Pick Me! Pick Me! (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Vanity (Poetry Monday)

(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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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!

Some kittens just snooze, but some almost beg to come home with you:

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Sparks, the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, is on hiatus, so here's an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.

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Delores and her friend Jenny are taking turns providing a theme for Poetry Monday, and i am trying my hand at participating.  This weeks theme is Hair.      

Vanity

My Sweetie has a headful

Of thick and curly locks.

He keeps each one positioned

Like runners on starting blocks.

He fusses and he fumes

And makes quite a to-do,

Carries brushes with him,

In case the wind hairs blew.

Yes, he’s a musician,

And of his hair quite vain,

It’s quite an imposition if

On his coif it does rain.

He’s now in middle ages

When men’s hairs begin to fall,

And tho’ he’s not lost any yet,

The thought does cast a pall.

He'd never live it down

And he'd do whatever stalled

The loss, and he'd forever mourn

If he were to go bald.

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Today is:

Dairokuten-no-Hadaka Matsuri -- Chiba, Japan (around this date; one of Japan's "naked" festivals, as participants wear only a loincloth as they wrestle in the cold, wet mud, bringing luck to the community as they run through the crowds smearing the lucky mud on the onlookers)

Dance of the Secret Places -- Fairy Calendar

Dag van de Revolutie -- Suriname (Day of Liberation and Innovation)

Fairtrade Fortnight begins -- UK (a chance to get involved in making sure farmers in developing countries have fair wages and good working conditions)  

Februaristaking -- Netherlands (commemoration of a strike against the Nazis)

Festival of Ptah -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo -- Houston, TX, US (since 1932, great rodeo action and top-name entertainment; through Mar. 17)

Kitano Baika-sai (Plum Blossom Festival) -- Kitano Tenman-gu Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Let's All Eat Right Day -- in honor of the birth of Adelle Davis in 1904, an early pioneer in good nutrition

National Chocolate Covered Peanuts Day -- some sites say any nuts will do, some specify peanuts; take your pick

National Clam Chowder Day -- not to be confused with New England Clam Chowder Day, back in January

National Day -- Kuwait

People's Revolution Day/People Power Day -- Philippines

Pistol Patent Day -- Samuel Colt received US Patent #138 for the first pistol on this day in 1836

Quiet Day -- can't find the history behind this one, but mommy wants one!

St. Walburga's Day (Patron of boatmen/mariners/sailors/watermen, harvests; Antwerp, Belgium; Eichstätt, Germany; Gronigen, Netherlands; Oudenarde, Belgium; Plymouth, England; Zutphen, Netherlands; against coughs, dog bites, famine, hydrophobia/rabies, mad dogs, plague, storms)

Soviet Occupation Day -- Georgia

Birthdays Today:

Josh Wolff, 1977

Chelsea Handler,1975

Sean Astin, 1971

Tea Leoni, 1966

Carrot Top, 1965

Lee Evans, 1964

Neil Jrdan, 1950

Ric Flair, 1949

Karen Grassle, 1944

George Harrison, 1943

Diane Baker, 1938

Tom Courtenay, 1937

Bob Schieffer, 1937

Sally Jessy Raphael, 1935

"Texas Rose" Bascom, 1922

Bobby Riggs, 1918

Anthony Burgess, 1917

Jim Backus, 1913

Millicent Hammond Fenwick, 1910

Adelle Davis, 1904

Zeppo Marx, 1901

Meher Baba, 1894

Enrico Caruso, 1873

Charles Lang Freer, 1856

Pierre Auguste Renoir, 1841

Xuande, Emperor of China, 1398

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"A Little Night Music"(Musical), 1973

"Toys in the Attic"(Play), 1960

"Wonderful Town"(Musical), 1953

"Your Show of Shows"(TV), 1950

"Natoma"(Herbert Opera), 1911

"Riders to the Sea"(Play), 1904

"Hernani"(Victor Hugo Play), 1830

Today in History:

The First Bank of the United States is chartered, 1791

The German Midiatisation is enacted, taking over 1,000 German sovereign states into about 40 larger entities, 1803

Samuel Colt patents the first revolving barrel multishot firearm, 1836

The first US electric printing press is patented by Thomas Davenport, 1837

Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress, 1870

The US Steel Corp. is organized under J P Morgan, 1901

The Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver 7 sweep Toronto Marlboroughs in 2 games, 1904

Marie-Adélaïde, the eldest of six daughters of Guillaume IV, becomes the first reigning Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, 1912

Oregon places a 1 cent per U.S. gallon tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax, 1919

Diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union are established, 1925

Glacier Bay National Monument (now Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve) is established in Alaska, 1925

Francisco Franco becomes General of Spain, 1926

Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, D.C. becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission, 1928

The USS Ranger is launched. It is the first US Navy ship to be built solely as an aircraft carrier, 1933

In occupied Amsterdam, a general strike is declared in response to increasing anti-Jewish measures instituted by the Nazis, 1941

The first Pan American Games are held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1951

Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston, 1964

The first unit of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, the first commercial nuclear power station in Canada, goes online, 1971

President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the first Filipino woman president, 1986

In the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, Baruch Goldstein opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers and injuring 125 more, 1994

In the Irish general election, the Fianna Fáil-led government suffered the worst defeat of a sitting government since the formation of the Irish state, 2011

The World Health Organization removes India from the list of polio endemic countries, 2012

Hundreds of pro-Russian protesters block the Crimean parliament and demand a referendum on Crimea's independence, 2014

The XXIII Winter Olympic Games close in Pyeongchang, Korea; Norway wins a record 39 medals, 14 gold, 2018