10 Nov

 

November 2022

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 46 Day 315 \ Ave. Sky Cover 90% \ Visibility 10 miles Flagstaff Today 40° \13° 
Wind 6mph \ Gusts 14mph  Air Quality: Fair \Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 124mi \ Nearest Lightning 1305mi
Nov Averages for Flagstaff: 53° \ 23° (3 days of moisture) 

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

World Origami Days: 24-11/11
Drowsy Driving Prevention Week: 5-11  Link   
Give Wildlife A Brake! Week: 5-11  
Give Wildlife A Brake! Week: 5-11  Link 
National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week: 5-11 
National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week: 5-11 Link   
National Radiologic Technology Week: 5-11 
National Radiologic Technology Week: 5-11 Link  
National Book Awards Week: 5-11
Polar Bear Week: 6-13
Children’s Book Week: 6-11 
National Book Awards Week: 5-11
Polar Bear Week: 6-13
Children’s Book Week: 6-11 Link  (Also May 2-8) 
National Patient Accessibility Week: 6-10  
National Young Readers Week: 6-10 (Pizza Hut) 
National Patient Accessibility Week: 6-10  
National Young Readers Week: 6-10 (Pizza Hut) Link
Dear Santa Letter Week: 7-13
National Donor Sabbath: 10-12

Daily Observations

Area Code Day
Domino Day Link 
International Accounting Day 
International Accounting Day  Link 
NET Cancer Awareness Day 
NET Cancer Awareness Day  Link
Marine Corps Birthday
National Forget-Me-Not Day
National Vanilla Cupcake Day
Sesame Street Day
Windows Day (Microsoft; 1983)
World Science Day for Peace and Development Link

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Chilly and windy here. Lots of moisture, and it is rain, not snow. The 1-3” hasn’t shown up yet.

I still don’t know the final results of the AZ elections. This is always a Maricopa County (Phx) issue. At noon, they had only counted 70% of their ballots. It is too bad they can’t figure out a better way.

The Dems stopped the Red Wave that the pollsters had predicted. It is not over until the fat lady sings and Maricopa counts all their votes. It was also nice to see the return of the loser to concede to the winner. It happened on both sides…Nice!

There will be a new President and VP in the Navajo Nation. The incumbent from Shonto lost. There will also be the Navajo Nation’s first female VP. Things are a changin’.

A new issue for H1B visa holders, the visas issued when the applicant has a tech job that is not easily filled by American citizens: It turns out that the H1B visa is only good if the person is employed and the company ‘sponsors’ the person. As tech companies are letting many people go, the H1B visa holders have 60 days for find another job…in tech…or leave the country. A tough situation for many.

Favorite Memes

Best Instrumentals

"(Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth" by Metallica (1983)

Few will argue that the late Cliff Burton still sits atop the heap when it comes to thrash metal bass players. Burton's ability and creativity on the bass were showcased on each of Metallica's first three albums, but this cut from the band's groundbreaking debut Kill 'Em All stands above the rest. Rock fans probably never thought a bass guitar could sound like that. Then, we were introduced to Cliff Burton. 

Meaning/history of a phrase

Pulling my leg

"Pulling my leg" is usually used when someone is trying to fool us, or playing us in a way. It's a popular expression in the UK, and it can be traced back to Victorian London.

Back then, dragging a person by the leg was a common way for robbers to get their hands on one's possessions.

Historical Events

1619 – René Descartes had the dreams that inspired his Meditations on First Philosophy.
1775 – The United States Marine Corps Was Born
1871 – Henry Morton Stanley in Ujiji, Central Africa, encountered David Livingstone with the immortal words: ‘Dr. Livingstone, I presume?’
1885 – The world’s 1st motorcycle, designed by Gottlieb Daimler, made its 1st test-run.
1908 – The first Gideon Bible put in hotel rooms at the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana.
1951 – Area Codes were introduced in the United States.
1975 – The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board.
Bill Gates introduced Windows 1.0 in 1983.
1974 – The discovery of the “charmed quark” subatomic particle was announced simultaneously by an MIT group at Brookhaven National Laboratory and a SLAC-Berkeley group on the west coast at Stanford Linear accelerator center.
1975 – The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board.
1997 – WorldCom and MCI Communications announced a $37 billion merger, the largest merger in US history up to that time.

Birthdays Today

@94 – Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian general and engineer designed the AK-47, (d. 2013)
@58 – Richard Burton, Welsh actor, singer (d. 1984; stroke)
@75 – Roy Scheider, American actor (d. 2008; myeloma)
77 – Donna Fargo, American Singer/Songwriter, guitarist
@77 – Claude Rains, English-American actor (d. 1967; hemorrange)
75 – Dave Loggins, American Singer/Songwriter, guitarist
@74 – John Bevis, English physician and astronomer discovered The Crab Nebula, (d. 1771)
@72 – George Jennings, invented the flush toilet, (d. 1882; horse accident)
66 – Sinbad (David Adkins), American comedian, actor, producer
@62 – Martin Luther, German monk, leader of the Protestant Reformation, (d. 1546; stroke)
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.”
Martin Luther
54 – Tracy Morgan, American comedian, actor, and producer
53 – Ellen Pompeo, American actress, and producer
52 – Warren G, American rapper and producer
44 – Eve, American rapper, producer
39 – Miranda Lambert, American Singer/Songwriter, and guitarist
33 – Taron Egerton, Welsh actor
28 – Zoey Deutch, American actress
@25 – Michael Strank, American sergeant, flag raiser: Battle of Iwo Jima, (d. 1945; in battle)
@22 – Jason Dunham, American soldier Medal of Honor recipient, (d. 2004; Iraq War)

 

9 Nov

 

9 November 2022

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 46 Day 313 \ Ave. Sky Cover 5% \ Visibility 10 miles Flagstaff Today 55° \31° 
Wind 19mph \ Gusts 10mph  Air Quality: Fair \Moderate Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 124mi \ Nearest Lightning 410miNov Averages for Flagstaff: 53° \ 23° (3 days of moisture)

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

World Origami Days: 24-11/11
Drowsy Driving Prevention Week: 5-11  Link   
Give Wildlife A Brake! Week: 5-11  
Give Wildlife A Brake! Week: 5-11  Link 
National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week: 5-11 
National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week: 5-11 Link   
National Radiologic Technology Week: 5-11 
National Radiologic Technology Week: 5-11 Link  
National Book Awards Week: 5-11
Polar Bear Week: 6-13
Children’s Book Week: 6-11 
National Book Awards Week: 5-11
Polar Bear Week: 6-13
Children’s Book Week: 6-11 Link  (Also May 2-8) 
National Patient Accessibility Week: 6-10  
National Young Readers Week: 6-10 (Pizza Hut) 
National Patient Accessibility Week: 6-10  
National Young Readers Week: 6-10 (Pizza Hut) Link
Dear Santa Letter Week: 7-13

Daily Observations

Carl Sagan Day  Link
Go to an Art Museum Today Day
International Tempranillo Day Link
Kristallnacht-10
Microtia Awareness Day  Link
National Child Safety Council Day
National Louisiana Day
National Scrapple Day
World Freedom Day

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Windy day….storm a brewin’ for tomorrow….weather computer says 1-3” of snow, I’ll wait and see.

I went to the dentist this morning to get measured for the crown. He explained what happened, and sort of apologized. I’ll give him one more chance. They ‘laser measured’ my mouth for the crown. No more biting on that clay stuff to get an impression. I hope to get a good fit.

After the dentist I stopped at my polling place to vote. There was no line, but they had at least a dozen stands to vote. The sign-in is all computerized with my driver’s license and then I sign an iPad. They still use a paper ballot marked in ink. My ballot had 14 propositions. It took a while, but I was out in about 15 minutes. I hope everyone voted.

I learned something about polls I hadn’t realized. Most of the polls rely on landlines for their polls. That was OK back-in-the-day when almost all voters had one. Today many voters do not have a landline anymore. The upside is that they don’t get all those polling phone calls, the downside is that they don’t get many voter’s opinions. I don’t listen much to polls anyway as they are seldom right when the election results come in.

Whatever the outcome of Nov. 8 results, we are still a United States of America and voting is very important. If it wasn’t important, why would the far-right try so hard to make it difficult to vote?

Favorite Memes

Best Instrumentals

"Sirius" by The Alan Parsons Project (1982)

The opening track and lead-in to the band's hit "Eye in the Sky" off the album of the same name. These two tunes are perhaps the most recognizable from the band. And this instrumental opener should be quite familiar to fans of the Chicago Bulls. It's the song that plays during the club's starting lineup introductions. It was made super popular during those dominant Michael Jordan championship years of the 1990s. 

Meaning/history of a phrase

Mad as a hatter

This one is fairly easy to associate with the Mad Hatter in Lewis Carroll’s book 'Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.'

But the character himself is quite dark. Back in Victorian times, men were actually suffering from mental health problems caused by exposure to mercury, which was used to make felt hats more flexible.

Historical Events

1857 – The Atlantic was founded in Boston, Massachusetts.
1872 – The Great Boston Fire of 1872. 13 people died.
1887 – The United States received rights to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
1906 – Theodore Roosevelt became the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country. He did so to inspect progress on the Panama Canal.
1938 – Al Capp, cartoonist of Lil’l Abner created Sadie Hawkins Day. It was now “celebrated” on the first Saturday after November 9th.
1938 – Crystal Night (Kristallnacht) took place in Germany. 30,000 Jews were arrested and nearly 100 were killed.
1953 – Supreme Court ruled Major League baseball exempt from anti-trust laws. Basically, it was a mechanism to make sure a player could not just quit one team to work for another team.
1955 – The National Child Safety Council (NCSC) was founded.
1961 – The X-15 rocket plane achieved a world record speed of 4,093 mph (Mach 6.04) and reached 101,600 feet (over 19 miles) altitude, piloted by US Air Force Major Robert M. White.
1965- Roger Allen LaPorte, protesting against the Vietnam War, set himself on fire in front of the United Nations building.
1965 – There was a blackout over much of the Northeastern United States, more than 30 million people were affected.
1967 – The first issue of Rolling Stone magazine was published.
1989 – The Berlin Wall fell. It was constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on August 13, 1961.
2005 – The Venus Express mission of the European Space Agency was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
2011 – At 2:00 PM EST, all US TV and radio stations in the Emergency Alert System were tested simultaneously, the first nationwide test of the system since the 1997 inception of the EAS.

Birthdays Today

@85 – Hedy Lamarr, Austrian-American actress, inventor (d. 2000)
“Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.”-Hedy Lamarr
@77 – Spiro Agnew, American soldier, politician 39th Vice President, (d. 1996; leukemia)
@72 – Mary Travers, American Singer/Songwriter (d. 2009; leukemia)
71 – Lou Ferrigno, American bodybuilder, actor
@62 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist (d. 1996; cancer)
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.”
“In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist’s signature.”– Carl Sagan
49 – Nick Lachey, American Singer/Songwriter, producer, actor
44 – Sisqó, American Singer/Songwriter, producer, actor
@42 – Dorothy Dandridge, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1965; OD)
“I can’t play a slave.”– Dorothy Dandridge
42 – Vanessa (née Minnillo) Lachey, Filipino-American TV host, actress
34 – Nikki Blonsky, American actress, singer, dancer

 

8 Nov

 

8 November 2022...Midterm elections

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 46 Day 312 \ Ave. Sky Cover 30% \ Visibility 10 miles Flagstaff Today 60° \31° 
Wind 16mph \ Gusts 12mph  
Nov Averages for Flagstaff: 53° \ 23° (3 days of moisture)
Air Quality: Fair\ Moderate Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 132mi \ Nearest Lightning 706mi

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

World Origami Days: 24-11/11
Drowsy Driving Prevention Week: 5-11  Link   
Give Wildlife A Brake! Week: 5-11  
Give Wildlife A Brake! Week: 5-11  Link 
National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week: 5-11 
National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week: 5-11 Link   
National Radiologic Technology Week: 5-11 
National Radiologic Technology Week: 5-11 Link  
National Book Awards Week: 5-11
Polar Bear Week: 6-13
Children’s Book Week: 6-11 
National Book Awards Week: 5-11
Polar Bear Week: 6-13
Children’s Book Week: 6-11 Link  (Also May 2-8) 
National Patient Accessibility Week: 6-10  
National Young Readers Week: 6-10 (Pizza Hut) 
National Patient Accessibility Week: 6-10  
National Young Readers Week: 6-10 (Pizza Hut) Link
Dear Santa Letter Week: 7-13

Daily Observations

Abet and Aid Punsters Day
Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day
Dunce Day Link
Election Day
First Folio Day
International Pathology Day Link 
Intersex Day of Remembrance  Link
National Cappuccino Day
National Harvey Wallbanger Day
National Parents As Teachers Day
National S.T.E.M./S.T.E.A.M. Day   Link
Shakespeare Authorship Mystery Day
X-ray Day

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Another nice fall day…awaiting the next storm.

Yesterday the AZ Cardinals lost to the Seahawks. No wonder…Cards had SEVEN pre-snap penalties. Denver enjoyed a bye.

Twitter chaos continues. I opened an account after Trump was inaugurated to allow me to keep up with his news. I followed him for a couple of months. Then I deleted my account. Elon Musk now owns Twitter. I still see no reason to sign up again and certainly am not going to pay any money to them for a blue check or for anything else. Musk says he wants a public square, like there was during the American Revolution. Great! Back then people did not have to pay anything to be in the square. I doubt people were hiding their identity when they spoke at those squares. Musk has developed his own bumps in his road as he has tweeted a conspiracy theory that has been debunked. He announces then changes the price for that blue check…first it was $20/mo., then$8/mo. I’ll let this all play out and if he fixes it, fine, I will consider rejoining…until then I just watch.

Favorite Memes

Best Instrumentals

"YYZ" by Rush (1981)

Off the commercially successful Moving Pictures, this is the first of several Rush instrumental songs nominated for a Grammy Award. While it's a complete band effort, the song truly highlights the talent of bassist Geddy Lee and late legendary drummer Neil Peart. (They co-wrote the piece.) In terms of Peart's performance, it's one that influenced many youngsters to pick the sticks and sit down beyond a drum kit. 

Meaning/history of a phrase

Crocodile tears

This is a popular phrase usually used to describe false sorrow and faking an emotional response. But the whole phrase is based on a medieval myth.

People back then believed that crocodiles actually cried tears of sadness while they killed and ate their prey.

Historical Events

1519 – Cortez and his troops took Montezuma, the Aztek Emporer, hostage, effectively taking over the nation.
1731 – In Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin opened the first US library. It was an idea he had with his Junto Club, which was basically a Philly Businessman’s Association.
1889 – Montana was admitted as the 41st U.S. state.
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed in 1933.
1966, US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League (NFL) to merge with the American Football League (AFL).
HBO launched with the broadcast of the 1971 movie Sometimes a Great Notion, starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda.
1999 – Bruce Miller was killed near Flint, Michigan. His wife, Sharee Miller, convinced her online lover Jerry Cassaday to kill him, was convicted of the crime, in what became the world’s first Internet murder.

Birthdays Today

@85 – Edmond Halley, English astronomer and mathematician (d. 1742)
@84 – Morley Safer, Canadian-American journalist and author (d. 2016)
@74 – Milton Bradley, founded the Milton Bradley Company, (d. 1911)
@78 – Esther Rolle, American actress (d. 1998; diabetes)
@78 – Christiaan Barnard, South African surgeon (d. 2001; asthma attack)
73 – Wayne LaPierre, American businessman, author, activist
73 – Bonnie Raitt, American Singer/Songwriter, guitarist
“We can live in fear or act out of hope.”– Bonnie Raitt
72 – Mary Hart, American journalist, and actress
@64 – Bram Stoker, Irish novelist, and critic created Count Dracula, (d. 1912; stokes)
“Nothing is too small. I counsel you, put down in record even your doubts and surmises. Hereafter it may be of interest to you to see how true you guess. We learn from failure, not from success!”– Bram Stoker
68 – Rickie Lee Jones, American Singer/Songwriter, producer
61 – Leif Garrett, American singer, actor, and television personality
56 – Gordon Ramsay, British chef, restaurateur, and TV host /personality
“Chefs are nutters. They’re all self-obsessed, delicate, dainty, insecure little souls, and absolute psychopaths. Every last one of them.”– Gordon Ramsay
55 – Courtney Thorne-Smith, American actress
52 – Tom Anderson, American businessman (co-founded Myspace)
51 – Tech N9ne [Aaron Dontez Yates], American musician, record producer, actor
@49 – Joe Flynn, American actor (d. 1974; heart attack while swimming)
49 – David Muir, journalist
@48 – Margaret Mitchell, American journalist and author (d. 1949; hit by car)
“Every problem has two handles. You can grab it by the handle of fear or the handle of hope.”– Margaret Mitchell
47 – Tara Reid, American actress
@37 – Hermann Rorschach, Swiss psychiatrist, psychoanalyst (d. 1922; peritonitis)