Define the Wait

Overheard at a restaurant where the brunch orders were taking a very long time to arrive:

8-year-old: Mom, what is it called again?

Mom: Brunch.

8-year-old: Oh, I get it. It's when you order your meal at breakfast and it's served at lunch!


Today is:

Biezputras Diena (Porrige Day) -- Ancient Latvian Calendar

Create-A-Vacuum Day -- an internet generated celebration of the nothingness of vacuums

General Thaddeus Kosciuszko Day -- Poland

Homemade Soup Day

Independence Day -- Sri Lanka

King Frost Day -- London (Celebrated yearly until WWI, in remembrance of the frozen River Thames on this day in 1814.)

Laura Ingalls Wilder Gingerbread Social -- Pomona, CA, US (Pomona Public Library has on permanent display many of her original manuscripts)

Liberation Day -- Angola

Mawlid an Nabi -- Islam (the Prophet's Birthday)

National Stuffed Mushroom Day

Orchid Festival/Tropical Extravaganza -- Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, London (through March 4)

Quacker Day -- for those who love Quacker Factory clothes

Spoiled Cats' Day -- internet generated, and isn't this every day?

St. Andrew Corsini's Day (Patron against quarrels, sudden death)

St. John de Brito's Day (Patron of Portugal)

Thank A Mailperson Day -- because someone decided it would be a good day to do that, and put it on the internet

USO Day -- US

World Cancer Day -- International


Anniversaries Today:

The University of Wisconsin is established, with one classroom and 20 students, 1849


Birthdays Today:

Natalie Imbruglia, 1975
Oscar De La Hoya, 1973
Lawrence Taylor, 1959
Alice Cooper, 1948
Dan Quayle, 1947
George A. Romero, 1940
David Brenner, 1936
Betty Friedan, 1921
Ida Lupino, 1918
Rosa Parks, 1913
Clyde W. Tombaugh, 1906
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906
Charles Lindbergh, 1902


Today in History:

The Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta, 211
The coronation of Zhao Kuangyin as Emperor Taizu of Song, initiating the Song Dynasty period of China that would last more than three centuries, 960
Maximilian I assumes the title Holy Roman Emperor without being crowned, 1508
Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler meet for the first time near Prague 1600
In Edo (now Tokyo), The 47 Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) after avenging the death of their master, 1703
The worst earthquake in 8 years in Calabria, Italy, leaves 50,000 dead, 1783
The first Anglican bishops of New York and Pennsylvania are consecrated in London, 1787
George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College, 1789
The French National Convention proclaims the abolishment of slavery, 1794
An earthquake in Quito, Ecuador, kills 41,000, 1797
J.W. Goodrich introduces his rubber galoshes to the public, 1824
The Mormons of Nauvoo, Missouri, leave to go west, eventually settling in Utah, 1846
The Codex Sinaiticus is found at the Greek Monastery of Mount Sinai, 1859
The first rolling lift bridge opens, in Chicago, 1895
The first Winter Olympics games close at Chamonix, France, 1924
The first tieless, soundless, shockless streetcar tracks open, in New Orleans, 1930
Radium E is the first radioactive substance to be produced synthetically, 1936
The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops, 1941
Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft, 1967
After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections, 1997
Facebook, a mainstream online social network is founded by Mark Zuckerberg, 2004
The Federal Court of Australia's ruling in Roadshow Films v iiNet sets a precedent that Internet service providers (ISPs) are not responsible for what their users do with the services the ISPs provide them, 2010