Rest in Peace, Small Bad Dog (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Note:  My good friend DiDreaming, who lives in Mobile and whom i visit every summer, lost her precious Small Bad Dog.  They were out on their morning walk when a pit bull attacked.  Our hearts are broken.

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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 yours truly.

The whole point is to write and have fun, so please join in, you don't even have to use the prompts if you don't want.  Let them be a springboard, not a straight jacket.

This week's words are:

biscuit

reign

selection

vigorous

treatment

seal

and/or one of more of the following obsolete words

beef-witted (slow-witted; having a heavy, ox-like intellect)

fudgel (to goof off while pretending to work)

groak (to silently stare at someone while s/he's eating, in hopes of being invited to join in)

tittynope (a small quantity of something left over)

"What are you doing in the kitchen?"

"Snitching a BISCUIT, what are you doing?"

"Hoping to do the same."

"Here, have at it.  Cook went out for an appointment and left the kitchen unattended for probably the first time since her REIGN began."

"You have to admit, at least she's not like her BEEF-WITTED predecessor.  Her SELECTION of menus is much better."

"It certainly is, but she sticks to the place like there's a SEAL on the door and she can't get out.  Never a chance to nip in for a taste, you know?"

"Yes, I know, which is why I am going to enjoy this little interlude with VIGOROUS abandon."

"Wait!  Did you hear that?"

"It's nothing," peeking out the window.

"Good, I thought it might be Hogan.  Such a one to FUDGEL, it'd be like him to come snooping when he's supposed to be out in the gardens."

"And what are we supposed to be doing?"

"We've finished all our work for the day, including the special TREATMENT of the water in the pool.  Nothing wrong with us having a stop for a snack."

"True.  Does cook's dog always sit at the door and GROAK like that?"

"Probably.  Here, I'll give him this TITTYNOPE of my biscuit and he'll never snitch on us."

"He won't, but he won't have to," Cook said, striding in suddenly.

Two guilty faces, crumbs on their mouths, looked like exactly what they were, big kids caught with hands in the biscuit tin.

"So you like my cooking better than my predecessor?"

"Much!" "Yes, we do!"

For the first time since she'd arrived, they saw Cook smile.  "A little flattery goes a long way.  It gets lonely in the kitchen, so next time, pop 'round and ask for a taste of something, and we'll have a bit of conversation.  I won't bite, unless you ask me to!"

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Today is:

Boy's Club Day -- founding in 1906

Buddha Day/Buddha's Birthday -- dates can vary by country

Celebrate Your Elected Officials Day 2021 -- unless you don't like them, then get to work electing better ones; if you know of a good one, take time today to thank her/him

Circus Day -- the four Ringling Brothers opened their first circus on this day in 1884

Dance to Mark the Third of January -- Fairy Calendar (Third of January is when the Founding Fairy Fathers and Mothers arrived in what is now called Fairyland [no one knows where they lived before, or what lived in Fairyland before], so it is one of their most important days; no one knows why it is celebrated in May, either)

Emergency Medical Services for Children Day -- because children need different care, they aren't just tiny adults   

Greek Genocide Remembrance Day -- Greece

May Ray Day -- to celebrate being able to go out into the sun's rays as summer nears

National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day -- US (information at Banyan Tree Project)

National Devil's Food Cake Day

National Employee Health & Fitness Day -- US (originally the 3rd Wednesday in May, but now spreading around the world as Global Employee Health & Fitness Month)   

New England's Dark Day*

Plant Something Day -- because it's fun, and summer is coming so you can!

Praia Municipal Day -- Praia, Cape Verde

St. Dunstan of Canterbury's Day (Patron of armourers, blacksmiths, blind people, gold workers and smiths, jewellers, lighthouse keepers, locksmiths, musicians, silver workers and smiths, swordsmiths; Charlottetown, PEI, Canada)

St. Peter Celestine's Day (Patron of bookbinders; Aquila, Italy)

Turn Beauty Inside Out Day -- the day to remember what really counts is who you are, not just what you look like

Youth and Sports Day / Commemoration of Atatürk -- North Cyprus; Turkey

Anniversary Today:

Eric Clapton marries Pattie Boyd, 1979

Birthdays Today:

Rachel Appleton, 1992

Jordon Pruitt, 1991

Eric Lloyd, 1986

Kevin Garnett, 1976

Kyle Eastwood, 1968

Grace Jones, 1952

Joey Ramone, 1951

Archie Manning, 1949

Andre the Giant, 1946

Pete Townshend, 1945

Nora Ephron, 1941

James Fox, 1939

Francis R. Scobee, 1939

David Hartman, 1937

James Lehrer, 1934

Malcolm X, 1925

Ho Chi Minh, 1890

Nancy Astor, 1879

Johns Hopkins, 1762

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith(Film), 2005

Smokey and the Bandit,(Film)oikRoom Service"(Play), 1937

Gone With The Wind(Publication date), 1936

"L'heure espagnole / How They Keep Time in Spain"(Ravel comédie musicale), 1911

Today in History:

Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America, 1535

Anne Boleyn is beheaded, 1536

Queen Elizabeth I orders the arrest of Mary, Queen of Scots, 1568

French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power, 1643

The Long Parliament declares England a Commonwealth, and England remains a republic for the next 11 years, 1649

King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River, 1749

*A combination of thick smoke and heavy cloud cover causes complete darkness to fall on Eastern Canada and the New England area of the United States at 10:30 A.M, 1780

Napoleon Bonaparte founds the Légion d'Honneur, 1802

Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the Mexican-American War and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for $15 million USD, 1848

Jan Matzeliger begins the first mechanized shoe production, 1885

Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol, 1897

White women win the right to vote in South Africa, 1930

Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind is published, 1936

Churchill and Roosevelt set May 1, 1944 as their goal date for D-Day (it had to be delayed over a month because of weather), 1943

The Soviet Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus, 1961

Croatians vote for independence, 1991

The Sierra Gorda Biosphere, the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, is established as a result of grassroots efforts, 1997

Hundreds of Albert Einstein's scientific papers, personal letters and humanist essays were make available on the Internet. Einstein had given the papers to the Hebrew Universtiy of Jerusalem in his will, 2003

A rare 19th century torpedo is discovered off the coast of California by the US Navy dolphins, 2013

UK inflation is recorded as a negative for the first time since 1960, 2015

EgyptAir flight MS804 goes missing over the Mediterranean on route Paris to Cairo, 2018