Observations

 

 

Chocolate Milk Powder Day

Cordon Bleu Day

Dictionary Day  Link
Easter Sunday 

Geologists Day Link 
Hug a Newsman Day

International Carrot Day

International Day for Mine Awareness& Assistance in Mine Action
Jeep 4x4 Day  
Link
National Cordon Bleu Day

National Move More Day Link
Pascha
Plum Pudding Day 
Link 
School Librarian Day

Tell a Lie Day

Victims of Violence Wholly Day
Vitamin C Day
Walk Around Things Day

World Rat Day Link

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

It’s a very nice day outside. Had a walk around the neighborhood.  Doing one load of laundry. Gotta be outside.

My phone alerted me to a sale at Best Buy. A computer I had been looking at was available at a $50 discount…basically the taxes I pay. I headed over there as they only had one at that price and bought it. I was going to put it on a monthly payment, but you have to get the Best Buy VISA card and it was too much hassle. Since so much of tech is now ‘on-line’ software, I won’t set it up until tomorrow. Probably no post tomorrow…as I expect it to take quite some time to set up.

Thanks to all who sent me an Easter Card and thanks to all those who sent me a reply for getting the one I sent. The site makes it so easy to send and receive cards and replies and it is very reasonably priced. If I missed sending you one and you would like one, let me know and I will add you to my list.

Daily Puzzle

Answer: bottom of the page

What letter comes next in the following sequence? D R M F S L T_

Historical Events

 

561 – Warring UFOs were reported flying over Nuremberg, Germany

1850 – Los Angeles, California was incorporated as a city.

1871 – Mary Florence Potts of Ottumwa, Iowa Patented (#113,448) the “Mrs. Potts’ sad iron” – a set of three irons with a detachable handle, so two irons could be heating up while you were using the other.

1877 -A pianist performed in Philadelphia, and an audience heard the performance in New York, via the telephone.

1932 – Professor C. Glen King, of the Univ. of Pittsburgh, discovered vitamin C.

1964 – The Beatles occupied all of the top five positions on the Billboard singles chart in the United States, with Can’t Buy Me Love, Twist and Shout, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, and Please Please Me.

1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis Tennessee.

1969 – CBS abruptly canceled The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and replaced it with Hee Haw.

1973 – The World Trade Center in New York was officially dedicated.

1975 – Microsoft was founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico

2013 – Famed movie critic Roger Ebert died.

2013 Poecilotheria rajaei, a giant tarantula with a 20cm [7.8”] leg span, is discovered in Sri Lanka

2014 President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, claims that climate change will lead to battles over water and food within the next five to ten years

2017 Alibaba becomes the world's largest retailer according to US Securities and Exchange Commission

2019 US Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pledges to roll back anti-LGBT policies, including not baptizing children of gay parents

Birthdays Today

@86 – Maya Angelou [Marguerite Annie Johnson], American poet (d. 2014)

65 – David E. Kelley, American screenwriter, producer

@60 – Anthony Perkins, American actor (d. 1992; AIDS)

58 – Graham Norton, Irish actor, talk show host

57 – David Cross, American actor, screenwriter

56 – Robert Downey Jr., American actor

48 – David Blaine, American magician

@28 – Heath Ledger, Australian actor (d. 2008; accidental OD)

Puzzle Answer

D – each letter represents one note in the diatonic musical scale: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do

 

Apr 3

 

 

 

Apr 3, 2021   Week: 14    Day: 93                            

Visibility: 10 miles

Ave. Sky Cover: 10%

Local: H 69 °\ L 40°

Nearest Lightning: 10mi.             

Wind:  7mph/ Gusts:  15mph

High Risk of Fire:  Active fire: 61 mi

Record: 71°[1961]  Record: 8°[1990] 

Apr. Averages: 60°/27° (3 days w/moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

From now on, I'll connect the dots my own way.

~Bill Watterson

Random Tidbits

Persians first began using colored eggs to celebrate spring in 3,000 B.C. 13th century Macedonians were the first Christians on record to use colored eggs in Easter celebrations. Crusaders returning from the Middle East spread the custom of coloring eggs, and Europeans began to use them to celebrate Easter and other warm weather holidays.

A Little Something to Think About

The Eiffel Tower is the most photographed object on Instagram

They discovered Cosmic Rays at the Eiffel Tower.

Today it has 8 elevators and two restaurants.

They still have a post office, near the gift shop, with its own special postmark!

Common Words: New Meanings

Abdicate  (V.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

Esplanade  (V.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.

Willy-nilly  (Adj.), impotent.

True Things

Free-diver swims 394 feet under ice

A French free-diver plunged into a frigid lake in Finland to swim 394 feet under the ice and break a world record. Arthur Guerin-Boeri, 36, a five-time world champion free-diver, plunged into the lake while wearing a wet suit, but no gloves or flippers. Guerin-Boeri swam 394 feet under the ice, spending about three minutes submerged. The free-diver's feat came just one month after Czech free-diver David Vencl swam 265 feet under the ice of a quarry northwest of Prague while wearing only his bathing suit. Evidence from Guerin-Boeri's swim is now being submitted to Guinness World Records.

Monthly Observations

 

Fair Housing Month Link
Financial Literacy Month 
Link
Fresh Florida Tomatoes Month
Frog Month 
Link
Genocide and Human Rights Awareness Month  Link
Global Astronomy Month
Global Child Nutrition Month 
Link
Grange Month
Holy Humor Month
Home Improvement Time (April-Sept.30)
Honor Society Awareness Month 
(Different Sponsor Than March)

 

Weekly Observations

Lent [Christian]

Passover [Jewish]

Thru 4/3

Thru 4/4

Passiontide

Thru 4/3

National Cherry Blossom Festival Link

Thru 4/10

Holy Week
International Phace Syndrome Awareness Week
National Cleaning Week

Thru 4/3

APAWS Pooper Scooper  Week
Golden Rule Week
Laugh at Work Week
Medication Safety Week
Testicular Cancer Awareness Week 
(aka Get A Grip Day!)  Link

 

 

1-7

National Robotics Week Link 

3-11

 

Today’s Observations

Don't Go to Work Unless it's Fun Day - I know your decision

Every Day is Tag Day Link 
Fan Dance Day

Find a Rainbow Day Link  ("Share A Rainbow Day.")
Holy Saturday [Christian]

International Pillow Fight Day  CANCELLED
National Chocolate Mousse Day

National Film Score Day  Link
National Hand Made Day  
Link  
National Love Our Children Day 
National Play Outside Day 
Link 
NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four Championships

Pony Express Day
Tangible Karma Day 
Tweed Day

Walk to Work Day

Weed Out Hate
World Party Day Link Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 

Great day…I have my windows open for the first time in forever. Spring is definitely here.

Good Friday always reminds me of my youth. Until I was about 11, every Good Friday my mom would get us ‘cleaned up’ and drive to a good friend’s house where 5 more kids and a Catholic mom would drive us around to many…probably 4 or 5…Catholic Churches. We would go in, kneel, say a prayer, leave a coin in the collection plate and head out to another church. We either ended at a Catholic or Episcopal Cathedral in town. Then it was back to one of the houses for snacks. An amazing memory.

Our country is beginning to remind me of the movie Jaws…Just when you thought it was safe to back in the water… A cop is shot, another cop and the suspect are killed on the Capitol grounds. Complete coverage from the news networks with he banner CAPITOL LOCKED DOWN, showing cops and yellow tape everywhere, flags drop to half mast, prayers are offered to the families and injured, lots of ‘thank you’ comments to the Capitol police, Nat’l Guard, Metro Police. More barriers go up around a free country’s legislative buildings. Then in a couple of days the conservatives will change their babbling that we have too many barriers around the Capitol.  I also noted that the Chief of Capitol Police and the Chief of Metropolitan Police are both acting as both former Chiefs lost their jobs after the Jan. 6th insurrection. This has to stop. I must wonder if April 3, 2021 is really a countdown…4-3-21.

On a lighter note: Gov. Kristie Noem [R-SD] is very vocal of her conservative agenda. She has sent out a tweet about Biden’s plan to fix the infrastructure. She is upset because there is $80million for AMTRAK to upgrade various tracks and there is zero dollars that go to South Dakota, Alaska, or Hawaii. SMH

 

Daily Puzzle

Answer: bottom of the page

Find a number less than 100 that is increased by one-fifth of its value when its digits are reversed.

Historical Events

33 – Two researchers from Oxford published a paper that put the definitive date of Jesus’ crucifixion: Friday, April 3, 33 AD

1860 – Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously left St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. They used horses, not ponies.

1882 – A Tombstone reads, “Jesse W. James, Died April 3, 1882, Aged 34 years, 6 months, 28 days, Murdered by a traitor and a coward whose name is not worthy to appear here.” Jesse James was shot and killed by frenemy Robert Ford for the reward money. There was a $5,000 bounty on the bank-robber, but they gave Ford $500 and then arrested him.

1885 – Gottlieb Daimler was granted a German patent for his engine design.

1895 – The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde began, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.

1936 – Bruno Richard Hauptmann was executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the baby son of pilot Charles Lindbergh.

1953 – TV Guide published its first issue

1955 – The American Civil Liberties Union announced it would defend Allen Ginsberg’s book Howl against obscenity charges.

1956 – Elvis Presley appeared on the Milton Berle Show.

1966 – The USSR’s Luna 10, the first spacecraft to orbit the moon, entered lunar orbit and completed its first orbit 3 hours later.

1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’ speech. in Memphis, Tennessee.

1973 – The first portable phone call was placed by inventor Martin Cooper to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.

1983 – Martin Cooper, Motorola project manager, demonstrated the 1st mobile phone, the DynaTAC 8000x. It was designed by Rudy Krolopp and the 2½ pound cell phone was soon made available for $3,995.

1996 – “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski was captured at his cabin in Montana.

2000 – Microsoft was ruled to have violated United States antitrust law by keeping “an oppressive thumb” on its competitors.

2009 Australia formally adopts the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

2012 Spanish unemployment reaches record high, youth unemployment stands at 50%

2020 US aircraft carrier captain Brett Crozier cheered off his ship after being fired for a letter demanding more help for his sailors infected with COVID-19

2020 London's Nightingale hospital opened by Prince Charles (remotely) after nine days with 4,000 beds to treat COVID-19 patients at the ExCeL Centre

 

Birthdays Today

@97 – Doris Day, actor [d. 2019]

87 – Jane Goodall, English primatologist and anthropologist

@80 – Marlon Brando, American actor (d. 2004)

79 – Marsha Mason, American actress

79 – Wayne Newton, American singer

77 – Tony Orlando, American singer

@76 – Washington Irving, American short story writer, essayist, historian (d. 1859; heart attack)

63 – Alec Baldwin, American actor and comedian

62 – David Hyde Pierce, American actor

60 – Eddie Murphy, American comedic actor

@43 – Lyle Alzado, football player, actor (d. 1992; brain cancer/steroids)

22 – Paris Jackson, American celebrity

Puzzle Answer

45 (1/5 of 45 = 9, 9 + 45 = 54)

 

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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.