Parade (Awww Monday), Passion (Inspiring Quote of the Week), and Poetry Monday, 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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Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus.

Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays.  Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it.

Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you.  What better way to start the week than with a smile!

Yesterday, i was treated to a Goose Parade, mom, dad, and two babies crossing the street to the pond:

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 Sparks, the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, is on hiatus, so here's an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.

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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Charlotte/Mother Owl always participates, and now Karen at Baking in a Tornado is jumping in at least once a month, too.  Spike's Best Mate often leaves a wonderful poem in the comments on one of our blogs.

This week the theme is National Garlic Day, so i did a poem, a haiku, and a bit of a tribute to a quote from Alice May Brock of "Alice's Restaurant" fame.          

            

As a lover of The Stinky Rose

My nose, well it always knows

If you skimped on the garlic.

When it's time for you to cook,

May i suggest throw away the book

If the author doesn't call for garlic.

Put it in the soup and put it in the stew,

Use it in every recipe both old and new,

You just can't have too much garlic.

^^^^^^^^^

If you want to kiss

Her after your dinner date

Garlic -- both or none

^^^^^^^^^

Alice May Brock we have to thank

For pointing out the truth

That can only be denied

By those who are uncouth:

Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French.  Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek.  Soy sauce makes it Chinese, garlic makes it good.

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Today is:

Bendideia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival for Bendis; date approximate)

Dutch-American Friendship Day -- anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and the US, America's oldest continuously peaceful diplomatic relations

Independence Declaration Day -- Venezuela

John Parker Day -- many US States (anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, where Parker said “Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon; but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”)

Jose de Diego's Birthday -- Puerto Rico (Father of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, a/k/a Dia de Reafirmacion del Idioma Espanol)

King Mswati III's birthday -- Swaziland

Landing of the 33 Patriots Day -- Uruguay

Lozenge Competition -- Fairy Calendar (no, i don't know what they do with the lozenges that makes it a competition)

National Amaretto Day

National Cat Lady Day

National Garlic Day

National Hanging Out Day -- Project Laundry List and other organizations promote bringing back the clothesline to save energy and the planet!

Navpad Oli/ Ayambil Oli -- Jain (beginning of a nine day religious festival)

Oklahoma City Bombing Commemoration Day

Okoshi Daiko Festival -- Furukawa, Japan (today, hundreds of men in loincloths fight to touch a wooden frame supporting a huge taiko drum as it is carried through the streets, and tomorrow is an elegant parade with lion dancers and traditional music)

Patriot's Day -- US (in observance of the first battles of the Revolutionary War; not to be confused with Patriot Day on Sept. 11)

Primrose Day -- UK (anniversary of the death of Disraeli)

St. AElfheah's Day (Patron of kidnap victims; Greenwich and Solihull, England)

St. Expeditus of Melintine's Day (Patron of merchants, navigators; for expeditious and prompt solutions; against procrastination)

St. Leo IX's Day

Anniversaries Today:

Grace Kelly marries Ranier III of Monaco, 1956

Cheyney University is founded as The Institute for Colored Youth, 1837

Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI by Proxy Marriage, 1770

Birthdays Today:

Maria Sharapova, 1987

Hayden Christensen, 1981

Kate Hudson, 1979

James Franco, 1978

Luis Miguel Basteri, 1970

Ashley Judd, 1968

Al Unser, Jr., 1962

Tony Plana, 1954

Paloma Picasso, 1949

Tim Curry, 1946

Alan Price, 1942

Elinor Donahue, 1937

Dudley Moore, 1935

Jayne Mansfield, 1933

Dick Sargent, 1930

Hugh O'Brian, 1925

Eliot Ness, 1903

Lucretia Rudolph-Garfield, 1832

David Ricardo, 1772

Roger Sherman, 1721

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope"(Musical revue), 1972

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"(Musical), 1951

"Carousel"(Musical), 1945

"Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder/Mother Courage and Her Children"(Play), 1941

"National Barn Dance"(Radio), 1924

"The Bing Boys are Here"(Musical revue), 1919

"Revizor/The Government Inspector"(Comedy), 1836

"Iphigenia in Aulis,"(Opera), 1774

Today in History:

Sir Francis Drake sails to Cadiz and sinks the Spanish Fleet, 1587

Because he has no male heirs, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, assuring Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would go to his daughter, Maria Theresa, 1713

Captain James Cook sights Australia, 1770

John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States, and his home in The Hague becomes the first American Embassy, 1782

Venezuela achieves home rule, 1810

The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and Luxembourg as a Grand Duchy, 1839

Charles Duryea claims to have taken the first automobile built in the US for a spin, 1892

The first Boston Marathon is won by John McDermott of NY in 2:55:10, 1897

Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute  jump, 1919

The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published, 1928

Burma (now Myanmar) joins the United Nations, 1948

The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in success for the defenders, 1961

Sierra Leone becomes a republic, 1971

India's first satellite, Aryabhata, is launched, 1975

The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168, 1995

The German Bundestag returns to Berlin, the first German parliamentary body to meet there since the Reichstag was dissolved in 1945, 1999

His Eminence Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church, taking the name Benedict XVI, 2005

Fidel Castro resigns from the Communist Party of Cuba's central committee after 45 years, 2011

A shipwreck that may have drowned up to 900 North African migrants traveling to Europe has prompted the European Union to meet in order to develop a plan to fund and organize rescues while reducing human trafficking incidents, 2015

US Senator Tammy Duckworth, the first US Senator to give birth while holding that office, is the first parent to bring a baby into the US Senate a day after the Senate votes to allow babies on the chamber's floor, 2018 

King Mswati III changes the name of Swaziland to eSwatini, or “land of the Swati”, 2018