Li’l Boy Blue (Awww Monday), Thought Provoking Quote of the Week, and Shield 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!

Ms. G, who has cats and is on the board at the cat shelter, was dog-sitting while her brother and his family were on vacation.  It was nice to have Li'l Boy Blue follow me around:

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Sparks, the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, is on hiatus, so here's a Thought Provoking Quote of the Week in her honor.  This week, something Grandma sent:

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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.   Charlotte/Mother Owl almost always participates, too.  This week the theme is Masks.                   

My doctor said to wear a mask,

And it really made me blue

‘Cause as i walked by you could not

See that i did smile at you.

 

So i wore a mask as i was told

Now it's traded for a shield,

To keep myself and others safe,

On that i will not yield.

The shield is better than the mask

'Cause it's clear to me and you

Now you can see it when i smile

As i usually seem to do!

What i wear now instead of a mask.

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Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Equatorial Guinea

August Bank Holiday -- NSW, Australia; Ireland; (UK)

August Monday/Culturama -- Saint Kitts and Nevis 

British Columbia Day -- British Columbia, Canada

Carnival Monday -- Anguilla (August Monday); Antigua and Barbuda (J'ouvert); British Virgin Islands (Festival Monday/Parade)

Carnival Monday -- Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba (Saba only)

Civic Holiday -- Canada

Dia de la Bandera -- Venezuela (Flag Day)

Emancipation Day --  Bahamas; Dominica; Granada; Montserrat; Turks and Caicos Islands (Obs.)

Fairy Washing Festival -- Fairy Calendar (do the fairies wash themselves, or is everyone supposed to wash his/her fairy?  They won’t tell us!)

Farmer's Day -- Zambia

Feast of Caligo, the mother of Chaos -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate, and this is as good a day to celebrate chaos as any other)

Fete National de l'Arbre -- Niger (Independence Day, 1960)

Fiesta de San Salvador -- San Salvador, El Salvador

Frídagur verslunarmanna -- Iceland (Commerce Day)

Full Sturgeon Moon a/k/a Full Red Moon, Green Corn Moon, or Grain Moon

     Native Wild Rice Harvest -- Northern Cree, Ojibwa, and Algonkian Native Americans (celebrated during the August full moon; if there are two full moons, it is during the second)

     Nikini Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka (begins at sundown)

     Raksha Bandhan -- CG, GJ, MP, RJ, UK, & UP, India; Nepal (the Hindu festival that celebrates the the love and duty between brothers and sisters)

     Waso Full Moon -- Myanmar 

Golpe de la Libertad -- Equatorial Guinea (Freedom Day)

Grab Some Nuts Day -- almonds and walnuts are especially good for you

International Friendship Day (original date proposed by Joyce Hall, founder of Hallmark Cards, back in 1935 because it is the center of the largest lull between major holidays; the UN celebrates it on July 30 and many countries celebrate on the second Sunday in August)    

Kadooment Day -- Barbados (huge carnival celebration of the end of the Crop Over festival, celebrating the end of the sugar cane harvest)

National Children's Day -- Tuvalu

National Watermelon Day

New Brunswick Day -- New Brunswick, Canada

Picnic Day -- NT, Australia

Pidjiguiti Day -- Guinea-Bissau (Colonization Martyr's Day; Anniversary of the Killing of Pidjiguiti)

St. Lydia Purpuraria's Day (Lydia the "seller of purple" who was Paul's first convert in Philippi; Patron of dyers)

St. Nicodemus' Day (member of the Sanhedrin and secret disciple who helped bury Jesus)

Youth and Children's Day -- Kiribati

Birthdays Today:

Evangeline Lilly, 1979

Blaine Wilson, 1974

Isaiah Washington, 1963

John McGinley, 1959

Jay North, 1951

John Landis, 1950

Martha Stewart, 1941

Martin Sheen, 1940

Steve Berkoff, 1937

Tony Bennett, 1926

Leon Uris, 1924

P.D. James, 1920

Margaret "Maggie" Kuhn, 1905

John T. Scopes, 1900

Ernest Taylor "Ernie" Pyle, 1900

Elisha Graves Otis, 1811

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Primetime Live"(TV), 1989

"Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp)"(Single release), 1963

"Chu Chin Chow"(Musical), 1916

"William Tell"(Opera), 1829

Today in History:

Tiberius, Roman Empire general, defeats the Dalmatians at the river Bathinus, 8

Columbus sets Sail for the "Indes",departing from Palos, Spain, 1492

John Rut, at St. John's, Newfoundland, sends the first known letter from North America, 1527

Robert LaSalle builds the Le Griffon, the first known ship built on the Great Lakes, 1678

First ascent of Jungfrau, third highest summit in the Bernese Alps, 1811

Harvard defeats Yale in the first intercollegiate rowing race, 1852*

Second Maori War begins in New Zealand, 1860

The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company is founded, 1900

The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus travels beneath the Arctic ice cap, 1958

President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya of Mauritania is overthrown in a military coup while attending the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia, 2005

After last months extensive flooding, North Korea finally asks the United Nations for food aid, 2012

*In fact, it was the first American intercollegiate athletic event ever.