Time keeps on ticking.

 "Mom, is the punishment for loving coffee the fact that, eventually, your cup is empty?"

Sometimes Bigger Girl can really stump me with her questions.  Especially first thing in the morning.  And yes, perhaps, for those of us with the coffee bug, that may be our punishment.

Daylight Saving Time, which no one can logically explain to my satisfaction, has begun, and i am very glad i belong to a rebellious church.  We refuse, as a church, to change our clocks until after all services are held.

Today is also Grandpa taking the kids to a ball game day.  They are more than ready.  As Little Girl put it, "I'm glad.  I haven't gotten to spend enough time with Grandpa lately."

Thus i have not reset the clocks for church, but have to remember to tell them to be ready at 11am, since that is noon DST.  Talk about unneeded confusion!


Maybe it's time we all staged a time change rebellion and just refused to do it.  If the whole country did so, the powers that be would have to sit up and listen.  It's worth imagining, anyway.



Today is:

Daylight Saving Time -- most of the US switched over last night; if you are just finding this out, you are already late!
     Check Your Smoke Alarms and Carbon Monixide Detectors Day -- make sure the batteries are fresh and that they are in good working order

Doctor's Day -- Venezuela

Farvardigan -- Ancient Persia, Zoroastrians (10 day festival for the dead before Nowruz, the New Year)

Festival of Life in the Cracks Day -- internet holiday declared because this is where most of us are, and we deserve to be celebrated!

Girl Scout Sunday -- US (encouraging Girl Scouts to represent their troop to their congregations)

Harriet Tubman Day -- anniversary of her death in 1913

International Day of Awesomeness -- Celebrate what is awesome about you - always on Chuck Norris' birth anniversary, because no one is more awesome than Chuck

Laetare Sunday -- Western Christianity, 4th Sunday of Lent; related Observances
     Carnaval de la Laetare -- Stavelot, Belgium
     Mothering Sunday -- UK (fourth Sunday of Lent, originally a day to visit your "mother church" in the parish where you were raised, now celebrated as Mother's Day)

Maha Shivaratri -- Hindu (festival of Shiva)

Mario Day -- for gamers, based on the date Mar 10

Meatfare Sunday -- Orthodox Christian (final day on which meat may be consumed before the Lenten fast)

National Blueberry Popover Day

National Pack Your Lunch Day -- because it's cheaper and healthier

National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day -- US

Shiogama Jinja Hote Festival -- Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan (mikoshi parades and Shinto music)

St. David of Wales

St. Kessog's Day (Patron of Lennox, Scotland; Scotland)

Telephone Day -- Bell sent the first message by phone, to Watson in the next room, this day in 1876

Tibetan Uprising Day -- Tibetan Independence Supporters commemoration of the 1959 uprising

Whoopsical Day -- Fairy Calendar



Birthdays Today:

Emily Osment, 1992
Carrie Underwood, 1983
Shannon Miller, 1977
Prince Edward, 1964
Jasmine Guy, 1964
Rick Rubin, 1963
Sharon Stone, 1958
Kim Campbell, 1947
Bob Greene, 1947
Tom Scholz, 1947
Chuck Norris, 1940
James Earl Ray, 1928
Pamela Mason, 1918
Bix Beiderbecke, 1903


Today in History:

The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet bringing the First Punic War to an end, BC241
Jews are excluded from public office in the Roman Empire, 418
King Charles I dissolves Parliament; he calls it back 11 years later, 1629
English Quaker William Penn receives charter from Charles II, making him sole proprietor of colonial American territory Pennsylvania, 1681
French Huguenot Jean Calas, who was wrongly convicted of killing his son, dies after being tortured by authorities; the event inspired Voltaire to begin a campaign for religious tolerance and legal reform, 1762
John Stone, of Concord, Massachusetts, patents a pile driver, 1791
England begins its first modern census, 1801
In St. Louis, Missouri, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States, 1804
The French Foreign Legion is established by King Louis-Philippe to support his war in Algeria, 1831
Abraham Lincoln patents a device to help free ships in rivers from shallow water; he built a small scale model, but no full-size device was ever built, and makes him the only US president to hold a patent, 1849
Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call by saying "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you," 1876
Commissioner George Scott Railton and seven women officers landed at New York to officially begin the work of the Salvation Army in the US, 1880
Almon Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka, Kansas, patents the Strowger switch, a device which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching, 1891
The Courrières mine disaster, Europe's worst ever, kills 1099 miners in Northern France, 1906
After Bob Fitzsimmons KOs much larger Jim Corbett to win world HW championship he says, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall," 1896
China ends slavery, 1910
Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years in prison, only to be released after nearly two years for an appendicitis operation, 1922
In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr.; he later retracts his guilty plea, 1969
Astronomers discover rings around Uranus, 1977
In Haiti, Prosper Avril is ousted 18 months after seizing power in a coup, 1990
The NASDAQ Composite stock market index peaks at 5132.52, signaling the beginning of the end of the dot-com boom, 2000
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at Mars, 2006