Sep 24

 

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

Sep 24, 2020  Week: 39 Day: 268                   Local:   H 78° \ L 43° \ Average Sky Cover: 15%

Wind:   8mph\Gusts:  14mph                           Nearest lightning:  270mi.; active fire:  59mi. 

high Risk of Fire                                               Visibility:  10mi

Record: 85°[1947]   Record: 25°[1918]                 Sep Averages: 74°\42° (5 days with rain)

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Today’s  Quote

"I have learned over the years

that when one's mind is made up,

this diminishes fear."

-Rosa Parks

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Random Tidbits

 Let the cat out of the bag

Who would even put a cat in a bag? The answer may lie in medieval markets, where people used to sell piglets tied in bags for farmers to carry home. A shady dealer might swap the piglet in the sack with a less expensive animal, such as a cat. So when you let the cat out of the bag, you were exposing the con to everyone.

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A little humor

Circumventing the globe is simultaneously

making a one-way trip and a round trip.

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Observations This Week

	National Singles Week: 20-26
National Ballroom Dance Week: 18-27  Link	National Rehabilitation Awareness Week: 20-26
Farm Animal Awareness Week: 19-25	National Indoor Plant Week: 20-26
Build A Better Image Week: 20-26	Nat’l Historically Black Colleges/Univ.Week: 20-26
Child Passenger Safety Week: 20-26 Link	National Farm & Ranch Safety/Health Week: 20-26
Deaf Dog Awareness Week: 20-26 Link	Prostate Cancer Awareness Week: 20-26
International Clean Hands Week: 20-26	Tolkien Week: 20-26
Internat’l Interpreters and Translators Week: 20-26	World Reflexology Week: 20-26
International Women's E-Commerce Days: 20-26	National Bike to Work Week: 21-27 Link   Moved from May due to COVID-19
National Dog Week: 20-26 Link   Link  Link	National Love Your Files Week: 21-25  Link
National Employ Older Workers Week: 20-26  Link	Pollution Prevention Week: 21-27 Link

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Observations for Today

Bluebird of Happiness Day Link  Link	Remember Me Thursday
National Cherries Jubilee Day	Schwenkfelder Thanksgiving
National Familial Hypercholesterolemia Day Link	World Maritime Day
Punctuation Day Link

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My Rambling Thoughts

A nice warm day after our yesterday’s enjoyable rain.

Question: A country with 4% of the world’s population has 20% of Covid deaths. How is that country doing in dealing with Covid? Answer from the President is A+.

As if Covid and a hurricane isn’t enough…Houston is dealing with massive flooding. So sad.

Thailand has beautiful countryside and several World Heritage Sites. At one of those sites, a National Park, the government is gathering trash and mailing it back to the visitor’s who left it. Included is a nice note: We are returning some things you left while visiting.

Cindy McCain, wife of the late John McCain, announced she is supporting and voting for Joe Biden this election cycle. WOW!

Our county has had drive thru Covid testing since April, partnering with ASU. That program may end on Oct 10 as the county numbers continue to rise. Why? Money. Neither the county nor Flagstaff city government has money to continue the partnership. The State of AZ has a lot of unspent money from the Feds regarding Covid, but the Governor does not want to release it. I guess our governor doesn’t want to waste it on testing.

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Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

I have a metal roof and a glass wall,

I burn and burn but never fall.

What am I?

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Historical Events

1683 King Louis XIV expels all Jews from French possessions in America

1789 – The United States Post Office was formed.

1869 – Stock market panic due to crashing gold prices caused by an attempt to corner the market by Gould and Fisk.

1890 The President of the Latter-day Saints Wilford Woodruff issues a manifesto advising members that the teaching and practice of polygamy should be abandoned

1948 – The Honda Motor Company was founded in Japan.

1950 Operation Magic Carpet concludes after having transported 45,000 Yemenite Jews to Israel

1952 American fast food restaurant chain "KFC" [Kentucky Fried Chicken] opens its first franchise in Salt Lake City, Utah

1954 – Tonight Show premiered on NBC, hosted by Steve Allan.

1955 US President Eisenhower suffers a heart attack on vacation in Denver

1957 – MLB’s Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field.

1968 – 60 Minutes debuted on CBS.

1971 90 Russian diplomats expelled from Britain for spying

1975 OPEC announces a 15% increase in government per barrel revenues

1976 Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst sentenced to 7 years for her part in a 1974 bank robbery. Released after 22 months by US President Jimmy Carter

1991 – Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik & Nirvana’s Nevermind were released on the same date

1994 National League for Democracy is formed by Aung San Suu Kyi and various others to help fight against dictatorship in Myanmar

1996 U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations.

2015 Pope Francis becomes the 1st pope to address the US Congress. Names Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day as his American heroes.

2019 Nancy Pelosi announces formal impeachment inquiry into US President Donald Trump, arguing that he tried to enlist a foreign power for his own political gain

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Birthdays Today

@89 – Georges Claude, French chemist, and engineer, invented Neon lighting (d. 1960)

@86 – Jim McKay, American sportscaster, and journalist (d. 2008)

75 – Lou Dobbs, American journalist, and author

74 – ‘Mean Joe’ Greene, American football player, coach, actor

62 – Kevin Sorbo, American actor

@56 – Linda McCartney, American singer, photographer, activist (d. 1998; cancer)

@53 – Jim Henson, puppeteer (d. 1990; toxic shock syndrome)

@49 – Phil Hartman, Canadian-American comedic actor (d. 1998; murdered)

@44 – F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist and short-story writer (d. 1940; heart attack)

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Puzzle Answer

A lantern

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Sep 23

 

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

Sep 23, 2020  Week: 39 Day: 267                   Local:   H 80° \ L 40° \ Average Sky Cover: 60%

Wind:   5mph\Gusts: 10mph                            Nearest lightning:  6mi.; active fire:  59mi. 

high Risk of Fire                                               Visibility:  10mi

Record: 86°[1944]   Record: 25°[1970]                  Sep Averages: 74°\42° (5 days with rain)

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Today’s  Quote

"If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship,

don't ask what seat! Just get on."

-Sheryl Sandberg

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Random Tidbits

Give the cold shoulder

Surprisingly, this doesn’t just refer to coldly turning your back on someone. Etymologists think the phrase originated from medieval etiquette. After a feast, hosts in England would subtly signal that the meal was over (and it was time for guests to leave) by serving a cold slice of pork, mutton, or beef shoulder.

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A little humor

From Actual Medical Records

The bugs that grew out of her urine were cultured in the Casualty and are not available. I WILL FIND THEM!!!

The patient left the hospital feeling much better except for her original complaints.

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True Things

 A Minnesota man who collected more than $167,000 in welfare benefits while he had more than $3 million in the bank was sentenced to 21 months in prison. The court heard Colin Chisholm, 63, and his wife, Andrea, 54, collected more than $167,000 in medical and food assistance claims in the seven years leading up to March 2012 and investigators later discovered the couple had more than $3 million in the bank and lived in a $1.6 million mansion in Deephaven. The couple, who once claimed to be Scottish nobility and went by the titles "Lord and Lady Chisholm," were also found to own a luxury yacht worth millions on Lake Minnetonka. Judge Lois Conroy handed down a 21-month prison sentence despite state sentencing guidelines calling for probation. Conroy agreed with prosecutors that prison time was called for due to the severity of the welfare fraud. Chisholm was also ordered to pay $167,420 in restitution following the completion of his prison sentence.

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Observations This Week

Constitution Week: 17-23	National Singles Week: 20-26
National Ballroom Dance Week: 18-27  Link	National Rehabilitation Awareness Week: 20-26
Farm Animal Awareness Week: 19-25	National Indoor Plant Week: 20-26
Build A Better Image Week: 20-26	Nat’l Historically Black Colleges/Univ.Week: 20-26
Child Passenger Safety Week: 20-26 Link	National Farm & Ranch Safety/Health Week: 20-26
Deaf Dog Awareness Week: 20-26 Link	Prostate Cancer Awareness Week: 20-26
International Clean Hands Week: 20-26	Tolkien Week: 20-26
Internat’l Interpreters and Translators Week: 20-26	World Reflexology Week: 20-26
International Women's E-Commerce Days: 20-26	National Bike to Work Week: 21-27 Link   Moved from May due to COVID-19
National Dog Week: 20-26 Link   Link  Link	National Love Your Files Week: 21-25  Link
National Employ Older Workers Week: 20-26  Link	Pollution Prevention Week: 21-27 Link

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Observations for Today

Celebrate Bi-sexuality Day	National Snack Stick Day  Link
Checkers Day; Dogs in Politics Day Link	National White Chocolate Day
Innergize Day	Restless Legs Awareness Day
International Day of Sign Languages	Teal Talk Day  Link
Nat’l Great American Pot Pie Day  Link	UK's National Fitness Day
	Za'atar Day Link

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My Rambling Thoughts

First day of Fall may bring some moisture…the clouds are very dark grey. Dug around and found my fall decoration for the front door. I’m ready! So excited, a nice rain just started. Cooled things off to a nice 70 degrees.

Excited to see the new Cosmos season with Neil de Grasse Tyson tonight. He always does a great job.

While watching the football games on Sunday, I wondered why some coaches were not wearing masks. Guess I was right to wonder. The Bronco’s, 49er’s, and Seahawk’s teams were each fined for it…a whopping $350,000 per team.

There are some new neighbors moving into the next building. Each day since Sunday they have arrived with a U-Haul truck to unload. I guess they used to live nearby. I’m not stalking them; their truck is noisy when it drives past my place…every morning about 8:00am.

Here is some interesting data: Colorado is third on the list of the most highly educated population in the United States, securing the first place in the states with the highest percentage of associate degree holders or college-experienced adults. It also has the second highest percentage of bachelor’s degree holders and quality of education.

Colorado is among the states with the highest education level and highest income, according to WalletHub. The state celebrated this win when The Denver Post proudly said “Colorado Wields Most Brain Power West of Mississippi, Ranking says” in their headline.

The high level of cultural diversity in Arizona makes it more difficult for its citizens to get a high-quality education. USA Today says only 79.4% of children in Arizona are raised with parents who speak English fluently. It is one of the smallest percentages all over the nation. Arizona’s unique landscape contributes to this difficulty as well, experts say.

This results in the state’s notoriously low graduation rates. To fare better next year, the state needs to focus on educational reforms and better cater to students who don’t speak English as their first language.

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Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

Two men find an old gold coin and want to have a coin toss with it to decide who gets to keep it. The only problem is the coin is heavier on one side so it comes up heads more than tails.

What is a fair way for the men to toss the coin and decide who gets to keep it?

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Historical Events

1642 – Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had its 1^st graduating class.

1846 – German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet Neptune.

1913 – Mark Sennet presented the first Keystone Cops film, although some say it was Hoffmeyer’s Legacy, in 1912.

1932 Abdulaziz Ibn Saud merges the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

1938 – A time capsule, to be opened in 6939, was buried at World’s Fair in NYC.

1950 Nobel peace prize awarded to Ralph Bunche for mediation in Israel - 1st African American winner

1952 Richard Nixon makes his "Checker's" speech

1955 – When James Dean first met Alec Guinness (Ben Kenobi) he asked him to take a look at his brand new Porsche Spyder. Guinness told Dean: “If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week.” This encounter took place on September 23, seven days before Dean’s death.

1957 White mob forces 9 black students enrolled at Little Rock's Central High School in Arkansas to withdraw

1957 – The first movie (1953) to become a TV series was How to Marry a Millionaire. It was syndicated and not on a regular network.

1962- The Jetsons cartoon debuted on ABC – ABC’s first full-color program.

1986 – The U.S. Congress voted the rose the official flower of the US.

1988 – Jose Canseco became baseball’s first player to steal 40 bases & hit 40 Home Runs in a season. He later admitted to using steroids.

2007 – During the 2007 baseball season, the Los Angeles Dodgers added an infielder named Chin-Lung Hu. After Hu singled in his third at-bat in a game on September 23, Dodgers announcer Vin Scully said, “Shades of Abbott and Costello, I can finally say, ‘Hu is on first base.'”

2018 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches "Modicare", free healthcare for 500 million, world's biggest healthcare program

2019 Climate activist Greta Thunberg scolds world leaders "How Dare You" for not addressing climate change at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York

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Birthdays Today

1897 – Walter Pidgeon, Canadian-American actor, and singer (died in 1984)

@93 – Mickey Rooney, American actor, and singer (d. 2014)

@40 – John Coltrane, American saxophonist, composer (d. 1967; liver cancer)

@73 – Ray Charles, singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (d. 2004; liver failure)

77 – Julio Iglesias, Spanish singer-songwriter

71 – Bruce Springsteen, American singer-songwriter

61 – Jason Alexander, American actor, singer, and voice artist

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Puzzle Answer

They toss the coin twice.  Each man picks heads or tails on the first coin toss and on the second coin toss they switch.  So, if you picked heads on the first coin toss you would have tails for the second coin toss.  In this way no one has an advantage over the other.

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