May 25,
2021 Week: 22 Day: 145
|
Visibility: 10 miles Ave. Sky Cover: 5% |
|
Local: H 70°\ L 35° |
|
Wind: 1mph/ Gusts: 6mph EXTREME Risk of Fire:
Active fire: 135mi Nearest Lightning: 568mi. |
|
May Averages: 68°/34° (3 days w/moisture) |
Today’s Quote
Without craftsmanship,
inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.
~Johannes Brahms
Random Tidbits
Alice Binney, wife of
company co-owner Edwin Binney, coined the word Crayola by joining craie, from
the French word meaning chalk, with ola, from oleaginous, meaning oily.
Humor
`What are the four seasons in Minnesota? Almost winter, winter, still
winter, and construction.
Monday bonus:
A man from Kansas City walks into a bar and asks, “Wanna hear a joke
about people from St. Louis?”
The bartender says, “Listen, pal, I’m from St. Louis, and I won’t
appreciate it. The man sitting next to you is 265 pounds, and he’s from St.
Louis too. And the bouncer, that huge guy there, is also from St. Louis. So do
you still want to tell that joke?”
“No,” says the guy from Kansas City. “Not if I have to explain it
three times.”
Real Cities
Zap, North Dakota is a city in Mercer County, North
Dakota, United States. The population was 237 at the 2010 census.
Zap was founded in 1913 along a branch line of the
Northern Pacific Railway that began in Mandan. The exact origin of the name is
uncertain, though there are numerous unconfirmed theories; some say the town
was named after Zapp, which was either a prominent Minnesota banking family or
a coal-mining town in Scotland.
True Things
Compelling Explanation
Phedeline St. Felix told
police in Pompano Beach, Florida, she had gone to a city park in mid-March to
settle an argument with another woman when she allegedly drove her car over a
gate and into a playground, accidentally hitting Chaunda McCleod and her
3-year-old grandson instead, injuring them both. "I was attempting to run
(the other woman) over," St. Felix said, according to WPLG-TV. McCleod
said she saw a fight brewing in the park and "started to get all the kids
together to get them out of the park. ... As I'm picking (my grandson) up,
she's just hitting us both and we just went flying over the car and finally we
hit the ground." St. Felix was arrested and ordered not to have any
contact with the victims. [Local10.com, 3/23/2021]
Weekly Observations
|
National Playground Safety Week
Link |
Thru
30 |
|
Fleet Week (NY) |
20-26 |
|
National African Violet Week |
23-29 |
|
Healthy and Safe Swimming Week Link |
|
|
Undergraduate Research Week Link |
24-28 |
|
Mule
Days Link (Moved
from April) |
25-31 |
Today’s Observations
Cookie Monster's Birthday Link
National and International Missing Children's
Day Link
National Brown Bag It Day
National Missing Children's Day
National Tap Dance Day
National Towel Day
National Wine Day Link
Nerd Pride Day or Geek Pride Day Link
World Thyroid
Day Link
Sing Out Day
Towel Day Link
My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts
Sunday was an amazing day. In my brother’s adoption search he
discovered lots of half-siblings. Over the past few years, I have become ‘friends’
with those on Facebook. There are a total of 12 children that Jean, his
biological mother, had. She raised two and unbeknownst to them, she had put the
others up for adoption. She would just ‘disappear’ during the pregnancy, then
return after having a baby. Lenny is the youngest known child. He had his wife
Eleanor, were on vacation from their home in Fort Collins. They arrived in
Flagstaff in time for a great lunch and then an afternoon in downtown
Flagstaff. They are such amazing people. He is a wood worker, and she works for
the Unitarian church. They are in their mid-50’s with a blended family of 4
adult children. Lenny is a celebrant in the church and is a very good actor in
various local and national troupes. We surprised my brother with a video-call
to Mexico. It was a surprise, as Lenny and I agreed we would surprise him…and
it did. After posting the event on FB, the oldest sibling posted that he plans
to visit Flagstaff sometime this year. Very cool. Flagstaff put on a good show
after several days of strong winds, the sun was out, it was warm, and
enjoyable.
Here is an interesting observation from a Native friend: ‘Native
American’ is also disrespectful…and will be until ALL ‘Americans’ are defined
by heritage…European-American, Irish-American, etc. It is time we realize we
are all American and stop putting humans in those little boxes.
Daily Puzzle
Answer: bottom of the page
There are only 3 commonly seen nouns in English whose singular form is
spelled with two consecutive ‘O’s, whose plurals are formed by changing OO to
EE. One of the three is a two-legged living thing, and the other two are parts
of the body. What are these nouns?
Historical Events
1878 – Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opened at
the Opera Comique in London.
1935 – At Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Babe Ruth hit his
714th (and final) home run.
1961 – President John F. Kennedy declared “I believe that this nation
should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of
landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single
space program in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more
important in the long-range exploration of space, and none will be so difficult
or expensive to accomplish.”
1968 – The Saint Louis Gateway Arch was dedicated.
1977 – Chinese government removed the ban on the works of William
Shakespeare, the biggest entertainment juggernaut in the Elizabethan era.
1986 – Hands Across America took place.
1992 – Jay Leno made his debut as the new host of The Tonight Show.
1994 – George Swanson was buried in Brush Creek Cemetery, in the
driver’s seat of his 1984 white Corvette in Hempfield County, Pennsylvania.
2011- Oprah Winfrey hosted the final episode of her syndicated daytime
show.
2017 Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg receives an
honorary degree from Harvard University, after dropping out in 2004
2018 – The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became
enforceable in the European Union.
2020 Video of African American George Floyd's
arrest and murder while restrained in Minneapolis police custody shows he was
pinned to the ground by police officer Derek Chauvin's knee for 8 minutes and
46 seconds, ignites widespread condemnation and nationwide protests
Birthdays Today
82 – Ian McKellan, actor
78 – Leslie Uggams, American actress and singer
@78 – Ralph
Waldo Emerson, poet, philosopher (d. 1882; pneumonia)
@78 –
Beverly Sills, American soprano, actress (d. 2007; lung cancer)
77 – Frank Oz, English-born American puppeteer, filmmaker, and actor
58 – Mike Meyers, actor
52 – Anne Heche, American actress
51 – Jamie Kennedy, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
49 – Octavia Spencer, actor
Puzzle Answer
Goose/Geese…tooth/teeth…foot/feet
