Weighty matter.

"Mom, I have a goal for my study of Spanish!" Bigger Girl informed me.

What's that? i asked.

"I want to be able to speak it so well that I can translate the story I wrote without having to look up every other word!" she said.

A worthy goal, i noted.

"By the way, how's my accent?" she asked.

Well, i know what words you are saying, but you will always sound like a gringo, i'm afraid.

"Like a what?"

A gringo, it's what some Hispanics call whites.  It comes from the song the cowboys used to sing, "Green Grows the Grass."

"Oh, okay," she said, then started reciting vocabulary.  "El chico, la chica, yes, both mean child.  El novio, la novia, boyfriend, girlfriend, I don't need either one right now.  Oh, by the way, be praying for my boy friend Tiger, that he will quit smoking."

How about i pray for his soul, too, i said.

"Well, yes, but I really want him to quit smoking."

Yes, smoking is definitely no good, now or in the afterlife, i grinned.

"Very funny," she snorted.

"Oh, wow, this is heavy!" Little Girl said at that moment, coming in with a package.  "How can something so small be so heavy!"

It must be the salt your dad buys through mail order, i said.  It's a five pound bag.

"Yes, it says 'Saltworks' on the package, but why does it have to be so heavy!  The mailman handed it to me, and I tried to grab it with just one hand, and then I almost dropped it.  I didn't expect it to be so heavy!"

Well, small doesn't always mean lightweight, i noted.  A five-pound baby in your arms feels like it's going to float away, but a five-pound weight for working out sure doesn't.  It's how dense the stuff is, like the old 'what's heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of steel.'

Thinking for a minute, Little Girl said, "Oh, I get it!  They weigh the same, but the feathers take up more room!"

Exactly.  Like the way muscle on a human body takes up less room that fat for the same amount of weight.  The muscle is more dense.

"Speaking of muscle, I can hardly wait for swim team to start up!  I like how much leaner and more muscular I get when I'm working out on swim team," Little Girl said, then left to go do a bit of "working out" with her homework.


Today is:

Bunching of Fairies for the Second Flight -- Fairy Calendar

Charter Day -- Pennsylvania, US

Cheltenham Hunt Festival -- Cheltenham Racecourse, Prestbury, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England (a five day Festival, with the big race on that final day)

Debunking Day -- internet holiday possibly started by someone tired of internet myths

Feast Day of Hercules/Herakles -- Ancient Roman and Greek Calendars

Frankenstein's Birthday -- Mary Shelley's famous tale was published today in 1818

Johnny Appleseed Day / Apple Appreciation Day -- death anniversary of John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman; some say March 18

King Moshoeshoe I's Anniversary -- Lesotho

National Oatmeal-Nut Waffles Day

Organize Your Home Office Day -- Lisa Kanarek wants everyone to organize their home office on the second Tuesday in March; my response is:  in one day!  is she out of her mind!

Reestablishment of Independence -- Lithuania (independence from the USSR)

St. Eulogius of Cordova's Day (Patron of carpenters, coppersmiths)

World Day of Muslim Culture, Peace, Dialogue and Film -- International

Worship of Tools Day -- begun by someone who knew we would be nowhere without tools



Anniversaries Today:

Romeo & Juliet's wedding day, according to Shakespeare, 1302
Emperor Napoleon married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise, 1810


Birthdays Today:

Terrance Howard, 1969
Alex Kingston, 1963
Curtis Brown, Jr., 1956
Douglas Adams, 1952
Bobby McFerrin, 1950
Jerry Zucker, 1950
Dominique Sanda, 1948
Charles W. Swan, 1942
Antonin Scalia, 1936
Sam Donaldson, 1934
Rupert Murdoch, 1931
Ralph Abernathy, 1926
Mercer Ellington, 1919
Ezra Jack Keats, 1916
Harold Wilson, 1916
Lawrence Welk, 1903
Robert Treat Paine, 1731
Torquato Tasso, 1544


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Cops"(TV), 1989
"A Raisin in the Sun"(Play), 1959
"Don Carlos"(Opera), 1867
"Rigoletto"(Opera), 1851
"I Capuleti e i Montecchi"(Opera), 1830
"The Daily Courant"(Newspaper; first British daily paper), 1702


Today in History:

Thutmose III, Pharaoh of Egypt, dies (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty),BC1425
Volcano Etna in Italy erupts killing 15,000, 1669
The first English daily newspaper "Daily Courant," begins publishing, 1702
Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation, 1708
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is published, 1818
Unhappy with translational differences regarding the Treaty of Waitangi, chiefs Hone Heke, Kawiti and Maori tribe members chop down the British flagpole for a fourth time and drive settlers out of Kororareka, New Zealand, 1845
Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin become the first Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected under a system of responsible government, 1848
The Great Sheffield Flood: The largest man-made disaster ever to befall England kills over 250 people in Sheffield, 1864
The Meiji Japanese government officially annexes the Ryukyu Kingdom into what would become the Okinawa prefecture,1872
The Great Blizzard of 1888 begins, lasting 4 days, 1888
The first confirmed cases of the Spanish Flu are observed at Fort Riley, Kansas, 1918
The Bank of Canada opens, 1935
Reginald Weit became the first African American to play in the US Tennis Open, 1948
Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun," the first Broadway play by a black woman, opens, 1959
Mt. Etna in Sicily erupts, 1974
Pakistan successfully conducts a cold test of a nuclear weapon, 1983
Mikhail S Gorbachev replaces Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader, 1985
Infosys becomes the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, 1999
Michelle Bachelet is inaugurated as first female president of Chile, 2006
An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130 km (81 mi) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people and triggering the second largest nuclear accident in history, 2011