Circus Fun

Last night was such fun!

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus was back in town. Clown antics, trained cats -- house cats and lions both, elephants, juggling from horseback, high wires and trapeze and magicians and ladies who hang by their hair and peanuts and popcorn and lemonade and overpriced tchotchkes galore.

One lady behind us was so taken with the clowns that we laughed partly just hearing her laughter. She was so tickled it was contagious. We all took turns wearing the flashing clown nose that came with the program for a couple of minutes, then I handed it to a little boy with Down Syndrome who looked fascinated with it.

An evening of smiles and thrills, and a headache to top it off because the music was so loud. I guess that is a sign that I am getting old.

Not too old to go to the circus, though.


Today is

Applesauce Cake Day

Audacity to Hope Day

Cheese Day

Emancipation Day, Tonga

Flag Day, Finland, Panama

Hug Your Cat Day

International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression

National Cognac Day

National Doughnut Day always the first Friday in June, sponsored by the Salvation Army

National Frozen Yogurt Day

Old Maid's Day

St. Optatus' Day

Swing Day


Birthdays Today:

Russell Brand, 1975
Angelina Jolie, 1975
Noah Wyle, 1971
Sam Harris, 1961
George Noory, 1950
Michelle Phillips, 1944
Joyce Meyer, 1943
Bruce Dern, 1936
John Drew Barrymore, 1932
Dr. Ruth Westheimer, 1928
Dennis Weaver, 1924
Robert Merrill, 1919
Rosalind Russell, 1907


Today in History:

Chinese astronomers make the first recording of a solar eclipse, BC781
Sir Walter Raleigh establishes the first English colony on Roanoke Island, old Virginia (now North Carolina), 1584
Forces under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu take Osaka Castle in Japan, 1615
New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia, Canada taken from the Acadians, 1760
A transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in history, 1769
The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon), 1783
Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for the Kingdom of Great Britain, 1792
The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title, 1878
Massachusetts becomes the first state of the United States to set a minimum wage, 1912
A patent for the ATM is granted to Donald Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain, 1973
The Tiananmen Square protests are violently ended in Beijing by the People's Liberation Army, 1989
Solidarity's victory in the first (somewhat) free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland sparks off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe, 1989