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WET FLOOR!!

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POLIO FREE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

LARRY RINGS US OUT AT HIS LAST MEETING

SNAPSHOT

MOVING

The number of new hires who relocated for work increased 35 percent in 2013, thanks largely to an improving labor market and better housing prices. The average interstate household move costs $5,630; only about one third of companies pick up employees’ relocation costs.
MarketWatch.com

PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

 New research revealed that users conduct 1,000 monthly searches for “how to hide a dead body,” 1,900 searches for “how to get away with murder,” and 40,500 for “why did I get married?”

TODAY IN HISTORY

March 31

1282		The great massacre of the French in Sicily The Sicilian Vespers comes to an end.
1547		In France, Francis–king since 1515–dies and is succeeded by his son Henry II.
1776		Abigail Adams writes to husband John that women are "determined to foment a rebellion" if the new Declaration of Independence fails to guarantee their rights.
1779		Russia and Turkey sign a treaty by which they promise to take no military action in the Crimea.
1790		In Paris, France, Maximilien Robespierre is elected president of the Jacobin Club.
1836		The first monthly installment of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens is published in London.
1862		Skirmishing between Rebels and Union forces takes place at Island 10 on the Mississippi River.
1880		The first electric street lights ever installed by a municipality are turned on in Wabash, Indiana.
1889		The Eiffel Tower in Paris officially opens on the Left Bank as part of the Exhibition of 1889.
1916		General John Pershing and his army rout Pancho Villa's army in Mexico.
1917		The United States purchases the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.
1918		Daylight Savings Time goes into effect throughout the United States for the first time.
1921		Great Britain declares a state of emergency because of the thousands of coal miners on strike.
1933		To relieve rampant unemployment, Congress authorizes the Civilian Conservation Corps .
1939		Britain and France agree to support Poland if Germany threatens to invade.
1940		La Guardia airport in New York officially opens to the public.
1941		Germany begins a counter offensive in North Africa.
1945		The United States and Britain bar a Soviet supported provisional regime in Warsaw from entering the U.N. meeting in San Francisco.
1948		The Soviet Union begins controlling the Western trains headed toward Berlin.
1949		Winston Churchill declares that the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the Soviet Union from taking over Europe.
1954		The siege of Dien Bien Phu, the last French outpost in Vietnam, begins after the Viet Minh realize it cannot be taken by direct assault.
1960		The South African government declares a state of emergency after demonstrations lead to the deaths of more than 50 Africans.
1966		An estimated 200,000 anti-war demonstrators march in New York City.
1967		President Lyndon Johnson signs the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution.
1970		U.S. forces in Vietnam down a MIG-21, the first since September 1968.
1980		President Jimmy Carter deregulates the banking industry.
1991		Albania offers a multi-party election for the first time in 50 years.

AND I QUOTE

“Be the first to not do what nobody has ever thought of not doing before.”-Brian En

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NOW YOU KNOW

Among Christians giving up something for the 40 days of Lent, 31 percent say they’re “fasting from technology,” with 16 percent forgoing social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
MarketWatch.com

THE GANG WAITS FOR THE NEXT ROUND AT THE WOOD RIVER ROTARY TRIVIA EVENT

I CAN DO THIS MATH

Detroit officials have proposed raising fines for parking violations, after realizing that it costs the bankrupt city $32 to process a $30 ticket.

PING PONG CAT

PING PONG CAT from Hello Future Films on Vimeo.

CHARITY OF THE WEEK

For 50 years, the American Veterinary Medical Foundation (avmf.org) has worked to promote animal welfare and to advance veterinary medicine. As the charitable branch of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the AVMF has awarded more than $50 million in grants that support research to improve medical care for animals, scholarships for veterinary students, and emergency relief for vets struggling in the wake of natural disasters. When hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes hit, the AVMF organizes and funds volunteers to run animal shelters and assist with animal rescue operations and emergency medical care. The AVMF’s efforts also include public education and the promotion of preventive health care for pets, in response to a nationwide rise in preventable pet diseases.

---

The charity has earned a four-star overall rating from Charity Navigator, which rates not-for-profit organizations on the strength of their finances, their control of administrative and fundraising expenses, and the transparency of their operations. Four stars is the group’s highest rating.

TALK IS CHEAP, TV IS NOT

Ten percent of pay-TV customers vow to “cut the cord” this year by canceling their cable subscriptions. Last year, 8 percent of consumers made a similar vow, but just 0.1 percent actually quit.
Qz.com

TODAY IN HISTORY

March 30

1492		King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sign a decree expelling all Jews from Spain.
1840		"Beau" Brummell, the English dandy and former favorite of the prince regent, dies in a French lunatic asylum for paupers.
1858		Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia patents the pencil with an eraser attached on one end.
1867		Russian Baron Stoeckl and U.S. Secretary of State Seward completed the draft of a treaty ceding Alaska to the United States. The treaty is signed the following day.
1870		The 15th amendment, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race, passes.
1870		President U.S. Grant signs bill readmitting Texas to the Union, the last Confederate state readmitted.
1885		In Afghanistan, Russian troops inflict a crushing defeat on Afghan forces Ak Teppe despite orders not to fight.
1909		The Queensboro Bridge in New York opens. It is the first double decker bridge and links Manhattan and Queens.
1916		Mexican bandit Pancho Villa kills 172 at the Guerrero garrison in Mexico.
1936		Britain announces a naval construction program of 38 warships. This is the largest construction program in 15 years.
1941		The German Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel begins its first offensive against British forces in Libya.
1943		Rodgers and Hammerstein's first collaboration, Oklahoma, opens on Broadway.
1944		The U.S. fleet attacks Palau, near the Philippines.
1945		The Red Army advances into Austria.
1946		The Allies seize 1,000 Nazis attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt.
1950		President Harry S Truman denounces Senator Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.
1957		Tunisia and Morocco sign a friendship treaty in Rabat.
1972		Hanoi launches its heaviest attack in four years, crossing the DMZ.
1975		As the North Vietnamese forces move toward Saigon, desperate South Vietnamese soldiers mob rescue jets.
1981		President Ronald Reagan is shot and wounded in Washington, D.C. by John W. Hinkley Jr.
1987		Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers is bought for $39.85 million.

TRIVIA Q & A

What is measured by the unit named after Evangelista Torricelli?
(click below for the answer)

THE FIRST WORD

house of cards

PRONUNCIATION:

(hous uv kardz) 

MEANING:

noun: Something insecure or insubstantial that is subject to imminent collapse.

ETYMOLOGY:

Alluding to a flimsy structure made with playing cards. Earliest documented use: 1645.

USAGE:

"'We have to find a new balance,' the pope said. 'Otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards.'"

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PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

A model is suing Playboy and Los Angeles radio host Kevin Klein after he bruised her buttock while trying to hit a golf ball off a tee placed on her partially bare behind. Elizabeth Dickson claims she never expected that Klein would actually try to hit the ball at the Playboy--sponsored event, and is seeking $500,000 in damages for the “pain, suffering, worry, and anxiety” she suffered after the missed swing left her butt cheek swollen and purple.

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MEETING PROGRAM MARCH 20, 2014

Edwardsville (IL) Children's Museum board President McKinzie Breihan provides a facility overview and some of the programs sponsored by the museum. Additional information is available by linking here

THE NEXT BIG THING?

Get ready to blast through Anna Karenina in under six hours, said Angela Moscaritolo inPCMag.com. A new app called Spritz is promising to help readers gradually increase their pace—up to 1,000 words per minute—by stripping out “the inconvenience of scrolling, swiping, squinting, and pinching to read on your devices.” The app works by flashing words one at a time on a user’s device, eliminating time-consuming eye movement and allowing “the brain to focus on each word, promoting faster reading and higher information retention.” Spritz has a preview on its website, spritzinc.com, and will debut the mobile app on Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S5 smartphone and Gear 2 smartwatch (an iOS version is planned, too). The company says it will expand the number of supported languages beyond the current offering of English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, and Korean.

FIREFLIES

WHERE'S THE GANG?

YOUR NEXT HOUSE

Nokomis, Fla.: Set on a 1.28-acre property between Blackburn Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, this three-bedroom house was designed to allow views of both waterfronts. The home features a central courtyard with a pool, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a two-story living room with a fireplace. Property details include an air-conditioned two-car garage, a boat dock and a lift, and a staircase to the beach. $4,595,000.

FIDO LOVE

Americans spent $55.7 billion on their pets last year, hitting a record-high for a steadily growing industry. The largest share—$21.6 billion—was spent on food, which experts say has become more expensive as humans become more health-conscious.
Associated Press

TODAY IN HISTORY

March 29

1461		The armies of two kings, Henry VI and Edward IV, collide at Towton.
1638		A permanent European colony is established in present-day Delaware.
1827		Composer Ludwig van Beethoven is buried in Vienna amidst a crowd of over 10,000 mourners.
1847		U.S. troops under General Winfield Scott take possession of the Mexican stronghold at Vera Cruz.
1867		The United States purchases Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars.
1879		British troops of the 90th Light Infantry Regiment repulse a major attack by Zulu tribesmen in northwest Zululand.
1886		Coca-Cola goes on sale for the first time at a drugstore in Atlanta. Its inventor, Dr. John Pemberton, claims it can cure anything from hysteria to the common cold.
1903		A regular news service begins between New York and London on Marconi's wireless.
1913		The German government announces a raise in taxes in order to finance the new military budget.
1916		The Italians call off the fifth attack on Isonzo.
1936		Italy firebombs the Ethiopian city of Harar.
1941		The British sink five Italian warships off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean.
1951		The Chinese reject Gen. Douglas MacArthur's offer for a truce in Korea.
1951		Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical The King and I opens on Broadway starring Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner.
1952		President Harry Truman removes himself from the presidential race.
1961		The 23rd amendment, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to vote for president, is ratified.
1962		Cuba opens the trial of the Bay of Pigs invaders.
1966		Leonid Brezhenev becomes First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. He denounces the American policy in Vietnam and calls it one of aggression.
1967		France launches its first nuclear submarine.
1971		Lt. William L. Calley Jr. is found guilty for his actions in the My Lai massacre.
1973		The last U.S. troops withdraw from South Vietnam.
1975		Egyptian president Anwar Sadat declares that he will reopen the Suez Canal on June 5, 1975.
1976		Eight Ohio National Guardsmen are indicted for shooting four Kent State students during an anti-war protest on May 4, 1970.
1986		A court in Rome acquits six men in a plot to kill the Pope.

Related articles

• March to commemorate Battle of Towton anniversary
• It was 1951

AND I QUOTE

“Sometimes integrity is the subtlest and most effective strategy of all.”-John Marshall

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VINTAGE ROTARIAN

FELLOWSHIP. YES!

TODAY IN HISTORY

March 27

1350		While besieging Gibraltar, Alfonso XI of Castile dies of the black death.
1512		Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sights Florida.
1802		The Treaty of Amiens is signed, ending the French Revolutionary War.
1814		U.S. troops under Gen. Andrew Jackson inflict a crushing defeat on the Creek Indians at Horshoe Bend in Northern Alabama.
1836		The Mexican army massacres Texan rebels at Goliad.
1866		President Andrew Johnson vetoes the civil rights bill, which later becomes the 14th amendment.
1884		The first long-distance telephone call is made from Boston to New York.
1893		The American Bell Telephone Company makes the first long distance telephone call to its branch office in New York.
1899		The Italian inventor G. Marconi achieves the first international radio transmission between England and France.
1900		The London Parliament passes the War Loan Act, which gives 35 million pounds to the Boer War cause.
1912		The first cherry blossom trees, a gift from Japan, are planted in Washington, D.C.
1933		Some 55,000 people stage a protest against Hitler in New York.
1941		Tokeo Yoshikawa arrives in Oahu, Hawaii, to begin spying for Japan on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.
1942		The British raid the Nazi submarine base at St. Nazaire, France.
1944		One thousand Jews leave Drancy, France for the Auschwitz concentration camp.
1944		Thousands of Jews are murdered in Kaunas, Lithuania. The Gestapo shoots forty Jewish policemen in the Riga, Latvia ghetto.
1945		General Dwight Eisenhower declares that the German defenses on the Western Front have been broken.
1952		Elements of the U.S. Eighth Army reach the 38th parallel in Korea, the original dividing line between the two Koreas.
1958		The United States announces a plan to explore space near the moon.
1976		Washington, D.C. opens its subway system.
1977		In aviation's worst disaster yet, 582 die when a KLM Pan Am 747 crashes.

TRIVIA Q & A

“He’s So Fine,” “One Fine Day” and “A Love So Fine”) (What female R&B vocal foursome from the Bronx had five Top-40 hits in the 1960s, three of which featured the word "Fine" in the title?
(click below for the answer)

THE FIRST WORD

spoof

PRONUNCIATION:

(spoof) 

MEANING:

noun:	1. A light, good-humored imitation; parody.
	2. A hoax or a prank.
verb tr.:	1. To satirize gently.
	2. To fool using a hoax or a prank.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Spoof, a card game invented by the comedian Arthur Roberts (1852-1933). Earliest documented use: 1884.

PIX OF THE DAY

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

An amazing instance of right place, right time saved the life of a toddler in Burbank, Calif. Konrad and Jennifer Lightner were carrying a box-spring mattress as part of a move when they looked up and saw a 3-year-old dangling from a cord out of a third-floor window. Konrad quickly positioned the mattress under the boy, then partly broke the child’s fall before he landed safely on the mattress. “It was very surreal afterwards,” Jennifer said. “We were just moving the rest of the day, and every once in a while we’d look at each other and just be like, ‘That happened. That was real.’”

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