After Work

Hm, i muttered to myself as i peered into the bubbling pot, are you brown enough?

"Mom, are you talking to the gravy?"  Bigger Girl had come in from work, and as usual came straight to the kitchen to get a snack to hold her over until dinner.

No, i answered, i'm talking to the roux.

"Oh, you will rue the day!" she shot back with a grin, "you know what they say about people who talk to themselves and inanimate objects!"

When i laughed, she asked me "Why are you laughing?  That wasn't funny, it was a pun, and it wasn't even very punny."

Well, i answered, i thought it was.

"Mom, no one likes puns!"

Excuse me! i shot back.  Shakespeare did!   And i do, too.

"Well, his were clever.  Anyway, I was wondering today as I sterilized equipment, is the world really just a figment of my imagination and all of my friends are just my alternate personalities?"

Kid, you need to get a better hobby.  That kind of existential crisis might come back to haunt you!

We laughed, and then she asked, "Mom, really, the other day I was sitting at the table at lunch, enjoying the stir fry I had made, and I wondered, if I didn't have language, would I be sitting here trying to think of ways to describe the experience?  In other words, does language prevent us from enjoying pure experience by making us search for ways to describe it even as we experience it?"

After a moment's pause i said, i think you gave me a headache with that one.

"Yeah, don't think about that one too long, it gave me a headache, too.  Oh and a funny thing happened at work today.  I found myself singing to myself quietly, the song "Sarah Brown Eyes," and Sarah, who works there, walked in!  And she has brown eyes!  I had to quit singing, I didn't want her to think anything weird of it."

That reminds me of the doctor i once heard about who was walking through the hospital whistling, and the nurse told him he might want to stop because it was the song, "If I Only Had a Brain"!

"Oh, that's funny!" she said.  Then she went on.  "Today I got to work with the Brahma cattle for the first time.  They are so much calmer than the others, it was great!  And we had one with an interesting lesion that had to be lanced.  It was neat!"

Well, i'm glad you get so much into your work, i noted as the other kids came in, and she moved to the table. 


Today is

Armed Forces Day -- Mauritania

Clerihew Day -- in honor of the poetic form he invented, the clerihew:
     Edmund's middle name was Clerihew
     A name possessed by very few
     But verses by Mr. Bentley
     Succeeded eminently!

Don't Step On A Bee Day -- Wellcat Holidays wants to remind you, when going barefoot this time of year, watch out!

Feast Day of Knut the Reaper, Hela, Holda, and Skadi -- Norse deities whose celebration this day is due to their later association with Danish King Canute the Great

Independence Day -- Bahamas(1973)

Lady Godiva Day -- tradition says she took her famous ride on this day in 1040

National Culture Day -- Kiribati

National Pina Colada Day

Pick Blueberries Day -- variously set on different days in July depending on the website; with blueberries being so good for you, find a day to go gather or buy some soon

Rath Yatra -- Puri, India (Chariot Festival, pilgrims pull huge chariots across the city)

Silence Day -- followers of Meher Baba

St. Amalburga's Day (Patron of people with fever; Ghent, Belgium; against arm pain, bruises, and fevers)

Teddy Bear Picnic Day

Wyandotte Street Art Fair -- Downtown Wyandotte, MI, US (over 250 seasoned and emerging artists display and sell their wares, with music and entertainment; through Saturday)


Anniversaries Today

Wyoming becomes the 44th US State, 1890


Birthdays Today

Jessica Simpson, 1980
Arlo Guthrie, 1947
Ron Glass, 1945
Arthur Ashe, 1943
Fred Gwynne, 1926
Jean Kerr, 1923
Jake LaMotta, 1921
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 1921
David Brinkley, 1920
Don "Mr. Wizard" Herbert, 1917
Edmund Clerihew Bentley, 1875
Marcel Proust, 1871
Nikola Tesla, 1856
Adolphus Busch, 1839
James Whistler, 1834
William Blackstone, 1723
John Calvin, 1509


Today in History

Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia at the Battle of Dyrrhachium, BC48
The most severe of several early fires of London burns most of the city to the ground, 1212
Lady Jane Grey takes the throne of England, 1553
Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Mackenzie River delta, 1789
The Vellore Mutiny is the first instance of a mutiny by Indian sepoys against the British East India Company, 1806
The United States takes possession of its newly bought territory of Florida from Spain, 1821
Big Ben, the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, rings for the first time, 1859
The eruption of Tarawera volcano destroys the famous pink and white calcium carbonate hot-spring terraces of North Island, New Zealand, 1886
Meher Baba, self declared Avatar of the Age, begins his silence of 44 years; his followers observe Silence Day on this date in commemoration, 1925
In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act, 1925
Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world, 1938
Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit, 1962
Boris Yeltsin begins his 5-year term as the first elected President of Russia, 1991
In London scientists report the findings of the DNA analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton which supports the "out of Africa theory" of human evolution, 1997
Spain opens its first mosque since the Moors were expelled in 1492, in Granada, 2003