Overheard at Youth Group

Mr. Aaron, church youth group leader:  "Now, all of you know we don't have a meeting next Sunday, right?  It's Easter Sunday, you need to spend that with your families."

The murmur of assents was followed by Ms. Tianny, his wife and fellow youth group leader:  "And girls, I'm planning a girl's outing just for us during this Spring Break week.  We will get together next Friday and go to the soda fountain for desserts."

Note:  there are only 4 girls in the youth group of over a dozen kids; my Little Girl, her two best friends Annie and Rebecca that have always been part of her life since they were all born within 6 months of each other and so have known each other their whole lives, and Charlotte, who now lives across the street from Rebecca and has been embraced whole-heartedly as part of the gang.

After Ms. Tianny's announcement, Shermy, Annie's little brother, pipped up:  "You girls shouldn't go out and do that alone!  You need to bring a guy with you for protection in case something happens!"

At which point Rebecca retorted:  "No, we don't!  We have "Little Girl", and she's as good as having a guy with us!  She can beat you up!"

The shouts of laughter were genuine, as everyone knows it's true.  Little Girl plays equally well with the guys and the girls in the group, gets along with everyone, and can hold her own in wrestling matches and tussling with #2 Son.  She's strong, quick, and loved that Rebecca said that.

"Because it's true!" she told me.


Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Myanmar

Cherry Blossom (Sakura) Viewing and Celebrations begin -- Japan (the festivities get started around now, and vary by region depending on when the trees bloom in that area over the next 6 weeks)

Commemoration of Sen no Rikyu -- Omotesenke School of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Japan (remembering the influential master in The Way of Tea)

Holi -- Hindu (Festival of Color, where everyone gets doused with colored water, or powder, or paint, or all of them; it's been described as an iridescent madhouse)
     officially recognized holiday in Guyana; India; Nepal; Suriname

Lord's Evening Meal -- Jehovah's Witness

Magha Puja Day -- Buddhist

National "Joe" Day -- no, it isn't official, but today you can make everyone call you "Joe" if you want, and call them the same; probably started by someone who had no memory for names

National Spanish Paella Day

Quirky Country Music Song Titles Day -- after all, they do need their own day; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays www.collthings.co.uk/2008/04/25-funny-country-song-titles.html

St. John Damascene's Day (Patron of pharmacists, icon paiting, theology students)

St. Rupert of Salzburg's Day (Patron of Salzburg; celebrated on the 24th in the rest of the Church)

World Theatre Day


Anniversaries Today:

Mary Pickford marries Douglas Fairbanks, 1920


Birthdays Today:

Brenda Song, 1988
Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson, 1975
Mariah Carey, 1970
Quentin Tarantino, 1963
Xuxa, 1963
Michael York, 1942
David Janssen, 1931
Sarah Vaughan, 1924
Harold Nicholas, 1921
Gloria Swanson, 1899
Edward Steichen, 1879
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, 1845
Nathaniel Currier, 1813


Today in History:

Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt, BC196
Pope Clement V excommunicates the entire population of Venice, 1309
Juan Ponce de Leon discovers Florida, 1513
The first English child born in Canada at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy, 1613
The dike at Hardinxveld breaks, causing the Alblasserwaard flood, 1709
Spain losses Menorca & Gibraltar, 1713
John Parker Paynard originates medicated adhesive plaster, precursor to the band-aid, 1848
First reported sighting of the Yosemite Valley by Europeans, 1851
M L Byrn patents "covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle" (corkscrew), 1860
The first international rugby football match, England v. Scotland, is played in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place, 1871
Famous Apache warrior, Geronimo, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars, 1886
The first Japanese cherry blossom trees planted in Washington, D.C., 1912
The first successful blood transfusion takes place in Brussels, 1914
Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine, , 1916
Charlie Chaplin receives France's distinguished Legion of Honor, 1931
Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union, 1958
The Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes South Central Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage, 1964
The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight. 1970
Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins, 1975
The Norwegian oil platform Alexander L. Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212, 1980
The Solidarity movement in Poland stages a warning strike, in which at least 12 million Poles walk off their jobs for four hours, 1981
The US FDA approves Viagra, 1998
HMS Scylla (F71), a decommissioned Leander class frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe, 2004