Dr. D Tickled My Fancy With This (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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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 to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by River at Drifting Through Life.    

This week's words/prompts are: 

1. eyes on the road! eyes on the road! 

2. uh-oh 

3. tiffany lamp 

4. me? why me? 

5. boogie 

6. teapots

“Me?  Why me?”  Anna knew parenting had its challenges, but her dad had taught her to drive.  When they first married, she’d assumed, with complete innocence, that whatever her daddy did at home was a job her husband would take over in their home.  Even though she’d been disabused of the notion many a time in her marriage, she still thought of teaching the children to drive as the dad’s job.

“Think of it as a promotion,” Lawrence said, and at that moment their eldest walked in.  

“Uh-oh, I heard the word ‘promotion.’  What’s dad promoting you to now, mom?” David asked.

“Driving lessons!” Lawrence answered their son before Anna could say a word.

“All right, mom!  You’ll do a lot better than dad, he gets scared to easily.  Now that I’ve completed the driving school and passed the test, I can drive you all the places you need to go so I get plenty of practice.  Didn’t you say you wanted to go to the new fancy shop and look at their teapots?  I could drive you over right now, and while you do that, I’ll walk across to the ice cream shop and get a quart or two for tonight.  Let’s boogie!”

David ran to get the keys, and Anna looked reproachfully at Lawrence, who had decided he’d better be busy making supper.  That was one thing she couldn’t fault him on, he did more than his share of the cooking.

“Why do I have the feeling the whole drive is going to be nothing but me telling him ‘eyes on the road! eyes on the road!’ and hoping he doesn’t sideswipe anything?” she muttered.

“Oh, you’ll both do fine.”

“Fine as a Tiffany lamp being carried by a gorilla.”

“Ready!” David ran through on his way to the garage, and Anna, remembering back to David’s favorite childhood movie The Emperor’s New Groove, sighed and with resignation said, “Bring it on,” as she followed.

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Today is:

Ash Wednesday -- Christian (beginning of the Lenten Fast)

    Oskudagur -- Iceland (with the special tradition of hanging oskupokar [ash bags] on people, as girls try to hang bags of ash on men's clothing, and boys try to hang bags of stones on women's clothing; begins Langafasta, and during the fast, you may not even mention meat at all)

Ayyám-i-Há -- Baha'i (intercalary days, devoted to service and gift giving; through Mar. 1)

Dance of the Known Places -- Fairy Calendar

For Pete's Sake Day -- Wellcat Holidays asks us, who is Pete, and why do things for his sake?  think about that as you celebrate this today

Inconvenience Yourself™ Day -- enrich your life by looking for ways to make a positive impact on the world, even if it inconveniences you    

Intercalary Days -- Baha'i (through Mar. 1)

Levi Strauss Day -- his birth anniversary

Liberation Day -- Kuwait

National Personal Chef Day -- heaven knows we all have one of those; some websites list it today, some on July 16

National Pistachio Day

Read Me Day -- local and national celebrities, with community volunteers, are encouraged to visit classrooms this week and read to children; the original idea included wearing t-shirts with writing on them and encourage the children to read the shirts, thus "read me"   

Rooks Nesting Day -- Olde England (12 days after Candlemas on the Julian Calendar)

St. Alexander's Day (Patriarch of Alexandria)

St. Isabella of France's Day (Patron of the sick)

Teal Ribbon Day -- Australia (wear a teal ribbon, raise awareness of ovarian cancer)    

Tell a Fairy Tale Day -- shouldn't this have been two days ago, on Wilhelm Grimm's birth anniversary?

The Man In Black Day -- Johnny Cash's birth anniversary

Thriller Day -- Michael Jackson's album "Thriller" hit #1 today, and stayed there for 37 weeks

Anniversaries Today:

Grand Teton National Park is established, 1929

Grand Canyon National Park is established, 1919

Birthdays Today:

Marshall Faulk, 1973

Erykah Badu, 1972

Mark Dacascos, 1964

Michael Bolton, 1953

Johnny Cash, 1932

Fats Domino, 1928

Betty Hutton, 1921

Tony Randall, 1920

Jackie Gleason, 1916

Margaret Leighton, 1922

Tex Avery, 1908

Madeleine Carroll, 1906

Jean Vercors, 1902

William Frawley, 1887

Herbert Henry Dow, 1866

John Harvey Kellog, 1852

William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, 1846

Levi Strauss, 1829

Honore Daumier, 1808

Victor Hugo, 1802

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Jerome Robbins' Broadway"(Musical), 1989

"Deathtrap"(Play), 1978

Today in History:

Origin of the Epoch of Ptolemy's Nabonassar Era, BC747

An earthquake in Lisbon leaves 20,000-30,000 dead, 1531

Christiansborg Castle, Copenhagen burns down, 1794

The Bank of England issues its first banknotes, 1797

Vice-admiral William Bligh ends the siege of Fort Amsterdam, Willemstad, 1804

Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba, 1815

In New York City a demonstration of the first pneumatic subway opens to the public, 1870

HMS Britannic, sister ship to the Titanic, is launched at Harland & Wolff, Belfast, 1914

The Original Dixieland Jass Band records the first jazz record, for the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York, 1917

Robert Watson-Watt carries out a demonstration near Daventry which leads directly to the development of RADAR in the United Kingdom, 1935

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that his nation has an atomic bomb, 1952

Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor-General of Canada, 1952

National Public Radio incorporates as a non-profit corporation, 1970

Egypt and Israel establish full diplomatic relations, 1980

The Sandinistas are defeated in Nicaraguan elections, 1990

On Baghdad Radio Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait, 1991

In New York City, a truck bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand, 1993

The United Kingdom's oldest investment banking institute, Barings Bank, collapses, 1995

Mount Hekla in Iceland erupts, 2000

Republic of Macedonia President Boris Trajkovski is killed in a plane crash near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2004

After winning a Liberal Party of British Columbia ballot, Canadian politician Christy Clark becomes the second woman to be Premier of British Columbia, 2011

Scientists in Illinois announce they've developed stretchable batteries that can power a new generation of flexible electronics, 2013

The Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway, receives its 1 millionth seed on its 10 year anniversary, 2018