Flowers (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday, an A to Z Post

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To enjoy more blogs participating in the A to Z Challenge, click here.     

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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 WiseWebWoman.    

This week the words are:

Wardrobe

Silhouette

Sergeant

Dispensation

and/or

Placebo

Displeasure

Sympathy

Discretion

and/or this image:

If you knew anything at all about the WARDROBE of military personnel, it was obvious the weary young woman walking toward the apartments from the parking lot was a SERGEANT.  If you looked more closely, you could tell she was a medic as well.

The day had almost done her in.  She and the other medics in her reserve unit were worn thin from being called up over and over for Covid duty, and some of them were starting to fall behind in school or other obligations.

She’d spent the day listening with SYMPATHY to their requests for short, temporary exemptions, which she was supposed to have the DISCRETION to grant.  In reality, if she gave more than a certain number of such DISPENSATIONS, she ran the risk of triggering her commanding officer’s DISPLEASURE.  

Nearing her own apartment, she could see the SILHOUETTE of her cat in the window.  Immediately she felt better knowing the cat would spend the evening purring her troubles away.  It might be a PLACEBO effect, she thought, but I’ll take it anyway.

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Today is:

Genocide Memorial Day -- Rwanda

Goddess Karna's Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (goddess of crying and wailing)

International Beaver Day -- celebrating the species that restores valuable wetlands 

International Snailpaper Day -- relax today with a hard copy of a regular, old fashioned newspaper

Metric System Day -- officially adopted in France on this day in 1795

Motherhood and Beauty Day -- Armenia (day the Armenian Orthodox Church celebrated the Annunciation; it is the only Church to celebrate it on this day, which is also observed as Mother's Day in this country)

National Beer Day -- US (unofficial, the celebration of the end of Prohibition)

National Bookmobile Day -- US, on the Wednesday of National Library Week

National Coffee Cake Day

National Day of Hope -- US; recognizing victims of child abuse and neglect, a day to recommit to make the world safe for children

National Walking Day -- US 

No Housework Day/Let Someone Else Clean Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, enjoy this one!

Pandia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (a festival of Zeus; date approximate)

Paraprofessional Appreciation Day -- honoring the contributions of paraprofessionals everywhere

Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume Day -- Tanzania

St. Saint John Baptist de La Salle's Day (Patron of educators, school principals, teachers)

Thank Your School Librarian Day -- US, on the Wednesday of National Library Week

Women's Day -- Mozambique

World Health Day -- UN

Yom HaShoah -- Judaism (Holocaust Remembrance Day; begins at sunset)

Anniversaries Today:

World Health Organization is founded, 1948

Prague University is chartered by Charles IV, the first university in central Europe, 1348

Birthdays Today:

Russell Crowe, 1964

Anthony Drew "Tony" Dorsett, 1954

Jackie Chan, 1954

Janis Ian, 1951

John Oates, 1948

Gerhard Schroeder, 1944

Francis Coppola, 1939

David Frost, 1939

William Hodding Carter III, 1935

Wayne Rogers, 1933

Daniel Ellsberg, 1931

James Garner, 1928

Ravi Shankar, 1920

Billie Holiday, 1915

Walter Winchell, 1897

Bronislaw Malinowski, 1884

 John Joseph McGraw, 1873

David Grandison Fairchild, 1869

W.K. Kellogg, 1860

Walter Camp, 1859

William Ellery Channing, 1780

William Wordsworth, 1770

St. Francis Xavier, 1506

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"South Pacific"(Musical), 1949

"Monsieur Beaucaire"(Operetta), 1919

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major,"Eroica"(Beethoven Op. 55), 1805

Today in History:

Attila's Huns plunder Metz, in northern France, 451

Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I issues the first draft of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the basis for much civil law even today, 529

A crowd in Florence, Italy, storms the Convent of San Marco, demanding Fra Savonarola be turned over as they rebelled against his Bonfires of the Vanities and interference with trade, 1498

Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu, 1521

Michael Cardozo becomes the first Jewish lawyer in Brazil, 1645

American pioneers found Marietta, Ohio, as the first permanent settlement of the new Northwest Territory, 1788

France adopts the meter as the standard measure of length, 1795

The Mississippi Territory is established, 1798

English chemist John Walker invents wooden matches, 1827

Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation is assassinated by the Irish, in one of the few Canadian political assassinations, and the only one of a federal politician, 1868 

Nebraska establishes an 8 hour work day, 1891

Texas Oil Company (Texaco) is formed, 1902

An eruption of Mt. Vesuvius devastates Naples, 1906

Dr. K. Winfield Ney performs the first brain tumor operation under a local anesthesia, at Beth Israel Hospital, 1923

Using phone lines, the first long distance television image is sent, of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, from Washington, D.C. to NYC, 1927

Booker T. Washington becomes the first African-American depicted on a postage stamp in the US, 1940

Syria is officially recognized as independent from France, 1946

Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech, 1954

Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco, 1956

IBM announces the System/360, 1964

The publication of RFC1 marks the symbolic birth of the Internet, 1969

Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter, 1978

During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk, 1983

Mars Odyssey is launched, 2001

Mass protests begin across Moldova under the belief that results from the parliamentary election are fraudulent, 2009

Following the death of Bingu wa Mutharika, Joyce Banda becomes President of Malawi, 2012

The longest python ever documented is found on Penang in Malaysia (26ft/8m), 2016