Lasers On (Feline Friday) and Friendly Fill-Ins, Plus Monthly Poetry Group

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Feline Friday was started by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude, and i'm going to believe it's because he likes cats.

He has handed hosting duties off to Sandee, of Comedy Plus, and it's simple to join, just follow the link to Sandee's page for the rules and the code.

Dansig and Link turned their lasers on for today’s photo.

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Friendly Fill-Ins are easy to do. There are four statements: the first two statements are provided by Ellen of 15AndMeowing, and the final two are offered by Lorianne The Menagerie Mom of Four-Legged Furballs. They try to make sure the statements will be fun to both answer and share. The linky will be posted at or about 12:00 AM on Friday. Please head over to one of their sites, link up, and share your thoughts!      

Here are this week's statements with my responses underlined:

1. _________ is the _________est I have ever been.

2. I really hate going to _________.

3. While most people _________, I _________.

4. I'm glad that _________ was invented.

1. Athens, Greece  is the   furthest  I have ever been   from home.

2. I really hate going to   the mall.

3. While most people   are afraid of snakes,   I    rather like them, along with spiders and bats.

4. I'm glad that   reading, and especially the printing press,  was invented.

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It’s Monthly Poetry Group day, hosted by Karen at Baking in a Tornado, when participants write a poem about a topic one of us chose.  This month, Diane at On the Border chose Snack Foods.  Be sure to go check out their poems!                       

                             

There’s lots of yummy snackage

Good morsels the world around

And if i could ever try it all

It would make me gain many a pound.

But even though i try to

Play it mostly straight,

A body’s gotta break out now and then

Put some fun things on the plate.

Popcorn is a good one,

Olive oil instead of butter,

As much as i enjoy it,

Doesn’t set my heart aflutter.

Nuts and seeds are great ones,

And i can put plenty away,

There’s always a small package

Tucked aside for a hungry day.

But when nothing else will do

It’s chocolate makes a dent

In that crazy craving,

The dark 86%!

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Today is:

Dairokuten-no-Hadaka Matsuri -- Chiba, Japan (around this date; one of Japan's "naked" festivals, as participants wear only a loincloth as they wrestle in the cold, wet mud, bringing luck to the community as they run through the crowds smearing the lucky mud on the onlookers)

Dance of the Secret Places -- Fairy Calendar

Dag van de Revolutie -- Suriname (Day of Liberation and Innovation)

Februaristaking -- Netherlands (commemoration of a strike against the Nazis)

Festival of Ptah -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Heritage Day -- Yukon Territory, Canada

Kitano Baika-sai (Plum Blossom Festival) -- Kitano Tenman-gu Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Let's All Eat Right Day -- in honor of the birth of Adelle Davis in 1904, an early pioneer in good nutrition

National Chocolate Covered Peanuts Day -- some sites say any nuts will do, some specify peanuts; take your pick

National Clam Chowder Day -- not to be confused with New England Clam Chowder Day, back in January

National Day -- Kuwait

People's Revolution Day/People Power Day -- Philippines

Pistol Patent Day -- Samuel Colt received US Patent #138 for the first pistol on this day in 1836

Quiet Day -- can't find the history behind this one, but mommy wants one!

St. Walburga's Day (Patron of boatmen/mariners/sailors/watermen, harvests; Antwerp, Belgium; Eichstätt, Germany; Gronigen, Netherlands; Oudenarde, Belgium; Plymouth, England; Zutphen, Netherlands; against coughs, dog bites, famine, hydrophobia/rabies, mad dogs, plague, storms)

Soviet Occupation Day -- Georgia

Birthdays Today:

Josh Wolff, 1977

Chelsea Handler,1975

Sean Astin, 1971

Tea Leoni, 1966

Carrot Top, 1965

Lee Evans, 1964

Neil Jrdan, 1950

Ric Flair, 1949

Karen Grassle, 1944

George Harrison, 1943

Diane Baker, 1938

Tom Courtenay, 1937

Bob Schieffer, 1937

Sally Jessy Raphael, 1935

"Texas Rose" Bascom, 1922

Bobby Riggs, 1918

Anthony Burgess, 1917

Jim Backus, 1913

Millicent Hammond Fenwick, 1910

Adelle Davis, 1904

Zeppo Marx, 1901

Meher Baba, 1894

Enrico Caruso, 1873

Charles Lang Freer, 1856

Pierre Auguste Renoir, 1841

Xuande, Emperor of China, 1398

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"A Little Night Music"(Musical), 1973

"Toys in the Attic"(Play), 1960

"Wonderful Town"(Musical), 1953

"Your Show of Shows"(TV), 1950

"Natoma"(Herbert Opera), 1911

"Riders to the Sea"(Play), 1904

"Hernani"(Victor Hugo Play), 1830

Today in History:

The First Bank of the United States is chartered, 1791

The German Midiatisation is enacted, taking over 1,000 German sovereign states into about 40 larger entities, 1803

Samuel Colt patents the first revolving barrel multishot firearm, 1836

The first US electric printing press is patented by Thomas Davenport, 1837

Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress, 1870

The US Steel Corp. is organized under J P Morgan, 1901

The Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver 7 sweep Toronto Marlboroughs in 2 games, 1904

Marie-Adélaïde, the eldest of six daughters of Guillaume IV, becomes the first reigning Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, 1912

Oregon places a 1 cent per U.S. gallon tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax, 1919

Diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union are established, 1925

Glacier Bay National Monument (now Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve) is established in Alaska, 1925

Francisco Franco becomes General of Spain, 1926

Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, D.C. becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission, 1928

The USS Ranger is launched. It is the first US Navy ship to be built solely as an aircraft carrier, 1933

In occupied Amsterdam, a general strike is declared in response to increasing anti-Jewish measures instituted by the Nazis, 1941

The first Pan American Games are held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1951

Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston, 1964

The first unit of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, the first commercial nuclear power station in Canada, goes online, 1971

President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the first Filipino woman president, 1986

In the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, Baruch Goldstein opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers and injuring 125 more, 1994

In the Irish general election, the Fianna Fáil-led government suffered the worst defeat of a sitting government since the formation of the Irish state, 2011

The World Health Organization removes India from the list of polio endemic countries, 2012

Hundreds of pro-Russian protesters block the Crimean parliament and demand a referendum on Crimea's independence, 2014

The XXIII Winter Olympic Games close in Pyeongchang, Korea; Norway wins a record 39 medals, 14 gold, 2018

The influential film review site Rotten Tomatoes implements changes to the site after internet trolls target the new Captain Marvel film, 2019