Safely Watching the World Go By (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 phrases:

• An arm and a leg

And/or

• Barking up the wrong tree

"Hey, beautiful, how about I buy you a drink?"

"Sorry, you're barking up the wrong tree."

"Aw, c'mon, give a guy a chance to prove he's got good intentions..."

"Only if you want to find out how a drink can cost you an arm and a leg."

"Ooo, that hurts.  Seriously, what does a guy have to do or say to get his best girl to give him the time of day?"

"How about get me out of this kitchen and buy me dinner?"

"Take your overworked and underpaid wife out to dinner night -- I like the sound of that.  Let's go!"

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Today is:

Area Code Day -- US (went into effect this day in 1951)

Chhat Parwa/Chhath Puja -- Nepal (start of the four day Hindu/Vedic Festival of the sun god Surya)

Day of Russian Militsiya -- Russia

Dia de la Tradicion -- Argentina (birth anniversary of Jose Hernandez)

Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Beacon Lighting -- Split Rock Lighthouse, Two Harbors, MN, US (memorial for the Edmund Fitzgerald and all who have lost their lives in Great Lakes shipwrecks)

First Cry of Independence Day / Los Santos Uprising Day -- Panama (an official flag day)

Forget-Me-Not Day -- informal day to spend a bit of time with relatives you don't see often

Goddess of Reason's Day (Revolutionary France)

Guinness World Records' Day -- celebrating ordinary people who do extraordinary things, go try for a record! anniversary of the day in 1951 that Sir Hugh Beaver got the idea to create a book supplying answers to much debated questions, such as which game birds are the fastest fliers

     The Guinness World Records Book now holds the title of the best-selling copyrighted book of all time, and is one of the most frequently stolen books from US libraries!

Hari Pahlawan -- Indonesia (Heroes' Day/Warrior's Day)

Martini -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (beginning of winter festival that starts on Martinmas Eve)

Maputo Day -- Maputo, Mozambique

National Toothpaste Appreciation Day -- not official, but i'm sure the dentifrice industry loves this one

National Vanilla Cupcake Day

Sleep Dangerously Night -- internet generated, a night to switch sides of the bed with your spouse and see who falls out of bed first

St. Andrew Avellino's Day (Patron of apoplexics, for a holy death, stroke victims; Badlato, Naples, and Sicily, Italy; stroke victims; for a holy death; against apoplexy, strokes, and sudden death)

St. Martin's Eve -- Germany; Portugal (Martimas Eve)

USMC Day -- US (anniversary of founding in 1775, includes the Marine Corps Birthday Ball)

Wish-Spoiling Sports Day -- Fairy Calendar (Imps, Gremlins, and grumpy Goblins) 

World Science Day for Peace and Development -- UN

Anniversaries Today:

Establishment of Badlands National Park, SD, US, 1978

Establisnment of the United States Marine Corps, 1775

Birthdays Today:

Ellen Pompeo, 1969

Vanessa Angel, 1963

Neil Gaiman, 1960

MacKenzie Phillips, 1959

Sinbad, 1956

Roland Emmerich, 1955

Ann Reinking, 1949

Donna Fargo, 1949

Tim Rice, 1944

Russel Charles Means, 1940

Russel Means, 1939

Roy Scheider, 1932

Richard Burton, 1925

Jane Froman, 1907

Claude Rains, 1889

Friedrick Voon Schiller, 1759

Oliver Goldsmith, 1728

William Hogarth, 1697

Martin Luther, 1483

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Microsoft Windows, 1983 (sometimes so slow, it's called "win-doze")

"Sesame Street", 1969

Today in History:

Rene Descartes has the dreams that inspire his Meditations on First Philosophy, 1619

The Dutch formally cede New Netherlands to the English; it is renamed New York, 1674

France ends forced worship of God, substitute the Goddess of Reason, 1793

The US state of Kentucky outlaws dueling, 1801

Stanley presumes that he has met Livingston in Ujiji, Central Africa, 1871

The first Woman's Christian Temperance Union meeting is held in Boston, 1891

The first Gideon Bible is put in a hotel room, 1908

Hirohito ascends the throne as Emperor of Japan, 1928

The Hope Diamond is donated to the Smithsonian Institution by New York diamond merchant Harry Winston, 1958

The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board, 1975

A 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derails in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada just west of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, causing a massive explosion and the largest peacetime evacuation in Canadian history and one of the largest in North American history, 1979

The communist regime of Bulgaria falls, 1989

The "Codex Leicester", the only Leonardo da Vinci manuscript owned in the United States and the only one in the world still in private hands, was sold at auction to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who paid $30.8 million, 1994

Thousands of people people march toward the royal palace of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur to hand over a memorandum to the King demanding electoral reform, 2007

Vietnam evacuates about 600,000 citizens under the threat of Typhoon Haiyan, 2013

The Collins English Dictionary chooses "Lockdown" as the word of the year, 2020