FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
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12.9.16 Week: 49
\ Day: 344
December Averages:
44°\17°
86004 Today: H 52° \ L 17°
Average Sky Cover: %
Wind ave: 4mph\Gusts:
14mph Visibility: 10 mi
Record High: 62°[1977]
Record Low: -8°[1951]
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Quote of the Day
I am not afraid of
an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.
~Alexander the
Great
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Observances
Today
Cremation Day
Day Of The Horse
Gingerbread Decorating Day
International
Anti-corruption Day
International Shareware Day
National Salesperson's Day
National Wreaths Across America Day
UN International Anti-Corruption
Day
Weary Willie Day Link
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Observances This
Week
3-10 Clerc-Gallaudet Week
4-10 National Hand Washing Awareness
Week Link
Recipe Greetings For The Holidays Week
Computer Science Education
Week Link
5-9 Cookie Exchange Week
International Coelenterate Biology
Week Link
Older Driver Safety Awareness Week Link
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Today’s US
Historical Highlights
▼ Today’s World Historical Highlights
1793 Noah Webster establishes
New York's 1st daily newspaper, the "American Minerva"
▼1854 Alfred
Tennyson's poem "Charge of the Light Brigade" published
1861 Battle of Bird Creek,
Indian Terr (High Shoal, Chusto-Talasah)
1861 American Civil War: The
Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the U.S. Congress.
▼1868 The
first traffic lights are installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London.
Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at
night by red and green gas lamps.
1878 Joseph Pulitzer buys St
Louis Dispatch for $2,500
1907 First Christmas Seals
sold (Wilmington, Delaware, post office)
1909 1st US monoplane flown
(Henry W Walden, Long Island, NY)
1935 1st Heisman Trophy Award:
Jay Berwanger, Chicago (HB)
1953 General Electric
announces all Communist employees will be fired
▼1961 SS-Obersturmbannführer
(lieutenant colonel) Adolf Eichmann found guilty of war crimes in Israel
1965 "A Charlie Brown
Christmas" premieres
1968 NLS (a system for which
hypertext and the computer mouse were developed) is publicly demonstrated for
the first time in San Francisco.
▼1968 Terence
O'Neill, Northern Ireland Prime Minister, makes a television appeal for
moderate opinion in what became known as the 'Ulster stands at the Crossroads'
speech
1975 US President Gerald
Ford signs $2.3 Bn loan authorization for NYC
1983 Counselor to Ronald Reagan,
Edwin Meese says people go to soup kitchens "...because food is free &
that's easier than paying for it"
▼1990 Lech
Walesa wins Poland's 1st direct presidential election in Poland
▼1992 Operation
Restore Hope - US Marines land in Somalia
1994 US Surgeon General
Joycelyn Elders resigns after comments about masturbation
2008 The Governor of Illinois,
Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for a number of alleged
crimes including attempting to sell the United States Senate seat being vacated
by President-elect Barack Obama's election to the Presidency ▼2015 German
Chancellor Angela Merkel named Time Magazine's Person of the Year,
for her handling of debt and refugee crises
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My Rambling
Thoughts
Good lunch with the retirement group. All are doing well. Great Italian
Food at ‘Fat Olives’, a locally-owned restaurant.
A chilly night, but has warmed up quite nicely today. Great to be
outside for a little while.
Life after Jan. 20th will probably be much different. Our
first tweeting President who is appointing ‘interesting’ people to his cabinet:
Head of Education has a record of helping Charter Schools and a record against
public education; the head of HUD is a cardiac surgeon who doesn’t believe
public housing is necessary; and the head of Small Business Administration has
been running the WWE (professional wrestling) empire for decades. And the list
goes on. Can’t complain yet…just thankful, for the first time in a long, long
time that bureaucracy moves very slowly.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
0 to 10 Pyramid XII
Language brain teasers are those that involve the English
language. You need to think about and manipulate words and letters.
Starting with a one-letter word or abbreviation, add a letter and
rearrange the letters to produce the next. A clue is given for each.
Maybe your car does 0 to 60 in 10 sec., but can you do this "0 to 10"
in 60 sec.? Go on - get out the stopwatch!
1. Ford model, known as "Tin Lizzie"
2. @
3. Traitor (slang)
4. Not before the horse, please!
5. Track down; discover
6. Collected by bees
7. Convinced, beyond any doubt
8. Completed in 6 days, according to Genesis
9. "Ashes to ashes"
10. Power and authority; significance
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“Contronym”—word
that is its own antonym
Go means "to proceed," but also "give out or
fail," i.e., “This car could really go until it started to go.”
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Candy Cane Facts
We know that candy canes were first mentioned in association with
Christmas in 1874, and the first mention of hanging them on Christmas trees came in 1882. So though they’ve
long been associated with Christmas, it’s unclear if there’s any actual
association with the Christian religion.
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Today’s Trivia
Hive
(answers at the end of post)
Three members of the rock group Talking Heads met at which northeastern
school?
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…Harper’s Index…
3/10 – Estimated portion
of antibiotics prescribed in the US that are unnecessary
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2 jokes for the
day
A guy bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring for Christmas.
A friend of his said, "I thought she wanted one of those pretty 4-wheel
drive vehicles?"
"She did," he replied, "But where in the world was I going to
find a fake jeep!"
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Part of my job as a 911 dispatcher is to interrogate callers who are in
various states of panic so I can send the appropriate emergency equipment. One
day a woman called to say that a family member had fallen and needed to go to a
hospital.
After finding out where she lived and assuring her that the paramedics would
arrive shortly, I asked her, "Do you know what caused the fall?"
"No," the woman nervously replied. "What?"
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Yep, It Really
Happened
*--- Christmas Bulb Bandit Steals 150 Bulbs ---*
A Seattle woman whose home was targeted by a Christmas light-stealing
"bulb bandit" said she eventually caught the culprit on video -- a neighborhood
squirrel. Margaret Rican said the "Christmas bulb bandit" stole more
than 150 bulbs from her outdoor decorations in the space of 24 hours before she
managed to catch the thief on video. The video shows the squirrel running while
holding a yellow Christmas bulb, while a second video shows the small animal
jumping into a tree while carrying a blue bulb. A third video shows the
squirrel repeating the jump, this time with an orange bulb. Rican wrote,
"He has stolen 150 in 24 hours, carefully and precisely chewing through
the wires to steal the bulb and bury them around the neighborhood. He's the
hardest working rodent we've ever seen. and we are really pulling for him, and
hoping he survives this winter. He's a quick little bandit, with really good hops."
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Somewhat Useless
Information
Much of the Pacific fleet was rendered useless: Five of eight
battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely
damaged, and more than 200 aircraft were destroyed. A total of 2,400 Americans
were killed and 1,200 were wounded. Fortunately for the United States, all
three Pacific fleet carriers were out at sea on training maneuvers. These giant
aircraft carriers would have their revenge against Japan six months later at the
Battle of Midway, reversing the tide against the previously invincible Japanese
navy in a spectacular victory.
The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, President Roosevelt appeared
before a joint session of Congress and declared, "Yesterday, December 7,
1941--a date which will live in infamy--the United States of America was suddenly
and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."
After a brief and forceful speech, he asked Congress to approve a resolution
recognizing the state of war between the United States and Japan. The Senate
voted for war against Japan by 82 to 0, and the House of Representatives
approved the resolution by a vote of 388 to 1. Three days later, Germany and
Italy declared war against the United States, and the U.S. government responded
in kind.
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Birthdays Today
▼ indicates age
at death
100- Kirk
Douglas, [Issur Danielovitch], Amsterdam, New York,
American actor (Gunfight at OK Corral)
80’s
▼89 Hermione Gingold,
actress (Gigi, Music Man), born in London, England [1987]
▼86- Dick Van Patten,
actor (Tom Bradford in 8 is Enough), born in Queens, NY (d. 2015)
86- Buck
Henry, screenwriter/comedian (SNL, Get Smart), born in NYC, New York
▼82 Margaret Hamilton, actress (Wicked Witch
in Wizard of Oz), born in Cleveland, Ohio [d1985]
82- Judi
Dench, York England, actress (Henry V, Wetherby) 75- Beau
Bridges, actor (Hotel New Hampshire, 5th Musketeer), born in Los Angeles,
California
▼80- Emmett Kelly,
Sedan KS, circus clown (Weary Willie) [d1979]
70’s
▼74- Broderick Crawford,
American actor (All the King's Men, Highway Patrol), born in Philadelphia, [d1986]
74- Dick
Butkus, NFL hall of fame linebacker (Bears)/sportscaster, born in Chicago,
Illinois
60’s
▼69- Clarence Birdseye,
frozen vegatable king (Birdseye)[d1956]
69- Tom
Daschle, American politician- former Senate Majority Leader
▼68 Redd Foxx,
comedian (Sandford & Son, Redd Foxx Show), born in St Louis, Missouri
[d1991]
▼65- John Milton, poet/puritan (Paradise
Lost), born in London, England (d. 1674)
50’s
▼59 John Cassavetes,
actor (Dirty Dozen, Rosemary's Baby), born in NYC, New York (d. 1989)
59- Donny
Osmond, Ogden Utah, singer (Osmond Brothers, Donnie & Marie)
55- Joe
Lando, actor (Byron Sully-Dr Quinn), born in Los Angeles
54- Felicity
Huffman, American actress
40’s
48- Kurt
Angle, 220 lbs freestyle wrestler (Oly-gold-96), born in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
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Historical Obits
Today
90’s
@91-1972 Louella Parsons,
American gossip columnist
@90-2009 Gene
Barry, American actor
80’s
@84-1998 Archie
Moore, American light-heavyweight boxing champion
(1952-60)
@84-1979 Fulton
J Sheen, archbishop/religious broadcaster
@83-1996 Mary
Douglas Nicol Leakey, archaeologist; anthropologist
70’s
@77-2014 Mary
Ann Mobley, Miss America/model/actress, breast cancer
@72-1992 Vincent
Gardenia, actor (All in the Family, LA Law), heart attack
60’s
@68-1971 Ralph
Bunche, UN delegate/Nobel Prize winner, diabetes
@64-1996 Faron
Young, country singer, suicide
40’s
@49-1935 Walter
Liggett, American crusading newspaper editor and muckraker, murdered
@43-2012 Jenni
Rivera, Mexican-American singer-songwriter, plane crash
20’s
@23-1819 Ann
C Coleman, fiancee of President Buchanan, commits suicide, believing he did not
love her, when in fact her parents kept them separated.
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Brain Teasers
Answers
1. T
2. At
3. Rat
4. Cart
5. Trace
6. Nectar
7. Certain
8. Creation
9. Cremation
10. Importance
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Trivia Hive Answers
Rhode Island School of Design
Frontman David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth all
attended RISD in the early 1970's. According to Frantz, the three of them
worked on one of the group's most famous songs, "Psycho Killer," in
1974, although it wasn't released until later. The last core member, Jerry
Harrison, wouldn't join the group until 1977. (He went to Harvard, in case you
were wondering.) Sources: Rolling Stone, The Independent
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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…☼☼☼☼
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