Bonfire Season

As noted yesterday, the cold has come, and #2 Son, the pyromaniac, considers it bonfire season.

He came running in yelling, "It exploded!"

Those are not words you want to hear from him. Trust me.

I asked what, and he said, "I think we have a problem!" Another set of words you do not want to hear from him. "We had a pack of sugar, like the kind they give you to put in your coffee, and we threw it in the fire, and it exploded!"

I explained to him that sugar is carbon based, a carbohydrate, and will burn. When thrown in a fire like that, it will all burn very rapidly, a mini explosion of sorts.

"Oh, so it's supposed to?! Cool! Can I take the sugar canister outside? I promise we won't use much! We just want to see what it looks like again from the roof."

On the roof? Is that what I have been hearing? I gave him the eye.

"Did I say roof? No, nobody's been on the roof." He tried to look innocent, that wide eyed honest and confused look that nails him every time.

Stay off the roof, I told him.

He did stay off the roof after that, but I forgot to say no to the sugar, and found my supply just a bit depleted later.

"Don't worry, mom," he said in the tone that makes me worry. "We stood back and used a spoon to fling the sugar in the fire. It was cool!"

It's going to be a long bonfire season.


Today is:

Day of Accord and Reconciliation -- Russia (formerly Great October Socialist Revolution Day, with the date determined by the Gregorian Calendar)

Feast of Blessed John Duns Scotus

Feast of Stolen Fire

International Tongue Twister Day

Magazine Day

National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day

National Day -- Northern Catalonia

National Notary Public Day

National Revolution and Solidarity Day -- Bangladesh

St. Florentius' Day

St. Willibrord's Day (patron of Holland; against epilepsy, convulsions)

Zero Tasking Day -- take the extra hour from ending Daylight Savings and do nothing, just relax and be


Birthdays Today:

Keith Lockhart, 1959
Joni Mitchell, 1943
Joan Sutherland, 1926
Al Hirt, 1922
Billy Graham, 1918
Dean Jagger, 1903
Leon Trotsky, 1879
Madame Curie, 1867
Captain James Cook, 1728


Today in History:

The oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, the Ensisheim Meteorite, strikes around noon in a wheat field near the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France, 1492
Pierre Gassendi observes the transit of Mercury as predicted by Kepler, 1631
Anne Htchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a heretic, 1637
The first edition of the "London Gazette", the oldest surviving journal, is published, 1665
Lewis and Clark first sight the Pacific Ocean, 1805
The first Thomas Nast cartoon depicting the Republican Party Elephant is published, 1874
Edward Bouchet becomes the first black to receive a PhD from a US college (Yale), 1876
Women in the U.S. state of Colorado are granted the right to vote, 1893
The first air freight shipment is undertaken by the Wright brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse (from Dayton, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio), 1910
Mao Tse Tung proclaims the "Chinese People's Republic", 1931
Fiorello H. La Guardia is elected the 99th mayor of New York City, 1933
Carl B. Stokes is elected as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American mayor of a major American city, 1967
Douglas Wilder wins the governor's seat in Virginia, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States, 1989
Mary Robinson becomes the first woman to be elected President of the Republic of Ireland, 1990
NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor, 1996