Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Oh, How Good To See Them! (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.) 

To enjoy more blogs participating in the A to Z Challenge, click 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, i am providing the prompts.  You can write your story on your blog and leave a link here, or write your story in the comments, your choice.

Pick words from one list, or both, use them all, or use none.  The whole point is to get us writing, so please have fun with it!

This week's words are:

abounding
sloppy
quince
spiritual
toothpaste
cent

and/or

debonair
blind
instrument
bouncy
horn
decision


In public he was always quite DEBONAIR, but at home, all bets were off.  His fans would not have recognized him there, as SLOPPY would have been a nice description of his attire, and he tended to turn a BLIND eye to TOOTHPASTE spatters on the mirror or the cleaning tools for his HORN left wherever he was last tending his favorite INSTRUMENT.

He was blessed with a BOUNCY housekeeper who had ABOUNDING energy and didn't mind cleaning up his mess once a week, as she was well paid.  He'd once jokingly proposed to her, and she had laughed and said a no would be an easy DECISION, as if she was married to him, she'd have to clean this mess daily and wouldn't make a CENT.  Plus, as much as she liked him and was a big fan of his music, a May/December romance was not in her cards.

They both knew, too, that his relationship to his music was SPIRITUAL, and he had never really wanted to wed.  She told him once, as she tried to chip the dried QUINCE preserves off of the kitchen counter where he always made his breakfast, that he was already married to his job as a full time musician.  Indeed he was.

That's why they kept their friendship over the years, without making it a public spectacle.  She continued to work for him after she dropped all her other clients and was married with a different career. 

Her husband understood, the man had become her father figure after her own father died, and she was like family when what was left of his own was so far away.  She stayed to the end, and when he died, the extended family wondered what it meant that he left her not just a sum “to thank her for a job well done” as he noted in his will, but also a jar of preserves and his cleaning kit.


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Today is:

American Academy of Arts and Letters Charter Day

Bat Appreciation Day -- sponsored by Bat Conservation International, at the time of year when bats begin awakening from hibernation      

Blah, Blah, Blah Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Ellis Island Family History Day -- US (by proclamation of the nations governors and in conjunction with the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, a day to celebrate the achievements and contribution of the immigrants and their descendants who came through Ellis Island; on the anniversary of the day, in 1907, when 11,747 immigrants were processed through the island, the most in one day)    

Equality Day -- Canada (the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force on April 17, 1985, guaranteeing equality without regard to race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability)

Flag Day -- American Samoa

Ford Mustang Day -- International (on the "birthday" of the vehicle)

Independence Day / Evacuation Day -- Syria

International Day of Peasants Struggle

International Haiku Poetry Day -- sponsored by The Haiku Foundation     

Mahavir Jayanti -- Jain (honoring Lord Mahavira on the founder's birth anniversary; local dates may vary)

Myanmar New Year -- Myanmar

National Cheeseball Day

Nimble Fairies' Scattering -- Fairy Calendar

Nosy Neighbor Appreciation Day -- to be celebrated, if you dare, by greeting and thanking your neighbor for being nosy

Nothing Like A Dame Day -- a day to pay homage to the unique wit, wisdom, style and strength of dames past and present, and to cultivate the dame in you or in your life

St. Kateri Tekakwitha's Day (Patron of ecologists, ecology, environment, environmentalism, environmentalists, exiles, people who have lost their parents, people ridiculed for their piety)

St. Stephen Harding's Day (Co-founder of Cistercian Order)

Thargelia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (two day festival for the birthday of Apollon and Artemis; date approximate)

Toothbrush Appreciation Day -- think of what it would be like without one!

Verrazano Day -- New York, US (Celebrates discovery of New York harbor by Giovanni Verrazano, Florentine navigator)

Women's Day -- Gabon

World Hemophilia Day


Birthdays Today:

Victoria Beckham, 1974
Jennifer Garner, 1972
Liz Phair, 1967
Lela Rochon, 1966
Norman Julius “Boomer” Esiason, 1961
Sean Bean, 1958
Olivia Hussey, 1951
Don Kirshner, 1934
Cynthia Ozick, 1928
Harry Reasoner, 1923
William Holden, 1918
Thornton Wilder, 1897
Nikita Krushchev, 1894
Adrian Constantine “Cap” Anson, 1852
J.P. Morgan, 1837
Samuel Chase, 1741


Debuting/Premiering Today:

Caveman(Film), 1981
"McCartney"(Album), 1970 (first solo album)
"No Time for Comedy"(Play), 1939


Today in History:

Geoffrey Chaucer tells his Canterbury Tales for the first time, at the court of Richard II, ten years to the day after the pilgrimage actually began, 1397
Christopher Columbus signs his contract with Spain to find the Indes, 1492
Martin Luther stands firm and refuses to recant before the Diet of Worms, 1521
Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico in what would be one of the largest invasions of the Spanish territories in America, 1797
The first Sino-Japanese War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, 1895
A one day record 11,747 immigrants are processed at Ellis Island, 1907
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios is formed by the merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer Company, 1924
Cartoon characters Daffy Duck, Elmer J Fudd & Petunia Pig, debut, 1937
At midnight, 26 Irish counties officially break with the British Commonwealth and form the Republic of Ireland, 1949
The Bay of Pigs Invasion fiasco begins, 1961
Ford Motor Company unveils the Mustang, 1964
Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air, 1964
The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely, 1970
Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, 1982
The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly ends, 1986
NJ Devil Martin Brodeur becomes the 2nd NHL goalie to score in a playoff game, 1997
The 5th Summit of the Americas takes place in Port of Spain; Trinidad, thirty-four heads of government attend, 2005
The 8th century St. Cuthbert Gospel, Europe's oldest intact book, is purchased by the British Library for 9 million pounds, 2012
An explosion at a fertilizer plant in the city of West, Texas, causes 15 deaths and major damage to nearby buildings, residences, a nursing home and middle school, 2013
Jazz composer and musician John Coltrane is awarded a posthumous Special Citation by the Pulitzer Prize board, 2015

40 comments:

  1. If you're a fan of bees, you should visit Rick

    https://www.rickwatson-writer.com/2019/04/bee-knowledge.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/xague+(Life+101)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love those gorgous bees - and your story.

    Mine is a tad long this week.

    Who knew that the suave and debonair bachelor about town was the same person as the man convinced that insects, germs and disease were abounding on every surface. His enthusiastic and bouncy fans were certainly blind to the two sides of their much loved performer

    There was nothing sloppy about the way John presented himself to his fans. Suits, always, with a cravat to match his shirt. Quince coloured today. He spent a fortune on his attire, definitely dollars rather than cents. The decision on how to present himself was never easy but as he said 'Some people blow their horn continually. I don't need to. My clothes are the instrument which convey the standards I set for myself...'
    The other John started an orgy of cleaning before daybreak. Gloved hands scrubbed, dusted and scrubbed some more. This John viewed cleaning as a spiritual experience. He used toothpaste on the grout in his bathroom, cleaned his oven after each use and replaced his pillows each month (and his mattress at least once a year) This John washed and rewashed himself till his skin was wrinkled and red. He spent more on cleaners than he did on food.
    If the fans could see this John perhaps their adulation and envy would turn to pity. Perhaps...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm feeling a bit sorry for John, OCD is not fun to live with.

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    2. I feel sorry for John as well. He must be lonely.

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    3. It's true. So many we would never suspect are germophobes or even have full on OCD.

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    4. Interesting story this week EC
      We never know what's below the surface do we?

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    5. Yes, OCD is what came to me too, good story.

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    6. Howard Hughes -esque. Well done. The hidden side of people never ceases to amaze me.

      XO
      WWW

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  3. The nursing home next door is being demolished and our house is abounding with fleeing mice. Give the workers their due - they are not at all sloppy but they are very noisy. Sadly even the trees and shrubs are being uprooted (I don't think there were any quince). As each section of the place comes down one can see all the accoutrements of daily life - even toothpaste left on a washbasin. About fifty per cent of it is down now. I'm having real problems finding anything spiritual in the experience!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really like your take on the words. Fleeing mice? Ugh.

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    2. When a building comes down, it brings so much change. The structure is destroyed, but in some ways, so is something intangible about those who used it.

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    3. I always feel so sad seeing a building coming down, all the memories and tiny flotsam and jetsam of other lives.

      Well done!

      XO
      WWW

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    4. great use of the words, well woven story.

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  4. P>S> I love the idea of Toothbrush Appreciation Day!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love your Wednesday Words story, I like that they kept their friendship right to the end, in spite of spilled preserves dried on counter tops and splatters on mirrors.

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  6. A lovely tale of a perfect relationship albeit a little unusual! Happy Blah Blah Blah day!

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  7. We say let it bee or you might get stung!

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  8. Love the spring flowers and the bees going about their important work.

    Loved the story. I always enjoy your stories. You can get lost in one of your tales.

    Thank you for joining the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.

    Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday, my friend. ♥

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  9. Nice shots and the bees like it too heheh!

    Have a buzztastic week :-)

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  10. I have a little tree that has those yellow flowere on them. I even had flowers during the winter. The tree st in my computer room. I can't wait to put in back outside when it can flower a great deal. ee ya Mimi.

    Cruisin Paul

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  11. Mimi,

    It looks like those little guys are busy collecting nectar to fill the honeycombs. I'm not sure how the honey process works. I probably learned about it in grade school when I did a report on bees but I can't remember a thing from it now. :) I'm going to have to check on this now. ;)

    Thanks for visiting today's post A2Z Little Mermaid art sketch ‘Ollie’!

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  12. I love to see bees going about their most vital work on this earth.

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  13. Always glad to see bees at work since we all have to worry about them. Happy Wednesday.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Bees, a touching story and Haiku day. What's not to like.

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  15. Interesting WFW story, messy guy, yuk!

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  16. Busy Busy Bumblebees in their striped pyjamas:)
    Loved your little tale about a deep long lasting loving friendship.
    Mine can be found
    here



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  17. Ellis Island is SO interesting! It deserves a day in the sun.

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  18. Here is my WFW story, thanks for hosting!

    Possessed of such debonair good looks, he was blind to his own attraction. His music meant everything to him. He applied toothpaste to the brush and cleaned his perfect teeth. Soon he would change out of his sloppy but comfortable pyjamas and don a black tuxedo for the recital. That he played the violin with a spiritual fluidity that made the instrument a part of his body only added to his allure.

    Ornamental trees abounding in quince were a display of beauty in the formal garden at the front of the Victorian mansion he called home. The horn of the Rolls Royce honked signalling the arrival of the bouncy Isabel. Did he even know she existed, other than being his invaluable assistant, these past 2 years? Should she confront him with her dilemma. It was a decision she had to make, it wouldn’t cost her a cent to just ask.

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  19. Your story is wonderful Mimi, really enjoyed it. Mine is here:
    https://wisewebwoman.blogspot.com/2019/04/words-for-wednesday-41719.html

    XO
    WWW

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  20. What an interesting blog post. Love the photos of the beautiful yellow flowers and the bees. I hope to see lots of bees this year. I enjoyed your story. Hugs

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  21. Great bee shots. Nice story too. :)

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  22. Here my story and other things for Wednesday...https://peppylady.blogspot.com/2019/04/wednesday-pop-up-number-thirty-four.html

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  23. Love the bright yellow flowers and the bees. Nice story. Have a great day!

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  24. Wonderful stories you write and lovely macro shots of the bee and flowers ~ ^_^

    Happy Day to you,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

    ReplyDelete

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