February 4, 2019
Good morning friends, many thanks for stopping by today.
The Electoral College and Chicago Transit Authority are featured in On This Date while 1989 is spotlighted in Top of the Charts. Philosophy 101 features and old saying about how everything has already happened.
Today is, more or less, the midpoint of winter, summer for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere.
THE DAILY ALMANAC
On This Date:
In 1789 – The Electoral College unanimously elects George Washington president of the United States. While John Adams also received electoral votes and was elected vice president, Washington was the only candidate named on every elector’s ballot and is considered to have been unanimously elected. Washington would duplicate this feat four years later and he remains the only president unanimously elected by the Electoral College. He would take office on April 30, the first president under the new Constitution.
In 1977 – Two trains operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) crash, killing eleven and injuring 180. The initial crash actually wasn’t that bad – one train rear-ended the other at a slow speed and passengers only reported a slight bump- but the operator of one of the trains, who turned out to be high, kept his train going, leading to its derailment and crashing down on the street below. The accident occurred near the intersections of Lake Street and Wabash Avenue and remains the deadliest accident in CTA history.
Top of the Charts
#1 songs on this date in 1989:
Hot 100 – When I’m With You…Sheriff (only week)
Soul Chart – Can You Stand the Rain…New Edition (1st of two weeks)
Country Chart – What I’d Say…Earl Thomas Conley (only week)
Album Chart – Don’t Be Cruel…Bobby Brown (3rd of six non-consecutive weeks)
– Chart data courtesy of Billboard.
Numbers Racket
10,636: the continuous number of days the US has been at war.
21.974: the number of dollars, in trillions, of America’s national debt. – Source: usdebtclock.org
645: days until Election Day 2020.
Philosophy 101
Everything has happened. Everything will happen.
An old saying
We’ve heard today’s thought attributed to everyone from the Hindus to American Indians to the Chinese; it’s a common thread running through our human experience and in many respects it is true: we are not the exciting salt and summit of humanity that we may think we are; we are what our ancestors were: people trying to make a go of it, albeit with smartphones in our pockets now. Of course, we are continuously evolving and advance, but the inevitable march of progress doesn’t change and neither does the fact us that collectively us humans continue to tread much the same course those before us trod.
Individually, however, we are responsible for every new thing in this world. No one was born with the exact same combination and measure of talents, skills and ambition that we were. It’s nature’s gift to us and our gift to our fellow humans and we have both the opportunity and obligation to maximize the talents we were born with. Those that get on in this world do this every day. Not some days and not others, not some months or years and not others: they make the 24-hours they are issued every day – the only commodity we all have in equal measure – serve them. They intuitively know the life they are meant to lead and they go and lead that life.
We intuitively know the life we were meant to lead, too. If we want to also get on in this life we must have the courage to go and live that life and the patience to go and live it every day.
We are the only new things in this world. It’s up to us to show this to ourselves and the world.
Many thanks for reading, and have a good day.
xoxoxo
Kaitlyn