Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. – Thich Nhat Hanh
FOR TODAY – NOVEMBER 21st – MONDAY
325th day of 2011 with 40 to follow.
Holidays for Today:
*Gingerbread Day
*False Confession Day
*World Hello Day
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TODAY IN BIRTHDAYS:
- 1694 Voltaire, French philosopher (advocated freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state)
- 1785 William Beaumont, Lebanon, Connecticut, surgeon in U.S. Army known as “Father of Gastric Physiology”
- 1787 Sir Samuel Cunard, Halifax, Nova Scotia, shipping magnate (founded Cunard Line)
- 1834 Hetty Green, New Bedford, Massachusetts, business woman, 1st woman to make an impact on Wall Street (The Witch of Wall Street)
- 1840 Princess Victoria, Buckingham Palace, London,UK (eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert) German Empress & Queen of Prussia (married German Emperor Frederick III)
- 1920 Stan Musial, Donora, Pennsylvania, retired pro baseball player (Stan the Man), 27-time All-Star selection, considered one of the greatest hitters in baseball history
- 1924 Christopher Reuel Tolkien, Leeds, England, editor / author (edited much of JRR Tolkien’s posthumously published work such as The Silmarillion, drew maps for The Lord of The Rings)
- 1933 Henry Warren Hartsfield, Jr., Birmingham, Alabama, retired U.S. Air Force officer / test pilot / NASA astronaut (over 480 hours in space: STS-4, STS-41-D, STS-61-A)
- 1934 Laurence Luckinbill, Fort Smith, Arkansas, actor (Poor Murderer, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier )
- 1937 Marlo Thomas, Detroit, Michigan, actress / producer/ National Outreach Diretor fo St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (That Girl!, Jenny)
- 1945 Goldie Hawn, Washington, D.C., actress (Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club)
- 1943 Larry Mahan, Salem, Oregon, rodeo cowboy (World All Around Rodeo Champion 6 times, subject of documentary The Great American Cowboy)
- 1960 Brian McNamara, Long Island, New York, U.S., American actor (Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, St. Elsewhere, JAG, The O.C., Star Trek: Voyager, Mad About You, Matlock, Ellen, Murder, She Wrote, Murphy Brown )
- 1962 Steven Curtis Chapman, Paducah, Kentucky, contemporary Christian musician
- 1966 Troy Aikman, West Covina, California, football quarterback/ sportscaster FOX / part-owner of San Diego Padres
- 1969 Ken Griffey, Jr., Donora, Pennsylvania, baseball player (outfielder, designated hitter, considered one of the best baseball players)
- 1972 Rain Phoenix, Crockett, Texas, singer/actress (Kids in America )
- 1973 Brook Kerr, Indianapolis, Indiana, actress (Passions)
- 1982 Ryan Starr, Sunland, California, singer, ranked seventh on the season 1 of the talent search television series American Idol
- 1984 Jena Malone, Sparks, Nevada, actress (Contact, Ellen Foster, Stepmom, Sucker Punch)
- 2001 Samantha Bailey, Mission Hills, California, actress (The Young and the Restless, Pushing Daisies )
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I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it. – Voltaire
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HAPPENED THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
- 1789 North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 12th U.S. state.
- 1877 Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record and play sound.
- 1905 Albert Einstein’s paper, Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?, is published in the journal “Annalen der Physik”. This paper reveals the relationship between energy and mass. This leads to the mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc².
- 1922 Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, becoming the first female United States Senator.
- 1953 “Pitdown Man,” discovered in 1912 proved to be a hoax
- 1964 The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opens to traffic (at the time it is the world’s longest suspension bridge).
- 1968 Supremes & Temptations release “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me”
- 1969 U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato agree in Washington, D.C. on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free.
- 1969 The first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and SRI.
- 1977 Minister of Internal Affairs Allan Highet announces that ‘the national anthems of New Zealand shall be the traditional anthem “God Save the Queen” and the poem “God Defend New Zealand”, written by Thomas Bracken, as set to music by John Joseph Woods, both being of equal status as national anthems appropriate to the occasion.
- 1979 The United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan is attacked by a mob and set on fire, killing four. (see: Foreign relations of Pakistan)
- 1985 United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard is arrested for spying after being caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations. He is subsequently sentenced to life in prison.
- 1995 The Dayton Peace Agreement is initialed at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The agreement is formally ratified in Paris, on December 14 that same year.
- 2006 Anti-Syrian Lebanese Minister and MP Pierre Gemayel is assassinated in suburban Beirut.
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William’s wife started noticing how forgetful he was becoming. Being the concerned wife, she convinced him to see a doctor. William was a little worried when the doctor came in. Sensing his patient’s nervousness, the first thing the doctor did was to ask what was troubling him.
“Well,” William answered. “I seem to be getting forgetful. I’m never sure I can remember where I put the car, or whether I answered a letter, or where I’m going, or what it is I’m going to do once I get there, if I get there. So, I really need your help. What can I do?”
The doctor thought for a moment, then answered in his kindest tone, “Please pay me in advance.”
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A little boy was attending his first wedding with the family..
After the service, a cousin wondered aloud, “I wonder how many women can a man marry?”
“Sixteen,” volunteered Jenni’s boy.
The cousin was amazed that the boy had figured it out so quickly and asked, “How do you know that for sure?”
“Easy,” Jenni’s boy said. “All you have to do is add it up, didn’t you hear the preacher say:
‘Four for better, four for worse, four richer, and four poorer,’ and that makes sixteen ”
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ONE-LINERS : Think About It
* Money doesn’t bring you happiness, but it enables you to look for it in more places.
* Your conscience may not keep you from doing wrong, but it sure keeps you from enjoying it.
* Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.
* Misers aren’t much fun to live with, but they make great ancestors.
* Be careful what rut you choose. You may be in it the rest of your life.
* The trouble with bucket seats is that not everybody has the same size bucket.
* When you see the handwriting on the wall, you can bet you’re in a public restroom.
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A preacher was frustrated with the lack of Christian commitment in his congregation. He came up with a plan to get their attention. Trying to put some fear into his congregation, he paused in the middle of a sermon and exclaimed, “Every member of this congregation is going to die.”
Instead of getting the reaction he expected everyone just sat there stupefied. Thinking his statement hadn’t fully sunk in, he tried it again for impact. “I said, every member of this congregation is going to die,” he yelled. Everyone remained quiet as the preacher paused for effect. He noticed a man chuckling on the second row. The man, who the pastor realized was a visitor, continued until he broke into riotous laughter.
The preacher pointed to the man and asked, “Why are you laughing?”
Without a break in his laughter, the man said,”Because I’m not a member of this congregation.”
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pic of the day: Guinea Fowl on a Fall Day
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Once upon a time there was a famous sea captain. This captain was very successful at what he did; for years he guided merchant ships all over the world. Never did stormy seas or pirates get the best of him. He was admired by his crew and fellow captains.
However, there was one thing different about this captain. Every morning he went through a strange ritual. He would lock himself in his captain’s quarters and open a small safe. In the safe was an envelope with a piece of paper inside. He would stare at the paper for a minute, then lock it back up. Afterwards, he would go about his daily duties. For years this went on, and his crew became very curious.
Was it a treasure map? Was it a letter from a long lost love? Everyone speculated about the contents of the strange envelope.
One day the captain died at sea. After laying the captain’s body to rest, the first mate led the entire crew into the captains quarters.
He opened the safe, got the envelope, opened it and…
The first mate turned pale and showed the paper to the others. Four words were on the paper; two lines with two words each:
Port Left
Starboard Right
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When I was a child, I remember my Mom telling me, “Son, when you grow up, you can marry any girl you please.”
When I became a young man, I learned the sad fact was that I could not please any of them.
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WARNING! ENTERING THE PUN ZONE!
A fellow walked into a Baskin & Robbins Ice Cream Parlor on a very hot summery day.
He ordered a double scooped chocolate cone, received it, and then walked away.
Outside on the sidewalk he paused for a bit, then he pulled out a pair of red birds, sat down on a nearby bench with his birds, and placed them on top of his fudgie.
A passerby who glanced over his way and noticed the curious sight, was prompted to ask “What’s happening, Bud, with your treat with two birdies alight?”
The fellow replied in a curious way, in an absolute serious tone, “I’m just trying, dear sir, as best I know how, to chill two birds with one cone.”
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Sophie went to see a psychiatrist about her husband.
“Doctor, My husband has this problem. Almost every night now he’s dreaming he’s a refrigerator!”
“My dear, that is not really a problem! A lot of people dream that they are somebody or something unusual…”
Sophie leans forward as she softly whispers this confidence: “But you see doctor it is also a problem for me! Jake sleeps with his mouth open and the light keeps me awake!”
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A unit of soldiers was marching a long dusty march across the rolling prairie. It was a hot blistering day and the men, longing for water and rest, were impatient to reach the next town.
A rancher rode past.
“Say, friend”, called out one of the men, “how far is it to the next town?”
“Oh, a matter of two miles or so, I reckon,” called back the rancher. Another long hour dragged by, and another rancher was encountered.
“How far to the next town?” the men asked him eagerly.
“Oh, a good two miles.”
A nearly half hour longer of marching, and then a third rancher. “Hey, how far’s the next town?”
“Not far,” was the encouraging answer, “only about two miles.”
“Well,” sighed the optimistic sergeant, “thank God, we’re holding our own, anyhow!”
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TODAY IN TRIVIA: PHONOGRAPH
~ These first machines were rather costly for the time, selling for $200.
~ Edison’s phonograph, patented in 1878, used heavy tin foil wrapped around a hand-cranked cylinder. The machine featured two styluses — one for recording the sound in a line on the foil and the other for playing back the sound along that line. The foil didn’t last long, however, and Edison soon began using wax cylinders invented by Alexander Graham Bell and others.
~ Edison foresees that people would use phonograph technology to record phone conversations, dictation and final messages of dying family members.
~ Today is the special day of the phonograph inventor!
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LIFE LESSON: Most people, after one success, are so cringingly afraid of doing less well that they rub all the edge off their subsequent work. – Beatrix Potter
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QUIP OF THE DAY: God Gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.
THAT’S (ALMOST) ALL FOLKS!
THE LAST WORD: Nothing will work unless you do. – John Wooden
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