THINGS YOU MAY NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT ARIZONA

(I have to thank one of my old pals from radio days - Danny Bananas - for sending me this.  There was a lot more but I excerpted it.)

Arizona has 3,928 mountain peaks and summits, more mountains than any one of the other Mountain States (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.)

Arizona's climate can yield both the highest temperature in the nation and the lowest temperature in the nation in the same day.

The hottest temperature recorded in Arizona was 128 degrees at Lake Havasu City on June 29, 1994.  The coldest temperature recorded in Arizona was 40 degrees below zero at Hawley Lake on January 7, 1971.

The world's largest solar telescope is located at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Sells, Arizona.

In 1912, President William Howard Taft was ready to make Arizona a state on February 12, but it was Lincoln's birthday.  The next day, the 13th, was considered bad luck so he waited until the following day. That's how Arizona became known as the Valentine State.

Mount Lemmon, in the Santa Catalina Mountains, is the southernmost ski resort in the United States.

If you cut down a protected species of cactus in Arizona, you could spend more than a year in prison.

Located on Arizona's western border, Parker Dam is the deepest dam in the world at 320 feet.

Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, located about 55 miles west of Phoenix, generates more electricity than any other U.S. power plant.

Oraibi, a Hopi village located in Navajo County, dates back to before 1200 A.D. and is reputed to be the oldest continously inhabited community in America.

Many of the founders of San Francisco in 1776 were Spanish colonists from Tubac, Arizona.

Rainfall averages for Arizona range from less than three inches in the deserts to more than 30 inches per year in the mountains.

The amount of copper used to make the copper dome atop Arizona's capitol building is equivalent to the amount used in 4.8 million pennies.

You could pile four 1,300-foot skyscrapers on top of each other and they still would not reach the rim of the Grand Canyon.

The westernmost battle of the Civil War was fought at Picacho Pass near Picacho Peak in Pinal County on April 15, 1862.

There are 11.2 million acres of National Forest in Arizona and one-fourth of the state is forested.

The longest remaining intact section of Route 66 can be found in Arizona and runs from Seligman to Topock, a total of 157 unbroken miles.

Kartchner Caverns, near Benson, is a massive limestone cave with 13,000 feet of passages, two rooms as long as football fields, and one of the world's longest soda straw stalactites: measuring 21 feet 3 inches.

You can carry a loaded firearm on your person in Arizona with no permit required.

NUTS AND BOLTS

I added a weather gadget to my blog the other day.  It's over to the right just above my picture.  When you first come to Oddball, you can check to see what the weather is at that moment.  Then I won't have to brag tell you about it.  Nobody has mentioned it so I wasn't sure anyone had noticed it or if they just weren't going to give me the satisfaction of continuing to grin.

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One of the advantages of moving is having stuff in boxes that you hadn't seen in a long time.  And, in my case, having lost a really nice compass in the deluge of boxes.  Somewhere that dang-blasted compass is hiding but so far I haven't been able to find it.  What I DID find was a collection of QSL (confirmation) cards from my second ham radio career.  I got my first amateur radio license when I was 15.  I held it for about 11 or 12 years before I let it lapse during a divorce.

15 years later I got interested in the hobby again and re-tested and got my license again with a new call.  That lasted for about 15 years until SWMBO and I opened a bookstore and I just didn't have time for the hobby anymore.  But in that second stage of my amateur radio career I "worked" (made contact with) other "hams" in over a hundred countries on every continent in the world.

QSL cards are personally styled postcards with your call letters, location and pertinent information about the contact which the hams exchange.  I didn't quite get to 100 countries confirmed but I came pretty darn close.

Well I ran across those foreign cards I'd received last night and I went through them today.  I no longer found any reason to keep them but I just didn't want to throw them away.  So I contacted a local ham radio club and they've agreed to take them.  Maybe someday they'll become an exhibit on QSL'ing.

Here's my card from back in the day.

And here's one that I was particularly proud of.  It's the QSL card of the late Tom Christian from Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific.  He was one of the descendants of Fletcher Christian, who led the mutineers of the Bounty episode to settle on the island, scuttling the ship so they could never escape.  Tom was the "Voice of Pitcairn" for decades with his ham radio setup.

Another card I'm especially proud of is this one, of another of the most well-known amateur radio operators in the world.

The owner of that card, posing jauntily by the sports car, is none other than the late U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater.  Pictures of his "ham shacks" in Washington, Scottsdale and Newport Beach are displayed as well.  I never talked to Barry on the radio but I did handle a lot of get well messages for him when he was in a Phoenix hospital recovering from a surgery.  And, in my professional career as a television newsman, I interviewed him on numerous occasions.

But that's another story for another day.

HOW TO TELL IF YOU'RE LIVING IN ARIZONA - PART 2

HOW TO TELL IF YOU'RE LIVING IN ARIZONA

It's the middle of February.  Much of the United States and many other parts of the world are struggling with fierce winter storms of ice, snow, sleet, freezing rain, rain and flooding.

Meanwhile, my former neighbor and his new dog are relaxing in Phoenix.

(His wife told me the pool heater wasn't turned on and the water was freezing.  But what does he know.  He's from Edmonton, Alberta, and when the temperature gets above 40 F. he puts on shorts and a t-shirt.)

THE FULL MONTY . . OOPS, I MEAN MOON!

The first photo was taken the day before the full moon.  The waxing gibbous moon . . 99% of it . . can be seen faintly high up.

X marks the spot.

Well not really.  These were just a couple of random jet contrails marking the sky.

O.K.  Now comes the full moon and some of the worst photos ever taken of it.

This was taken through a window from my desk.  Kinda looks like a reflected 60 watt ceiling bulb, doesn't it?  But it's the moon.  I swear it.

Then I went outside armed with my mighty Nikon Coolpix 1.22 and my smartphone camera.  The first three photos are from the smartphone.

And the last one is from the Mighty Nikon.

About the only thing you can tell from my excellent photography is that the moon is round (full).  I've tried to photograph it before with the same results.

If you really want to see good pictures of the moon, go to to Dr. M's blog.  He has more sophisticated cameras AND knowledge of how to use them.  He gets photos like this.

Not too shabby, eh?

FRIDAY FUNNIES

You didn't think I'd forget what day it is, did you?

Happy Valentine's Day!

And Happy Birthday, Arizona!  102 years old today.

But back to the subject at hand.

Oooohh, that was rough, wasn't it?  And today of all days.  Oh, well. Onward!

Today's quiz . .

And finally (as one of the anchormen I used to write for said before the last story of every newscast) . . .

Have a great day, folks, and be nice to your mates!

STOP WHINING - HERE'S THE RECIPE

O.K. In response to thousands* of calls for the recipe for the pie I made today, here it is.

Ingredients:

2 cups milk

1 cup shredded coconut

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup all purpose flour

8 Tablespoons butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Place all ingredients except nutmeg in a blender and mix well. Pour into a greased and floured pie plate.  Sprinkle nutmeg on top.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes (more or less).

I baked mine for an extra 8 or 9 minutes because it looked really loose after the initial 45.  Center was still loose when I took it out but it solidified upon cooling.  And it sank down, too.

And like I said to another recipe requester, you men who may decide to make this might not want to show the recipe to your significant other.  She might be horrified at the amount of sugar and butter.

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(* - two, actually.  So far)