Monday, November 2, 2026

Learning Life (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Poetry Monday, Big Birds

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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!


Little Ben is learning life by observing, and he is always observing.  He doesn’t want you to sit with him, he wants you to stand and walk around and show him things.









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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.     







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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 Big bird.



A man came into a restaurant

an ostrich by his side

and asked for a table for two

as the staff looked on wide-eyed.


They sat and looked at a menu,

and soon the gentleman said,

"I'll have a burger and fries."

"Me, too," the bird nodded her head.


When the bill came due,

the man as if it wasn't strange

reached into his pocket

and pulled out the exact change.


This went on once a week for a month,

the bird ordering the same as the gent,

and he always paid for everything

with exact change, down to the cent.


Finally, a staffer asked him,

what in the world was the deal,

the ostrich and the money,

was all of this even real?


The man said, "I found a bottle

and you know what happened then,

I got to make three wishes,

for whatever I had a yen.


"I wished for long, healthy life,

that seemed normal enough,

but running out of money

would make a long life tough.


"I wished for just what I need

no matter what I buy,

from a stick of gum to a yacht,

I have just that much to apply.


"Of course, we know the story,

you always trip up on your third,

A chick with long legs who always agrees,

is how I got the Big Bird."




Future themes are:


Nov 2 Big bird (Today!)

Nov 9 Planes

Nov 16 Fairy tales

Nov 23 Earthquake

Nov 30 Oasis


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


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Today is:


All Souls' Day -- Christian (celebrations in Ecuador are among the most colorful; 2nd of the Dias de los Muertos in Mexico) related observances:

     Dead Relatives' Day -- Sicily

     Dia de Finados -- Brazil; Portugal


Aztec Day of the Dead -- Ancient Aztec Calendar (date approximate)


Balfour Declaration Day -- Israel


Cookie Monster's Birthday -- go have a cookie to celebrate! (but only after your dinner, as Cookie Monster now points out; boy, things have changed)


Coronation of Haile Selassie -- Rastafarian


Dveselu Diena -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (day for families to gather with the spirits of their ancestors at the graveyard to celebrate the continuity of life)


Festival of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)


Indian Arrival Day / Arrival of Indentured Laborers' Day -- Mauritius


International Day to End Impunity -- International (calling for the ending impunity for crimes against journalists and media workers)


International Stress Awareness Week -- UK (International Stress Management Association; through Friday) 


Job Action Day -- a day for workers and job seekers to put job or career in the forefront, make plans, and take action 


Karatsu Kunchi -- Karatsu and Saga, Japan


Look for Circles Day -- internet generated, and we run in circles looking for who created it and why!


Marlborough Provincial Anniversary Day -- Marlborough, New Zealand


National Day/Constitution Day -- Tonga(obs.)


National Deviled Egg Day


Plan Your Epitaph Day -- sponsored by Dead or Alive of Arcata, CA, because a forgettable epitaph is almost a fate worse than death, so make plans to do yours right!


Practice Being Psychic Day -- but you already knew that, didn't you?


Recreation Day -- Tasmania, Australia


Refuse to Capitalize the First Letters in Your Name Day -- k.d.lang's birth anniversary


Soulcaker's Play -- Cheshire, UK


St Eustachius' Day (Patron of difficult situations, fire prevention, firefighters, hunters and hunting, torture victims, trappers; Madrid, Spain; Poli, Italy; against fire and torture)


Traffic Director's Day -- Traffic Directors Guild of America (those who are Traffic Managers, Inventory Control Specialists, Revenue Managers, or many other terms in the broadcasting and mobile industries, including radio and TV traffic directors, who always schedule your favorite shows when you just can't watch, and put more and more commercials in when they can; on the Monday nearest the anniversary of the first commercial radio broadcast in Pittsburgh in 1922)     


World Ballet Day



Anniversaries Today:


North Dakota becomes the 39th US State, 1889

South Dakota becomes the 40th US State, 1889



Birthdays Today:


k.d. lang, 1961

Shere Hite, 1942

Stephanie Powers, 1942

Pat Buchanan, 1938

Ray Walston, 1914

Burt Lancaster, 1913

Paul Ford, 1901

Warren G. Harding, 1865

James K. Polk, 1795

Marie Antionette, 1755

Daniel Boone, 1734



Debuting/Premiering Today:


The Spruce Goose makes its first (only) flight, 1947

KDKA Radio Pittsburgh, PA, US makes the first scheduled radio broadcast, of election results, 1920



Today in History:


The African Free School, the first free school in NYC, opens, 1787

The popular vote for US president is first recorded and Andrew "By God" Jackson (a/k/a Old Hickory) defeats John Quincy Adams, 1824

New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally, 1868

Johnny Campbell officially leads the crowd in cheering at a University of Minnesota football game, the official birth of cheerleading, 1898

The British newspaper the "Daily Mirror" begins publication, 1903

The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" with the clear understanding "that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities", 1917

Charlotte Woodward, who attended the historic Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention of 1848, becomes the only one of the women who attended to live long enough to cast a vote in a national election, 1920

Australia's Qantas Airways begins service, 1922

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is established, 1936

In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Spruce Goose; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built, 1947

Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case, 1960

The Morris worm, the first internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from MIT, 1988

The International Space Station becomes permanently staffed, 2000

China makes its first orbital docking as its unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft successfully docks with the orbiting Tiangong 1 space station module, 2011

The New York Marathon is cancelled due to the damage from Hurricane Sandy, 2012

Separatists in Eastern Ukraine hold elections in Donetsk and Luhansk; Russia will recognize the elected leaders, but Ukraine and Western nations declare the elections illegitimate, 2014

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull scraps Knights and Dames from Australia's honours system, 2015

The Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, ending the longest MLB championship drought at 108 years, 2016

The government of Ethiopia and Tigrayan authorities reach a peace agreement after two years of talks in South Africa, 2021

Apple Records releases the last Beatles song "Now and Then;” the song was built from an unfinished John Lennon demo and created using AI technology, 2023

Kemi Badenoch becomes the first black woman to lead a major British political party when elected leader of the Conservative Party, 2024