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.

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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.

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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