Pretended Indifference (Feline Friday), Friendly Fill-Ins, Nature Friday, and Flashback Friday

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Feline Friday was originally started by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude (may he rest in peace), and i'm going to believe it's because he liked cats.

He handed hosting duties off to Sandee at Comedy Plus, and now she has entrusted it to me.

Feline Friday is simple to join.  All you have to do is: Post a picture, drawing, cartoon or video of a cat (they may be silly or cute).  Then add your link!

One thing for sure is this is a fun and easy meme to do.  So come and join us in Feline Friday.

What better way to start the weekend than with a feline!

Just in time, Link Linker the Stinker got a Chewy box.  He pretended indifference to it until i was in the other room.  When i came back, it was just in time to see him jump out!  Then he decided to nap.

He'll probably play in it all night, though, but he's not going to let us know!

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Friendly Fill-Ins are easy to do. There are four statements: the first two statements are provided by Ellen of 15AndMeowing, and the final two are offered by Lorianne The Menagerie Mom of Four-Legged Furballs. They try to make sure the statements will be fun to both answer and share. The linky will be posted at or about 12:00 AM on Friday. Please head over to one of their sites, link up, and share your thoughts!      

Here are this week's statements with my responses underlined:

1. Let’s bring back ______________________.

2. _______________is the new ______________________.

3. I appreciate that my local area _________.

4. _________ is my least favorite part about where I live.

1. Let’s bring back   common courtesy, especially when driving.

2. _______________is the new ______________________.  I have no clue what to put here.

3. I appreciate that my local area   has a unique culture and cuisine.

4. The crooked politics   is my least favorite part about where I live.

 

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Nature Friday is hosted by LLB in Our Backyard.  Simply post a picture of the natural world, and link up!   

We've had solid gray days for several days in a row, this beautiful sunset was much welcomed.

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Flashback Friday is hosted by FiveSibes.  Come hop along memory lane with us!  

These are foster bottle feed kittens from around 12 years ago.  I miss these days.

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It's International Box Day, and if you do not understand the need for this one, you do not have a cat!

Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere for the event badge.         

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Today is:

Asatru Alliance Founding Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan

Birthday of José Gervasio Artigas / "Never Again" Day -- Uruguay (Dia del Nunca Mas)

Butterfly Day -- an ecard holiday; if you know someone who loves butterflies, send an ecard, let them know you are thinking of them

Day of the Independent Hungary -- Hungary (a memorial day for those martyred in 1958, and for the end of Soviet occupation)

Duanwu Jie -- China; Hong Kong; Macao[Tung Ng]; Taiwan (Dragon Boat Festival, spectacularly decorated boats loaded with rowers and drums race each other; the actual festival day this year is today, but the official holidays last through Sunday)

Festival for Minerva -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of arts, crafts, skill, war, and intelligence)

Garfield the Cat Day (his birthday/comic strip premier)

Juneteenth -- US, celebrates the news of freedom on the day it came to slaves on Galveston Island, Texas

Labour Day -- Trinidad and Tobago

Midsummer's Eve -- many and varying traditions, with some celebrating the day before the solstice, and some always tying it to June 23, St. John's Eve

     Night of the Fairy Goddesses Aine and Finnen -- Ireland (watch out for the antics of the little people on Midsummer's Eve, whichever day you celebrate it!)

Midsummer's Eve Holiday -- Aland; Finland; Sweden

National Flip Flop Day -- sponsored by Tropical Cafe Smoothie to raise funds for its national charity partner, Camp Sunshine     

National Martini Day -- some sites specify a dry martini

New Church Day -- Swedenborgian Christian

Rusalka's Week begins -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (week-long festival to honor the divinity of rivers)

Spooky Stories Appreciation Night -- because someone thought it would be a good night to tell a few scary tales

St. Boniface of Querfurt's Day (Patron of Prussia)

St. Jude's Day (Patron of desperate situations, forgotten/impossible/lost causes, hospitals, hospital workers; Saint Petersburg, FL, US)

Take Your Dog to Work Day® -- sponsored by Pet Sitters International®, and depending on where you work, what did your dog do to deserve this?     

World Sauntering Day -- origin unknown, but perhaps begun at Grand Hotel (Mackinac Island) in Michigan during the 1970s as a response by W.T. Rabe to a growing movement toward the recreation of jogging and the idea was to encourage people to slow down and appreciate the world around them; the rules are to observe the lost art of Victorian sauntering, discouraging jogging, lollygagging, sashaying, fast walking, and trotting, but no word on meandering that i can find!

World Sickle Cell Day   

Anniversaries Today:

Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, marries Sophie Rhys-Jones, 1999

Birthdays Today:

Zoe Saldana, 1978

Poppy Montgomery, 1972

Mia Sara, 1967

Andy Lauer, 1965

Aung San Suu Kyi, 1965

Paula Abdul, 1962

Kathleen Turner, 1954

Ann Wilson, 1951

Phylicia Rashad, 1948

Salman Rushdie, 1947

Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane, 1942

Gena Rowlands, 1930

Louis Jourdan, 1919

Pauline Kael, 1919

Pat Buttram, 1915

Abe Fortas, 1910

Earl W. Bascom, 1906

Lou Gehrig, 1903

Guy Lombardo, 1902

Moe Howard, 1897

Wallis Simpson, 1896

Elbert Green Hubbard, 1856

Charles H. Spurgeon, 1834

Blaise Paschal, 1623

King James I of England and VI of Scotland, 1566

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Batman Returns(Film), 1992

"The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"(Musical), 1978

"The Rocky Horror Show"(Musical), 1973

"Devil May Hare"(Cartoon short, Tasmanian Devil's premier), 1954

"I've Got a Secret"(TV), 1952

"Moon Mullins"(Comic strip), 1923

Today in History:

King Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver, 1269

The Earl of Pembroke's army defeats Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven, 1306

English colonists leave Roanoke Island, N.C., after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in America, 1586

Emanuel Swedenborg reports the completion of the Second Coming of Christ in his work True Christian Religion, 1770

Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 1816

The first officially recorded, organized baseball match was played under Alexander Joy Cartwright's rules on Hoboken's Elysian Fields (Hoboken, New Jersey) with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1; Cartwright umpired, 1846

Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom; the anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 35 other states as Juneteenth, 1865

Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire is executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro, 1867

After all of the Southern States are formally readmitted to the United States, the Confederate States of America ceases to exist, 1870

The Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire begins, 1875

The first Father's Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington, 1910

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York, 1953

Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom, 1961

In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University in Beirut, is kidnapped, 1982

Norway ratifies the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention of 1989, 1990

Prime ministers of several northern European nations participate in a ceremonial "laying of the first stone" at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Spitsbergen, Norway, 2006

The first full genetic study of house cats, published in "Nature Ecology and Evolution", reveals that they were domesticated about 9,000 years ago, and are all descended from one species, the African wildcat, 2017

General Electric is dropped from the Dow Jones Index, the last original member from 1907, 2018

Joy Harjo is named the first Native American US Poet Laureate, 2019

The United Nations adopts the first-ever legally binding international treaty to govern the high seas, called the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty, 2023

Archaeologists and scientists reveal they've found the world's oldest wine inside a 1st century CE Roman funeral urn mixed with a man's ashes in a mausoleum in Carmona, Spain, 2024

Please Be Understanding (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day, and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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Ms. G, thanks to parents who smoked like chimneys all the time she was growing up and then later in life, helping with rescuing animals from an encroaching fire and suffering smoke inhalation, has both second-hand smoke induced COPD and asthma.

She is also highly allergic to dust, when it is in the air, that is.

Dust on an object is no problem at all, it's just when you try to disturb it in any way it causes her fits.

Thus she is pristine about me maintaining the carpets and hard floors with thorough vacuuming on a very regular basis, much needed because of Ms. Sassy Floofypants and her very long, black sheddy hair, and Mr. Gray with his long, gray sheddy hair getting all over the floors.

But her house is crammed with knickknacks and mementos, some of which are very pricey and a lot of which have much value, both money wise and sentimental, and they, along with the furniture, are usually very dusty as she and i only dust when she decides she can't stand it, masks up, and downs an allergy pill first, then everything is wiped with a damp cloth to keep as must dust out of the air as possible.

If you ever visit Ms. G, be sure to compliment her on the floors and ignore the dust, we are doing the best we can.

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Dust.     

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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!

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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

My brother tried to bop me on the nose,

I ducked and managed to step on his toes,

It's so much fun when we have a tussle,

I have to laugh but he pulled a muscle!

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Angel Brian's Family of Brian's Home - Forever hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful for something which might sound odd to some.  My Sweetie has a couple of vintage guitar amplifiers which require old style vacuum tubes to run.  Over the course of 40 years he bought tubes for them when he could, and has quite a number of them, most of which he stores in old style military ammunition holders because they are metal and sturdy and very protective of these fragile and now almost impossible to find tubes.

Please note he only had some of them in two such holders.  The rest were not so protected until Ms. G yesterday asked me if i knew anyone who needed one or two, which she'd gotten heaven only knows how.  Of course, i know someone, and we are very thankful his collection is now fully contained in sturdy, protective bins.

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Today is Internet Cat Day!  We all know cats have rather taken over the internet, it's time to celebrate it.

Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere the event badge.

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Today is:

Autistic Pride Day -- an Aspies for Freedom initiative; shifting the view from "disease" to "different"     

Constitution Day / National Day -- Seychelles

Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo -- Vernal, UT, US (one of the top rodeos in the country; through Saturday)

Eid el-Galaa -- Egypt (Evacuation Day; final withdrawal of British this date in 1956)

Foundation Day -- Benguet, Philippines

Going Forth of Neith Along the River -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (goddess of war and hunting; date approximate)

Go Fishing Day -- anniversary of the first American fly-casting tournament this day in 1861 in Utica, NY

International Picnic Day

International Sushi Day

Inti Raymi Festival -- Cusco, Peru (traditional Inca sun worship festival, through the 24th, which is the biggest and best day)

National Cherry Tart Day

National Dump the Pump Day -- The American Public Transportation Association used to sponsor this day to encourage you to consider public transportation as a way to cut down on high gasoline prices    

National Splurge Day    

Queen Mother's Birthday -- Cambodia (Ex-Queen Norodom Monineath)

Recess at Work Day -- engage in productive play!   

St. Gregory of Fragalata's Day (Patron of Fragalata, Sicily)

St. Osanna Andreasi's Day (Patron of schoolgirls)

Veterinary Appreciation Day -- sometimes listed as Veterinarian Appreciation Day, and supposedly begun by Trupanion, celebrate your favorite vet and the whole team today    www.trupanion.com

Waterloo Day -- UK (no longer an official holiday, but still of historic importance)

Birthdays Today:

Eddie Cibrian, 1973

Nathan Morris, 1971

Richard Powers, 1957

Carol Kane, 1952

Isabella Rossellini, 1952

Roger Ebert, 1942

Paul McCartney, 1942

Lou Brock, 1939

John D. Rockefeller IV, 1937

Tom Wicker, 1926

Donald Keene, 1922

Red Adair, 1915

Sammy Cahn, 1913

Sylvia Field Porter, 1913

E.G. Marshall, 1910

Bud Collyer, 1908

James Kern "Kay" Kyser, 1905

Jeanette MacDonald, 1903

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolaievna Romanova of Russia, 1901

George Herbert Leigh Mallory, 1886

Henry Clay Folger, Jr., 1857

E.W. Scripps, 1854

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Archipelago S"(Takemitsu orchestral work), 1993

"Der Freischütz/The Marksman"(Opera, Weber Op. 77, J. 277), 1821

Today in History:

Li Yuan becomes Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of Tang Dynasty rule over China, 618

Five monks from Canterbury report seeing "two horns of light" on the shaded side of the moon, probably witnessing the meteor impact formation of the Giordano Bruno crater, 1178

The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature, 1264

French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay, 1429

Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain, sights Tahiti and is considered the first European to reach the island, 1767

The U.S. Congress declares war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1812

The Battle of Waterloo leads to Napoleon Bonaparte abdicating the throne of France for the second and last time, 1815

Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin's own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory, 1858

Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 (US) for attempting to vote in the prior year's US presidential election, 1873

Empress Dowager Longyu of China orders all foreigners killed, including foreign diplomats and their families, 1900

Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly as a passenger in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean, 1928

The "Finest Hour" speech is delivered by Winston Churchill, 1940

The Republic of Egypt is declared and the monarchy is abolished, 1953

Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital's director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane, 1959

The AIDS epidemic is formally recognized by medical professionals in San Francisco, California, 1981

Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space, 1983

Kazakhstan launches its first satellite, KazSat, 2006

Sequoia, IMB's Blue Gene/Q system installed at the Department of Energy becomes the world's fastest supercomputer, 2012

New data reveals that over 280 previously unknown craters exist on the Moon, 2013

King Juan Carlos I of Spain abdicates to make way for his son, Felipe VI, 2014

Pope Francis blames human selfishness for global warming in his encyclical, named "Laudato Si (Be Praised), On the Care of Our Common Home", 2015

A rare magnitude-four earthquake causes a tsunami to hit Nuugaatsiaq in northwestern Greenland, 2017

A world record is set for the greatest duration of a single lightning flash, 17.1 seconds during a thunderstorm over Uruguay and Argentina, according to the World Meteorological Organization, 2020

According to the United Nations refugee agency, a record 1% of the world's population, or 82million people, are now considered "forcibly displaced," 2021

Antony Blinken is the first US Secretary of State in five years to met with senior China officials in Beijing, aiming to re-establish regular communications, 2023

Nvidia overtakes Microsoft to become the world's most valuable company, 2024