Blogger has been giving me fits. Changing post titles i thought i had set. Not publishing as scheduled. It's not very nice, but "We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works," as Douglas Adams said.
We are also apparently stuck with people who aren't too terribly bright being in charge of who gets on a plane and with what items. There are probably plenty of good, nice, intelligent people who work for TSA, but of course they don't make the news.
The ones who tried to prevent actor Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca the Wookie in the original Star Wars series, from bringing his cane on an airplane because it's shaped like a light saber, are the ones who make news.
Really, what did they think he was going to do with it? Then again, maybe i don't want to know what they thought. It might scare me to know their logic.
Speaking of logic, Bigger Girl has her own logic about why there is no Men's Rights Movement.
"If they feel so marginalized in society, why don't they start a men's rights movement?" she asked the other day. "I'll tell you why. Because they would need a woman to help organize it and be the secretary!"
Today is
Abolition Day -- French Guiana
Alcoholics Anonymous Founders Day
Army Day -- Jordan
Ball Point Pen Day -- date, in 1943, Biro patented one of the early models of a ball point pen (it was as awful as the other early ones, though!)
Celtic Tree Month Duir (Oak) commences
Dia de Portugal e de Camoes -- Portugal (National Day)
Duanwu -- China (Dragon Boat Festival; the actual festival day this year is Wednesday, but the offical holidays begin today)
Herbs & Spices Day
Holiday of the Wan Thing -- Fairy Calendar (the Wan Thing arrived in Fairyland this day and has sat there looking wan ever after, so the Fairies decided to give it its own holiday)
National Black Cow Day
National Iced Tea Day
Peace of Chaco Day / Chaco Armistice Day -- Paraguay and Bolivia (commemorates the end of a war between the two)
Queen's Birthday -- Australia (except WA); Papua New Guinea; Turks and Caicos Islands; Tuvalu
Rape of Lidice/Lidice Memorial Day -- Czech Republic and Slovakia/New Jersey, US (in one of the most-remembered atrocities of WWII, the small town of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, was invaded by Nazi troops who murdered every man, burned every house, and sent all the women and children for "reeducation.")
Reconciliation Day -- Republic of the Congo
St. Brigid of Ireland's Day (Patron babies/infants/newborns, blacksmiths, boatmen/mariners/sailors/watermen, cattle, children whose parents are not married, dairymaids/dairy workers, fugitives, midwives, nuns, poets, poultry farmers, printing presses, scholars, travellers; Douglas, Lanarkshire, Scotland; Ireland; Ivrea, Turin, Italy; Kildare, Ireland; Leinster, Ireland)
Tano Festival -- Korea (start of a 3 day festival)
Where the Wild Things Are Day -- birth anniversary of Maurice Sendak
Birthdays Today:
Joey Zimmerman, 1986
Tara Lipinski, 1982
Leelee Sobieski, 1982
Hoku Ho, 1981
Shane West, 1978
Elizabeth Hurley, 1965
Michael Burger, 1957
John Edwards, 1953
F. Lee Bailey, 1933
Maurice Sendak, 1928
Judy Garland, 1922
Saul Bellow, 1915
Frederick Loewe, 1904
Today in History:
Frederick Barbarossa drowns leading his troops across the Saleph River to attack Jerusalem in the Crusades, 1190
The first American log cabin is built, at Fort Christina in Wilmington, Delaware, 1639
Bridget Bishop becomes the first person hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692
Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef, 1770
A landslide dam on the Dadu River created by an earthquake ten days earlier collapses, killing 100,000 in the Sichuan province of China, 1786
The Jardin des Plantes museum opens in Paris; a year later, it becomes the first public zoo, 1793
The first Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place, 1829
Myall Creek Massacre in Australia: 28 Aboriginal Australians are murdered, 1838
The first class of the United States Naval Academy students graduate, 1854
Mount Tarawera in New Zealand erupts, killing 153 people and destroying the famous Pink and White Terraces, 1886
Americus Callahan of Chicago patents the window envelope, 1902
The inaugural service for the United Church of Canada, a union of Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregationalist churches, is held in Toronto Arena, 1925
Dr. Robert Smith takes his last drink, and Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio, United States, by him and Bill Wilson, 1925
Six-Day War ends: Israel and Syria agree to a cease-fire, 1967
Apple ships its first Apple II personal computer, 1977
The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission, 2003
Friendly Fill-Ins Week 443
9 hours ago
Your daughter is one smart cookie. Also, when they organized a protest it would have to be worked around the weekend games or the golf trip! The problems with TSA...too few of them for too big a job, no rewards for a job well done just notice when they make a mistake, they have an every changing target, their training needs to be much better, it is a boring job and most truly intelligent people who can read people have other jobs.
ReplyDeleteBigger Girl is hilarious! And don't even get me started on "mens rights."
ReplyDeleteI can't seem to schedule posts on blogger either, thought it was just my blog!
AHHH YOUVE RAISED AN AWESOME YOUNG WOMAN.
ReplyDelete"Aren't too terrible bright" = Incompetent
ReplyDeleteYou used the nicer version to describe these peoples.
As for all the black cows. They get there day. But the spotted & stripped & leopard-patterned cows must be feeling slightly right about now.
Ha! Bigger girl is smart beyond her years.
ReplyDeleteTabor, as with so many people, if they do it right, no one notices, but if they do something wrong, it's all over the place. We don't get a report each night on how many planes landed safely, only the few that crash are news. Kind of like i only hear about the housework if it isn't done!
ReplyDeleteCrabby, i hope they straighten it out soon, but i won't hold my breath.
Miz, we love her, and i'd love to send her to visit you, you are raising awesome where you are, too.
Josie, we will have to come up with days for those other cows ourselves! LOL
Stephen, she's a philosopher, for certain.
Honestly, from what I gather, they were worried because they said the cane was very heavy. I guess they thought he could use it as a weapon (cudgel type, not light saber...) I am not sure that I would think much one way or the other, but a 7 foot man isn't going to have a balsa wood cane! Meh.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think I agree with bigger girl. Secretary part, especially.
Cat