Random Tuesday News

And now, a bit of random news from around here, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked.  

Anyone who knows anything at all about me knows that my skills at plant killing are legendary.  Plants commit suicide when they know i will own them and i have been able to kill even silk houseplants.

It seems i have found a use for this talent.

Mr. BA, for whom i work every other Saturday, and now occasionally on random weekday evenings, pulled me off of my previous chores in the workshop and showed me a flower bed.  "I want you to pull the weeds," he said.

My response was, which ones are the weeds?  (As a notorious black thumb, i don't pay enough attention to which plants are which, i figure why bother.)

He carefully pointed out the day lilies, two small plants with red leaves, and a tiny rosebush.  "Don't pull those," he said.  "Everything else goes."

Three hours later, i had wiped out every sign of life in that bed that was not one of those three things, down to the tiny clovers.  It looked like parched earth with just day lilies, the rose bush, and whatever those other two plants were.

He and his wife were quite impressed with my plant killing skills, and i am now an official weeder.  He points out what is supposed to live, and i leave it solely alone.  Everything else gets dug out down to the roots, which i follow and pull up to make sure they don't grow back soon.

Little Girl is home from her training, and she got to practice her combat medic skills, especially treating people for heat exhaustion.

One night, she said, everyone was leaving the range at dusk and a call came in for a medic.  She said she and her partner thought it was a joke, but it wasn't.  The Lieutenant had missed her footing in the dim light and sprained her ankle and aggravated a previous back injury.  Her leg was going numb and she was in pain.  They stabilized her and called for a med-evac helicopter to get her to a local hospital.  

Little Girl was quite excited to have been there, using her training the way she was meant to.

This coming Thursday Sweetie and i have a date for our anniversary.  How long has it been?  Let's just say long enough to have four grown children and leave it at that.  Big numbers can make me depressed, unless they are the balance of my bank account.

Today is:

Act Like A Caveman Day -- internet generated, just to be fun, especially if your neighbors think you are crazy anyway

Bayreuther Festspiele -- Bayreuth, Germany (Wagner festival, through Aug. 28)

Be Adamant About Something Day -- it's good practice

Commonwealth Constitution Day -- Puerto Rico

Culinarian's Day -- another one here because of the internet, but a good excuse to let your inner chef go wild, and enjoy the results

Ebernoe Horn Fair -- Sussex, England (ancient horn fairs were pagan fertility rites, now just a fun time for all)

Eve of the Hathor Festival -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival of the Knee-Knockers -- Fairy Calendar

Furrinalia -- Ancient Etruscan Calendar (Furrina, goddess of the sacred grove and spring on Janniculum hill)

      also Ancient Roman Calendar (to honor those who searched for underground water sources)

Guanacaste Day -- Costa Rica

Guayaquil Day -- Guayaquil, Ecuador

Ilyap'a -- Ancient Inca Calendar (festival of the lightning god; date approximate)

National Hot Fudge Sundae Day

Rath Yatra & Bahuda Jatra-- Puri, India (the first is the Chariot Festival, pilgrims pull huge chariots across the city, and the second is 8 days later, the Return Festival; one of the most awaited Hindu festivals in the state and country)

Republic Day -- Tunisia

Soma-Nomaoi -- Haramachi City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan (wild horse chase which recreates a battle from over 1,000 years ago; through Monday)

St. Christopher's Day (Patron of archers, automobile drivers/motorists, bachelors, boatmen, bookbinders, busdrivers, cab drivers,epileptics, fruit dealers, fullers, gardeners, lorry drivers, mariners, market carriers, porters, sailors, taxi drivers, transportation/transporation workers, travellers, truck drivers/truckers, watermen; Baden, Germany; Barga, Italy; Brunswick, Germany; Fubine, Italy; Havana, Cuba; Mecklenburg, Germany; Rab, Croatia, St. Christopher's Island; Saint Kitts; Toses, Girona, Calalonia, Spain ;for a holy death; against bad dreams, epilepsy, floods, hailstorms, lightning, pestilence, storms, sudden death, toothache)

St. James' Day (The Apostle, brother of St. John and son of Zebedee, the first Apostle martyred; Patron of apothecaries/druggists/pharmacists, arthritis sufferers, blacksmiths, equestrians and horsemen, furriers, knights, laborers, pilgrims, soldiers, tanners, veterinarians; Altopascio, Lucca, Italy; Antigua, Guatemala; Bangued, Philippines; Brentino Belluno, Italy; Caltagirone, Italy; Cassine, Italy; Chile; Cicala, Catanzaro, Italy; Comitini, Italy; Compostela, Spain; Galicia, Spain; Gavi, Italy; Guatemala; Hettstedt, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany; Jemez Indian Pueblo; Loiza, Puerto Rico; Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Montreal, Canada; Nicaragua; Pistoia, Italy; Rivarolo Canavese, Italy; Sahuayo, Mexico; Seattle, Washington; Spain; Tesuque Indian Pueblo; against arthritis and rheumatism; sometimes called Jacob, the Latinized version of his name, also Iago and Jaques in Romance languages) related observances

     Dia Nacional de Galicia -- Galicia, Spain (National Day of Galicia, a/k/a Apostole Santiago, St. James the Apostle's Day)

     The Pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela -- Galicia, Spain (one of the world's largest pilgrimages still, to the church that has the supposed relics of St. James, culminates on the Saint's feast day)

     Loiza Aldea Fiesta -- Puerto Rico

Video Games Day -- yet another one, this on the founding of the "U.S. National Video Game Team" 

Birthdays Today

James Lafferty, 1985

Brad Renfro, 1982

Louise Brown, 1978

Matt LeBlanc, 1967

Illeana Douglas, 1965

Iman, 1965

Walter Payton, 1954

Nathaniel "Nate" Thurmond, 1941

Barbara Harris, 1935

Midge Decter, 1927

Estelle Getty, 1923

Jack Gilford, 1907

Walter Brennan, 1894

Maxfield Parrish, 1870

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"A Chorus Line"(Musical), 1975

"You Can't Hurry Love"(Single release), 1966

Today in History

Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar, co-ruler, 285

Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops, 306

The Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings, 864

Sebastián de Belalcázar, on his search for El Dorado, founds the city of Santiago de Cali, Colombia, 1536

Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, 1567

Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism, 1593

James VI of Scotland is crowned James I of England, bringing the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into personal union; political union would occur later, 1603

Ignacio de Maya founds the Real Santiago de las Sabinas, now known as Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, México, 1693

British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council order the deportation of the Acadians; thousands of Acadians are sent to the British Colonies in America, France and England, and some later move to Louisiana, while others resettle in New Brunswick, 1755

Horatio Nelson loses more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife (Spain), 1797

Costa Rica annexes Guanacaste from Nicaragua, 1824

The first commercial use of an electric telegraph is successfully demonstrated by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone between Euston and Camden Town in London, 1837

The Japanese daimyo begin returning their land holdings to the emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms, 1869

Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University discovers that a key ingredient in Konbu soup stock is monosodium glutamate (MSG), and patents a process for manufacturing it, 1908

Sir Thomas Whyte introduces the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure, 1917

The first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast takes place, 1920

Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established, 1925

At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team, 1946

Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sinks the next day, killing 51, 1956

The Republic of Tunisia is proclaimed, 1957

Louise Brown, the world's first "test tube baby" is born, 1978

Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration, which formally ends the state of war that had existed between the nations since 1948, 1994

K.R. Narayanan is sworn-in as India's 10th president and the first Dalit— formerly called "untouchable"— to hold this office, 1997

Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde supersonic passenger jet, F-BTSC, crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 4 on the ground, 2000

Pratibha Patil is sworn in as India's first woman president, 2007

Wikileaks publishes classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history, 2010

Scientists in Britain identify the mechanism causing human allergy to cats; they believe a general cure for the condition could be available in the next five years, 2013