December 30, 2015

New Year's Eve 2015

FYI: This blog is now at a new address. Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

December 31, 2015  Week: 53/01 \ Day: 265
December Averages: 44°\17°
86004 Today: H 37° \ L Average Sky Cover: 0% 
Wind ave:   6mph\Gusts:  15mph
Ave. High: 42° Record High: 62°[1945] Ave. Low: 16° Record Low: -16[1911]
🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄
Quote of the Day 

⋆ ⋆
Observances Today:                        
First Nights

Leap Second Time Adjustment Day
Look On The Bright Side Day Link
Make Up Your Mind Day
New Year's Dishonor List
No Interruptions Day
Universal Hour of Peace Day

World Peace Meditation Day
⋆ ⋆      ⋆ ⋆
Observances This Week:
26-1/1
Kwanzaa
⋆ ⋆
US Historical Highlights for Today
1783 - Import of African slaves banned by all of the Northern US states
1794 - After agreeing to a peace with the United States on November 7th, today the CHEROKEE and CHICKAMAUGA Indians, and the U.S. will exchange prisoners, this will effectively end the CHICKAMAUGA War.
1831 - Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City. 1879 - Cornerstone laid for Honolulu's Iolani Palace (only royal palace in US)
1879 - Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera "Pirates of Penzance" premieres in NYC
1890 - Ellis Island (NYC) opens as a US immigration depot
1897 - Brooklyn's last day as a city, it incorporates into NYC (1/1/1898)
1904 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.
1914 - About 300 Arizona saloons did a rush business as they prepared to permanently close at midnight in accordance with the new prohibition amendment.
1935 - Charles Darrow patents Monopoly
1943 - NYC's Times Square greets Frank Sinatra at Paramount Theater
1946 - Pres Harry Truman officially proclaims end of WW II
1950 - Jockeys W Shoemaker & Joe Culmone set record of 388 wins in a year
1953 - Willie Shoemaker shatters record, riding 485 winners in a year
1955 - The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. Corporation to make over $1 billion USD in a year.
1961 - Beach Boys play their debut gig under that name
1977 - Ted Bundy escapes from jail in Colorado
1981 - CNN Headline News debuts
1984 - US leaves UNESCO
1990 - Sci-Fi Channel on cable TV begins transmitting
1995 - Cartoonist Bill Watterson ends his "Calvin & Hobbes" comic strip
⋆ ⋆
World Historical Highlights for Today
1600 - British East India Company chartered
1695 - A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlies army meets with de Esk
1857 - Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as new capital of Canada
1901 - In the first election under their new constitution, Cuba elects a Congress and their first president, Tomas Estrada Palma
1911 - Marie Curie receives her 2nd Nobel Prize
1945 - Ratification of United Nations Charter completed
1958 - Cuban dictator Batista tells his Cabinet he is fleeing the country
1958 - International Geophyscial Year ends
1999 - Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President.
🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄
Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthdays Today 

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄
My Rambling Thoughts
What a great time in Chicago with brother and sister-in-law and all the other in-laws. Amazing weather for December…little rain, quite a bit of sun, not a lot of wind. Great food at all the parties. Nice to see the nieces and nephews who have really grown, as it has been 2 years since I saw them. Lots of nice presents from many relatives and in-laws. I got to meet a new fiancé, a new girlfriend, and a 3 year old nephew. Then almost all the out of towners planned to leave on the 28th. Weather became a real issue. My brother and his wife made it out before 8a at O’Hare. A brother-in-law had an 8a flight from Midway cancelled. He didn’t get out until Wed. As I arrived at the airport at 10:15 for a 12:30 flight, I got a text that it had a 20 min delay. By the time I checked my luggage it was a 2 hour delay. When I got to the gate, I saw another flight heading out at 11:30. Just as I headed to that gate, a lady got off the plane with all her stuff. I asked if there was any room, and there was…one seat thanks to the lady who left. While I was entering the plane, I got a text that my original flight had been cancelled. After about an hour we had to deplane, but didn’t give up. The pilot really wanted to get to Atlanta. An hour later we re-boarded. Three hours later they started the deicing procedure. When that was finished, about 30 minutes, the tug that pulls the plane out of the stall got stuck. From the window I saw 2 guys with snow shovels go behind the plane to get the tug out of the snowbank. Finally we were on the runway and headed for Atlanta. I had called to get another flight before I got on the plane the first time. The new flight was to be at 8a. When we landed in Atlanta I called to confirm the flight and found that Delta had added a flight that would get into Phoenix at midnight. I took it. I missed the last shuttle (12M) to Flag by about 15 minutes, but got on the 6a one. The airport was deserted at 1:30. I called at least a dozen motels and they either had no rooms or didn’t have a shuttle. I got to spend the night in baggage claim. Slept a little, walked a little, and watched all the workers clean and mop. The shuttle arrived at 6a and I was home by 9:30a. Tired but glad to be home. Took a 3 hour nap and went to bed at 9p. Got up with a little cold, but I’m home, happy, ready for the New Year.
🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄
Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Exit and Entrance
Riddles are little poems or phrases that pose a question that needs answering. Riddles frequently rhyme, but this is not a requirement.
If you throw me from the window,
I will leave a grieving wife.
Bring me back, but in the door, and
You'll see someone giving life!


What am I?

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄
…Bet You Didn’t Know…
Australia's 31,000-mile-long (50,000 kms) coastline is connected by over 10,000 beaches. That means you can go to a new beach every day for over 27 years!
⋆ ⋆
…Grammar Craziness…
The English language includes an interesting category of words and phrases called contronyms (also spelled contranyms, or referred to as autoantonyms) — terms that, depending on context, can have opposite or contradictory meanings. When you use these words, be sure the context clearly identifies which meaning is intended:

Apology: A statement of contrition for an action, or a defense of one
⋆ ⋆
…Harper’s Index…
261 Number of celebrities, politicians and athletes currently under investigation by British police for sexual abuse
⋆ ⋆
…Instagram Photo of the Day… 

earthpix Room with a view. Mount Robson, British Columbia | Photo by@walasavagephoto 

Check out the link in the bio @earthpix and follow our facebook page for more amazing images from around the globe!

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄
2 jokes for the day
How Do You Describe Me? -
Wife: "How would you describe me?"
Husband: "ABCDEFGHIJK."
Wife: "What does that mean?"
Husband: "Adorable, beautiful, cute, delightful, elegant, fashionable, gorgeous, and hot."
Wife: "Aw, thank you, but what about IJK?"
Husband: "I'm just kidding!"
⋆ ⋆
Last Joke From My Grandpa -
We were all in the hospital for the last time with our family and at some point my Aunt asked who of us want coffee. We were all die hard coffee drinkers and we all agreed so my aunt said "ok, I’ll bring full tray".
My Grandpa lifted his head for the last time and said "rather bring the coffee in a cup, it's so hard to drink from the tray"
⋆ ⋆
Yep, It Really Happened
BOGOTA - Authorities in Colombia said a woman was arrested at an airport in the capital when her breast implants were found to contain 3.3 pounds of liquid cocaine. Authorities said Paola Deyanira Sabillon, 22, drew the attention of security staff at El Dorado International Airport when she appeared nervous in line and X-rays determined she had recently undergone surgery on her breasts. Sabillon, who is from Honduras and was preparing to fly to Spain, told investigators she received breast implants filled with an unknown substance she had been hired to transport. The implants were removed at a Bogota hospital and Sabillon was treated for an infection stemming from the original surgery, which is believed to have taken place at a clinic in Pereira, Colombia. The substance inside the implants was determined to be cocaine, authorities said. 
⋆ ⋆
Somewhat Useless Information
The Emmy Awards finally gave daytime shows their own category in 1974. The first show to win for Outstanding Daytime Drama was The Doctors, which beat out rivals Days of Our Lives and General Hospital.


If you think soap operas got their name from the soap companies that advertised heavily during the programs, then you're correct. Advertisers knew that housewives and stay-at-home moms were a perfect, captive audience for their goods.



The Young and the Restless star Jeanne Cooper underwent a facelift in 1984. She pitched producers the idea of including real filmed footage of the surgery in the show, as if her character (Katherine Chancellor) had experienced the same procedure, and they incorporated it into the soap's storyline. 



In the first deal of its kind, the soap opera Passions announced in April 2007 that it wasn't being cancelled after all, but that the show would leave NBC and continue airing new episodes as an exclusive to subscribers of the DirecTV satellite service.



The familiar theme song for the long-running daytime soap Days of Our Lives was co-written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who were best known for penning many late-1960s pop hits, including The Monkees' "Last Train to Clarksville."



Bo Derek may have been a 10 in the movies, but her 1998 evening soap opera Wind on Water lasted only two episodes before NBC pulled the plug.

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄
Birthdays Today
“()” indicates age at death
(84) - Henri Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Nord, impressionist painter (Odalisque), (d. 1954)
(78) - George Marshall, Uniontown Pa, authored Marshall Plan (Nobel 1953), (d. 1959)
(78) - Rex Allen, Wilcox Az, cowboy singer (Dr Baxter-Frontier Doctor) (d. 1999
78 - Anthony Hopkins, Port Talbot, Glamorgan, actor (Elephant Man, QB VII, Magic, Bounty)
(77) - Odetta [Odetta Holmes], American folk singer (Sanctuary), actress and civil rights activist, born in Birmingham, Alabama (d. 2008)
72 - Ben Kingsley, Scarborough England, actor (Gandhi, Betrayal, Maurice)
(70) - Jason Robards Sr, Hillsdale Mich, actor (Acapulco) (d.1963)
68 - Tim Matheson, California, actor (Animal House, Fletch, Up the Creek)
(67) - [Bonnie Prince] Charles Edward Stuart, English pretender to throne (d.1788)
(66) - Jacques Cartier, French explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France, born in St. Malo, Brittany (d. 1557)
(63) - Donna Summer, singer (Love to Love You Baby, On the Radio), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 2012)
62 - James Remar, actor (48 Hours, Rent-a-Cop, Cotton Club), born in Boston, Massachusetts
57 - Bebe Neuwirth, Princeton NJ, actress (Lilith-Cheers, Damn Yankees)
(56) - Rosalind Cash, American actress (Omega Man, Wrong is Right), born in Atlantic City, New Jersey (d. 1995)
56 - Val Kilmer, actor (Top Secret, Top Gun, Willow)
(53) - John Denver, NM, American country singer (Rocky Mt High), (d.1997)
🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄
Historical Obits Today
@75-1966 - Chief Nipo Strongheart, Yakima actor (Pony Soldier)
@64-1997 - Floyd Cramer, pianist (Nashville Sound), cancer at 64  
@45-1985 - Rick Nelson, singer/actor (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet), plane crash
@38-1972 - Roberto Clemente, slugger (Pitts Pirate), plane crash
@ 68-2013 -James Avery, American actor, complications from surgery
🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄
Brain Teasers Answers
The letter 'n'.


wiNdow - widow
door - doNor

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄
Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.
All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site contains mistakes and sadly once the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.
🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄And That Is All for Now 🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄


No comments:

Post a Comment