Overblown

It seems that our wallets are not the only things that suffer from inflation.

For a while, i've noticed job titles changing, getting fancier.  Well, i'm not the only one who has noticed.  A recent BBC news article asked people to submit them, and these were some that were sent in, the new title, and what it really means:

Director of Life Enrichment -- social coordinator for a senior citizen center
Director of First Impressions -- receptionist
Environmental Maintenance Officer -- garbage collector
Underwater Ceramic Technician -- dishwasher
Media Publications Administrator -- paper boy
Drain Surgeon -- plumber
Transparent Wall Maintenance Engineer -- window washer
Refreshments and Nutrition Supervisor -- office canteen worker
Meat Distribution Engineer -- butcher boy
Eviction Technician -- bouncer
Washroom Operatives -- cleaners
Revenue Protection Officers -- ticket takers

Makes "domestic goddess" seem rather tame by comparison.

Today is

AgriFair -- Abbotsford, BC, Canada (through the 6th; "the best little country fair")

Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival -- Davenport, IA, US (through the 5th)

Day of the Airborne Forces -- Russia; Ukraine

Day of Azerbaijani Cinema -- Azerbaijan (anniversary of the 1898 showing of the first motion pictures taken in Azerbaijan)

Distribution of Charity Monies -- Fairy Calendar (Imps only)

Emancipation Day -- Bermuda (first day of the Cup Match)

Feast of Our Lady of the Angels -- Costa Rica

Festival of Amen and Hapi -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (offerings to the god of transcendent powers and the god of the Nile to assure the flooding of the Nile; date approximate)

Full Sturgeon Moon a/k/a Full Red Moon, Green Corn Moon, or Grain Moon
     Nikini Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka (began yesterday at sundown)
     Waso Full Moon -- Myanmar (because there are 13 full moons this year, Waso is repeated)

Halifax International Busker Festival -- Halifax, NS, Canada (through the 12th)

Make Some Old Fashioned Lemonade Day

Mountain Dance and Folk Festival -- Ashville, NC, US (through the 4th)

National Ice Cream Sandwich Day

Nuestra Senora de los Angeles -- Costa Rica

Onekama Days -- Onekama, MI, US (family fun, through Sunday)

Ribfest -- Kalamazoo, MI, US (live festival and cook off; through Saturday)

Rockhound Gemboree -- Bancroft, ON, Canada (through the 5th; expeditions to prime mineral locations as well as dealers, demonstrations, swapping, and the chance for rockhounds to have a great time)

Shimizu Minato Matsuri -- Shimizu City, Japan (through the 4th, commemorates the reopening of Shimizu Port to international trade)

St. Elias' Day (Elijah the Prophet)  related observance
     Iliden -- Bosnia-Herzegovina; Ukraine; other Slavic countries where he is titled St. Ilia
     Republic Day -- Macedonia

St. Eusebius of Vercelli's Day (Patron of Vercelli, Italy)


Birthdays Today

Butch Patrick, 1953
Peter O'Toole, 1932
James Baldwin, 1924
Carroll O'Connor, 1924
Myrna Loy, 1905*
Jack L. Warner, 1892
Elisha Gray, 1835


Today in History:

Philip II of Macedon leads his army to defeat the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, which secured Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean, BC338
Hannibal leads his Corinthian army to defeat the superior forces of Rome, BC216
Henry Hudson sails into what it is now known as Hudson Bay, thinking he had made it through the Northwest Passage and reached the Pacific Ocean, 1610
First United States Census, 1790
First parachute jump in the US, 1819
Japan's samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms, 1869
Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opens in London, 1870
Wild Bill Hickok meets his death; shot in the back while playing poker, his hand, a pair of Aces and a pair of eights, is now called "Dead Man's Hand", 1876
Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Cannary) dies, 1903
Typhoon in China kills about 60,000, 1922
The positron (antiparticle of the electron) is discovered by Carl D. Anderson, 1932
Pakistan is re-admitted back into the Commonwealth of Nations, 1989
Iraq invades Kuwait, setting the stage for the Gulf War, 1990
Two previously unknown works by Mozart - a concerto movement and a prelude, are performed in Salzburg, Austria, 2009
The U.S. Government estimates the Deepwater Horizon oil spill dumped nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, 2010


*Why does every black person in the movies have to play a servant? How about a black person walking up the steps of a court house carrying a briefcase?
Myrna Loy, American actress, challenging MGM bosses in the 1930s