~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
August 2, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote: “It is always sad when someone leaves home, unless they are simply going around the corner and will return in a few minutes with ice-cream sandwiches.” Lemony Snicket.

★~ Ice Cream Sandwich Day:

Childhood memories and refreshingly cool freezer temperatures make ice cream sandwiches FUN. Ice cream sandwiches have been around since the early 1900s. Vanilla, chocolate or a combination of the two, are the most popular. Our Aussie friends enjoy “Giant Sandwiches and Maxibons. In Scotland, the treats are called “sliders.” But the most exotic ice cream sandwiches are sold in Singapore, and popular flavors include red bean, yam, and honeydew.

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1790 – The first U.S. Census was conducted. The United States was the first country in the world to make a census mandatory in its constitution. It is to be held every 10 years and to serve as the basis for Congressional seats, electoral votes, and to aid planning of government services. In 1790, only the names of the heads of households were recorded and the number of “free white males” were counted for draft purposes. Women were not allowed to work as census takers and were rarely named in the census except when widowed. Genders and ethnicities of all other residents were noted, but slaves were only counted as three-fifths of a person, and American Indians were not counted at all. Obviously, It wasn’t accurate, but the first census recorded just under 4 million people residing in the United States. In 2010, almost 310 million residents were recorded. It is now the largest peacetime operation in the country and employs more than a million Americans.

♥~ 1876 – Wild Bill (James Butler) Hickok was gunned down by Jack McCall, a desperado from Texas, in Saloon #10 at Deadwood, in the Dakota Territory. Hickok was playing poker (with his back to the door) at the time of the shooting. McCall shot Wild Bill in the back, and was hanged for the shooting, never revealing his motive. The poker hand Hickok was holding when he died consisted of a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights. This combination became known as the dead man’s hand.

♥~ 1945 –  Norma Jean Dougherty filled out an application for the Blue Book Modeling Agency. Later, she would change her name to Marilyn Monroe.

♥~ 1984 – Charles Schulz’ award-winning comic strip was picked up by the Daily Times in Portsmouth, OH. With the addition of that paper,Peanuts, featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Pigpen, Linus, Peppermint Pattie, Woodstock and the gang, became the first comic strip to appear in 2,000 newspapers.

♥~ 1998 – A woman called San Francisco Animal Control to complain that an iguana was “staring at” her cat. The “iguana” turned out to be a 4-foot crocodile named Ernest, who escaped while his owner was moving. Though he reported Ernest missing, the owner kept moving because it’s illegal to own a crocodile in San Francisco.

★~ Born Today:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/0d8FTPv955I[/youtube]

♥~ 1834 – Frederic Bartholdi sculptor: Statue of Liberty, Lion of Belfort; died Oct 4, 1904

♥~ 1924 – Carroll O’Connor Emmy Award-winning actor: All in the Family, Cleopatra, The Devil’s Brigade, In Harm’s Way, Kelly’s Heroes, Marlowe; died June 21, 2001

♥~ 1932 – Peter O’Toole actor: Lawrence of Arabia, Becket, A Lion in Winter, The Last Emperor; autobiography: Loitering with Intent

♥~ 1945 – Joanna Cassidy actress: Boston Legal, Six Feet Under, Blade Runner, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Under Fire, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Package, Buffalo Bill

★~ Good to Know: 

♥~ The Devil’s Game: All of the numbers on a roulette wheel add up to 666, hence why roulette is referred to as “The Devil’s Game.”

♥~ Poker Hands: There are 2,598,960 potential 5-card poker hands within a 52 card deck. This means there is a 1 in 649,740 chance of having a royal flush- the highest hand in poker- at any given time. To put this number in perspective, if you were dealt 20 hands of poker every night of the year, in 89 years you should only expect to see one royal flush. Different sites have different stats but this seems to be the most quoted one.

♥~ Vegas tourists:  Las Vegas gets an average of 38 million visitors per year, and they spend about $42.8 billion of their own money.

♥~ Gambling addicts:  Approximately 5% of people who gamble will become gambling addicts. For your information, a gambling addict is defined as a person who spends money irresponsibly which impacts both themselves and the people around them.

♥~ Male gamblers:  According to a survey by Inland Entertainment Corp, 84% of all gamblers are men.

♥~  Slots jackpot: The largest slots jackpot in Las Vegas history was $39,713,982.25. However, it’s also worth noting that most Vegas machines only give a daily payout of $108.36.

♥~  Napoleon: Blackjack was the favorite card game of Napoleon Bonaparte, the infamous French Emperor. Of course it was simply called ’21’ back then- the name ‘Blackjack’ is an invention of the early 20th century.

♥~  Powerball Lottery: The probability of winning the jackpot in the Powerball Lottery is roughly 1 in 175,223,510. Even for the lower payoffs, the odds are astronomically low: Your odds of winning $4 are at best 1 in 55.41.

♥~ Keno is key: Of all the standard casino games, Keno gives you the best chance of winning with 27.04%. Bingo is the worst with only 2.69% of players winning.

♥~ 2/3 of adults:  Two-thirds of the adult population placed some kind of bet last year.

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One of my favorite gamblers, to read stories about, is Blackjack legend Kerry Parker, a billionaire Aussie, who had a taste for high-stakes gambling. Parker made blackjack bets worth $300,000 or more on a single hand, and never sulked after a multi-million dollar losing streak. One of the most-told Parker stories is about a Texas oil tycoon who said to him, “You know who I am partner? I’m worth $60 million!” Packer smiled, pulled out a coin and said, “I’ll flip you for it.”

Gambling fascinates me and I love living vicariously through a friend of mine who drops by Vegas frequently to play poker and just finished competing in the Vegas Poker tournaments. By rights of heredity, I should be an ace at card games of all sorts, but I get turned around in a game of Old Maid. Is it good or bad to keep the Old Maid card?

It’s Friday celebrate with an ice cream sandwich!

Odd Loves Company!