Yeehah!

Or Yahoo!  Or Yippee!

Whichever you want.

A new report in the New England Journal of Medicine says that coffee drinkers live longer!

Yes, it's controversial.  So what?  Every study that comes out, somebody says, "meh", or "not so", or something similar.

It doesn't matter.  Down here, where coffee is a religion (it's called Baptist Whiskey), we will take this and run with it.

Is coffee that important to us?  Well, let's put it this way.   Some local stores let you have a free cup as you shop. Several banks offer a hit as you transact business.  Mechanics shops and boutiques, even the local stores of a couple of big chains have found you get more business in when you give anyone who wants it a hit of caffeine.


Maybe it makes us spend a bit more, too, but we don't care.  We just want our coffee.


Thus any news saying that our passion for a jolt of java is actually good for us is going to be hailed and held dear.


And if you want to talk about it, stop on by.  We'll talk, over coffee.  Black as swamp mud, hot as the bayou in July.

Today is

Ascension Day -- Christian

Birthday of the Raja -- Perlis, Malaysia

Calaveras County Fair and Frog Jumping Jubilee -- Calaveras Fairgrounds, Angel's Camp, CA, US (the "Super Bowl" of frog jumping contests; through the 20th)

Constitution Day -- Nauru; Norway; Svalbard and Jan Mayen

Dea Dia Festival -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of growth)

Falling Off a Log Night -- Fairy Calendar

Feast of Azamat -- Baha'i

Galician Literature Day -- Galicia (an autonomous region of Spain)

Grand Spring Festival -- Toshogu Shrine, Nikko, Japan (through tomorrow; includes horseback archery, processions in costume, and more)

International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

Liberation Day -- Democratic Republic of the Congo

Morel Mushroom Festival -- Muscoda, WI, US (through the 20th; come celebrate the edible fungus at the morel mushroom capital of Wisconsin)

National Cherry Cobbler Day

Navy Day -- Argentina

Pack Rat Day -- come on out and admit it, you are a pack rat, too!

Rubber Band Day -- patented this day in 1845, and aren't we pack rats glad.

Shunki Reitaisai -- Toshogu Shrine, Nikko, Japan (Grand Festival of Spring, through the 18th)

St. Madron of Cornwall's Day (Patron against pain)

Tell An Umpire "I Love Your Outfit" Day -- only if he has a sense of humor or you can duck quickly

Watch a Baby Fall Asleep Day -- because few things in the world are as funny and precious

World Hypertension Day

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day


Birthdays Today:

Tahj Mowry, 1987
Drew Roy, 1986
Andrea Corr, 1974
Jordan Knight, 1970
Enya, 1961
Sugar Ray Leonard, 1956
Bob Saget, 1956
Bill Paxton, 1955
Dennis Hopper, 1936
Maureen O'Sullivan, 1911
Edward Jenner, 1749


Today in History:

Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi becomes the first to see 2 belts on Jupiter's surface, 1630
Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve founds the Ville Marie de Montréal, 1642
Frontenac becomes governor of New France (Canada), 1672
Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River, 1673
England passes the Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum & molasses imported to the colonies from a country other than British possessions, 1733
The US Continental Congress bans trade with Canada, 1775
The New York Stock Exchange is founded, 1792
John Hawkins & Richard French patent the Reaping Machine, 1803
Napoleon I of France  orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire, 1809
Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian, 1814
Antoine Joseph Sax patents the saxophone, 1846
Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, the first book in the Galician language, 1863
Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby, 1875
Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer, 1902
The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play in the first-ever televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game in New York City, 1939
The United States Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 1954
Soviet Venera 6 begins its descent into the atmosphere  of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure, 1969
Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean, 1970
Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacks a polling location in the town of Chuschi, Ayacucho, starting the Internal conflict in Peru, 1980
Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, 1983
After 18 years as the mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac takes office as President of France, 1995
Three days of popular protests against the government of Prime Minister of Thailand Suchinda Kraprayoon begin in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown, 1992
Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1997
Massachusetts becomes the first US State to legalize same-sex marriage, 2004
The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef, 2008
Dalia Grybauskaite is elected the first female President of Lithuania, 2009