Tape It Up (Six Sentence Story) and Nice Hideaway (Good Fences)

(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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"Hand me a strip of tape, please -- yes, that's right, and I'll need at least three more about that size."

"I can't believe it broke!"

"I can't believe you slammed it down so hard when it was full."

"I remember when things were durable and built to last and didn't break so easily!  We need to get one that is made of metal, not plastic."

"If it's made of metal, I won't be able to lift it when it's full, so we stick with plastic and we don't slam it down so hard."

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Strip.      

(The above is an almost verbatim conversation between a husband and wife, can you guess who?)

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Gosia, of Looking for Identity, has taken over Good Fences, and it's now Good Fences Around The World.  Post a picture of a fence or gate, link back to her blog, and go visit other blogs to see what interesting fences there are out in this big world.

This fence makes for a nice, cozy hideaway of a back yard:

     

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Today is:

Alasitis Fair -- Aymara Indians, Bolivia (offerings to the god of prosperity, now celebrated in conjunction with the Roman Catholic Feast of Our Lady of Peace, for whom La Paz is named)

Beer Can Appreciation Day -- the first canned beer went on sale today in 1935

Belly Laugh Day -- at 1:24pm local time, join the Belly Laugh Bounce Around the World!

Clashing Clothes Day -- "officially" (although i'm not sure who declared it) on the 4th Thursday of January, but some people seem to celebrate it every day

Economic Liberation Day -- Togo

Eskimo Pie Day -- patented this day in 1921

Fairy-Four Paganalia -- Fairy Calendar

Get to Know Your Customers Day -- on the 4th Thursday of each quarter

Gold Rush Day -- US (gold is discovered at Sutter's Mill, sparking the California Gold Rush, in 1848)

National Compliment Day -- begun by Debby Hoffman and Kathy Chamberlin, a day in which to compliment at least 5 people

National Peanut Butter Day

Opposite Day -- internet generated, and fun if you play it right

Oregon Truffle Festival -- Eugene, OR, US (celebrating the high-end culinary delight that is the lowly truffle, with seminars, cooking demos, and more; through Sunday)

Paul Pitcher Day (So called because it is the eve of the Celebration of St. Paul's Conversion on the road to Damascus.  Cornish tin miners would traditionally set up a water pitcher in a public place and throw stones at it to destroy it.  A replacement pitcher was then bought and filled with beer, which was drunk and replenished through the day.  These miners were great inventors for reasons to celebrate, and they did this to rebel against the rule that only water was to be consumed during the work day.)

Sailing of Bast -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (people sailed the Nile to converge on Bubastis and celebrate the cat goddess; date approximate)

Sementivae, in honor of Ceres and Terra, begins -- Roman Empire (one of the few dating approximate items on the Roman Calendar, as each area of the Empire celebrated according to the timing of a local magistrate, but now through Feb. 2 was a typical time)

Social Sipping and Nibbling Rehearsal Day -- a day to practice cutting a piece of cake on a paper plate, using a plastic fork, and also balancing a napkin and punch in a paper cup; or practicing what clever thing you will say if you drop it all

Sundance Film Festival -- Park City, UT, US (the premier US independent films festival; through Feb. 3)

St. Francis de Sales' Day (Patron of authors/journalists/writers, confessors, deaf people, educators/teachers; Champdepraz, Aosta, Italy; against deafness)

St. Moritz Polo World Cup on Snow -- St. Moritz, Switzerland (winter polo on the frozen lake of St. Moritz; through Sunday)

TV Game Show Day -- birth anniversary of Mark Goodson

Winter Carnival -- St. Paul, MN, US (a tradition over 100 years in the making; through February 2)

Women's Healthy Weight Day -- on the Thursday of Healthy Weight Week, encouraging women to strive for a healthy weight and lifestyle     

Ziua Unirii -- Romania (Unification Day)

Anniversaries Today:

Popeye meets Olive Oyl, 1929 (in Elzie Segar's Thimble Theater comic strip)

Birthdays Today:

Mischa Barton, 1986

Tatyana Ali, 1979

Ed Helms, 1974

Matthew Lillard, 1970

Mary Lou Retton, 1968

Nastassia Kinski, 1960

Jools Holland, 1958

Yakov Smirnoff, 1951

John Belushi, 1949

Warren Zevon, 1947

Michael Ontkean, 1946

Sharon Tate, 1943

Neil Diamond, 1941

Aaron Neville, 1941

Ray Stevens, 1939

Maria Tallchief, 1925

Jerry Maren, 1920

Oral Roberts, 1918

Ernest Borgnine, 1917

Jack Brickhouse, 1916

Mark Goodson, 1915

Granny D, 1910 (formerly Granny Haddock, or Ethel Doris Haddock, political activist)

Edith Wharton, 1862

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"I, Puritani"(Bellini Opera), 1835

Today in History:

Caligula, known for his cruel despotism, is assassinated and succeeded by his uncle Claudius, 41

Connecticut colony organizes under Fundamental Orders, 1639

The first Jewish doctor in US, Jacob Lumbrozo, arrives in Maryland, 1656

Henry Knox arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that he has transported from Fort Ticonderoga, 1776

The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first full-fledged university in south Asia,1857

The Romania principality arises under King Alexander Cuza, with Bucharest as the capital, 1862

General Baden-Powell's publication of Scouting for Boys starts the Boy Scouts movement, 1908

The Gregorian calendar introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective from February 14(NS), 1918

Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor-General of Canada, 1952

A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost, 1961

Jackie Robinson is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame, 1962

Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II, 1972

Soviet satellite Cosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered, 1978

The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale, 1984

Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 km (50,680 miles) of Uranus, 1986

Japan launches Hiten, the country's first lunar probe,and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than Soviet Union or the United States, 1990

Lara Giddings becomes the first female Premier of the Australian state of Tasmania , 2011

European Bioinformatics Institute scientists announce they have successfully stored audio and text on fragments of DNA, and retrieved them with 99.99% accuracy - the first time in history DNA has been used for data storage, 2013

On this 10th anniversary of the Opportunity rover landing on Mars, NASA announces the rover has discovered clay minerals indicating water flowed on Mars early in the planet's history, 2014

Officials at the World Health Organization state that the number of new Ebola cases is rapidly declining, signaling a reversal of the epidemic, 2015