Jun 24

 

 

 

Jun 24, 2021   Week: 26    Day: 175

Visibility: 10 miles Ave. Sky Cover: 95%

Local: H 71°\ L 49°

Wind:  4mph/ Gusts:  8mph

High Risk of Fire:  Active fire:  23mi Nearest Lightning: 222mi.

Jun Averages: 70°/42° (1 day w/moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

 

To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness. John Dewey

 

Random Tidbits

 

Rice is a symbol of life and fertility, which is why rice was traditionally thrown at weddings.

Brown rice is whole grain rice, with the inedible outer hull removed; white rice is the same grain with the hull, bran layer and cereal germ removed. Red rice, gold rice, black rice and purple rice are all whole rices, but with a differently pigmented outer layer.

 

True Things

 

Oops!

Mates Jackson Perry and Noah Palmer of Mandurah, Western Australia, planned a leisurely float offshore, drinking beer on a blowup air mattress on Feb. 27, but they wound up stranded in the Indian Ocean for nearly three hours after the wind blew them out to sea. "We couldn't paddle against the wind, and we just kept going further and further out," Perry told 7News, but they did manage to call a friend, who reached them on his jet ski just before their cellphones died. "We were kind of getting worried at that point," Perry said, but the beers helped with the anxiety. [7News, 3/1/2021]

 

Weekly Observations

 

Animal Rights Awareness Week Link    Link Greencare For Troops Awareness Week National Play Catch Week  Old Time Fiddlers Week Link Carpenter Ant Awareness Week  Fish Are Friends, Not Food! Week Link   Lightning Safety Awareness Week Link  National Craft Spirits Week Link  National Mosquito Control Awareness Week Link   Universal Father's Week	20-26
Old Time Fiddlers Week	21-26
National Insect Week National Pollinator Week Link	21-27
American Library Week	24-29
World Hula Week Link	24-26
Watermelon Thump Seed Spitting Week Link	24-27

 

Today’s Observations

 

Celebration of the Senses Festival of Goodwill, Festival of Christ & Humanity, World Invocation Day  Link International Fairy (or Faery) Day Link National Bomb Pop Day Link   National Handshake Day National Pralines Day Stonewall National Monument Day  Link Swim a Lap Day World UFO Day  Link

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 

The local heat wave has finally broken. Last night for the first night in a couple of weeks that I did not need a fan running in my bedroom. I woke up to a hazy/smoky sky. There are also some rain clouds up there so hoping for a shower sometime today. The Rafael Fire is now over 35,000 acres.

Saddened to hear of the Arvada police officer killed in Olde Town. That area of Arvada always seemed so nice and peaceful.

It was 2 years ago Focus Travel got to Moscow for our Trans-Siberian adventure. I messaged our guide Vlad on FB to thank him again for his great music and tour guiding. He said he hasn’t traveled either since that trip…due to the Covid outbreak. However, he is doing something on a sea somewhere in two weeks. He has also been doing local gigs with his musical talent.

The Phoenix Suns had a heart-stopping win last night, beating the Clippers in the last 0.8 seconds. Awesome.

It is true that no one likes change…even a baby with a dirty diaper cries while being changed. I grew up learning and memorizing that this earth of ours has 7 continents and 4 oceans. Now National Geographic has identified a ‘new’ ocean near Antarctica. They say that its ecosystem is different from the other oceans in the area. Now there are 5 oceans, the new one being named ‘Southern Ocean.’ As it gains popularity it will make some great trivia questions.

 

2 New Puzzles Everyday

Answer: bottom of the page

 

snagrasske

ALL ≠  LOST

 

Historical Events

 

1497 – John Cabot landed in North America at Newfoundland

 

1873 – Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) received a patent (#140,245) for a self-pasting Scrapbook.

1880 – First performance of O Canada took place at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français. The song later became Canada’s national anthem.

1916 – Mary Pickford became the first female film star to sign a million-dollar contract (with Adolph Zukor/Paramount).

 

1938 – Pieces of a meteor, estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it hit the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded, landed near Chicora, in western Pennsylvania. A cow was reportedly injured.

1948 – Veteran Pilots Clarence Chiles and Charles Whitted, in Alabama, saw a cigar-shaped vehicle, with windows, flying beside them.

1949 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, aired on NBC, starring William Boyd.

1957 – Jack Parr became the host on The Tonight Show on NBC,

1997 – US Air Force officials released a 231-page report dismissing all of the claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947.

 

2004 – In New York, capital punishment was declared unconstitutional.

2010 – The Apple iPhone 3GS & iPhone 4 were released.

2017 UN states Yemen cholera epidemic reached 200,000 cases, with 1,300 deaths. Worst cholera outbreak anywhere in the world.

2018 Women drive for the first time in Saudi Arabia after ban is lifted

2019 US President Donald Trump imposes sanctions on Iran, targeted at Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in response to the shooting down of a US drone

2020 COVID-19 pandemic worsens dramatically in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, with 25% mortality according to the UN

2020 Russia celebrates its victory 75 years ago over Nazi Germany with huge military parade through Red Square in Moscow (delayed from May 9 due to pandemic)

 

Birthdays Today

 

@96 – Al Molinaro, American character actor [Happy Days] (d. 2015)

77 – Jeff Beck, English guitarist

75 – Robert Reich, American economist, politician [Clinton’s Sec. of Labor]

74 – Mick Fleetwood, English-American drummer

 

Puzzles Answer

 

SNAKE IN THE GRASS                                                       ALL IS NOT LOST

 

 

Jun 23

 

 

 

Jun 23, 2021   Week: 26    Day: 174

Visibility: 10 miles Ave. Sky Cover: 20%

Local: H 88°\ L 55°

Wind:  7mph/ Gusts:  17mph

EXTREME Risk of Fire:  Active fire:  27mi Nearest Lightning: 395mi.

Jun Averages: 70°/42° (1 day w/moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

 

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. Desmond Tutu

 

Random Tidbits

 

Asia alone both produces and consumes more than 90 percent of the world's rice.

The Chinese word for rice is the same as the word for food; in Thailand when you call your family to a meal you say, "eat rice"; and in China a typical greeting, instead of 'How are you?' is "Have you had your rice today?"

 

True Things

 

Just Desserts

In late February, Thangulla Satish, 45, was killed in Telangana state in southern India when the rooster he was preparing for an illegal cockfight panicked and slashed him with the 3-inch blade strapped to its leg. Police inspector B. Jeevan said Satish was "hit by the rooster's knife in his groin and started bleeding heavily," the Associated Press reported. He died on the way to the hospital. The rooster was removed to a poultry farm nearby. [Associated Press via ABC News, 2/28/2021]

 

Weekly Observations

 

National Week of Making Link National Nursing Assistants Week Link Waste and Recycling Workers Week Link	17-23
Animal Rights Awareness Week Link    Link Greencare For Troops Awareness Week National Play Catch Week  Old Time Fiddlers Week Link Carpenter Ant Awareness Week  Fish Are Friends, Not Food! Week Link   Lightning Safety Awareness Week Link  National Craft Spirits Week Link  National Mosquito Control Awareness Week Link   Universal Father's Week	20-26
Old Time Fiddlers Week	21-26
National Insect Week National Pollinator Week Link	21-27

 

Today’s Observations

 

International Widows Day Link Let it Go Day National Eat At A Food Truck Day Link   National Detroit-style Pizza Day  Link National Hydration Day Link National Pecan Sandy Day National Pink Day Pink Flamingo Day (Lawn Ornaments) Link Public Service Day Runner's Selfie Day SAT Math Day Link Typewriter Day [1873]/ Typing Day

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 

A busy morning: two loads of laundry; haircut; blood draw all before 11:30 this morning. It is finally a tad cooler than the last week.

For my summer haircut I got rid of the ‘bulk’ I have on the sides and in the back. Ready for these warm days now. I had a new lady cut my hair and she did a great job.

Arizona has 12 active wildfires…all started by lightning. Thankfully, today’s wind is not blowing in the smoke. After yesterday, I need a break from all that smoke.

I spoke to soon, the afternoon is getting very hazy. Oh well.

Just hoping Congress gets it act together and helps the US move forward.

 

 

2 New Puzzles Everyday

Answer: bottom of the page

 

A W A K E

DUTCH DUTCH

 

 

Historical Events

 

1683 – William Penn signed a friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.

1860 – The United States Congress established the Government Printing Office.

1868 – Christopher Latham Sholes received the patents (#79265 & #79868) for an invention he called the “Type-Writer.” He also invented the ‘QWERTY keyboard’ in 1873.

1894 – The International Olympic Committee was founded at the Sorbonne in Paris.

1938 – The first ‘Oceanarium’ opened at Marineland in St. Augustine, Florida.

1938 – The Civil Aeronautics Act was signed into law, forming the United States Civil Aeronautics Authority.

1953 – Frank J. Zamboni was issued a patent (#2,642,679) for his ice re-surfacer.

1960 – The US Food and Drug Administration declared Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world.

1969 – IBM announced that effective January 1970 it will price its software and services separately from hardware, allowing for the creation of the modern software industry.

1969 – Warren E. Burger was sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren.

1982 – A record low temperature of -117ºF. was recorded at the South Pole.

2013 – Nik Wallenda became the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.

2012 76 monks are hospitalized in Thailand following an attack by a swarm of bees

2014 Claude Monet's Water Lilies is sold at auction for US$54 million

2018 Laura Ingalls Wilder's name removed from book award by US Association for Library Service to Children, because of author's racist views and language

 

Birthdays Today

 

85 – Richard Bach, American novelist and essayist

73 – Clarence Thomas, American lawyer and judge, United States Supreme Court Justice

@73 – June Carter-Cash, American singer (d. 2003; heart complications)

@60 – Bob Fosse, actor, dancer, choreographer, director (d. 1987; heart attack)

@54 – Wilma Rudolph, runner (d. 1994; brain cancer)

49 – Selma Blair, American actress

@41 – Alan Turing, English mathematician and computer scientist (died in 1954)

 

Puzzles Answer

 

Wide awake                                                            Double Dutch