ON THIS DAY

On this date in 1863, Fort Sumter was attacked,

In 1896, Gold was discovered in Bonanza Creek in the Yukon.

The legendary frontiersman Davy Crockett was born on this date, back in 1786.

In 1985, meatpackers went on strike at Hormel.

Donnie Wahlberg is 40 today. Sean Penn is 49. Robert De Niro turns 66, and Maureen O'Hara from "Gone with the Wind" still isn't gone. She's 89 today.

THIS WEEK IS

National Friendship Week -- The type of friends you prefer reveals a lot about your personality, says psychologist Dr. Elayne Kahn, co-author of "1001 Ways You Reveal Your Personality."

• Just one close friend -- You need someone to confide in and trust. You don't trust people very easily, but once you do you're very loyal. You take friendship very seriously and never take your friends for granted.
• Friends of your own sex only -- You enjoy tradition and believe boys should be boys and girls should be girls. You're more comfortable when people are in more traditional roles. You enjoy friends who have something in common with you.
• Friends of the opposite sex only -- You enjoy being the center of attention, but don't like competing for it. Intimacy is very important to you, and you're capable of deep relationships.
• Friends you just party with -- You love to socialize, but don't like people getting too close. You're very independent and want to stay that way - and you especially don't like to become dependent on one person.
• Friends from the workplace -- You love achieving, working hard, making money and always moving ahead. All things in your life - including friendships - are geared toward making your career as successful as possible.
• Different friends for different occasions -- If, for example, you go dancing with one group of friends and play touch football with another, you're well-organized, but don't like to become too involved with people. You're a busy, active person.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Even though Heidi Montag appears in Playboy's September issue, the pictorial could appear in Maxim since we never really see her naked.
• Former Senator John Edwards is going to admit that he is the father of his former mistress' 18-month-old daughter.
• When Steven Tyler fell off that stage in South Dakota, he broke a shoulder and got 20 stitches. Doctors said he needed to rest, so Aerosmith has canceled their summer tour.
• Only 53%, on average, of entering students at four-year colleges manage to graduate in six years. According to a study by the American Enterprise Institute, Harvard's graduation rate is 97%, while Southern University at New Orleans reported 8%.
• Jerry O'Connell has gone back to school... law school. He's enrolled in L.A. Southwestern Law School and started classes last week.
• Mariah Carey has canceled appearances on the Today Show, VH-1 and MTV, as well as receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, because they were to coincide with the release of her new CD... which has been postponed now until the end of December.
• Rapper Corey "C-Murder" Miller has been sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder after shooting 16-year-old fan Steve Thomas at a now-closed nightclub.
• Best guess is that Jon and Kate's divorce will be finalized at the end of September.
• This fall, Calvin Klein is unveiling his line of Body jeans, which are specially crafted to hug and enhance all of a guy's below the belt curves.
• Natalie Cole says it's been three months since the transplant operation and she feels great with her new kidney.
• There's a push to make Brad Pitt the next mayor of New Orleans... but he's saying "Thanks but no thanks."
• Remember Omarosa from "The Apprentice"? She's scheduled to begin her studies at United Theological Seminary in Dayton today.
• Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a Honda Accord last Thursday in Baltimore. He wasn't hurt. Police are still sorting out who was responsible for what.

Bad hair days can also mean bad mood days. You're not alone. Blame the place you live. TotalBeauty.com ranked cities for all they contribute to bad hair, based on the national averages of humidity/wind/rain/sun, the hardness of the water, pollution levels and even the number of salons in the area ready to do the necessary repair work. Top 10 worst cities for bad hair days:

1. Corpus Christi, TX -- Why? It's hot, humid, has hard water and is home to only a few salons.
2. Olympia, WA -- Why? The days are rainy and the air is humid. And you'll have a hard time finding anyone to even cut your hair since there are only 25 listed hairstylists in the city.
3. Pittsburgh -- Why? It's polluted. Very, very polluted. And pollution has been known to cause premature balding, graying and dullness.
4. Las Vegas -- Why? That desert climate--dry and sunny--will scorch your hair.
5. Phoenix -- Why? It has the nation's most extreme climate and very hard water.
6. Pensacola, FL -- Why? It's one of the wettest cities. Even worse, the salons cater to the retirement crowd--wash, curl, comb-out and lots of hair spray.
7. Fresno, CA -- Why? It's sunny and polluted.
8. Houston -- Why? It's hot, humid and has very hard water.
9. Tucson, AZ -- Why? Too much sun and hard water.
10. New Orleans -- Why? It's humid and wet.

So, what one word in the English language is most frequently misspelled? It's "supersede." That's the word from Collins Dictionaries of Britain, which says it's misspelled one out of every 10 times it is used because many other words with phonetically similar endings, such as "intercede" and "precede," are spelled with the letter "c" instead of "s." Runners-up are: conscience, indict, foreign, mortgage and phlegm.

Pantyhose are going the way of the girdle and for many of the same reasons. Sales of the once ubiquitous leg wear are sagging due to women forsaking pumps and dresses for slacks and jeans in the workplace plus the fact that the constricting stockings are just plain uncomfortable. Researchers at Hanes, the leading seller of hosiery in the country, say women between the ages of 25 to 54 now wear pantyhose an average of just 1.8 times a week, down from 3.5 times a week 10 years ago.

(LifeScript)
 
The summer weather may not be the only thing steamy -- your love life may be heating up, too. But before you take your new relationship to the next level, here are 10 very good reasons not to knock boots with him:

1. You're not as detached as you think
2. He may be cheating on someone else... with you
3. He's a taker
4. He's clingy
5. He just got out of a relationship
6. He's bad in bed (yes, there are pre-sex clues)
7. STDs
8. You're drunk
9. You're not over your ex
10. You're not even attracted to him

The amount of sexual desire we feel -- be it a lot or a little -- could have more to do with genetic programming than feelings of romance, love and lust. LiveScience and London's Daily Mail report that researchers from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel have determined the source of our sexual desire could be in our genes, a discovery that might change how psychologists view sexuality and lead to new drugs that could alter sexual desire. Yes, men have the "I want it" gene and women have the "Not tonight" gene.

Kids are being taught to write on computer keyboards in kindergarten with the result that fewer and fewer can read handwritten material. More than 85% of students now write the essay part of students now write the essay part of the SAT exam in block letters, because they don't know how to write what is called cursive script, in which the letters are joined together. What's more, they don't know how to read it, either. Astonishingly, most teachers don't care that handwriting is becoming a lost art.