May 27

 

 
Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 22 Day: 147 \ Ave. sky cover: 5% \ Visibility: 10 miles Flagstaff Today 83° \41° 
Wind: 10mph \ Gusts: 18mph
Extreme risk of fire \ Nearest active fire: 10mi \ nearest Lightning: 1071mi
May Averages for Flagstaff: 68° \ 34°  (3 days of moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

17-28 Cannes Film Festival

22-28   National Backyard Games Week National Safe Boating Week World Schizophrenia Awareness Week  Link Healthy and Safe Swimming Week Link

23-6/5   National Seat Belt Reinforcement Week Link

23-27  Undergraduate Research Week: Link

24-29 Mule Days  Link

25-30 Fleet Week

25-31 Week of Solidarity With The People of Non-Self-Governing Territories

26-31 Fleet Week (NY)

26-29   Old-Time Player Piano Weekend   Link

27-30   Mudbug Madness Days

27-29 National Polka Weekend  Link

 

Daily Observations

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Nice spring day.

I had lunch with Mary and Mike. Great food, great conversation.

As a former teacher and school administrator, I can’t help but wonder what I would have done…

If you don’t want sensible gun control…fine…come up with a better workable plan…NOW! The new idea is to have only one entrance to all school buildings. I worked at a school with 550-600 K-4 students. There must be multiple exits to get the students out of the building in less than 2 minutes…the normal timing for a fire drill. Having that many students entering a building will be a challenge. Even with staggered recess and staggered lunch times, and staggered bus loading this will be a remain a challenge. And please don’t talk about armed cops at the entrance or the ‘good guy with a gun’ theory…the Texas school had him and the killer still got in and slaughter children and adults. A real problem needs real solutions.

Favorite Memes

 

Humor

What did the magician say to the fisherman?

Go on-pick a cod

Trivia

v The imperial family of Japan descends from an unbroken lineage of nearly 2,000 years. No other royal family in history has held its position for so long. The first Japanese emperor, Jimmu Tenno, ruled about the time of Christ.

v Home to 33 million people, the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area is the largest populated metropolitan region in the world.

v Twenty-one percent of the Japanese population is elderly (over the age of 65), the highest proportion in the world. There are more elderly than there are children in Japan today.

v Japan has the second lowest homicide rate in the world, but it also home to the spooky "suicide forest" Aokigahara at the base of Mt. Fuji. It is the second most popular place in the world for suicides after San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge

Historical Events

Ø    1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founded the city of Saint Petersburg.
Ø    1796 – The patent (#X0116) for a piano was issued to James Sylvanus McLean of New Jersey, for “an improvement in piano fortes.”
Ø    1890 – Two U.S. patents (#428,750,#428,751) for the first jukebox were issued to Louis Glass and his business associate, William S. Arnold for a “coin actuated attachment for phonographs.”
Ø    1919 – Pyrex glass was issued a patent (#1,304,623). The inventors, Eugene C. Sullivan and William C. Taylor for Corning Glass Works.
Ø    1930 – Masking Tape was patented (#1,760,820) by Richard G. Drew of St. Paul, Minnesota for his employers, 3M.
Ø    1931 – Auguste Piccard and Charles Knipfer took man’s first trip (in a pressurized cabin) into the stratosphere when they rode their balloon to an altitude of 51,800 feet.
Ø    1937 – The Golden Gate Bridge, connecting San Francisco with Marin County, California opened. Today was “Pedestrian Day” – cars were allowed the following day.
Ø    1933 – The Century of Progress World’s Fair opened in Chicago.
Ø    1941 – The British navy sank the German battleship, Bismarck, in the North Atlantic near France, killing over 2,000 Germans.
Ø    1967 – The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy was launched by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline.
Ø     1972 – The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was signed by United States President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty limited the US and USSR to 2 anti-ballistic missile complexes with 100 missiles each, and the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles was frozen at the then-existing levels.
Ø    1987 – U2 played in Rome so loud that they set off earthquake alarms in 2 different neighborhoods.
Ø    1994 – The National League and American League Baseball MVPs were Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas, respectively. Jeff and Frank were both born on the exact same day: May 27, 1968.

Birthdays Today

99 – Henry Kissinger, German-American political scientist, politician, Nobel Prize laureate

@93 – Christopher Lee, English actor (d. 2015)

87 – Lee Meriwether, American model and actress, Miss America 1955

@82 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1877)

@82 – Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)

@56 – Rachel Carson, American biologist, environmentalist, author (d. 1964; breast cancer)

51 – Paul Bettany, English actor

51 – Jamie Oliver, Chef

47 – Wild Bill Hickok [James Butler Hickok], American folk hero (d. 1876; shot at Poker game)

32 – Chris Colfer, American actor and singer

 

May 26

 
Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 22 Day: 146 \ Ave. sky cover: 5% \ Visibility: 10 miles Flagstaff Today 77° \38° 
Wind: 9mph \ Gusts: 16mph
Extreme risk of fire \ Nearest active fire: 10mi \ nearest Lightning: 1096mi
May Averages for Flagstaff: 68° \ 34°  (3 days of moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

17-28 Cannes Film Festival

22-28   National Backyard Games Week National Safe Boating Week World Schizophrenia Awareness Week  Link Healthy and Safe Swimming Week Link

23-6/5   National Seat Belt Reinforcement Week Link

23-27  Undergraduate Research Week: Link

24-29 Mule Days  Link

25-30 Fleet Week

25-31 Week of Solidarity With The People of Non-Self-Governing Territories

26-31 Fleet Week (NY)

26-29   Old-Time Player Piano Weekend   Link

Daily Observations

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Another nice day…no complaints.

The fire yesterday was stopped at about 3 acres. Thanks to those who responded.

I had lunch with Andy and Faith. Good conversation, good food. We met at the Mongolian restaurant here in Flag. This place made it through the pandemic but is closing in February due to the high rental costs in Flagstaff. A sad story for sure. Faith said that when Hobby Lobby opened in the old Sear’s store at the mall, they actually bought that part of the mall. This is because they close on Sundays and the mall fines businesses that aren’t open during Mall hours. We are now losing a lot of national businesses due to the high rental fees around Flagstaff. So sad. This year alone we have lost Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Office Max, Barnes and Nobel, and others due to rental costs. Interesting that Goodwill has moved into the old Barnes & Nobel and is willing to pay these high rents. Hmmm.

Will yesterday’s slaughter of children in a Texas school lead to changes in the laws? I hope those against sensible gun laws will change their minds.

For several weeks the 24/7 news channels have been dissecting the various state primaries as to what this will lead to in November. Yesterday there were several important primaries. As soon as the shooting occurred, all the stations stopped covering the primaries and only talked about the massacre. I fully understand that. I learned that there are things more important than any primary in this nation.

Favorite Memes

 

Humor

Knock-Knock

Knock, knock----Who's There?----Mustache----Mustache who?

I mustache you a question, but I’ll shave it for later.

Trivia

v Japan has the second lowest homicide rate in the world, but it also home to the spooky "suicide forest" Aokigahara at the base of Mt. Fuji. It is the second most popular place in the world for suicides after San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge

v The Japanese word banzai literally means '10 thousand years' and was traditionally used to wish the emperor a long life. Today, it is closer to a cheer like 'Hip Hip Hooray!'

v The Japanese avoid the number four (shi) because it sounds the same as the word for death. Tall buildings do not have a fourth floor. Tea and sake sets are sold with five cups. Three or five is the desirable number of guests in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. As a rule, odd numbers are preferred over even numbers in Japan.

Historical Events

Ø  1868 – The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson ended with his acquittal by a single vote.
Ø  1869 – Boston University was chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Ø  1896 – Charles Dow published the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Ø  1897 – Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel began being sold in the UK.
Ø  1923 – The first 24 Hours of Le Mans was held and has since been run annually every June.
Ø  1923 – The first 24 Hours of Le Mans was held.
Ø  1927 – The last Ford Model T rolled off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.
Ø  1967 – The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released.
Ø  1998 – The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York.

Birthdays Today

@83 – Jack Kevorkian, American pathologist, author, assisted suicide activist (d. 2011)

@81 – Peter Cushing, English actor (d. 1994)

@81 – Peggy Lee, American singer-songwriter, actress (d. 2002)

74 – Stephanie ‘Stevie’ Nicks, American singer-songwriter

@72 – John Wayne [Marion Robert Morrison], American actor (d.1979; stomach cancer)

73 – Pam Grier, American actress

72 – Hank Williams, Jr., singer

@65 – Miles Davis, Trumpet (d. 1991; stroke)

@64 – Al Jolson, American singer, actor (d, 1950; heart attack)

@61 – Sally Ride, American physicist and astronaut (d. 2012; pancreatic cancer)

57 – Lenny Kravitz, funk singer