I Like My Stick (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week and 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!

Jock, the live wire Blue Heeler, is here and he loves to pick up sticks.

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Sparks is the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, who wanted us to post something positive and uplifting at the start of the week.  While she no longer blogs, i like to post an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.     

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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Charlotte/Mother Owl participates, and now Karen at Baking in a Tornado is jumping in at least once a month, too.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let Diane know!

This week the theme is Musical Instruments.                

  

The oldest musical instrument

we all know is the human voice,

and I keep mine to myself,

you'd thank me for that choice.

I've tried to play piano,

and while technically, it's true,

I'm pretty good at getting the notes,

my "interpretation" is often askew.

I'll strum my ukulele

while everyone else will sing,

but it's mostly children's songs

those are more my thing.

Being in the band is not

something in my skill set,

so when the music inside wants out,

what would be my best bet?

I guess I'll grab the instrument

that's the easiest in the land,

after a trip to the dollar store,

I'll join a local kazoo band!

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Today is:

Abolition Day -- Martinique

Bear Waking Day -- Norway (traditionally said to be the day the bears awaken from their hibernation, at least according to many sites)

Buy a Musical Instrument Day -- even just a kazoo, and have some fun making music; maybe if this one spreads around the world and enough of us do it, it will foster some harmony in our lives

Harvey Milk Day -- The Harvey Milk Foundation    

Independence Day -- Montenegro

International Day for Biological Diversity -- UN

National Maritime Day -- US (commemorating the first transoceanic voyage under steam power)

National Sovereignty Day -- Haiti

National Vanilla Pudding Day

St. Julia's Day (Patron of torture victims; Corsica, Portugal; Livorno, Italy)

St. Rita of Cascia's Day/La Abodada de Impossibles (Patron of desperate causes, difficult marriages, forgotten causes, illness, lost causes, parenthood, sick people, sterile people, victims of physical spousal abuse, widows, wounded people; against abuse, infertility, loneliness, sickness, sterility, wounds, unhappy marriages; Cascia, Italy; Dalayap, Philippines; Igbaras, Philippines)

Toad-Pinching Day -- Fairy Calendar (Pixies)

Toothpaste Tube Day -- the tube was invented on this day in 1892 by dentist Washington Wentworth Sheffield, who wanted to replace the unhygenic practice of dipping the brush into a jar of dental cream

Unity Day / National Day -- Republic of Yemen

Victoria Day -- Canada

World Goth Day -- Get your Goth on around the world! 

Birthdays Today:

Apolo Anton Ohno, 1982

Ginnifer Goodwin, 1978

A.J. Langer,1974

Naomi Campbell, 1970

Morrissey, 1959

George Best, 1946

Paul Winfield, 1941

Michael Sarrazin, 1940

Frank Converse, 1938

Richard Benjamin, 1938

Susan Strasberg, 1938

Garry Wills, 1934

Peter Nero, 1934

Charles Aznavour, 1924

Judith Crist, 1922

Sun Ra, 1914

Sir Laurence Olivier, 1907

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859

Mary Cassatt, 1844

Richard Wagner, 1813

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood"(TV), 1967

"Paulus / St. Paul"(Oratorio, Mendelsshon Op. 36), 1836

Today in History:

The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus, BC334

The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to murder Saladin near Aleppo, 1176

Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe, 1377

Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England, 1455

A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason, 1807

On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna), Napoleon is repelled by an enemy army for the first time, 1809

The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean; the ship arrived at Liverpool, England on June 20, 1819

HMS Beagle  departs on its first voyage, 1826

The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished, 1840

Farmers Lester Howe and Henry Wetsel discover Howe Caverns, 1842

The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames is officially opened, 1897

The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine", 1906

Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, and is the only mountain other than Mount St. Helens to erupt in the continental US during the 20th century, 1915

The most powerful earthquake ever documented, the Great Chilean Quake, measures 9.5 and strikes southern Chile, 1960

The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores, 1968

Ceylon adopts a new constitution, thus becoming a Republic, changes its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations, 1972

Namco releases the highly influential arcade game Pac-Man, 1980

Microsoft  releases the Windows 3.0 operating system, 1990

Johnny Carson retires from The Tonight Show after 30 years, 1992

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations, 1992

A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, 2002

Sarah West, a British naval officer Commander is appointed commander of HMS Portland, the Royal Navy frigate; she is the first female officer to take command of a major British warship, 2012

Japanese researchers from University of Yamanashi report birth of mice from freeze-dried sperm stored on the International Space Station, 2017

The New York Stock Exchange announces Stacey Cunningham will be its first woman head in its 226-year history, 2018

Washington State becomes the 1st US state to legalize composting human bodies, 2019

Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, forcing evacuations by sending rivers of lava toward the nearby city of Goma, 2021