The flowers are delivered, except the one in the gated community that, you guessed it, wouldn't answer the phone because they didn't recognize my phone number so i couldn't get in to deliver it.

My Mother is expecting us at the restaurant at noon sharp.

A story fit for Mother's Day:  Many years ago, what was then Bellsouth got the bright idea to get the famous Alabama football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant to record a commercial for them.  He used to tell his players, "Call yo' mama!" in that voice of his, and they wanted to use that as advertising.

While filming, he said the famous line, and followed it up with something they did not expect, "I wish I could call mine."  He sounded a bit choked up as he said that part, too.

Though it was unexpected, they kept that part in the commercial.

A few weeks after it began airing, an executive at Bellsouth who was responsible for the commercial received a call from a Bellsouth customer.

She asked if he was the one who had authorized and approved that commercial, and he hesitantly said he was, concerned why she would ask.

"Thank you so much!" she said.  She proceeded to explain that after hearing that commercial for the first time, she got up, went to the phone, and called her mother.  She said it was one of the best conversations they had had in a while.

The executive said he was pleased to hear it, and she told him to wait, there was more to the story.

"After I hung up," she said, "I told my husband he should call his mother, and to my surprise he got up from the TV and did!"  She told him how she heard her husband talk to his mother for over half an hour, the longest conversation she had ever heard him have with his mom.  They relived many old memories in that call.

Then came the clincher.  :"His mother dropped dead of a stroke one hour later.  If not for that commercial, my husband would not have had that last conversation with her."

It choked up the executive, and when i think of it, it still chokes me up, too.  If you have a mama to call, then please do.

Today is

Bun Bung Fai (Rocket Festival) -- Yasothon, Thailand (through the 14th, teams compete to build the highest flier, with no regard for safety!)

Celtic Tree Month Huath (hawthorn) commences

Fairy King and Queen Jumping Competition -- Fairy Calendar

Garland Day -- Abbotsbury, Dorset, England


Hanswijk Procession -- Mechelen, Belgium (one of Belgium's oldest religion processions, the Sunday before Ascension Thursday)

Infant Mortality Awareness Day -- as we celebrate mothers today, let's remember those who have lost children

King Norodom Sihamoni's Birthday -- Cambodia

Lemuralia -- Ancient Roman Empire (third day)

Leprechaun Day -- spread around the internet, presumably by the little people themselves, as since St. Patrick gets a day, so should they!

Mother's Day -- Anguilla; Aruba; Australia; Austria; Bahamas; Bangladesh; Barbados; Belgium; Belize; Bermuda; Bonaire; Botswana; Brazil; Brunei; Canada; Chile; China; Colombia; Croatia; Cuba; Curaçao; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Dominica; Ecuador; Estonia; Ethiopia; Fiji; Finland; Germany; Gold Coast; Greece; Grenada; Guyana; Honduras; Hong Kong; Iceland; India; Italy; Jamaica; Japan; Latvia; Liechtenstein; Macao; Malaysia; Malta; Myanmar; Netherlands; New Zealand; Pakistan; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Philippines; Puerto Rico;Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Samoa; Singapore; Sint Maarten; Slovakia; South Africa; Sri Lanka; Suriname; Switzerland; Taiwan; Tanganyika; Tonga; Trinidad and Tobago; Turkey; Uganda; Ukraine; United States; Uruguay; Viet Nam; Venezuela; Zambia; Zimbabwe                 

National Apple Pie Day

National Fruit Cocktail Day

Punch's Birthday / Covent Garden Maye Fayre and Puppet Festival -- St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England (Punch, of Punch and Judy, celebrates his birthday on the Sunday closest to May 9 with a fair and by preaching at the cathedral to other puppets and their puppeteers, or "professors".)

Resistance and Liberation Day -- Lebanon

State Flag and State Emblem Day -- Belarus

St Julian of Norwich's Day (Author of what is believed to be the first book written by a woman in the English language, Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love, around 1393)

St. Servatus' Day (3rd Ice Saint, Patron against rats, vermin, foot troubles)

Ziua Barbatului -- Romania (Men's Day)



Birthday Today:

Debby Ryan, 1993
Robert Pattinson, 1986
Samantha Morton, 1977
Darius Rucker, 1966
Stephen Colbert, 1964
Dennis Rodman, 1961
Stevie Wonder, 1950
Ritchie Valens, 1941
Harvey Keitel, 1939
Beatrice Arthur, 1923
Joe Louis, 1914
Arthur Sullivan, 1842
Maria Theresa, 1717


Today in History:

The forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother, 1568
A major earthquake in Santiago, Chile, kills 1/3 of the population, 1643
Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England  with eleven ships full of convicts (First Fleet) to establish a penal colony in Australia, 1787
Ecuador  gains its independence from Gran Colombia, 1830
The first performance of Finland's national anthem, 1848
Queen Victoria declares Britain neutral in the US Civil War, 1861
The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, 1861
Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway, 1880
The Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) is established in the United Kingdom, 1912
Igor Sikorsky becomes the first man to pilot a four-engine aircraft, 1913
The first commercial FM radio station in the United States (WDRC-FM) is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut, 1939
Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons, 1940
The trade mark Velcro is registered, 1958
The Free Speech Movement is born at UC Berkeley, 1960
Dr. Zakir Hussain becomes the third President  of India and the first Muslim President of Indian Union, 1967
Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike, 1989
Johnny Carson makes his last television appearance on Late Show with David Letterman, 1994
A 33 years old British mother Alison Hargreaves, became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of Sherpas, 1995
Star Trek: Enterprise broadcasts its final show in the U.S., 2005
Construction of the Calafat-Vidin Bridge between Romania and Bulgaria begins, 2007