Mikey Got a Haircut (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 River at Drifting Through Life.    

This weeks words are a couple of lines from books River has read:

1. "then I was going to bed, where I planned to stay until Christmas" 

2. "I'm always careful," I said calmly, stepping straight into a puddle.

and this photo from her sister-in-law when she was in Europe several years ago:

As we headed for the end of the alley, she noticed I was deep in conversation.  When that happens, it always spells trouble, although I do not readily admit it.  Let's face it, I don't admit it at all.

"Be careful!" she called out, "it's wet up here where the street doesn't drain well."

"I'm always careful," I said calmly, stepping straight into a puddle.

With a sigh, she said, "It's okay, it's only water, no mud, it will dry soon."

Meanwhile, I stood there trying to remain calm and regain my place in the conversation as the others discussed the architecture of the buildings before us.

Most of the time I didn't mind the "absent-minded professor" designation, but right now all I wanted to say, as a character in a book I'd recently read put it, "then I was going to bed, where I planned to stay until Christmas." 

In my frame of mind that moment, it did not sound like a bad idea at all.

After touring the church that had been our destination, me squishing somewhat in my shoe, we all decided that supper should be next on the agenda.

When I was finally seated with my wife and friends at a beautiful cafe with dry clothes and an equally dry wine in front of me, I realized that staying in bed wasn't so appealing after all.

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Today is:

Anniversary Day -- Tristan da Cunha

Assumption Eve -- France; Holy See

Crayfish Premiere -- Sweden (although they are now available year 'round, it used to be that crayfish could only be sold and served in restaurants the day after the season opens; the actual premiere date is often still celebrated with crayfish parties and lots of schnapps)

Day of Peace between Horus and Set -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Faradda di li candareri (Descent of the Candlesticks) -- Sassari, Sardinia (beginning of the celebration of the Assumption)

Festival for Fortuna Equestris -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Independence Day -- Pakistan(1947)

International Nagging Day -- ignore this one if you have any sense, the founder was smart enough to leave no trace

La Torta dei Fieschi -- Lavagna, Italy (this city on the Italian Riviera comes to life with dance and music every year to commemorate the wedding, on this day in 1230, of Bianca de Bianchi and Count Opizzo Fiechi, as he had invited everyone in town to share the 30ft. high cake he had made for the occasion)

Liberty Tree Day -- Massachusetts, US

Mantoro Lantern Lighting -- Kasuga Taisha, Japan (through tomorrow; 3,000 lanterns light the shrine, and the main hall is open for visitors, with Bugaku and Kagura performed in the apple garden)

Miss Crustacean Usa Beauty Pageant and Ocean City Crab Creep -- Ocean City, NJ, US (crowning the most beautiful and fastest tree crab on Earth)

National Creamsicle Day

National Financial Awareness Day -- can't find the history on who started this for which country, but it's wise to become financially literate no matter where you live

National Navajo Code Talkers Day -- Navajo Nation; US

Oued Ed-Dahab Day -- Morocco; Western Sahara (celebrating the recovery of this area from Spanish occupation in 1979)

Pramuka Day -- Indonesia (Scouting Day)

St. Maximillian Kolbe's Day (Patron of families, imprisoned people, journalists, political prisoners, prisoners, recovering drug addicts, the pro-life movement; against drug addictions)

St. Werenfrid's Day (Patron of vegetable gardeners; Arnheim, Netherlands; Elst, Netherlands; Westervoort, Netherlands; against gout and stiff joints)

Wiffle Ball Day -- the wiffle ball was introduced this day in 1953

Anniversaries Today:

Jackie Mason marries Jyll Rosenfeld, 1991

V-J Day, 1945

Birthdays Today:

Tim Tebow, 1987

Terin Humphrey, 1986

Mila Kunis, 1983

Spencer Pratt, 1983

Jay Manuel, 1972

Catherine Bell, 1968

Halle Berry, 1966

Earvin "Magic" Johnson, 1959

Marcia Gay Harden, 1959

Gary Larson, 1950

Danielle, Steel, 1947

Antonio Fargas, 1946

Susan Saint James, 1946

Steve Martin, 1945

Lynne Cheney, 1941

David Crosby, 1941

Arthur Betz Laffer, 1940

Alice Ghostley, 1926

Buddy Greco, 1926

Russell Baker, 1925

John Ringling North, 1903

Ernest Everett Just, 1883

Ernest Lawrence Thayer, 1863

Doc Holiday, 1851

H.C. Oersted, 1777

Emperor Hanazono of Japan, 1297 

Today in History

The young Emperor Antoku and three sacred treasures are taken by Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan, fleeing to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan, 1183

Kublai Khan's invading fleet disappears in a a typhoon near Japan, 1281

Three years after Gutenberg, the oldest known exactly dated printed book is published, 1457

Queen Elizabeth I refuses sovereignty of the Netherlands, 1585

Great Britain annexes Tristan da Cunha (remotest occupied island), 1816

Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma, 1842

Oregon Territory created, 1848

Magazine "Field and Stream" begins publication, 1873

Construction of Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany, is completed, 1880

Japan issues its first patent, for rust-proof paint, 1885

A recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's The Lost Chord, one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London, 1888

France begins requiring motor vehicle registration, 1893

The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21, 1901

Mt. Rushmore project first proposed, 1925

United States Social Security Act passes, creating a government pension system for the retired, 1935

British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland, 1969

Longest game in softball history begins, as The Gager's Diner team takes on the Bend'n Elbow Tavern; the game was played to raise money for a new softball field in Monticello, NY, went to 365 innings over two days, and the Gagers won 491-467, 1976

Lech Walesa leads strikes at the Gdansk, Poland shipyards, 1980

Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada, 2003

More than 2,000 people found in Poland's largest mass grave during World War II are reburied in a military cemetery, 2009

As a sponsored event of the IOC, the 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games, first ever Youth Olympics for athletes age 14-18, officially starts in Singapore, 2010

North and South Korea agree to reopen the jointly-operated Kaesong Industrial Region, 2013

Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt becomes the first man to win the coveted 100m Olympic gold medal three times, with a win at the Rio Olympics, 2016