It's Only Fair...

...that since i got my turn, Sweetie should get his.

He was very kind about my trip to Smalltown, so now he gets to go to Texas to see his best friend from college.

They are very good buddies to this day. Jim stood in our wedding, Sweetie stood in Jim's. Since both have brothers, neither was the others best man, but still.

Jim comes through our way at least twice a year on business, and always comes over. He has been inviting Sweetie to visit him for years, but we've never been able to swing it, for many reasons.

Just as my trip was done on the cheap, this one will be, too. Jim and his wife found themselves in possession, as do so many people, of more frequent flyer miles than they could ever use in a lifetime, so the ticket cost a whopping $5. His biggest expense will be treating them to a nice meal as a thanks for their hospitality.

He is flying there today, and will be home Sunday morning; direct flights that only last an hour or so. He will stay at Jim and Rita's house, just as i stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Eagle.

He's had a blast preparing, talking of little else for days.

We are all hoping he has a great trip, he hasn't been away by himself like this for years.


Today is:

Bring Your Jack-O-Lantern to Work Day -- just check the fire code before you light that candle

Celtic Tree Month Negetal (Reed) begins

Dia do Servidor Publico -- Brazil (Civil Servants' Day)

Flying Baby Day -- celebrating the first baby born on an airplane on this day in 1929

Frankenstein Friday -- a day to celebrate the "mother" and "father" of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley and Boris Karloff

French Food Festival -- LaRose, LA, US (through the 30th)

Fyribod (or Forebode) -- Ancient Norse Calendar (announces the beginning of winter; date approximate)

Hari Sumpah Pemuda -- Indonesia (Youth Pledge Day)

Independence Day -- Czechoslovakia (from Austria-Hungary; still celebrated in the Czech Republic and Slovakia)

International Animation Day -- ASIFA

Isia -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (dates approximate; first day of the 6 day Isis festival)

Jounen Kweyol -- Dominica (Creole Day, one of the nation's biggest and most colorful celebrations)

Mokosh Day -- Ukraine (Slavic goddess of "women's work")

Makoshe's Holiday -- Pagan Slavic Calendar (honoring Mother Earth)

Milvian Bridge Day -- Christian

National Bandana Day -- Australia (to raise funds for kids with cancer)

National Breadstix Day -- sponsored by Hot Stix Pizza

National Chocolate Day

National Tell A Story Day -- Scotland

Oxi Day, Greece (Sometimes "Ochi" or "Ohi", literally "No Day", celebrating resistance to Mussolini.)

Part Your Hair Crooked Just To See If Anyone Will Say Anything About It Day -- internet generated, celebrate at your own risk

Peniamina Gospel Day -- Niue (celebration of the conversion of the islanders to Christianity)

Plush Animal Lovers' Day -- internet generated; celebrate your love of stuffed animals today

Punky Night -- Hinton St George, Somerset, England: a celebration for children and adults who carry candle-lit punkies (the best one wins a prize) made out of mangel-wurzels, a type of beet, and sing old punky songs

Runic Half-month Hagal (hailstone) begin

Sea Witch Halloween & Fiddler's Festival -- Rehoboth Beach/Dewey Beach, DE, US (through the 30th)

St. Jude's Day (Patron of desperate or hopeless cases -- the reason Danny Thomas chose this saint to invoke as patron of the hospital he helped found.)

St. Simon the Zealot's Day

Wild Foods Day -- as in, grown or caught in the wild (please be careful if you like mushrooms and want to gather your own!)



Anniversaries Today:

Universidad Santo Tomas Aquino is established, 1538 (first university in the New World)
Founding of Harvard University, 1636
Maimonides College is founded, 1867 (first Jewish college in the US)
Statue of Liberty dedicated, 1886


Birthdays Today:

Joaquin Phoenix, 1974
Julia Roberts, 1967
Daphne Zuniga, 1962
Bill Gates, 1955
Bruce Jenner, 1949
Dennis Franz, 1944
Charlie Daniels, 1936
Cleo Laine, 1927
Jonas Salk, 1914
Edith Head, 1907


Today in History:

Constantine the Great defeats Maxentius, 312
Battle of Yaunis Khan in which Turkish forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha defeat the Mameluks near Gaza, 1516
Battle of Amba Sel, in which Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi again defeats the army of Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia; the southern part of Ethiopia falls under Imam Ahmad's control, 1531
Peruvian cities of Lima & Callao are demolished by an earthquake, 18,000 die, 1746
Eli Whitney applies for a patent on the cotton gin, 1793
The first railroad in Spain, between Barcelona and Mataro, is opened, 1848
The Statue of Liberty is dedicated by President Grover Cleveland, and celebrated by the first ticker tape/confetti parade in NYC, 1886
An earthquake strikes Mino-Owari, Japan, kills 7,300, 1891
Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Pathétique, receives its première performance in St. Petersburg, only nine days before the composer's death, 1893
The St. Louis police try a new investigation method -- fingerprints, 1904
Czechoslovakia gains its independence in the break up of Austria-Hungary, 1918
The Volstead Act, passed by Congress over Wilson's veto, starts Prohibition, 1919
The first coast to coast radio broadcast of a football game, 1922
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt rededicates the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary, 1936
The Alaska Highway (Alcan Highway) is completed through Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska, 1942
Swiss chemist Paul Müller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT, 1948
The modern Kingdom of the Netherlands is re-founded as a federal monarchy, 1954
Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba, 1962
Nostra Aetate, the "Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions" of the Second Vatican Council, is promulgated by Pope Paul VI; it absolves the Jews of responsibility for the death of Jesus, 1965*
Britain launches its first satellite, Prospero, into low Earth orbit atop a Black Arrow carrier rocket, 1971
The centenary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty is celebrated in New York Harbor, 1986
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner becomes the first woman elected President of Argentina, 2007