Six Sentence Stories: Questions

He mindlessly twisted his wedding ring again, and the Djinn, who noticed everything, said, "Still subconsciously worried you batted out of your league with her and that it won't last, aren't you?  No need, it's been seen to."

His eyes widened as the impact of the words sunk in; he had always wondered how he'd ever had the nerve to ask her out that first time and why she had responded so favorably when she was the kind who could have any guy in the school.

His mind wanted more information, he wanted to sop it up like hot toast sops up butter, but he worried he was jumping from the frying pan into the fire by even daring to ask.

"The biggest problem," the Djinn said, "is that you humans think by manipulating things to you liking, everything will work out, all will be well, you will live happily ever after; you don't see the strings attached, the strings that touch everything else in the universe, which is why, as you said when you first saw me, these things often don't turn out for good after all."

"I guess the first thing I should ask, then, is what are the 'rules' of dealing with you, and how do I know you will tell me the truth if I ask you questions," to which the Djinn replied, "You own the bottle because you are your grandparent's heir, so you rule me, and if you require me to tell you the truth, I will have to, even if it's a truth you don't want to hear."

Linking up with Uncharted Blog and Six Sentence Stories, where the cue is Fire.



Today is:

Anvil Mountain 59 Minute 37 Second Challenge -- Nome, AK, US (starting gun sounds at 7 pm, and the course begins at the base of Anvil Mountain, goes uphill then back down via a gravel road, with the challenge being to do it in less than the time allotted)

Bad Poetry Day -- Wellcat Holidays suggests you get back at your high school English teacher for making you read all that "good" poetry; get together with friends, write some truly awful stuff, and mail it to him/her!

Bucyrus Bratwurst Festival -- Bucyrus, OH, US (food and fun celebration of German heritage, with this year's theme, "If You Mustache...Brattie is 49!"; through Saturday)

Full Sturgeon Moon a/k/a Full Red Moon, Green Corn Moon, or Grain Moon
     Native Wild Rice Harvest -- Northern Cree, Ojibwa, and Algonkian Native Americans (celebrated during the August full moon; if there are two full moons in August, it is during the second)
     Nikini Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka 
     Wahgaung Full Moon -- Myanmar 

Kentucky State Fair and World Championship Horse Show -- Louisville, KY, US (if you love horses, it's the place to be since 1904; through the 28th)

Little League Baseball® 2016 World Series -- South Williamsport, PA, US (through the 28th)

Long Tan Day a/k/a Vietnam Veterans Day -- Australia

Mail Order Catalog Day -- the first one was published by Montgomery Ward this day in 1872, and was only one page (Do yourself a favor and opt out of the doggone things, save a few trees: www.catalogchoice.org )

Milwaukee Irish Fest -- Milwaukee, WI, US (the world's largest Irish music and cultural event outside of the Emerald Isle; through Sunday)

National Ice Cream Pie Day

National Science Day -- Thailand

National Soft Ice Cream Day

Parsi New Year/Shahenshahi -- MH, India

Raksha Bandhan -- CG, GJ, MP, RJ, UK, & UP, India; Nepal (the Hindu festival that celebrates the the love and duty between brothers and sisters)

Schueberfouer Shepherd's Fair -- Luxembourg (a two week fair that dates from 1340)

Serendipity Day -- and it's here serendipitously! begun by writer Madeleine Kay, it's the day to step out of routine, do something you've always wanted to do, and see what happens

Soldiers' Reunion Celebration -- Newton, NC, US (the oldest patriotic event of its kind in the US, honoring all veterans; annually since 1889)

Sour Herring Premiere -- Sweden (by ordinance, the year's supply of sour herring may begin to be sold on the third Thursday in August)

St. Agapitus' Day (Patron of Palestrina, Italy; against colic)

St. Helena's Day (Mother of Constantine the Great; Patron of archaeologists, converts, difficult marriages, divorced people, dyers, empresses, nail smiths, needle makers; Birkirkara, Malta; Helena, MT, US; against fire and thunder)

Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival -- Sun Prairie, WI, US (family fun with a carnival, midget auto races, parade, food, entertainment, and lots of hot, buttered sweet corn; through Sunday)

Toge-Pogling Season begins -- Fairy Calendar (Toges are normally pogled in groups of five or six, depending upon the size and strength of the individual Poge)


Birthdays Today:

Andy Samberg, 1978
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, 1970
Christian Slater, 1969
Edward Norton, 1969
Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, 1962
Madeleine Stowe, 1958
Patrick Swayze, 1952
Elayne Boosler, 1952
Martin Mull, 1943
Robert Redford, 1936
Roberto Clemente Walker, 1934
Roman Polanski, 1933
Luc Montagnier, 1932
Rosalynn Carter, 1927
Shelley Winters, 1920
Greta Garbo, 1905
Max Factor, 1904
Meriwether Lewis, 1774
Virginia Dare, 1587 (first English child born in the Americas)


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Private Lives"(Play), 1930
"Iphigénie"(Racine's dramatic tragedy), 1674


Today in History:

Founding of the oldest known Roman temple to Venus, BC293
Rome is occupied and plundered by Visigoths under King Alarik I, 410
Death of Genghis Khan (fell from his horse), 1227
A Portuguese ship drifts ashore in the Japanese province of Higo, 1541
The Boston, Massachusetts Evening Post begins publishing, 1735
Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, 1834
Pierre Janssan discovers helium, 1868
German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright Brothers, 1903.
Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River, 1909
A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless, 1917
19th US Amendment ratified (gives women the vote), 1920
Premier of The Wizard of Oz, 1939
The first commercially produced oral contraceptives are marketed, 1960
James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi, 1963
Steve Biko is arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 in King William's Town, South Africa. He would later die of the injuries sustained during this arrest bringing attention to South Africa's apartheid policies, 1977
Massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people, 2005
Columbia's Chiribiquete National Park expands to 3 million hectares from 1.2 million hectares, becoming one of the Amazon's largest protected zones, 2013