Priorities

The year is 2012, and the US has just elected its first woman president. She happens to be from the south Louisiana bayous, and her name is Suzanne Boudreaux.

So one day she calls home and talks to her dad. "Pere, you and maman are coming to the inauguration, aren't you?"

"Mais, cher," Boudreaux answered, "I don' know 'bout dat, me and you maman don' know how we goin' travel and git aroun' up dere."

"Pere," Suzanne answered, "you don't have to worry about anything at all. I'm going to send a limousine to bring you to the airport, you will fly up on Air Force One, and I will take care of all of the details."

"Oh, but cher," he continued, "what you maman goin' wear? You know Clotile don' have much fancy clothes."

"Pere, I've got that covered, too," Suzanne said. "I have the best designers ready to work for me, we will make sure maman is dressed well, and you, too."

So finally Boudreaux agreed, and on inauguration day, January 20, 2013, he and Clotile were in the front row, right next to the senator from Louisiana, as Suzanne was being sworn in.

While she was up there, Boudreaux leaned over and whispered to the senator, "You see that woman up dere wit' her hand on the Bible taking de oath?"

The senator nodded, and with pride in his voice Boudreaux continued, "Well, her brother played football for LSU!"

Today is

*Birthday of the 14th Dalai Lama -- Tibetan Diaspora

*Constitution Day -- Cayman Islands

*Day of the Capital -- Kazakhstan

*Fill an Aquarium Day -- they are fun and entertaining

*Independence Day -- Comoros; Malawi (also Republic Day in Malawi)

*Iriya no Asagao-ichi -- Kishibo-Jin Shrine, Taito Ward, Tokyo (morning glory flower festival, buy one for good luck, through the 8th)

*Ivan Kupala Day -- Poland; Russia; Belarus; Ukraine

*Jan Hus Day -- Czech Republic

*Los Sanfermines -- Pamplona, Spain (bull running, through the 14th; don't be bored, be gored!)

*Ludi Apollinares -- Ancient Roman Calendar (first day of games in honor of Apollo; through the 13th)

*National Fried Chicken Day

*Old Albums are Frisbees Day

*Rememberance Day -- Luxembourg

*Statehood Day -- Lithuania

*St Godelieve of Ghistelles's Day (patron of Flanders, difficult marriages, healthy throats, in-law problems, throat diseases, victims of abuse, victims of verbal spouse abuse)

*St. Maria Goretti's Day (patron of teenage girls)

*Take Your Webmaster to Lunch Day

*The North American Tournament -- Spruce Meadows, Calgary, AB, Canada (show jumping tournament, through the 10th)

Birthdays Today

Matthew O'Leary, 1987

Gregory Smith, 1983

Tia and Tamera Mowry, 1978

Jennifer Saunders, 1958

Kenny G, 1956

Geoffrey Rush, 1951

George W. Bush, 1946

Sylvester Stallone, 1946

Burt Ward, 1945

Ned Beatty, 1937

Dalai Lama, 1935

Della Reese, 1932

Janet Leigh, 1927

Pat Paulsen, 1927

Merv Griffin, 1927

Bill Haley, 1925

William Schallert, 1922

Nancy Reagan, 1921

Sebastian Cabot, 1918

Laverne Andrews, 1915

Frida Kahlo, 1907

Beatrix Potter, 1866

John Paul Jones, 1747

Today in History

Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) is crowned King of England, 1189

Papal bull of Pope Clement VI protecting Jews during the Black Death, 1348

Jan Hus is burned at the stake, 1415

Richard III is crowned King of England, 1483

Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão finds the mouth of the Congo River, 1484

Sir Thomas More is executed for treason against King Henry VIII, 1535

Córdoba, Argentina, is founded by Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera, 1573

The dollar is unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States, 1785

In Jackson, Michigan, the first convention of the United States Republican Party is held, 1854

Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies; the patient is Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog, 1885

David Kalakaua, monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, is forced at gunpoint, at the hands of the Americans, to sign the Bayonet Constitution giving Americans more power in Hawaii while stripping Hawaiian citizens of their rights, 1887

Dadabhai Naoroji elected as first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain, 1892

The British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airship, 1919

The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played in Chicago's Comiskey Park; the American League defeats the National League, 4–2, 1933

The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed, 1939

Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in the "Secret Annexe" above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse, 1942

The Hartford Circus Fire, one of America's worst fire disasters, kills approximately 168 people and injures over 700 in Hartford, Connecticut, 1944

Davis Phinney became the first American cyclist to win a road stage of the Tour de France, 1986

The Nathula Pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years, 2006