Survival of the Fittest, a Random and Happy Tuesday Post

***************************

It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.  

A friend from the cat shelter was out of town for a while to help a relative with a medical emergency and when i saw him again, i asked how things were going.

His wife smiled and he turned to me with a big grin.  "It's going great!" he said.  "I'm back from Pennsylvania.  The good news is, my sister survived the surgery and I survived my sister!"

We all laughed, and it's an experience he obviously doesn't want to repeat.

Other funny moments in my life come from our little Annie.  A few recent quotes and scenes:

"Pawpaw, you don't need to talk now, you need to be quiet!" when she wanted to talk to me and my Sweetie was already talking to me.

"No, I did not poop and you may not smell my butt!" (A sure sign the toilet training is not working yet.)

Standing at the sink on the step stool washing her hands (and the toy dishes, and the sink, and getting herself wet) she dunked her little pony tail on top of her head into the running water and i asked her what she was doing getting her hair wet, didn't she know her mama was going to ask what i'd been doing with her to get her so soaked.  Her response was, "I not sorry!"

How about some funnies.

Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!

**********************************

Today is:

Area Code Day -- US (went into effect this day in 1951)

Chinggis Khan's (Genghis Khan) Birthday -- Mongolia (also National Pride Day)

Day of Russian Militsiya -- Russia

Deepavali/Diwali(Festival of Lights) -- Hindu; Jain; Sikh (3rd day of the festival)

     Gai Tihar and Laxmi Puja -- Day of Cows and Laxmi (goddess of wealth; day three of the festival)

Dia de la Tradicion -- Argentina (birth anniversary of Jose Hernandez)

Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Beacon Lighting -- Split Rock Lighthouse, Two Harbors, MN, US (memorial for the Edmund Fitzgerald and all who have lost their lives in Great Lakes shipwrecks)

First Cry of Independence Day / Los Santos Uprising Day -- Panama (an official flag day)

Forget-Me-Not Day -- informal day to spend a bit of time with relatives you don't see often

Goddess of Reason's Day (Revolutionary France)

Guinness World Records' Day -- celebrating ordinary people who do extraordinary things, go try for a record! anniversary of the day in 1951 that Sir Hugh Beaver got the idea to create a book supplying answers to much debated questions, such as which game birds are the fastest fliers

     The Guinness World Records Book now holds the title of the best-selling copyrighted book of all time, and is one of the most frequently stolen books from US libraries!

Hari Pahlawan -- Indonesia (Heroes' Day/Warrior's Day)

Martini -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (beginning of winter festival that starts on Martinmas Eve)

Maputo Day -- Maputo, Mozambique

National Toothpaste Appreciation Day -- not official, but i'm sure the dentifrice industry loves this one

National Vanilla Cupcake Day

Sleep Dangerously Night -- internet generated, a night to switch sides of the bed with your spouse and see who falls out of bed first

St. Andrew Avellino's Day (Patron of apoplexics, for a holy death, stroke victims; Badlato, Naples, and Sicily, Italy; stroke victims; for a holy death; against apoplexy, strokes, and sudden death)

St. Martin's Eve -- Germany; Portugal (Martimas Eve)

USMC Day -- US (anniversary of founding in 1775, includes the Marine Corps Birthday Ball)

World Science Day for Peace and Development -- UN

Anniversaries Today:

Establishment of Badlands National Park, SD, US, 1978

Establishment of the United States Marine Corps, 1775

Birthdays Today:

Ellen Pompeo, 1969

Vanessa Angel, 1963

Neil Gaiman, 1960

MacKenzie Phillips, 1959

Sinbad, 1956

Roland Emmerich, 1955

Ann Reinking, 1949

Donna Fargo, 1949

Tim Rice, 1944

Russel Charles Means, 1940

Russel Means, 1939

Roy Scheider, 1932

Richard Burton, 1925

Jane Froman, 1907

Claude Rains, 1889

Friedrick Voon Schiller, 1759

Oliver Goldsmith, 1728

William Hogarth, 1697

Martin Luther, 1483

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Microsoft Windows, 1983 (sometimes so slow, it's called "win-doze")

"Sesame Street", 1969

Today in History:

Rene Descartes has the dreams that inspire his Meditations on First Philosophy, 1619

The Dutch formally cede New Netherlands to the English; it is renamed New York, 1674

France ends forced worship of God, substitute the Goddess of Reason, 1793

The US state of Kentucky outlaws dueling, 1801

Stanley presumes that he has met Livingston in Ujiji, Central Africa, 1871

The first Woman's Christian Temperance Union meeting is held in Boston, 1891

The first Gideon Bible is put in a hotel room, 1908

Hirohito ascends the throne as Emperor of Japan, 1928

The Hope Diamond is donated to the Smithsonian Institution by New York diamond merchant Harry Winston, 1958

The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board, 1975

A 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derails in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada just west of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, causing a massive explosion and the largest peacetime evacuation in Canadian history and one of the largest in North American history, 1979

The communist regime of Bulgaria falls, 1989

The "Codex Leicester", the only Leonardo da Vinci manuscript owned in the United States and the only one in the world still in private hands, was sold at auction to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who paid $30.8 million, 1994

Thousands of people march toward the royal palace of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur to hand over a memorandum to the King demanding electoral reform, 2007

Vietnam evacuates about 600,000 citizens under the threat of Typhoon Haiyan, 2013

The Collins English Dictionary chooses "Lockdown" as the word of the year, 2020

China and the US announce plans to work together on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, 2021

Columbia begins a campaign to sterilize its invasive hippos, which are the escaped former pets of drug cartel head Pablo Escobar, 2023

Our Keys Are So Important (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Poetry Monday, Planes

***************************

Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus.

Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays.  Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it.

Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you.  What better way to start the week than with a smile!

More is caught than taught to children, and again Annie proves she knows just how important keys are.  She loves hers and uses them often.

Yesterday, she wouldn't leave the house for us to go visit Ms. D if she couldn't bring her keys!

*********************************

Sparks is the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, who wanted us to post something positive and uplifting at the start of the week.  While she no longer blogs, i like to post an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.     

**********************************

Our dear friend Diane has left it to us

and we're not going to make a fuss,

we miss her poetry and wit

but carry on as Poetry Monday's a hit!

Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Charlotte/Mother Owl and i are keeping it going while she takes a blog break, we hope temporarily.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let us know!

This week the theme is Planes.

he who believes in

flat Earth can travel only

if he's on a plane

*******

A business man was getting

on a plane one day

and his heavy bag

was trying to put away

into an overhead bin

but could not do it alone

the flight attendant helped him

and when done, she did groan,

"Do you always travel

with a bag that's such a chore?"

He looked at her and said,

"It won't happen any more!

The next time I am flying

my partner can buy the seat

and I'll get in the bag

to save my sore back and feet!"

*******

Future themes are:

Nov 9 Planes (Today!)

Nov 16 Fairy tales

Nov 23 Earthquake

Nov 30 Oasis

Dec. 7 Blueprints

(All themes are from the 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and Other Arts Facebook group.)

**********************************

Today is:

Allama Iqbal Day -- Pakistan

Chaos Never Dies Day -- internet generated, and just look in my closets if you want proof that we need this one

Couch Beachcombing Day -- internet generated; also called sofa diving, you will be amazed what you will find!

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Deepavali/Diwali(Festival of Lights) -- Hindu; Jain; Sikh (second day of the festival)

     Kukur Tihar/Kukur Puja -- Day of Dogs

     Jain New Year

Dia de los Natitas -- La Paz, Bolivia (Day of the Skulls, when skulls are decorated and then offered cigarettes, coca leaves, and other items)

Fiesta de Nuestra Senora de la Almudena -- Madrid, Spain (Feast of the Virgin of the Almudena, Patroness of the City)

Flag Day -- Azerbaijan

Go to an Art Museum Today Day -- it's a good idea, whoever started this one

Independence Day -- Cambodia (1953)

Lord Mayor's Day / Lord Mayor's Show -- London, England (traditional date, celebrated on the nearest Saturday; a traditional Show since 1215, when King John granted the people of London the right to elect their own mayor)

National Fried Chicken Sandwich Day

National Nibble Day -- as promoted by Adrienne Sioux Koopersmith

National Scrapple Day

Neon Sign Day -- Georges Claude received a patent for the neon sign on this day in 1911

Night of Nicnevin (Gyre-Carling), Daughter of Frenzy, Banshee -- Scots Pagan (date approximate)

Paul is Dead Day -- Beatle's Conspiracy Theorists, who claim Paul died this day in 1966 and was replaced by Billy Campbell

Remembrance Day -- Cayman Islands

Schicksalstag -- Germany (Destiny Day or Fateful Day) anniversary of

     the execution of Robert Blum in 1848

     dethroning of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918

     The Beer Hall Putsch in 1923

     Kristallnacht (Crystal Night, marks the beginning of the Holocaust), 1938

     the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989

St.Theodore the General's Day (Patron of soldiers; Brindisi, Italy; invoked for the recovery of lost objects)

Tag der Erfinder -- Austria; Germany; Switzerland (Inventor's Day; birth anniversary of Hedy Lamarr, who was an inventor as well as an actress)

World Freedom Day -- US

World Orphans Day -- originally an initiative of The Stars Foundation; cannot find a current sponsor, although there is a Facebook page for this day, stating April 20 is the correct date, and here is a site where you can find out more about orphans in the developing world 

Birthdays Today:

Nikki Blonsky, 1988

Nick Lachey, 1973

Chris Hericho, 1970

Thomas Quasthoff, 1959

Lou Ferrigno, 1951

Tom Weiskopf, 1942

Tom Fogerty, 1941

Mary Travers, 1936

Bob Gibson, 1935

Carl Sagan, 1934

Dorothy Dandridge, 1923 

Spiro Agnew, 1918

Hedy Lamarr, 1913

James William Fullbright, 1905

Ed Wynn, 1886

Stanford White, 1853

Elijah P. Lovejoy, 1802

Benjamin Banneker, 1731 (first freeborn child of free African American parents)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Wizard of Id"(Comic strip), 1964

"Omnibus"(TV), 1952

Today in History:

Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery, 694

The Family de' Medici were expelled from Florence, 1494

Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sight land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 1620

Hungarian parliament promises Protestants freedom of religion, 1681

The Rabbi Yehuda Hasid synagogue in Jerusalem is set afire by Arabs, 1720

Napoleon becomes dictator of France, 1799

The first US pharmacy college begins classes in Philadelphia, 1821

The NY Symphony Orchestra holds its first public performance, 1858

The first documented Canadian football game is held, at the University of Toronto, 1861

Ulyses Grant issues orders to bar Jews from serving under him, 1862

The Great Boston Fire destroys nearly 1,000 buildings, 1872

Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first US president to visit other countries during his tenure, visiting Puerto Rico and Panama, 1906

The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, the most destructive natural disaster ever to hit the lakes, destroys 19 ships and kills more than 250 people, 1913

Albert Einstein is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work with the photoelectric effect, 1921

Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours in the Northeast Blackout of 1965

First issue of Rolling Stone Magazine is published, 1967

Garry Kasparov 22, of the Soviet Union becomes the youngest World Chess Champion, 1985

The chemical element Darmstadtium is discovered, 1994

The Venus Express mission of the European Space Agency is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, 2005

The German Bundestag passes the controversial data retention bill mandating storage of citizens' telecommunications traffic data for six months without probable cause, 2007

 The USS Gerald R. Ford is christened by the U.S. Navy; the aircraft carrier cost $15.5 billion and is technically the most advanced ship ever built, 2013

"Reclining Nude" by Italian artist Modigliani fetches the second highest auction price ever at $170.4m, 2015

The Kartarpur Corridor opens, allowing Sikh worshippers from India to access the holy site of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan without a visa, 2019

105-year-old Julia Hawkins sets a world record as the first woman and first American her age to run 100 meters, in the Louisiana Senior Olympic Games, 2021

Archaeologists announce the discovery of oldest decipherable sentence every found in Canaanite script, on an ivory comb dating from 1,700 B.C from Tel Lachish, Israel, stating, “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard,” 2022