Another One That Would Only Happen Here

"Mom, there's a cop outside who wants to take a picture of #1 Son's pants!" #2 Son was the bearer of this strange news, followed by Little Girl.

"Yeah, there's an officer out there, really!" she said. "His pants look just like the pants worn by someone who committed a murder!"

At that point, i saw #1 Son head out the door in his black pants, clutching his swimsuit from a couple of vacations ago. It still fits him, and is white with red and black designs on it. It looks rather Hawai'ian to me, the designs are exotic.

As i got outside, i saw him handing his suit to a guy whose Tahoe was still running, parked half in the street and half in our driveway.

"Hi!" the man said as i walked up. "My name is J. D., and i work homicide for the Sheriff's Department." He had handed #1 Son a business card with his name, and it had the badge number and the embossed star on it.

"This is going to sound weird," he said, "but I'm working a homicide where the only witness has said the suspect was a black man who was wearing a pair of shorts that were white with designs. I've brought up tons of pictures of white short pants with all kinds of stuff on them, and he keeps saying they aren't like those and trying to describe them, but I think these are what he is trying to describe."

"Well, isn't that amazing," i noted.

"Yes," he said. "I was on the phone with my partner when I saw your son jogging by and I told him 'Dude, there's a guy jogging here with shorts just like what I think he's describing!' and he said, 'Man, get a picture of them!' "

"And you've had those for how long?" i asked #1 Son. "Isn't that a pair i bought you a few years ago on vacation?"

"Yes," he answered.

Meanwhile the officer placed the shorts in the grass, nicely spread so they could be easily seen, and snapped a picture.

"Thanks!" he said as he picked them up and handed them back to #1 Son. "I appreciate this, if this is what the guy was talking about, it's going to help us immensely."

"You're welcome," #1 Son said, and we turned to go back into the house while J.D. jumped back into his Tahoe and left.

"Well, that's another weird one for our record books," i noted, shaking my head in amazement, and #1 Son agreed.


Today is:

Curling Is Cool Day -- embrace the Olympic sport the whole family can play; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Defenders of the Motherland Day (formerly Red Army Day) -- Russia and some former Soviet Republics

Easy Divorce Day -- marking the passage, in 1915, of the Nevada law granting easy divorces after only a 6 month residency, the first such in the US

International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day -- internet generated

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day

Iwo Jima Day -- commemoration of the US flag raising

Losar Holiday -- Bhutan (Tibetan New Year)

National Banana Bread Day

National Chili Day

National Day -- Brunei

Pebbles Day -- Pebbles Flintstone was born this day around 10,000BC

Republic Day (Mashramani) -- Guyana

Sourdough Rendezvous -- Whitehorse, YT, Canada; through the 26th (Mad trapper competitions, flour packing, beard-growing contests, old-time fiddle show, sourdough pancake breakfasts, cancan dancers, talent shows and much more; visitors encouraged to participate and everyone have a great time)

St. Milburga of Shropshire's Day (Patron of birds)

St. Polycarp of Smyrna's Day (Patron against dysentery and earache)

Terminalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (festival for Terminus, god of land boundary markers)

Tsagaan Sar -- Mongolia (Tibetan New Year, Year of the Male Water Dragon)



Birthdays Today:

Michael Dell, 1965
Howard Jones, 1955
Patricia Richardson, 1951
John Sanford, 1944
Johnny Winter, 1944
Peter Fonda, 1939
Donna J. Stone, 1933
Paul Tibbets, 1915
Victor Fleming, 1889
W.E.B. DuBois, 1868
George Frederic Handel, 1685
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, 1646
Samuel Pepys, 1633


Today in History:

Emperor Diocletian orders the general persecution of Christians, 303
Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type, 1455
France begins its fifth "holy war" against the Huguenots, 1574
Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army, 1778
The first US raw-cotton-to-cloth mill is founded, in Waltham, Massachusetts, 1813
The first US pharmaceutical college is organized, the College of Apothecaries in Philadelphia, 1821
Santa Anna begins his siege of the Alamo, 1836
John Newman leaves the Anglican Church and is welcomed into the Roman Catholic Church, 1846
In Mexico, American troops under General Zachary Taylor defeat Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna, 1847
Great Britain formally recognizes the independence of the Boers in the area between the Orange and Vaal rivers, signing the Bloemfontein Convention with the Orange Free State, 1854
The London Times publishes the world's first classified ad, 1886
Charles Martin Hall, assisted by his sister Julia Brainerd Hall, produced the first samples of man-made aluminum, 1886
The French/Italian Riviera is struck by an earthquake that leaves 2,000 dead, 1887
The Tootsie Roll is introduced by Leo Hirshfield, 1896
In France, Emile Zola is imprisoned for writing his "J'accuse" letter accusing the government of anti-Semitism and wrongly jailing Alfred Dreyfus, 1898
The Cuban state of Guantanamo is leased to the US, 1903
The US acquires control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million, 1904
The Rotary Club International is founded in Chicago, 1905
Russian Tsar Nicholas II dissolves the Diet of Finland, 1909
The US state of Nevada enacts a convenient divorce law, 1915
The February Revolution begins in Russia, 1917
Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, 1941
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded, 1847
The first mass inoculation with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh, 1954
First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), 1955
The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri, 1983
Supernova 1987a is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 1987
A small fire occurs in the Russian Space station, Mir, 1997
An avalanche destroys the Austrian village of Galtür, killing 31, 1999
Unknown criminals pour more than 2.5 million liters of diesel oil and other hydrocarbons into the river Lambro, in Northern Italy, causing an environmental disaster, 2010