Grandpa’s Trick (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.

Sometimes one or more of the kids can come with me to visit Grandma and Grandpa, but most of the time, now, they have to stay home because of work.

There used to be a time, of course, when Grandpa would drive up and get all of them and bring them to spend the weekend.  They all loved it.

Ever’ Satiday mornin’, Boudreaux done be takin’ care o’ de gran’chil’ren, all boys, so dey mama, Aline, can go do de shoppin’ wit’out dem.  An’ ever’ Satiday, dey wants to play like dey be havin’ de war.

One day, Aline walk her in jes’ in time to see one her boys “shoot” Boudreaux, an’ he obedient to fall him down.  Den he stay dere, an’ he stay dere, and fin’ly Aline get her worry and she go over an’ say, “Père, you be okay?”

An’ Boudreaux whisper, “Mais, be quiet, dis be de only way I gets me any rest when we play!”

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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.   

A few pictures from being at Grandma’s house:

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Today is:

Anniversary of Treaty of Tartu -- Estonia

Bonza Bottler Day™

British Yorkshire Pudding Day -- UK (celebrating this delicious traditional dish, and here's how to make it right)   

Candlemas -- Christian -- or Presentation of Our Lord (f/k/a the Purification of the Virgin Mary) - commemorates the presentation of Jesus in the Temple and purification of Mary on the 40th day after the birth of Jesus. Candles have been blessed on this day since the 11th century, and this was the original forecaster, “If Candlemas is fair and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year.”

    Bank Holiday -- Liechtenstein

    Candelaria Festival -- Puno, Peru (Virgen de la Candelaria, through the 16th)

    Dia de la Candelaria/Virgin of Candelaria -- Mexico; Spain

    La Fete de la Chandeleur -- Canada; France

    Matka Boska Gromniczna (Mother of God of the Blessed Thunder Candle) -- Poland

Dump Your Significant Jerk Day -- beginning of Dump Your Significant Jerk Week; make a resolve and do it now, before Valentine's Day

Festival of Juno Februa -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Juno as goddess of motherly and matrimonial love)

Four Chaplains Sunday -- Interfaith  

Groundhog Day/Hedgehog Day/Badger Day -- what animal you looked to in order to predict the weather depended on where you lived

    Hromnice -- Czech Republic (hrom = thunder, a weather forecasting day)

Imbolc/Sughnassad -- Pagan/Wiccan (Northern Hemisphere/Southern Hemisphere)

    Brigmid -- Druid Calendar, also called Feast of Imbolc, celebrated later as St. Bridget's Day, but originally a festival for Brigid, (also known as Brighid, Bríde, Brigit, Brìd) goddess of poetry, healing, and smithcraft.  It is always halfway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, so some years it is on Feb. 1 with St. Brigid's Day

    Disting/Charming of the Plough -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan (a feast of new beginnings and spring)

    Serpent Day -- Celtic (The tradition was that on this day, the Brigmid, snakes or badgers would come out of their winter dens and predict the weather; perhaps a precursor to North America's Groundhog Day.)

    Wives' Feast Day -- Northern England (ancient celebration in association with Imbolc)

Igbi -- Shaitli and Kituri among the Avar ethnic group, Dagestan, Russia (midwinter celebration, through the 5th, which is the first day the sun is expected to return to shine on the towns here)

Inventors' Day -- Thailand

Le Jour des Crepes -- France (Crepes Day, as crepes are traditionally served on Candlemas; if you can flip the crepe pan and catch the crepe in it with your right hand, while holding a gold coin in your left, you will become rich this year!)

National Heavenly Hash Day

Presentation of Christ in the Temple -- Anglican Catholic Christian

Sled Dog Day -- anniversary of the arrival, in 1925, of diphtheria antitoxin in Nome, Alaska; in memory of the sled dogs, especially lead dogs Togo and Balto, who made it possible

St. Cornelius the Centurion's Day (the Cornelius converted by St. Peter in the Book of Acts)

Super Bowl Sunday; related observance

    National Popcorn Day

    Souper Bowl of Caring (turn your Super Bowl Party into a way to help people in your community)  

Veja Diena -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (day of wind, with rituals performed to assure no wind damage next summer)

Wand Dedication Day -- Fairy Calendar

World Wetlands Day -- UN 

Zacchaeus Sunday -- Orthodox Christian

Anniversaries Today:

Marina Ogilvy (daughter of Princess Alexandra) weds Paul Mowatt, 1990

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) marries Olivia Langdon in Elmira, NY, 1870

Birthdays Today:

Shakira, 1977

Michael T. Weiss, 1962

Christie Brinkley, 1954

Ina Garten, 1948

Farah Fawcett, 1947

Graham Nash, 1942

David Jason, 1940

Tom Smothers, 1937

Les Dawson, 1934

Stan Getz, 1927

Elaine Stritch, 1925

James Dickey, 1923

Liz Smith, 1923

Ayn Rand, 1905

George “Papa Bear” Halas, 1895

William Rose Benét, 1886

James Joyce, 1882

Solomon R. Guggenheim,1861

Toyotomi Hideyoshi,1536 (Japan's second "great unifier")

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Rich Little Show"(TV), 1975

"The Midnight Special"(TV), 1973

"And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little"(Play), 1971

"What's My Line?"(TV), 1950

"Le Dame aux Camelias"(Play, Dumas, fils), 1848

"Artaxerxes"(Opera, Thomas Arnes), 1762

Today in History:

Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths promulgates The Breviary of Alaric (Breviarium Alaricianum or Lex Romana Visigothorum) a collection of Roman law, 506

Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1536

New Amsterdam (later New York) is incorporated as a city, 1653

The first leopard is exhibited in the US, in Boston (admission 25 cents), 1802

Russian settlers establish the Ft. Ross trading post north of San Francisco, 1811

Jonathan Martin sets York Cathedral afire, does £60,000 damage, 1829

The first Chinese workers arrive in San Francisco, 1848

The first public men's toilet in Britain opens, on Fleet Street in London, 1852

Samuel Clemens uses the pen name Mark Twain for the first time, 1863

James Oliver invents the removable tempered steel plow blade, 1869

The SS Strathleven arrives in London with the first frozen mutton imported from Australia, 1880

The Knights of Columbus forms in New Haven, Connecticut, 1882

The first official Groundhog Dayis observed in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, 1887

The bottle cap with cork seal is patented by William Painter of Baltimore, 1892

The longest boxing match under modern rules takes place in Nameoki, Illinois; 77 rounds between Harry Sharpe and Frank Crosby, 1892

The first movie close-up, of a man sneezing, is made at the Edison Studio in West Orange, NJ, 1893

The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia's capital, Canberra, between Sydney and Melbourne, 1899

Queen Victoria's funeral takes place, 1901

Musher Gunner Kaasan and his sled team, led by Balto, finish the serum run from Nenana to Nome, Alaska, delivering the much needed diphtheria medication (inspiration for the Iditarod), 1925

Leonarde Keeler tests the first polygraph machine, 1935

The Groundhog Day gale hits the north-eastern United States and south-eastern Canada, 1976

F.W. de Klerk allows the African National Congress to function legally and promises to release Nelson Mandela, 1990

Iran launches its first domestically made satellite, Omid, into orbit, 2009

Shinzo Abe, Japan’s Prime Minister, vows to defend the Senkaku Islands "at all costs", 2013

All 955 miners are rescued from the Beatrix gold mine in Welkom town, South Africa, after 2 days underground, 2018

More than 40 mummies from around 323-30 BC are found at a burial site at the Tuna el-Gebel archaeological site south of Cairo, Egypt, 2019