Monday, January 13, 2020

Monday the 13th Smile (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Why So Short? (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!

A pile of kittens for your Monday the 13th Smile:








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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.

everydaypower


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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/Charlotte and Merry Mae almost always participate, too.  This weeks theme is Leap Year.           

Why is February
So short?
In doling out days,
Caesar was no sport.

Julius wanted
To be number One
He named July for himself
And then when he was done

He wanted his month
A long one to be
So a day from February
He stole, you see.

Then along came his nephew
Augustus by name,
And you guessed it,
The month August he did claim.

He couldn’t let uncle
Julius have more days,
So poor February,
At 28 it stays

Except when the calendar
Needs to keep on track
With the sun, we give
February one back.


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Today is:

Clean Off Your Desk Day -- me and what army? (Note:  some sites put this as always on Jan. 9, some the second Monday of January; either way, my question remains)

Democracy Day -- Cape Verde

Eugenio Maria de Hostos' Day -- Puerto Rico (birth anniv. obs.)

Feast of St. Kentigern (a/k/a St. Mungo) (Patron of Glasgow whose given name meant "head chief" but whose nickname meant "dear one.")

Ides of January -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Liberation Day -- Togo

Maghi -- Sikh

Make Your Dreams Come True Day -- no info on the origin of this; maybe someone who broke their New Year's resolutions by this day used the fact that it's New Year's by the Julian calendar to start over, or perhaps also related to Horatio Alger

Midvintersblot -- Ancient Norse Calendar (midwinter festival)

National Peach Melba Day

Old New Year's Day -- Belarus; Georgia; Montenegro; Republic of Macedonia; Republic of Srpska (Yes, that's how it's spelled; no, i don't know how to pronounce it); Serbia; Russia; Ukraine; Wales (Julian Calendar)

Plough Monday -- UK (farm work is resumed the Monday following the 12 Days of Christmas, and ploughs are brought to the church to be blessed)

Pongal begins -- India (thanksgiving festival at the end of the harvest season, honoring Indra, god of clouds and rain)
    first day, Bhogi

Radio Day -- anniversary of the first public radio broadcast in 1910

Recuperation Fortnight begins -- Fairy Calendar (i think i need one of those!)

Runic Half-month of Peorth (womb) begins

Rubber Ducky Day

Seijin-no-hi -- Japan (Adult's Day, or Coming of Age Day; celebrating all who have reached age 20, full legal adult age, in the past year)

Sidereal Winter Solstice Eve -- celebrations through South and Southeast Asia, including
    Bhogi -- Tamil (first day of Pongal)
    Lohri -- Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh
    Uruka -- Assam

Silvesterklausen -- Switzerland ("Old" New Year's celebration, based on the Julian Calendar)

St. Hilarius' Day (according to English tradition, the coldest day of the year; Patron of learning challenged children; Argusto, Italy; Vervio, Italy; against snakes and snake bites)

St. Knut's Day (a/k/a Little Christmas or Twentieth Day or Tyvendedagen among the Scandinavians, it celebrates Canute IV of Denmark and is the day to "plunder" the tree put up on Christmas Eve, eating the candies and cookies that were decorating it, and puting all the other decorations away before the tree is removed.)

Strive and Succeed Day -- Horatio Alger's birth anniversary

Theogamia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (anniversary celebration of the marriage of Zeus and Hera; date approximate, but during Gamelion, the month of marriages)

Tiugunde Day -- Old England (midwinter offering, a celebration picked up from the Norse Midvintersblot)

Tyvendedagen -- Norway (Twentieth day after Christmas, official end of Yuletide or "Juletid")


Birthdays Today:

Liam Hemsworth, 1990
Joannie Rochette, 1986
Orlando Bloom, 1977
Nicole Eggert, 1972
Keith Coogan, 1970
Patrick Dempsey, 1966
Penelope Ann Miller, 1964
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 1961
Kevin Anderson, 1960
Jay McInerney, 1955
Richard Moll, 1943
Frank Gallo, 1933
Charles Nelson Reilly, 1931
Frances Sternhagen, 1930
Gwen Verdon, 1925
Army Archerd, 1922
Robert Stack, 1919
Alfred Carl Fuller, 1885
Sophia Tucker, 1884
Horatio Alger, 1832
Salmon P. Chase, 1808


DEbuting/Premiering Today:

"The Sopranos"(TV), 1999
"Mickey Mouse"(Comic strip), 1930


Today in History:

Crusaders set fire to Mara, Syria, 1099
Sicut Didum, the papal bull prohibiting the enslavement of Canary Island natives who had converted to Christianity, is promulgated, 1435
The controversial play Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston is performed, landing two of the authors in prison, 1605
The Bank Of Genoa fails after the announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain, 1607
Jonathan Swift is ordained and Anglican priest in Ireland, 1695
James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, 1733
John Walter publishes the first issue of the London Times, 1785
The Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins, 1830
Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole European survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, 1842
Anthony Foss patents the accordion, 1854
A chenille manufacturing machine is patented by William Canter of NYC, 1863
A circus fire in Poland kills 430, 1883
The Independent Labour Party of the UK has its first meeting, 1893
U.S. Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution, 1893
The first radio set is advertised, a Telimco for $7.50 in Scientific American; claimed to receive signals up to one mile, 1906
The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana is sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, 1910
An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800, 1915
The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometres of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people, 1939
Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car, 1942
Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Krakow, Poland, 1964
Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American  US Cabinet member, 1966
Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom Prison, 1968
A passenger train plunged into a ravine at Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa, 1985
L. Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American US governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia, 1990
Soviet Union military troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, 1991
An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800, 2001
The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy, 2012
An early-morning ballistic missile alert is sent across Hawaii in error and revoked after 38 minutes, 2018

17 comments:

  1. The pile of kittens is definitely an awww moment.
    Recuperation fortnight? Sign me up.
    I like your leap year poem too.

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  2. Nice poem and poor February. And when you're through with the desk cleaning army please send it my way :)

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  3. For what it's worth, it's pronounced just like it's spelled.
    ;-D

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  4. Aww! how very cute :-)

    I liked the quote too

    Have a quotetastic week :-)

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  5. Glad you explained it all. I no longer have to worry about Feb. every four years. Sleep in peace.

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  6. And we would take the black kitten because we always take the one who is not like the others. Going alone is tough, but Mom does it because she doesn't trust others. Too many humans have let her down. Love that quote.

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  7. I loved the poem about February. If I had a month it would be called Pauly and it would have 35 days because I would need more extra days to cruise. LOL I guess I'm just crazy Mimi. See ya.

    Cruisin Paul

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  8. Mimi,

    Cute, cleverly written poem! February will be here before too long. That pile of kittens is a good awww Mondays capture. Have a furtastic day!

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  9. Awww, so cute. A pile of kitties is most wonderful. Cute.

    Love the Spark. Spot on.

    Love your take on February.

    Thank you for joining the Awww Mondays Blog Hop.

    Have a fabulous Awww Monday and week, my friend. ♥

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  10. Those ginger kitties are so cute. Excellent poem and spark.

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  11. wavez two ewe pile oh kittehz frum all oh uz heer in TT

    happee "birth day" two R fave oh rite rodent ;) ♥♥

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  12. So many sweet kittens you show here - do you have trouble finding homes for all of them? You and all shelter workers are doing so much good.

    Love your poem! I didn't know that particular story about July and August and February.

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  13. That is a pile of kittens! And Awwdorable at that. You did a great job with the Leap Year poem. I liked it a lot. xoxo

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  14. Cute kitties. I had heard the Caesar story but never told in such a cute way.

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  15. That kitty pile is so cute and I love that little white mitten! Love the Spark too, that's very true indeed!

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  16. your photo of the three kitties nestled in amongst each other has to be the best ever ! So sweet! I just want to climb in with them!

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  17. Love the pile of kittens ~ so sweet and lovely quote ^_^

    Happy Moments to You,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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