A Word Game, and Good News

A friend of mine on a discussion board website has started a thread called, This + That = Word Game.

She has begun a game where you take two or more words and treat them like a math equation and see what they "add up to."

Her examples were things like:

Yes + No = Maybe

pumpkins + brown leaves = autumn

wet + fizzy = soda pop

She wants to see what other people will come up with.

Well, i've been considering posting a few, except that right now my mood is toward things like

cat + food = dirty litter box

kitten + water + litter = mess

kitten + corner = no need to go over to the litter box.

These, i believe, are not at all in the spirit of what she has in mind.

They are, however, how i feel after spending so much time trying to find all the places the kittens have climbed into and "left their mark."

Oh, and great news, adoptions at the shelter are up, and our BlueBoy has found a forever home. The nice lady who took him had one of her cats run away recently. It was a stray brought in about a year ago, and was her 4-year-old cat's favorite friend, and the 4-year-old misses her so much. Apparently she is not only acting depressed about it, she is terrorizing the 13-year-old cat by trying to confine him to a bathroom at all times to make sure he can't go away, too!

So BlueBoy, who is friendly and loves playing with everyone, should keep the 4-year-old occupied and adapt well to being a best friend.

They also have a dog called "The Governor". He is a 5 pound Chihuahua who will not go outside without "politicking" his way through the house, making sure he meets and greets every cat and person in the house.

It sounds like Blue, after his rough start with being so ill for so long, is going to have a great life.

Which i will be celebrating for the foreseeable future as some of the calling cards still around are his.


Today is:

Anniversary of Snick-Snacker's Deerk Foot -- Fairy Calendar (fairies have a right foot, left foot, and a deerk, for which there is no human equivalent)

Assumption Eve -- France

Chung Yuan Festival -- China (Festival of Hungry Ghosts, the day souls of the dead are released from Purgatory to roam the Earth, with ceremonies held and offerings made to appease them; dates in some countries differ from China's)

Day of Peace between Horus and Set -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar

Festival for Fortuna Equestris -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Independence Day -- Pakistan

La Torta dei Fieschi -- Genoa, Italy

Liberty Tree Day -- Massachusetts, US

Mantoro Lantern Lighting -- Kasuga Taisha, Japan (through tomorrow; 3,000 lanterns light the shrine, and the main hall is open for visitors, with Bugaku and Kagura performed in the apple garden)

Melon Day -- Turkmenistan

National Creamsicle Day

National Navajo Code Talkers Day -- US

Palio Del Golfo -- La Speza, Italy (rowing contest)

Pramuka Day -- Indonesia (Scouting Day)

Resurrect Romance Week begins -- sponsored by theromantic.com

Rushbearing -- Forest Chapel, Cheshire, England (ancient tradtion of bringing new rushes, plaited in traditional weaves, to carpet the church and keep it warm)

St. Maximillian Kolbe's Day (patron against drug addictions)

St. Werenfrid's Day (patron against gout)

Weird Contest Week -- Ocean City, NJ, US (through the 19th; contests include salt water taffy sculpting and wet t-shirt throwing, among others)



Anniversary Today

V-J Day


Birthdays Today

Halle Berry, 1966
Earvin "Magic" Johnson, 1959
Gary Larson, 1950
Danielle, Steel, 1947
Susan Saint James, 1946
Steve Martin, 1945
Lynne Cheney, 1941
David Crosby, 1941
Alice Ghostley, 1926
Russell Baker, 1925
John Ringling North, 1903
Doc Holiday, 1851
H.C. Oersted, 1777
Emperor Hanazono of Japan, 1297


Today in History

The young Emperor Antoku and three sacred treasures are taken by Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan, fleeing to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan, 1183
Kublai Khan's invading fleet disappears in a a typhoon near Japan, 1281
Three years after Gutenberg, the oldest known exactly dated printed book is published, 1457
Queen Elizabeth I refuses sovereignty of the Netherlands, 1585
Great Britain annexes Tristan da Cunha (remotest occupied island), 1816
Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma, 1842
Oregon Territory created, 1848
Magazine "Field and Stream" begins publication, 1873
Construction of Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany, is completed, 1880
Japan issues its first patent, for rust-proof paint, 1885
A recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's The Lost Chord, one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London, 1888
France begins requiring motor vehicle registration, 1893
The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21, 1901
Mt. Rushmore project first proposed, 1925
United States Social Security Act passes, creating a government pension system for the retired, 1935
British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland, 1969
Longest game in softball history begins, as The Gager's Diner team takes on the Bend'n Elbow Tavern; the game was played to raise money for a new softball field in Monticello, NY, went to 365 innings over two days, and the Gagers won 491-467, 1976
Lech Walesa leads strikes at the Gdansk, Poland shipyards, 1980
Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada, 2003
As a sponsored event of the IOC, the 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games, first ever Youth Olympics for athletes age 14-18, officially starts in Singapore, 2010