BIRTHDAYS: John Flamsteed (English Astronomer), 1646; Orville Wright, 1871; Ogden Nash, 1902; Ring Lardner, Jr., 1915; Malcolm Forbes, 1919; Gene Roddenberry, 1921; Willie Shoemaker, 1931; Vicki Cobb (children's author), 1938; Jill St. John, 1940; Bill Clinton, 1946; Morton Anderson, 1960; Ron Darling Jr., 1960; John Stamos, 1963.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1692 6 residents of Salem, MA were executed after being accused of practicing witchcraft.
On this date in 1775 a horde of earwigs infested houses and gardens in Stroud, England. Residents fled to the surrounding countryside.
On this date in 1812 The U.S.S. Constitution won a decisive victory over the British frigate GUERRIERE in the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia. It was here that she won her nickname "Old Ironsides". Among the American marines participating in the battle as part of the crew of the CONSTITUTION was a woman, Lucy Brewer, who signed up disguised as a man under the name Nicholas Baker. She served for 3 years, successfully hiding her sex the entire time.
On this date in 1851 Captain Gennadi Nevelskoy raised the Russian flag on Sakhalin Island, just north of Japan.
On this date in 1870 Bernard M. Baruck, advisor to Presidents from Woodrow Wilson to John F. Kennedy, was born.
On this date in 1888 the first beauty contest was held at Spa, Belgium (at least in modern terms.)
On this date in 1871 Orville Wright was born on
this day, and it is called National Aviation Day in honor of the event.
Malcolm Forbes, born on this date in 1919, said,
"I don't waste too much time philosophizing about wealth, I just recommend
it to everyone." Of course he didn't say it on the day of his birth...
On this date in 1934 Adolf Hitler became "president" of Germany.
On this date in 1971 the Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Forest Service announced plans to save the 50 to 60 California Condors left in the wild.
On this date in 1981 US Navy planes shot down 2 Libyan jets.
On this date in 1985 the NEW YORK TIMES began a series of articles exploring baseball's love affair with cocaine. Among other things, they reported: Tim Raines of the Expos would slide into bases head first to protect the vial of cocaine he carried in his pocket. Billy Martin searched Yankee players' lockers and bags during games. Cocaine orders were frequently placed from, and delivered to, the Royal's clubhouse where, according to the dealer, "players talked about baseball while using drugs, and talked about drugs while playing baseball." Dealer Curtis Strong was later convicted for selling cocaine to, among others, Dave Parker, Enos Cabell, Lonnie Smith and Keith Hernandez.
On this date in 1991 a group of Communist hard-liners led by the vice president, defense minister, interior minister, and head of the KGB attempted a coup in the Soviet Union, detaining President Mikhail Gorbachev in his dacha in the Crimea and dispatched tanks to secure the streets of Moscow.
MEANINGLESS FACTS: A steel-jacketed bullet is not really steel-jacketed; its jacket is made of brass... Beestings is not the sting of bees, it is the first milk given by a cow after calving... Clay pigeons are not really pigeons (you probably knew that one, though, right???).
TRIVIA: Today is National Aviation Day, honoring the birth of what great aviator?
Theocritus said, "Faults are beauties in a lovers eye." May your faults be beautiful to many. Have a wonderful Lord's Day!
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Tongues firmly in cheek -- thanks to a friend:
Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Heaven, God was missing for six days.
Eventually, Michael, the archangel found him, resting on the seventh day.
He inquired of God, "Where have you been?"
God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look, Michael, look what I've made."
Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?"
"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put Life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance."
"Balance?", inquired Michael, still confused.
God explained, pointing to different parts of earth, "For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth while southern Europe is going to be poor; the Middle East over there will be a hot spot. Over there I've placed a continent of white people and over there is a continent of black people."
God continued, pointing to different countries. "This one will be extremely hot and arid while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."
The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a large land mass and said, "What's that one?"
"Ah," said God. "That's Texas, the most glorious place on Earth. There are beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers, sunsets and rolling plains. The people from Texas are going to be modest, intelligent, and humorous and they are going to be found traveling the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, and high-achieving, and they will be known all throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace."
Michael gasped in wonder and admiration but then proclaimed, "What about balance, God? You said there would be balance!"
God replied wisely, "Wait until you see the crazy bunch I'm putting next to them in Louisiana."
(NOTE: Being from Arkansas originally, I would never stop a Texan from knocking Louisiana or vice versa for that matter... got any good LA jokes???)
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Thanks to AB:
There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup. They said, "May we see that? We've never seen one quite so beautiful."
As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke. "You don't understand," it said. "I haven't always been a teacup. There was a time when I was red, and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, "let me alone, but he only smiled, "Not yet." "Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup said, "and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. "Stop it! I'm getting dizzy!" I screamed.
But the master only nodded and said, 'Not yet.' Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening, and I could read his lips as He shook his head, "Not yet."
Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. "There, that's better," I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. "Stop it, stop it!" I cried. He only nodded, "Not yet." Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot, and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening nodding his head saying, "Not yet."
Then I knew there wasn't any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened, and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later he handed me a mirror and said, "Look at yourself. And I did. I said, "That's not me; that couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful."
"I want you to remember, then," he said, 'I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I knew it hurt and was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked.
I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened; you would not have had any color in your life. And if I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you."
MORAL: God knows what He's doing (for all of us). He is the Potter, and we are His clay. He will mold us and make us, so that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing, and perfect will. Author Unknown
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ANSWER: I guess you'd call him the first airplane pilot -- born on this date in 1871 -- Orville Wright.
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Good Morning: It's Monday August 20, 2001!
BIRTHDAYS: Oliver Hazard Perry (U.S. naval officer and hero of the war of 1812), 1785; Benjamin Harrison, 1833; Edgar Guest, 1881; Don King, 1931; Isaac Hayes, 1942; Graig Nettles, 1944; Connie Chung, 1946; Mark Langston, 1960.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1741 Alaska was discovered by Danish navigator Vitus Bering after whom the Bering Sea was named.
On this date in 1780 Baron Johann de Kalb, who came to the U.S. with the Marquis de Lafayette to serve in the Continental Army, uttered the following dying words: "I die the death I always prayed for -- the death of a soldier fighting for the Rights of Man." His death came three days after being shot while fighting in South Carolina.
On this date in 1857 after being harpooned by the crew of the whaling ship ANN ALEXANDER, a whale attacked and destroyed the vessel.
On this date in 1883 Benjamin Harrison was born. He was grandson to William Henry Harrison, President of the US. He also succeeded Grover Cleveland as President, and preceded Grover Cleveland as President. He beat Cleveland in one election and lost to him in the next.
On this date in 1882 Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" premiered in Moscow.
On this date in 1912 the Plant Quarantine Act went into effect, placing restrictions on the entry of plants into the United States.
On this date in 1934 the comic strip "Li'l Abner" first appeared.
On this date in 1940 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force, stating: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
On this date in 1968 James McAdam, Jr., snagged the largest sea bass on record -- 563 pounds.
On this date in 1977 NASA launched the Voyager Two space probe. It carried a twelve-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature, and abstract images of a man and woman, etc.
On this date in 1984 the Republican convention began in Dallas with a speech by Jeane Kirkpatrick. US treasurer Katherine Ortega gave the keynote address.
On this date in 1985 the original Xerox copy machine was donated to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
On this date in 1986 mailman Patrick Sherril killed 14 people before committing suicide in an Edmond, OK post office.
MEANINGLESS FACTS: The duck hawk is neither duck nor hawk, it is a falcon... The horned owl is not horned, 2 tufts of feathers were mistaken for horns (it is, however, an owl)... The Douglas fir, also known as the Douglas spruce, is neither a fir nor a spruce, it is a pine tree.
TRIVIA: I was born in Genoa, became a sailor and merchant in Venice, made trips to Arabia, and about 1490 I went to England and made my home in Bristol. I gained a reputation as the most daring of all the merchant captains of the area. Whereas Columbus sought the Indies, I asked for and received (from King Henry VII) permission to travel north in search of China and Japan. My son Sebastian and a crew of 18 men embarked with me on a little ship called the MATTHEW in early May 1497. After a journey of 6 weeks we reached the coast of Labrador. I mistakenly identified the place as China when it was really North America. Who am I?
The French have an old proverb, something like this: "To believe a thing impossible is to make it so." Attitude is so important! May yours be a good one today.
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I received this from 2 parties, one of whom is lost from my memory. My apologies to the forgotten, but thanks to him/her and AB:
A parody, yes....but so very on target!
From: The Founding Fathers
To: The current generation of Americans
On this the 225th anniversary of our independence, those of us whom you call the Founding Fathers have assembled in Continental heaven to assess the condition of the republic we bequeathed to you. It's true America has become the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth. But so was the British Empire in 1776.
Before we get specific, we must confess that we are annoyed by your habit of misinterpreting our words.
Take the First Amendment, where we said Congress shall make no law "respecting an establishment of religion." You usually neglect the other half of the injunction, "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
As anyone in the first Congress, which passed the amendment, could have told you, "establishment of religion" means an established church, which all are forced to support. We never intended to create a virtue-less republic, by prohibiting public expressions of faith.
In the Declaration of Independence, we acknowledged that rights are endowed by our Creator. Absent a Creator, there are no inalienable rights.
In the Second Amendment, we said the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. In our day, if private citizens hadn't owned guns there would have been no Lexington and Concord.
Why would we bother guaranteeing a collective right to arm state militias? The rights enumerated in the first 10 amendments are restraints on government, not grants of power to it.
If you ever wake up to what's going on, your leaders will have cause to fear an armed citizenry. We viewed elective office as a sacrifice. For your politicians, it's an opportunity. We rid America of a monarchy. You've established an elected aristocracy. We were farmers, merchants and professionals who resumed our careers after a brief term of service and never lost touch with our constituents.
You are governed by an elite so different from you as to almost constitute a separate species. Your elected rulers hold office for 20 or 30 years, becoming increasingly detached from their roots, while rewarding themselves lavish emoluments and pensions.
We revolted over a modest tax on tea. Your tax burden is staggering. Despite the enormous expenditures of your prodigal politicians, even they can't spend it all. And still, many resist returning the federal surplus to its rightful owners. We rejected taxation without representation. You condone your own serfdom.
In the Declaration, we complained that King George III had "sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance." You complacently tolerate a bureaucracy that resembles all Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Eat out their substance? Today, almost one in 13 Americans works for a branch of government. Harass our people? There are bureaucrats to tell you how to run your business, build on your property and raise your children. Government makes decisions for you regarding your health, safety and welfare.
We envisioned the judiciary as a coequal branch of government that interprets laws based on the clear meaning of language. Your courts have become a law unto themselves -- raising taxes, deciding elections, ordering private relationships and substituting their will for that of legislators.
We warned you against entangling alliances. You are eager to form defensive pacts with postage-stamp countries whose security couldn't conceivably be related to your own. This will only serve to drag you into their petty quarrels, sapping your strength.
We recognized that government and society must rest on divine wisdom. George Washington observed, "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
You cultivate national immorality, in the apparent belief that compulsory acceptance of perversion will somehow lead to a society whose citizens have the self-discipline to sacrifice for the common good. Benjamin Franklin said we gave you a republic "if you can keep it." From our vantage point, it does not look promising. Were we alive today, we'd raise another rebellion.
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ANSWER: John Cabot.
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