10 May

 

 
Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 20 Day: 130 \ Ave. sky cover: 5% \ Visibility: 10 miles Flagstaff Today 67° \39° 
Wind: 8mph \ Gusts: 16mph
Extreme risk of fire \ Nearest active fire: 12mi \ nearest Lightning: 963mi
May Averages for Flagstaff: 68° \ 34°  (3 days of moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

3-11  (World) Dystonia Awareness Week Link

6-12  National Nurses Day and Week: Link  Link

6-15 National Public Gardens Week  Link

8-14   Food Allergy Awareness Week  Link National Nursing Home Week National Return To Work Week   National Women's Health Week  Tick Awareness Week

8-15 Reading is Fundamental Week  Link   Salvation Army Week   Salvation Army Week   Work At Home Moms Week

9-13   Economic Development Week  Link National Etiquette Week

9-15  National Hospital Week  Link National Stuttering Awareness Week

10-12   Community Health Improvement Week (CHI) Link

 

Daily Observations

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Another warm and windy day.

I headed out to get a pedicure this morning. The place I go was closed for ‘cleaning’. Guess I have to wait until tomorrow. I will do some checking, to be sure this was routine or if there was a problem.

I want to remain positive, but it is hard when thinking about technology. Biden announced a partnership with Internet providers to lower the costs for low-income households.  The deals would give some superfast internet (100+mps) to eligible households for around $30/mo. I probably won’t qualify. Further, I have lived the internet provider’s hype ever since I signed up for dial-up with AOL. I am currently paying about $50/month for internet that is bundled with my landline. Their promise is ‘up to 80mps’. I get about 50mps most of the time. Due to all the problems with the cookies added my websites that then send numerous emails and ads, I also have a VPN…virtual private network. That causes other problems. First it slows my internet to about 30mps. Second, some sites only let me log in to my account when I turn off the VPN. My bank is one of those, so if I try to access my account, the bank says it doesn’t recognize me and must send me a code to my phone so I can log on. Credit Karma says to turn off the VPN to access my account. It can get very tiresome very quickly. There doesn’t seem to be a workaround to keep the VPN on. My brother also has crappy internet in Mexico. He checked into Elon Musk’s satellite connection. It isn’t that expensive and promises very high speed…not ‘the up to’ of other providers. The problem is it is a 6 month. He signed up, waited 6 months. He called and they said it would be another 6-8 months. He cancelled the request. A week later he called to reclaim his cancellation. They said sorry, once you are cancelled you must sign up again and get in at the end of the line. As my mom would say: You just can’t win for losing.

US Marshalls have recaptured the guard and prison who escaped in Alabama. The former guard shot herself during capture. I’m sure this story will continue.

Favorite Memes

	Sturdy Tree!

 

Safest Cities in the World

8. Vienna, Austria

The riverside Austrian capital boasts imperial palaces, art galleries, museums, and oozes modern culture that appeals to travelers from every corner of the world. Vienna was also the home of Mozart and Beethoven, giving it even more clout. The icing on the cake is that visitors can enjoy the charms of the city in peace. Violent crimes and muggings are rare here. Just take the normal precautions against pickpockets and be logical when it comes to bargaining with locals and you’ll easily avoid getting robbed or scammed.

9. Niagara Falls, Canada

One of the most internationally recognized places in North America is also one of the safest. The locals are very friendly to visitors and violent crime is practically nil. The only thing tourists really need to be careful of is the water and mist around the famous falls, which can cause slippery conditions. Keep your footing and a holiday here is all gravy. By the way, the city of Niagara Falls isn’t just a pretty (waterfall) face – it’s also renowned for its breweries, wineries, boutiques, casinos, and festivals. Is there any reason not to visit this Canadian wonderland?

State Trivia

Maine: it has a desert

Forests, sandy beaches, lakes, and lighthouses are all things we'd expect to find in Maine, but it also has its own desert. Just a 20-minute drive from Portland you'll find the 40-acre Desert of Maine. Surrounded by coastal forest, the discovery of the glacial sand dunes was the result of over-farming. As the soil became depleted of essential nutrients, the topsoil erosion exposed the sand lying underneath. Turned into a tourist attraction in 1925, it's not a true geological desert as it still receives precipitation.

Maryland: you must pay for using your own bathroom

In a bid to improve sewage treatment plants and stop oxygen-destroying algae from blooming in the Chesapeake Bay, a 2004 Maryland law, also dubbed the flush tax, was signed. The $30-a-year fee (now $60) was imposed on all Maryland residents who own a property with a building on it and applies whether they use public water and sewer systems or septic tanks. This means that Maryland residents pay $5 a month for using the toilet.

Massachusetts: it has the longest place name in the US

Webster Lake in Massachusetts is a charming spot, with summer cottages dotting the shoreline and lush greenery hugging its coast. However, Webster Lake is also not its name at all. The third longest place name in the world and the longest in the United States, the lake is actually called Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. That is Algonquin for "Fishing Place at the Boundaries—Neutral Meeting Grounds" Fun fact? The name has more letters G (15) than the lake's average depth, which is 13 feet (3.9m).

Historical Events

Ø    1774 – Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette became King and Queen of France
Ø    1824 – The National Gallery in London opened to the public.
Ø    1876 – The Centennial Exposition opened in Philadelphia
Ø    1877 – US President Rutherford B. Hayes has the White House’s first telephone installed in the ‘telegraph room.’
Ø    1975 – Sony’s Betamax, the first home videocassette recorder, went on sale in Japan
Ø    1980 – The US Government gave Chrysler a $1.5 billion loan.
Ø    1994 – Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was sworn in as the first black president of South Africa.
Ø    2013 – One World Trade Center became the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, at 1,776 feet.

Birthdays Today

@88 – Fred Astaire, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1987)

@63 – David O. Selznick, American director, producer (d. 1965; heart attacks)

@69 – Nancy Walker, American character actress (d. 1992; lung cancer)

62 – Bono [Paul David Hewson], Irish singer-songwriter, musician, activist

43 – Kennan Thompson, comedian [SNL]

@26 – John Wilkes Booth, actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1865; shot)

@21 – Sid Vicious [Simon John Ritchie], English singer and bass player (d. 1979; OD)

 

May 9

 
Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 20 Day: 129 \ Ave. sky cover: 5% \ Visibility: 10 miles Flagstaff Today 7° \40° 
Wind: 8mph \ Gusts: 20mph
Extreme risk of fire \ Nearest active fire: 12mi \ nearest Lightning: 551mi
May Averages for Flagstaff: 68° \ 34°  (3 days of moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

3-11  (World) Dystonia Awareness Week Link

6-12  National Nurses Day and Week: Link  Link

6-15 National Public Gardens Week  Link

8-14   Food Allergy Awareness Week  Link National Nursing Home Week National Return To Work Week   National Women's Health Week  Tick Awareness Week

8-15 Reading is Fundamental Week  Link   Salvation Army Week   Salvation Army Week   Work At Home Moms Week

9-13   Economic Development Week  Link National Etiquette Week

9-15  National Hospital Week  Link National Stuttering Awareness Week

 

Daily Observations

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Another windy day. Warm and windy. The wind should die down about 4pm. Oops weather service just extended the wind advisory through 6pm tomorrow. Oh well. It sounds like the picture party for our French Polynesia adventure went very well. Sorry I missed it. Anne emailed me to keep me informed.

There were 8 illegal campfires in the forest close to Flagstaff on Saturday. Our fire department and the forest service took care of it, including big fines for those who did it. From the news report, it sounds like all the campfires were started by visitors to our fair city. Two different ones were started at Air B&B spots.

The May Day parade in Russia was originally to honor workers. The Victory Day parade today began after the Cuban Missile Crisis to promote their military’s defeat of the Nazis in 1945.

Sargassum seaweed is infecting Mexico’s Caribbean beaches. When the floating brown seaweed washes ashore, it smells like sulfur. That messes up tourist trade. Since February the Mexican government has taken 97tons of it from the ocean and 900 tons from their beaches. WOW!

Favorite Memes

 

Safest Cities in the World New

10. Abu Dhabi, UAE

Interestingly, over half of this middle eastern city’s population is made up of ex-pats! Foreigners flock to Abu Dhabi for business opportunities but end up staying because of its extremely safe and easy-going atmosphere. Ritzy, glitzy and at the same time traditional and charming, Abu Dhabi is one of the safest cities in the middle east as well as the world. Travelers have a very low risk of being mugged, pickpocketed, or scammed and women report feeling just as safe in Abu Dhabi as they do in other European and North American cities.

State Trivia

Kansas: it's home to the world's largest ball of twine

A rather unusual record to hold, Cawker City in Kansas is home to the world's largest ball of twine. Started in 1953 by a local man Frank Stoeber, the giant ball stood eight feet (2.4m) tall just four years after Frank started it. He donated the ball to the city in 1961 and work on it has continued ever since. Every August a twine-a-thon is held when local residents and visitors continue adding twine to the massive ball. Currently, it's estimated to contain eight million feet (2,438km) of twine.

Kentucky: you can't buy bourbon everywhere in the state

Kentucky is well known for its bourbon – today it's home to such famous distilleries like Jim Beam, Maker's Mark and Bulleit. It's also a well-known fact that barrels of bourbon outnumber people by about two million, however, you might be surprised to find that buying the famous libation isn't actually possible everywhere in the state. Out of Kentucky's 120 counties, about a third are completely dry with no liquor sales allowed and another 49 are moist, meaning alcohol is only legal in certain places. That leaves just 32 counties were alcohol is fully legal.

Louisiana: Lake Pontchartrain Causeway bridge is the world's longest over a body of water

Stretching an astonishing 24 miles (38.6km) across Lake Pontchartrain, the bridge provides a direct connection between Metairie in New Orleans in the south and Mandeville in the north. The first two-lane span of the causeway took just 14 months to build and was opened in 1956, with the second parallel bridge following in 1969. For a stretch of eight miles (12.8km) there's no sight of land at all so motorists have been known to freeze and police have had to then escort them off the bridge.

Historical Events

Ø    1662 – The precursor to Mr. Punch made his first recorded appearance in England.
Ø    1671 – Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempted to steal England’s Crown Jewels.
Ø    1865 – The patent (#47,631) was issued to Richard Jordan Gatling for the Gatling gun, which was the first to successfully combine reliability, high firing rate, and ease of loading into a single device.
Ø    1887 – Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show opened in London, England.
Ø    1893 – The first motion picture exhibition was presented by Thomas Edison in Brooklyn, New York to an audience of 400 people at the Dept of Physics, Brooklyn Institute, Brooklyn, NY using his Kinetograph.
Ø    1914 – Although referred to since the late 1800s, US President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first Mother’s Day holiday on this date.
Ø    1955 – West Germany joined NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
Ø    1958 – Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo has its world premiere in San Francisco.
Ø    1960 – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the world’s first commercially produced birth-control bill-Enovid-10.
Ø    1961 – Newton Minow, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, referred to television as the “vast wasteland”
Ø    1974 – The United States House Committee on the Judiciary opened impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon.
Ø    2001 – In Ghana, 129 football fans died in the Accra Sports Stadium Stampede Disaster.   
Ø    2015 – Russia staged a large military parade in Moscow’s Red Square to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Victory Day.

Birthdays Today

@93 – Mike Wallace, American journalist and media personality (d. 2012)

@82 – Albert Finney, English actor (d. 2019)

@77 – J.M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and playwright (d. 1937; pneunomia)

76 – Candice Bergen, American actress

73 – Billy Joel, American singer-songwriter and pianist

@64 – Howard Carter, English archaeologist, historian (d. 1939; Hodgkin's disease)

60 – John Corbett, American actor [Northern Exposure]

@59 – John Brown, American activist (d. 1859; hanged)

43 – Rosario Dawson, American actress