Odd Kitten Out (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and It's Just Me (Poetry Monday)

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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!

In almost every large litter that has 3-4 kitten look-alikes, there’s one cute little oddball who doesn’t look like the rest:

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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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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  She and Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey take turns providing a theme each week.   Mother Owl and Merry Mae almost always participate, too.  This week the theme is Humming.                    

That humming noise that you are hearing

In church up in the balcony

Is not the electrics i promise you, 

It's just the humming of little ol' me.

My Sweetie sings in the choir

He's there among the basses

And i help the choir by not singing

If i just hum along, no one makes faces!

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Today is:

Chichibu Yomatsuri -- Chichibu shrine, Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan (one of Japan's most impressive night parties; through tomorrow) 

Cider Monday -- celebrating the drink of the season, hot, spiced apple cider

Cyber Monday -- another excuse to buy stuff, the traditional beginning of the online shopping season

Festival of the Finger Stalls -- Fairy Calendar

King Tupou I Day -- Tonga

Provincial Anniversary Day -- Chatham Islands, New Zealand and Westland, New Zealand

International Day for the Abolition of Slavery -- UN

National Day -- Laos; United Arab Emirates (trad.)

National Fritters Day

National Mutt Day -- US (because mixed breeds need an extra chance)

Oshiroi Matsuri -- Fukuoka, Japan (Face Paint Festival, to ask for good harvest next year)

Safety Razor Day -- the first disposable razor blades were patented by King Gillette this day in 1901

Special Education Day -- US (anniversary of the first US special education law in 1975)

St. Bibiana's Day (Patron of epileptics, mentally ill people, single laywomen, torture victims; against epilepsy, hangovers, headaches, insanity, mental illness; and, appropriately considering the aforementioned list, Los Angeles, CA)

Throw Out Your Leftovers Day -- if you've had it since Thanksgiving, and haven't frozen it or eaten it yet, get rid of it

Walter Plinge Day -- UK (the British equivalent to George Spelvin, a name used to disguise the fact that an actor is playing more than one part in a production, but Walter was based on a real pub owner who was generous to actors)

Birthdays Today:

Britney Spears, 1981

Nelly Furtado, 1978

Monica Seles, 1973

Lucy Liu, 1968

Randy Gardner, 1958

Dennis Christopher, 1955

Dan Butler, 1954

Stone Phillips, 1954

Cathy Lee Crosby, 1948

T. Coraghessan Boyle, 1948

Gianni Versace, 1946

William Wegman, 1943

Julie Harris, 1925

Maria Callas, 1923

Randolph Hearst, 1915 

Charles Ringling, 1863

Georges Seurat, 1859

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Naked Gun(Film), 1988

"Mystery of Edwin Drood"(Musical), 1985

"Imus in the Morning"(Radio), 1961

Dancing Lady(Film), 1933 (first appearance of Fred Astaire)

"The Adventures of Charlie Chan"(Radio), 1932

Model A Ford, 1927 (first sold on this date, for $385)

"Sie Versunkene Glocke/The Sunken Bell"(Hauptmann play), 1896

"Samson et Dalila/Samson and Delilah"(Saint-Saens opera, Op. 47), 1877

"La Favorite/The Favorite"(Donizetti opera), 1840

Today in History:

The University of Leipzig opens, 1409

Dedication of the Touro Synagogue, in Newport, Rhode Island, the first synagogue in what became the United States, 1763

Napoleon defeats the Russians and Austrians at Austerlitz, 1805

The first Savings bank in the US opens, the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, 1816

US President James Monroe declares his "Monroe Doctrine", 1823

US President James K. Polk declares it is the "Manifest Destiny" of the US to expand into the West, 1845

Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the US, in NYC, 1867

King Camp Gillette patents the safety razor, 1901

Pu Yi (Hsuan-T'ung) became China's Last Emperor at age 2, 1908

Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A, 1927

A team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, 1942

Riots break out in Jerusalem in response to the approval of the 1947 UN Partition Plan, 1947

The Granma yacht reaches the shores of Cuba's Oriente province and Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution, 1956

Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm Al Quwain form the United Arab Emirates, 1971

Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state, 1988

A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins the first free all-German elections since 1932, 1990

The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive, 1999

NASA announces finding an arsenic based life form on Earth, 2010

Taxi service company Uber expands its presence in Latin America by partnering with Carlos Slim's cell phone company America Movil to place the Uber app on mobil phones throughout Mexico, 2014

A trade war truce is agreed upon between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 meeting in Argentina, 2018