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Today’s Historical
Highlights
- 1687 - 1st Huguenots depart France to Cape of Good Hope
- 1600 - British East India Company chartered
- 1776 - Rhode Island establishes wage & price controls to curb inflation: Limit is 70 cents a day for carpenters, 42 cents for tailors
- 1857 - Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as new capital of Canada
- 1890 - Ellis Island (NYC) opens as a US immigration depot
- 1921 - Last San Francisco fire horses retired1953 - Willie Shoemaker shatters record, riding 485 winners in a year
- 1991 - USSR, last day of existence
♫Happy Birthday To: ♫
Free Rambling
Thoughts
A record setting warm
day…old record was 62 in 1917. Hmmm.
Spent the day running
errands, dealing with mail, and doing laundry. Thank goodness I was invited to
a dinner tonight.
I’m adding another new
thing today…it will be here until Valentine’s Day when our beautiful state
turns 100 years old. In my younger days, AZ was the Grand Canyon state with
lots of Indians—that’s about all I knew before I moved here. Today’s youth have
a much different picture of our state—retirement communities, snow birds, and ultra-conservative
whacks in the news. There is still lots of good stuff in AZ, and hopefully our
politics will at the very least become centrist again. I hope the readers enjoy
leaning a little about AZ.
Had a great Mexican dinner at my river buddy’s
house. May be going on a private river trip sometime. Very cool. Met a great
couple who are river people who went to Kenya for the Great Migration a few
years ago. I’m even more excited now than I was a few hours ago.
Lifestyle Substance
(any
answers at the end of post)
NEW—AZ Centennial is in
days: Did you know?…
State symbols:
- Amphibian: Arizona tree frog (1986)
- Bird: cactus wren (1931)
- Butterfly: two-tailed swallowtail (2001)
- Colors: blue and old gold (1915)
- Fish: Arizona trout (1986)
- Flower: flower of saguaro cactus (1931)
- Fossil: petrified wood (1988)
- Gemstone: turquoise (1974)
- Mammal: ringtail (1986)
- Neckwear: bola tie (1971)
- Nickname: Grand Canyon State
- Reptile: Arizona ridgenose rattlesnake (1986)
- Song: “Arizona” (1919)
- Tree: palo verde (1954)
- Origin of name: Uncertain. Perhaps from the O'odham Indian word for “little spring”
NPR Sunday Puzzle
Each
clue ends in a four-letter word with a single vowel. Change this vowel to a
different vowel to make a new four-letter word. The new word will start the
answer to the clue. Example: For the clue "area where a calf or foal might
be BORN," change the O in BORN to an A to get BARN, and you get the start
of the answer: BARNYARD.
1.
When
you are away from home what you use to make a call:
2.
Commuting
option for avoiding a traffic mess:
3.
What
a climber might have in his pack:
4.
In
book publishing, the opposite of a bust:
5.
Pest
on a cotton ball:
6.
It
had its own cabinet department in the past:
7.
Ship’s
cabin part:
8.
TV
show’s cancellation in 1969 that caused quite a stir:
9.
Secret
opening in a floor that has a wire someone must trip:
10. Breakfast item that the cook has to flip:
11. Employee of an agricultural firm:
12. Person at a dance who doesn’t socialize
well:
13. Seat from which one might see a dock:
Wuzzles What concept or
phrase do these suggest?
Rules of Thumb
Easy shortcuts to make
an ‘educated’ guess
- Child-support payments for one child will usually equal 20 percent of the gross income of the parent who doesn't have custody.
Harper’s Index
- Amount of lobbying in 2010: $3,500,000,000
Yeah, It Really
Happened
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -
Police in Florida arrested a pair of 14-year-old boys they say broke into a
Chinese restaurant and cooked up some chicken gizzards. Gainesville police Lt.
Jorge Campos said the boys allegedly broke into the China House restaurant in
Gainesville Saturday night and apparently were unable to find anything worth
stealing, The Gainesville Sun reported Monday.
"I guess they
couldn't find any money so they decided to cook some food," Campos said.
The teenagers were arrested on burglary and petit theft charges. Campos said
both suspects had been arrested on burglary and theft charges at least twice in
recent months.
Joke-of-the-day
A school teacher injured
his back and had to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body. It
fit under his shirt and was not noticeable at all. On the first day of the
term, still with the cast under his shirt, he found himself assigned to the
toughest students in school. Walking confidently into the rowdy classroom, he
opened the window as wide as possible and then busied himself with desk work.
When a strong breeze made his tie flap, he took the desk stapler and stapled
the tie to his chest. He had no trouble with discipline that term.
Old-er people in the
News
A Concord, New Hampshire
man's phone keeps ringing at random hours with people looking for Brad Pitt.
But 77-year-old Richard Perkins doesn't know the movie star and has only seen
one film with the 43-year-old actor.
Someone posted the
retired teachers' home phone number in a Web site chat room and claimed it was
contact information for Pitt. For the last six days, Perkins' phone keeps
ringing at times as late as 2 a-m.
"I thought it was
my daughter calling me," Perkins told the Concord Monitor. "I thought
she was saying 'Dad? Dad? Dad?' and I thought there was something wrong with
the line. Then I realized she was saying 'Brad.' "
A frustrated Perkins
disconnected his phone once, but firefighters - summoned by Perkins's Life
Alert system - burst into his home to find him sitting peacefully in the living
room.
They "weren't too
pleased," Perkins told the newspaper.
Perkins says he doesn't
want to change his phone number because he's afraid he'll forget his new one.
Somewhat Useless
Information
Saturday mail delivery
in Canada was eliminated by Canada Post on February 1, 1969, as a cost-saving
measure.
The roaring lion in the
MGM logo was named Volney and lived at the Memphis Zoo.
Tomato juice is the
official state beverage of Ohio.
Although covered with
ice (all but 0.4% of it, i.e.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet,
with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.
King cobras, the longest
venomous snakes in existence, have been known to grow to more than 18 ft in
length. Their half-inch fangs administer up to 450 mg of venom - enough to kill
13 adult humans or one elephant.
In 1998, Cairo lawyer
Mustafa Raslan filed a $1 billion lawsuit against President Clinton in
Damanhur, Egypt alleging that Clinton's sexual antics made it difficult for him
to raise his own children with good moral standards.
Found on You Tube
Calendar Information
…Happening
This Week:
25-31
It's About Time Week
26-1/1
Kwanzaa
Imani
(Faith): To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our
teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
Today
Is
- Make Up Your Mind Day
- New Year’s Eve
- No Interruptions Day
- National Champagne Day
- National Dice Day
- Unlucky Day
Today’s
Other Events
Before 1000CE
870 - Skirmish
at Englefield: Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army
1200’s
1229 - James I
of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain) thus
consummating the Christian conquest of the island of Majorca
1400’s
1492 - 100,000
Jews expelled from Sicily
1500’s
1564 - Willem
van Orange demands freedom of conscience/religion
1600’s
1695 - A
window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their
windows to avoid the tax
1700’s
1744 - James
Bradley announces discovery of Earth's nutation motion (wobble)
1781 - Bank of
North America, 1st US bank opens
1783 - Import
of African slaves banned by all of the Northern states
1800’s
1831 - Gramercy
Park is deeded to New York City
1841 - Alabama
becomes 1st state to license dental surgeons
1861 - 22,990
mm of rain falls in Cherrapunji Assam in 1861, world record
1862 - Pres Lincoln
signs act admitting West Virginia to Union
1862 - Union
ironclad ship "Monitor" sank off Cape Hatteras, NC
1897 - Brooklyn's
last day as a city, it incorporates into NYC
1900’s
1904 - The
first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as
Longacre Square, in New York, New York
1907 - For 1st
time a ball drops at Times Square to signal new year
1923 - BBC begins
using Big Ben chime ID
1924 - Hubble
announces existence of distant galaxies
1942 - Potatoes
rationed in Holland
1955 - The General
Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over $1 billion
USD in a year
1961 - 1st
performance of Beach Boys
1962 - "Match
Game" debuts on NBC with host Gene Rayburn
1968 - 1st
supersonic airliner flown (Russian TU-144)
1976 - The Cars
played their 1st gig
1981 - CNN
Headline News debuts
1984 - NYC subway
gunman Bernhard Goetz surrenders to police in NH
1990 - Sci-Fi
Channel on cable TV begins transmitting
1994 - 1st
snowless December in Baltimore Maryland
1995 - Cartoonist
Bill Watterson ends his "Calvin & Hobbes" comic strip
1997 - Microsoft
buys Hotmail E-mail service
1999 - Boris Yeltsin
resigns as President of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the
acting President
2000’s
2004 - The
official opening of Taipei 101, the current tallest skyscraper in the world,
standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet)
Today’s
Birthdays
Under 30 years old
Julio DePaula, Dominican
baseball player is 29
In their 50’s
Val Kilmer, actor is 52
Bebe Neuwirth, actor
(Cheers) is 53
In their 60’s
Ben Kingsley, actor
(Ghandi…) is 68
Tim Matheson, actor is 64
Donna Summer, singer
(Love to Love You Baby, On the Radio) is 63
In their 70’s
Anthony Hopkins, actor
is 74
Remembered for being
born on this day
- Robert G Aitken, US astronomer (Binary Stars) in 1864
- Rex Allen, American actor, singer, and songwriter in 1920
- Pat Brady, actor (Roy Rogers Show) in 1914
- Jacques Cartier, French explorer in 14+1
- Joseph S. Cullinan, American oil industrialist in 1860
- John Denver, singer (Rocky Mt High), thank God he's a country boy in 1943
- King Kelly, American baseball player in 1857
- Henri Matisse, French impressionist painter (Odalisque) in 1869
- George C Marshall, authored Marshall Plan (Nobel 1953) in 1880
- Odetta, [Holmes], folk singer (Sanctuary) in 1930
- Bob Shaw, UK sci-fi author (Orbitsville, Ragged Astronauts, Vertigo) in 1931
- [Bonnie Prince] Charles Edward Stuart, English pretender to throne in 1720
Today’s
Obits
- 61 law enforcement officers, killed by felons in US in 1996
- 76 law enforcement officers, killed by felons in US in 1997
- George Allen, football coach (Rams, Redskins), dies of ventricular fibrillation at 72 in 1990
- Roberto Clemente, slugger (Pirates), dies in a plane crash at 38 in 1972
- Floyd Cramer, pianist (Nashville Sound), dies of cancer at 64
- José Greco, Italian-born American flamenco dancer and choreographer dies at 82
- Rick Nelson, singer/actor (Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet), dies in plane crash at 45 in 1985
- Sam Spiegel, Academy Award winning producer (Betrayal), dies at 84 in 1985
Answers
NPR Sunday Puzzle
1.
When
you are away from home what you use to make a call: cell phone
2.
Commuting
option for avoiding a traffic mess: mass transit
3.
What
a climber might have in his pack: pick axe
4.
In
book publishing, the opposite of a bust: best seller
5.
Pest
on a cotton ball: boll weevil
6.
It
had its own cabinet department in the past: post office
7.
Ship’s
cabin part: porthole
8.
TV
show’s cancellation in 1969 that caused quite a stir: Star Trek
9.
Secret
opening in a floor that has a wire someone must trip: trap door
10. Breakfast item that the cook has to
flip: flap jacks
11. Employee of an agricultural firm: farm
hand/ farm worker
12. Person at a dance who doesn’t socialize
well: wall flower
13. Seat from which one might see a dock:
deck chair
Wuzzle
- After all is said and done
- Twinkles
- For days on end
Disclaimer: All opinions
are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.
All ‘data’ info is from
the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I
have learned that every site has mistakes and sadly once out the information is
out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also
for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates
may not be totally accurate.
☺ And
That Is All for Now ☺
