January 10, 2017

Jan 11

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January  11, 2017 Week: 02 \ Day: 11
86004 Today: H 53° \ L 32° Average Sky Cover: 70% 
Wind ave:   15mph\Gusts:  22mph Visibility: 10 mi
January Averages: 43°\17°
January Records: H: 66° (1971) L: -30 (1937)
Record High: 63°[1990]   Record Low: -23°[1923]
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❆❆Quote of the Day❆❆
It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
Rene Descartes
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❆❆Observances Today❆❆
Cigarettes Are Hazardous To Your Health Day
Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day Link
National Human Trafficking Awareness Day Link

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❆❆Observances This Week❆❆
8-14
Dating & Life Coaches Recognition Week
Home Office Safety and Security Week
National Folic Acid Awareness Week Link
10-13

No Tillage Week
11-18

Cuckoo Dancing Week
National Soccer Coaches of America Week
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❆❆Today’s Significant US Historical Events❆❆
  Today’s Significant International Historical Events 
  1569 1st recorded lottery in England is drawn in St Paul's Cathedral

1759 1st American life insurance company incorporated, Philadelphia
  1765 Frisia bans Voltaire's "Traité sur la tolérance"
1785 Continental Congress convenes in NYC

1787 Titania & Oberon, moons of Uranus, discovered by William Herschel 


1805 Michigan Territory organizes
1813 1st pineapples planted in Hawaii
1838 1st public demonstration of telegraph message sent using dots & dashes at Speedwell Ironworks, Morristown, New Jersey by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail
1849 Elizabeth Blackwell becomes 1st woman in US to earn medical degree
  1861 Mexico City captured by Juarez (Lib) in War of Reform
1861 Alabama secedes from the Union (US Civil War)
1873 1st livestock market newspaper published, Drover's Journal, Chicago
  1879 Zulu war against British colonial rule in South Africa begins

1913 1st sedan-type car (Hudson) goes on display at 13th Auto Show (NYC)
  1922 Insulin first used on humans to treat diabetes - Leonard Thompson, 14, of Canada
1935 Amelia Earhart flies from Honolulu to Oakland Ca (non-stop, of course) 
1949 Snowfall 1st recorded in Los Angeles
1963 1st discotheque opens, Whiskey-a-go-go in LA
1963 Beatles release "Please Please Me" & "Ask Me Why"
1966 "Daktari" African adventure series premieres on CBS TV
  1970 Irish republican political party Sinn Féin party splits between those in favor of abstentionism (of not taking any seats won in the parliaments) and those where against
  1972 East-Pakistan becomes independent state of Bangladesh
1973 Trial of Watergate burglars begins in Washington, D.C.

1990 Bobby Knight becomes basketball's Big 10 winningest coach (229)

  2007 Author J. K. Rowling finishes the 7th and last Harry Potter novel in room 552 of the Bamoral Hotel, Edinburgh

  2015 Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović is elected as the first female Prime Minister of Croatia
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❆❆My Rambling Thoughts❆❆
Small freak out yesterday. H&R Block called, as expected, to tell me that I may owe $5700 to CA, even though they only want about $3500. Incompetent crazy lady says that my tax guy electronically filed a CA return in 2014 showing that I owed $5700. Of course there is no copy of that anywhere and I would have remembered that amount. I know that when you owe money to a state, you can’t file electronically as you also need to include a check. So whatever she is looking at is not correct. She has agreed to have the District Manager review her work and will call me on Wed. with news. This is crazy. Since Donald doesn’t seem to pay income tax, maybe he will simply abolish the IRS. I can only hope.

Cheryl came into town today so we had lunch with our retirement group. Nice. Cheryl fell last week and really bruised up her arm, but is doing OK now. Mary is preparing for her Ireland trip in April. After a good lunch, I stopped and got my necessary 2 passport photos for my upcoming trip. It seems that 2 of the countries we are visiting place a passport photo on the visa. Interesting.  
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❆❆Brain Teasers❆❆
(answers at the end of post)
In Thyme But Not in Time...
Riddles are little poems or phrases that pose a question that needs answering. Riddles frequently rhyme, but this is not a requirement.

My first is in riddle, but not in little.
My second is in think, but not in brink.
My third is in thyme, but not in time.
My fourth is in mother, but not in brother.
My last is in time, but not in climb.

What am I?

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❆❆Today’s Trivia Hive❆❆
(answers at the end of post)
In 1977, NASA launched the space probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Each vessel contained what unique item in its cargo hold?
39.5% of those taking this quiz on the internet got it correct.
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❆❆Harper’s Index❆❆
4/5→Estimated portion of US public swimming pools that are in violation of health and safety regulations.
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❆❆New Trivia❆❆
In 1962, an epidemic of laughing broke out and lasted for almost a year in Tanganyika (now Tanzania).

A single mega-colony of ants spreads across Europe, the west coast of the U.S., and the west coast of Japan. Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another. The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.
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❆❆2 Jokes For The Day❆❆
Tony was a pianist and was practicing late one night. There was a tap on the door, when he opened it his landlord was standing outside the door.

The landlord asked, “Do you know there is a sick lady upstairs?"

Tony answered, “No, I haven’t heard that song. Can you please hum it a little?"

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A woman who ran to the mall for a quick errand lost her purse, but an honest teenage boy returned it to her.

The woman looked inside her purse and remarked, "That's strange. Earlier I had a $20 bill inside, but now it's gone, and instead I see two fives and a ten."

"That's right," the boy explained. "The last time I found a lady's purse, she did not have change for a reward."

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❆❆Somewhat Useless Information❆❆
The term "opera" comes from the Latin opus, or "work." 

Opera was the fruit of the Italian Renaissance. In the final decade of the sixteenth century, a group of artists, musicians, and poets who called themselves the Florentine Camerata met there to revive Greek drama and developed an opera in musica: a work in music. Galileo's father, Vincenzo Galilei was reportedly a member.

The earliest surviving opera (written by Jacopo Peri and Ottavio Rinuccini) is Euridice which was performed in Florence in 1600. Opera quickly spread from Florence to Rome, Venice, and all other major cities in Italy.


Richard Wagner revolutionized opera by disposing of existing operatic rules and structures. He also created the "Leitmotif" (or leading theme), which is a musical theme that is associated with a main character. For example, in Star Wars, there is a different musical theme associated with Princess Leia, with Luke Skywalker, with Obi-Wan Kenobi, and with Yoda.

The famous proverb "the opera ain't over 'til the fat lady sings" in reference to buxom Brunhilde's 10-minute aria at the end of Wagner's Ring cycle operas is usually attributed to pro basketball coach Dick Motta, who in turn attributes it to San Antonio sportswriter/broadcaster Dan Cook, who says he overheard a friend say it.

Amalie Materna, who played Brunnhilde during Wagner's lifetime (1876), may be the first proverbial "fat lady".


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❆❆Birthdays Today❆❆
 indicates age at death
92 Alice Paul, American suffragist (National Woman's Party), born in Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey [D1977]
90 Grant Tinker, American TV executive (NBC), born in Stamford, Connecticut (d. 2016)

89 Harry Gordon Selfridge, American retailer (d. 1947)
84 Rod Taylor, Australian actor (The Birds, Time Machine), born in Sydney, New South Wales [D2015]
83 Joseph Jackson Lister, British optician who perfected the optical microscope by designing the achromatic objective lens, born in London, England [D1869]

71- Naomi Judd, [Diana Ellen], Ashland Ky, singer (Judds-Why Not Me)

68 William James, American psychologist/philosopher (Pragmatism), born in NYC, [D1910]
61 Aldo Leopold, founder (Wilderness Society) [D1948]

58 Darryl Dawkins, American professional basketball player (Philadelphia 76ers, NJ Nets), born in Orlando, Florida (d. 2015)

47 Alexander Hamilton, US Founding Father and 1st United States Secretary of the Treasury (1789-95), born in Charlestown, Nevis, West Indies (d. 1804)
46- Mary Jane Blige, New York, American R&B singer-songwriter
45 William Curtis, English botanist/publisher (Botanical Magazine) [D1799]
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❆❆Historical Obits Today❆❆
@90-2008 Carl Karcher, founded the Carl's Jr. hamburger chain

@89-1997 Sheldon Leonard, producer/director (Dick Van Dyke)
@88-2008 Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer/1st to climb Mt Everest in 1953
@88-1981 Beulah Bondi, actress (It's a Wonderful Life)
@83-2015 Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress (La Dolce Vita) and Miss Sweden 1950

@72-1874 Gail Borden, American Manufacturer and Inventor of condensed milk
@71-1914 Ambrose Bierce, American writer and satirist

@63-1979 Jack Soo, actor (Nick Yemana-Barney Miller, Green Berets), esophageal cancer
@63-1843 Francis Scott Key, American lawyer, poet and composer of the lyrics to "Star Spangled Banner", Pleurisy

@57-1978 Michael Bates, actor (Clockwork Orange, Salt & Pepper), cancer
@52-1775 Prithvi Narayan Shah, began the unification of modern Nepal

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❆❆Brain Teasers Answers❆❆
The word rhyme.
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❆❆Trivia Hive  Answers❆❆
A golden phonograph record
Each probe contained one gold phonograph record consisting of 115 images, 90 minutes of music, spoken greetings in 55 different languages and a 12-minute mix of common sounds of Earth. Astronomers Carl Sagan and Frank Drake crafted the records with the hope that extraterrestrials might find the probes. What out-of-this-world single will the aliens who discover the devices hear? The 1958 hit "Johnny B. Goode" by rock and roll legend Chuck Berry. Source: The Smithsonian Institute.

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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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