Pet Peeve

"Oh, I hate that!"  Little Girl turned off the radio, which is unusual when we are in the car.  She and #2 Son generally take turns getting to decide what we listen to when i'm driving them around, and they don't like to miss a minute of their favorite music.

What? i asked, wondering what was wrong.

"Didn't you see that lady over there?  She had her little kid in the front seat with her, no seatbelt or anything!  I hate it when people let their little kids sit in the front seat like that!"

Yes, i don't like it, either.  It's so dangerous.  You kids were always in car seats.

"And we were always in the back seat, I remember!  Well, I remember some of it, anyway, once I got big enough.  None of us got to sit in the front until we were 12, and taller than you!"  She was grinning now.

You've got it, sister, i noted.  Once you were bigger than me, i figured you were as safe in the front as i am.

"Well, these people need to get their kids in car seats!" she fumed as she turned the radio back on.


Today is:

Bonza Bottler Day

Celebrate Your Name Week -- Sunday:  Namesake Day, a day to think about how you got your name

Day of Remembrance for Prince Igor -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar

Heart-Accelerating Sodium-Enriched Cold Cuts Day -- internet generated by someone who has no intention of letting anything healthy past his/her lips

Hina Matsuri -- Japan (Doll Festivals throughout the country, where women and girls dedicate dolls to shrines which are then floated out to sea to take away evil and sicknesses that afflict women)

I Want You to be Happy Day -- a day to devote some time to making someone else truly happy about something

If Pets Had Thumbs Day -- because if you are going to imagine something silly today, it might as well be this; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

International Omega-3 Awareness Day

Joshi-no-Sekku -- Shinto (festival to honor girls)

Liberation Day/National Day -- Bulgaria

Marriage of the March Nymphs -- Fairy Calendar

Martyr's Day -- Malawi

Mother's Day -- Georgia

National Anthem Day -- US (current US anthem adopted this date in 1931)

National Cold Cuts Day -- see above; they can be healthy if you choose

National Mulled Wine Day

National Words Matter Week -- US (focusing on the importance of words, particularly the written word; week sponsored by The National Association of Independent Writers and Editors)

Peach Blossom Day - coincides with the start of the Peach Blossom Festival around this time of year in Hunan, China, where you celebrate the beauty of peach blossoms, and girls celebrate being girls

Sportsmen's Day -- Egypt

Stop Bad Service Day -- spread around the internet by someone who got lousy service

St Casimir' Eve / Kaziukas Fair -- Vilnius, Lithuania (traditional craft fair dates back to the 17th century, celebrating Lithuania's patron saint; through tomorrow)

St. Cunegunda's Day (Patron of Bamberg, Germany; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Poland)

St. Winnal's Day (First comes David, Next comes Chad, Then comes Winnal, roaring mad! -- Traditional English saying about the storminess of March 3; St. Winwaloe or Winnal was the Christianized version of the Teutonic Aegir, god of the sea and controller of weather)

Thanks to the Maple Festival -- Iroquois (date approximate, held when sap began flowing, usually early March)


Birthdays Today:

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, 1962
Herschel Walker, 1962
Ira Glass, 1959
Doc Watson, 1923
Diana Barrymore, 1921
James Doohan, 1920
Jean Harlow, 1911
Alexander Graham Bell, 1847


Anniversaries Today:

Colegio Militar of Portugal is founded, 1803
Florida becomes the 27th US state, 1845


Today in History:

The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates the Principality of Wales into England, 1284
The Olympic Theatre, designed by Andrea Palladio, is inaugurated in Vicenza, 1585
The first amphibious landing of the United States Marine Corps begins the Battle of Nassau, 1776
The first US Jewish governor, David Emanuel, takes office in Georgia, 1801
The US declares war on Algeria for taking US prisoners and demanding tribute, 1815
The Missouri Compromise, an attempt to keep the US half Slave and half free, is passed by the US Congress, 1820
The Battle of Pelee Island takes place, Ontario, Canada, 1838
Tsar Alexander II emancipates the serfs of Russia, 1861
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the founding member of the HSBC Group, opens, 1865
The first ever organized indoor game of ice hockey is played in Montreal, Canada as recorded in The Montreal Gazette, 1875
Georges Bizet's opera Carmen receives its première at the Opéra Comique in Paris, 1875
Bulgaria regains its independence from Ottoman Empire, 1878
Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood becomes the first female attorney to argue before the US Supreme Court, 1879
The US Geological Survey is created, 1879
Anne Sullivan arrives to begin teaching Helen Keller, 1887
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia agrees to create an elected assembly, the Duma, 1905
Toronto's Dr Banting & Dr Best announce discovery of insulin, 1921
Time Magazine begins publication, 1923
The United States officially adopts The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem, 1931
Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia, 1938
In Mumbai, Mohandas Gandhi begins to fast in protest of the autocratic rule in India, 1939
Jackie Brenston, with Ike Turner and his band, records "Rocket 88", often cited as "the first rock and roll record", at Sam Phillips' recording studios in Memphis, Tennessee, 1951
An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers, 1991
The tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere, Sky Tower in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, opens after two-and-a-half years of construction, 1997
Citizens of Switzerland narrowly vote in favor of their country becoming a member of the United Nation, 2002
Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane non-stop around the world solo without refueling, 2005