Villainous Idea

"Cows!  Too many cows!"  Bigger Girl was home, and she had obviously been working with cows that day.

So, what did you do with cows today? i asked.

"We had to ultrasound and flush.  And there are so many!  And it gets boring, the same thing over and over. so I started thinking.  You know how the government sometimes sells old, empty missile silos?  Well, what if somebody bought one and turned it into a fake 'supervillain lair" for people to take tours?

"Think about it," she continued.  "The owner could dress up like the villain and give tours, and it could be interactive, and he could give out pamphlets about why he wants to rule the world!"

It does sound like something some people would want to do, i noted drily.

"Plus, it would be something different in the 'comic superhero' world, which has gone crazy lately.  I mean, the latest Young Avengers stuff is awful!  I came up with a better plot line and I was half asleep!" 

Yes, i'm sure you did, i said.

"Anyway, I like plot twists and really interesting character development.  The latest stuff has them killing off so many of their own characters it's awful!  And when they reworked some of the characters, they made them look like children instead of adults.  Maybe Stan Lee was drunk when he approved all of this."

"He's been appearing in a bit part in every one of the latest movies," Little Girl said, walking in.

Really?

"Yes, doing cameos, so it's a challenge, try to find him in the movie is the idea," she added.

Oh, i noted, like Hitchcock used to do!

"Yes, but old Alfred was nuts!" Bigger Girl said.  "I mean, think about it, he tied birds to a woman and tried to hit on her!  He was insane!  Who ties birds to a woman, and then sexually harasses her?"

Well, he did, and it's a shame, i said.  She deserved better than to be blacklisted because she wouldn't give him what he wanted.

"That's for sure," Bigger Girl said.  "But anyway, I thought about how I would design a supervillain lair if I had an old, empty missile silo while I was working with all those cows.  I think that's what saved my sanity today."

Glad to know it's intact, i grinned, and turned back to chopping onions.




Today is

Dia del Amigo -- Paraguay

Father-in-Law Day -- unsponsored and unclaimed, but fathers-in-law deserve respect, too

Feast of the Throne -- Morocco; Western Sahara

Festival of Fortuna Huiusque Diei -- Ancient Roman Calendar ("Fortune of the Present Day")

Friendship Day -- UN

Herbal Ballooning -- Fairy Calendar

Independence Day -- Vanuatu(1980)

Kronia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of Kronos as god of the harvest; date approximate)

Martyr's Day -- South Sudan

National Cheesecake Day

Paperback Day -- anniversary of the 1935 publication of Penguin #1, Arial, A Life of Shelley, by Andre Maurois in London, the first successful series of paperback books

Sumiyoshi Matsuri -- Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine, Osaka, Japan (Osaka's last major summer festival, through Aug. 1)

Sts. Abdon and Sennen's Day (Patrons of barrel makers and coopers; the ashes of ferns cut and burned on this day will keep away insects and unwanted guests)


Anniversaries Today

Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, marries Michael Tindall, 2011


Birthdays Today

Hilary Swank, 1974
Tom Green, 1971
Vivica A. Fox, 1964
Lisa Kudrow, 1963
Laurence Fishburne, 1961
Kate Bush, 1958
Delta Burke, 1956
Jean Reno, 1948
Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1947
Paul Anka, 1941
Peter Bogdanovich, 1939
Buddy Guy, 1936
Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, 1933
Thomas Sowell, 1930
Sid Krofft, 1929
Christine McGuire, 1926
Henry W. Bloch, 1922
Casey Stengel, 1891
Henry Ford, 1863
Georg Wilhelm von Siemens, 1855
Emily Bronte, 1818


Today in History

City of Baghdad is founded, 762
The First Defenestration of Prague, 1419
Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage, 1502
At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs, which set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years, 1608
In Jamestown, Virginia, the first European style representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time, 1619
An earthquake in Naples, Italy kills 10,000 people, 1629
Baltimore, Maryland is founded, 1729
Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly-built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers, 1756
First ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps,1859
Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the Treaty of Box Elder, agreeing to stop the harassment of emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah, 1863
In Montevideo, Uruguay wins the first Football World Cup, 1930
Premiere of Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short, 1932
A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God We Trust as the U.S. national motto, 1956
US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid, 1965
David Scott and James Irwin on Apollo Lunar Module module, Falcon, land with first Lunar Rover on the moon, 1971
Six Royal Canadian Army Cadets are killed and fifty-four injured in an accidental grenade blast at CFB Valcartier Cadet Camp, 1974
Jimmy Hoffa disappears, 1975
In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line, 2003