First Do No Harm (Cajun Joke) and Sunday Selections

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Just because Sandee of Comedy Plus is no longer hosting a Silly Sunday blog hop, do not expect me to quit telling Cajun jokes, especially as it has now become a habit.

It is almost crunch time — get the gifts now, or pretend you always intended to send New Year gifts instead.  (Or do what blogger Suldog, who hasn’t blogged in a while, does and celebrate on Little Christmas a/k/a Epiphany next month instead.)

Clothile done been tellin’ Boudreaux she want her de alligator purse fo’ de Noel.  One day, he come him in from de bayou wit’ de baby ‘gator in de net an’ say, “Clothile, here be de ‘gator bag you done be wantin’!”

De nex’ day, Clothile be tellin’ de story to Marie, an’ Marie say, “I hope you done hit him on de head wit’ it!”

An’ Clothile say, “No, I don’ wan’ to hurt de dumb animal, an’ mais, I don’ wan’ to hurt de li’l baby ‘gator, neither!”

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Sunday Selections was started as a way for bloggers to use photos that might otherwise just languish in their files.  The rules have been relaxed, and it is now simply a showcase for your photos, new or old, good or bad, although nothing rude, please.  It is now hosted by Elephant's Child.      

It’s Christmas, so let’s just go with it, right?

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Today is:

Beetle Banquet and Badger Ball -- Fairy Calendar

Chipmunks Day -- the date, in 1958, when Alvin, Simon, and Theodore hit #1 with "The Chipmunk Song"

Day Sacred to the Lares -- Ancient Roman Calendar (household gods)

Fourth Sunday of Advent -- Christian

   Lighting the Candle of Love

Hanukkah -- Judaism (Festival of Lights; begins at sundown, through sundown Dec. 30)

Hari Ibu -- Indonesia (Mother's Day)

Icelandic Yuletide Lad of the Day, Gattapefur -- Sniffer, who uses his big nose on hlakkandi ("looking forward" day, when you begin to look forward to Christmas) to sniff out a cake or two to snatch

Khoiak Ceremony for Raising the Djed Pillar -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (Osiris festival, the pillar represented his spine, and so stability and strength; date approximate)

Kiwi Fruit Day -- California, US (celebrate with them, these are good!)

National Date Nut Bread Day

Santa Claus Flight Clearance Day -- US FAA (they make sure he's cleared to fly, with his de-icing system, Terrain Avoidance Warning System for low-altitude flight, and special seat belt extension in good working order)

Solstice -- Northern Hemisphere Winter begins/Southern Hemisphere Summer begins at 04:19UCT

    Anne and Samantha Day -- celebrating the lives of Anne Frank and Samantha Smith, a day to work and pray for world peace

    Alban Arthuan -- Druid Festival, 4th Station; through the solstice

    Bruma -- Ancient Roman Calendar

    Dongzhi Festival -- East Asia (literal meaning, "Extreme of Winter")

    Festival of Isis -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (celebration of the seeking of Osiris by Isis and her resurrection of him)

    National Haiku Poetry Day -- US (because haiku is traditionally about the seasons, it's celebrated on the first day of winter)

    Wild Hunt reaches its peak -- various Norse traditions

    Soyala New Year Festival -- Hopi and Zuni Native Americans (a festival of purification as well as celebration, with homes cleaned, fires doused, and personal restraint observed)

    Yalda -- Iran (Persian/Zoroastrian winter solstice festival; to celebrate the longest night of the year, many stay up for the fight against dark and evil.)

    Yule/Jul/Jol Festivals begin -- various calendars, religions, countries and observances, both ancient and modern

         Yule -- Wicca/Pagan, northern hemisphere

         Litha -- Wicca/Pagan, southern hemisphere

         from the Old Norse Hjol, meaning "wheel" to signify the year is at its lowest point and ready to rise again

    Ziemassvetki -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (birth of Dievs, highest of the gods; modern Latvians celebrate this on Christmas Eve/Christmas, but it was originally a three day solstice festival)

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini's Day (Mother Cabrini, the first US citizen canonized; Patron saint of emigrants, hospital administrators, immigrants, orphans; against malaria)

Unity Day -- Zimbabwe

Birthdays Today:

Jordin Sparks, 1989

Ralph Fiennes, 1962

Maurice Gibb, 1949

Robin Gibb, 1949

Steve Garvey, 1948

Diane Sawyer, 1945

Steve Carlton, 1944

Hector Elizondo, 1936

Joe Pyne, 1925

Barbara Billingsley, 1922

Gene Rayburn, 1917

Claudia Taylor "Lady Bird" Johnson, 1912

Dame Edith Margaret Emily "Peggy" Ashcroft, 1907

Edwin Arlington Robinson, 1869

Giacomo Puccini, 1858

William Ellery, 1727

James Edward Oglethorpe, 1696

Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Graduate(Film), 1972

"Ding Dong School"(TV), 1952

Today in History:

A serious earthquake strikes Innsbruck, 1689

The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies, 1790

The first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India, 1851

Jules Janssen flies in a balloon in order to study a solar eclipse, 1870

The first string of Christmas tree lights is created by Thomas Edison, 1882

Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, becomes the first Prime Minister of Japan, 1885

French officer Alfred Dreyfus court-martialed for treason, triggers worldwide charges of anti-Semitism (Dreyfus later vindicated), 1894

Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity, 1956

Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany, 1989

Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63, 2001

An important peer-reviewed study of the spatial memory of bumblebees is published in the Biology Letters journal of the Royal Society by a class of 25 8- to 10-year-old children at Blackawton Primary School, 2010

Ebola vaccine VSV-EBOV is found to be 70-100% effective in a study published in The Lancet, becoming the world's first proven vaccine against Ebola, 2016