Cats, Books, Computer, Hibernate! (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday.

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 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.     

birthday

robbery

earthquake

execution

Pooh

Paris

and/or

Hepburn

ferry

murder

rolling

ledger

Tobruk

You look rather forlorn this morning.

“I had the weirdest dream last night.”

What happened?

“I was in TOBRUK, Libya, right after the war making a film with HEPBURN...”

Be specific, which one?

“Katharine.  Anyway, it was her BIRTHDAY, and for some reason I was determined to get her a Winnie-the-POOH decorated cake, and the baker kept pulling out a LEDGER and pointing to how much it was going to cost, and telling me it would take too long to bake.”

Maybe he didn’t know the character, it would seem odd for a baker in Libya to be familiar with an English children’s book character.

“Well, whether he knew about POOH or not, he kept talking about price and then someone else came in.  The other person started to commit a ROBBERY, telling the baker to give him his money, so the baker chased him out with his ROLLING pin.”

Odder and odder.

“The baker smacked the would-be robber with the heavy pin and killed him, so he was put on trial for MURDER.  I was a witness at the trial that he was just defending his shop, but they convicted him.  By now, the director of the movie was mad at me for never being on the set while dealing with all this other stuff.”

Some directors are rather like that.

“Yes, well, so Katharine and I were going to take a FERRY back to PARIS, but I couldn’t abide seeing the EXECUTION of the baker.  We were discussing how to save him and bring him with us when there was an EARTHQUAKE.  In the confusion, we snuck the baker away, and I woke up just as I was about to kiss Katharine in celebration as we sailed out of the harbor.”

So that’s why you are so glum.

“Of course.  It’s the only chance I would ever have gotten to kiss her, and I woke up!”

Well it’s a shame, but if it will make you feel better, I’ll kiss you.

“Oh, go soak your head!”

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Today is:

Apple Wassailing Day -- Carhampton, England (ancient tradition to bless the trees, waking the tree spirits and scaring away bad spirits)

Blessing of the Animals -- Hispanic Christian (in association with St. Anthony's Day)

Ditch Your New Years Resolutions Day -- no info on origin, but probably someone who gave up; will you?

Felicitas -- Ancient Roman Calendar (honoring the goddess of good luck)

Festival of Janus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (main festival for the god of beginnings, endings, and doorways)

Hot Heads Chili Day -- no clue what this one means, but i guess we can have chili for dinner

Illinois Snow Sculpting Competition -- Rockford, IL, US (frozen art fun, with this year's theme "Forgotten America"; through Saturday)

Kid Inventors' Day -- celebrating how inventive kids are; on the birth anniversary of Ben Franklin, who invented swim fins at age 12

Liberation Day -- Poland (liberation from the Nazis in 1945)

Make Your All-Time Top Ten Favorite TV Characters List -- because nothing says you can't make your own top ten lists

National Hot Buttered Rum Day

Patras Carnival -- Patras, Greece (the town crier announces the opening ceremony, with festivities through Clean Monday)

Patrice Lumumba -- Democratic Republic of the Congo (Heroes' Day)

Popeye Day -- The Sailor Man debut in the comics this date in 1929

Professional Boxer's Day -- Ali's birth anniversary

St. Anthony the Great's Day (a/k/a Anthony of Egypt, Anthony the Abbot, Patriarch of the Abbots; Patron of amputees, animals/domestic animals, basket weavers, brush makers, butchers, cemetary workers/grave diggers, epileptics, hermits, monks, relief from pestilence, swine/hogs, swineherds; Hospitaliers; Burgio, Sicily, Italy; Canas, Brazil; Castrofilippo, Agrigento, Italy; Fivizzano, Italy; Fontainemore, Italy; Mook, Netherlands; Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Italy; against eczema, epilepsy, ergotism, erysipelas, pestilence, Saint Anthony's Fire, skin diseases and rashes) related observance

    Blessing of the Animals at the Cathedral -- Church of San Antonio, Mexico City, Mexico (where this saint is San Antonio Abad)

Vancouver International Boat Show -- Vancouver, BC, Canada (with two venues in the city, there is sure to be enough to delight even the pickiest sailors; through Sunday)

Zirgu Diena -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (Day of the Horses)

Anniversaries Today:

George Burns marries Gracie Allen, 1926

Octavian marries Livia Drusilla, BC38

Birthdays Today:

Kid Rock, 1971

Naveen Andrews, 1969

Michelle Obama, 1964

Jim Carrey, 1962

Susanna Hoffs, 1959

Anthony Glise, 1956

Andy Kaufman, 1949

Muhammad Ali, 1942

Maury Povich, 1939

Shari Lewis, 1934

James Earl Jones, 1931

Don Zimmer, 1931

Vidal Sassoon, 1928

Eartha Kitt, 1927

Betty White, 1922

Al Capone, 1899

Nevil Shute, 1899

Robert Maynard Hutchins, 1899

Mack Sennett, 1884

David Lloyd George, 1863

Anton Chekhov, 1860

Anne Bronte, 1820

Benjamin Franklin, 1706

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Frontline"(TV), 1983

"The Goldbergs"(TV), 1949

"Popeye the Sailor Man"(Comic character created by Elzie Segar, in the Thimble Theatre comic strip), 1929

"The Cherry Orchard"(Chekhov Play), 1904

"The Rivals"(Sheridan Play), 1775

Today in History:

Pope Gregory XI moves the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon, 1377

Cesare Borgia returns in triumph to Rome from Romagna, 1501

Giovanni da Verrazzano begins his voyage to find a passage to China, 1524

The Edict of St Germain recognizes Huguenots in France, 1562

England's Long Parliament passes the Vote of No Addresses, breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War, 1648

An avalanche destroys every building in Leukerbad, Switzerland, kills 53, 1718

Capt James Cook becomes the first to cross Antarctic Circle (66° 33' S), 1773

The first cable car patented, by Andrew S Hallidie (begins service in 1873), 1871

Queen Liliuokalani is deposed, the Kingdom of Hawaii becomes a republic, 1893

Sir Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen, 1912

The first fully automatic photographic film developing machine patented, 1928

Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews from the Nazis, is arrested by secret police in Hungary, 1945

The United Nations Security Council holds its first meeting, 1946

The Goldbergs, the first sitcom on American television, first airs, 1949

The Great Brinks Robbery - 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car Company's offices in Boston, Massachusetts, 1950

The world's first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, makes its maiden voyage, 1955

A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea in the Palomares incident, 1966

Harald V becomes King of Norway on the death of his father, Olav V, 1991

The Czech Republic applies for membership of the European Union, 1996

Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people, 2002

Rioting begins between Muslim and Christian groups in Jos, Nigeria, which resulting in at least 200 deaths, 2010

Japan unveils plans to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, 2013