Mixed Assignment (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day, and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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There were two chapters left in the Ladies' Circle book, and i offered to cover the one on service, while Annie offered to cover the one on beauty.

Our moderator got it mixed up, and assigned Annie the chapter on service (which she was well able to do), and told me to take the one on beauty.

Now, really, a talk on true beauty from a janitor who only owns two dresses, one to wear for Easter and one for Mother's Day, has one pair of "good" shoes, one "nice" purse, and who never bothered to replace the only make-up she owned, one lipstick and one mascara, after the dog chewed them up a couple of years ago?

What was our moderator thinking, and what in the world was i to do?

Of course i would improvise, and did so, and made them laugh in the process by telling them how in honor of the evening i'd worn my best jeans (with no holes), my only nice blouse, and had even grabbed my deodorant for the second time in the same day!

After letting them know how surprised i was to get the assignment, and telling them that i have fewer hair products in my bathroom than my husband, we had a wonderful discussion about why we are always so quick to judge beauty by what we see, and how that keeps us bogged down in so many areas of life.

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

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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.     

Brick and iron is always a nice fence, at least to me.

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

 

The big kids get to ride at night,

but that’s too scary and would give us a fright.

Our Halloween hayride is during the day

We have such fun it’s better this way!

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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 that we had a wonderful last Ladies' Circle Meeting of the spring.  It was finally an in person meeting, with only a few of us able to attend, in the large back yard of a member.  We had food, and enjoyed each other's company, finished our book discussion, and can't wait for fall when we will start up again.

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Today is:

Arlington National Cemetary Day -- US (the first serviceman to be interred here was Private William Henry Christman, on this date in 1964

Ascension Day -- Christian; related observances

     Procession of the Holy Blood -- Belgium (religious historical procession recalling the adventurous crusaders, especially Count Thierry of Alsace, who was supposed to have carried back relics of the Holy Blood)

Bun Bung Fai (Rocket Festival) -- Yasothon, Thailand (through the 14th, teams compete to build the highest flier, with no regard for safety!)

Celtic Tree Month Huath (hawthorn) commences

Eid al Fitr -- Islam (celebration of the end of Ramadan; begins at sundown, and runs through sundown on the 16th, but local dates and official government observances may vary)

Fairy King and Queen Jumping Competition -- Fairy Calendar

Frog Jumping Day -- original date for celebrating Twain's short story

Garland Day -- Abbotsbury, Dorset, England

King Norodom Sihamoni's Birthday -- Cambodia

Lemuralia -- Ancient Roman Empire (third day)

Leprechaun Day -- spread around the internet, presumably by the little people themselves, as since St. Patrick gets a day, so should they!

National Apple Pie Day

National Fruit Cocktail Day

Pilgrimage to Fatima -- Fatima, Portugal (procession, mass, and etc. to commemorate the first appearance of the Virgin of the Rosary to the three shepherd children on this day in 1917)

St Julian of Norwich's Day (Author of what is believed to be the first book written by a woman in the English language, Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love, around 1393)

St. Servatus' Day (3rd Ice Saint, Patron for success; against foot problems, lameness, leg problems, mice, rats, rheumatism, vermin)

Birthday Today:

Debby Ryan, 1993

Robert Pattinson, 1986

Samantha Morton, 1977

Darius Rucker, 1968

Darius Rucker, 1966

Stephen Colbert, 1964

Julianne Phillips, 1962

Dennis Rodman, 1961

Frances Barber, 1957

Stevie Wonder, 1950

Bobby Valentine, 1950

Franklyn Ajaye, 1949

Tim Pigott-Smith, 1946

Mary Wells, 1943

Ritchie Valens, 1941

Harvey Keitel, 1939

Beatrice Arthur, 1923

Joe Louis, 1914

Arthur Sullivan, 1842

Maria Theresa, 1717

Debuting/Premiering Today;

Let It Be(Film), 1970

"Paint It Black"(Single release), 1966

"The Pajama Game"(Musical), 1954

Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Violoncello and Orchestra (Bloch concerto), 1917

"Apollo et Hyacinthus"(opera, Mozart K 38), 1767

Today in History:

The forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother, 1568

A major earthquake in Santiago, Chile, kills 1/3 of the population, 1643

Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England  with eleven ships full of convicts (First Fleet) to establish a penal colony in Australia, 1787

Ecuador  gains its independence from Gran Colombia, 1830

The first performance of Finland's national anthem, 1848

Queen Victoria declares Britain neutral in the US Civil War, 1861

The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, 1861

Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway, 1880

The Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) is established in the United Kingdom, 1912

Igor Sikorsky becomes the first man to pilot a four-engine aircraft, 1913

The first commercial FM radio station in the United States (WDRC-FM) is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut, 1939

Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons, 1940

The trade mark Velcro is registered, 1958

The Free Speech Movement is born at UC Berkeley, 1960

Dr. Zakir Hussain becomes the third President  of India and the first Muslim President of Indian Union, 1967

Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike, 1989

Johnny Carson makes his last television appearance on Late Show with David Letterman, 1994

A 33 years old British mother Alison Hargreaves, became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas, 1995

Star Trek: Enterprise broadcasts its final show in the U.S., 2005

Construction of the Calafat-Vidin Bridge between Romania and Bulgaria begins, 2007

In Belize, a construction company requiring road fill gravel destroys a 2,300 year-old Mayan pyramid, 2013

A 22 year old UK blogger halts the spread of a global ransomware cyber-attack by accidentally identifying its "kill switch", 2017

Undersea explorer Victor Vescovo makes the deepest dive ever to the bottom of the Mariana Trench at 10,927m (35,849ft), and finds plastic waste, 2019

The journal Nature Geoscience publishes a study showing the moon is shrinking because of moonquakes as it cools, 2019