Christmas Dog Toy 3 (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, BeThere2Day, 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 WiseWebWoman, and will be posted by Elephant's Child.  

   

This week's prompts are:

• Smithereens
• Arch
• Magazine
• Outcome
• Income

and/or

• Primrose
• Cormorant
• Boreen
• Lucidity
• Antagonism

Charlotte (MotherOwl)has selected fawn brown as the colour of the month.

As always, have fun.

It had been a long day, but she tried to put a smile into her voice when she answered the phone.  After all, when he was away on business, she really looked forward to his calls.

"Hello, sweetheart!" she said brightly.

"Hi, honey!  How's it going this evening?"

"Oh, the usual.  The twins are in front of the TV watching cartoons where the main point seems to be to smash things to SMITHEREENS, our teenage daughter's attitude veers between ANTAGONISM and being ARCH, and I'm flipping through a MAGAZINE and wishing you didn't have to make these twice a year treks.  How's everything there?  Did they put you in a better hotel this time?"

He laughed.  "The boss keeps telling us the OUTCOME of these trips determines the future of the business, but he's not willing to part with his own INCOME to put us up in really nice places.  This one is better than some.  It even has a Fawn Brown carpet that doesn't look too dingy, and some art on the walls, a detail of a PRIMROSE and a CORMORANT sunning itself on a rock.  But it's on a BOREEN a long trek from where the meetings are taking place, so it's not very convenient."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but at least it's not as bad as the trip before last."

"Tell me about it!" he said.  "Now if only the meetings go well."

"I'm sure you'll do a great job," she said soothingly.

"Well, I met my counterpart at the meet and greet today and I'm wondering if there's any LUCIDITY in his brain anywhere.  It might be a tough row to hoe."

"You will succeed!"  She was going to declare positivity into this situation.  The last thing he needed was discouragement when his having to be gone at all was discouraging enough to both of them.

"Thank you, honey.  We're going to do everything we can, and someday I'm going to get the promotion so I don't have to do the travel any longer."

"I know.  Until then, you concentrate on your work, I've got the home front covered."

"Love you!"

"Love you, too!"

Sometimes, you do what you have to do.

(Based on a friend's story from long ago, when if you were on a trip, you called from the hotel room phone once a day and had to pay long distance charges so you didn't talk long.)

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Today is:

50 Ways To Leave Your Lover Day -- marking the debut of the song, think of 50 ways to stay with the one you love, and do one!

BPT Remembrance Day -- try to remember what breakfast was like BPT (before Pop-Tarts)

Cathode Ray Day -- the kinescope (cathode ray tube) was patented by Vladimir Zworykin on this day in 1938

Fete des Cafres -- Reunion (Abolition Day)

Go Caroling Day -- if you have the voice for it, enjoy

Icelandic Yuletide Lad of the Day, Bjugnakraekir -- Sausage-pilferer, who will steal any kind of sausage you don't manage to hide from him

International Human Solidarity Day -- UN

Louisiana Purchase Day -- US

Macau Special Administrative Region Establishment Day -- Macau

Mudd Day -- for Samuel Mudd, the doctor who accidentally treated a disguised John Wilkes Boothe after he assassinated Lincoln; don't hang your head in shame if your name is Mudd!  Today is your day.

National Fried Shrimp Day

National Sangria Day (If you still aren't ready for Christmas, you might need it.)

Old St. Thomas' Eve -- St. Thomas, whose feast is now in July, was formerly on Dec. 21, and the evening before used for prognostication; related observance

     Tammasmass E'en -- Orkney Islands, UK (from tonight until Yule, no work was undertaken or amusements enjoyed after sunset; all alemaking for the Yule celebrations had to be done by this day

St. Dominic of Silos' Day (Patron of captives, pregnant women, prisoners, and shepherds; against hydrophobia, insects, mad dogs, and rabies)

Try to Remember Where You Hid The Christmas Gifts Day -- it's getting close, and you don't want to have to go out at the last minute and buy more; originally sponsored by "Marlar in the Morning," QFL-101 Radio, Rockford, Illinois

Anniversary Today:

Donald Trump weds Marla Maples, 1993

Montgomery Bus Boycott ends, 1956

Birthdays Today:

Jonah Hill, 1983

David Cook, 1982

Billy Bragg, 1957

Jenny Agutter, 1952

Uri Geller, 1946

Peter Criss, 1945

William Julius Wilson, 1935

John Hillerman, 1932

David Levine, 1926

George Roy Hill, 1922

Irene Dunne, 1898

Susanne K. Langer, 1895

Robert Gordon Menzies, 1894

Hazel Virginia Hotchkiss Wightman, 1886

Wesley Branch Rickey, 1881

Harvey Firestone, 1868

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Sunshine Boys"(Play), 1972

"The Dating Game"(TV), 1965

It's a Wonderful Life(Film), 1946

Today in History:

Vespasian enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor, 69

Richard the Lionheart is captured in Vienna, 1192

Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta, 1522

Peter the Great orders the Russian New Year changed from Sept 1 to Jan 1, 1699

The Louisiana Purchase is formally transferred from France to US for $27M, 1803

The international cantilever railway bridge opens at Niagara Falls, 1883

North America's longest railway, at 50,000km, the Canadian National Railways, is established, 1919

The first international dogsled mail leaves Minot, Maine for Montreal, Quebec, 1928

The cathode-ray tube is patented by Russian immigrant Vladimir Zworykin, 1938

Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom, 1955

Djibouti and Vietnam join the United Nations, 1977

NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X, 1996

US District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 2005

Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days, 2007

Intercontinental Exchange purchases the New York Stock Exchange, the largest in the world, for USD $8 billion, 2012

Great Britain agrees to help Syria destroy over 165 tons of chemical weapons; the stockpile includes substances that could be used to make highly toxic nerve agents, 2013

United States Space Force is founded, an armed forces branch dedicated to space warfare, 2019

The first Hong Kong legislative elections with only 'patriot' candidates has a low turnout of 30%, 2021

Multinational company 3M says it will stop making and using "forever chemicals", linked to health problems, 2022