Friday, June 21, 2019

Lithaish ePistle


Famous First Words: The sun is high above us... --Litha Prayer
Happy Summer Solstice, all you heathens. Summertime is always the best of what might be. --Charles Bowden
..........Jose Ferrer and Janet Blair and Fred Astaire..........Judy Holliday …..Drop That Name
Moral courage is the highest expression of humanity. --Ralph Nader
It is a rainy Friday morning. Thunder and lightening have moved off to the northeast but the 16 mph breeze and the damp are still with us. The sky is lumpy with clouds of various colors and shapes no longer looking threatening and perhaps getting lighter. The whole world conjures a feeling of early spring. Birds are busy chasing one another and darting about trees and bushes. They sing and call and then become silent streaks across the yard...utility wire to fence to rooftop. The smell of rain and wet smother the aroma of flowers and growth. Puck finishes his business without a single bark and hurries back into the house. I linger a while, bare feet in the wet grass, taste of sweetened coffee on my tongue. But eventually, I return to the warm, dry house and settle in to write to you. What a great start to a great day.
Hope your weekend opens the door to a terrific summer, ePistliers.
Thanks for making the longest day of the year longer by explaining why it's the longest day of the year. / I'm looking forward to summer; the rain gets warmer.
..........They got a name for the winners in the world.........Steely Dan …..Deacon Blues
Trivia Questions: Happy Birthday, Ferris Wheel
^ Any idea who invented the Ferris Wheel?
^^ Or where it first appeared?
^^^ How many passengers could sit in the gondolas on the first Ferris Wheel?
^^^^ How much did it cost to ride on the first wheel?
^^^^^ How many people, more or less, rode the original wheel during it's short lifetime?
Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: If two vegans have an argument is it still called a “beef”?
Second Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Unfortunately, there is no lifeguard in the gene pool.
Fake Library Statistic of the Week: Current exchange rate for taking a colleague's shift at the ref desk is one week unlimited use of their book cart. https://www.facebook.com/FakeLibStats/?fref=ts
We took our vacation last summer at a beach resort. It was so boring the tide went out and never came back. / Maybe this year I'll finally realize I'm to old for nude sun bathing.
..........Where is your bounty of fortune and fame.........Steely Dan …..Midnight Cruiser
Moonbeam: Fascism is not defined by the number of its victims, but by the way it kills them. --Jean-Paul Sartre
Something to Think About of the Week: Kiwi

Litha: A Wiccan holiday called Summer Solstice by some and Midsummer's Day by others. http://wiccaliving.com/wiccan-calendar-litha-summer-solstice/
Next Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Last year we said, “Things can't go on like this”, and they didn't, they got worse. --Will Rogers --Submitted by ea of mo
Week of the Week: Old Time Fiddlers Week (16-22) –How do you tell the difference between a fiddle player and a dog? The dog knows when to stop scratching. / What do you call a pretty girl on a fiddle player's arm? A tattoo
The summer sun is held up in the sky by sunbeams. / I love the Scottish summer. It's my favorite day.
..........Would you take me by the hand.........Steely Dan …..Bodhisattva
^ A brilliant engineer, George Ferris already had a reputation as innovative with a high regard for safety, even before his magnum opus was created.
Almanac: It is Friday, June 21, 2019. The moon will be last quarter next Tuesday and is currently in Aquarius. It is Cuckoo Warning Day, Atheists Solidarity Day aka World Humanist Day, Go Skateboarding Day, National Daylight Appreciation Day, National Flip Flop Day, Summer Solstice, Take Your Dog to Work Day, and Ugliest Dog Day. In Hong Kong and Taiwan it is the Dragon Boat Festival and in New Hampshire it is Ratification Day (1788).
Among those born on this day were Martha Washington (1732), Daniel Carter Beard (1851), Jean-Paul Satre (1905), Mary McCarthy (1912), Jane Russell (1921), Judy Holliday (1922), Maureen Stapleton (1925), Francoise Sagan (1935), Meredith Baxter Birney (1944), Michael Gross (1947), Benazir Bhutto (1953), and Prince William of Wales (1982).
On June twenty-first New Hampshire ratified the US Constitution (1788), the first Ferris Wheel premiered (Chicago, 1893), the Hawaiian Red Cross was founded (1917), former Attorney General, John Mitchell, and former Chief of Staff, H.R. Haldeman, began a 19 month sentence in an Alabama prison (1977), and Donald Fagan and Walter Becker announced the break up of Steely Dan (1981).
Night Sky, 6/21: The solstice arrives at 11:54 am EDT, when the Sun is farthest north for the year. Jupiter's Great Red Spot should transit the planet's central meridian (the line from pole to pole down the center of the planet's disk) around 1:21 am EDT tonight; 12:21 am CDT. http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/sky-at-a-glance/
Max Picture of the Week: Max, the cutest dude, resting his eyes.

This Week: Saturday, June 22 – Stupid Guy Thing Day & World Rain Forest Day
Night Sky, 6/22: Leo the Lion is a constellation of late winter and spring. But he's not gone yet. As twilight ends look due west, rather low, for Regulus, his brightest and now lowest star: the forefoot of the Lion stick figure. The Sickle of Leo extends upper right from Regulus. The rest of the Lion's constellation figure extends for almost three fist-widths to the upper left, to his tail star Denebola, the highest. He's treading down to the western horizon.
Sunday, June 23 - International Widows' Day & Let It Go Day & Public Service Day
Night Sky, 6/23: As twilight fades, look very low in the north-northwest for wintry Capella very out of season. The farther north you are, the higher it will appear. You may need binoculars. If you're as far north as Montreal or a Portland (either Oregon or Maine!), Capella is actually circumpolar.
Monday, June 24 – Please Take My Children To Work Day & Stonewall National Monument Day
Tuesday, June 25 – Global Beatles Day & Global Smurfs Day
Night Sky, 6/25: Use binoculars to try catching Mercury and Mars just ½° apart low in the west-northwest. Mercury is by far the brighter of the two. Mars is actually fainter now than Pollux and Castor, which glimmer a little more than a binocular field of view to their upper right.
Wednesday, June 26 – Harry Potter Day & National Canoe Day & National Coconut Day
Thursday, June 27 – National Bomb Pop Day & National Hand Shake Day & National Onion Day
Dear Spring, I'm breaking up with you. Summer is much hotter. / The X-Factor originally referred to Roman sun Screen.
..........Your everlasting summer.........Steely Dan …..Reelin' In The Years
^^ The Ferris Wheel debuted at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
Preantepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: You can't always control who walks into your life, but you can control which window you throw them out of. --Submitted by nm of ks
Moonbeam: If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company. --Jean-Paul Sartre
Late Night Snacks of the Week: Every night, I stand up here and make jokes about all of Donald Drumpf’s lies. But today, I think I might owe him an apology. Because it turns out, it’s even worse when he tells the truth. --Stephen Colbert / The guy who has spent two years scream-tweeting ‘No collusion!’ is now saying, ‘If anyone’s down to collude, I’m your guy.’ If Drumpf would have been president during Watergate, he would have left a business card at the break-in. --Seth Meyers / Russian meddling, two years of Mueller, and that shitty Game of Thrones ending – after all of that, Drumpf has turned around and said that he would accept foreign help to win the 2020 election. Like apparently, foreign dirt is the only import he won’t put tariffs on. --Trevor Noah / Drumpf is upset because the Times reported that Mexico’s concession on border security was not because of his tariff threat, it was actually the result of months of preparation by his staff. And Drumpf was like, that is fake news, my staff is never prepared. --Jimmy Kimmel
Not So Late Night Snacks of the Week: The Trump news comes out faster than your lunch after eating a medium-rare Trump steak, so we have to cover it as fast as we can. We're going to ask you about the week in Trump, rapid-fire style. Tell us if it's true or false. Trump's secretary of state finally acknowledged the threat of climate change? False. Secretary Pompeo said, quote, "steady reductions in sea ice are opening new passageways and new opportunities for trade." --Peter Sagal Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me 6/14/19
We are very, very small, but we are profoundly capable of very, very big things. --Stephen Hawking
Kodiaks used bear conditioning to keep their caves cool in summer. / Kansas: It only rained twice this summer, once for 45 day and again for 35 days.
..........Lookin' so outrageous.........Steely Dan …..Black Cow
^^^ The first Ferris wheel was huge. Each gondola was the size of a bus and carried 40 passengers in comfort.
Worthless Fact of the Week: Cuckoo Warning Day: If you hear a cuckoo on this day your summer will be wet. ~~It didn't say whether clocks counted or not.
Antepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Drinking 1 gallon of water a day helps you avoid other people's drama because you're too busy peeing. Stay hydrated my friends. --Real Housewives of Oz
Obsolete Word of the Week: Snoutfair – a good-looking person. (1500s)
Wacky Uses for Common Products: Condition hair. Massage lukewarm Wesson Vegetable Oil into dry hair, cover hair with a shower cap for thirty minutes, then shampoo and rinse thoroughly. http://www.wackyuses.com/wacky/wesson.html
Student Lament: I need summer to be longer so I have more time to do nothing. / It's a sure sign of summer if the chair gets up when you do. -Walter Winchell.
...........But they catch you at the border.........Steely Dan …..Do It Again
^^^^ Fifty cents a ride. It was a lot of money in those days, but who wouldn't pay to be part of history?
Penultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Creative people don't have a mess, they have ideas lying around everywhere. --Submitted by nm of ks
Science Fiction Convention of the Week: Fyrecon 2019 (20-22, Layton, UT) Art and writing on science fiction and fantasy. https://www.fyrecon.com/
Actual Science Convention of the Week: ASME 2019 Turbo Expo (17-21, Phoenix, AZ) Turbomachinery Technical Conference & Exposition https://event.asme.org/Turbo-Expo
Puck the Brave Episode of the Week: Here's our fearless Puck eavesdropping in the Case of the Listening Lab.

Good News! I can start blaming my normal lack of productivity on it being summer. / A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. --James Dent
..........Send it off in a letter to yourself.........Steely Dan …..Rikki Don't Lose That Number
^^^^^ 1.5 million people rode the original Ferris Wheel. The lines were several blocks long, even before the fair opened in the morning. Many came to the fair exclusively to ride the Ferris Wheel.
Month of the Week: June is National Candy Month --Candy originally came from Sweeten. / What do we call a dog standing on a Mars Bar? Rover.
Ultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: If I had a nickel every time I didn't know what was going on, I would be like, “why am I always getting all these nickels?” --RHOO
A thank you to ma of ks for teaching me about counting backwards in ultimates
Grammar Joke of the Week: What should you say to comfort a grammar nazi? A: “There, their, they’re.”
Today's Peace of History,June 21, 1997: 100,000 marched in solidarity with striking newspaper workers in Detroit after nearly two years on the picket line.
At last, summer when it's finally hot enough to complain about how hot it it. / Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. --Sam Keen
..........Way back when in sixty seven.........Steely Dan …..Hey Nineteen
Masthead of the Week: Friday ePistle June 21, 2019, Lithian ePistle. Online at: http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/ Laughs, peace, and summer sun. Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. 2511 Morningside Dr. Lawrence, KS 66047
Moonbeam: Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat. --Jean-Paul Sartre
Cost of War:
As of 6/20/19 Military Costs of War since 2001: $2,934,038,168,849.
As of 6/13/19 Military Costs of War since 2001: $2,932,256,696,996.
As of 6/20/19 Homeland Security Costs since 2001: $903,317,261,815.
As of 6/13/19 Homeland Security Costs since 2001: $901,970,640,268.
As of 6/20/19 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $685,255,839,755.
As of 6/13/19 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $683,563,201,827.
As of 6/20/19 Veterans Care since 2001: $311,376,313,207.
As of 6/13/19 Veterans Care since 2001: $310,991,651,128.
As of 6/20/19 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $4,833,988,085,098.
As of 6/13/19 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $4,828,582,010,905.
Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people. --Roy T. Bennett
..........All around, there's the sound of the midsummer night..........Judy Holliday …..Bells Are Ringing
It is a cruel season that make you get ready for bed while it's light out. --Bill Watterson / All I need this summer is a little Vitamin Sea.
Famous Last Words: ...is shared globally at the same moment in the calendar. --World Humanist Day Website
May Peace cool your hands
And Joy warm your heart
prairie mama
christine


Last Laugh:


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