Silly Sunday: Birthday Fun

#2 Son turned 18 yesterday!  He was offered the opportunity to take yesterday off from his job, or today.  He chose today, because he wants to go to a baseball game with Grandpa.

We had chocolate cake, as we usually do.  It had to be baked as a layer cake instead of my usual sheet cake, as we have only the toaster oven.  Anyone who knows my skill with cake will know that i gave up and cut the layers to put into the sheet cake pan after they were cool and frosted them so you couldn't tell.  It was much better than a layer cake attempted by me would have been.

As is typical on such occasions, all of the jokes were hauled out about how he's in a unique position.  He's legally an adult, but still a teen for two years, so he gets the best of both worlds.  It's no longer his parent's responsibility to see to it that he stays alive.  And, of course, he can vote or join the military or get called up for jury duty.

That last one reminds me of a joke.

"Tee" Boudreaux had turned 18 and been summoned for jury duty for the first time.

The judge asked the potential jurors if there was any reason they couldn't serve, and "Tee" raised his hand.

When the judge acknowledged him, "Tee" said, "Mais oui, Judge, I cain't be away from de job dat long!"

"Do you mean to tell me the people at your job couldn't get along without you while you serve on a jury?" the judge asked.

"Well, Judge, I rightly don' know if dey can or not, but if dey can, I don' wan' dem to know it!"


Today is:

Armored Warships Day -- the first battle between armored warships, the Monitor and the Merrimac, was this day in 1862

Baron Bliss Day -- Belize

Buergbrennen -- Luxembourg (traditional burning of special bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent)

Day to Mourn Slavery -- commemorates the day it was outlawed worldwide in 1927, and to mourn that it still exists

Daylight Saving Time -- if your area is observing this, it switched over at two o'clock this morning; 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

Eid Al Moalim -- Lebanon (Teacher's Day)

Get Over It Day™ -- halfway between Valentines and April Fools, a day to just get over something or someone that is bugging you

Girl Scout Sunday -- US (encouraging Girl Scouts to wear their uniforms to church services and represent their troop to their congregations; the first day of Girl Scout Week in the US)

National Crabmeat Day

National Meatball Day

Orthodox Sunday -- Orthodox Christian

Panic Day -- a day in which to run around in a panic and tell everyone you can't take it any more, to get it all out of your system, i guess; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Saitousai -- Kashima-shi, Ibaraki-ken, Japan (festival to pray for good harvest that dates back to the Nara period of 710-794, and still includes traditional dress)

Second Day of No Interest to Fairies -- Fairy Calendar

St. Catherine of Bologna's Day (Patron of art, artists, Bologna Academy of Art, liberal arts, painters; against temptation)

St. Dominic Savio's Day (Patron of boys, children's choirs, choir boys, choirs, falsely accused people, juvenile delinquents, and Pueri Cantores)

St. Frances of Rome's Day (Patron of automobile drivers/motorists, cabbies/taxi drivers, lay people, people ridiculed for their piety, Roman housewives, widows)

Strinennia -- Slavic Pagan Calendar (festival to call birds and spring to come back)

Takaosan Hiwatari Matsuri -- Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan  (fire walking festival, usually on this date but can vary)

World Glaucoma Week begins -- to expand global awareness of the Silent Thief of Sight


Anniversaries Today:

Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, 1796
Gustav Mahler marries Alma Schindler, 1902


Birthdays Today:

Emmanuel Lewis, 1971
Juliette Binoche, 1964
Terence John "Terry" Mulholland, 1963
Linda Fiorentino, 1960
Jeffrey Osborne, 1948
David Hume Kennerly, 1947
Bobby Fischer, 1943
Trish Van Devere, 1943
Raul Julia, 1940
Marty Ingels, 1936
Mickey Gilley, 1936
Joyce Van Patten, 1934
Yuri Gagarin, 1934
Keely Smith, 1932
Ornette Coleman, 1930
Wally Bronner, 1927
Irene Papas, 1926
Mickey Spillane, 1918
Samuel Barber, 1910
Will Greer, 1902
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, 1890
Amerigo Vespucci, 1454


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Family"(TV), 1976
"Rising of the Moon"(Play), 1907
"Hamlet"(Opera), 1868
"Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor/The Merry Wives of Windsor"(Opera), 1849
"Ernani"(Opera), 1844
"Nabucco"(Opera), 1842
"Horace"(Play), 1640


Today in History:

Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne over the Han Dynasty of China, BC141
First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg, 1009
Jews are expelled from Carintha Austria, 1496
Nicolaus Copernicus makes his first recorded astronomical observation, 1497
Marten Luther preaches his first Invocavit sermon, 1522
Kissing in public is banned in Naples, punishable by death, 1562
Publication of the economics book The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, 1776
Prussian government limits work week for children to 51 hours, 1839
The Amistad Ruling:  The US Supreme Court rules that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally, and were to be set free, 1841
The first documented discovery of gold in California occurred at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush, 1842
Albert Potts of Philadelphia patents the street mailbox, 1858
The Westmoreland County Coal Strike, involving 15,000 coal miners
represented by the United Mine Workers, begins, 1910
Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, 1916
Pink's War: The first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army or Royal Navy begins, 1925
President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to the Congress, the first of his New Deal policies, 1932
CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy", produced by Fred Friendly, in which Edward R. Murrow criticizes the senator, 1954
The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York, 1959
Dr. Antonia Novello is sworn in as Surgeon General of the United States, becoming the first female and Hispanic American to serve in that position, 1990
Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Comet Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day, 1997
Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights, 2011
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft transmits images that for the very first time, allow scientists to create a 3D reconstruction of ancient water channels below the surface of Mars, 2013