File This Under Weird Stuff in Client Bedrooms (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.)

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday.

***********************************

Words for Wednesday

Words for Wednesday is a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts that encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.  This month, the prompts are being posted by Cindi at Letting the Words Escape.  

1. bloody
2. confidence
3. ranger
4. Apollo
5. submarine
6. Byron

and/or

1. dictionary
2. groundhog
3. dancing
4. rain
5. silent
6. Germany

"I love GROUNDHOG Day," Em said, apropos of nothing but the fact that February would bring the day they launched the SUBMARINE.

"In GERMANY it is Hedgehog Day," Carl noted.  "Our German ancestors brought it to the New World with them, but had to pick a different critter."

"Sorry, you two," Allen chimed in, "but I have no BLOODY CONFIDENCE in the weather prognostications of any of those animals.  We just need for the RAIN to stay away to make this successful."

"It's really a good theory," she continued.  "If the weather is great and the animal sees its shadow, you are actually having a lull in the winter and it will come roaring back.  If the day is overcast and nasty or has a cold RAIN so that it sees no shadow, winter is spending itself out already so the spring will come earlier.  The British would say, 'If Candlemas Day is clear and bright, winter will have another bite.'"

"And if you believe that," Allen said with a grin, "the Greek god APOLLO will come to the launch and start DANCING with you!"

"Or our friend BYRON will become an Army RANGER," Carl joked as Byron came running in, his DICTIONARY tucked under his arm.

"What?" Byron asked as they all laughed.  They were SILENT for a moment, none wanting to hurt his feelings.

"We were just talking about Groundhog Day coming up, and these two don't believe in it," Em said.

"It's a cool tradition," Byron said.  "In fact, it's a great holiday because you celebrate it by doing nothing.  No decorations, no foods to prepare, nothing to clean up after.  Just watch the weather."

"You and I will celebrate together, then," Em said with a smile.

***********************************

Today is:

Backward Day -- no info on the origin, but if you want to do something backward, go ahead

Eat Brussels Sprouts Day --  saute in olive oil with some garlic, they are worth it!

Eve of Brigantia -- Ireland (St. Bridget's Eve, the night when she crosses the countryside and bestows blessings)

Feast of Great Typos -- another that no one will claim inventing, but since we've all made them, we may as well celebrate them

Feast of Isis -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Full Snow Moon -- sometimes also called the Full Hunger Moon, as the most snow falls this month and finding food is hardest

    Meaka Bochea -- Buddhist (celebration of the final sermon of Buddha)

    Navam Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka

    Spring Lantern Festival -- China (final day of the Chinese New Year celebrations)

    Tabodwe Full Moon -- Myanmar (month of Hta-Ma-Ne Feast, the harvest festival of Thanksgiving)

Guru Ravidas Jayanti -- CH, HP, HR, MP, and PB, India

H&ll is Freezing Over Day -- internet generated day to review the list of things you said you would do when h*ll freezes over

Independence Day -- Nauru(1968)

Inspire Your Heart With the Arts Day -- begun by Rev. Jayne Howard Feldman as a day to use art to feed your soul

National Brandy Alexander Day

National Bug Busting Day -- UK (this is one idea that needs export to the whole world! the aim is to have every child checked for head lice on the same day, and thus get rid of them in one fell swoop, so they don't circulate endlessly)

National Gorilla Suit Day -- Mad Magazine's Maddest Artist, Don Martin, says this is the day to pull that gorilla suit out of the closet and step out in style.

Phlegm-Green, Moldy-Grey, and Gazzard Day -- Fairy Calendar (don't ask what color Gazzard is, it doesn't exist in the human world, and you don't want it to)

Play An Old Game You Haven’t Played in Years Night -- internet generated, and a great idea

Scotch Tape Day -- it hit the market this day in 1928

St. John Bosco's Day (Patron of apprentices, boys, editors, laborers, schoolchildren, students, young people-especially youth of Mexican descent)

US National Snow Sculpting Competition and Championships -- Lake Geneva, WI, US (through Sunday)

Tu B'Shevat -- Judaism ("New Year of the Trees", began yesterday at sunset, through sunset today)

Birthdays Today:

Justin Timberlake, 1981

Kerry Washington, 1977

Portia de Rossi, 1973

Minnie Driver, 1971

Kelly Lynch, 1959

John Lydon, 1956

Nolan Ryan, 1947

Charlie Musselwhite, 1944

Richard Gephardt, 1941

Jessica Walter, 1941

Stuart Margolin, 1940

Queen Beatrix, 1938

suzanne Pleshette, 1937

Philip Glass, 1937

James Franciscus, 1934

Ernie Banks, 1931

Jean Simmons, 1929

Carol Channing, 1923

Norman Mailer, 1923

Mario Lanza, 1921

Jackie Robinson, 1919

Thomas Merton, 1915

Garry Moore, 1915

Tallulah Bankhead, 1903

Eddie Cantor, 1892

Zane Grey, 1872

Franz Schubert, 1797

Robert Morris, 1734

Tokugawa Ieyasu, Shogun of Japan, 1543

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"These Are My Children"(TV), 1949 (first daytime TV Soap Opera)

"The Green Hornet"(Radio), 1936

"The Lone Ranger"(Radio), 1933

"Three Sisters"(Chekhov Play), 1901

"Hedda Gabler"(Ibsen Play), 1891

Today in History:

Guy Fawkes is executed for his plotting against Parliament and James I of England, 1606

The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital, 1747

The Corn Laws (tariffs on imported grains) are abolished in Britain, paving the way for more free trade, 1849

The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations, 1876

The Bulletin of Sydney is founded, publishes for 128 years, 1880

An automobile exceeds 100 mph (161 kph) for the first time, at Daytona Beach, driven by A. G. MacDonald, 1905

The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky, 1929

Scotch tape is first marketed by the 3M Company, 1930

Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont, US receives the first US Social Security monthly payment check, for $22.54, 1940

President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb, 1950

A North Sea flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands, 1953

Explorer 1 – The first successful launch of an American satellite into orbit, 1958

James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt, 1958

Mercury-Redstone 2 – Ham the Chimp travels into outer space, 1961

The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program, 1966

Astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell, aboard a Saturn V, lift off for a mission to the Fra Mauro Highlands on the Moon, 1971

The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow, 1990

Comet Hyakutake is discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake, 1996

NASA reveals the Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot (RASSOR), a lunar mining robot which could be used to produce fuel and water directly on the Moon, 2013

All the News (Random Tuesday)

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.)

It’s Random Tuesday time!  This post is linking up with Stacy’s Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked.  

Little Girl just returned from her winter training.  Some of the soldiers were assigned to tents, and it was so cold, she woke up one morning with ice in her hair.  After that, the powers that be decided to cram everyone into the barracks whether they could really fit them all or not.

She passed all of her fitness tests and requalified as a sharpshooter, too.

#2 Son and Daughter-in-Law Becky have already filed their taxes.  Show-offs.  (Actually, i am quite proud of them for getting it done so soon.  Our own are not so easy, owning a business complicates everything dreadfully.)  The CPA has just gotten us our packets, so i now have no choice but to get going on our numbers.

Bigger Girl is chomping at the bit to move out early next month.  She will have two roommates and be much closer to campus.  That’s a great thing for her lab work with the bacteria, as she and her partner have to do a count every 12 hours to make sure the bacteria are growing and multiplying properly.  The morning count is before classes, at 6:30am, so once she moves she won’t have to get up as early to get there.

It’s been interesting having posts at Blogger and Wordpress, and i’m not totally comfortable on the new platform yet.  In fact, i cannot for the life of me figure out how to set up Wordpress so that i don’t have to approve all comments.

(By the way, Annie of McGuffy’s Reader, you asked me to email you but i still cannot for the life of me find your email address.  If you want to write to me, i’m messymimi at live dot com.)

Other than the comment issue, i find it’s just as easy to copy to both as to one, so i may stick with it this way.  People who are on Wordpress can read me there, and the same with the Blogger folks.  All my writing is done as a note on the iPad anyway, so copying to two places instead of one doesn’t take long.

This is my busy week, and i have two extra jobs on Saturday, so please forgive me if i’m getting behind with my reading.  Eventually i do catch up.

Today is:

Cash Register Day -- James Ritty and John Birch were granted a patent on this day in 1883 for an early mechanical cash register

Congressional Brawl Day -- marking the first ever all out brawl in the US Congress in 1798

Draw A Dinosaur Day -- and post it to the web site  

Feast of King Charles the Martyr -- Anglican

Fred Korematsu Day -- US (honoring the civil rights activist who protested the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII) 

Inane Answering Message Day -- the day to change those annoying messages, sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

King's Birthday -- Jordan

Martyrs' Day -- India (assassination anniversary of Gandhi)

National Croissant Day

Pax -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Festival of Peace)

Puce and Ochre Day -- Fairy Calendar

School Day of Nonviolence and Peace -- sponsored by DENIP

Shiretoko Fantasia -- Shiretoko, Hokkaido, Japan (laser lights and music illuminate the drift ice and waves of the Okhotsk Sea each night; through Feb. 29)

St. Aldegund's Day (Patron of cancer patients; against cancer, childhood diseases, sudden death, wounds)

St. Bathilde's Day (Patron of children, sick people, widows; against bodily ills and sickness)

St. Martina of Rome's Day (Patron of nursing mothers; Rome, Italy)

Three Archbishops' Day -- Eastern Orthodox (a/k/a Holy Hierarchs' Day)

Tu B'Shevat -- Judaism ("New Year of the Trees", begins at sunset)

Up-Helly-AA Day -- Lerwick, Shetland (the largest fire festival in Europe, with tomorrow as a day off so everyone can recover)

Yodel For Your Neighbors Day -- Why?  Do you hate your neighbors?

Birthdays Today:

Johnathan Lee Iverson, 1976

Christian Bale, 1974

Brett Butler, 1958

Phil Collins, 1951

Charles Dutton, 1951

Steve Marriott, 1947

Marty Balin, 1942

Dick Cheney, 1941

Vanessa Redgrave, 1937

Boris spassky, 1937

Tammy Grimes, 1934

Louis Ruckeyser, 1933

Gene Hackman, 1930

Dorothy Malone, 1925

Dick Martin, 1922

Barbara W. Tuchman, 1912

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882

Isaiah Thomas, 1749

Thomas Rolfe, 1615 (Only child of John Rolfe and Pocahontas.)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Yogi Bear Show"(TV), 1958

"Robert Montgomery Presents"(TV), 1950

"City Lights"(Chaplin Movie), 1931

Today in History:

The Jews of Freilsburg, Germany, are massacred, 1349

King Charles I of England is beheaded, 1649

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed after having been dead for two years, 1661

The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Oishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master, 1703

Henry Greathead tests the first boat intended to be specialized as a lifeboat for rescue purposes, which he invented, on the River Tyne in England, 1790

The burned Library of Congress is reestablished, with Thomas Jefferson contributing, 1815

Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica, 1820

The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales is opened, 1826

A fire destroys two-thirds of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, 1841

The city of Yerba Buena is renamed San Francisco, for the nearby mission of the same name, 1847

William Wells Brown publishes the first Black drama, "Leap to Freedom," 1858

The US Navy's first ironclad warship, the Monitor, is launched, 1862

The pneumatic hammer is patented by Charles King of Detroit, 1894

The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy, 1911

The House of Lords rejects the Irish Home Rule Bill, 1913

"The Lone Ranger" begins a 21 year run on ABC radio, 1933

Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is assassinated by Pandit Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist, 1948

American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1956

The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police, 1969

Carole King's Tapestry album is released, it would become the longest charting album by a female solo artist and sell 24 million copies worldwide, 1971

Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations, 1972

The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary was established as the first United States National Marine Sanctuary, 1975

Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner", 1982

Peter Leko of Hungary becomes the world's youngest chess grand master at age 14, 1994

Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease, 1995

Over half a million people participate in the world's largest wildlife survey after extreme cold drives exotic birds into Britain's back gardens, 2011

They Practically “Sell” Themselves (Awww Monday) and Sparks!

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.)

Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee, of Comedy Plus.

Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays.  Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it. 

Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you.  What better way to start the week than with a smile!

More of our adorable adoptables at the shelter:

***********************************

The wonderful Annie of McGuffy's Reader has started the blog hop called Sparks as a way to put more positive energy into the world.  Join her in combating the often negative influence of social media by adding your own Spark!

I believe we are meant to be lights in this world. If we allow our light to shine, we can see where we are going. It is then that we can begin to truly see each other clearly. Together, we can light up the entire world! ~ McGuffy Ann Morris

My "Spark" for the day

***********************************

Today is:

Auckland Province Anniversary -- Auckland, New Zealand

Blue and Pink Day -- Fairy Calendar

Bubblegum Sculpture Day -- commonly listed on ecard sites, and not to be confused with National Bubble Gum Day, coming in February

Carnation Day -- in honor of William McKinley; also on the date of his assassination each year, Sept. 14

Curmudgeons' Day -- W.C. Field's birth anniversary

National Corn Chip Day

National Cowboy Poetry Gathering -- Elko, NV, US (the nation's greatest celebration of the American West, with working cowboys, this year including butteri from Italy, attend workshops, jam sessions, performances, and enjoy art and exhibits; through Saturday)

National Puzzle Day -- because they are just fun

Nelson Provincial Anniversary Day -- Nelson, New Zealand

Sahid Diwash -- Nepal (Martyrs' Day)

St. Constantius of Perugia (Patron of Perugia, Italy)

St. Gildas the Wise's Day (one of the earliest British historians)

Thomas Paine Day/Freethinkers' Day -- birth anniversary of Thomas Paine

Anniversaries Today:

Establishment of The Seeing Eye, 1929 (first US guide dog school)

Kansas becomes the 34th US state, 1861

Birthdays Today:

Adam Lambert, 1982

Jonny Lang, 1981

Andrew Keegan, 1979

Sara Gilbert, 1975

Heather Graham, 1970

Bobby Phillips, 1968

Nick Turturro, 1962

Greg Louganis, 1960

Oprah Winfrey, 1954

Teresa Teng, 1953

Ann Jillian, 1950

Tom Selleck, 1945

Katharine Ross, 1942

Germaine Greer, 1939

John Forsythe, 1918

Victor Mature, 1913

Huddie William "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, 1885

W.C. Fields, 1880

Anton Chekhov, 1860

William McKinley, 1843

Henry Morton Stanley, 1841

Thomas Paine, 1737

Emanuel Swedenborg, 1688

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Sweet Charity"(Musical), 1966

"Dr. Strangelove"(Film), 1964

"Sleeping Beauty"(Cartoon movie), 1959

"The Potting Shed"(Play), 1957

"All My Sons"(Play), 1947

"The Raven"(publication date), 1845

"Idomeneo"(Mozart Opera), 1781

"The Beggar's Opera"(Gay Ballad Opera), 1728

Today in History:

The first performance of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, 1595

John Beckley of Virginia is appointed the first Librarian of Congress, 1802

Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" is first published, 1845

The Victoria Cross is established to acknowledge bravery, 1856

Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile, 1886

Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii, its last monarch, 1891

Walt Disney starts his first job as an artist, earning $40/week with the KC Slide Co, 1920

North America's first guide dog school, The Seeing Eye, is incorporated in Nashville, Tennessee, 1929

The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced, 1936

The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced, 1963

Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so, 1989

President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear weapons testing, 1996

La Fenice, Venice's opera house, is destroyed by fire, 1996

The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing, 2005

Archaeologists discover the oldest Roman Temple (6th C BC) at Sant’Omobono, 2014

Scientists announce they have discovered how to convert normal cells into stem cells in mice, 2014