Quite a Crop (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 River.  

This week's words/prompts are: 

1. charm bracelet 

2. fried chicken 

3. teacup 

4. cage 

5. plastic 

6. adorable

Also include Charlotte's colour of the month if you can: orient red

"We've got FRIED CHICKEN for dinner," she peeked into her daughter's room and heard a muffled, "I'm not really hungry."

"Mind if I come in?"  Her mom knew she wanted to talk, but needed the opening.

A shrug was answer enough, and mom went and sat in the Orient Red chair that was a complete contrast to every other piece of furniture in the room.  She'd wondered why her daughter was so taken with it, but realized once it was in place it actually worked well.

They sat in silence a few minutes, and finally her daughter asked, "How did you know?"

She knew what her daughter meant, how did you know the man you married was the right one.  She'd been pondering how to say it, and finally started, "One of the first dates we went on was to a very cheesy fair at school -- you know the kind, the same tired old rides that make the rounds, booths with games, the food stalls selling all kinds of junk you never eat but at these things.

"There was this one game where you threw three balls into a PLASTIC CAGE to hit the target, and your dad decided to see if he could win me a prize.  You know he has no coordination and couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle, but he wanted to try, and he actually managed to do it on the first try!

"The guy at the booth offered him two prizes for getting it on the first throw, a CHARM BRACELET or a china TEACUP, and I really liked both but chose the bracelet.

"Your dad sensed I'd had a hard time deciding, so he was going to try to win the other one for me, too.  Of course, his first hit had been lucky, and after paying to try over and over and getting worse and worse, he finally started clowning, you know that ADORABLE way he has, throwing the ball behind him, letting it bonk him on the head on purpose, tossing it backwards, everything, and people were crowding around to watch and many of them wanted to try, and the guy was rather swamped with people wanting to play because your dad had lured them in to that booth.

"The guy went from a couple of people playing at a time to a big crowd, and he smiled at your dad and handed him the teacup with a wink."

"So you know the right guy because he does something goofy and wins you a trinket at the fair?"

"Sometimes."

They were silent a while.  Then mom added, "And sometimes he knows because he acts goofy and you don't run screaming, and you end up with a charm bracelet and a teacup and three children."

Her daughter finally smiled.

"Dinner's waiting."

"Mom, thanks."

"You're welcome."

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Today is:

Autumn Equinox Festival at Chichen Itza -- beginning today, thousands will gather for the amazing play of light and shadow each evening at sunset through the 27th)

Chiropractic Founder's Day -- celebrating the first chiropractic adjustment ever performed, by D.D. Palmer on Harvey Lillard, on this date in 1895

Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 8, Human Rights (sponsored by We, the World) 

Hug a Greeting Card Writer Day -- they are generally anonymous, often underappreciated, so today, give one a hug! (if you know any, that is)

Independence Day -- Chile

Monkey King Festival -- China (a celebration of this popular character in East Asian stories, with the best place to see the rituals being the Monkey God Temple at Po Tat Estate in Sau Mau Ping, Kowloon)

National Cheeseburger Day

National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day -- US  

National Rehabilitation Day -- US (on the Wednesday of National Rehab Awareness Week)

National Respect! Day(sm) -- US (encouraging abused women to respect themselves enough to get out)

National School Backpack Awareness Day 2024 -- US (or anywhere else that you want to weigh your child's backpack on the 3rd Wednesday of September, to make sure it's not heavy enough to hurt them)   

Plataia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Pledge Across America Day -- US (beginning of Constitution Week, every school is invited to join a synchronized Pledge of Allegiance across the whole nation, from 8am Hawaiian time to 2pm Eastern; schools are also encouraged to have an exercise of some kind about the US Constitution)

     on the anniversary of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, or on the school day nearest if it's a weekend

St. Joseph of Cupertino's Day (Levitating saint, and so Patron of air crews, air travelers, astronauts, paratroopers, pilots/aviators, students, test takers; Cupertino, Italy)

World Water Monitoring Day -- International    

Anniversaries Today:

Constantine II of Greece marries Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, 1964

The United States Air Force becomes a separate military service, 1947

Hull House opens, 1889

Birthdays Today:

Jada Pinkett Smith, 1971

Lance Armstrong, 1971

Alsha Tyler, 1970

James Gandolfini, 1961

Ryne Sandberg, 1959

Frankie Avalon, 1939

Robert Blake, 1933

Scotty Bowman, 1933

June Foray, 1920

Jack Warden, 1920

Rossano Brazzi, 1916

Agnes DeMille, 1905

Greta Garbo, 1905

Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, 1905

John Diefenbaker, 1895

Joseph Story, 1779

George Read, 1733

Samuel Johnson, 1709

Marcus Ulpius Nerva Trajanus, Emperor Trajan, 53

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Baseball"(Documentary), 1994

"Love is a Many Splendored Thing"(TV), 1967

"Get Smart"(TV), 1965

"The Addams Family"(TV), 1964

"Wagon Train"(TV), 1957

"The Paul Winchell Show"(TV), 1950

"Johnny Belinda"(Play), 1940

"Strictly Dishonorable"(Play), 1929

"Disraeli"(Play), 1911

Today in History:

Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his 4th and final voyage, 1502

Ft. Ticonderoga, NY opens, 1755

The British capture Quebec City, 1759

John Harris builds the first spinet piano in the US, 1769

President Washington lays the cornerstone of the Capitol Building, 1793

Royal Opera House in London opens, 1809

A horse beats the first US made locomotive, near Baltimore, 1830

Tiffany and Co. (first named Tiffany & Young) is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City; the store is called a "stationery and fancy goods emporium", 1837

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is first published, 1842

First publication of The New-York Daily Times, which later becomes The New York Times, 1851

Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by Henry D. Washburn during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition to Yellowstone, 1870

The banking firm of Jay Cooke & Co. in Philadelphia declares bankruptcy, which starts the Panic of 1873 and a severe economic depression, 1873

The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time, 1879

Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination, 1885

In appreciation for all she had done for the tribe, Harriet Maxwell Converse, adopted as a member of the Seneca tribe, is made a chief of the Six Nations Tribe at the Tonawanda Reservation, 1891

Daniel David Palmer gives the first chiropractic adjustment, 1895

A typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong, 1906

The Irish Home Rule Act becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I, 1914

The Netherlands gives women the right to vote, 1919

The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air, 1927

Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro crossing of the English Channel, 1928

Margaret Chase Smith of Maine becomes the first woman elected to the US Senate without completing another senator's term, 1948

Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations, 1960

U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash, 1961

Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations, 1962

The Bahamas, East Germany and West Germany are admitted to the United Nations, 1973

Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras with 110 mph winds, killing 5,000 people, 1974

Voyager I takes its first photograph of the Earth and the Moon together, 1977

Soyuz 38 carries 2 cosmonauts (including 1 Cuban) to Salyut 6 space station, 1980

Joe Kittinger completes the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic, 1984

Liechtenstein becomes a member of the United Nations, 1990

ICANN is formed, 1998

The 72 year run of the soap opera The Guiding Light ends as its final episode is broadcast, 2009

Chileans celebrate the 200th anniversary oof their independence, 2010

After a large storm that took the roof off of Stadium Southland in Invercargill, 100,000 people in New Zealand are left without water, 2010

Scotland votes to remain a member of the United Kingdom in an independence referendum, 2014

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Journal publishes finding about the earliest known fishhooks, at 23,000 years old, discovered on Okinawa Island, Japan, 2016

Cyclone Ianos, a rare 'medicane' (Mediterranean hurricane/tropical cyclone) begins sweeping across Greece, 2020

Fashion journalist Chioma Nnadi becomes the first black woman to head a major fashion magazine when she is named new head of British Vogue, 2023