08.31.07
Summer of 2007 Movies That Should Have Done Better
1. 1408
2. Underdog
3. Nancy Drew
4. Becoming Jane
5. Disturbia
08.29.07
1935 Labor Day Hurricane.
1. When the hurricane of Labor Day 1935 hit the United States at the Florida Keys it had winds reaching 200 miles per hour with a barometric pressure recorded at 26.35, the lowest ever recorded on land. It had a 17-foot tidal surge.
2. At its inception it was only 3 to four days away from the Florida coast. It developed near the Bahamas, and not lower in the Atlantic as usual. It formed on August 29, 1935 and was fully dissipated on September 10. It struck the Florida Keys on September 2nd.
3 . The total deaths in the Florida Keys from this hurricane is unknown but it is estimated that there were at least 423 deaths. 259 of these were from an estimated population of 750 World War I veterans building a bridge to begin the elimination of the ferry boats (34.5%) and 164 of the resident population of 13,335 (1.2%).
4. After crossing the Keys the storm decreased in strength and headed northward in the Gulf of Mexico. It made landfall again on September 4th in northwest Florida near Cedar Key as a Category 2 hurricane. It passed over Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina prior to emerging into the Atlantic Ocean near Norfolk on September 6. Even after emerging into the Northern Atlantic it again gained to Hurricane strength reaching wind speeds of 90 mph.
5. It was the first of only three recorded hurricanes that made landfall in the United States as a Category 5 hurricane. The others are Camile in 1969 and Andrew in 1992.
6. At mile marker 82 in Islamorada just west of US Route 1, sits a simple monument designed by the Florida Division of the Federal Art Project and constructed using Keys limestone by the Works Progress Administration. With more that 4,000 people in attendance it was unveiled in 1937. The monument depicts palm trees amid curling waves, fronds bent in the wind. In front of the sculpture, a ceramic-tile mural of the Keys covers a stone crypt, which holds victims’ ashes from the makeshift funeral pyres. The memorial was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1995.
08.28.07
Bill Cullen
1. William Lawrence Cullen was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 18th, 1920. His eyesight was poor causing him to wear thick glasses, which would become his trademark.
2. Cullen’s broadcasting career began in his hometown of Pittsburgh. He worked at WWSW radio beginning as a frequent, though unpaid guest on an overnight program called 1500 Club and eventually becoming asalaried announcer. He was well known for his puckish sense of humor and for playing pranks on his fellow announcers while they were on the air.
3. In 1944 Cullen moved New York and one of his first jobs was writing for the Easy Ace radio show. In 1946 he got his first big break filling in as the host of the radio quiz Winner Take All.
4. He was the host of Cullen 23 different game shows between the years 1952, with Winner Takes All to 1986, with his last – Joker’s Wild. This makes him the host of more game shows than anyone in television history. He had hosted the original The Price is Right in the 1960’s and when it was slated for a revival in the early 70’s he was considered for the job. However, the producers felt it would be too strenuous for him and the show was given to Bob Barker who hosted it for 35 years until his retirement in 2007.
5. Cullen, who was a lifelong smoker, developed lung cancer in early 1990 and died from it on July 7th.
6. The Game Show Congress, a nonprofit association that seeks to promote the game show industry, annual award to performers with distinguished game show careers is called the Bill Cullen Career Achievement Award. Cullen was awarded the first award posthumously in 2004.
08.26.07
Labor Day
1. The Federal Labor Day takes place on the first Monday in September. In 2007 this will be September 3rd.
2. The holiday began in 1882, originating from a desire by the Central Labor Union to create a day off for the “working man”.
3. In May 1886 there was a general strike which eventually won the eight-hour workday in the United States. These events are today commemorated as Labor Day on May 1 in virtually every country in the world, with the notable exceptions being the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
4. The first governmental labor day came when municipal ordinances in man places were passed during 1885 and 1886. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, with Oregon being the first to pass a bill for an official Labor Day on February 21, 1887. By the end of 1887 four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — had created the Labor Day holiday. By 1894, 31 states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28, 1893 Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.
5. Since 1966, Labor Day weekend has also been the date of the the Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon, founded and hosted by Jerry Lewis. Millions of dollars are raised each year to help fund research and patient support programs for the diseases labled as muscular dystrophy
6. It is still celebrated mainly as a day of rest and marks the symbolic end of summer.
08.23.07
Mercury Seven
1. Freedom 7. Launched May 8, 1963 with Alan Shepard aboard. The flight put the first man in space. It lasted 15 minutes 28 seconds. The flight did not orbit the earth.
2. Liberty Bell 7. Launched July 21, 1961 with Virgil (Gus) Grissom aboard. Second flight into space, but it too was a non-orbital flight lasting 15 minutes 37 seconds. The capsule sunk when the hatch flew off before the rescue helicopter attached onto it. Grissom along with Edward White and Roger Chaffee was killed in the capsule fire of Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967. These were first lives lost in the American Space program.
3. Friendship 7. Launched February 20, 1962 with John Glenn aboard. The flight lasted 4 hours 55 minutes 23 seconds and was the first time an American orbited the earth in outer space. It lasted 3 of the scheduled 7 orbits. There was concerns about the heat shield.
4. Aurora 7. Launched May 24, 1964 with Scott Carpenter aboard. The flight lasted for 4 hours 56 minutes 23 seconds lasting 3 orbits. This was originally was to be Deke Slayton’s flight, however he developed an irregular heartbeat and was the only one of the Mercury Seven, not to go into space in a Mercury spacecraft. Slayton was later reinstated and flew in space in 1975.
5. Sigma 7. Launched October 3, 1962 with Wally Schirra aboard. The flight lasted 9 hours 13 minutes 11 seconds for 6 orbits. Schirra was the only person to go into space in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.
6. Faith 7. Launched May 15, 1963 with Gordon Cooper aboard. The flight lasted for 1 day 10 hours 19 minutes 49 seconds. Gordon was the first American to be in space for over a day and was the last American to fly into space and orbit solo. This turned out to be the last Mercury flight. Alan Shepard had bee scheduled to take the Freedom 7-II to space in October 1963, but it was canceled/
08.22.07
Common Phobia’s – Medical Termology
1. Fear of Flying – Aviophobia
2. Fear of Flowers – Anthrophobia
3. Fear of Clowns – Coulrophobia
4. Fear of painful bowel movements – Defecaloesiphobia
5. Fear of school – Didaskaleinophobia:
6. Fear of being buried alive - Taphephobia
08.18.07
State of Oregon
1. Oregon was admited as the 32nd state on February 14, 1859. The State Capital is in Salem with Portland being its largest city.
2. The origin of the name “Oregon” is unknown. George R. Stewart, in a 1944 article in American Speech, determined that the name came from an engraver’s error in a French map published in the early 1700s. On this map the Ouisiconsink (Wisconsin) River was spelled “Ouaricon-sint”, broken on two lines with the -sint below, so that there appeared to be a river flowing to the west named “Ouaricon”.
3. Although there had been people in the area the first modern settlement was in 1811 when after the Lewis and Clark expedition it was discovered that the area was rich in fu-bearing animals.
4. In the 1840’s there with an influx of settlers there was a disagreement between the United States and the United Kingdom on where the border lied. After coming close to another war with England, it was settled that the 49 parallel would be the border between The United States and Canada.
5. The State of Oregon with 3.4 million people is the 27th most populated State in the union. With a land area of 98,466 square miles it is the 9th largest state.
6. Today, Oregon’s landscape varies from rainforest in the Coast Range to barren desert in the southeast.
08.16.07
Elvis Presely – Under Rated Songs
1. Polk Salad Annie – This Tony Joe White song was only recorded by Elvis live, but it’s a song that with it’s roots in the south could have been a big hit from Elvis had it been released. Albums: On Stage – February 1970 and Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden.
2. Change of Habit - Many of the songs that Elvis recorded for his movies have been considered run of the mill quickly recorded throw away songs. But listening to this one shows that some of them were well worth a listen, even outside of the movie. – Album: Let’s Be Friends.
3. Bridge Over Troubled Water - This Simon and Garfunkel song seemed to have been recorded by nearly everyone in the early 70’s and Elvis performed it on his 1970 concerts. Album: That’s the Way It Is
4. Too Much Monkey Business – Another of the movie songs. This has a real nice beat and could have easily been done as a remix similar to A Little Less Conversation. Album: Elvis Singing Flaming Star and Others;
5. You’ll Never Walk Alone - All of Elvis’s Gospel songs are done with feelings, but this one just seem to pull at the heart.
6. Kentucky Rain – This song was released as a single in 1970 and many times it is forgotten as one of his hits, but the song should really be considered one of his best from the 1968-1971 period. Album: Elvis Golden Award Vol. 5
08.13.07
Flowers – Myth or Fact
1. The leaves of a Poinsettia are poisonous.
Myth. There has never been a death that has been proven to have occurred due to ingestion of the leaves or any other part of the flower. The myth began in 1919 when the child of an army officers died and the poinsettia was thought to have been the cause. A study bu the Ohio State University fed high doses of ground poinsettia leaves to rats with no side effects to the rats.
2. Eating poppy seeds can cause a false positive in a drug test.
Fact: The poppy seeds on your favorite bagel or bread comes from a similar type of poppy seeds as the opium poppies, the raw material of drugs such as heroin and morphine.
3. The Texas bluebonnet, the State flower of Texas, can not be picked legally in Texas.
Myth: As long as you have permission of the owner of the property to pick the flower there isn’t a law making it illegal to pick. However that is not true for all state’s and their state flowers. In Minnesota it is illegal to pick the pink-and-white lady’s slipper.
4. Tulips are native to Netherlands (Holland).
Myth: The origin of the tulip is believed to have been in Asia with their introduction to Europe being in the 16th Century.
5. The Daisy were at one time called ‘Day’s Eye’.
Fact: Since the daisy will close at night and open during the day, it was originally called a ‘Day’s Eye’, with over time the pronunciation being contracted to the current daisy.
6. Flowers in a Hospital room will consume all of the oxygen in the room.
Myth: Over the course of a 24 hour period flowers can actually give off 10 times more oxygen than they consume. More oxygen is actually used by visitors than flowers.
08.09.07
State of Minnesota
1. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the 32nd state on May 11, 1858.
2. The name comes from the Dakota language. The word Mnisota can be translated into sky-tinted water, and so named the Minnesota River. The State took its name from the river.
3. The first European/United States settlers came after a treaty was signed between the Dakota Tribe and the United States for land near where the Missouri and Minnesota Rivers meet. In 1820 Fort Snelling was built there.
4. A great portion of the population of Minnesota, nearly 60%, live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, which is known as the Twin Cities.
5. Minnesota is the 21st most populated state of the United States and 12th in area. The Capital of the state is Saint Paul with its largest city being Minneapolis.
6. The state is called the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”. Along with state and national forests and parks, these lakes offer residents and tourists a vigorous outdoor lifestyle.
