Meeting (Six Sentence Story) and A Child's Yard (Good Fences)

Jonathan was nervous as he crossed the yard to the front steps, Professor Denarius' old, battered baton gripped in his left hand. 

He knocked at the door, and the woman he had spoken to on the phone the week before answered and smiled at him saying, "You must be Jonathan."

"And you must be Denarius' granddaughter, Julia," he replied as she motioned him through the door.

"To get to the point, because I know you aren't in town for long, my grandfather left several envelopes with his attorney which were mailed out after his death," Julia started.  "In his will he gave most of what he owned to me and some to my mother, but in his separate list of instructions he told us he'd left certain items hidden and he wanted his students to have them, but they'd have to work to find them."

"Somehow that does not surprise me, he wanted his students to work for everything, he always said that if you don't work for it, you don't appreciate it," Jonathan replied, and Julia smiled and nodded.

Linking up with Zoe's Uncharted Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Yard.

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Good Fences

Gosia, of Looking for Identity, has taken over Good Fences, and it's now Good Fences Around The World.  Post a picture of a fence or gate, link back to her blog, and go visit others to see what interesting fences there are out in this big world.

It's easy to see a child lives at the house behind this fence.

Today is:

Armilustrium -- Ancient Roman Calendar (festival of Mars)

Bettara-Ichi -- Ebisu Shrine, Tokyo, Japan (Pickle Market Fair, enjoy the pickled radishes, a specialty; through tomorrow)

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

Conflict Resolution Day -- Association for Conflict Resolution 

Constitution Day -- Niue

Deepawali/Deepavali/Diwali/Divali(Festival of Lights) -- Hindu; Jain; Sikh (for the next five days; local dating customs and government holidays for this Lunar New Year/Festival of Lights can vary)

    Kag Tihar/Kag Puja -- Day of the Crows (day one of the festival)

Dita e Lumturimit te Nene Terezes -- Albania (Mother Teresa Day)

Evaluate Your Life Day -- a day to make sure your life is heading where you want, and course correct if it isn't; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays  

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

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

Greasy Spoon Day -- internet generated, a day to go revel in the love of your favorite greasy spoon diner

Great Pumpkin Carve -- Chadds Ford Historical Society, Chadds Ford, PA, US (carving pumpkins that weigh about 150lbs or more each; through Saturday)

International Credit Union Day -- World Council of Credit Unions 

National Seafood Bisque Day

Preaching of the Lion Sermon -- St. Katharine 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)

Samora Machel Day -- Mozambique

Seeking of King Look Under Your Mattress -- Fairy Calendar

St. Frideswide's Day (Patron of Oxford and the University of Oxford)

St. Rene Goupil's Day (Patron of anesthetists, anesthesiologists)

Vegetarian Festival -- Phuket, Thailand (lots of purification rituals and a rigid vegetarian/vegan diet are observed for spiritual cleansing and ensuring good luck; through Oct. 28)

Yabusame Festival -- Koyama, Japan (horseback archery, samurai costumes and dragons, oh, my!)

Birthdays Today:

Jason Reitman, 1977

Ty Pennington, 1965

Evander Holyfield, 1962

Jeannie C. Riley, 1945

John Lithgow, 1945

Patricia Ireland, 1945

Simon Ward, 1941

Michael Gambon, 1940

Peter Max, 1937

Robert Reed, 1932

John Le Carre, 1931

Jack Anderson, 1922

Auguste Lumiere, 1862

Annie S. Peck, 1850

Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, 1748

Thomas Browne, 1605 (O.S. date)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Rothschilds"(Musical), 1970

"The Miracle Worker"(Play), 1959

"I Remember Mama"(Play), 1944

"Pomp and Circumstance Marches"(Elgar Op. 39), 1901

"Tannhauser und der Sangerkrieg auf Wartburg/Tannhauser and the Singers' Contest at Wartburg"(Wagner opera), 1845

Today in History:

Battle of Zama, Scipio Africanus and his Roman legions defeat Hannibal Barca and the invading Carthagian army, BC202

King Gauseric and his Vandals take the city of Carthage, 439

The Thirteen Years' War ends with the Treaty of Thorn, 1466

Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology, 1512

The first general court is held in Boston, 1630

Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown at 2PM, end of the US Revolutionary War, 1781

Napoleon begins his retreat from Moscow, 1812

Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to receive a medical degree, 1849

The first 4 blacks are elected to the US House of Representatives, 1870

The USPS first used an automobile to collect and deliver mail, 1914

Streptomycin, the first antibiotic which could treat tuberculosis, is isolated at Rutgers University, 1943

Black Monday - the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 22%, 508 points, 1987

Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II, 2003

Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity, 2005

Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum pressure of 882 mb, 2005

Naheed Nenshi becomes the first Muslim in Canada to be elected mayor, in Calgary, 2010

A working human intestine is generated in a laboratory from stem cells in the United States, 2014