Ribbon and Keys and Tab Settings, Oh My!

"Mom, look what Miss Lizzie gave me!"  Bigger Girl was so excited, and i turned to look and saw

"Isn't it fabulous!" she gushed.  "Miss Lizzie found it in the attic where she is living now and she gave it to me, for free!  Look, it even  has a cover!"

The cover she held up had mold on it, so i told her it had to go.  She ran it out to the garbage, but her enthusiasm didn't flag a bit.

So, i'll bet it needs a ribbon, i told her.

"Ribbon?" she asked.  "What's a ribbon?"

Um.  Well.  Let me see, i said, and fiddled with it a moment.  The ribbon was, as i thought and showed her, unresponsive and dry as a bone, the keys stick, and the tab buttons are stuck.

Sweetheart, i told her gently as i shook a leaf from its inner workings, this is going to take a lot of work to get it going, if it can even be salvaged.

"Yes, I know," she gushed.  "But it's worth it.  Think about it, I can type novels on it, and no electricity required!  And even if I can't get it working again, it will add so much to the decor in my room!"

Well, there is that, i noted drily.

So now we are searching for someone who can work on an old fashioned typewriter.  Wow, i never thought i would be saying that again.



Today is:

Bubble Bath Day -- remember how much fun it was as a kid?  enjoy that again today

Day Sacred to Justicia -- Ancient Roman Empire (personification of justice)

Emperor Norton Day -- E. Clampus Vitus Society puts on a party in San Francisco's Chinatown in honor of the passing on this day of Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico

Feast of Hathor and Sekhmet -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Feast of St. Gudula (Patron of single laywomen; Brussels, Belgium)

Grandmothers/Midwives Day -- Bulgaria (a/k/a Babin Den; celebrating Grandmothers as midwives of their grandchildren, for the role they play in the traditional family.)

Haloa -- Ancient Greek Calendar (fertility festival of Demeter and Dionysos called after the halos, or threshing floor; date approximate)
     Rural Dionysia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (the fertility festival of the countryside)

International Consumer Electronics Show -- Las Vegas, NV, US (the world's largest annual trade show for consumers, and the largest annual trade show of any kind in the US; through Friday)

It All Adds Up Day -- anniversary of Hollerith's tabulating machine patent

Kim Jong-un's Birthday -- North Korea

Midwife's Day / Women's Day -- Greece (women get out and go to a cafe or shopping, and the men must stay home and do the chores and care for the children, and in some areas, men caught shirking will be stripped and drenched in cold water; on the approximate date of an ancient Greek celebration of midwives)
     Gynaecocratia -- Macedonia

Milk Carton Day -- Sheffield Farms began packaging milk in parafin lined paper cartons on this day in 1929

National Eat Something Raw Day

National English Toffee Day

National Joygerm Day -- a day to infect others with joy; begun by Joygerm Joan, whose motto is "The only thing Joygerms allow to get depressed are their tongues!"

Old Hickory Day -- Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson leads the victory in the Battle of New Orleans

Rock 'n' Roll Day -- on Elvis' birth anniversary, of course

Show and Tell at Work Day -- another Wellcat Holiday to observe carefully if at all

St. Severinus' Day (Patron of Austria and of San Severo, Italy)

Toka Ebisu Matsuri -- Osaka, Japan (Festival of Ebisu, god of business and prosperity; through the 11th)


Birthdays Today:

Ami Dolenz, 1969
Don Bendell, 1947
David Bowie, 1947
Robbie Krieger, 1946
Stephen Hawking, 1942
Yvette Mimieux, 1939
Bob Eubanks, 1938
Shirley Bassey, 1937
Elvis Presley, 1935
Charles Osgood, 1933
Soupy Sales, 1926
Ron Moody, 1924
Larry Storch, 1923
Jose Ferrer, 1912
Galina Ulanova, 1910
Wilkie Collins, 1824
James Longstreet, 1821


Today in History:

Monaco gains its independence, 1297
Genoa, Italy expels Jews, 1598
The oldest surviving commerial newspaper begins in Haarlem, Netherlands, 1675
The New York Fishing Company is the first American commercial corporation chartered, 1675
Premiere performance of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1734
US President George Washington delivers the first "State of the Union" address, 1790
Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron, emerges voluntarily from the wild in southern France (he had been captured and escaped before), 1800
The Battle of New Orleans, 1815
The first US music school, the Boston Academy of Music, is established, 1833
The US national debt hits $0 for the first and only time, 1835
Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code), 1836
Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the US Cavalry at Wolf Mountain in Montana Territory, 1877
Dr. Herman Hollerith receives the first US patent for a tabulating machine, considered by some to be the earliest computer, 1889
The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system, 1904
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., 1963
Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched, 1973
The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, 2004