Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Do the Math, 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.  



One thing i love to see when i'm driving through a neighborhood is kids with a lemonade stand, or praline candies, or as in our neighborhood, there's one family of children who bake loaves of bread to sell.


No matter what, if there's a penny to my name (or not), i stop.  I want to support their entrepreneurial spirit, so i take a few dollars from a stash i keep for this purpose and buy bread or give them money for lemonade or candy but don't actually accept any (i don't drink sugary drinks and we don't need the candy).


One day i stopped and a man was there ahead of me, picking up two cups of lemonade and some home made candies, each priced differently.  He handed them some money and said, "Okay, now how much change should I get back?"  They counted it out and he said, "Yes!  And I don't want the change, but I wanted you to do the math!"


All of us laughed and of course they thanked him.  He was right, they do need to know how to do the math, all of us do, whether we like it or not.


How about some math funnies.
















Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!






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It's my month to provide the prompts for Words for Wednesday.  Since it becomes Wednesday in some parts of the world while it is still Tuesday here, i am providing the prompts now, so you can work on them and post them when it's Wednesday where you are.


This week’s prompts are:


mood

peanut

weakness

novel

ride

jump


and/or the following archaic or seldom used words


asunder (apart)

nary (none)

rantipole (behaving in a romping or rude manner)


Charlotte's colour of the month is Steel Blue.



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Today is:


Bad Poetry Day -- Wellcat Holidays suggests you get back at your high school English teacher for making you read all that "good" poetry; get together with friends, write some truly awful stuff, and mail it to him/her!


Long Tan Day a/k/a Vietnam Veterans Day -- Australia


Mail Order Catalog Day -- the first one was published by Montgomery Ward this day in 1872, and was only one page (Do yourself a favor and opt out of the doggone things, save a few trees)


National Ice Cream Pie Day


National Science Day -- Thailand


National Soft Ice Cream Day


Serendipity Day -- and it's here serendipitously! begun by writer Madeleine Kay, it's the day to step out of routine, do something you've always wanted to do, and see what happens


St. Agapitus' Day (Patron of Palestrina, Italy; against colic)


St. Helena's Day (Mother of Constantine the Great; Patron of archaeologists, converts, difficult marriages, divorced people, dyers, empresses, nail smiths, needle makers; Birkirkara, Malta; Helena, MT, US; against fire and thunder)



Birthdays Today:


Andy Samberg, 1978

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, 1970

Christian Slater, 1969

Edward Norton, 1969

Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, 1962

Madeleine Stowe, 1958

Patrick Swayze, 1952

Elayne Boosler, 1952

Martin Mull, 1943

Robert Redford, 1936

Roberto Clemente Walker, 1934

Roman Polanski, 1933

Luc Montagnier, 1932

Rosalynn Carter, 1927

Shelley Winters, 1920

Greta Garbo, 1905

Max Factor, 1904

Meriwether Lewis, 1774

Virginia Dare, 1587 (first English child born in the Americas)



Debuting/Premiering Today:


"Private Lives"(Play), 1930

"Iphigénie"(Racine's dramatic tragedy), 1674



Today in History:


Founding of the oldest known Roman temple to Venus, BC293

Rome is occupied and plundered by Visigoths under King Alarik I, 410

Death of Genghis Khan (fell from his horse), 1227

A Portuguese ship drifts ashore in the Japanese province of Higo, 1541

The Boston, Massachusetts Evening Post begins publishing, 1735

Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, 1834

Pierre Janssan discovers helium, 1868

German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright Brothers, 1903.

Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River, 1909

A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless, 1917

19th US Amendment ratified (gives women the vote), 1920

Premier of The Wizard of Oz, 1939

The first commercially produced oral contraceptives are marketed, 1960

James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi, 1963

Steve Biko is arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 in King William's Town, South Africa. He would later die of the injuries sustained during this arrest bringing attention to South Africa's apartheid policies, 1977

Massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people, 2005

Columbia's Chiribiquete National Park expands to 3 million hectares from 1.2 million hectares, becoming one of the Amazon's largest protected zones, 2013

Civilian researchers led by Paul Allen re-discover the USS Indianapolis 18,000 feet below the Pacific surface, 72 years after it was sunk by Japanese torpedoes, 2017

Food matter found in the 3,200-year-old tomb of Ptahmes, an official of Memphis, Egypt, is confirmed to be cheese, the oldest evidence yet of cheesemaking, 2018

Archaeologists announce the discovery of a megalithic complex of more than 500 standing stones at La Torre-La Janera, Huelva, southern Spain, 2022

The Canadian province of British Columbia declares a state of emergency as two major wildfires combine near Adams Lake, 2023

Several European leaders join a hastily convened summit with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House with President Donald Trump, 2025

Monday, August 17, 2026

Mr. PotatoHead Her Way (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Poetry Monday, Sunny Days

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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!


Annie plays with Mr. PotatoHead her way.





He posed for a selfie after.









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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 is taking a break

accommodations we must make

we miss her poetry and wit

so 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 Sunny Days.



it's true Dracula

hates sunny days but he should

be of no a-Count


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I love the outdoors on sunny days

but it really bothers my landlady

she knows I hang out under the trees

and to her that seems a bit shady.


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On sunny days we're happy,

on dreary, full of dolor,

why are there such extremes?

Our planet is bipolar.


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Future themes are:


Aug 17 Sunny Days (Today!)

Aug 24 Photography

Aug 31 Xerophyte

Sept 7 My Culture


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


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Today is Black Cat Appreciation Day!  Black cats deserve a day and even have a Facebook page.      


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


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Today is:


#2 Pencil Day -- internet generated, but since a pencil can draw a line 35 miles long, write under water, in zero gravity, or upside down, what's not to celebrate!


Day of Rituals in the Temples of Ra, Horus, and Osiris -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)


Drink Coffee at the Office from A Sippy Cup Day -- begun by someone with a sense of humor, who wants you to see how long it takes people to notice


Festival of Diana -- Ancient Roman Calendar


Jari Kemerdekaan RI -- Indonesia (Independence Day)(1945)


Meaning of "Is" Day -- thank you, Clinton!


National Thrift Shop/Thrift Store Day -- no history on it, probably started by a thrift store having a summer sale; still a good idea


National Vanilla Custard Day


Odin's Ordeal begins -- based on the Ancient Norse legend, Modern Odinists and some Asatru practice silence for nine days, through the 25th


Portunalia -- Roman Empire (honoring the god of locks, keys, ports, and harbors)


Prekmurje Union Day -- Slovenia (celebrates the Slovenes in Prekmurje being Incorporated into the Mother Nation)


San Martin Day -- Argentina (death anniversary of General Jose de San Martin, liberator of Argentina, Chile, and Peru)


Stay at Home With Your Kids Day -- begun by Work at Home Moms ezine in 1999, to encourage and support parents who work from home


St. Hyacinth's Day (Patron of Camalaniugan, Philippines; Ermita de Piedra de San Jacinto, Philippines; Krakow, Poland; Lithuania; Poland; against drowning)


Yukon Discovery Day -- YT, Canada



Birthdays Today:


Mark Salling, 1982

Donnie Wahlberg, 1969

Sean Penn, 1960

Jonathan Franzen, 1959

Belinda Carlisle, 1958

Guillermo Vilas, 1952

Robert Joy, 1951

Robert DeNiro, 1943

Francis Gary Powers, 1929

Maureen O'Hara, 1920

Harrison V. Chase, 1913

Mae West, 1892

Charles I, last emperor of Austria-Hungary, 1887

Samuel Goldwyn, 1882

Davy Crockett, 1786



Debuting/Premiering Today:


Life of Brian(Film), 1979

"Symphonie Liturgique"(Honegger's Third Symphony), 1946

Animal Farm(Publication date), 1945

"Gotterdammerung/Twilight of the Gods"(Opera WWV 86D), 1876



Today in History:


The Peace of Bergerac gives political rights to the Huguenots, 1577

John White returns to Roanoke, Virginia, to find no trace of the colonists he had left there 3 years earlier, 1590

Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont begins its first trip up the Hudson River, 1807

Solymon Merrick patents the wrench, 1835

The first bank in Hawaii opens, 1858

A patent is granted for an electric self-starter for automobiles, 1891

Pike Place Market, the longest continuously-running public farmers market in the US, opens in Seattle, 1907

Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl, the first animated cartoon, is shown in Paris, 1908

First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California, 1953

Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Yellowstone earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana, 1958

East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin becoming one of the first victims of the wall, 1962

Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage, 1969

Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus), 1970

Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine, 1978

The first Compact Discs are released to the public in Germany, 1982

The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts, 2005

Afghan archeologists discover the remains of a Buddhist site located south of Kabul, 2010

Trogloraptor marchingtoni, an unusual spider discovered in 2010 is determined to be a new family of spiders previously unknown in the world of science; the new spider family has been named Trogloraptor, meaning 'cave robber', 2012

LIGO picks up images of two neutron stars colliding, the first time scientists have ever been able to witness that event, 2017

The landmark power-sharing deal signed by military and civilian leaders is celebrated in Khartoum, Sudan, with a transitional government to take over as of the beginning of September, 2019

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill becomes the first US university to send students home and convert to all online classes after 135 Covid19 cases are detected on campus, 2020

One in five US hospital ICUs are at or over 95% capacity due to Delta surge of COVID-19, 2021

 The WHO holds its first Traditional Medicine Global Summit in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, 2023

Bodhana Sivanandan (10) defeats grandmaster Pete Wells (60) in final round of 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool, England, becoming youngest female player to beat a grandmaster, 2025