24 Jan

 

24 January 2023

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 4 Day 24 \ Ave. Sky Cover 90% \ Visibility 5 miles Flagstaff Today 35° \11°  Wind 10mph \ Gusts 17mph 
Air Quality: Fair\Very Low Moderate High Extreme Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 563mi \ Nearest Lightning 1806mi
Jan Averages for Flagstaff: 44° \ 16° \5 Days of moisture
Snow flurries

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

18-25
Week of Christian Unity
National Soccer Coaches of America Week
19-29
Sundance Film Festival
22-28
Clean Out Your Inbox Week
Data Privacy Week Link
National CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists) Week
National Handwriting Analysis Week
National School Choice Week Link 
Snowcare for Troops Week
Snowcare for Troops Week
23-28
National Medical Group Practice Week
23-25
Westminster Dog Show

Daily Observations

Beer Can Day  Link  Link
Belly Laugh Day
Eskimo Pie Day
International Day of Education
International Mobile Phone Recycling Day Link
‘Just Do It’ Day
National Compliment Day
National Lobster Day
National Peanut Butter Day Link
Talk Like A Grizzled Prospector Day  Link
World Day for African and Afro-descendant Culture

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

The expected snow has arrived. This adds about 4” so far to our already record snowfall for January.  I’m sure glad I don’t have to go anywhere today. I now have three layers of icicles hanging from the roof out my office window. The longest ones are about 4 feet. If we get 3.1” more before Jan. 31 it will be #2 in the record books. This areas average snowfall for January is 29”. Right now we are at 60.4" this month.

I did two loads of laundry and got everything hung up or in drawers. Nice!  

Never jump to conclusions with limited knowledge: Ten were killed, ten more hospitalized after a shooting in a predominately Asian neighborhood in CA. The police have arrested a 72- year-old Chinese man with a history of issues. As sad as this is, many news organizations incorrectly assumed it was a hate crime against Asians. This is the 33^rd mass shooting in 2023…and it is only the 23^rd of January.

60 Minutes did a good piece on the Ukraine ballet dancers and their struggles with the on-going war. Many Ukrainian dancers have left the Russian Ballet since the war began.

The Big 5 of Africa…lions, leopards, elephants, African buffalo, & rhinoceroses

Arizona is a great state…

·        Arizona's disparate climate can yield both the highest temperature across the nation and the lowest temperature across the nation in the same day.

·        There are more wilderness areas in Arizona than in the entire Midwest. Arizona alone has 90 wilderness areas, while the Midwest has 50.

·        Arizona has 26 peaks that are more than 10,000 feet in elevation.

Facts…

In the 1980s, the Times Square Ball was reconfigured into an apple.

Times Square’s New Year’s Eve confetti is all tossed by hand.

Dropping a deluge of confetti into Times Square on New Year’s Eve is no small feat; preparations for the confetti avalanche take about a year, beginning while the previous holiday’s tissue paper is still being swept up. A large part of organizing the confetti shower is recruiting crews to release the 3,000 pounds that descend on Times Square, since there are no cannons involved — instead, every piece is hand-tossed. Workers are trained in the proper way to fluff and throw the biodegradable paper scraps for maximum impact, which is timed to begin 20 seconds before midnight so that the confetti descends into the crowds below right on cue. 

Slang Origins

1973: Watergate

Meaning: a scandal, typically one that involves abuses of office and a cover-up

Watergate was a scandal that would eventually lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. It was an earth-shattering revelation to many Americans and would prove to leave a linguistic legacy, as well as a historical one. Today, “-gate” is attached to the end of even the most minor scandals, and people who have never heard of Watergate instantly know that it indicates corruption.

UNESCO sites…

Socotra Is Home to the Rare Dragon's Blood Tree Found Nowhere Else on Earth

 You’ll find the island of Socotra between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea, off the tip of the Horn of Africa. Controlled by neighboring Yemen, it is the largest of the four islands in the Socotra archipelago. The island is remote and otherworldly — up to a third of its plant life is found nowhere else on Earth. One of those rare plants is the umbrella-like dragon's blood tree, whose name comes from the dark red resin it secretes. The species has been used in medicine for centuries, and a dye made from its resin is thought to be responsible for the color of Stradivarius violins. About 60,000 people live on the 29-square-mile island, and the entire place is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Historical Events

1848 – California Gold Rush Bagan- James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter’s Mill, near Sacramento.
1984 – Apple Computer introduced the Macintosh personal computer for sale in the United States.
1985 – The American shuttle Discovery began a ‘secret’ mission, probably for the military with a spy satellite.
1995- Live coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial began. Day-time network soap operas were pre-empted for almost nine months.

Birthdays Today

@95 – Ernest Borgnine, American actor (d. 2012)
@91 – Oral Roberts, evangelist, founded Oral Roberts University (d. 2009)
84 – Ray Stevens, American singer-songwriter
82 – Neil Diamond, American singer-songwriter
82 – Aaron Neville, American singer
@75 – Edith Wharton, American novelist, short-story writer (d. 1937)
The only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it.– Edith Wharton
@74 – Frederick the Great, Prussian king (d. 1786)
72 – Yakov Smirnoff (Yakov Naumovich Pokhis), Ukrainian-American comedian, actor
In America, you break law. In Soviet Russia, law breaks you! In America, you watch Big Brother. In Soviet Russia, Big Brother watch you!– Yakov Smirnoff
@58 – William Congreve, English playwright, and poet (d. 1729; carriage accident)
Musick has Charms to soothe a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.– William Congreve
55 – Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
As simple as it sounds, we all must try to be the best person we can: by making the best choices, by making the most of the talents we’ve been given.– Mary Lou Retton
53 – Matthew Lillard, American actor
49 – Ed Helms, American actor
45 – Kristen Schaal, American actress
44 – Tatyana Ali, American actress, singer
44 – Nik Wallenda, American acrobat
37 – Mischa Barton, English-American actress
@33 – John Belushi, American comedic actor (d. 1982; OD)
Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no!– John Belushi, in Animal House
@26 – Sharon Tate, American model, and actress (d. 1969; murdered)
Everything that’s realistic has some sort of ugliness in it. Even a flower is ugly when it wilts, a bird when it seeks its prey, the ocean when it becomes violent.– Sharon Tate

 

23 Jan

23 January 2023

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 4 Day 23 \ Ave. Sky Cover 40% \ Visibility 19 miles Flagstaff Today 47° \6°  Wind 8mph \ Gusts 13mph 
Air Quality: Fair\VeryLow Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 655mi \ Nearest Lightning 1472mi
Jan Averages for Flagstaff: 44° \ 16° \5 Days of moisture
Cloudy

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

17-23
National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week
18-25
Week of Christian Unity
National Soccer Coaches of America Week
19-29
Sundance Film Festival
22-28
Clean Out Your Inbox Week
Data Privacy Week Link
National CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists) Week
National Handwriting Analysis Week
National School Choice Week Link 
Snowcare for Troops Week
Snowcare for Troops Week
23-28
National Medical Group Practice Week

Daily Observations

Measure Your Feet Day
National Handwriting Day Link
National Pie Day Link  Link  
Paul Pitcher Day  Link
Snowplow Mailbox Hockey Day

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Sun was shining early, but now the next storm is moving in. This one should bring us about 6” of snow…adding to January snowfall.

The Arkansas governor has banned the use of ‘LatinX’ in any state documents. For context, the term LatinX is in response to Latino and Latina, both of which place gender on the noun in Spanish. The ‘X’ means null and therefore drops gender from the noun. LatinX has been around a few years and has not become popular among the various Latin communities.

The Navajo Nation has lifted its mandated mask requirements. The new administration said that people should still be cautious when in large groups.

I read an article about the Debt Ceiling yesterday. After reading it, I sent an email to my newly elected Conservative Congressional Rep. The article was pointing out the debt ceiling allows the government to pay the bills it has already occurred. It does not increase the Federal debt or increase spending. Not raising the debt ceiling would cause the country to default on its loans. That would crash the value of the US dollar here and around the world. This is not something politicians should make political. Even delaying the necessary rise in the debt ceiling has consequences. The last time we came close to default, the US credit rating dropped. That means that the US now pays a higher interest rate on any money it borrows. That increase comes right out of taxpayers pockets.

The Big 5 of Africa…lions, leopards, elephants, African buffalo, & rhinoceroses

Arizona is a great state…NEW

·        Arizona has 3,928 mountain peaks and summits, more mountains than any one of the other Mountain States (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming).

·        All New England, plus the state of Pennsylvania would fit inside Arizona.

·        Arizona became the 48th state and last of the contiguous states on February 14, 1912.

Facts…

Number of Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball designs since 1907--7

Weight (in pounds) of the current Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball--11,875

Year “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” aired for the first time--1972

Typical number of revelers packed into Times Square each New Year’s Eve--58,000 

Slang Origins

1972: Retro

Meaning: related to the styles and fashions of the past

Kids wearing retro clothes today may be wearing styles from the 1970s, but the 21st century doesn’t have a monopoly on the term. Though it’s not always clear what makes an article of clothing or piece of furniture retro as opposed to vintage, the teenagers of 1972 were going through their parents’ clothes in hopes of making yesterday’s fashion the style of the future.

UNESCO sites…

The Tower of Hercules Is the World's Oldest Lighthouse That Is Still Standing

Built around the second century CE, the Tower of Hercules is considered to be the world's oldest functioning lighthouse. It is located on the northwest coast of modern-day Spain, on a promontory overlooking the harbor of A Coruña. The tower itself rises approximately 190 feet above the sea to shine its light across the northern Atlantic Ocean. The Tower of Hercules is the only remaining lighthouse of Greco-Roman antiquity to have retained its structural integrity, and it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009.

Historical Events

1556 – The Shaanxi earthquake struck in Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000, the deadliest earthquake in history.
Walter Frederick Morrison sold the rights (Design Patent #D183,626) to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the “Frisbee”.
1998 – Netscape announced Mozilla, with the intention to release Communicator code as open source.

Birthdays Today

@94 – Wally Parks, founded the National Hot Rod Association (d. 2007)
@89 – Randolph Scott, American actor (d. 1987)
80 – Gil Gerard, American actor
@74 – Anita Pointer, American R&B/soul singer-songwriter (d. 2022)
71 – Robin Zander, American rock singer-songwriter
59 – Mariska Hargitay, American actress, and producer
Being fearless means busting down those walls of fear and being who you are, not who someone else thinks you are.– Mariska Hargitay
@56 – John Hancock, American general and politician (d. 1793)
A chip on the shoulder is too heavy a piece of baggage to carry through life.– John Hancock 49 – Tiffani Thiessen, American actress
@42 – Ernie Kovacs, American comedic actor and game show host (d. 1962; auto crash)
There’s a standard formula for success in the entertainment medium, and that is: Beat it to death if it succeeds.– Ernie Kovacs
@20 – XXXTentacion (Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy), American rapper (d. 2018; shot)
You can’t do good if you’re wishing bad on others.– XXXTentacion

  

22 Jan

 

January 2023

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 4 Day 22 \ Ave. Sky Cover 5% \ Visibility 18 miles Flagstaff Today 41° \1°  Wind 3mph \ Gusts 4mph 
Air Quality: Fair \very Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 309mi \ Nearest Lightning 1470mi
Jan Averages for Flagstaff: 44° \ 16° \5 Days of moisture
Sunshine

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

14-22
International Snowmobile Safety and Awareness Week
17-23
National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week
18-25
Week of Christian Unity
National Soccer Coaches of America Week
19-29
Sundance Film Festival
22-28
Clean Out Your Inbox Week
Data Privacy Week Link
National CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists) Week
National Handwriting Analysis Week
National School Choice Week Link 
Snowcare for Troops Week
Snowcare for Troops Week

Daily Observations

Answer Your Cat's Questions Day

Celebration of Life Day
Chinese New Year

Come in From The Cold Day
Dance of the Seven Veils Day
National Bible Sunday  National Hot Sauce Day
National Polka Dot Day
Roe vs. Wade Day
Sanctity of Human Life Day Link

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

I don’t like shopping on weekends, but it is not snowing so I headed to Sam’s for stuff I need…and some stuff that looked good. While shopping two different people from the Rez stopped to see how I was doing. Nice to be recognized after being retired for over a decade. As I was leaving, a lady checked my receipt. She scanned it and then a few items, as usual. On the 2^nd item she scanned she said it wasn’t paid for. Then she found another and then another. I said, ‘this is crazy, I spent $57 dollars and the only item scanned was a jar of nuts.’ She said ‘Sir, just pull up your receipt on your phone.’ I went to the app and asked her where to find the receipt. She said just hit ‘scan and go’. I said I didn’t use scan and go. Then she said, 'do you have a paper receipt'? I said she had just scanned it. I pulled it out and she rescanned it. Everything worked. She didn’t apologize, and just said her hand-held scanner messed up.  I bit my tongue, so I didn’t say that her scanner needed someone who knew how to use it.

Our town will get more snow on Sunday. Looking at records: Jan 2023 has the 4^th most snow in the month on record with 57”. Jan 2010 is 5^th with 56.4”. 1949 with 104” is number 1, 1980 is 2^nd with 63.4’, 1979 is 3^rd with 59.4”. I’ve seen all those except #1.

I was reading an article about World famous concert halls. The Sydney Opera House, Odeon of Herodes Atticus (Athens), Carnegie Hall, Musikverein (Vienna), Nippon Budokan (Tokyo) were listed. The final one was Red Rocks Amphitheater. Very Cool.            

The Big 5 of Africa…lions, leopards, elephants, African buffalo, & rhinoceroses

Facts…

The New York ball drop has a stunning record only dimmed by World War II. Revelers gathered in Times Square in 1942 and 1943, but no ball drop took place, thanks to wartime blackouts. Instead, the new year was marked by a minute of silence followed by chimes.

Time balls emerged as a timekeeping feature throughout the world, though evidence of them is hard to find today. The U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., installed one in 1845, which would later help history record the precise time of Lincoln’s assassination; it dropped daily through 1936. But the time ball’s reign was short-lived. The devices fell out of fashion by the 1880s, thanks to the availability of self-winding clocks. The concept would eventually be co-opted by The New York Times in 1907, when the newspaper’s formerly explosive New Year’s Eve celebrations were barred from using fireworks. Organizers took a chance by looking back at the time ball’s influence, and decided a lighted midnight drop was the perfect way to honor the occasion. 

Slang Origins

1971: The Man

Meaning: the police; political or societal establishment

In the late ‘60s, the yippie movement grew out of the hippie counterculture. The Youth International Party, founded by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, was anti-establishment, and actively protested the government. “The Man” became shorthand for the government that they wished to replace with their own system, which they deemed more egalitarian.

UNESCO sites…

The Citadel of Aleppo Is Considered the World's Oldest Castle

When you think of castles, medieval structures often come to mind. But there are some fortified structures that predate the Middle Ages by centuries, and one such ancient fortress is distinctively castle-like enough to be widely considered the oldest such structure remaining on the planet. It's the Citadel of Aleppo, a castle fort in the history-rich city of Aleppo, Syria. Use of the castle dates back to 3000 BCE, but much of the current structure was likely built during the Ayyubid dynasty in the 12th century. The fortress has weathered centuries of ups and downs (including some significant damage in the ongoing Syrian Civil War) but remains standing to this day. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.

Historical Events

1889 – Columbia Phonograph (Columbia Records) was formed in Washington, D.C.
1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, now the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).
1947 – KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, began operation in Hollywood.
1973 – The Supreme Court of the United States delivered its decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states.

Birthdays Today

@92 – Ann Sothern, American actress, singer (d. 2001)
91 – Piper Laurie, American actress
@77 – John Hurt, English actor (d. 2017; cancer)
If you listen, you learn; if you talk, you don’t.– John Hurt
@65 – Sir Walter Raleigh, English poet, soldier, courtier and explorer (d. 1618; beheaded)
@65 – Francis Bacon, English philosopher, politician (d. 1626; pneumonia)
If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them.– Francis Bacon
@64 – Malcolm McLaren, English singer-songwriter, manager (d. 2010; mesothelioma)
74 – Steve Perry, American singer-songwriter
64 – Linda Blair, American actress
Its difficult to understand why people don’t realize that pets are gifts to mankind.– Linda Blair
@59 – Bill Bixby, American actor (d. 1993; prostate cancer)
58 – DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ and producer
58 – Diane Lane, American actress
55 – Guy Fieri, American chef, author, and television host
We’re takin’ you on a road rockin’ trip down to Flavortown, where the gravitational force of bacon warps the laws of space and time.– Guy Feiri
@36 – Lord Byron, English influential poet, playwright (d. 1824; fever)
@33 – Sam Cooke, American singer-songwriter (d. 1964; shot)
@30 – Robert E. Howard, American author, creator of Conan The Barbarian (d. 1936; suicide)
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.– Robert E. Howard
25 – Silento, American rapper
You already know what it is!-Silento