Bigger Girl and Funnies, a Random and Happy Tuesday Post

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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.  

Bigger Girl came with me this past Saturday to clean Grandma and Grandpa's house, and have another visit with them before she goes back to California.

As usual with her, some funny topics came up.  She talked about jobs, as she keeps applying to work in mortuaries.  The World Famous Clown Motel that she visited was a highlight of her trip, as it was next to a creepy abandoned cemetery.

We got to talking about donating your body for medical research, and i said that i knew someone whose father wanted to do that, but the father's body was rejected by the medical school as not having a high enough BMI.  It seems if you are elderly and only skin and bones, you really don't have enough muscle left for them to use you to teach medical students.

That's when Bigger Girl noted that you could donate your body for forensics research.  She said they always need bodies for that, to help them learn more about solving crimes by determining time and manner of death.

"Your body will help them learn to solve crimes," she said, then added, "it's like Scooby Doo, only you're dead!"

She also talked about off-roading in National Parks on the way down here.  "At one point, we were on a 40% grade with a sheer drop on our left, and I told G-d, 'You better get me out of this, because I do not intend to die in a mojito-green Jeep!'  It was so cool!"

There was more, but she goes on so fast i lose track, someday i'm going to record a whole conversation with her.  It would be worth it.

 Okay, time for the stuff Grandma forwards to me, including more 3-D floors:

Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!

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Today is:

Apple Howling Day -- Henfield, West Sussex (Held at Gill Orchard, always on Epiphany Eve, horn blowing and howling at the trees is said to wake them up and yield a good crop.)

Armenian Christmas Eve -- Armenia (Old Chrismas Day in the West)

Can Opener Day -- one of the earliest forms of can opener was patented this date in 1858 by Ezra Warner of CT, US (tin cans had been around for over 50 years by then, usually opened with a knife or hammer and chisel)

Get on the Computer Day -- obviously dates back to a time when people didn't have to check email daily or get innundated

Guru Gobindh Singh Birthday -- Sikh

Harbin Ice Festival -- Harbin, China (with a theme of "Magical Harbin, Ice, Snow, Charming China," a festival of illuminated ice sculptures, ice sports, and fun through Chinese New Year and beyond)

Joma Shinji Festival -- Kamakura, Japan (ceremony and festival to keep evil spirits away)

Mungday -- Discordianism (festival of St. Hung Mung)

National Bird Day -- US (National Association of Audubon Societies incorporated today in 1905)  

National Whipped Cream Day

Nones of January -- Ancient Roman Calendar; also

     Festival of Vica Pota (ancient goddess of victory)

Review Your Wrestling Holds Day -- internet generated, and weird

St. Gerlac of Valkenberg's Day (Patron of domestic animals)

St. Simeon Stylites' Day (The original and most maniacal of the "Pillar Saints")

Take the Cake Day -- a day to do something, anything, over the top, just because

Trettondagsafton -- Sweden (Epiphany Eve)

Turn Up the Heat Day -- all over the internet, but no one explains it

Twelfth Day of Christmas -- and thus, Twelfth Night (Although by some reckonings, this is actually only the 11th day of Christmas, and thus Twelfth Night Eve.  Take your pick.)

Ume Matsuri -- Atami, Japan (celebrating the ume -- plum -- at one of the most famous plum viewing spots in the country; through early to mid-March)

Anniversaries Today:

George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis, 1759

Birthdays Today:

January Jones, 1978

Bradley Cooper, 1975

Warrick Dunn, 1975

Carrie Ann Inaba, 1968

Pamela Sue Martin, 1953

Diane Keaton, 1946

Charlie Rose, 1942

Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, 1938

Umberto Eco, 1932

Alvin Ailey, 1931

Robert Duvall, 1931

Walter Mondale, 1928

George Reeves, 1914

George Dolenz, 1908

Jeannette Ridlon Piccard, 1895

King Camp Gillette, 1855

Edmund Ruffin, 1794

Constanze Mozart, 1762 (wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)

Pietro Filippo Scarlotti, 1679

Shah Jahal, 1592 (Mughal emperor of India, built the Taj Mahal)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"All My Children"(TV), 1970

"Bozo the Clown"(TV), 1959

"The Member of the Wedding"(Play), 1950

"Pepe LePew"(cartoon character, in "Odor-able Kitty"), 1945

Today in History:

Edward the Confessor dies with no heir, leading to a succession crisis that ends with the Norman Conquest, 1066

Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, is executed by drowning, 1527

Pope Clemens VII forbids English king Henry VIII to re-marry, 1531

A petition in Recife, Brazil leads to closing of their 2 synagogues, 1638

Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted the first divorce in the colonies, from her absent and adulterous husband, Denis Clarke, by the Quarter Court of Boston, Massachusetts, 1643

The first Swedenborgian temple in the US holds its first service, in Baltimore, 1800

The Ohio legislature passes the first laws restricting the movement of free blacks, 1804

Davy Crockett arrives in Texas, just in time for the Alamo, 1836

The US House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the UK, 1846

The first US school of librarianship opens at Columbia University, 1887

An Austrian newspaper makes the first public report on Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of xrays, 1896

The National Association of Audubon Society incorporates, 1905

Colombia recognizes Panama's independence, 1909

The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor, 1914

British premier Lloyd George issues a demand for a unified peace, 1918

Nellie Taylor Ross is sworn in as governor of Wyoming, the first woman governor of a US state, 1925

Mao Tse-tung writes "A Single Spark Can Start A Prairie Fire," 1930

FM radio is demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission for the first time, 1940

The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper, 1944

Warmest reliably measured temperature in Antarctica of +59°F (+15°C) recorded at Vanda Station, 1974

Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered, 2005

The tomb of an Egyptian queen, Khentakawess III, is discovered by a team of Czech archaeologists; the queen lived during the Fifth Dynasty and was likely the wife of Pharaoh Neferefre, 2015

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine is granted independence from the Russian Orthodox Church by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, 2019

Chinese professor Zhang Yongzhen publishes the first SARS-CoV-2 genome map online, allowing health professionals worldwide to identify COVID-19, 2020