January 10th - Today is the 10th day of the year, with only 355 days remaining in 2006.

Common Sense Day
In 1776, Thomas Paine published his political call to action, "Common Sense". The 47-page pamphlet sold more than 500,000 copies and helped to draw patriots to the cause of the American Revolution.


"Universal Time" (UT) which is sometimes referred to, now colloquially, as "Greenwich Mean Time" (GMT)
FIRST QUARTER - Jan 6   6:56 p.m.
FULL MOON - Jan 14   9:47 a.m.
LAST QUARTER - Jan 22   3:14 p.m.
NEW MOON - Jan 29   2:15 p.m.


WISDOM THOUGHTS
A lot of trouble in this world is caused by combining a narrow mind with a wide mouth.
Caution: Do not ask for advice, you might get it.
Death is more universal than life; everyone dies, but not everyone lives.
He who laughs last probably intended to tell the story himself.
Honesty pays, but not enough for some people.
Luck is a lazy person's estimate of a worker's success.
No one is as busy as the person who has nothing to do.
Some people hold the key to the situation, and then are too lazy to turn it.
The early fish gets hooked for the same thing the early bird gets credit for.
The trouble with being punctual is that no one notices it when you are.
There is just as much horse sense as ever, but it seems like the horses have it all.
Wisdom is knowing when to speak your mind and when to mind your speech.


ACTING -
1904 Ray Bolger (Raymond Wallace Bulcao), Dorchester MA, actor/dancer (Scarecrow-Wizard of Oz) [D: 01/15/87]
1927 Gisèle MacKenzie, Winnipeg Manitoba, singer/actress (Your Hit Parade) [D: 09/05/2003]
1939 Sal Mineo, Bronx NY, actor (Rebel Without A Cause, Exodus) [D: 02/12/76]
1949 Teresa Graves, Houston TX, actress (Laugh-in, Get Christie Love!) [D: 10/10/2002]
1949 Linda Lovelace (Linda Boreman), Bronx NY, porn star (Deep Throat) [D: 04/22/2002]
1970 Doug E Doug, Brooklyn NY, rapper/comedian/actor (Operation Dumbo Drop, Jungle Fever)

ARTISTIC -
1931 Ron Galella, NY, celebrity paparazzi photographer (sued by Jackie O)
1936 Stephen Edward Ambrose, Whitewater WI, historian/biographer (D-Day, Band of Brothers) [D: 10/13/2002]

HISTORIC -
1869 Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, Siberia, mystic/healer [12/29/16]
1738 Ethan Allen, Litchfield CT, Revolutionary War fighter (led the Green Mountain Boys) [D: 02/12/1789]
1843 Frank James, Kearney MO, outlaw/Jesse's older brother [D: 02/18/15]
1930 Roy E Disney, LA CA, CEO/Walt Disney's nephew (Disney)

MUSIC -
1917 Jerry Wexler, Bronx NY, music producer (Ray Charles/Aretha Franklin/Bob Dylan)
1927 Johnnie Ray, Hopewell OR, 50's singer (Cry, Just Walkin' in the Rain) [D: 02/24/90]
1943 (James Joseph) "Jim" Croce, Philadelphia PA, singer/songwriter (Time in a Bottle, Bad Bad Leroy Brown) [D: 09/20/73]
1944 Frank Sinatra Jr, Jersey City NJ, singer/bandleader (Golddiggers) actor (Hollywood Homicide)
1945 Rod Stewart, London England, singer (Maggie Mae, Da Ya Think I'm Sexy)
1946 Aynsley Dunbar, Liverpool England, rocker/drummer (Journey, Jefferson Starship)
1948 Donald Jay Fagen, Passaic NJ, co-writer/co-founder (Steely Dan-Rikki Don't Lose That Number)
1953 Pat Benatar [Andrezejewski], Brooklyn NY, singer (Hit Me With Your Best Shot)

SCIENCE -
1864 Sune Karl Bergström, Stockholm Sweden, '82 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine (Prostaglandins) [D: 08/15/2004]

SPORTS -
1938 Francis W "Frank" Mahovlich, Timmins Ontario, NHL Hall of Fame '81 (Canadians)/Canadian Senator
1938 Willie "Stretch" McCovey, Mobile AL, 1st baseman (San Francisco Giant #44) Hall of Fame '86
1939 William Anthony Toomey, '69 Olympic decathlon champion/Olympic Hall of Fame '84
1949 George Foreman, Marshall TX, heavyweight boxer (WBC, WBA, IBF, WBU, IBA)


1845 Poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning begin corresponding
1878 US Senate proposes female suffrage
1920 League of Nations holds its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I.
1928 Soviet Union orders exile of Leon Trotsky
1935 Actress Mary Pickford marries actor Douglas Fairbanks
1943 First US President to visit a foreign country in wartime-FDR leaves for Casablanca, Morocco
1946 First General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. Fifty-one nations are represented.
1949 RCA introduces 45 RPM record
1965 Bollingen prize for poetry awarded to Horace Gregory
1967 PBS (the National Educational TV) begins as a 70 station network
1984 US establishes full diplomatic relations with Vatican after 117 years
2000 America Online announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion, the largest corporate merger in history.
MORE EVENTS

SOURCE: Earth Calendar
Greater Bairam (Feast of the Sacrifice) - Albania
Hari Raya Haji (Feast of the Sacrifice) - Singapore
Id al Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) - Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka
Id al-Kabir (Feast of the Sacrifice) - Nigeria
Idu'z Zuha / Bakrid (Feast of the Sacrifice) (Muslim/Islam) - India
+ + + + + + + + + +
Asara B'Tevet - Judaism


THE DEATH OF COMMON SENSE
Lori Borgman
www.loriborgman.com

Three yards of black fabric enshroud my computer terminal. I am mourning the passing of an old friend by the name of Common Sense. His obituary reads as follows:

Common Sense, aka C.S., lived a long life, but died from heart failure at the brink of the millennium. No one really knows how old he was, his birth records were long ago entangled in miles and miles of bureaucratic red tape. Known affectionately to close friends as Horse Sense and Sound Thinking, he selflessly devoted himself to a life of service in homes, schools, hospitals and offices, helping folks get jobs done without a lot of fanfare, whooping and hollering. Rules and regulations and petty, frivolous lawsuits held no power over C.S.

A most reliable sage, he was credited with cultivating the ability to know when to come in out of the rain, the discovery that the early bird gets the worm and how to take the bitter with the sweet. C.S. also developed sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn), reliable parenting strategies (the adult is in charge, not the kid) and prudent dietary plans (offset eggs and bacon with a little fiber and orange juice).

A veteran of the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, the Technological Revolution and the Smoking Crusades, C.S. survived sundry cultural and educational trends including disco, the men's movement, body piercing, whole language and new math.

C.S.'s health began declining in the late 1960s when he became infected with the If-It-Feels-Good, Do-It virus. In the following decades his waning strength proved no match for the ravages of overbearing federal and state rules and regulations and an oppressive tax code. C.S. was sapped of strength and the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, criminals received better treatment than victims and judges stuck their noses in everything from Boy Scouts to professional baseball and golf.

His deterioration accelerated as schools implemented zero-tolerance policies. Reports of 6-year-old boys charged with sexual harassment for kissing classmates, a teen suspended for taking a swig of Scope mouthwash after lunch, girls suspended for possessing Midol and an honor student expelled for having a table knife in her school lunch were more than his heart could endure.

As the end neared, doctors say C.S. drifted in and out of logic but was kept informed of developments regarding regulations on low-flow toilets and mandatory air bags. Finally, upon hearing about a government plan to ban inhalers from 14 million asthmatics due to a trace of a pollutant that may be harmful to the environment, C.S. breathed his last.

Services will be at Whispering Pines Cemetery. C.S. was preceded in death by his wife, Discretion; one daughter, Responsibility; and one son, Reason. He is survived by two step-brothers, Half-Wit and Dim-Wit.

Memorial Contributions may be sent to the Institute for Rational Thought.

Farewell, Common Sense. May you rest in peace.


There is nothing more uncommon than common sense. - Frank Lloyd Wright


BUDGETING: Dollars and sense. (WordFoolery)

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