Aug 16

 

Aug 16, 2021 Week: 34 Day: 228

Ave. Sky Cover:  15%\Visibility: 10 miles

Local Temp:   83°\ 52° Wind: 7mph\ Gusts: 10mph

Moderate risk of fire Active fire: 205mi. \ Lightning: 23mi.

Aug Averages: 79°\50° (9 days w/moisture) 

Today’s Quote

  

Weekly Observations

 

National Environmental Services Week: Link	2-20
Elvis Week Link	11-17
National Aviation Week National Chef's Appreciation Week Link	15-21

 

Daily Oberservations

 

Airborne Day Bratwurst Day Roller Coaster Day Rum Day Tell a Joke Day (Joe Miller’s Day) Wave at Surveillance Day

 

 

Favorite Memes

 

  

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 

Great summer day…warm, slight breeze, couldn’t ask for more.

Sounds like the US has pulled out of Afghanistan. Yesterday the Embassy was burning and shredding documents and US flags. Today the Embassy is empty, while the Embassy staff is awaiting a flight at the airport. I sure hope the translators and locals who helped us are not forgotten or left behind.

Now Utah, near Salt Lake City, has a huge wildfire. 6000+ acres.

I must wonder when, if ever, the politicians will learn that American troops can’t just go into a country, and magically change their culture. We didn’t learn in Native American areas, or Vietnam. Neither did the US nor the USSR learn in Afghanistan. So sad.

Politicians are not all seeing. In FL, where mask mandates are illegal, 3 school teachers have died from COVID.

AZ Diamondbacks have entered the record books. While they are the lowest team for wins, a new pitcher, Tyler Gilbert, pitched a no hitter yesterday. He is the 4^th pitcher to have one in his 1^st MLB game. The others were in 1891, 1892, and 1953. Cool.

 

Historical Events

 

1501 Michelangelo awarded the contract to create his statue of David by the Overseers of the Office of Works (the Operai) of the Duomo, Florence's cathedral church

1880 The French state commissions sculptor Auguste Rodin for a large sculpted doorway 'The Gates of Hell' for the proposed Musée des Arts Décoratifs

1896 – Gold was found in Rabbit Creek, leading to the Great Klondike Gold Rush in Canada.

1908 The Committee of Union and Progress, 'The Young Turks', announces a program for reforms and respect for the rights of all within the Ottoman Empire, regardless of race or religion

1962 – Pete Best was discharged from The Beatles, to be replaced two days later by Ringo Starr.

2012 Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange is granted political asylum by Ecuador

2018 Pope Francis and the Vatican issues statement in support of the 300 victims of "predator priests" in Pennsylvania

2020 Largest-ever demonstration in Belarus as 100,000 people gather in Minsk to protest against controversial election results and regime of Alexander Lukashenko

 

Birthdays Today

 

88 – Julie Newmar, American actress

@85 – Fess Parker, American actor (d. 2010)

@84 – Frank Gifford, football player, sportscaster (d. 2015)

@84 – Eydie Gormé, American singer (d. 2013)

@79 – Robert Culp, American actor (d. 2010; heart attack)

68 – Kathie Lee Gifford, American talk show host

67 – James Cameron, Canadian director, producer and screenwriter

63 – Madonna, American singer-songwriter and actress

63 – Angela Bassett, American actress

61 – Timothy Hutton, American actor

@46 – T. E. Lawrence, British colonel, diplomat, writer, archaeologist (d. 1935; motorcycle accident)

 

 

 

Aug 15

 

Aug 15, 2021 Week: 34 Day: 227
Ave. Sky Cover:  20%\Visibility: 10 miles
Local Temp:   80°\ 58° Wind: 6mph\ Gusts: 7mph
High risk of fire Active fire: 285mi. \ Lightning: 258mi.
Aug Averages: 79°\50° (9 days w/moisture) 

Today’s Quote

  

 

Weekly Observations

 

National Environmental Services Week: Link	2-20
Sturgis Rally: Link	6-15
Safe and Sound Week Link US Amateur Golf Week	9-15
Elvis Week Link	11-17
National Hobo Week Link	12-15
National Aviation Week National Chef's Appreciation Week Link	15-21

 

Favorite Memes

 

 

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 Nice summer day. Looks like no monsoon today.

Cards win against Cowboys in preseason, very sloppy game.

Haiti can’t seem to catch a break. Hurricane, assassination, and today another earthquake. They certainly need help.

The US needs to do much more and much faster to help Americans and Afghans who helped us. Those Afghans helped us for almost 20 years and are now certainly on the Taliban hit list. This is a bad mark for the US and for the Biden Administration. What a mostly preventable mess.

When I first came to Flagstaff, almost 50 years ago, the local paper had an article about what to call residents of Flagstaff. Now, 50 years later, the question and many polls later, there is  still no one answer. Here are the most popular: Flagstaffer, Flagstonian, Flagstaff resident, Flagstaffian. Since there is no end in site to this debate, just call me lucky to live here.

 

Historical Events

1635 1st recorded north American hurricane hits the Plymouth Colony

1824 Freed American slaves establish Liberia on the West African coast through the American Colonization Society (ACS)

1900 The Boxer Rebellion: In China, the Empress, her family, and court retainers flee while foreign troops move through Peking in an attempt to quell the rebellion

1914 The first large public gathering of Boers in South Africa who do not want to support Britain in a war against Germany; British authorities will try to repress this movement, but discontent spreads

1945 US wartime rationing of gasoline & fuel oil ends

1960 Congo (formerly Congo/Brazzaville) declares Independence from France

1971 US President Richard Nixon announces 90-day freeze on wages, prices & rents

1994 Terrorist Carlos the Jackal, captured in Khartoum Sudan

2008 Lee Berger and his nine-year-old son, Matthew, discover the two-million-year-old fossils of a new species of human ancestor (Australopithecus sediba) at Malapa Cave, South Africa

2017 Barack Obama's tweet "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion..." in response to Charlottesville violence becomes most-liked tweet ever

2019 Israel bars US Democratic congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from entering for supporting Palestinian-led boycott movement

 

Birthdays Today

 

@92 – Phyllis Schlafly, right-wing crusader, (d. 2016)

@91 – Julia Child, chef (d. 2004)

83 – Maxine Waters, American politician (Rep-D-California)

83 – Stephen Breyer, Justice of the Supreme Court

@71 – Walter Scott, Scottish historical novelist, poet (The Lady of the Lake, Rob Roy) (d. 1832; stroke)

57 – Melinda French Gates, American philanthropist, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

@51 – Napoleon Bonaparte, French military leader, Emperor of the French (d. 1851)

49 – Ben Affleck, actor  

 

 

 

Aug 14

 

Aug 14, 2021 Week: 33 Day: 226
Ave. Sky Cover:  20%\Visibility: 10 miles
Local Temp:   83°\ 56° Wind: 3mph\ Gusts: 5mph
Low risk of fire Active fire:362 mi. \ Lightning: 59mi.
Aug Averages: 79°\50° (9 days w/moisture) 

Today’s Quote

  

 

Weekly Observations

 

National Environmental Services Week: Link	2-20
Sturgis Rally: Link	6-15
National Motorcycle Week Link  Feeding Pets of the Homeless Week Link  Link   National Resurrect Romance Week Weird Contest Week	8-14
Safe and Sound Week Link US Amateur Golf Week	9-15
Numismatic Week (World's Fair of Money)	10-14
Elvis Week Link	11-17
National Hobo Week Link	12-15

 

Daily Oberservations

 

Creamsicle Day Navajo Code Talkers Day VJ Day

 

 

Favorite Memes

 

 

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Hoping for more monsoon rain showers today. It looks like they will get here in the late afternoon.

Today is Navajo Code Talkers Day, started by President Reagan in the 1980’s. While at NAU, I took a summer class on Navajo Culture taught by a Mennonite missionary who spoke and taught a Navajo Language class at NAU. Navajos were impressed with his language skills. One morning we had a guest speaker. He was the Anglo Marine who suggested and supported the Code Talker idea. Back during the war, he met with Navajo Marines here in a Flagstaff motel room to recruit the first group of Code Talkers. After that there were several classes of Code Talkers who went to the Pacific front to send coded messages to American troops fighting the Japanese. It was the only ‘code’ that wasn’t figured out by the enemy. Code Talker Dictionary

Big story in the sports world: The first ever MLB game in Ohio. This game was the Yankees v Red Sox in a cornfield, just like the movie Field of Dreams. Only 8000 could get tickets @ $1400 each. It sold out to see the Sox beat the Yankees. Very cool.

Lollapalooza, the big music festival, was NOT a super spreader. Over 4 days some 385,000 attended. Over 90% were vaccinated. Now 2 weeks later there are only 203 cases traced to the event and none required hospitalization.

Census Data from 2020 came out. Some interesting stuff:

·        White population is down from 69.1% in 2000 to 57.8 in 2020

·        Hispanic population is up from 12.5% to 18.7%

·        Black population remained steady at 12.1%

·        Asian/Pacific is up from 3.6% to 5.9%

·        Native American remained steady at .7%

In addition, the ‘Red’ states gained more population than the ‘Blue’ states. CA will lose one seat for the first time in its history.

The Afghanistan situation is getting worse by the hour. I must wonder if sending in troops will help. It might help save American citizens still there and the thousands who helped us during the past 20 years. The success or failure of this withdrawal will fall directly on President Biden. None of his advisors expected the Taliban to move this quickly or that the regular troops of Afghans would respond so poorly. Taliban are Sunni and translates to ‘students’ or ‘seekers’. What a mess.

 

Historical Events

 

1592 – The Falkland Islands were discovered by John Davis.

1846 Henry David Thoreau jailed for refusing to pay taxes

1935 – Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired.

1945 V-J Day, Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II (also August 15 depending on time zone)

1945 Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh movement launch a coordinated uprising against French rule across Vietnam following the Japanese surrender

1975 – The Gager’s Diner softball team played the Bend’n Elbow Tavern team for 365 innings, to raise money for the Montecillo Community General Hospital (NY) for the construction of a softball field.

The Gagers won, 491-467. It remains the longest softball game of all time.

1975 – The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running release in film history, opened in London.

2017 US President Donald Trump condemns racist violence at the White House after criticism of his earlier response to Charlottesville violence

 

Birthdays Today

 

80 – David Crosby, American singer-songwriter

76 – Steve Martin, American actor, comedian and screenwriter

75 – Susan Saint James, American actress

74 – Danielle Steel, American author

71 – Gary Larson, American cartoonist, The Far Side

62 – Magic Johnson, American basketball player

55 – Halle Berry, model, actress, Miss World United States 1986

53 – Catherine Bell, English-American actress

38 – Mila Kunis, Ukrainian-American actress

34 – Tim Tebow, American football and baseball player