A couple of years ago, Bigger Girl and i had a talk about a man in Austria who sued to be allowed to wear a spaghetti strainer/colander on his head for his driving license photo because he is a Pastafarian, a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
It has finally happened in the US. A lady in Massachusetts has won the right to wear her spaghetti strainer, showing her religious belief, in her driver's license photo.
What i want to know now is, what will happen when someone wants to wear it for a passport photo. This could get ugly, weird, funny, or all three. Let's hope it just stays weird and funny, those i can handle.
Speaking of Pastafarians, #1 Son once sent off for a certificate from some denomination, it may have been this one, that says he is an official minister. It's recognized in Maine, i believe, and so he plans to one day perform a wedding there, just to say he did.
In other news, the run-off elections are this Saturday, and it can't happen soon enough, as far as i am concerned. While i do not watch TV or listen to commercial radio, even i have heard bits and pieces of this very ugly fight. My real wish is to be able to vote None Of The Above and have all of them thrown out and a new election called with no one who ran before allowed to run again. That would be paradise as far as i'm concerned.
Today is:
Army Day -- Democratic Republic of the Congo
Coping With Uncertainty Day -- of uncertain origin, as it should be
Electronic Greeting Card Day -- internet generated, and of course probably started by the electronic greeting card websites
Homemade Bread Day -- use the bread machine, it's fun and easy, i promise! sponsored by the Homemade Bread Day Committee of Ann Arbor, MI, US
International Students Day -- International (meant to celebrate all students around the world, not specifically students studying in countries other than their own; anniversary of the Nazi storming and closing of the University of Prague)
John Peter Zenger Day -- marking his arrest in 1734 for libel; he continued to edit his newspaper from jail and was acquitted, an early victory for freedom of the press
National Baklava Day
National Entrepreneurs Day -- US (by Congressional designation)
National Farm Joke Day
National Unfriend Day -- all those people on Facebook you regret accepting as friends? Jimmy Kimmel suggests you unfriend them today!
Polytechneio -- Greece (anniversary of the 1973 student protests against the junta)
Presidents' Day -- Marshall Islands
Public Restroom Hand Dryer Appreciation Day -- internet generated, and why? they've been proven less sanitary, blowing germs everywhere; i will not appreciate this one
School Pride Day -- US (always on the Tuesday of American Education Week)
Shogi Day -- Japan (celebrating shogi, a chess-like game)
St. Elizabeth of Hungary's Day (Patron of bakers, beggars, brides, charitable societies, charitable workers, countesses, exiles, falsely accused people, hoboes, homeless people, hospitals, lace makers/lace workers, nursing homes, nursing services, people in exile, people ridiculed for their piety, tertiaries, tramps, widows; Sisters of Mercy; Teutonic Knights; Erfurt, Germany; Jaro, Philippines; against in-law problems, the death of children, toothache)
St. Hilda's Day (Patron of learning and culture)
St. Hugh of Lincoln's Day (Patron of sick children, sick people, swans)
Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day -- Czech Republic; Slovakia
Take A Hike Day -- internet generated, and some websites say it's actually "Tell Your Boss to Take a Hike Day", but i don't recommend that unless you've recently inherited a fortune or won the Lotto
Tori No Ichi -- Japan (the second "rooster day" of November, so called because it is held on the three days of the rooster this month, in which to wish good luck and prosperity at temple and shrine ceremonies around the country, and celebrate with a fair)
Winter Welcome Quadrilles and Dainty-Sixes -- Fairy Calendar
World Famous Fish House Parade -- Aitkin, MN, US (plus chili cook-off, craft show, and more!)
World Prematurity Day -- International (raising awareness about premature birth, the leading cause of newborn death each year, and what can be done to prevent it)
Birthdays Today:
Isaac Hanson, 1980
Laura Wilkinson, 1977
Matthew Settle, 1969
Daisy Fuentes, 1966
Sophie Marceau, 1966
Dylan Walsh, 1963
RuPaul, 1960
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, 1958
Danny DeVito, 1944
Lauren Hutton, 1944
Lorne Michaels, 1944
Tom Seaver, 1944
Lauren Hutton, 1943
Martin Scorsese, 1942
Gordon Lightfoot, 1938
Rock Hudson, 1925
Sichiro Honda, 1906
Lee Strassberg, 1901
Bernard Law Montgomery, 1887
August Mobius, 1790
John Peter Zenger, 1734
Atahualpa, last Emperor of the Inca, 1502
Flavius Claudius Julianus, Roman Emperor, 331
Vespian, Roman Emperor, 9
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Sunset Boulevard"(Musical), 1994
"Rumors"(Simon play), 1988
"The Elephant Man"(Play), 1977
"The Sorcerer"(Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera), 1877
"Andromaque"(Racine tragedy), 1667
Today in History:
Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers, 284
England and Spain sign an anti-French covenant/treaty, 1511
Elizabeth I ascends the English throne, 1558
France and Spain sign the Peace of the Pyrenees treaty, 1659
The Church of England organizes in New England, 1785
Congress holds its first session in the still incomplete Capitol Building of Washington, D.C., 1800
The Delta Phi fraternity, America's oldest continuous social fraternity, is founded at Union College in Schenectady, New York, 1827
Ecuador and Venezuela separate from Greater Colombia, 1831
Street signs are first authorized at San Francisco intersections, 1853
David Livingstone becomes the first European to see Victoria Falls, 1855
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Slavonic March is given its première performance in Moscow, 1876
Japan and Korea sign The Eulsa Treaty, 1905
The first US dental hygienist course is formed, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1913
US declares the Panama Canal Zone to be neutral, 1914
Lenin defends the "temporary" removal of freedom of the press, 1917
American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th Century, 1947
Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse, 1970
In Czechoslovakia, the Velvet Revolution that would overthrow the communist government begins when student protests in Prague are quelled by riot police, 1989
Brian May of the rock band Queen was appointed Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, 2007
In Sweden, divers find the wreckage of the Svardet, a warship sunk in 1676 during the Battle of Oland, 2011
So that is why my number of Facebook Friends has halved overnight!
ReplyDeletepolitics is a horrible arena. the pasta strainer thing on a passport? yup. i can see it.
ReplyDeleteThe enemy has found the way to rule us as we struggle daily in our work unable to know what is happening outside our tiny world.
ReplyDeleteImagine if everyone were as puerile as this pastafarian woman. Christians would wear a huge cross on their heads, Jewish people would wear huge candalabras on theirs, moslems would wear huge cimitars... etc.. Put a camera in front of some people and they act up in weird ways.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many wierdo's and we tend to cater to them. Bless their hearts. If they would just take their medication life would be good.
ReplyDeletePolitics is a dirty business. There are no rules and the mug slinging is more than I can stand.
Have a fabulous day my friend. ☺
A spaghetti strainer, oh my goodness. I wonder if she is going to meatballs as ear rings? Ha,ha,ha.
ReplyDeleteI'm very glad to be back with all my friends. Have a great even. See ya.
Cruisin Paul
The first of the items on your regular lists stood out. Army day in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That does not sound good. Politics as you say is often not appealing.
ReplyDeletewell there you go.... I have officially seen everything now. LOL
ReplyDeleteI have been trying to follow the election in the USA - but yeah, it's hard to follow with some nonsense going on.
I laugh when I had the NO WAIT IT REALLY HAPPENED conversation with my Dad last night --- he still thought I was kidding and made the whole PASTAthing up :-)
ReplyDelete