Only One?

"Hey, mom. have you seen my other shoe?"  Little Girl was flopping her way through the dining area and library, two socks, one shoe, which shoe's laces were untied and thus being attacked by a cat, making it even more difficult for her to walk.

She needed shoes to go with me to the store so we could bake cookies for the Youth Group Super Bowl party, as i will not brave a grocery store on my own after 9am on Saturday if i can possibly help it.

No, i told her, i haven't seen it.  Although there is one lone shoe on the chair by the computer.  Very colorful, it has a rainbow on it.

"That's Young Jacob's," she said.  "He left it here."

He left to drive home with only one shoe last night?

"No, that's all he brought was the one shoe."

So he drove home shoeless?  That's illegal now, believe it or not.

"No, he was wearing his regular shoes.  That's just one shoe that he carries around."

Why does he have a rainbow colored shoe that he carries around, or do i want to know?

"You don't want to know," she answered with a grin.

Sometimes i wonder about the younger generation.


Today is:

Day of Remembrance for Oleg the Prophet -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan

Four Chaplains Sunday -- Interfaith

Fukuju no mai (Jimai) -- Sensouji Temple, Japan (dance of the seven gods of fortune)

Heroes' Day -- Mozambique

Homstrom -- Scuol, Switzerland (burning of the straw man effigy of Old Man Winter, signaling the coming spring and winter's demise)

Igbi -- Shaitli and Kituri among the Avar ethnic group, Dagestan, Russia (midwinter celebration, the first day the sun returns to shine on the towns here)

Magnolia and Fish Jubilee -- Fairy Calendar

Martyr's Day -- Sao Tome and Principe

Mystic Krewe of Barkus Parade -- NOLA, US (The French Quarter goes to the dogs, and some cats as well, all to benefit animal nonprofits)

National Carrot Cake Day

Nuestra Señora de Suyapa -- Honduras (Festival of the Virgin of Suyapa, Patroness of Honduras)

Scout Sunday -- BSA (Boy Scouts are encouraged to wear their uniforms to church and represent scouting)

Setsubun-sai (Bean-Throwing Festival) -- Japan/Shinto (many fests throughout Japan)

St. Anskar's Day (patron of Denmark, Scandinavia, Sweden; Bremen, Germany; Hamburg, Germany)

St. Blaise's Day/Blessing of Throats Day (Patron of animals, builders, carvers, healthy throats, stonecutters, veterinarians, wool-combers, wool weavers; Dalmatia; Anguillara Sabazia, Italy; Bovolone, Italy; Camastra, Sicily, Italy; Cassano allo Ionio, Italy; Castellania, Italy; Doues, Italy; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Militello, Sicily, Italy; Montecatini Val di Cecina, Italy; Palombara Sabina, Italy; Pietrasanta, Italy; Revello, Italy; Sacrofano, Italy; against coughs, goiters, throat diseases, whooping cough, wild beasts)

Super Bowl Sunday

Takisanji Oni Matsuri -- Takisan-ji Temple, Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

The Day the Music Died -- anniversary of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson)

Veterans' Day -- Thailand


Anniversaries Today:

Wake Forest University is established, 1834


Birthdays Today:

Maura Tierney, 1965
Morgan Fairchild, 1950
Dave Davies, 1947
Fran Tarkenton, 1940
Shelley Berman, 19226
Joey Bishop, 1918
James Michener, 1907
Norman Rockwell, 1894
Gertrude Stein, 1874


Today in History

Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, becoming the first known European to travel so far south, 1488
The first paper money in America is issued by the colony of Massachusetts, 1690
Philadelphia establishes a "pesthouse" to quarantine immigrants, 1743
The Dutch States-General forbid the export of windmills, 1752
Spain recognizes US independence, 1783
The world's first commercial cheese factory is established in Switzerland, 1815
The sovereignty of Greece is confirmed in a London Protocol, 1830
The Wisconsin Supreme Court declares the US Fugitive Slave Law unconstitutional,1855
Emperor Meiji becomes the 122nd emperor of Japan, 1867
The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing Black suffrage, is passed, 1870
Albert Spalding, with only $800, starts a sporting goods company, which eventually manufactured the first official baseball, tennis ball, basketball, golf ball, and football (American style football), 1876
Circus owner P.T. Barnum buys Jumbo the elephant, 1882
The 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, the income tax, is ratified, 1913
Canada's original Parliament building, in Ottowa, burns down, 1916
Percival Prattis becomes the first African-American news correspondent allowed in the United States House of Representatives and Senate press galleries, 1947
A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson and the incident becomes known as The Day the Music Died, 1959
British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of the "a wind of change" of increasing national consciousness blowing through colonial Africa, signalling that his Government was likely to support decolonisation, 1960
The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon, 1966
In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress, 1969
New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption, 1971
John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth, 1984
Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, 1995
The New York Giants defeated the heavily favored and previously undefeated 18-0 New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, 17-14, in what is known to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history, 2008