Ignored (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.)

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts that encourages us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by Margaret Adamson and her friend Sue Fulton, with some pictures by her friend Bill Dodds, and are posted by Elephant's Child.                       

This weeks prompts are:

1. Haircut
2. Speculate
3. Dangling
4. Mollusks
5. Crinoline
6. Couches 

 And/Or

1. Basketball
2. Thimble
3. Knickers
4. Juggling
5. Freelance
6. Parachute

When the barber turned to him with a smile and indicated that he should come and take the now empty seat, he stood more slowly than was technically necessary for him, and hesitated once he was standing.  How, he was wondering, did I end up needing a HAIRCUT the one week of the year my own barber goes on vacation?  And further, how did I end up in a barber shop that has a THIMBLE on the counter next to the cash register, a basket full of MOLLUSKS shells by way of decoration next to the barber's sink, and a basket of potpourri on the tray table with the coffee pot?

Deciding it was useless to SPECULATE any further upon the situation he now found himself in, he tried to hide his discomfort by tossing the magazine he'd been perusing nonchalantly toward a stack of reading material on the table nearest to the worn vinyl COUCHES that graced the waiting area of the establishment and took the seat indicated.

The drape the barber put around his neck looked more like a PARACHUTE and felt more like CRINOLINE than any he had ever worn at his usual shop.  As he tried to lose himself in the BASKETBALL game on the TV that was DANGLING at a neck straining angle, he hoped this barber wouldn't turn out to be all chatty the way some of them were.

He was only partially lucky in that respect.  The barber, beyond asking him what type of cut he wanted, didn't try to chat him up, but spent the entire time carrying on with the second barber, the other customers who came in and out, and with the younger lady who came in JUGGLING an extra pot of water to make more coffee in one hand and a tray of sweets in the other.

She was followed in by a little boy in KNICKERS who ran to the barber for a hug.  The barber looked at him and said, "My grandson," by way of explaining why he stopped to give the child a quick hug and a "get along with you now, I'm working and I'll be home soon."

He found himself curious in spite of his resolve to keep himself to himself, get the cut, and get out.  "Is she your daughter?" he asked.

"Daughter-in-law.  My son was a FREELANCE journalist, got killed covering the war in Afghanistan.  I made them come live with me, they are all I have now besides my shop and my customers.  She loves to bake, that one, so she brings sweets and makes the coffee."

"And the thimble by the cash register?" he asked, curiosity continuing to get the better of him.

The barber laughed.  "We have them everywhere.  She's a sewer, that one, makes clothes for herself and the boy, and alters clothes for other people to bring in money.  If I can ever get the permit, I want to add another room to the shop so she can have her own store."

At that point, the barber yanked the cape off of him, and he stood and stretched, feeling a little wobbly for a moment.  After he paid, including a nice tip, the barber smiled at him, offered his hand and said, "Don't be a stranger!"

The barber's grip was warm and friendly, and he left wondering if maybe he should rethink always going to the same shop every time.

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Today is:

Children's Day -- Australia

Feast of Good & Plenty (the candies)

Food Day -- US (inspiring people to change their diets and our food policies)   

Full Hunter's Moon/Full Blood Moon/Full Sanguine Moon (some also consider this the true Harvest Moon, if last month's came too early)

    Boun Ok Phansa and Ventiane -- Laos (end of "Buddist Lent" and a traditional boat race festival starting tomorrow with hundreds of decorated candle-lit floats made of paper set adrift in the rivers)

    Kojagrat Purnima -- Nepal (end of Dashain)

    Thadingyut Full Moon/"Buddhist Lent" ends -- Myanmar (begins at sunset, through tomorrow)

    Vap Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka

Independence Day -- Zambia(1964)

Lakshmi Puja -- OR, TR, WB, India (Hindu celebration during the Festival of Lights)

Lilith's Day -- Ancient Mesopotamian Calendar (Lilith, legendary first wife of Adam, mother of the giants; date approximate)

Lung Health Day -- US (on the Wednesday of Respiratory Care Week; some sites to explore about lung health are here and here)       

Maladay -- Discordianism

National Bologna Day

Share a Pop Tart With Someone You Love Day -- internet generated, and how much do you want to bet the Kellog company may have had a hand in it?

St. Anthony Claret's Day (Patron of weavers; Catholic press; Claretians; Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary)

St. Crispin's Eve Celebration -- Tenby, Wales

St. Raphael the Archangel's Day (traditional date; Patron of health inspectors, druggists, happy meetings, leaving home, travelers; against blindness)

Suez Victory Day -- Egypt

Take Back Your Time Day -- Canada; U.S. (anniversary of the day in the US that the Fair Labor Standards Act went into effect, specifying a 40-hour work week as the standard, in 1938)

United Nations Day

    Disarmament Week begins

    World Development Information Day

World Origami Days -- held each year from today, the birth anniversary of Lillian Oppenheimer, founder of the first origami societies in Britain and the US, until Nov. 11, which is Origami Day in Japan; a couple of good sites for origami here and here          

Birthdays Today:

Monica, 1980

Kevin Kline, 1947

F. Murray Abraham, 1939

Bill Wyman, 1936

David Nelson, 1936

J. P. "Big Bopper" Richardson, 1930

Y. A. Tittle, 1926

Moss Hart, 1904

Melvin Purvis, 1903

Alexandra David-Neel, 1868 (first female foreigner to explore Tibet)

Belva A. Bennett Lockwood, 1838

Sarah Joseph Hale, 1788 (author of "Mary had a little lamb")

Antony van Leeuwenhoek, 1632

Domitian, Roman Emperor, 51

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Dancing at Lughnasa"(Play), 1991

"Voices for Today"(Britten Op. 75), 1965

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game"(Single release), 1908

"Zibeunerbaron/The Gypsy Baron"(Strauss Opera), 1885

The first Transcontinental Telegram is sent, 1861

Today in History:

Cathedral of Chartres is dedicated, 1260

The Treaty of Westphalia ends the 30 Years War, recognized the independence of Switzerland, and marks the end of the Holy Roman Empire, 1648

Felix Mendelssohn, age 9, performs his first public concert in Berlin, 1818

The match is patented, by A. Phillips, 1836

The first US transcontinental telegram is sent, from San Francisco to Washington, DC, ending the need for the Pony Express after only 2 years, 1861

Levi P. Morton, US ambassador to France, drives the first rivet for the Statue of Liberty, 1881

Dr. Robert Koch discovers the germ that causes tuberculosis, 1882

Anna Taylor becomes the first woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, 1901

The first NYC subway opens, 1904

Harry Houdini's last performance, 1926

The Hershey Company is incorporated, 1927

"Black Thursday", the start of the stock market crash, Dow Jones down 12.8%, 1929

Al Capone is sentenced for tax evasion, 1931

The George Washington Bridge, connecting NY to NJ, opens, 1931

US forbids child labor in factories, 1938

The United Nations Charter is signed by the first member nations, 1945

Eisenhower pledges US support to South Vietnam, 1954

Government of Poland legalizes Solidarity trade union, 1980

Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission, 1998

The Concorde makes its last commercial flight, 2003

Justice Rutherford of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice struck down the "motive clause", an important part of the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act, 2006

"Bloody Friday" saw many of the world's stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices, 2008

The Northern Lights become visible over much of North America due to a coronal mass ejection, 2011

The E.U. plans to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent compared to 1990 levels and increase renewables to 27 percent of all energy sources, 2014

Iditarod officials confirm that some dogs in the race have been doped after they tested positive for banned substances, 2017