Musings...

Tucson Weather Today

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I keep hearing on the TV news shows that even though all the prominent politicians and elected officials say they abhor (definition of abhor: regard with disgust and hatred) all the tragedies brought about by gun violence. But not one of the government employees has a solution.

VICTIMS

I have a solution: Any intentional murder committed by firing a gun of any kind carries an automatic death sentence. And temporary insanity is no longer a defense.

Of course, that workable solution won't even be considered. Except maybe by Donald Trump.

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I heard the word "aggregate" being used instead of "congegrate" and wondered if the two words were interchangable. So I did a search on the subject.

congregate
verb
1. gather into a crowd or mass.

aggregate
noun
1. a whole formed by combining several (typically disparate) elements.
"the council was an aggregate of three regional assemblies"
2. a material or structure formed from a loosely compacted mass of fragments or particles.

Now I know the difference. I think.

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Did You Know . . .?

Motorists will be able to recharge their cars as they drive if a scheme being proposed by Highways England comes to fruition. The government agency has announced plans to test wireless power-transfer tech that it hopes to build under the country's motorways and major A roads.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

Emmett Louis Till was an African-American teenager who was murdered on this day in Mississippi at the age of 14, after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois, visiting his relatives in Money, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region, when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store there. Several nights later, Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam went to Till's great-uncle's house. They took Till away to a barn, where they beat him and gouged out one of his eyes, before shooting him through the head and disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River, weighting it with a 70-pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. Three days later, Till's body was discovered and retrieved from the river.
source:

Emmett Till

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STUFF AND NONSENSE

Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (Aug. 28, 1774 - Jan. 4, 1821) was the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church (September 14, 1975). She established the first Catholic girl's school in the nation in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she also founded the first American congregation of religious sisters, the Sisters of Charity.

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WORD FOR TODAY

utter [uh'-tur]
The adjective utter is often used as an intensifier to mean "total" - often with negative connotations (like "utter failure"). As a verb, the word has a totally unrelated meaning: to speak or to articulate a sound.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

(Aug. 28, 1828 - Nov. 7, 1910)

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian novelist regarded as one of the greatest of all time. He is best known for War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877).

Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black

(born August 28, 1969)

Jack Black is an American actor, comedian, singer, and producer. His acting career has been extensive, starring primarily in comedy films. He is known for his roles in High Fidelity, Shallow Hal, School of Rock, King Kong, Nacho Libre, Tropic Thunder, The Holiday, Bernie, and the Kung Fu Panda films.

Luis Guzman

(born August 28, 1956)

Luis Guzman is a Puerto Rican actor, who is known for his character work. For much of Guzman's career, he has played character roles largely as sidekicks, thugs, or policemen. He is a favorite of director Steven Soderbergh, who cast him in Out of Sight, The Limey, and Traffic, and Paul Thomas Anderson, who cast him in Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love.

Shania Twain

(born August 28, 1965)

Shania Twain is a Canadian singer and songwriter. Twain has sold over 85 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. She is also the best selling female artist in the history of country music.

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This Is Who I Am