Standoff (Feline Friday) and Friendly Fill-Ins

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Feline Friday was started by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude, and i'm going to believe it's because he likes cats.

He has handed hosting duties off to Sandee, of Comedy Plus, and it's simple to join, just follow the link to Sandee's page for the rules and the code.

 It's something of a standoff:

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Friendly Fill-Ins are easy to do. There are four statements: the first two statements are provided by Ellen of 15AndMeowing, and the final two are offered by Lorianne The Menagerie Mom of Four-Legged Furballs. They try to make sure the statements will be fun to both answer and share. The linky will be posted at or about 12:00 AM on Friday. Please head over to one of their sites, link up, and share your thoughts!      

Here are this week's statements with my responses underlined:

1. I have given up _________________.

2. On St. Patrick’s Day, I ______________________.

3. I get cranky when _________.

4. _________ is my good luck charm.

1. I have given up   trying to understand how men think.  If they came with an instruction book, i’d read it gladly, but they don’t. 

2. On St. Patrick’s Day, I    like to go to the synagogue for their corned beef sandwich sale (they also have egg salad, and that’s the only time of year i ever eat egg salad).  After all, what better way for a Protestant to celebrate a Catholic saint than to support the annual Jewish fundraiser?  (And that, my friends, is how i think our country should be!)

3. I get cranky when   people are mean, or i’ve let myself get too hungry. 

4. Nothing  is my good luck charm,   because i don’t believe in luck, i believe in G-d’s blessings.  Besides, i've never noticed that any one item brought me "good luck" in the way most of us think of it.

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Today is:

Alfred Hitchcock Day -- some internet sources say March 8, and no one knows who picked either day, but he is worth celebrating

Arbor Day -- China; Taiwan

Celebrate Your Name Week -- Friday:  Middle Name Pride Day, established by Jerry Hall as a day in which to tell at least 3 people who don't know it what your middle name is, and be proud of it

Donkey Appreciation Day -- formerly celebrated, but the lowly donkey is no longer as indespensible as he was; if you share my fondness for beasts of burden, celebrate it anyway

Girl Scouts Birthday -- US

Huddling of Fairies of the Third Flight -- Fairy Calendar

Kronprinsessans Namnsdag -- Sweden (Name Day of HRH Crown Princess Victoria, the Heir Apparent; an official flag day)

Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries -- Ancient Greek Calendar (three day festival, dates approximate; celebrates the marriage of Kore and Dionysos)

Martyrdom of Hypatia of Alexandria -- in 415, she was murdered for the three crimes of being intelligent, female, and pagan

National Baked Scallops Day

National Day -- Mauritius (anniversary of independence in 1968)

Plant a Flower Day -- sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation; now's a good time to give wildlife friendly perrenials a head start, starting them indoors if you have to    

St. Gregory the Great's Day (Patron of choir boys, educators, masons, musicians, popes, schoolchildren, singers, stonemasons, stone cutters, students, and teachers; England; Kercem, Malta; Legazpi, Philippines; Montone, Italy; San Gregorio nelle Alpi, Italy; West Indies; against gout and plague)

     note that Pope St. Gregory is also celebrated on Sept. 3, the date he was elected pope

     Graekarismessa (Mass of St. Gregory) -- Torshavn, Faroe Islands (traditional day on which the oystercatcher, their symbolic national bird, returns)

     Gregoru Diena -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (Gregory's Day, similar to groundhog day for weather prediction)

St. Seraphina's Day (Patron of the disabled and handicapped, and of spinners)

World Day Against Cyber Censorship -- sponsored by Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International

Youth Day -- Zambia

Anniversaries Today:

Mick Jagger marries Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, 1971

Paul McCartney marries Linda Louise Eastman, 1969

Birthdays Today:

Frank Catalano, 1978

Aaron Eckhart, 1968

David Daniels, 1966

Darryl Strawberry, 1962

Marlon Jackson, 1957

Rob Cohen, 1949

James Taylor, 1948

Liza Minnelli, 1946

Al Jarreau, 1940

Barbara Feldon, 1933

Andrew Young, 1932

Edward Albee, 1928

Wally Schirra, 1923

Jack Kerouac, 1922

Gordon MacRae, 1921

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 1881

Simon Newcomb, 1835

Charles Cunningham Boycott, 1832

Clement Studebaker, 1821

Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Hunger Games(Film). 2012

"Moses und Aaron"(Opera), 1954

"Fervaal"(Opera; d'Indy Op. 40), 1897

"Simon Boccanegra"(Opera), 1857

Today in History:

Martyrdom of Hypatia of Alexandria, philosopher, 415

Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Roman general, Belisarius, 538

Orvieto, Italy, rules it will behead and burn Jewish-Christian couples, 1350

Jews are expelled from Syria, 1496

New Jersey becomes an English colony, 1664

The first steam engine in America installed, to pump water from a mine, 1755

Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player and captain, 1881

In Vicksburg, Mississippi, Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time, 1894

The first main line electric train in UK, from Liverpool to Southport, begins running, 1904

The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States, by Juliette Gordon Lowe, 1912

The foundation stone of the new Australian capital in Canberra is laid, 1913

Mohandas Gandhi begins 200m (300km) march protesting British salt tax, 1930

The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism, 1947

The Church of England ordains its first female priests, 1994

Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO, 1999

Financier Bernard Madoff plead guilty in New York to scamming $18 billion, the largest in Wall Street history, 2009

The U.S. Census Bureau reports the world now has 7 billion people, 2012

JOGMEC becomes the first to successfully extract methane hydrate from seabed deposits, 2013

Research shows Chinese cites have decreased pollution by 32 percent on average in just four years, 2018

Tens of thousands of farmers from Indian state Maharashtra end protests over loan waivers, prices and land rights after promises from state officials and walking 167km to Mumbai, 2018