Too Friendly?

"Mo--o--om! Stop it!" The whine from the back seat was Little Girl, age 12, complaining because I wave to the neighbors as I drive by.

"We don't even know those people! Why do you wave to them?"

Yes, I do know many of them, partly because I have gone out of my way to know them. Those I don't know, I tell her, are still neighbors, and therefore we should be friendly. It keeps the neighborhood nice when people know that we look out for each other, greet each other.

All she can think of, however, is how embarrassing it is that her mom waves to people, and talks to them when they jog past the house, too.

Sorry, kid, get over it. I'm going to continue to do this. It's a lost art in parts of the country, and it's time to bring it back.


Today is:

Baba Au Rhum Day

Children's Day -- Paraguay

Elvis Presley Day

Festival of the Minstrels -- Tutbury Castle, UK

Gozan no Okuribi -- Kyoto, Japan (a/k/a Daimonji, culmination of the O-Bon Festival)

Harmonic Convergence Day

Independence Day -- Cyprus

Joe Miller's Joke Day

Madonna del Voto Day -- Italy (a/k/a Palio of the Contrade)

Monty Python Day

National Airborne Day

National Tell a Joke Day

National Rum Day

Restoration of the Republic -- Dominican Republic

St. Joachim's Day

St. Stephen of Hungary Day (Patron Saint of Hungary)

Xicolatada -- Palau-de-Cerdagne, France (hot chocolate festival)*


Birthdays Today:

Angela Bassett, 1958
Madonna, 1958
James Cameron, 1954
Kathie Lee Gifford, 1953
Leslie Ann Warren, 1946
Eydie Gorme, 1932
Frank Gifford, 1930
Ann Blyth, 1928
Fess Parker, 1925
Menachem Begin, 1913
Hongxi Emperor of China, 1378


Today in History:

Henry VIII defeats the French at the Battle of Guinegate/Battle of the Spurs, forcing the French to retreat, 1513
Jack Broughton formulates the earliest code of rules for boxing, 1743
Chang and Eng Bunker, the original "Siamese" twins, arrive in Boston to be exhibited, 1829
U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, 1858
Arica, Peru (now Chile) is devastated by a tsunami which followed a magnitude 8.5 earthquake, 1868
Gold is discovered in the Klondike, at Bonanza Creek, 1896
Edwin Prescott patents the roller coaster, 1898
In Valparaiso, Chile, an 8.6 earthquake followed by fire destroys the city and kills 20,000, 1906
The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks, 1930
Democrats nominate Adlai E. Stevenson as presidential candidate, 1956
A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto's stock market, 1989


*Yes, they celebrate a hot chocolate festival in the summer. It all started when the 15th of August was a feast day on which the locals always drank a bit much, and the chocolatier of the town claimed his brew was a good remedy the day after. The original festival on the 15th
has ceased, but the hot chocolate is brewed to this day, served at 11am promptly.