Love to Give, and Sunday Selections

Just because Sandee at Comedy Plus is no longer hosting an official Silly Sunday doesn't mean i'm going to stop posting Cajun jokes about Boudreaux, his family and friends. 

Yesterday i had a lovely day to enjoy, and i got to do one of my favorite things besides nap and read.  It was time for our annual end-of-the-year donations online, where we give to a few charities we particularly like and want to support.  Sweetie and i don't always have much to give, but it brings me joy to throw in our "two mites," so to speak.  You really don't have to be wealthy to make a difference, as little amounts do add up.

One day, de teacher done give de chil'ren to write "What I Would Do With A Million Dollars."

Tee Boudreaux bring up de paper, an' it be blank.  De teacher say, "Tee!  You din't do de essay what I tell you!  You done turn in a blank paper, you din't do nothin'!"

An' Tee say, "Mais, but dat be what I would do if I had me a million dollar, nothin'!"

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Sunday Selections was started as a way for bloggers to use photos that might otherwise just languish in their files.  It has been hosted by River at Drifting Through Life but she is taking a blog break for now.  Elephant's Child is keeping the meme warm for her.

A few pictures i just wanted to post somewhere:

Someone has a sense of humor!

A shirt i saw and liked very much.

Abigail, who lost a back leg, has her own way of sitting on the stairs.

Today is:

Check Your Smoke Alarms Day

Fairy Eve's Year News -- Fairy Calendar

Feast of Sharaf (Honor) -- Baha'i

International Solidarity Day -- Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis worldwide

Kwanzaa, Day 6, Kuumba (Creativity)

Leap Second Adjustment Day -- if a second needs to be added or subtracted to coordinate the atomic and astronimical time, it will be done today, buy the International Earth Rotation Service of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures at Paris, France

Make Up Your Mind Day/Procrastinator's Day -- you have to make up your mind

National Champagne Day

New Year's Eve -- a selection of related observances

     Allendale Tar Barrel Burning/Baal Fire Festival -- Allendale, England (locals burn out the old year by carrying burning tar barrels on their heads, then use them to light one huge bonfire)

     Feast of Father Time -- because he ultimately overcomes us all

     Festival of Yemaya -- Yoruba/Santeria (celebration of the mother of the sun and

moon)

     Fire and Ice New Year's Eve Celebration -- Anchorage, AK (fire jugglers, ice

carvers, fireworks, and more)

     First Night -- a non-alcoholic alternative to New Year's Eve

     Fravartigan -- Parsi Zoroastrian (celebration to honor the dead through the night)

     Gamlarskvold -- Icelandic traditions; cows gain human speech, seals take on

human form, the dead rise, and Elves move house

          obtain gold from the Elves by sitting at a crossroads and waiting for them to pass

          Housewives greet the Elves by reciting the rhyme of protection

              Let those who want to, arrive

              Let those who want to, leave

              Let those who want to, Stay

              Without harm to me or mine

         Light a bonfire, and "blow out the year" with fireworks 

     Harvest Day Celebrations -- Benin (celebration of the end of harvest season at the

turn of the year)

     Hogmanay Day -- Scotland (Auld Year's Night)

     Japanese Observances (a few, at least)

          Joya no Kane -- Japan (ringing out the old year with temple bells; Buddhists believe humans are born with 108 worldly desires which are removed when the bells are rung 108 times)

         Namahge -- Oga Peninsula, Japan (devil appearing holiday; young men dress as demons and run through the town warning children to behave during the coming year)

         Okera Matsuri -- Yasaka Shrine, Kyoto, Japan (Sacred Fire Rite)

         Omisoka Day -- Japan (the second most important day on the Japanese Calendar; tomorrow is the most important)

     Noche de Pedimento -- Oaxaca, Mexico (Night of the Petition)

     Ritual for Iemanja -- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (seaside rituals for the goddess of the sea and carnal pleasure, followed by a swinging party in the city and on the beaches overnight)

     Samoan Fire Dance -- Samoa

     Swinging the Fireballs -- Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland

     Universal Hour of Peace -- begins at 11:30pm your local time, welcome the New Year with peace

     Watch Night -- Christian

     World Peace Meditation Day (International observance of one hour beginning 12:00 PM GMT, focusing thought and energy on peace.)

No Resolution Day / Ditch the Resolutions Day -- if you don't want to, you don't have to!

Restoration Day -- Geneva, Switzerland

Seventh Day of Christmas

St. Sylvester's Day (Patron of Feroleto Antico, Italy; Poggio Catino, Italy) related observances

     Saint Sylvester's Day Celebrations-- Belgium, Germany, France and Switzerland

     Silvesterklause -- Urnäsch, Switzerland

St. Zoticus of Constantinople's Day (Patron of the poor; often titled Feeder of Orphans)

You're All Done Day -- sponsored by something i haven't been able to pin down online called The Long Haul Committee (and it's more like "all done in" if you are like me!)

Anniversaries Today:

Gregory Peck marries Veronique Passani, 1955

Rocky Marciano marries Barbara Cousins, 1950

Bette Davis marries Arthur Farnsworth, 1940

Birthdays Today:

Joe McIntyre, 1972

Nicholas Sparks, 1965

Val Kilmer, 1959

Bebe Neuwirth, 1958

James Remar, 1953

Donna Summer, 1948

Tim Matheson, 1947

Barbara Carrera, 1945

Diane Halfin von Furstenberg, 1945

John Denver, 1943

Ben Kingsley, 1943

Andy Summers, 1942

Sarah Miles, 1941

Anthony Hopkins, 1937

Odetta, 1930

Simon Wiesenthal, 1908

George C. Marshall, 1880

Henri Matisse, 1869

Debuting/Premiering Today:

The London Eye(World's Largest Ferris Wheel), 1999

"Lost in Yonkers"(Play), 1990

"Pirates of Penzance"(Comic Opera), 1879

Today in History:

80,000 Vandals, Alans and Suebians attack the Rhine at Mainz, crossing into and beginning the invasion of Gallia, 406

Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year, 535

Ch'an monk Ho-tse Shen-hui is interred in a stupa built in China, 765

James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain) thus consummating the Christian conquest of the island of Majorca, 1229

100,000 Jews are expelled from Sicily, 1492

The British East India Company chartered, 1600

The first Huguenots depart France to Cape of Good Hope, 1687

A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax, 1695

Rhode Island establishes wage & price controls to curb inflation: Limit is 70 cents a day for carpenters, 42 cents for tailors, 1776

Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as new capital of Canada, 1857

The cornerstone is laid for Honolulu, Hawai'i's Iolani Palace, the only royal palace in the US, 1879

Edison gives 1st public demonstration of his incandescent lamp, 1879

Ellis Island (NYC) opens as a US immigration depot, 1890

Brooklyn's last day as a city, it incorporates into NYC (1/1/1898), 1897

The Boers & British army sign a peace treaty, 1902

The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York, 1904

For the first time a ball drops at Times Square to signal the new year, 1907

The last San Francisco firehorses are retired, 1921

The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC, 1923

Dr R N Harger's "drunkometer," the first breath test, is introduced in Indiana, 1938

The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom, 1960

The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia, 1963

The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government, 1983

All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved, 1991

Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, 1992

This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones, 1994

The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency, 1998

The United States Government hands control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama, 1999

The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, 2004

Italy's ban of plastic bags goes into effect, 2010

A ship abandoned by human traffickers who deliberately set it on a collision course with the Italian coast is brought to shore safely by the Italian Coast Guard with 900 Syrian refugees on board, 2014