For Once, It Wasn't Me!

The day had already started busy, and it never stopped. Kind of as usual.

Took #1 Son to get a rental. Got the oil changed in my van. Worked around the house, got #2 Son and Bigger Girl to school, ran to the Wal-Mart where they didn't have half of what i needed. Someday i will remember not to go there on the days they don't get a truck in, it's always the same days of the week when they are out of stuff.

Made plans to go get a half size couch from Bigger Girl's friend's house with Brother-in-Law's truck after Sweetie got home from work. It involved him dropping B-i-L at his evening meeting, so dinner had to be done before i left to get the kids again.

All this to say that, when the kids and i finally drove up from school, we were very surprised to see that a quarter of the field in front of our house, part of the school playground/neighborhood park, was black!

We had no idea what happened until we got in the house and Little Girl announced, "The field was on fire!"

"No way!" was #2 Son's shocked reply.

"Yep!" she responded. "I smelled something, and [#1 Son] came in and said to call 911 because the field was on fire, and the fire trucks came, too!"

"Who did it?" Bigger Girl asked.

"We're not sure, but Mike-Next-Door saw these two little kids running off, and he chased them and asked them, and they said they didn't do anything, but they probably did."

That was when #2 Son piped up, "Finally! Finally! For once, they can't say it was me! For once it wasn't me! I have an alibi! I was at school and on the way home when it happened!"

He's right. This is one nobody can pin on him.


Today is:

Accordion Day

Door-to-Door Salespeople Day (Ouch.)

Feast of St. Kentigen (a/k/a Mungo) -- (Patron of Glasgow whose given name meant "head chief" but whose nickname meant "dear one.")

Liberation Day -- Togo

Make Your Dream Come True Day

Midvintersblot -- Ancient Norse Calendar (midwinter festival)

National Peach Melba Day

Old New Year's Day -- Belarus; Georgia; Montenegro; Republic of Macedonia; Republic of Srpska (yes, that's how it's spelled; no, i don't know how to pronounce it); Serbia; Russia; Ukraine; Wales (Julian Calendar)

Recuperation Fortnight begins -- Fairy Calendar (I think I need one of those!)

Runic half month of Peorth (womb) begins

Rubber Duckie Day

Silvesterklause, Switzerland ("Old" New Year's celebration)

St. Hilarius' Day (according to English tradition, the coldest day of the year)

St. Knut's Day (a/k/a Little Christmas or Twentieth Day or Tyvendedagen among the Scandinavians, it is the day to "plunder" the tree put up on Christmas Eve, eating the candies and cookies that were decorating it, and putting all the other decorations away before the tree is removed.)

Stephen Foster Memorial Day

Strive and Succeed Day

Tiugunde Day -- Old England (midwinter offering, a celebration picked up from the Norse Midvintersblot)

Tyvendedagen, Norway (Twentieth day after Christmas, official end of Yuletide or "Juletid")


Birthdays Today:

Orlando Bloom, 1977
Patrick Dempsey, 1966
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 1961
Richard Moll, 1943
Charles Nelson Reilly, 1931
Gwen Verdon, 1925
Army Archerd, 1922
Robert Stack, 1919
Sophia Tucker, 1884
Horatio Alger, 1832
Salmon P. Chase, 1808


Today in History:

Crusaders set fire to Mara, Syria, 1099
Sicut Didum, the papal bull prohibiting the enslavement of Canary Island natives who had converted to Christianity, is promulgated, 1435
The controversial play Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston is performed, landing two of the authors in prison, 1605
The Bank Of Genoa fails after the announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain, 1607
Jonathan Swift is ordained and Anglican priest in Ireland, 1695
James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, 1733
John Walter publishes the first issue of the London Times, 1785
The Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins, 1830
Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole European survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, 1842
Anthony Foss patents the accordion, 1854
A chenille manufacturing machine is patented by William Canter of NYC, 1863
A circus fire in Poland kills 430, 1883
The Independent Labour Party of the UK has its first meeting, 1893
U.S. Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution, 1893
The first radio set is advertised, a Telimco for $7.50 in Scientific American; claimed to receive signals up to one mile, 1906
The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana is sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, 1910
An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800, 1915
The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometres of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people, 1939
Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car, 1942
Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Krakow, Poland, 1964
Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American US Cabinet member, 1966
Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom Prison, 1968
A passenger train plunged into a ravine at Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa, 1985
L. Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American US governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia, 1990
Soviet Union military troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, 1991
An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800, 2001