Aug 24

 

2023

Flagstaff Almanac

Week 34 Day 236  Ave. Sky Cover 20%\ Visibility  24mi. Flagstaff Today  78° \ 51° 
Wind  4mph \ Gusts  7mph  Nearest active fire: 16miles Risk of fire: Low Nearest Lightning:  46mi
Air Quality: Fair           Moisture Days this month: 9 days Sunshine 
August Averages: Temps 79° \ 50° Moisture 9 Days   

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

16-9/4
Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over Link
18-24
Minority Enterprise Development Week
20-26
Brake Safety Week Link
World Water Week Link
World Princess Week Link 
21-25
21-25
National Safe at Home Week
21-27
National Composites Week Link

Daily Observations

International Strange Music Day Link Knife Day Link Maryland Day National Waffle Iron Day Link  Peach Pie Day

Pluto Demoted Day Vesuvius Day Waffle Day Wayzgoose Day Link William Wilberforce Day

Today’s Thoughts

 Looks like it will be a nice sunny day.

There were lots of lightning and warnings of heavy rain during yesterday’s afternoon. The only rain was to dampen the street and sidewalk for 15 minutes around 5pm.

News networks are filled with private plane crash in Russia. Wagner Group leader Prigozhin is on the passenger manifest. He and a couple more were probably killed in the crash that appears to have been shot from the sky. Some are saying it was Putin who shot it down, others are saying it was Prigozhin faking his own death. We may never know the truth.

Enjoy

Unique National Treasures for the US …

The full-scale anthropomorphic test device (ATD) was invented by the late Samuel W. Alderson in 1960 to gauge the impact of car wrecks on humans. It was widely put into use after the publication of consumer advocate Ralph Nader’s book, Unsafe at Any Speed.

In the 1980s and 90s, commercials starring crash test dummies Vince and Larry (“You can learn a lot from a dummy”) led to an increase in safety belt usage (from 14 percent to 79 percent), saving an estimated 85,000 lives, according to the Ad Council.

Random Trivia…

While in power, Pope Gregory IX declared that cats were to be associated with devil worship and had them exterminated. Some believed that the disappearance of those cats helped rats spread the bubonic plague, aka the Black Death, that killed millions of people in the 1300s.

Historic Events

• 1682 – William Penn received the area that is now the state of Delaware, and added it to his colony of Pennsylvania.
• 1932 – Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop, from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey.
• 1989 – Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose was banned from baseball ‘forever’ for gambling by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti.
• 1995 – Microsoft Windows 95 was released to the public in North America. 

Birthdays with some quotes

85 – Mason Williams, American guitarist, and composer
@83 – Louis Teicher, American pianist (Ferrante & Teicher) (d. 2008)
@81 – Kenny Baker, English actor, R2-D2 (d. 2016)
78 – Vince McMahon, American wrestler, promoter, co-founded WWE
” I’m not afraid of failing. I don’t like to fail. I hate to fail. But I’m not afraid of it.”
@77 – Duke (Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola) Kahanamoku , American swimmer, actor, surfer (d. 1968; heart attack)
“Just take your time – wave comes. Let the other guys go, catch another one.”
@75 – Yasser Arafat, 1st President of the Palestinian National Authority (d. 2004; stroke)
@56 – (Charles Adams Claverie )Charles Rocket, American actor (d. 2005; suicide)
68 – Mike Huckabee, American minister, and politician
66 – Stephen Fry, English actor, journalist, and screenwriter
63 – Cal Ripken, Jr., American baseball player
“Get in the game. Do the best you can. Try to make a contribution. Learn from today. Apply it to tomorrow.”
58 – Marlee Matlin, American actress
” You can do anything if you set your mind to it. Look out for kids, help them dream, and be inspired. We teach calculus in schools, but I believe the most important formula is courage plus dreams equals success.”
50 – Dave Chappelle, American comedian, and actor
“I’m famous today. People like me today. Might not like me tomorrow. You can’t count on it.”
46 – John Green, American author, and vlogger
42 – Chad Michael Murray, American model, and actor

…The End for today…

 

Aug 23

 

2023

Flagstaff Almanac

Week 34 Day  235  Ave. Sky Cover 60%\ Visibility  24mi. Flagstaff Today  79° \ 53° 
Wind  10mph \ Gusts  16mph  Nearest active fire: 14miles Risk of fire: Moderate Nearest Lightning:  4mi
Air Quality: Fair           Moisture Days this month: 8 days Mostly cloudy 
August Averages: Temps 79° \ 50° Moisture 9 Days   

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

16-9/4
Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over Link
18-24
Minority Enterprise Development Week
20-26
Brake Safety Week Link
World Water Week Link
World Princess Week Link 
21-25
21-25
National Safe at Home Week
21-27
National Composites Week Link

Daily Observations

Black Ribbon Day Link Cuban Sandwich Day Link Day For The Remembrance of The Slave Trade & Its Abolition Find Your Inner Nerd Day Link

The Festival of Vulcan  Ride The Wind Day Link (Hang Gliding) Ride Like the Wind Day Sponge cake Day Valentino Day

Today’s Thoughts

Cloudy, expecting rain later.

I’m not expecting a lot of rain today, but every little bit helps.

Georgia put a $200,000 bond on Trump. I’m sure his supporters will fund that.

Hilary brought flash flooding to Death Valley, CA. Even the weather people were surprised.

Six students and 2 adults were rescued from a dangling cable car, stuck about 900’ above the ground. They were on there way to school in the Pakistan mountains.

Enjoy

 

Unique National Treasures for the US …

Known as the King of Pop Culture, Doug is not your average pooch. He’s a New York Times best-selling author (with “momager” Leslie Mosier) and social media star whose millions of adoring fans follow his pizza-eating, world-traveling adventures on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. When he’s not chowing down, Doug makes appearances on the Today show, Billboard’s Hot 100 Festival and the CMT Music Awards. And Doug leaves celebs starstruck too—he’s taken selfies with everyone from Justin Bieber to the cast of The Big Bang Theory—but he still loves a good nap more than anything.

Random Trivia…

The ancient Romans often used stale urine as mouthwash. The main ingredient in urine is ammonia which acts as a powerful cleaning agent. Urine became so in demand that Romans who traded in it actually had to pay a tax!

Historic Events

• 79 – Mount Vesuvius the volcano erupted and buried the ancient Roman city of Pompeii under a thick carpet of volcanic ash.
• 1991 – The World Wide Web was available to the public.
• 2006 – Pluto was demoted from full planet status to “dwarf planet”.
• Birthdays with some quotes

92 – Barbara Eden, American actress
@83 – Gene Kelly, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1996)
” The way I look at a musical, you are commenting on the human condition no matter what you do. A musical may be light and frivolous, but by its very nature, it makes some kind of social comment.”
@76 – Ernie Bushmiller, American cartoonist, Nancy comic strip (d. 1982; Parkinson’s)
74 – Shelley Long, American actress
74 – Rick Springfield, Australian-American singer-songwriter and actor
” I don’t know any musician, successful or otherwise, that got in it to make money. Or a writer, for that matter. You get into it because you love it.”
@68 – Sollie Paul "Tex" Williams, American singer-songwriter (d. 1985; cancer)
53 – Jay Mohr, American actor, and screenwriter
” People are more interested in someone who goes on stage and tells the truth 47 – Scott Caan, American actor
33 – Seth Curry, NBA star
@23 – River Phoenix, American actor (d. 1993; OD)
@32 – Keith Moon, English drummer, The Who (d. 1978; OD)
@41 – Kobe Bryant, American basketball player (d. 2020; plane crash)
“I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.” 

…The End for today…

 

Aug 22

 

2023

Flagstaff Almanac
Week 34 Day 234 Ave. Sky Cover 90%\ Visibility  15mi. Flagstaff Today  68° \ 58° 
Wind  2mph \ Gusts  4mph  Nearest active fire: 16miles Risk of fire: Very Low Nearest Lightning:  143mi
Air Quality: Fair           Moisture Days this month: 7 days Overcast
August Averages: Temps 79° \ 50° Moisture 9 Days   

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

16-9/4
Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over Link
18-24
Minority Enterprise Development Week
20-26
Brake Safety Week Link
World Water Week Link
World Princess Week Link 
21-25
21-25
National Safe at Home Week
21-27
National Composites Week Link

Daily Observations

Be An Angel Day Bao Day Internat’l Day Commemorating The Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief National Bao Day Link National Bring Your Cat To The Vet Day National Surgical Oncologist Day Link

National Tooth Fairy Day  Link   Link  Never Bean Better Day  Never Bean Better Day Link Pecan Torte Day Southern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day  Link Surgical Oncologist Day Tooth Fairy Day World Plant Milk Day Link

Today’s Thoughts

It’s a rainy summer day, remnants of Hurricane Hilary.

It rained most of last night, mostly gentle rain with about an hour of heavy rain. I headed out to get some distilled water for my CPAP. The light rain stopped just as I pulled into the store parking lot.

The news media is stuck on the Georgia indictment of 19…watching to see if Trump is treated differently than the other 18 suspects. I guess it is important.

Enjoy

Unique National Treasures for the US …

Katherine Johnson

A mathematics genius, Katherine Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 at age 97. The longtime NASA researcher and analyst recently got more recognition when Taraji P. Henson played her (she was the “girl” John Glenn asked to provide calculations for his Friendship 7 mission) in the movie Hidden Figures.

Random Trivia…

Between the 11th and 19th centuries, a number of Buddhist monks successfully mummified themselves. They adopted a practice called Sokushinbutsu in which they gradually weaned themselves off food and water and essentially starved themselves to death over the course of a thousand days. It was believed that by successfully mummifying themselves, the monks would achieve true enlightenment.

Historic Events

• 1851 – The first America’s Cup was won by the yacht ‘America’. America’s Cup is the oldest international sporting trophy.
• 1864 – Twelve nations signed the First Geneva Convention, establishing the rules of protection of the victims of armed conflicts.
• 1945 – The Vietnam Conflict began.
• 1989 – 1989 – Nolan Ryan struck out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts. He retired with 5,714 strikeouts.

Birthdays with some quotes

@94 – Honor Blackman, English actress and republican (d. 2020)
@91 – Ray Bradbury, American science fiction writer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
“Looking back over a lifetime, you see that love was the answer to everything.”
” You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
@88 – John Lee Hooker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2001)
” Poor people have the blues because they’re poor and hungry. Rich people can’t sleep at night because they’re trying to hold on to their money and everything they have.”
@87 – Jerry Iger, American cartoonist, co-founded Eisner & Iger (d. 1990)
@80 – Valerie Harper, American actress (d. 2019)
” I don’t think of dying, I think of being here now.”
@78 – Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., American general (d. 2012)
@75 – Cindy Williams, TV actor (d. 2023)
78 – David Chase, American director, producer, and screenwriter
@73 – George Herriman, American cartoonist, Krazy Kat (d. 1944)
@73 – Dorothy Parker, American poet, critic, and satirist (d. 1967)
“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.”
“I hate writing. I love having written.”
56 – Ty Burrell, TV actor
@55 – Claude Debussy, French pianist, and composer (d. 1918; bedridden)
“Music is the silence between the notes.”
55 – Rich Lowry, American writer and magazine editor (National Review)
53 – Giada De Laurentiis, Italian-American chef, and author
50 – Kristen Wiig, American comedic actress
45 – James Corden, English actor, and television presenter
28 – Dua Lipa, English singer-songwriter

…The End for today…

 

 

2023

Flagstaff Almanac

Week 34 Day 223 Ave. Sky Cover 75%\ Visibility  15mi. Flagstaff Today  78° \ 57a° 
Wind  6mph \ Gusts  11mph  Nearest active fire: 16miles Risk of fire: Moderate Nearest Lightning:  271mi
Air Quality: Moderate   Moisture Days this month: 6 days Cloudy 
August Averages: Temps 79° \ 50° Moisture 9 Days   

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

16-9/4
Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over Link
18-24
Minority Enterprise Development Week
20-26
Brake Safety Week Link
World Water Week Link
World Princess Week Link 
21-25
21-25
National Safe at Home Week
21-27
National Composites Week Link

Daily Observations

Brazilian Blow-out Day Link Internat’l Day of Remembrance and Tribute To The Victims of Terrorism Internet Self-care Day  National Spumoni Day Link Poet's Day Senior Citizen's Day Spumoni Day

Today’s Thoughts

Cloudy from Hurricane Hilary. No measurable moisture yesterday. Looks like there might be some later today. Our little mountain town is on the border of getting lots of moisture. It is cooler today, so that is nice.

Spain won the Women’s World Cup for the first time. Bravo!

Yesterday in pre-season play, Broncos lost to 49er’s, Cards lost to Chiefs. Not a great day for my teams.

Enjoy

 

Unique National Treasures for the US …

A Prairie Home Companion

Chris Thile, the 36-year-old host of A Prairie Home Companion, says that 2.6 million weekly listeners—himself included—think of the long-running public radio show made famous by Garrison Keillor as an American treasure.

“It’s a place for us to take our cares and woes and hold them out at arm’s length for examination and even celebration,” he says of the 43-year-old show. “It brings us together and makes us feel more alive.”

Thile, a Grammy-winning mandolin virtuoso who made a splash with the trio Nickel Creek and the band Punch Brothers before taking the helm at APHC last year, says the show’s purpose is to mirror the American experience and to help people find common ground.

“What I hope the show does—this is what it did for me—is to offer the opportunity to connect with the country at large every Saturday,” he says.

Random Trivia…

14 years before the infamous Titanic sank, author Morgan Robertson wrote the novella Futility. It was about the large unsinkable ship "Titan" hitting an iceberg in the Northern Atlantic. What’s even weirder is the Titanic and the fictional Titan did not have enough lifeboats for the thousands of passengers on board—coincidence?

Historic Events

• 1911 – The Mona Lisa was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre employee. It was returned to the Louvre on January 4, 1914. Peruggia served six months in prison for the crime.
• 1939 – 5 young African-Americans were denied library cards at the Alexandria, VA Library and arrested after sitting down and reading books. The civil disobedience was one of the earliest in the American Civil Rights Movement.
• 1961 – Motown released what would be its first #1 hit, Please Mr. Postman by The Marvelettes.
• 1986 – The Lake Nyos, Cameroon disaster resulted in the deaths of 1800 people when a volcano suddenly burst with a wave of carbon dioxide.

Birthdays with some quotes

@85 – William Murdoch, Scottish engineer, and inventor, created gas-powered lighting (d. 1839)
@82 – Blossom Rock, American actress (d. 1978)
@79 – William James ‘Count’ Basie, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1984; cancer)
“Learn to deal with the valleys and the hills will take care of themselves.”
” If you play a tune and a person don’t tap their feet, don’t play the tune.”
@63 – Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player and coach (d. 1999; heart disease)
“It is said that good things come to those who wait. I believe that good things come to those who work.”
@81 – Kenny Rogers, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2020)
” I’ve always said music should make you laugh, make you cry or make you think.”
82 – Jackie DeShannon (Sharon Lee Myers), American singer-songwriter
@74 – Hugh Wilson, American actor, director and screenwriter (d. 2018; lung cancer)
67 – Kim Cattrall, English-Canadian actress
@57 – Stephen Hillenburg, marine biologist, animator, SpongeBob Squarepants (d. 2018; ALS)
56 – Carrie-Anne Moss, Canadian actress
44 – Kelis Rogers, American singer-songwriter
” As a child, I’d help my mum cook, and it was ridiculous – she had the correct gadget or utensil for everything. ‘Stop! Don’t use that, I have exactly the right utensil.’ After I left home, I survived on cup-a-meals and never saw myself as being like her. Now I’ve become her.”
36 – Usain Bolt, runner
35 – Kacey Musgraves, American singer-songwriter
34 – Hayden Panettiere, American actress 

…The End for today…