But First, An Explanation, a Four Hop Thursday Post

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Before we get to our regularly scheduled programming, an explanation.

NOLA = New Orleans, LA (Louisiana, as per the United States Postal Service abbreviation)

Grandma and Grandpa live in the GNO -- Greater New Orleans area.  For brevity, i just say i am going to NOLA when i head down there.

No one knows for certain where the expression "I'm gonna go make groceries" comes from or how it started, although there are several theories.  It's been how people in the New Orleans area have said they are going grocery shopping since long before i was born, and it's one of those unique things about the area that make it so endearing.

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"Freeze, buster!"  her words cut through the dark and quiet kitchen like a hot knife through butter.

"Aw, Mom, c'mon, I'm hungry, I just wanted a snack before bed!" he looked at her with the puppy dog eyes he did so well.

"The last time you had a 'snack before bed,' you ate almost an entire standing rib roast meant for dinner the next day, and we were all stuck eating scrambled eggs, so any snack you make has to pass through the mommy filter from now on."

"How about just some cereal and milk," he said, trying to use a soothing tone; she'd been very upset since that rib roast incident a few days before and he didn't want to get banned from the kitchen entirely, as she'd threatened at the time.

"Only if you don't eat the whole box of cereal and drink the whole gallon of milk, you have to leave enough for the rest of us to have breakfast -- deal?"

"Deal," he said, and she turned away muttering, "Where do these boys put all that food?"

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Filter.      

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Gosia at Looking for Identity has taken over Good Fences, and it's now Good Fences Around The World.  Post a picture of a fence or gate, link back to her blog, and go visit other blogs to see what interesting fences there are out in this big world.     

 'Tis the Mardi Gras season:

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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem: 

   

You might think that I'm not from here,

But on this you'd be wrong.

See, on some things my wife and me,

Our disagreements they are strong.

I want to move to Alaska's frontier

To live where it's cold and wild,

But my wife suffers badly in the cold,

She needs a climate mild.

And that is why we have this house

It's a compromise, you see.

Since I can't go to the wild, cold North,

This brings some of it to me!

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Brian of Brian's Home hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful my back is feeling much better than it did this time last week.

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Today is:

Assembly Line Workers' Day -- listed on many sites but no particular reason for it to be this day; then again, why not today?

Azhirnikhua -- Abkhazia (Day of World Creation)

Cakes and Ale Day -- emblems of the good life, a day to remember the good things we have, and be grateful

Celebration of the 2nd Week of Moonhopper -- Fairy Calendar

Daikoku Matsuri -- Kanda Myojin Shine, Tokyo, Japan (purification ceremony; through tomorrow)

Day of Defenders of the Native Land (Army Day) -- Uzbekistan

Feast of Divina Pastora -- Barquisimeto, Venezuela (religious procession attended by about 2 million people)

Feast of the Ass -- Medieval Christianity (commemorates the Flight Into Egypt)

International Kite Festival -- Jaipur and Ahmedabad, India

Makar Sandranti -- India/Hindu Calendar (part of the sidereal solstice festivals)

National Dress Up Your Pet Day -- please, only do this if your pet enjoys it

National Forest Conservation Day -- Thailand

National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day

Niino no Yukimatsuri -- Izu shrine, Niino, Nagano Prefecture, Japan (snow festival with offerings made to bring a good harvest in the coming year; through tomorrow)

Nosso Senhor de Bonfim Festival -- Salvador, Brazil (Our Lord of the Happy Ending Festival, at the church by that name, the celebrations begin with washing the steps of the church today and celebrations run through this Sunday and to the next)

Organize Your Home Day -- another one that i can't figure out who started it, but i will say s/he was nuts to think this could be done in one day

Orthodox New Year -- RS, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Serbia

Pongal continues -- Tamil New Year, among the Tamil People (multiple day thanksgiving festival at the end of harvest)

     Tamil Thai Pongal Day -- Sri Lanka

     Maghi Parba/Maghe Sankranti -- Western Nepal

Ratification Day -- US (anniversary of the Treaty of Paris that recognized the independence of the US from England)

Revolution and Youth Day -- Tunisia

Sidereal Winter Solstice Celebrations -- throughout South and Southeast Asia

St. Felix of Nola's Day (Patron of domestic animals, eyes; Nola, Italy; against eye diseases, false witness, lies, perjury)

St. Sava's Day (Patron of Serbia and all Serbs)

Take a Missionary to Lunch Day -- to honor Albert Schweitzer's birth anniversary

Traditional Day of Offering -- Bhutan (first day of 12th month of Tibetan calendar)

Anniversaries Today:

Joe DiMaggio marries Marilyn Monroe, 1954

Birthdays Today:

Kristin Cavallari, 1987

Jason Bateman, 1969

Emily Watson, 1967

Shepard Smith, 1964

Steven Soderbergh, 1963

Lawrence Kasdan, 1949

Carl Weathers, 1948

Nina Totenberg, 1944

Holland Taylor, 1943

Faye Dunaway, 1941

Jack Jones, 1938

Andy Rooney, 1919

William Bendix, 1906

John dos Passos, 1896

Hal Roach, 1892

Hugh Lofting, 1886

Albert Schweitzer, 1875

Thornton W. Burgess, 1874

Richard Felton Outcault, 1863

Matthew Fontaine Maury, 1806

Benedict Arnold, 1741

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Bionic Woman"(TV), 1976

"Sanford and Son"(TV), 1972

"Sinfonia Antartica"(Vaughan Williams' 7th symphony), 1953

"Today Show"(TV), 1952

"Tosca"(Puccini Opera), 1900

Today in History:

The Knights Templar are formally approved by the Roman Catholic Church, 1129

Pope Leo X issues a papal bull against slavery, 1514

Spain annexes Cuba, 1539

The "Fundamental Orders", the first written constitution that created a government, is adopted in Connecticut, 1639

Massachusetts holds a day of fasting for wrongly accusing "witches", 1699

Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris, formally ending the American Revolutionary War, 1783

The US Supreme Court rules that racial separation on trains is unconstitutional, 1878

An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills more than 1000, 1907

Henry Ford introduces the assembly line to the production of the Model-T, 1914

The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight, 1950

The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country's central bank and banknote issuing authority, is established, 1960

Toronto, Ontario Mayor Mel Lastman becomes the first mayor in Canada to call in the Army to help with emergency medical evacuations and snow removal after more than one meter of snow paralyzes the city, 1999

The national flag of Georgia, the so-called "five cross flag", is restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years, 2004

Landing of the Huygens probe on Saturn's moon Titan, 2005

The MESSENGER spacecraft performs a Mercury flyby, 2008

American rock climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson become the first to successfully free-climb the Dawn Wall face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, 2015

The US National Safety Council publishes a report saying that, for the first time ever, an American’s chance of dying of an opioid overdose is greater than the chance of dying in a traffic accident, 2019