Tuesday, March 28, 2023

The Serious and the Silly, a Random and Happy Tuesday Post

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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 


Ms. V tries lots of ways to get Carl to remember things.


His mom's reminder to take the watch and look at it regularly.


He's one of the only cart-round-up people at the Mall-Mart where he works, and there are always more carts/buggies/shopping trolleys to round up.  He has a tendency to keep going, even if it's quitting time, and the Mall-Mart "Powers That Be" frown on overtime.


While looking for his gloves, one of which we found in the trash can in the laundry room



and the rest of which were on the floor by the front door, Carl was telling me about a show he watched.  I couldn't quite understand if the show was about Easter, archaeology or both, but he said, "Someone claims to have found the nails used in Jesus crucifixion.  Could that be possible?"


Carl thinks deeply about spiritual matters, loves to go to church and read his Bible, and i try to answer him carefully when he asks me such questions.


"Well," I told him, "let's think about this.  First, at the time it happened, Jesus was considered just another person the Roman Empire crucified, not anyone special.  Why would anyone have tried to save such things?  Even his friends saw this as a tragedy and the end of their hopes about Jesus being the Messiah.  They certainly wouldn't have tried to save anything from the crucifixion.  Nails like that were probably thrown on a heap and reused until they couldn't be used any more.


"Then remember," I added, "no one knows where Moses is buried because The Lord didn't want anyone to know, not wanting people to go back to his grave and worship him.  Why would The Lord be willing to let something survive from the crucifixion?  After all, people are supposed to worship The Lord, not some objects, and there are always people who will worship the objects, or the prophets, or something else if they have a chance."


I could tell from the look in his eyes he'd caught every word, and knew he was giving it careful consideration when he said, "Hmm, you're probably right, we don't want to make more of the objects than of Jesus."


Carl has his moments.  Then the next moment I am reminded why we don't leave a trash can in his bathroom (he'd put it there himself this time).




Everything eventually goes to the floor, and if there's a trash can in the way, that's where it lands instead.  A trash can under the towel rack in the bathroom will have towels in it.


Unless it ends up in a drawer, which is what happens to his big hangers every time I'm looking for them to hang up his coats.





Then there's the deodorant issue.





You can see the deodorant itself is below the level at which any will actually be applied to the skin.  Carl has a tendency to forget it needs to be raised first, and he takes the deodorant, swipes it near where it needs to go or on his clothes, and figures it's good.


It's not always good, but his dad is working with him on that and I'm glad to leave Mr. L to it.


In honor of gloves and deodorant, some funnies.





Or, in the case of the janitor, the garbage can!










Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!






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Today is:


American Diabetes Association Alert Day -- a day to remind people about how serious the illness is, and what the risk factors are 


Children's Picture Book Day -- while i can't find a sponsor for this day, starting kids on a lifelong love of books is as good an excuse for a holiday as any


Commemoration of Sen no Rikyu -- Urasenke School of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Japan (remembering the influential master in The Way of Tea)


Feast of Artemis -- Ancient Greek Calendar (as protector of wild animals, vegetation, and places, begins at sundown; date approximate)


Festival of the Sacrifice at the Tombs -- Ancient Roman Calendar (to honor the ancestors)


"Greatest Show on Earth" Day -- Barnum and Bailey merged their circuses on this day in 1881


Hot Tub Day -- because we all need one!


Invasion of Loaming Shores Beyond the Certain Sea Anniversary -- Fairy Calendar


Khordad Sal (Birth of the Prophet Zarathushtra) -- Zoroastrianism (Fasli Calendar)


Komamorijinja Reisai -- Nakaedo, Kashi-sh, Gifu, Japan (festival of the the Kosazukeishi "child-granting stone")


National Black Forest Cake Day


Navpad Oli/ Ayambil Oli -- Jain (nine-day religious festival)


Ragnar Lodbrok's Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (remembrance of this Viking's sack of Paris)


Respect Your Cat Day -- anniversary of King Richard II's edict in 1384 forbidding the consumption of cats


Serfs Emancipation Day -- Tibet


Something on a Stick Day -- something edible, because almost everything tastes better on a stick


St. Guntramnus' Day (Patron of divorced people, guardians, repentant murderers)


Teachers' Day -- Czech Republic; Slovakia


Weed Appreciation Day -- at last, for those of us with black thumbs, since this is all we can grow. "Weeds are flowers once you get to know them!" A.A. Milne



Birthdays Today:


Lady Gaga, 1986

Julia Stiles, 1981

Annie Wersching, 1977

Kate Gosselin, 1975

Scott Mills, 1974

Juliandra Gillen, 1971

Vince Vaughn, 1970

Reba McEntire, 1955

Dianne Wiest, 1948

Ken Howard, 1944

Conchata Ferrell, 1943

Jerry Sloan, 1942

Freddie Bartholomew, 1924

Dirk Bogarde, 1921

Irving "Swifty" Lazar, 1907

August Anheuser Busch, Jr., 1899

Maxim Gorky, 1868

Frederich Pabst, 1836

St. Teresa of Avila, 1515

Fra Bartolomeo, 1472



Debuting/Premiering Today:


"Hair"(Rock musical), 1968

"Philadelphia Story"(Play), 1939



Today in History:


Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus, 193

Viking raiders sack Paris, who leave in exchange for a huge ransom, 845

The origin of the Fasli Era in India, 1556

Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco, 1776

Nathaniel Briggs of NH patents a washing machine, 1797

Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man, 1802

The US Salvation Army is officially organized, 1885

Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane, 1910

Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv & Jaffa by Turkish authorities, 1917

Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara, 1930

The McGill français movement protest occurs, the second largest protest in Montreal's history, 1969

Operators of Three Mile Island's Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania fail to recognize that a relief valve in the primary coolant system has stuck open, leading to a partial meltdown, 1979

In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg, resulting in 18 deaths, 1994

The 2005 Sumatran earthquake rocks Indonesia, and at magnitude 8.7 is the second strongest earthquake since 1965, 2005

At least 1 million union members, students, and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government's proposed First Employment Contract law, 2006

Australian diplomat Peter Woolcott's draft for the first-ever treaty to regulate the conventional arms trade is discussed by members of the United Nations, 2013

Pope Francis becomes the first Pope to wash the feet of women in the Maundy Thursday service, 2013

Britain introduces the first new pound coin in 30 years with a secret security feature inside to stop counterfeiting, 2017

The world's largest dinosaur footprint at 1.7 metres found in Kimberley, Western Australia, 2017

The study of a gene mutation that allows a 71-year-old British woman to never feel pain is published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, 2019

Monday, March 27, 2023

Persnickety (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Poetry Monday

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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!


Lulu, for reasons no one can fathom, wants someone to stand with her while she eats.  She also wants to push her plate way into the corner by the back door, in a box, of all places.  Persnickety little thing, she doesn't eat until someone goes with her and her plate is in the right place, then she keeps stopping and checking to make sure you haven't left.











This is the only way to get Lulu to actually pose.







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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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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is on a blog semi-break and her poetry is sorely missed, we hope she comes back soon.   Charlotte/Mother Owl participates, and now Karen at Baking in a Tornado is jumping in at least once a month, too.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let Diane know!


This week the theme is Celebrating Earth Day.                       



My "poem" today is freestyle and not very hopeful or happy.


What can I say that has not

been said before

by wiser heads than this one,

about how we do not care for

our beautiful garden of a planet

the way

we really should

and will my adding any words

to the discussion

change a mind?


My fear is

we have begun too late

to see the command to

Tend The Garden

as not being

optional

and too many of us

are just trying

to survive

day

to

day

to be able to give the Earth

the concern that is her due.


I pray I'm wrong.



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Today is:


Armed Forces Day -- Myanmar


Cherry Blossom (Sakura) Viewing and Celebrations begin -- Japan (the festivities get started around now, and vary by region depending on when the trees bloom in that area over the next 6 weeks)


Commemoration of Sen no Rikyu -- Omotesenke School of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Japan (remembering the influential master in The Way of Tea)


Corkscrew Day -- M.L. Byrn of New York patented "covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle" on this date in 1860


National "Joe" Day -- no, it isn't official, but today you can make everyone call you "Joe" if you want, and call them the same; probably started by someone who had no memory for names


National Spanish Paella Day

 

Quirky Country Music Song Titles Day -- after all, they do need their own day; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays 


Seward's Day -- Alaska, US


St. John Damascene's Day (Patron of pharmacists, icon paiting, theology students)


St. Rupert of Salzburg's Day (Patron of Salzburg; celebrated on the 24th in the rest of the Church)


World Theatre Day



Anniversaries Today:


Mary Pickford marries Douglas Fairbanks, 1920



Birthdays Today:


Brenda Song, 1988

Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson, 1975

Nathan Fillion, 1971

Mariah Carey, 1970

Quentin Tarantino, 1963

Xuxa, 1963

Maria Schneider, 1952

Austin Pendleton, 1940

Michael York, 1942

David Janssen, 1931

Anthony Lewis, 1927

Mstislav Rostropovich, 1927

Sarah Vaughan, 1924

Harold Nicholas, 1921

Carl Barks, 1901

Gloria Swanson, 1899

Thorne Smith, 1892

Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, 1886

Edward Steichen, 1879

Patty Smith Hill, 1868

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, 1845

Nathaniel Currier, 1813



Debuting/Premiering Today:


"Starlight Express"(Rock musical), 1984

"Funky Winkerbean"(Comic strip), 1972

"Singin' in the Rain"(Film), 1952

"La Rondine/The Swallow"(Puccini Opera), 1917

"The Colleen Bawn"(Play), 1860



Today in History:


Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt, BC196

Pope Clement V excommunicates the entire population of Venice, 1309

Juan Ponce de Leon discovers Florida, 1513

The first English child born in Canada at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy, 1613

The dike at Hardinxveld breaks, causing the Alblasserwaard flood, 1709

Spain losses Menorca & Gibraltar, 1713

John Parker Paynard originates medicated adhesive plaster, precursor to the band-aid, 1848

First reported sighting of the Yosemite Valley by Europeans, 1851

M L Byrn patents "covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle" (corkscrew), 1860

The first international rugby football match, England v. Scotland, is played in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place, 1871

Famous Apache warrior, Geronimo, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars, 1886

The first Japanese cherry blossom trees planted in Washington, D.C., 1912

The first successful blood transfusion takes place in Brussels, 1914

Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine, 1916

Charlie Chaplin receives France's distinguished Legion of Honor, 1931

Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union, 1958

The Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes South Central Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage, 1964

The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight. 1970

Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins, 1975

The Norwegian oil platform Alexander L. Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212, 1980

The Solidarity movement in Poland stages a warning strike, in which at least 12 million Poles walk off their jobs for four hours, 1981

The US FDA approves Viagra, 1998

HMS Scylla (F71), a decommissioned Leander class frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe, 2004

The UN General Assembly condemns Russia's annexation of Crimea, 2014 

Russia's Soyuz TMA-16M launches to deliver three crew members to the international space station to research the long-term effects of micro gravity, 2015

Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi announces the country is now a "space power" after successfully shooting down a satellite from space in a ballistic missile test, 2019