Feb 20

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Feb 20, 2019 Week: 08 \ Day: 51

86004 Today: H 29° \ L 2° \ Average Sky Cover: 60% 

Wind:   8mph\Gusts:  13mph Visibility: 6 mi

Record High: 65°[1977]   Record Low: -11°[1955]

FebAverages: 45°\19°

Today’s Quote

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain,

comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.

Erma Bombeck

Random Tidbits

The term "chivalry" is from the Latin word caballus, meaning "nag, pack-horse," and is related to the word "cavalier."

Many feminist scholars dismiss chivalry as a type of benevolent sexism because it relies on the assumption that women are weak and in need of protection while men are strong. They argue that chivalry perpetuates gender inequality.

Observances This Week

National Condom Week: 14-21 Link
National Nestbox Week: 14-21
NCCDP Alzheimer's & Dementia Staff Education Week: 14-21
Date (Fruit) Week: 15-24
National Entrepreneurship Week: 16-23 Link
Build A Better Trade Show Image Week: 17-23
National Engineers Week: 17-23
National FFA Week: 17-24 Link 
Brotherhood / Sisterhood Week: 17-23  Link
Random Acts of Kindness Week: 17-23 Link
Bird Health Awareness Week: 18-24 Link  
Learning Disabilities Week: 18-21
Through With The Chew: 18-22  Link
American Camp Week: 19-22 Link
Kitchen and Bath Show Week: 19-21
American Birkenbreiner Race: 20-24

Observances for Today

Love Your Pet Day Link Link      
National Cherry Pie Day

Northern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day
World Day for Social Justice

My Rambling Thoughts

Sun shine early today, but now almost nothing but grey sky. The weatherman sez: Biggest Winter Storm of season is headed our way. He added to expect TWO plus feet of snow by Friday night. Not that concerned. He’s been wrong many times before. The last storm ain’t melting much.

Blood follow-up was that my red cell count is OK, now it’s still my white cell count to watch. If it ain’t one thing it’s another.

Thank you Facebook for letting me relive my many adventures in the memory section. Nice to see the photos and my commentary again. Two years ago, today I was in Hong Kong.

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1600’s

1673 1st recorded wine auction held in London

1700’s

1725 10 sleeping Indians scalped by whites in New Hampshire for £100

            a scalp bounty

1800’s

1809 US Supreme Court rules federal government power greater than

            any state

1839 Congress prohibits dueling in District of Columbia

1873 University of California gets its first Medical School (UC/San

            Francisco)

1877 1st cantilever bridge in US completed, Harrodsburg, Kentucky

1895 Congress authorizes a US mint at Denver, Colorado

1900’s

1913 King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark

            commencement of work on the construction of Australian capital

            Canberra

1929 American Samoa organizes as territory of US

1935 Dane Caroline Mikkelson is 1st woman to land on Antarctica

1943 New volcano Paracutin erupts in farmer's corn field (Mexico)

1947 Chemical mixing error causes explosion that destroys 42 blocks in

            LA

1962 John Glenn becomes the 1st American to orbit the Earth, aboard

            Friendship 7

1976 The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands.

2000’s

2001 The United States Supreme Court declines to consider an appeal by

            five major oil companies against Unocal's patent on production

            of cleaner "reformulated" gasoline sold in California

2012 Scientists successfully regenerate the flowering plant, Silene

            stenophylla from a 31,800 year old piece of fruit, greatly

            surpassing the previous record of 2,000 years

2013 Estonia becomes the first country to establish a national system

            of fast chargers for electric cars

2017 Famine is declared in Unity State, South Sudan,

            affecting 4.9 million

2018 Venezuela becomes the first country to launch a virtual currency,

            the petro, to counteract their financial crisis

Birthdays Today

1902 Ansel Adams, photographer (1966 ASMP Award), born in San Francisco, (d. 1984-@82)

1906 Gale Gordon [Charles Thomas Aldrich, Jr], American actor and comedian (Our Miss Brooks, Here's Lucy), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 1995-@89)

1914 John Daly, South Africa, newscaster/TV game show host (What's My Line) (d. 1991-@77-cardiac arrest)

1925 Robert Altman, American screenwriter, producer and director (The Player, M*A*S*H, Nashville), born in Kansas City, Missouri (d. 2006-@81)

1929 Amanda Blake [Beverly Louise Neill], American actress (Kitty Russell-Gunsmoke), born in Buffalo, New York (d. 1989-@60-dies of AIDS)

1937 Nancy Wilson, American jazz vocalist (Feel Like Making Love), born in Chillicothe, Ohio (d. 2018-@81)

1946 J. Geils [John Warren Geils Jr], American rock guitarist (J Geils Band-Centerfold), born in NYC, New York (d. 2017@71-natural causes)

1967 Kurt Cobain, American rock vocalist (Nirvana), born in Aberdeen, Washington (d. 1994-@27-suicide)

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95- Gloria Vanderbilt, American actress, artist, heiress and socialite, born in Manhattan, NYC, New York

92- Sidney Poitier, Bahamian American actor, first black actor to win Oscar for Best Actor ('Lillies in the Field' - 1963), born in Miami, Florida

77- Mitch McConnell, American politician, (Senator-R-KY, 1985-, and Senate Majority Leader 2015- ), born in Sheffield, Alabama

72- Peter Strauss, Croton-on-Hudson NY, actor (Rich Man Poor Man)

70- Ivana Trump, Czech-American model and ex-wife of Donald Trump (1st Wives Club), born in Gottwaldov, Moravia, Czechoslovak Republic

56- Charles Barkley, NBA star; TV commentator

55- French Stewart, American actor (Harry Solomon-Third Rock From the Sun), born in Albuquerque, New Mexico

54- Patty Hearst Shaw, famous kidnap hostage (Tanya), born in San Francisco, California

53-Cindy Crawford, model

35- Trevor Noah, South African comedian, actor and TV host (The Daily Show), born in Johannesburg, South Africa

31- Rihanna [Robyn Rihanna Fenty], Barbadian singer-songwriter (Umbrella, We Found Love, Diamonds), born in Saint Michael, Barbados

Historical Obits Today

@86-2006 Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster (ABC)

@80-1985 Clarence Nash, American voice actor (Donald Duck), dies of leukemia

@80-1966 Chester Nimitz, American admiral who commanded the US Pacific fleet in World War II

@77-1895 Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist, lecturer and editor who was also an escaped slave, dies of a heart attack

@63-1992 Dick York, American actor (Darrin-Bewitched, Inherit the Wind), dies of emphysema

@62-2005 Sandra Dee, American actress dies of kidney disease

@54-1907 Henri Moissan, French chemist who isolated the element "fluorine" from its compounds (Nobel 1906), dies of appendicitis

Feb 19

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

Feb 19, 2019 Week: 08 \ Day: 50

86004 Today: H 26° \ L 9° \ Average Sky Cover: 50% 

Wind:   5mph\Gusts:  12mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 65°[1981]   Record Low: -6°[1942]

FebAverages: 45°\19°

Today’s Quote

There are many ways of going forward,

but only one way of standing still.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Random Tidbits

It would take, on average, 1 hour and 43 minutes of walking to burn off a 540-calorie Big Mac.

To burn off one plain M&M candy, a person would need to walk the entire length of a football field.

Observances This Week

National Condom Week: 14-21 Link
National Nestbox Week: 14-21
NCCDP Alzheimer's & Dementia Staff Education Week: 14-21
Date (Fruit) Week: 15-24
National Entrepreneurship Week: 16-23 Link
Build A Better Trade Show Image Week: 17-23
National Engineers Week: 17-23
National FFA Week: 17-24 Link 
Brotherhood / Sisterhood Week: 17-23  Link
Random Acts of Kindness Week: 17-23 Link
Bird Health Awareness Week: 18-24 Link  
Learning Disabilities Week: 18-21
Through With The Chew: 18-22  Link

Observances for Today

Best Friends Day  Link 
Chocolate Mint Day Link
National Lashes Day Link
Iwo Jima Day (Landing)
Travel Africa Day 
Vet Girls Rock Day  Link

My Rambling Thoughts

Snowstorm yesterday and last night dropped about 8” of the white stuff. Took about 20 minutes to dig out my vehicle. Thankfully it was fairly dry and fluffy. The snow shovel guys arrived about 7:45 so at least I didn’t have to do the walks too.

I try hard not to go businesses on a Federal Holiday…their employees should be able to enjoy a day off just like I did when I was working. However, my blood doctor lives on his own schedule, so I had to go in for a blood draw. It was 21° when I headed out.

I’m now all set for my Trans-Siberian rail trip in June. Check is in the mail. And for 2020 I’m doing a cruise to Tahiti & French Polynesia including, Papeete, Moorea, Fakarava, Nuku Hiva, Rangiroa, Bora Bora and Raiatea. My roommate and I have done a bunch of trips and he sent me an email after the Focus Blowout to let me know he signed up.

While listening to the Sunday news shows, I wondered something:

Now that 45 has claimed a National Emergency, why aren’t

 his supporters relieved and happy?

Those on 45’s side were talking about how great it was that he circumvented Congress. It is clear that 45 and his supporters just want to cause upheaval. So sad.

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1600’s

1600 Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the

            most violent eruption in South American recorded

            history

1800’s

1803 US Congress accepts Ohio's constitution, statehood not

            ratified till 1953

1807 US Vice President Aaron Burr arrested in Alabama for

            treason; later acquitted

1878 Thomas Edison is granted a patent for his gramophone

            (phonograph)

1881 Kansas becomes 1st state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages

1900’s

1906 Will Keith Kellogg and Charles D. Bolin found the Battle

            Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, now the

            multinational food manufacturer Kellogg's

1910 Typhoid Mary [Mary Mallon] is freed from her first

            periods of forced isolation and goes on to cause several

            further outbreaks of typhoid in the New York area

1913 1st prize inserted into a Cracker Jack box

1914 Four-year old Charlotte May Pierstorff mailed by train

            from Grangeville, Idaho to her grandparents’ house 73

            miles away in most famous 'child in the post' instance

1919 Pan-African Congress, organized by W.E.B. Du Bois (Paris)

1942 FDR orders detention & internment of all west-coast

            Japanese-Americans

1945 Brotherhood Day-1st celebrated

1945 US 5th Fleet launches invasion of Iwo Jima against the

            Japanese with 30,000 US Marines

1950 Groundbreaking ceremony held for Mississippi

            Vocational College (later Mississippi Valley State

            University)

1963 USSR informs JFK it is withdrawing several thousand

            troops from Cuba

1963 "The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan, widely

            credited as the start of second-wave feminism, is

            published

1968 "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" debuts on NET (now

            PBS)

1987 US President Reagan lifts trade boycott against Poland

2000’s

2004 Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal is awarded an honorary

            knighthood in recognition of a "lifetime of service to

            humanity."

2018 Nigeria says 110 girls missing, presumed kidnapped by

            Boko Haram after attack on school in Dapchi, Yobe

            state

Birthdays Today

1473 Nicolaus Copernicus,

Polish mathematician and astronomer who theorized that planets

revolve around the sun (Heliocentric theory), born in Toruń, Royal

 Prussia, Kingdom of Poland

(d. 1543-@70-apoplexy)

1924 Lee Marvin,

American actor (Paint Your Wagon, Cat Ballou), born in NYC

(d. 1987-@63-heart attack)

1930 John Frankenheimer,

American director (Birdman of Alcatraz), born in NYC,

(d. 2002-@72-stroke)

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79- Smokey [William] Robinson,

American R&B and soul singer-songwriter (The Miracles),

born in Detroit, Michigan

76- Lou Christie

[Lugee Sacco],

American singer-songwriter (Lightning Striking Again),

born in Glenwillard, Pennsylvania

61- Helen Fielding,

English writer (Bridget Jones), born in Morley, England

56- Seal

[Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel],

English singer-songwriter (Killer, Crazy, Kiss by a Rose), born in London

54- Jeff Daniels,

actor (Something Wild, Dumb & Dumber, Speed)

52- Benicio Del Toro,

Puerto Rico, actor (Licence to Kill, Usual Suspects)

Historical Obits Today

@92-1997 Deng Xiaoping,

Chinese revolutionary and paramount leader of China (1978-92)

@89-2016 [Nelle] Harper Lee,

American author (To Kill a Mockingbird)

@84-1998 Grandpa Jones,

country comic/banjo wizard (Hee Haw)

@78-1962 Georgios Papanikolaou,

Greek doctor, inventor of the Pap smear

@77-1996 Charles O Finley,

baseball owner (Oakland A's)

@65-2014 Dale Gardner,

American astronaut,

dies from a brain aneurysm

@64-2010 Laura Spurr,

Tribal Chairperson, Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the

Potawatomi.

dies of cardiac arrest

@64-2003 Johnny PayCheck,

            [Donald Eugene Lytle]

American country singer/songwriter,

dies from emphysema and asthma