Dec 7

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Dec 7, 2018 Week: 49 \ Day: 341

86004 Today: H 35° \ L 26° \ Average Sky Cover: 90% 

Wind:   8mph\Gusts:  -mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 66°[1958]   Record Low: -19°[1978]

Nov Averages: 43°\17°

Today’s Quote

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.

Paul Cezanne

Random Tidbits

Henri Rousseau, famous for his exotic jungle scenes, never left Paris. He would go to the park, lie down among the grass and weeds, and sketch the plants hundreds of times their size.Matisse coined the term cubism in 1908 as an insult to another painter's work.

It took Leonardo da Vinci about five years to paint the Mona Lisa. X-rays of the famous painting show that there are three different versions underneath.

Observances This Week

           

1-7

Cookie Cutter Week Link
National Hand Washing Awareness Week Link  
Recipe Greetings For The Holidays Week
Computer Science Education Week  Link

3-24
Andisop (Meterological Fiddling)   Link

3-10
Clerc-Gallaudet Week

Observances for Today

           

Bartender Appreciation Day Link  Link      
Earmuff Day or Chester Greenwood Day Link 
International Civil Aviation Day
National Cotton Candy Day Link
National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
National Rhubarb Vodka Day Link
Pearl Harbor Day

Skywarn Recognition Day Link 
World Pear Day Link 

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1700’s

1787 Delaware becomes 1st state to ratify the US constitution

1800’s

1804 Naturalist Alexander von Humboldt reports his discovery of the decrease in intensity of Earth's magnetic field from the poles to the equator in a memoir to the Paris Institute

1842 New York Philharmonic's 1st concert

1900’s

1909 Inventor Leo Baekeland patents the first thermo-setting plastic, Bakelite, sparking the birth of the plastics industry

1926 Gas refrigerator patented

1941 Imperial Japanese Navy with 353 planes attack US fleet at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2,403 people

1963 Instant replay is used for the first time in a Army-Navy game.

1967 Otis Redding records "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay"

1986 Pres Jean-Claude Duvalier flees Haiti

1988 PLO delegation lead by Yasser Arafat proclaims the State of Palestine, recognizing the existence of the State of Israel for the first time

1995 Irish poet Seamus Heaney receives the Novel Prize for Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm

2000’s

2014 Human Rights Watch Asia Division call for investigation into Indonesian security forces shooting of peaceful protesters

2015 Time Magazine readers name Bernie Sanders their 'person of the year'

2015 Beijing issues its 1st ever red alert for pollution

2015 US Presidential candidate Donald Trump proposes banning all Muslims from entering the US

2017 Australia's parliament votes to legalize gay marriage

My Rambling Thoughts

With all this cold weather, I picked up a little cold. Hopefully better in a couple of days. Got a runny nose, headache, and cough.

I was raised Episcopalian. Though I don’t call myself a practicing member, I am a bit perturbed. At the Bush private funeral, there was lots of music. Back in my day, hymns were played and/or sung at church. Secular songs about America are not. Some of the songs should have been played/sung outside the church. I was also surprised to see the clergy with their hands over their hearts when ‘Hail to the Chief’ was played at they loaded the casket into the hearse. I get that the clergy honors our country but when they are wearing  church regalia, they are part of the Church, not the country. We still have a separation of church and state.

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

90’s

@98- Eli Wallach,

American actor (Magnificent 7, The Misfits, People Next Door), born in Brooklyn New York, (d. 2014)

@94- Pramukh Swami Maharaj,

Indian Hindu spiritual leader (BAPS), born in Chansad, Gujarat (d. 2016)

90- Noam Chomsky,

American linguist (founded transformational grammar), philospher and political activist, born in Philadelphia

80’s

86- Ellen Burstyn,

American actress (Exorcist, Alice Doesn't Live Here), born in Detroit, Michigan

70’s

@73- Rod Cameron [Nathan Roderick Cox],

Canadian actor (City Detective, State Trooper, Trigger Trail), born in Calgary, Alberta (d. 1983) cancer

60’s

@67- Louis Prima,

New Orleans Louisiana, American musician (That Old Black Magic) (d. 1978) stroke

@62- Ted Knight [Tadeusz Wladyslaw Konopka],

American actor (Mary Tyler Moore, Too Close for Comfort), born in Terryville, Connecticut (d. 1986) colon cancer

50’s

51- C Thomas Howell,

actor (Red Dawn, Tank, Soul Man), born in Los Angeles, California

30’s

@38- Harry Chapin,

American rock vocalist (Taxi, Cat's in the Cradle), born in NYC, (d. 1981) controversial auto accident

Historical Obits Today

@-  indicates age at death

90’s

@96-2011 Harry Morgan,

American actor (M*A*S*H)

80’s

@87-1970 Rube Goldberg,

American cartoonist (who made the easy outrageously difficult) Pulitzer Prize 1948

70’s

@73-1906 Élie Ducommun,

Swiss journalist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize)

@70-1985 Potter Stewart,

94th Supreme Court Justice (1958-81), stroke

60’s

@63-1817 William Bligh,

British naval officer of "HMS Bounty" fame

@62-1902 Thomas Nast,

US political cartoonist, yellow fever

Dec 6

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Dec 6, 2018 Week: 49 \ Day: 340

86004 Today: H 44° \ L 8° \ Average Sky Cover: 30% 

Wind:   20mph\Gusts:  -mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 62°[1977]   Record Low: -6°[1951]

Nov Averages: 43°\17°

Today’s Quote

Civilization began the first time an angry person

cast a word instead of a rock.

Sigmund Freud

Random Tidbits

Roman statues were often made with heads that could be removed and replaced with other heads.

***

A pieta is any representation of the Virgin Mary mourning over the dead body of Christ, not just the famous one by Michelangelo.

***

Rembrandt was his first name; his last name was van Rijn.

Observances This Week

           

1-7

Cookie Cutter Week Link
National Hand Washing Awareness Week Link  
Recipe Greetings For The Holidays Week
Computer Science Education Week  Link

2-6
International Coelenterate Biology Week Link
Older Driver Safety Awareness Week Link  

3-24
Andisop (Meterological Fiddling)   Link

3-10
Clerc-Gallaudet Week

Observances for Today

           

Faux Fur Friday 
Miners' Day
Mitten Tree Day

National “Cook for Christmas” Day

National Gazpacho Day

National Microwave Oven Day
National Pawnbrokers Day
National Salesperson Day
Put on Your Own Shoes Day

St. Nicholas Day

World Trick Shot Day  Link

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1200’s

1273 Thomas Aquinas is thought to have a mystical experience in Naples, refuses to continue his work "I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me"

1500’s

1534 Quito, Ecuador, founded by Spanish

1700’s

1768 1st edition of "Encyclopedia Brittanica" published in Scotland

1800’s

1825 US President John Adams suggests establishment of a national observatory

1849 Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland for the 2nd and final time

1862 US President Abraham Lincoln orders hanging of 39 Santee Sioux Indians

1865 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery

1876 US Electoral College picks Rutherford B. Hayes as President, despite Samuel J. Tilden winning more votes

1877 Washington Post publishes 1st edition

1897 London becomes the world's first city to host licenced taxicabs

1900’s

1912 China votes for universal human rights

1923 1st US Presidential address broadcast on radio by President Calvin Coolidge

1933 Ban on James Joyce's "Ulysses" in US lifted

1941 NYC Council agrees to build Idlewild (Kennedy) Airport in Queens

1947 The Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated.

1956 Nelson Mandela & 156 others arrested for political activities in South Africa

1964 "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" 1st airs on TV

1973 Gerald Ford sworn-in as first unelected Vice President, succeeds Spiro Agnew who resigned over corruption allegations

2000’s

2006 NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars

2012 A 243-million-year-old Nyasasaurus fossil is discovered in Tanzania

2017 Time Magazine names their Person of the Year "The Silence Breakers", people who came forward to report sexual misconduct

2017 US President Donald Trump officially recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital, announcing plans to move US embassy there

2017 "Supermassive" most distant black hole discovery announced by astronomers in journal "Nature", 13 billion light-years away, 800 x bigger than the Sun

My Rambling Thoughts

It’s first Wednesday, so it was off for groceries with a 10% old people discount. Can’t turn down a deal. A tad chilly, but not as bad as yesterday.

Watched parts of the Bush funeral and listened to more while I was heading to and from the grocery store. Well done. It was nice to be reminded of the times when politics was about policy and not about personal attacks. Back then mistakes were made but it was never personal.

A Focus group is enjoying NYC, but, so far, no pics on Facebook. I’m sure they are just too busy.

News channels have spent days telling us that the Mueller investigation will be putting out important stuff. Well, Mueller did release a bunch of updates, but anything juicy was redacted. Oh well, guess everyone just has to wait longer.

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

90’s

@91- Dave Brubeck,

jazz pianist/composer (Gates of Justice), born in Concord, California (d. 2012)

80’s

@86- Ira Gershwin,

lyricist ('S Wonderful, I Got Rhythm) (d. 1983)

70’s

@73- Agnes Moorehead,

American actress (Endora in Bewitched), born in Clinton, Massachusetts (d. 1974) cancer

70- JoBeth Williams,

American actress (Kramer vs Kramer, Poltergeist), born in Houston, Texas

60’s

@65- Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin,

French magician and father of modern magic, born in Blois, France (d. 1861)

40’s

@48- Wallace "Wally" Cox,

American comedian and actor (Mister, Underdog, Peepers, Hollywood Squares), born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 1973) heart attack

30’s

@31- Joyce Kilmer,

American poet (Trees), born in New Brunswick, New Jersey (d. 1918) killed in battle

20’s

@25- Randy Rhoads,

Heavy metal guitarist (Quiet Riot), born in Santa Monica, California (d. 1982) plane crash

25- Elian Gonzalez,

Cuban boy at the center of a heated 2000 controversy involving the governments of Cuba and the United States, born in Cuba

Historical Obits Today

@-  indicates age at death

80’s

@89-2017 Cy Young,

American athlete and only US male to win gold in javelin throwing (1952 Olympics)

@87-1990 Tunku Abdul Rahman,

Malaysia's founding father, 1st Prime Minister of Malaya (1957-63) and Malaysia (1963-70)

@85-1993 Dominic "Don" Ameche,

American actor (Cocoon, Trading Places)

@81-1889 Jefferson Davis,

President of Confederate States of America (1861-65)

@80-2000 Werner Klemperer,

German-American actor (Judgment at Nuremberg, Hogan's Heroes)

70’s

@75-1892 [Ernst] Werner von Siemens,

German inventor and industrialist (siemens electrical conductance unit and Siemens corporation)

@73-343 Saint Nicholas [Nikolaos of Myra],

Greek Bishop who became the model for Santa Claus

@70-1996 [Alvin] Pete Rozelle,

NFL commissioner, brain cancer

60’s

@68-1985 Burr Tillstrom,

American puppeteer (Kukla Fran & Ollie)

@65-1956 B.R. Ambedkar [Baba Saheb],

Indian politician, jurist (architect of the Constitution of India) and social reformer who inspired the Dalit Buddhist Movement, diabetes complications

@64-1949 Lead Belly, [Huddie William Ledbetter],

blues singer, ALS

50’s

@52-1988 Roy Orbison,

American musician (Pretty Woman), massive heart attack