Et cetera

By Staff
Today is Friday, March 31, 2006. Expect mostly cloudy skies today with a chance of showers and thunderstorms. The high today should be around 73. On this day in history:
1880-Wabash, Indiana, becomes the first U.S. city to be completely illuminated by electric street lights.
1889-The Eiffel Tower opens in Paris, France.
1918-The first daylight savings time goes into effect in the U.S.
1931-Legendary Notre Dame Football coach Knute Rockne dies in a plane crash.
1932-The Ford Motor Company unveils the V-8 engine.
1943- "Oklahoma" opens on Broadway.
1968-President Johnson announces that he will not run for reelection.
1970-The bankrupt Seattle Pilots baseball team is sold to a group of investors in Milwaukee and becomes the Milwaukee Brewers.
1981- "Ordinary People" wins four Oscars, including Best Picture.
1985-The 200th episode of "The Love Boat" airs on television.
People celebrating birthdays today include: former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore is 58, comedian/actor Gabe Kaplan is 61, actor Christopher Walken is 63; actor Richard Chamberlain is 71; trumpeter Herb Albert is 71; actress Shirley Jones is 72; fashion designer Liz Claiborne is 77; and Hockey Hall of Famer Gordie Howe is 78.
CHANGE THOSE CLOCKS
Remember that we officially move to Daylight Savings Time at 2:00 AM Sunday morning so set your clocks ahead one hour before going to bed on Saturday night. This is the last year the time will change in April. Next year Daylight Savings Time will begin on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November.
EAT HARDY
According to health.com these are the world's healthiest foods:
Olive Oil
Yogurt
Lentils
Kimchi (fermented cabbage)
HERE WE GO AGAIN
A second grade boy at a school in Lorain, Ohio, was sent home for a day for sexually harassing a female student. The boy is accused of sending a note to a long-time female friend with the words; now cover your ears and eyes, "I love you." After sending the "sexually harassing" note the boy was taken to the principal's office where, without a parent present, he was forced to sign a notice of emergency removal for sexual harassment. Unbelievable!
SO MUCH FOR
NUTRITION
When school starts back in August, some students in Columbia, South Carolina, will be getting an unusual lunch each day. Any student with an unpaid lunch debt will get saltine crackers and a 4-ounce juice to hold them over until the end of the day. School officials say they must do this because of the large number of students not paying their lunch bill.
DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
Over the years thousands of people have visited Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro, Arkansas. The park contains the eighth largest deposit of diamonds in the world. While it is true that most of the diamonds have been removed from the 37 acre field, the rule stands that what a visitor finds is theirs to keep. Jennifer Jones of Derby, Kansas, is thankful for that rule. Recently while she and her son Jacob visited the park they unearthed a 2.12 carat diamond. It cost Ms. Jones and her son $12 to enter the park. Their diamond, slightly yellow but almost flawless, is worth somewhere around $20,000.
A WEDDING STORY
A happy couple was in the middle of their perfectly planned wedding in the southern Africa country of Swaziland. Right before the ring ceremony Hunter Shongwe, a private investigator, entered the church and made his way to the altar. He spoke to the minister in charge and then took both the bride's ring and the groom's ring and then left the church. The groom had paid for the rings with a check that bounced and the investigator was simply repossessing the rings for his client. The wedding was held up for a few hours until the couple finally borrowed some rings to complete their ceremony.
JUST A LITTLE EARLY
Elections Ontario is a group which seeks to encourage people to get out and vote. This week Elections Ontario spent thousands of dollars to run an ad in the Tuesday edition of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper to remind people to vote. The advertisement proclaimed in big letters, "TODAY IS ELECTION DAY." The ad appeared in the Tuesday, March 28, edition of the paper. The election was on Thursday, March 30.
AND FINALLY
Ralph Gonzales of St. Augustine, Florida, was showing some friends his new Cadillac Escalade. Ralph was especially proud of the car's On-Star communication system and activated the device to show his friends how he could talk to an operator any time of the day. Well Ralph forgot to read the manual on volume control and the operator could not hear what he was saying. Standard On-Star operating procedure is to contact authorities when they cannot communicate with a client. Police arrived to find Ralph and his friends safe and sound. The police also found the bag of cocaine Ralph had sitting on the console of his new car. Ralph went to jail. Thanks On-Star!
Richard Parker is Minister of Students and Education at First Baptist Church in Russellville. You can e-mail him your comments at RParker@russellvilleFBC.org.