Teen Boy All Over

"Did you know your son went shopping?" Sweetie asked as i walked in from work.

Well, since i was at work, no, i didn't know, i told him.  And which son? i added.

"#2 Son.  He said there's no 'real' food in the house, and went shopping!"

And by that i'm sure he meant...

"Yes, that's what he meant.  There's ice cream and pie in the freezer, and a pizza in the fridge.  What he really meant is 'food that mom doesn't buy!'" Sweetie said, laughing.

Indeed, there was all that, as well as the rapidly disappearing grapes, the salad that gets devoured each night, and a chicken with rice and gravy that has nothing left but a couple of bones to be boiled for stock.

He may eat junk, but he eats good stuff, too.  He knows what the "real" food truly is, even if he sometimes eschews it for those teen boy favorites.

On another note, to any who are worried about safety at Little Girl's school:  The young student who was shot was at his home after school, in a different neighborhood from where the school is located.  By that i mean, unfortunately, a more run-down area, with many people living at or below the poverty level.

The school itself is in a solidly middle class area, right next to the neighborhood pool and a Lutheran Church and one of the community parks.  It's as "safe" as any area can be these days, because really, there is no place that is totally safe.  It's an illusion to think so.

If i thought she were in danger at school, i would keep her home, but the school is in an area that is almost identical to our neighborhood.  The young man was safer at school than at home, in this case.  That's part of what makes it all so sad, too.


Today is:

Belfast Festival At Queen's -- Queen's University, Belfast, Ireland (International arts festival; through Nov. 1)

Biketoberfest -- Daytona Beach, FL, US (last chance to ride before winter, and enjoy concerts and shows, too; through Sunday)

Boss's Day -- either celebrate, or roll your eyes, both are acceptable responses (begun by Patricia Bays Haroski in 1958 in honor of her boss, who was also her father; this date was his birthday)

Chrysanthemum Festival -- Japan ("The Festival of Happiness", various shrines; through Nov. 15)

Clean Your Bug Zapper Day -- internet generated, and we're getting a bit overboard here, aren't we?

Conflict Resolution Day -- the group that started it no longer has the specific date listed, but you can learn more about conflict resolution from them here

Day of Pope John Paul II -- Poland

Dictionary Day / Learn a Word Day -- Noah Webster's birth anniversary

Dress Like A Dork Day -- does someone have it out for us with these "holidays"?

Elephantine Festival -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (several such celebrations of elephants were held around this time of year in Egypt)

Ether Day (first demonstrated use, see History)

Feast of 'Ilm (Knowledge) -- Baha'i

Get Smart About Credit Day -- sponsored by the American Bankers Association

Get to Know Your Customers Day -- third Thursday of every quarter

International Credit Union Day -- World Council of Credit Unions

National Feral Cat Day -- US (sponsored by Alley Cat Allies. with information here also)

National Liqueur Day

Niihama Drum Festival -- Niihama, Japan (three day festival with two ton drum floats)

Preaching of the Lion Sermon -- St. Katherine Cree Church, London, England (Sermon dating back to the 1640's in commemoration of a gift for the poor made by Sir John Gayer, who was delivered from a lion while in Turkey)

Simchat Torah -- Judaism (day to celebrate the reading of the Law; begins at sunset, through sunset tomorrow)

Sennin Musha Gyoretsu -- Tochigi, Japan (procession of 1,000 warriors; through tomorrow)

St. Hedwig's Day (Patron of brides, duchesses, difficult marriages, widows; Bavaria; Berlin, Germany; Gorlitz, Germany; Silesia; against the death of children, jealousy)

Teachers' Day -- Chile

#Toronto Ski, Snowboard, and Travel Show -- Toronto, ON, Canada (Canada's largest show of this type; through Sunday)

World Food Day -- UN


Anniversaries Today:

The first birth control clinic in the US is opened, 1916
Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah, 1875
Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women, 1869
Zion's Co-Operative Mercantile Institution, America's first department store, opens, 1868
The Collegiate School is established(forerunner of Yale University), 1701, Old Style Date


Birthdays Today:

John Mayer, 1977
Kellie Martin, 1975
Flea, 1962
Tim Robbins, 1958
Melissa Louise Belote, 1956
Barry Corbin, 1940
Bob Weir, 1947
Suzanne Somers, 1946
Gunter Grass, 1927
Angela Lansbury, 1925
William Orville Douglas, 1898
Eugene O'Neill, 1888
David Ben-Gurion, 1886
Oscar Wilde, 1854
Noah Webster, 1758


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Red Mill"(Musical), 1945
"Billy the Kid"(Ballet), 1938
Jane Eyre(Publication date), 1847


Today in History:

Jadwiga (yes, a she) is crowned King of Poland, 1384
Olivier van Noorts' ships reach the Philippines, 1600
George Washington takes Yorktown, 1781
Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, is guillotined, 1793
Sir William Rowan Hamilton comes up with the idea of quaternions, a non-commutative extension of complex numbers, 1843
Dentist William T. Morton demonstrates the effectiveness of ether, 1846
Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" is published, 1847
John Brown leads a raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, 1859
The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered", 1869
John Harwood takes out a patent on a self-winding watch, 1923
The Disney Company is founded, 1923
Benjamin O. Davis Sr. is named the first African American general in the United States Army, 1940
Fidel Castro is sentenced in Havana to 15 years in prison, 1953
The People's Republic of China detonates its first nuclear weapon, 1964
In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invokes the War Measures Act, 1970
Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1973
Pope John Paul II is elected after the October 1978 Papal conclave, 1978
Wanda Rutkiewicz is the first Pole and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, 1978
Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1984
Reinhold Messner becomes the first person to summit all 14 Eight-thousanders, 1986
Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated, 2002
A 1,255lb. portion of the Chelyabinsk meteor is recovered by divers in Russia, 2013