Mar 14

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Happy Pi day!
Mar 14, 2019 Week: 11 \ Day: 73
86004 Today: H 31° \ L 11° \ Average Sky Cover: 35% 
Wind:   14mph\Gusts:  25mph Visibility: 10 mi
Record High: 69°[2007]   Record Low: -4°[1990]
Mar Averages: 51°\23° (6 days with rain)

Today’s Quote
The trouble with a diet is that
you don't eat what you like,
and don't like what you eat.
-- Anonymous



Random Tidbits
This Friday is the date known to ancient Romans as The Ides of March, which became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44BC.

The word ides comes from the Latin word "idus," which means half-division and in the Roman calendar refers to the approximate day that was the middle of the month. Ides was also used for the 15th day of May, July and October.

Most people in modern times know March 15 as the day Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. He was stabbed to death.


Observances This Week
Lent: 6-20
National Catholic Sisters Week: 8-14 
Campfire USA Birthday Week: 10-16
Girl Scout Week: 10-16 
Termite Awareness Week: 10-16
National Agriculture Week: 10-16
International Brain Awareness Week: 11-17 
Turkey Vultures Return to the Living Sign: 11-17
Special Olympics 2019: 14-21


Observances for Today
Data Innovation Day: Thru-15 Link
International Ask A Question Day
International Day of Action for Rivers  Link
Learn about Butterflies Day
MOTH-ER Day
National Agriculture Day Link 
National Potato Chip Day
Pi Day (as in the math pie = 3.14159265 etc.) Link
Popcorn Lover's Day
Save a Spider Day Link
Write Your Story Day  Link
World Kidney Day


My Rambling Thoughts
The predicted snow was really about an inch and more rain than snow. I like our local weatherman, on Public radio, he gives nice concise forecasts with a tad of history. When on TV, he has all the big city maps, graphics, and more. However, he has really been missing his mark lately.

Not everything in this country is about politics. Duh! Yet 45 has turned a safety issue into a chance for him to look like the King he thinks he is. This morning he announced HE was grounding all the 737Max8 and 9 planes and that the FAA would have an announcement in about 45 minutes. The acting head of the FAA said yesterday, the FAA would not be grounding flights. Note: 45 has not nominated a head for the FAA since his first appointee resigned a year ago.  45 even said he wanted to nominate his personal pilot for the job, but never did. 45 is the only person in the US that sees everything as a political issue.

I guess, if you got lots of money, some think that they are above everyone, including the law. This college entrance thing is horrific. Back in my day, I was lucky enough to pay my college education by working as a grocery clerk and attending classes. If I was trying to do that today, I would have neither a Bachelor’s nor Master’s degree. Yet, rich parents ‘found a guy’ who could get their children into college for a fee. To make it worse, it seems that college athletic coaches got some of the fee. Seems to me like there is too much emphasis on athletics and not enough on a good education.


Today’s Significant Historical Events

1500’s
1592 "Ultimate Pi day": on this day at 6.53am is the largest
correspondence between calendar dates and significant digits of
pi, since the introduction of the Julian calendar (3.141592653)

1700’s
1794 Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin machine revolutionizing the
cotton industry in the southern US states

1900’s
1903 1st national bird reservation established in Sebastian, Florida

1904 In a landmark case, Northern Securities Company v United States,
the US Supreme Court finds the company has violated the
Sherman Anti-Trust Act; first case in T. Roosevelt's 'trust-busting'
campaign

1913 John D. Rockefeller gives $100 million to Rockefeller Foundation

1913 South African Supreme Court declares that marriages not
celebrated according to Christian rites and/or not registered by
the Registrar of Marriages, are invalid; all Muslim and Hindu
marriages are therefore declared invalid

1923 US President Warren G. Harding becomes 1st president to pay
taxes

1933 Civilian Conservation Corp begins tree conservation

1950 FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" program begins

1958 RIAA certifies 1st gold record (Perry Como's Catch A Falling Star)

1973 Future US senator John McCain is released after spending over
five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp

1984 Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Féin, is seriously wounded in an
assassination attempt in central Belfast

2000’s
2017 European Court of Justice rules companies can ban staff from
wearing religious symbols, including headscarves

2018 NASA twin study finds that Scott Kelly is no longer identical to his
twin brother after one year in space, 7% of his genes altered

2018 US students across American commemorate Florida high school
shooting with mass walkouts across the country


Birthdays Today

1864 Casey [John] Jones,
American railroad engineer who dies trying to save a train
(Ballad of Casey Jones), born in Missouri
(d. 1900-@37)

1879 Albert Einstein,
German-born theoretical physicist and
Nobel laureate (theory of relativity),
born in Ulm, German Empire
(d. 1955-@76-aneuyerism)

1919 Max Shulman,
novelist (Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Tender Trap)
(d. 1988-@69-bone cancer)

1920 Hank Ketcham,
cartoonist (Dennis the Menace)
(d. 2001-@81)

91- Frank Borman,
American astronaut (Gemini 7, Apollo 8) and
CEO of Eastern Air Lines (1975-86),
born in Gary, Indiana

86- Michael Caine
[Maurice J Micklewhite],
English actor (Alfie),
born in London, England

86- Quincy Jones Jr,
American composer and singer (We Are The World),
born in Chicago, Illinois

71- Billy Crystal, 
American actor, writer, producer (Soap, City Slickers)
born in Long Beach, New York,

67- Martin Dempsey,
American General, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2011-),
born in Jersey City, New Jersey

61- Danny Meyer,
American restaurateur (Shake Shack, Union Square Cafe),
born in St. Louis, Missouri


Historical Obits Today
@83-2010 Peter Graves
[Aurness],
American actor (Mission Impossible, Airplane!, Stalag 17)

@77-1932 George Eastman,
American inventor (Kodak camera and
founder of the Eastman Kodak Company),
shoots himself in the heart

@76-2018 Stephen Hawking,
English physicist (Black Holes & Baby Universes),
dies from ALS complications

@65-1925 Walter Camp,
American, father of American football

@64-1883 Karl Marx,
German philosopher (Communist Manifesto),
dies from pleurisy

@62-1989 Edward Abbey
(environmental author),
dies after surgery

@37-2018 Adrián Lamo,
American threat analyst and hacker (NYT, Yahoo!, Microsoft)
 who reported Chelsea Manning to the FBI,
dies from “no definitive cause”

Mar 13

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Mar 13, 2019 Week: 11 \ Day: 72

86004 Today: H 40° \ L 31° \ Average Sky Cover: 98% 

Wind:   9mph\Gusts:  15mph Visibility: ¼ mi

Record High: 70°[2007]   Record Low: -9°[1962]

Mar Averages: 51°\23° (6 days with rain)

Today’s Quote

Fortune favors the prepared mind.

Louis Pasteur

Random Tidbits

A common Catholic symbol is ashes, which are ancient signs of penance. Catholics place ashes on their foreheads at the beginning of Lent as an outward sign of repentance.

The magical term "hocus pocus" probably comes from the most sacred moment in Catholic ritual: the consecration of the bread as the body of Christ by the priest speaking the words "This is my body," which in Latin is Hoc est enim corpus meum.

Observances This Week

Lent: 6-20

National Catholic Sisters Week: 8-14 

World Rattlesnake Roundup: 8-10

Campfire USA Birthday Week: 10-16

Girl Scout Week: 10-16 

Termite Awareness Week: 10-16

National Agriculture Week: 10-16

International Brain Awareness Week: 11-17 

Turkey Vultures Return to the Living Sign: 11-17

Observances for Today

Donald Duck Day
Ear Muff Day
Good Samaritan Involvement Day
Itra-Uterine Growth Awareness Restriction (IUGAR) Day
Jewel Day

K-9 Veterans Day  Link
Ken Day (Doll)
L. Ron Hubbard Day
National Chicken Noodle Soup Day

National Open An Umbrella Indoors Day
Registered Dietitian Day  
Smart & Sexy Day

My Rambling Thoughts

As I was leaving for my Medicare appointment, it was snowing hard, just not really sticking. When I came out about an hour later, it was raining. The forecasted snow is now 6” for tonight. Haha.

Medicare annual checkup went well. I actually found this appointment quite through. I had to undress and get poked and jabbed checking to see if I had any hidden pain, I guess. Probably because this year is a milestone birthday.

I have never even thought of the US President signing my Bible. Or having anyone else sign it for that matter. I’ve been thinking about the spectacle of 45 signing Bibles. What happened to the separation of church and state?

Buying admission to prestigious schools. Really?

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1600’s

1656 Jews are denied the right to build a synagogue in New Amsterdam

1900’s

1930 Clyde Tombaugh announces discovery of Pluto at Lowell

            Observatory, Flagstaff

1961 JFK sets up the Alliance for Progress

2000’s

2012 Encyclopedia Britannica announces that it will no longer publish

            printed versions of its encyclopedia

2013 Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected the new pope, taking

            the papal name Pope Francis

2018 US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is fired via a tweet from

            President Donald Trump

2018 National Geographic magazine admits its past coverage was

            racist in issue to mark 50 years since death of Martin Luther King

             Jr.

Birthdays Today

1855 Percival "Percy" Lowell,

American astronomer (predicted discovery of Pluto),

born in Boston, Massachusetts

(d. 1916-@62)

1911 L. Ron Hubbard,

American sci-fi writer (Death Quest) and

founder of the Scientology cult,

born in Tilden, Nebraska

(d. 1986-@74-stroke)

1901 Paul Fix,

American actor (Rifleman),

born in Dobbs Ferry, New York

(d. 1983-@82)

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97- Al Jaffee,

American comic strip cartoonist and illustrator (MAD Magazine),

born in Savannah, Georgia

69-William H. Macy,

actor

43-Danny Masterson,

actor (That 70’s Show)

34- Emile Hirsch,

American actor (Into the Wild, Speed Racer),

born in Topanga, California

Historical Obits Today

@86-1906 Susan B. Anthony,

American social reformer and women's suffrage movement

leader

@80-1938 Clarence S Darrow,

Scopes Monkey Trial attorney

@67-1901 Benjamin Harrison,

23rd President of the United States (Republican: 1889-93)

@44-1943 Stephen Vincent Benét,

American author

dies of heart attack

Mar 12

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Mar 12, 2019 Week: 11 \ Day: 70

86004 Today: H 48° \ L 28° \ Average Sky Cover: 75% 

Wind:   6mph\Gusts:  8mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 72°[1900]   Record Low: -1°[1917]

Mar Averages: 51°\23° (6 days with rain)

Today’s Quote

One who deceives will always find those

who allow themselves to be deceived.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Random Tidbits

Catholics believe that the pope, who is based in Rome, is the successor to Saint Peter, which Christ appointed as the first head of His church.

Catholics rely more on ritual and ceremony than do most other Christian religions. The intent of the rituals is to create an experience in which faith is felt and religion literally comes to life, with God's presence in the here-and-now world.

Observances This Week

Lent: 6-20

National Catholic Sisters Week: 8-14 

World Rattlesnake Roundup: 8-10

American Council on Education: 9-12

Campfire USA Birthday Week: 10-16

Girl Scout Week: 10-16 

Termite Awareness Week: 10-16

National Agriculture Week: 10-16

International Brain Awareness Week: 11-17 

Turkey Vultures Return to the Living Sign: 11-17

Observances for Today

Alfred Hitchcock Day

Girl Scout Birthday Day Link
IHOP National Pancake Day  Link 
National Milky Way Day

Organize Your Home Office Day

Plant a Flower Day

My Rambling Thoughts

Yesterday was just a lazy day. Enjoyed every minute of it.

Up early this morning to get out and about. Got what I needed and headed home. Got home just as the clouds filled the sky. Weather guy sez and inch or two tomorrow. Last prediction was a bust, but I had my Medicare annual appointment tomorrow at 8:15, so I expect it to be at least 2”.

Hats off to the Poarch Band of the Creek the tribe for stepping up and stepping out to pay the entire funeral expenses of victims of the Alabama tornado. None of the 23 Megachurches in Alabama stepped up, but did offer prayers.

So sad to hear of the Ethiopian plane crash. Focus flew that airline a few years back on our adventure in Ethiopia. It has shown to be a great airline for all of Africa. I hope they find out the cause fast.

Dear 45: I am a democrat and I don’t hate anyone.

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1300’s

1365 University of Vienna founded

1400’s

1455 First record of Johannes Gutenberg's Bible, letter dated this

            day by Enea Silvio Piccolomini refers to the bible printed a year

            before

1600’s

1664 1st naturalization act in American colonies

1700’s

1755 1st steam engine in America installed, to pump water from a mine

1800’s

1850 1st US $20 gold piece issued

1884 Mississippi establishes 1st US state college for women

1894 Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time in a candy store in

            Vicksburg, Mississippi

1900’s

1904 Andrew Carnegie establishes Carnegie Hero Fund

1912 Girl Guides (Girl Scouts) forms in Savannah, by Juliette Gordon Low

1917 A German submarine sinks an unarmed US merchant ship, the

            'Algonquin' on the same day that US President Woodrow Wilson

            gives executive order to arm US merchant ships

1933 FDR conducts his 1st "fireside chat"

1947 US President Harry Truman introduces Truman-doctrine to fight

            communism

1951 Comic strip "Dennis the Menace," 1st appears in the British comic

            magazine The Beano'

1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat pledges to regain Arab territory

            from Israel

1999 Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and

            Poland join NATO.

2000’s

2003 Elizabeth Smart found after having been missing for 9 months.

2011 A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant melts and

            explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day

            after Japan's earthquake.

2018 British Prime Minister Theresa May says Russia was "highly likely"

             to have poisoned a Russian spy and his daughter on March 4

            with nerve agent

2018 Research shows Chinese cites have decreased pollution by 32

            percent on average in just four years

Birthdays Today

1862 Jane Delano,

American nurse/teacher/founder (Red Cross)

(d. 1919-@57)

1921 Gordon MacRae,

American singer and actor (Oklahoma!, Carousel),

born in East Orange, New Jersey

(d. 1986-@64-mouth cancer)

1922 Jack Kerouac,

American Beat writer (On the Road, Mexico Blues),

born in Lowell, Massachusetts

(d. 1969-@47- abdominal hemorrhage)

1923 Walter M Schirra Jr,

Capt USN/ast (Mer 8, Gem 6, Ap 7),

born in Hackensack, New York

(d. 2007-@84)

1928 Edward Albee,

American playwright (Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf?),

born in Virginia

(d. 2016-@88)

1940 Al Jarreau,

American jazz singer (Moonlighting),

born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (

d. 2017-@76-repiratory failure)

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87- Andrew Young,

US ambassador to UN (1977-79)/(Mayor-D-Atlanta)

86- Barbara Feldon,

American actress (Agent 99-Get Smart),

born in Pittsburgh

72- Liza Minnelli,

American singer/actress (Sterile Cuckoo, Cabaret),

born in Hollywood, California

72- Mitt Romney,

70th Republican Governor of Massachusetts and

presidential candidate,

born in Detroit, Michigan

71- James Taylor,

vocalist/guitarist (Up on the Roof),

born in Boston, Massachusetts

69- Jon Provost,

actor (Timmy-Lassie)

Historical Obits Today

@80-2015 Michael Graves,

American postmodernist architect and designer

@68±-1563 John Bull,

English composer, musician and organ builder, credited with

composing Britain's national anthem "God Save The King/Queen"

 (debated)

@67-1914 George Westinghouse,

American entrepreneur, engineer (Westinghouse Electric) and

pioneer of the electrical industry

@65-2012 Michael Hossack,

American drummer (The Doobie Brothers),

dies of cancer

@58-1925 Sun Yat-sen,

Chinese revolutionary and father of modern China,

dies of liver cancer

@54-2003 Cherlynne Theresa "Lynne" Thigpen,  

American actress (Carmen Sandiego, Lean on Me),

dies from stroke

@37±1883 Murrumgunarriman,

[Twopenny],

cricketer (Aboriginal team 1868),

dies of dropsy

@15-1945 Anne Frank,

Dutch diarist and Jewish victim of the Nazi Holocaust

(Diary of Anne Frank),

dies of typhus in the Belsen concentration camp