Civic Association Sign (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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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 Margaret Adamson and her friend, Sue Fulcher.  They will also feature photographs by Margaret's friend, Bill Dodd.  The prompts will be posted on  Elephant’s Child's blog.               

This week's prompts are:

1. Memorialise
2. Terpsichorean
3. Flotation
4. Gusto
5. Obnoxious
6. Phlegmatic

And/Or

1. Philately
2. Swaddle
3. Voice
4. Voluptuous
5. Yolk
6. Appraise

"Are my TERPSICHOREAN endeavors annoying you, brother?" Ella asked, twirling around the room as her brother sighed deeply.

She'd been practicing the latest assignment from her dance teacher, a vigorous number and rather OBNOXIOUS in her brother's estimation, with GUSTO.

"Using big words again, sister?" Dave asked in return.  "Better watch out, next thing you know, you'll be describing our canoe as a FLOTATION device and calling my enjoyment of stamp collecting PHILATELY."

"There's nothing wrong with using big words," Ella smiled at him.  "You remember how Uncle Artie always used big words.  He said you could use them to get into college, because if you couldn't dazzle the professors with brilliance, you could use your big words to baffle them with bull manure."

"Count on Uncle Artie," David noted drily, "to APPRAISE professors that way.  If you want to MEMORIALIZE him like that and SWADDLE all of your essays in 50-cent words, go ahead, but don't rely on them exclusively, it can backfire."

"Breakfast!"  The VOICE of their mother, a PHLEGMATIC woman whose cooking the aforementioned Artie used to describe as VOLUPTUOUS, came from the direction of the dining area.  "I made YOLK eggs, so don't dawdle, you like them best fresh."

"Of all the 9-letter words in our language, I think I like 'breakfast' the best," Dave said, jumping up and heading for the table.

"At least we can agree on that!" Ella said, following hot on his heels.

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Today is:

Brumalia -- Byzantine Empire celebration of Dyonisus and New Wine Festival; until the solstice

Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day -- there used to be a website associated with this day, but it closed; that's no reason for you not to celebrate your uniqueness!

Celtic Tree Month Ruish (Elder) begins

D.B. Cooper Day -- anniversary of the 1971 hijacking

DrinksGiving -- if you've come home for Thanksgiving and are meeting up with old friends for a night on the town, don't forget to call for a ride

Discovery Day -- Tasmania (by Abel Tasman in 1642)

Evolution Day -- On the Origin of Species published this day in 1859

Feast of the Martyrs of Vietnam -- Roman Catholic Church

Guru Tegh Bahadur Martyrdom - Sikh

Lachit Divas -- Assam, India

National Family Caregivers' Day -- US (if you are a caregiver who needs support, you can get it here or here)

National Sardines Day

Persephone Day (a/k/a Kore -- Ancient Greek Calendar (celebration of her as wheel goddess of the underworld; date approximate, but she is often associated with St. Catherine)

Ragtime Day -- birth anniversary of Scott Joplin

St. Colman of Cloyne's Day (Patron of Cloyne, Ireland)

St. Joachim Ho's Day -- a Martyr of China

St. Mary of Cordoba's Day (Patron of martyrs)

Teacher's Day -- Turkey

Thanksgiving Day -- Norfolk Island

Third Bash of the Tree-Toppers -- Fairy Calendar (fairy creatures who don't believe in "one" or "two", so start counting at three)

Tie One On Day -- an apron!  on US Thanksgiving eve, write a note of encouragement or prayer, tuck it in the pocket of an apron, and wrap the apron around a good home or bakery made loaf of bread, then deliver it to someone who needs a kind gesture

Use Even If Seal is Broken Day -- internet generated; observe at your own risk, always!

Birthdays Today:

Katherine Heigl, 1978

Brad Sherwood, 1964

Stanley Livingston, 1950

Rudy Tomjanovich, 1948

Dwight Schultz, 1947

Oscar Palmer Robertson, 1938

William F. Buckley, Jr., 1925

Howard Duff, 1913

Charles "Lucky" Luciano, 1897

Dale Carnegie, 1888

Erich von Manstein, 1887

Alben William Barkley, 1877

Scott Joplin, 1868

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864

Bat Masterson, 1853

Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1849

Bram Stoker, 1847

Zachary Taylor, 1784

Laurence Sterne, 1713

Charles Theodore Pachelbel, 1690

Baruch Spinoza, 1632(O.S. date)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Guys and Dolls"(Musical), 1950

Softball, as a sport, invented this day as a spur of the moment game at the Farragut Boat Club in Chicago, IL, US, 1887

Today in History:

Theodosius I makes his formal entry into Constantinople, 380

Rabbi Nathan ben Yehiel of Rome completes his Talmudic dictionary, 1105

The Thames River freezes, 1434

First observation of transit of Venus occurred (only 2, record event), 1639

Abel Janzoon Tasman becomes the first European to see Van Damien's Land, later renamed Tasmania, 1642

First Lutheran pastor ordained in America, Justus Falckner at Philadelphia, 1703

Mt. Vesuvius erupts, 1759

Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species", 1859

Luik-Visé-Maastricht railway opens, 1861

Joseph F Glidden patents his improved barbed wire, 1874

The first US absentee voting law enacted by Vermont, 1896

Clyde Coleman of NYC patents automobile electric starter, 1903

Radio Belgium makes its first transmission, 1923

The first woman pilot on a transcontinental air flight, Miss Ruth Nichols (Mineola, NY to Calif), in a Lockheed-Vega, took 7 days, 1930

In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens, 1932

Lee Harvey Oswald is murdered by Jack Ruby, 1963

During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (AKA D. B. Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money, and is never seen again, 1971

A national speed limit is imposed on the Autobahn in Germany due to the 1973 oil crisis; it lasts only four months, 1973

The communist party resigns in Czechoslovakia, 1989

By a margin of only 50.28% t 49.72%, Ireland votes to end the 70 year old ban on divorce, 1995

Ireland presents its austerity package to the European Union and IMF, 2010

Palestinian officials announce their plan to exhume the body of Yasser Arafat too determine if he was poisoned, 2012

An international research team publishes their discovery of 1,500 new viruses found in invertebrates, 2016

Former First Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is sworn in as President of Zimbabwe, replacing ousted dictator Robert Mugabe after a 30-year tenure, 2017

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy candidates overwhelmingly win the district council elections in a strong rebuke to Hong Kong leaders, 2019

Scotland's Parliament passes a law making it the first nation to guarantee period products free to all women who cannot afford them, 2020