Getting Tamer (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and The Real Reason (Poetry Monday)

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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!

Ms. GA and Mr. BA have several outdoor, semi-feral cats, all properly vetted and fed twice a day.  Over the years, the colony has dwindled, and the remaining cats are becoming mellower with age.  Summer and Louis, best buddies, will even let me get close to them sometimes, especially when i am cat-sitting and it's dinner time.

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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.     

image credit

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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is on a blog break and is sorely missed.   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 Bikinis.          

            

They'd just moved back to town 

After several years away

And were driving down the beach road 

Noting changes along the way,

When their eyes were drawn toward something

Neither'd ever seen before,

It wasn't so much the girl

As it was what she wore.

Or maybe what she didn't wear

Would be a bit more correct,

Bikinis don't cover much and

Her figure was just perfect.

Of course they'd both heard about

This fashion in swimwear,

But neither'd ever seen it worn

On a public beach somewhere.

As they watched her in amazement

Traffic started to get slow,

But the driver was so astounded that

He didn't even know

Until his front bumper met

The back of the car ahead

With that sickening thump sound

That really causes dread.

He never did admit to his wife

Just how it came to be,

A fender bender caused by

First sight of a bikini.

(Sweetie's father was born and raised in Biloxi, Mississippi, and that's where Sweetie lived the first 6 years of his life.  Then the family left as his father became a minister and pastored churches elsewhere.  When he was 17, his dad accepted the pastorate at a church in his old home town, and by that time bikinis had become, if not accepted by everyone, at least legal to wear on the public beaches.  Sweetie and his dad never did admit to his mom that dad's minor accident that day was caused by his first ever sight, in person, of a girl wearing a bikini.)

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Today is:

Alice in Wonderland Day -- on July 5, 1862, Dodgson began writing the adventure story he had told Alice Liddel and her sisters the day before

Bikini Day -- the skimpy suit made its debut on this day in Paris in 1946

Caricom Day -- Guyana; Saint Vincent and Grenadines 

Carnival Monday -- Saint Vincent and Grenadines 

Constitution Day -- Armenia; Cayman Islands

Feast of Anubis -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Graham Cracker Day -- birth anniversary of inventor of graham flour, the Reverend Sylvester Graham, in 1794

Heroes Day -- Zambia

Independence Day -- Algeria(1962); Cape Verde(1965); Venezuela(1811)

National Apple Turnover Day

National Work-a-holics Day -- we will know it's you if you are all "back to business" after a holiday

Poplifulgia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (a ceremony to commemorate the "Flight of the People" when they had to flee enemies)

Sempach Battle Commemoration -- Lucerne, Switzerland (remembrance of the battle in 1386 includes a solemn procession to the battlefield and services in the chapel)

Sts. Cyril and Methodius Day -- Roman Catholics in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (Apostles to the Slavs, created the Glagolithic alphabet and translated the Bible into the Slavonic language)

Sts. Grace and Probus' Day (married co-Patrons of Probus, Cornwall, England)

Tynwald Day -- Isle of Man (Manx National Day; assembling of the year's session of the High Court of Tynwald, as their Parliament is called, to read the laws to the citizens; oldest continual parliament in existence)

Birthdays Today

Dolly the Sheep, 1996 (first cloned mammal)

Edie Falco, 1963

Huey Lewis, 1951

Richard Michael "Goose" Gossage, 1951

Jackie Robertson, 1944

Eliot Feld, 1942

Shirley Knight, 1936

Katherine Helmond, 1934

Warren Oates, 1928

Janos Starker, 1924

Georges Pompidou, 1911

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., 1902

Jean Cocteau, 1889

Clara Zetkin, 1857

Cecil Rhodes, 1853

P.T. Barnum, 1810

David Glasgow Farragut, 1801

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica(Publication date), 1687

Today in History

Scotland and France form the beginnings of the Auld Alliance, against England, 1295

John Guy sets sail from Bristol with 39 other colonists for Newfoundland, 1610

Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 1687

The Salvation Army is founded in the East End of London, England, 1865

Police open fire on striking longshoremen in San Francisco, on Bloody Thursday, 1934

Spam, the luncheon meat, is introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation, 1937

Highest recorded temperature in Canada, at Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan: 45°C (113°F), 1937

Larry Doby signs a contract with the Cleveland Indians baseball team, becoming the first black player in the American League, 1947

National Health Service Acts created the national public health systems in the United Kingdom, 1948

The Knesset passes the Law of Return which grants all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel, 1950

William Shockley invents the junction transistor, 1951

The BBC broadcasts its first television news bulletin, 1954

Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles title, 1975

Japan launches a probe to Mars, and thus joins the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation, 1998

The SARS virus is declared to be contained by the WHO, 2003

Indonesia holds its first presidential election, 2004

Roger Federer wins a record 15th Grand Slam title in tennis, winning a five set match against Andy Roddick at Wimbledon, 2009

The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered, consisting of more than 1,500 items, is found near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, England, 2009

Europe's tallest, habitable, free-standing structure, The Shard, which stands at 1,016 feet (309.6 metres) officially opens in London, England, 2012

In Rome, Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII are canonized by the Vatican, 2013

Volvo Cars announces that all new models by 2019 will be either hybrids or battery powered, the first automaker to do so, 2017

The ancient city of Babylon is declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, 2019