Six Sentence Story: Answers bring more questions.

"My first suggestion is to not wish for peace on earth; the last time anyone wished for peace on earth, we had the Roman Empire, and you know how that turned out -- it was peace, of a sort, but at what price?"

It had taken him a couple of days to make it back up to the attic without being followed, and he'd been mulling what to ask the Djinn next, or whether he should test what would happen if he actually did wish for something.

The Djinn had spouted the line about the Roman Empire as soon as he got out of the bottle and without any prompting, and now added, "You really do want the whole story, but there are parts your grandparents wanted kept a secret and I have to honor that.  Will it be enough if I tell you that, yes, they got this house and all that is in it as well as their fortune through some, shall we say, creative paperwork, that they wished for you to have a wonderful life here in this town with your wife and children, and that they meant to have me out of the picture before they died but they ran out of time?"

"What do you mean, 'they ran out of time'?"

"They knew the dangers, they lost friends and hurt some people over some of the things that happened through their wishes, and they wanted to protect you; it wasn't just your wife who wasn't supposed to know about me, you weren't supposed to, either, but by the time they realized they needed to do something about it, they weren't able to get back up here to the attic, and they knew sending someone to get my bottle would bring about the revelation of what they wanted kept secret."

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


Today is: 

Aizu Byakko Matsuri -- Aizuwakamatsu-shi, Fukushima, Japan (ceremonial recreation of a march to war in 1868; through the 24th)

American Business Women's Day -- US (anniversary of the founding of the American Business Women's Association)

Autumnal Equinox -- 14:21 UTC, 10:21am EDT; related observances
     Mabon -- Wicca/Pagan Northern Hemisphere
     Ostara -- wicca/Pagan Southern Hemisphere
     Alban Elfed -- Celtic Winter Finding
     Chuseok -- Korean harvest festival (high point of the festival)
     Feast of Carpo -- Greek Horae, goddess of autumn
     Kukulcan Snake God Celebration -- Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico (the snake appears at the equinox, a time to honor this Mayan god)
     Festival of the Sea Goddess -- Eskimo
     Higan -- Japan
     Mabon/Fallfest -- Asatru/Norse Pagan (harvest festival, time to make wine and mead for the next winter)
     Oenach Carman -- Ancient Celtic Calendar
     Sendai Great Tug-of-War -- Sendai, Japan (festival on the equinox that dates back over 400 years)     
     Svarog's Holiday -- Slavic Pagan Calendar/Asatru (day to drink mead in honor of Svarog, god of fire and the sky)

Barnesville Pumpkin Festival -- Barnesville, OH, US (pumpkins are just the start of the fun; through Sunday)

Boidromia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate; honor Apollon as god of rescue during war)

Breakfast, Snack, Elevenses, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Tea, Snack, Dinner, Snack, More Snacks, Supper, Snack, and Bilgewack Celebration Day -- Fairy Calendar (Borms; they are little known relatives of Goblins, given to being overweight and sedentary and lying around feeling ill; bilgewack is their term for having eaten too much and having to lie down.)

Coya Raymi -- Inca Native Americans (festival to honor Moon Goddess Quilla, with a focus on purging sickness and evil; through tomorrow, dates approximate)

Dear Diary Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays; get it down on paper!

Elephant Appreciation Day -- sponsored by "Elefunteria"

Fairmount Museum Days/Remembering James Dean Festival -- Fairmont, IN, US (celebrating Dean and other famous people from Fairmont; through Sunday)

Feast of Mikeli -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (harvest celebration; through the 24th)

Haustmanuour -- Icelandic Calendar (beginning of traditional Autumn Month, during which all the summer chores are finished, including livestock rounded up, before winter begins)

Hobbit Day -- Bilbo's and Frodo's Birth anniversary

Ice Cream Cone Day -- Italo Marchiony applied for a patent for an ice cream cone mold on this day in 1903

Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony -- Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, US (each winner has done improbably research, something that makes people laugh, then think)

Independence Day -- Bulgaria(1908); Mali(1960)

International Day of Radiant Peace 

National Centenarians Day -- US

National Teach Ag Day -- US (streamed live from CHS Inc. headquarters)

National White Chocolate Day

OneWebDay

Princess Martha Louise's Birthday -- Norway (an official flag day)

Ritual of the Netjers of the Two Lands (Upper and Lower Egypt) -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

St. Maurice's Day (Patron of armies, cloth dyers, cloth makers, infantrymen, soldiers, swordsmiths, weavers; Austria; Manresa, Spain; Pianello Val Tidone, Italy; Piedmont, Italy; Sardinia; Stadtsulza, Germany; Pontifical Swiss Guards; against cramps and gout)

Thrue Bab -- Bhutan (Blessed Rainy Day)

Virginia Peanut Festival -- Emporia, VA, US (and you thought all peanuts came from Georgia! come enjoy peanuts and carnival, quilt show, a peanut butter sculpture contest, fireworks, and more the Virgina way; through Sunday)

World Carfree Day -- UN (encouraging all of us to go car free for a day, and see the world from a different perspective) began as:
     Car-Free Day -- this has spread to much of the world; try it for yourself!


Birthdays Today:

Billie Piper, 1982
Ronaldo, 1976
Bonnie Hunt, 1964
Catherine Oxenberg, 1961
Scott Baio, 1961
Joan Jett, 1960
Andrea Bocelli, 1958
Debby Boone, 1956
Shari Belafonte, 1954
Arthur O. Sulzberger, 1951
Paul Le Mat, 1945
Junko Tabel, 1939 (first woman to summit Everest)
Tommy Lasorda, 1927
John Houseman, 1902
Michael Faraday, 1791
Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, 1694(O.S. Date)


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Friends"(TV), 1994
"Family Ties"(TV), 1982
"Charlie's Angels"(TV), 1976
"A Delicate Balance"(Play), 1966
"Fiddler on the Roof"(Musical), 1964
"The Man from U.N.C.L.E."(TV), 1964
"Maverick"(TV), 1957


Today in History:

Legion I Italica is created by Emperor Nero, 66
Switzerland becomes an independent state, 1499
The General Provincial Court at Patuxent, MD, US, empanels the first all female jury in the colonies to try the case of a woman accused of murdering her child, 1656
A final 8 people are hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Mass., 1692
Nathan Hale is hanged for spying during American Revolution, 1776
Russia establishes a colony at Kodiak, Alaska, 1784
City of Des Moines, Iowa, is incorporated as Fort Des Moines, 1851
Abraham Lincoln, by executive proclamation, declares that the slaves in the rebelling states shall become free on Jan. 1 of the upcoming year, 1862
Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold premieres in Munich, 1869
The first issue of National Geographic Magazine is published, 1888
Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather, King George III, as the longest reigning monarch in British history, 1895
Italo Marchiony granted a patent for an ice cream cone, 1903
The Duke of York's Picture House opens in Brighton, now the oldest continually operating cinema in Britain, 1910
Ralph J. Bunche becomes the first black winner of the Nobel Peace Price, 1950
The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time by the Huntington Library, 1991
David Hempleman-Adams becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an open-air, wicker-basket hot air balloon, 2003

CERN scientists announce their discovery of neutrinos breaking the speed of light, 2011