We Don't Want To Know How They Get Popcorn in the Shower (Wordless Wednesday) and Summer Night (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 Alex J. Cavanaugh and are posted by Elephant's Child.            

The words this week are:

firefly

mystery

science

theater

start

and/or 

trek

eureka

psych

jokers

gate

The children had run down ahead of the grown-ups, through the GATE and into the pasture.  They were shrieking with delight chasing the lightning bugs, and one child had already captured a lone FIREFLY in her jar.

This was a strict catch-and-release program, all of the children had been told from the START.  None of the creatures were to be hurt, just studied.

"EUREKA!" one of the twins yelled.  "I got one!"

"Me, two!" the cousin called out, holding up her jar.

She ran to where the grown-ups were standing and watching.  She and her family were visiting the cousins, and she'd never been out on a country summer evening to see the glow bugs glow.  Eyes wide with curiosity, she asked, "How do they light up?"

Her father was quick to answer, "It's gas.  When they don't pass gas for a while, it sets their bottoms on fire!"

One of the twin boy cousins was near to hear that, and laughed so hard he almost dropped his jar.  She looked from her father to her cousin, and then her father started laughing, too.

"Dad's are such JOKERS!" her cousin hooted.  "Always trying to PSYCH you by answering, even if they don't know the answer."

Her aunt told her to go have fun catching, and they'd talk about it later.

Once the children had caught their fill and run themselves a bit tired, they all brought their jars to the upper yard where the fire had been started in the fire pit.  Sitting around the fire pit where their aunt told stories was as good as THEATER to them.

"The MYSTERY of how animals glow is actually a SCIENCE puzzle that's fun to learn about," she started.  She talked about bioluminescence, and the chemical luciferase, and they counted their fireflies' flashes to see which species each had caught.

Then they let the little bugs fly free, another country evening in the summer over and done.

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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)

Day of Cancelled Expectations -- according to William Least Heat-Moon in his autobiography, Blue Highways

Dita e Pavaresise -- Kosovo (Independence Day)(2008)

Feast of Shezmu -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (god of the winepress; date approximate)

February 17 Revolution Day -- Libya

Hachinohe Enburi Matsuri -- Hachinohe, Japan (festival with prayers for a good harvest; through Wednesday)

Last day of Celtic Tree Month Luis (Rowan)

My Way Day -- today, determine your identity all by yourself, apart from what other people say you should be; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

National Cafe Au Lait Day

National Indian Pudding Day

National PTA Founders Day -- US

Practice Your Free Throws Day -- spread around the internet by someone who really loves basketball

Quirinalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (a/k/a Feast of Fools)

Random Acts of Kindness Day -- US (unofficial, but a great idea)  

Snow Ice Cream Day -- internet generated; if you want to try it, and are sure your snow is reasonably clean, add sugar, milk, a touch of vanilla, and enjoy

St. Fortchern of Trim's Day (Patron of bell-founders)

Tanis Diena -- Ancient Latvain Calendar (To honor pigs)

Anniversaries Today:

League of United Latin American Citizens (Lulac) Founded, 1929

Miami University is chartered by the State of Ohio, 1809

Birthdays Today:

Vanessa Atler, 1982

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 1981

Paris Hilton, 1981

Jerry O'Connell, 1974

Bryan White, 1974

Billie Joe Armstrong, 1972

Denise Richards, 1972

Michael Forbes, 1967

Ronald "Bell Biv" DeVoe, 1967

Michael Jordan, 1963

Lou Diamond Phillips, 1962

Richard Karn, 1959

Rene Russo, 1954

Brenda Fricker, 1945

Jim Brown, 1936

Alan Bates, 1934

Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage), 1934

Lee Holby, 1926

Hal Holbrook, 1925

Arthur Kennedy, 1914

Clarence Lindon “Buster” Crabbe, 1908

Red Barber, 1908

Dorothy Canfield Fisher, 1879

William Cadbury, 1867

Samuel Sidney Mcclure, 1857

Friedrich A Krupp, 1854

A. Montgomery Ward, 1844

Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec, 1781

Thomas Malthus, 1766

Arcangelo Corelli, 1653

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"A Prairie Home Companion"(Radio), 1979

"BC"(Comic Strip), 1958

"Madame Butterfly"(Puccini Opera), 1904

"Un Ballo in maschera"(Verdi Opera), 1859

"Siroe, re di Persia"(Handel HWV 24), 1728

Today in History:

Miles Standish is appointed the first commander of the Plymouth colony, 1621

The first volume of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" is

published, 1776

The first ship passes through the Suez Canal, 1867

Women's suffragist Esther Morris is appointed the first female justice of the peace in the US, in South Pass City, Wyoming, 1870

Sardines are first canned, by Julius Wolff of Eastport, Maine, 1876

Madame Butterfly receives its première at La Scala in Milan, 1904

The first minimum wage law in the US takes effect, in Oregon, 1913

Johnny Weissmuller sets the 100-yard freestyle record (52.4 seconds), 1924

The first telecast of a sporting event in Japan, a baseball game, 1931

The first issue of "Newsweek" magazine is published, 1933

Vanguard 2 – The first weather satellite is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution, 1959

Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle exceed those of the Ford Model-T, 1972

Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match, 1996

Kosovo declares independence, 2008

In racing, Danica Patrick becomes the first woman at the Daytona 500 and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to win pole position, 2013

The research journal GSA Today publishes an article in favor of reclassifying mostly underwater microcontinent Zealandia in the South Pacific as the 8th continent, 2017

India's Supreme Court grants equal rights to women in military service, 2020