Grandpa Will Be So Proud

"Hey, mom, when is the fair in NOLA this year?  You know, the parish fair Grandma and Grandpa always take us to?" #2 Son asked.

It was the same weekend as the last home football game.

"Oh," he replied, looking and sounding dejected.

You don't sound too happy about that.

"Well, really, I was looking forward to it."

Yes, but Grandpa thought you would all want to go to the game more than the parish fair.

"Well, of course I'd rather go with Grandma and Grandpa!  After all I'd rather spend time with them and just watch the game on TV."

Well, i'll tell Grandpa that.  Not many 16-year-olds would rather hang with their grandparents than go to a live SEC football game.

Grandpa will be so proud.


Today is:

Abu Simbel Festival -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (along with Feb. 22, the day when the sunlight fell perfectly on the statues of Ramses, Ra, and Amun at the temple complex)

Caps Lock Day -- celebrating life in screaming CAPITALS (i'd include a link to the promo site, but it's rather annoying)

Color Day -- a day to consider how color affects your life, health, and world

Eat a Pretzel Day

Feast of the Hunters' Moon -- West Lafayette, IN, US (through tomorrow; come help recreate French and Native American life at a mid-1700's fur-trading outpost)

International School Library Day

International Stuttering Awareness Day

Jidai Matsuri -- Kyoto, Japan (Festival of the Eras or Festival of the Ages)

Labour Day -- New Zealand

National Nut Day -- grab a handful of nutritious almonds or walnuts or your own favorite mix; if you don't like nuts, you can just choose to go be one, instead

Peniamina Gospel Day -- Niue

Seeking of King Look Under Your Mattress -- Fairy Calendar

St. Mary Salome's Day (Patron of Veroli, Italy)


Birthdays Today:

Brian Boitano, 1963
Jeff Goldblum, 1952
Deepak Chopra, 1946
Catherine Deveuve, 1943
Annette Funicello, 1942
Tony Roberts, 1939
Christopher Lloyd, 1938
Timothy Leary, 1920
Joan Fontaine, 1917
Curly Howard, 1903
N. C. Wyeth, 1882
Sarah Bernhardt, 1844
Franz Liszt, 1811


Anniversaries Today:

Toastmasters International founded, 1924


Today in History:

The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire, 362
Emperor Kanmu relocates Japanese capital to Heiankyo (now Kyoto), 794
Battle of the Southern Fujian Sea, Ming Dynasty wins a victory against the Dutch East India Company, 1633
Princeton University is chartered, 1746
Andre-Jacques Trim becomes the first sky diver, parachuting over Paris from a balloon, 1797
Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas, 1836
First telegraph line linking US east and west coasts of the US is completed, 1861
First concert performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1881
World's first automobile dealer opens in London, 1897
President Hoover gives the "American system of rugged individualism" speech, 1928
The FBI ambushes Pretty Boy Floyd, 1934
First commercial flight from the mainland to Hawai'i, 1936
Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but turns down the honor, 1964
A Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects the design which becomes the new official Flag of Canada, 1964
The Soviet unmanned space mission Venera 9 lands on Venus, 1975Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it
is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs, although the dye is still used in Canada, 1976
Tropical Storm Alpha forms in the Atlantic Basin, making the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 22 named storms, 2005
A Panama Canal expansion proposal is approved by 77.8% of voters in a National referendum held in Panama, 2006
India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, 2008