The Best and The Worst (Cajun Joke), Sunday Selections and Sunday Selfie

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Just because Sandee of Comedy Plus is no longer hosting a Silly Sunday blog hop, do not expect me to quit telling Cajun jokes, especially as it has now become a habit.

Grandma and Grandpa's youngest grandchild, my nephew Dre, is about to graduate from  high school.  He's doing very well, and his next stop will be Marine boot camp.  Yep!  He's been a leader in JROTC during high school and working out with the marines for over a year.

Aline done so good in school she done be put in de classes fo' de bes' students, dey done call dem the AP classes.

Boudreaux done ax, "What do AP mean?"

An' Aline say, "Père, dat mean 'advanced placement.'"

An' Boudreaux say, "I done been a AP student in my school, but fo' me, dat meant 'another problem!'"

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Sunday Selections was started as a way for bloggers to use photos that might otherwise just languish in their files.  The rules have been relaxed, and it is now simply a showcase for your photos, new or old, good or bad, although nothing rude, please.  It was hosted by River, who still participates, and is now hosted by Elephant's Child.       

Just a few things, and since we've had only clouds with no chance of pretty sunsets, or no clouds and no color, a couple of flashback sunset photos.

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This week, Nora wants to join the Kitties Blue at The Cat On My Head for their Sunday Selfies Blog Hop.   

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Today is:

Ambedkar Jayanti -- India (birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, father of the Indian Constitution)

Americas Day -- Honduras

Black Day -- South Korea (for those who got neither Valentine's gifts nor White Day gifts; singles wear black and get together to eat black noodle soup)

Celebrations in the Houses of Ra, Osiris, and Horus -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Children with Alopecia Day 

Cleaning for a Reason Week begins -- raising awareness of Cleaning For A Reason, which helps provide free residential cleaning to women fighting cancer   

Day of Mologa -- Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia (commemorates the destruction of the town of Mologa during the construction of the Rybinsk Reservoir)

Day of the Georgian Language -- Georgia (marking the 1978 protests of Soviet attempts to suppress the Georgian language)

Ex Spouse Day -- why?

Global Day to End Child Sexual Abuse -- sponsored by The Innocence Revolution 

International Moment of Laughter Day -- started by Izzy Gesell 

Kinetoscope Day -- the first commercial exhibition of motion pictures through Edison's "peep show" device occurred on this day in 1894

Look Up At The Sky Day -- internet generated, no history on this one, but if it's a pretty day, take advantage of it (some sites say April 12, but since we don't know who started it, today is fine)

National Dolphin Day -- US

National Love Our Children Day -- sponsored by STOMP Out Bullying and Love Our Children USA

National Pecan Day   

N'Ko Alphabet Day -- Mande Language Speakers

Pan American Day -- Order of the American States

Pathologists' Assistant Day -- US (American Association of Pathologists' Assistants)     

Rato Machhindranath Jatra -- Nepal (chariot races for the god of rain; cannot confirm this year's date, but always begins mid-April)

Reach as High as You Can Day -- internet generated, and listed on various dates; a good idea, anyway, whenever you decide to celebrate it

Runic Half Month of Man (humanity) begins

Sacrifices to Leto, Pythian Apollon, Zeus, Hermes, and the Dioscuri in the Deme of Erichia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Sidereal Equinox New Year Celebrations -- throughout South and Southeast Asia, including

    * Assamese New Year, or Rongali Bihu (India's Assam Valley)

    * Bengali New Year, or Pohela Boishakh (Bangladesh and India's West Bengal state)

    * Burmese New Year, or Thingyan (Burma)

    * Hindu and Sikh New Year, or Vaisakhi (Punjab region)

    * Khmer New Year, or Chol Chnam Thmey, most commonly celebrated on April 13 (Cambodia)

    * Lao New Year, or Songkan / Pi Mai Lao, generally celebrated from 13 to 15 April (Laos)

    * Malayali New Year, or Vishu (India's Kerala state)

    * Nepali New Year, or Bikram Samwat / Vaishak Ek (Nepal)

    * Oriya New Year, or Maha Visuba Sankranthi (India's Orissa state)

    * Sinhalese New Year, or Aluth Avurudhu (Sri Lanka)

    * Tamil New Year, or Puthandu (India's Tamil Nadu state)

    * Thai New Year, or Songkran, celebrated from 13 to 15 April (Thailand)

    * Tuluva New Year, or Bisu (India's Karnataka state)

Sommarsblot -- Ancient Norse Calendar (celebration of the coming summer, with sacrifices to the gods over the next several days; through Walpurgis/May 1)

Spring Hula Hooping Day -- try out the old hula hoop one more time, then toss it

St. Benezet's Day (Patron of bachelors, bridge builders; Avignon, France)

St. Lydwina of Schiedam's Day (Patron of ice skating/roller skating/skaters, prolonged suffering, sick people; Schiedam, Netherland; against bodily ills and sickness) 

St. Peter Gonzalez's Day (Patron of boatmen, mariners, sailors, watermen)

St. Tiburtius' Day (Considered the day the cuckoos return to England for the spring)

Takayama Spring Festival -- Takayama City, Japan (often considered one of the 3 most beautiful festivals in Japan; through tomorrow)

Thingyan -- Myanmar (Burmese Water Festival; celebrating the Myanmar New Year through the 17th)

Vaisakhi/Baisakhi -- Sikh (celebration of the spring grain harvest and of the rebirth of the Sikh religion in the 15th Century)

Youth Day -- Angola

Birthdays Today:

Abigail Breslin, 1996

Sarah Michelle Gellar, 1977

Adrien Brody, 1973

Anthony Michael Hall, 1968

Greg Maddux, 1966

Cynthia Cooper, 1963

Robert Carlyle, 1961

Brad Garrett, 1960

Emma Thompson, 1959

Ritchie Blackmore, 1945

Julie Christie, 1941

Pete Rose, 1941

Loretta Lynn, 1935

Rod Steiger, 1925

John Gielgud, 1904

Arnold Joseph Toynbee, 1889

Anne Sullivan, 1866

Emperor Momozono, 1741

Christiaan Huygens, 1629

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Boys in the Band"(Musical), 1968

"Bye Bye, Birdie"(Musical), 1960

The Grapes of Wrath(Publication date), 1939

"Jeux d'enfants"(Ballet), 1932

"Murders in the Rue Morgue"(Publication date), 1841

American Dictionary of the English Language(Publication date), 1828

Today in History:

Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, who is wounded, BC 43

Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, surrounds the Jewish capital with four Roman legions, beginning the Siege of Jerusalem, 70

Temur, grandson of Kublai Khan, is elected Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, 1294

The foundation stone of Cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France is laid, 1434

Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush establish the first abolitionist society in the US, 1775

Napoleon calls for establishing Jerusalem for the Jews, 1799

Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary, 1828

The Donner Party departs Springfield, Illinois, 1846

Harriet Tubman begins her first Underground Railroad run, 1853

William Bullock patents the continuous-roll printing press, 1863

Abraham Lincoln is shot at Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth, 1865

Canada sets denominations of currency as dollars, cents, & mills, 1871

Canada passes the Dominion Lands Act, 1872

The RMS Titanic hits an iceberg  at 11:40pm and sinks 2 hours later, 1912

The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden, 1927

The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press, 1939

The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit, 1958

The heaviest hailstones ever recorded, at 1 kilogram, hailstones fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92, 1986

The most costly natural disaster in Australian history, a hailstorm, strikes Sydney, Australia, 1999

The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%, 2003

The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County, 2005

Ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano drifts towards Europe, causing air traffic to close over Northern Norway, 2010

The first-ever European MP's of Croatia are determined in an election held in anticipation of Croatia gaining formal entry into the European Union, 2013

Seychelles President Danny Faure makes the first-ever live speech from a submersible, pleading for better marine protection, 2019

Coinbase becomes the first major cryptocurrency company to trade shares on the New York stock exchange, 2021

The Juice satellite launches on an Ariane-5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, part of the European Space Agency's mission to Jupiter's moons, 2023