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Jul. 20, 2019
Week: 29 \ Day: 201
86004: H /83° \ L 54° \ Average Sky Cover: 40%
Nearest
wildfire: 10mi. Nearest lightning: 361mi
Wind: 13mph\Gusts:
24mph
Visibility: 10 mi
Record High: 91°[1939] Record Low: 42°[1940]
Jul Averages:
82°\542° (8 day with rain)
Today’s Quote
Better keep yourself clean and bright;
you are the window through which
you must see the world.
George Bernard Shaw
Random Tidbits
Before
the Civil War, schools did not have summer vacation. In rural communities, kids
had school off during the spring planting and fall harvest while urban schools
were essentially year-round. The long summer holiday didn't come about until
the early 20th century.
If
you have to choose between being bit by a venomous snake or touching a
poisonous frog, you might want to go with the snake. As it turns out, snakes
don't always inject venom when they bite: Some 20 percent or more of bites from
venomous snakes are "dry bites" that create a wound but don't include
venom. Poisonous animals can't choose when to apply their toxins.
Some
animals you might not know are venomous; the duck-billed platypus, the gila
monster, centipedes, Millipedes, the komodo dragon and coral!
Observances This Week
6-28
Tour de France
Tour de France
14-20
15-21
Rabbit Week
17-20
18-21
18-25
Restless Leg
Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week
19-21
19-21
20-24
20-28
Observances for Today
Celebration of The Horse Day: 19-21
Robin Hood Day: 19-21
Robin Hood Day: 19-21
Fortune Cookie Day
National Bridal Sale Day
National Ice Cream Sundae Day
National Ice Cream Sundae Day
National Lollipop
Day Link
Space Exploration Day Link
Strawberry Rhubarb Wine Day Link
Toss Away "Could Haves" and "Should Haves" Day
Ugly Truck Day
Space Exploration Day Link
Strawberry Rhubarb Wine Day Link
Toss Away "Could Haves" and "Should Haves" Day
Ugly Truck Day
My Rambling Thoughts
I
am updating the Focus Travel Club site. It should be completed by tomorrow. I
did finish updating the Home page, but still have some new adventures to add.
I
was out and about early this morning to pick up some much-needed things. As
with most trips like this, I also found stuff I didn’t know I needed, but
picked up anyway. I had to make three trips to get the stuff into the house. My
young next-door neighbor was in her car, she saw me with the first load, got
out of her car and asked if I needed help carrying stuff in. Nice, but I was
doing just fine. Not sure if this is a perk of being a senior, or if I should
be offended. I’ll take it as a perk.
Vlad,
our Russian tour guide, has left Hong Kong and is headed to Moscow through Vietnam.
He keeps me posted on his Facebook page. He also mentioned he hopes to see
Focus in Denver, someday.
Slowly
getting back to a normal life in Flagstaff. Tomorrow our discussion group meets
to discuss Nuclear Negotiations. I’m expecting a good discussion at one of our
newest member’s home. I’ve got a bit of reading to do to prepare for the discussion.
Guess there is no late-night partying tonight. Haha.
Flying
long-haul flights is always interesting. On the Beijing to Newark flight, I had
the aisle seat. A young Chinese businessman was in the middle, and Annette, a
Focus traveler had the window seat. The Chinese guy and I had an interesting
discussion about culture, acceptance, and living in the US today. He really
liked the ‘Salad-bowl’ concept vs the ‘Melting Pot’ concept. ‘Salad-bowl’ means
that America is made better with letting individual cultures keep their
identity instead of simply ‘melting’ in to a grey soup with no real identity.
He also mentioned how impressed he was with our ‘liberal’ views…something he
had not expected on his journey. Then we all slept.
I
talked to Ellie yesterday. She was in a great mood and said that it was because
she is seeing a chiropractor that fellow Focus traveler, Betty, has been using
for years. Ellie said that she had been fearing that her pain would become part
of everyday life but that the chiropractor has done wonders and that she will
keep up the adjustments for a pain-free life. Great news.
Today’s Puzzle
Answer at the bottom of this page
When I’m first said,
I’m quite mysterious,
But when I’m explained,
I’m nothing serious.
What am I?
Today’s Highlighted Historical Events
1300’s
1304 Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of
Stirling Castle - King Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold of
the war
1700’s
1749 Earl of Chesterfield says "Idleness
is only refuge of weak minds"
1800’s
1810 Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada (now
Colombia), declare independence from Spain
1837 Euston railway station opens in London as
the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR), the city's 1st
intercity railway station
1878 1st telephone introduced in Hawaii
1881 Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull,
surrenders to US federal troops
1900’s
1917 Pact of Corfu signed: Serbs, Croats &
Slovenes form Yugoslavia
1921 Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson
becomes the first woman to preside over the floor of US House of
Representatives
1924 Tehran, Persia comes under martial law
after the American vice consul, Robert Imbrie, is killed by a religious mob
enraged by rumors he had poisoned a fountain and killed several people
1926 A convention of the Methodist Church
votes to allow women to become priests.
1928 The government of Hungary issues a decree
ordering Gypsies to end their nomadic ways, settle permanently in one place,
subject themselves to the same laws and taxes as other Hungarians
1933 In London, 500,000 march against
anti-Semitism
1942 1st detachment of Women's Army Auxiliary
Corps, begin basic training
1953 The United Nations Economic and Social
Council votes to make UNICEF a permanent agency
1964 1st surfin' record to go #1-Jan &
Dean's "Surf City"
1969 Apollo 11 lunar module carrying Neil
Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins lands on the surface of the Moon;
Aldrin and Armstrong walk on the moon seven hours later
1975 India expels three reporters from
"The Times", "The Daily Telegraph", and
"Newsweek" because they refuse to sign a pledge to abide by
government censorship
1977 The Central Intelligence Agency releases
documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind
control experiments
1989 Burma government puts author Aung San Suu
Kyi under house arrest
1989 Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's show
opens at Washington, D.C.'s Project for the Arts after the Smithsonian
Institution's Corcoran Gallery cancels it
2000’s
2000 Terrorist Carlos the Jackal sues France
in the European Court of Human Rights for allegedly torturing him
2005 Canada becomes the fourth country in the
world to legalize same-sex marriage, after the bill C-38 receives its Royal
Assent
2017 Elon Musk tweets he has "verbal
government approval" to build 29-minute Hyperloop between New York and
Washington D.C.
2017 China announces a plan against “foreign
garbage” banning 24 categories of plastic and recyclable waste from 2018
Highlighted Birthdays Today
356 BC Alexander the Great,
Macedonian king and military leader, born in
Pella, Macedonia (modern Greece) (d. 323 BC: @32: fever)
1822 Gregor Mendel,
Austrian monk and geneticist (discoverer of
laws of heredity), born in Heinzendorf, Austria (d. 1884: @61)
1919 Edmund Hillary,
Explorer and Mountaineer (1st to scale Mt
Everest with Tenzing Norgay), born in Auckland, New Zealand (d. 2008: @88)
1931 Marina Popovich,
Soviet Air Force colonel, engineer and test
pilot (102 world records), born in Leonenki, Smolensk Oblast, USSR, birth date
uncertain (d. 2017: @86)
1938 Natalie Wood
[Natasha Gurdin],
American actress (Gypsy, Rebel Without a
Cause, West Side Story), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1981: @43:
drowning)
1958 Billy Mays,
ENTREPRENEUR, TV commercials (d. 2009: @50:
OD)
80’s
81- Diana Rigg,
Doncaster England, actress (Emma
Peel-Avengers, Hospital)
70’s
72- Carlos Santana,
Mexican rock guitarist (Santana-Black Magic
Woman), born in Autlán de Navarro
60’s
62- Donna Dixon,
American actress, former beauty queen, and
wife of actor Dan Aykroyd (Couch Trip, Bossom Buddies), born in Alexandria,
Virginia
40’s
48- Sandra Oh,
Korean Canadian actress (Grey's Anatomy), born
in Nepean, Ontario
46- Omar Epps,
Actor
Highlighted Historical Obits Today
80’s
@85-2005 James Doohan,
Canadian actor (Star Trek)
@80-2007 Bill Flemming,
American journalist and sportscaster (ABC's
Wide World of Sports)
60’s
@65-2007 Tammy Faye Bakker (Messner),
American Christian singer and former wife of
Jim Bakker (The PTL Club), dies from cancer
@63-1937 Guglielmo Marconi,
Italian engineer/marquis (radio, Nobel 1909),
dies of a heart attack
50’s
@59-1983 Frank Reynolds,
news anchor (ABC Evening News), dies from multiple
myeloma
@55-1923 Pancho Villa
[José Doroteo Arango Arámbula],
Mexican revolutionary general and guerrilla leader,
murdered
@52-1984 Jim Fixx,
American jogger and writer (Jim Fixx on
Running), dies after heart attack
40’s
@48-1926 Felix Dzerzhinsky
[Iron Felix, Bloody Felix],
Soviet statesman, established and developed
Soviet secret police (Cheka, forerunner to the KGB), dies after heart attack
30’s
@32-1973 Bruce Lee
[Lee Yuen Kam],
Hong Kong and American martial artist and
actor (Enter the Dragon), dies of cerebral edema
Puzzle answer:
RIDDLE.
