Not that i'm superstitious...

...or anything.  Yet, most of the time, these things do seem to come in threes.

Last week, we heard about the loss of both Shirley Temple Black and Sid Caesar.  Fleetingly, i thought, i wonder if i will hear of a third famous person i admire dying soon.  Then i dismissed the thought as silly.

Yet.  On the way to take Little Girl to school, i briefly heard the name Henson, the word "puppeteer" and the word "died."  Oh, no way! was my first thought.

Then i came home and googled news for John Henson, Jim's son.  Sure enough.  That family seems to be plagued with losing their geniuses early.  John, who often played "Sweetums" and who was on the board of the Henson empire, died of a heart attack.

He was only 48, and it occurred after he had spent time with his 10-year-old daughter, building a snowman.

My heart broke when Jim Henson died.  We had a high school teacher we loved that we nicknamed "Miss Piggy" at her request  The Muppets are my long time sentimental favorite actors.  My Sweetie loves The Muppet Christmas Carol so much he watches it every year.  It's the only version of that story that he will watch.

It hurts again to know that this talented puppeteer is gone.  My condolences go out to his widow and two daughters.




Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Mexico

Birthday of Minerva -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Birth Anniversary of Shivaji -- Maharashtra, India

Chaoflux -- Discordianism

Chief Leschi Day -- US, especially Washington State (Native American chief wrongly executed for murder on this date in 1958; fully exonerated 2004)

Cracker Jacks Prize Day -- the first prizes were added to the boxes of caramel popcorn this date in 1913

Flag Day -- Turkmenistan

Fly-By for Goblins and others -- Fairy Calendar

Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival -- University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, US (students from elementary to college from all over the US participate in student performances and attend concerts and clinics in vocal and instrumental jazz performance; through Saturday)

National Chocolate Mint Day (because every day needs chocolate in some form)

Solar System Day -- birth anniversary of Copernicus

St. Conrad of Piacenza's Day -- (Patron against hernias)

Straw Wrapper Appreciation Day -- an internet spread holiday to remind you of how much fun it was as a kid to blow the wrappers off the straws

Temporary Insanity Day -- anniversary of the first time someone successfully pleaded temporary insanity in a court of law; Daniel Stickles, in 1859

University Mental Health and Wellbeing Day -- UK (to focus on ensuring the positive wellbeing of people with mental health difficultieshttp://www.umhan.com/uni-mental-health-day.html)

Vassil Levski Day -- Bulgaria (Bulgaria's "Apostle of Freedome")


Anniversary Today:

Knights of Pythias founded, 1864


Birthdays Today:

Haylie Duff, 1985
Andrew Shue, 1967
Benicio Del Toro, 1967
Justine Bateman, 1966
Jonathan Lethem, 1964
Seal, 1963
Prince Andrew, Duke of York, 1960
Ray Winstone, 1957
Jeff Daniels, 1955
Margaux Hemingway, 1955
Amy Tan, 1952
Stephen Nichols, 1951
Lou Christie, 1943
Smokey Robinson, 1940
Lee Marvin, 1924
Merle Oberon, 1911 (some sources say Feb. 18)
Willam III, 1817 (last king of the Netherlands -- there have only been queens since)
David Garrick, 1717
Nicolas Copernicus, 1473


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"A Woman of Independent Means"(TV Miniseries), 1995
"Crazy For You"(Musical), 1992
"Eastenders"(TV), 1985
"Rumours"(Album release), 1977
"The Feminine Mystique"(Publication date), 1963
"Picnic"(Inge Play), 1953
"Alexander's Feast"(HWV 75), 1736


Today in History:

Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus' defeats beats Clodius Albinus at Lyon, 197
Emperor Constantius II shuts down all pagan temples, 356
The second Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ends as a council in Constantinople formally reinstates veneration of icons in the churches, 842
Jews of Tyrnau, Hungary (then Trnava, Czech) are expelled, 1539
The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America, 1600
Britain and the Netherlands sign the Peace of Westminster, and New Amsterdam formally becomes New York, 1674
British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands, and claims them in the name of King George III, 1819
The first practical coal burning locomotive in the US makes a trial run, in Pennsylvania, 1831
Tin-type camera is patented by Hamilton Smith of Gambier, Ohio, 1856
Daniel E. Sickles is acquitted of the murder of his wife's lover, Phillip Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key), on the grounds of temporary insanity, the first time this defense is successfully used, 1859
Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom in Russia, 1861
Thomas Edison patents the gramophone (phonograph), 1878
Kansas becomes the first US state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages, 1881
WK Kellog and Charles Bolin found the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co., 1906
The first prize is inserted into a Cracker Jack box, 1913
Ed Wynn becomes the first talent to sign as a regular radio entertainer, 1922
Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize for poetry, 1949
Bill Keane's "Family Circus" comic strip makes its debut, 1960
Artificial heart recipient William J. Schroeder becomes the first such patient to leave hospital, 1985
The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft, 1986
NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system, 2002
NASA loses communication with the International Space Station's for three hours as a result of updating the station's command and control software, 2013