Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Funny Even With a Letter Missing (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 WiseWebWoman.  


This month's prompts are the following video:




And then two lists of 4 words each.

Subway
Question
Library
Bench

Voice
Organize
Fishmonger
Horizon


As he came up through the SUBWAY tunnel to head for the LIBRARY, he noticed the fiddle player.  Quite good, he thought to himself as he made to hurry past.  Before he could get through the crowd, he heard a VOICE call his name.

"Oy, Frank!  Where have ya been?  I haven't seen ya in a right age!"

Harry, who owned the seafood market not far from where Frank lived, always considered it lucky to meet a customer out on the streets, and prided himself on being able to greet them by name.

He called himself a FISHMONGER, when actually he was just a happy soul who took life as it came.  Frank stopped for a moment to shake his hand, and said, "I am on my way to meet someone, but it's good to see you!"

Harry answered, "Ah, and it's lucky for me to see you.  Come by the shop again soon and I'll fix you up with some of the fresh shrimp we've been getting lately!"

"It's a deal," Frank said, and he knew he would be in for buying a good quantity the next time he showed his face in the shop.  They would be worth it, both because Harry's shrimp were always top notch, and because saying this would get him away in time for his meeting.

As Frank turned, he noticed the fiddle player again.  The man was really good, now that he stopped for a few seconds to really consider it.  The music brought him back in time, and just for a moment he was not there, but on that boat again, watching the far HORIZON.  


Unlike some, this busker apppeared neat and tidy, his area with the music stand and cases well ORGANIZED.  Frank had to QUESTION how the man came to be playing on the streets instead of on a stage, he really was that good.  He dropped his loose coins in the hat and noted there was a convenient BENCH nearby.  When he'd done with his business, Frank concluded, he would come back and listen more.  



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Today is:

Always Live Better Than Yesterday Day

Cotton Candy Day

Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola -- (Founder of the Jesuits, especially revered in Spain; Patron of retreats, soldiers, and the Society of Jesus which he founded; Basque country; Bilbao, Spain; Bizkaia, Spain; Gipuzkoa, Spain; Guipuscoa, Spain; Guipúzcoa, Spain; Spiritual Exercises (by Pope Pius XI); Vizcaya, Spain)

Hachinohe Sansha Taisai -- Hachinohe City, Japan (one of the most elaborate neputa festivals, through Aug. 4)

Halifax International Busker Festival -- Halifax, NS, Canada (with action packed, mind blowing shows from around the globe; through August 5)

Jump for Jellybeans Day

Ka Hae Hawai'i Day -- Hawai'i (State Flag Day)

Lammas Eve / Lughnassad Eve

Lithasblot -- Norse harvest festival with a "blot", or offering, to the gods, celebrated through tomorrow

Loki and Sigyn's Day - Asatru / Norse Pagan (aka Devoted Couples Day)

Maine Lobster Festival -- Rockland, ME, US (more fun than a lobster can shake a tail at; through Sunday)

Make Homemade Ice Cream and Invite the Neighbors Over Day -- summer's almost over, make the most of the days we have left!

Moby Dick Marathon -- aboard the last US wooden whaler, the Charles W. Morgan, Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT, US (through tomorrow, from noon to noon, a marathon reading of Moby Dick in honor of Melville's birthday)

Mutts' Day -- because mutts deserve a day as much as purebreeds do!

National Raspberry Cake Day

St. Germanus' Day (Patron of Auxerre, France)

St. Joseph of Arimathea's Day -- Eastern Orthodox Church (Patron of funeral directors)

Uncommon Musical Instruments Awareness Day -- a day to celebrate odd, rare, experimental and uncommon musical instruments, such as the Xaphoon or Daxophone

World Ranger Day -- the International Ranger Federation wants us to honor wildlife rangers around the world as they work to protect the world's natural and cultural treasures, and remember those killed in the line of duty    


Birthdays Today

Eric Lively, 1981
Dean Cain, 1966
J.K. Rowling, 1965
Jim Corr, 1964
Wesley Snipes, 1962
Bill Berry, 1958
Michael Biehn, 1956
Barry Van Dyke, 1951
Evonne Goolagong, 1951
Gary Lewis, 1946
Geraldine Chaplin, 1944
Susan Flannery, 1943
France Nuyen, 1939
Ted Cassidy, 1932
Don Murray, 1929
Curt Gowdy, 1919
Milton Friedman, 1912


Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Living Daylights(Film), 1987
"The Shadow"(Radio), 1930


Today in History

Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide, BC30
The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji, 781
Thessalonica falls to the Arabs, who destroy the city, 904
The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect, 1492
On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus 
becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad, 1498
Aurangzeb is proclaimed Moghul emperor of India, 1658
The Treaty of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War, 1667
Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers, 1703
The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Marquis de Lafayette  "be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States," 1777
First U.S. patent is issued to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process, 1790
Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city, 1856
The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia, 1865
The radio mystery program The Shadow is aired for the first time, 1930
Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius in Persepolis, 1938
First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio, 1954
At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning because of rain, 1961
The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy, 1970
Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover, 1971
NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, 1976
A rare, class F4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage, 1987
Georgia joins the United Nations, 1992
Fidel Castro hands over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro, 2006
Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end, 2007
U.S. Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps wins a record 19th Olympic medal, with gold in the 4x200metres freestyle relay, 2012

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Take This Job And...It's a Random and Happy Tuesday Post!

(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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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.  

Got to Dr. D's yesterday and she was in quite a lather.

It seems the deadline is approaching for the grant she is helping to write for her cousin.   Deadlines make her a little crazy.

"I'm going to send you to the pharmacy.  And the grocery.  No, wait, first we need gas.  Where is the card for buying gas at the Bulk Club?  Wait a minute, I need to check to make sure I still have some money on that card.  Hold up, where's my list.  Oh, and don't leave without the pharmacy coupon, it was around here somewhere."

We found the coupon, eventually.  It was expired.

At one point, i went miles out of my way to the Bulk Club to save ten cents a gallon on gas.  Yes, i burned more gas than the money that was saved, but some people can't figure that concept out.  My aunt used to drive all over town and would brag about saving 3 cents on cans of peas and if you pointed out she spent more than that in gas to go out to that store, she couldn't see it.

As i was washing dishes for the 3rd time (she claims she can't eat when she's so stressed and busy, but there sure were a lot of dirty dishes for someone who hasn't eaten), she asked me to throw out some soup that had gone bad.

Dr. D:  Just flush it down the toilet.

me:  no, i can't do that, it has too much in it, it's going to stop the toilet up.

Dr. D:  No, it doesn't, just flush it.

me, coming back from the bathroom:  well, i poured out the liquid and i am not going to try to flush chicken bones no matter what you tell me, it's going to stop up your toilet and you do not want a plumbing bill!

Dr. D:  There weren't chicken bones in that soup!

me:  yes, there are!  Look, there's a whole chicken leg in there, and it stinks, and i'm putting it in the garbage, and it's a good thing i happened to see those bones before i poured the whole thing out or i'd have been fishing chicken bones out of the toilet!

Dr. D, the avowed atheist:  Well, what do you think The Good Lord gave you eyes and a brain for, but to use them that way!

Anybody want my job?  Somehow i didn't think so.













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Today is:

Dia del Amigo -- Paraguay

Father-in-Law Day -- unsponsored and unclaimed, but fathers-in-law deserve respect, too

Feast of the Throne -- Morocco; Western Sahara

Festival of Fortuna Huiusque Diei -- Ancient Roman Calendar ("Fortune of the Present Day")

Friendship Day/International Day of Friendship -- UN

Herbal Ballooning -- Fairy Calendar

Independence Day -- Vanuatu(1980)

Kronia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of Kronos as god of the harvest)

Martyr's Day -- South Sudan

National Cheesecake Day

National Support Public Education Day -- Change.org wants this to be an official day for support of US public education systems

Paperback Day -- anniversary of the 1935 publication of Penguin #1, Arial, A Life of Shelley, by Andre Maurois in London, the first successful series of paperback books

Phyang Tsedup Festival -- Ladakh, India (Buddhist festival, through tomorrow)

South Mountain Fair -- Arendtsville, PA, US (celebrating agriculture, arts, crafts, and industry; through Saturday)

Sts. Abdon and Sennen's Day (Patrons of barrel makers and coopers; the ashes of ferns cut and burned on this day will keep away insects and unwanted guests)

Sumiyoshi Matsuri -- Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine, Osaka, Japan (Osaka's last major summer festival, through Aug. 1)


Anniversaries Today

Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, marries Michael Tindall, 2011


Birthdays Today

Hope Solo, 1981
Jaime Pressly, 1977
Misty May-Treanor, 1977
Hilary Swank, 1974
Tom Green, 1971
Simon Baker, 1969
Vivica A. Fox, 1964
Lisa Kudrow, 1963
Alton Brown, 1962
Laurence Fishburne, 1961
Kate Bush, 1958
Delta Burke, 1956
Ken Olin, 1954
Jean Reno, 1948
Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1947
William Atherton, 1947
David Sanborn, 1945
Paul Anka, 1941
Peter Bogdanovich, 1939
Buddy Guy, 1936
Allan Huber “Bud” Selig, 1934
Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, 1933
Thomas Sowell, 1930
Sid Krofft, 1929
Christine McGuire, 1926
Henry W. Bloch, 1922
Henry Spencer Moore, 1898
Casey Stengel, 1891
Henry Ford, 1863
Thorstein Bunde Veblen, 1857
Georg Wilhelm von Siemens, 1855
Emily Bronte, 1818


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Santa Barbara"(TV), 1984
"Death Valley Days"(Radio), 1930


Today in History

City of Baghdad is founded, 762
The First Defenestration of Prague, 1419
Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage, 1502
At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs, which set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years, 1608
In Jamestown, Virginia, the first European style representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time, 1619
An earthquake in Naples, Italy kills 10,000 people, 1629
Baltimore, Maryland is founded, 1729
Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly-built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers, 1756
First ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps,1859
Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the Treaty of Box Elder, agreeing to stop the harassment of emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah, 1863
In Montevideo, Uruguay wins the first Football World Cup, 1930
Premiere of Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short, 1932
A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God We Trust as the U.S. national motto, 1956
US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid, 1965
David Scott and James Irwin on Apollo Lunar Module module, Falcon, land with first Lunar Rover on the moon, 1971
Six Royal Canadian Army Cadets are killed and fifty-four injured in an accidental grenade blast at CFB Valcartier Cadet Camp, 1974
Jimmy Hoffa disappears, 1975
In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line, 2003
Israeli and Palestinian officials agree to resume negotiations for a peace agreement, 2013
The first centenary of the WWI Battle of Passchendaele is marked at a ceremony at Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, 2015

Monday, July 29, 2019

Just Hanging Around (Awww Monday), Inspirational Quote of the Week, and Moon, But No June (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 at 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 of the kittens waiting for their forever homes can be little acrobats.  This group loves to try to catch the dangling toys when we wave them above their cages.  They like to hang around, and sometimes even hang totally upside down from the top of the cage, but never when the camera is on, of course. 







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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.

KeepInspiring.me

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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 The Moon.         

Since the moon
Rhymes with June
Tell me why
People went there in July!

Yes we know
They had to go
When it was time
Even with no rhyme.


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Today is:

Carnival Monday -- Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba (Saba only)

Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day (Buy your cheese that will be sacrificed on Cheese Sacrifice Day, and no, I never have found out why there is a Cheese Sacrifice Day anyway or to whom you are supposed to sacrifice it.)*

Chicken Wings Day -- Buffalo, NY, US (they want it to be a national day, and maybe someday it will be)

Earth Overshoot Day -- according to the Global Footprint Network, this is the date on which humanity has exhausted the Earth's budget of resources for the year    

Feast of St. Martha, Virgin, Dragon Charmer, Sister of Lazarus (Patron of butlers, cooks, dieticians, domestic servants, homemakers, hotel keepers, housemaids, housewives, inkeepers, laundry workers, maids, manservants, servants, servers, single laywomen, travellers; Villajoyosa, Spain, which village she saved on her feast day by sending a flash flood to wash away the Moorish invaders in 1538)

Fiesta de Santa Maria Ribarteme (a/k/a Festival of Near Death Experiences) -- As Neves, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain (festival of Mary in which those who have come back from near death are carried to the shrine in open coffins, or walk there clad in shrouds)

International Tiger Day

NASA Day -- marking the day President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law, creating NASA

National Anthem Day -- Romania

National Lasagna Day

National Thai Language Day -- Thailand (Wan Phasa Thai Haeng Chat)

Photograph Your Children When They're Not Looking Day -- get a good, candid shot to enjoy

Rain Day Festival -- Waynesburg, Pennsylvania (yes, it has rained at 113 out of the 140 observances of this festival on this date) 

Runic Half-Month Thorn begins (defense)

St. Lazarus' Day -- date given in the Martyrologium Romanum; celebrated on Lazarus Saturday by most Eastern Churches and on Dec. 17 in most Western Churches

St. Olaf's (Olav) Day (Norway's Viking king; patron of carvers, difficult marriages, kings; Norway)related observances
    Olavsokadagur -- Faroe Islands (opening of Logting, or Parliament; a National Day, on the Feast Day of St. Olav)
    Oslok Eve -- Norway (celebrating the valiant death of their hero on this evening at the battle at Stiklestadt in 1030)
    sometimes associated with Thor's Day among the Norse and Thunor of the Anglo-Saxons

Territory Day -- Wallis and Futuna

*"A cheese may disappoint. It may be dull, it may be naive, it may be oversophisticated. Yet it remains cheese, milk's leap toward immortality." Clifton Fadiman


Anniversaries Today

Andy Taylor marries Tracey Wilson, 1982
Charles, Prince of Wales, marries Lady Diana Spencer, 1981
Mary, Queen of Scots, marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, 1565


Birthdays Today

Danger Mouse, 1977
Josh Radnor, 1974
Wanya Morris, 1973
Wil Wheaton, 1972
Julian McMahon, 1968
Martina McBride, 1966
Alexandra Paul, 1963
Patty Scialfa, 1956
Ken Burns, 1953
Tim Gunn, 1953
Marilyn Quayle, 1949
David Warner, 1941
Peter Jennings, 1938
Elizabeth Dole, 1936
Paul Taylor, 1930
Chester Bomar Himes, 1909
Melvin Belli, 1907
Clara Bow, 1905
Dag Hammarskjold, 1905
Stanley Kunitz, 1905
Benito Mussolini, 1883
Newton Booth Tarkington, 1869
Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, 1861
Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Friday Night Videos"(TV), 1983
Help(Film), 1965
"Steamboat Willie"(Animated short, first appearance of Mickey Mouse), 1928


Today in History

King Olaf II fights and dies trying to regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes, 1030
James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling, 1567
English naval forces under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeat the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France, 1588
John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there, 1793
Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 1836
In Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put down by police, 1848
The First Hague Convention is signed, 1899
Sir Robert Baden Powell sets up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour on the south coast of England; this is regarded as the foundation of the Scouting movement, 1907
The International Atomic Energy Agency is established, 1957
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel, 1987
The film Cry Freedom is seized by South African authorities, 1988
Astronomers announce the discovery of Eris, the largest dwarf planet in the solar system, 2005
South Sudan becomes the 54th member of the African Union, 2011
Scientists reveal new research identifying a mechanism by which Earth-warming carbon is pulled deep into the Southern Ocean, and locked away, and scientists claim this process may be threatened by climate change, 2012
Microsoft launches Windows 10, 2015