Adoptions Were Good (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Poetry Monday, Sitting on Old Chairs

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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!

We are awed and awww-ed with so many empty cages at the shelter because of Christmas adoptions.

Of course, we still have awww-some kitties available.

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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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Our dear friend Diane is taking a break

accommodations we must make

we miss her poetry and wit

so carry on as Poetry Monday's a hit!

Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Charlotte/Mother Owl and i are keeping it going while she takes a blog break, we hope temporarily.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let us know!

This week the theme is Sitting in Old Chairs.                  

     

I have an old rocking chair

comfy as can be,

and it is the reading chair

for my Annie and me.

We snuggle and get cozy

with a stack of books nearby,

the chair's infused with memories,

we settle with contented sigh.

Future themes are:

December 29 Sitting on Old Chairs (today!)

January 5 Favorite Animal

January 12 Glacier

(All themes are from the 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and Other Arts Facebook group.)

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Today is:

Constitution Day -- Ireland

Enjoying ESP Day -- internet generated, and it means eating, sleeping, and partying!

Fifth Day of Christmas

Illegal Pants Day -- commemorates Emma Snodgrass' arrest in Boston in 1852 for wearing pants

Kwanzaa, Day 4, Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)

National Chocolate Again Day -- because someone, somewhere, believes it can't be chocolate something-or-other day often enough

National Independence Day -- Mongolia(1911, from the Qing Dynasty)

Paternoster Row Day -- in memoriam of the famous area destroyed by the Blitz this date and tomorrow in 1940

Pepper Pot Day -- Pepper Pot Soup was invented today in 1777 at Valley Forge for the army to have something warm to eat

Sacrifice to Zeus Horios -- Ancient Greek Calendar (sacrifice in the deme of Erichia; date approximate)

St. Gabriel's Day -- Ethiopia

St. Thomas of Canterbury's Day (Thomas a Becket, Patron of clergy, secular clergy; Exeter College, Oxford, England; Portsmouth, England)

St. Trophimus of Arles' Day (Patron of children; Arles, France; against drought)

Tick Tock Day -- end of the year is getting closer, stop putting off your dreams! sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Yodel in the Shower Day -- internet generated, and i promise not to tell if you do

Anniversaries Today:

J. Paul Getty, Jr., weds Victoria Holdsworth, 1994

Texas becomes the 28th US State, 1845

Birthdays Today:

Jude Law, 1972

Andy Wachowski, 1967

Bryan "Dexter" Holland, 1966

Patricia Clarkson, 1959

Paula Poundstone, 1959

Ed Autry, 1954

John Polito, 1950

Ted Danson, 1947

Marianne Faithfull, 1946

Jon Voight, 1938

Mary Tyler Moore, 1936

Thomas Edwin Jarriel, 1934

Klaus Fuchs, 1911

Billy Mitchell, 1879

Pablo Cassals, 1876

William Gladstone, 1809

Andrew Johnson, 1808

Charles Goodyear, 1800

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Thunderball(Film, UK release), 1965

"The Andersonville Trial"(Play), 1959

The Adventures of Kathlyn(Film, first movie serial), 1913

Today in History:

Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II; he subsequently becomes a saint and martyr in the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church, 1170

The first nautical almanac in US published by Samuel Stearns, Boston, 1782

Gas lights are installed at White House, during the Polk administration, 1848

The first Young Men's Christian Association chapter in the US opens, in Boston, 1851

Emma Snodgrass is arrested in Boston for wearing pants, 1852

The first telegraph ticker used by a brokerage house, Groesbeck & Co, NY, 1867

The Wounded Knee Massacre takes place, 1890

Edison patents "transmission of signals electrically" (radio), 1891

Mongolia gains independence from the Qing dynasty, 1911

The first movie serial, "Adventures of Kathlyn," premieres in Chicago, 1913

Fred P Newton completes longest swim ever (1826 miles), when he swam in the Mississippi River from Ford Dam, Minn, to New Orleans, 1930

Physicist Richard Feynman gives a speech entitled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom", which is regarded as the birth of nanotechnology, 1959

Filming began on Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in England, 1965

Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees, 1989

Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war, 1996

Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed over 1 million lives, 1998

The last known speaker of Akkala Sami dies, rendering the language extinct, 2003

Chaparrastique volcano erupts in El Salvador, 2013

The Ebola epidemic in Guinea is declared over by WHO, after 2,500 died over 2 years, 2015

The American weather satellite NOAA-20 records the coldest ever temperature of -111C at the top of a storm in the western Pacific, 2018

120 people are rescued from a breakaway ice floe on the Upper Red Lake near Bemidji, Minnesota, US, 2023

Playing Rough (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.

For several years, Grandpa has had the poorest excuse for a comforter on his bed.  It was very torn up by Lulu dog back when she used to sleep up there (claws are hard on cloth) and worse, it was a king size on a queen size bed.  It hung down over the sides to badly i was always concerned Grandpa was going to trip over it all and break something.

His Christmas gift was a new comforter which actually fits his bed.  No more worry.

Ol' Trosclair done come to church Christmas Eve, an' he done gots hims leg in a cast and be usin' de crutches.

Boudreaux done see dat an' ax, "Trosclair, what you done did?"

An' Trosclair say, "I done broke my ankle."

O' course, Boudreaux done ax, "How you done did dat?"

An' Trosclair, who gots him de white hair, an' de big, white beard, an' de round tummy, say, "Well, you know how I really be's Papa Noel?  I was playin' some reindeer games wit' de whole gang an' somehow Comet done kicked me!"

(Please note, an older member of our congregation, who does happen to look like Papa Noel and is a Cajun, came to church Christmas Eve with a broken ankle, and that's exactly the excuse he used!)

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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.  Our friend River is hosting, and other participants often include Charlotte/Mother Owl, Andrew, and WiseWebWoman.             

Before the decorations disappear for another year, here are a few more.

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This week, Cookie and Emmy want to join the Kitties Blue at The Cat On My Head for their Sunday Selfies Blog Hop.   

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Today is:

Bairns Day -- Scotland (Begins the runic half-month of Eoh, the yew tree, which signifies the dead, and is now associated with the Slaughter of the Innocents of Christian tradition, so today is considered by some the unluckiest day of the year, and no work should be undertaken today.)

Call a Friend Day -- just to catch up a bit

Card Playing Day -- internet generated, enjoy a fun game with friends and family; "Go fish!"

Childermas a/k/a Holy Innocents Day -- (Patrons of babies, children's choirs, foundlings)

     various Christian traditions celebrate under many names and in various ways

     Els Enfarinats -- Ibn, Valencia, Spain (flour fight, and if it's anything like the tomato throwing in other towns of Spain, it's probably lots of fun)

     French Childermas tradition interpreted what the Norse saw as evidence of the Wild Hunt of Odin as the spirits of the Holy Innocents running from King Herod

     Inocentes -- Mexico, and sometimes celebrated as Mexican December Fool's Day (Herod fooled himself into thinking he had gotten rid of his rival king born in Bethlehem.)

Dyzemas Day -- Northhamptonshire, UK (an unlucky day to begin any new undertaking, "what is begun on Dysemas Day will never be finished")

     origin unknown, but often translated as Tithe Day, being very close to the Portugese word for tithe

Eat A Vegetarian Day -- an internet generated joke; yes, the vegetarian in question can be a cow

Endangered Species Act Day -- US (act passed 1973; a day to mourn species already extinct)

Fourth Day of Christmas

Incwala Day -- Swaziland (the biggest day of the 8-week Ncwala Festival, which loosely translates as "first fruits", although today's tasting of the first of the harvest by the King is only a portion of the many days of ceremonies)

King Taksin Memorial Day -- Thailand

Kwanzaa, Day 3, Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)

National Chocolate Candy Day

Proclamation Day -- South Australia (trad.)

Return a Gift for the Cold Hard Cash Day -- and good luck, these days

Runic Half-month Eoh (yew) commences

Take a Drive and Enjoy the Christmas Lights Day -- before they are gone for another year

Unluckiest Day of the Year -- various traditions state no work should be started today, for whatever is started today will never be finished!  In Olde England, nothing of importance was ever undertaken on Childermas, because it would prove unlucky

Anniversaries Today:

Billy Ray Cyrus weds Leticia Finley, 1994

The US Pledge of Allegiance is formally adopted, 1945

Iowa becomes the 29th US State, 1846

Birthdays Today:

David Archuleta, 1990

Sienna Miller, 1981

John Legend, 1978

Joe Mangianello, 1976

Todd Richards, 1969

Malcolm Gets, 1964

Denzel Washington, 1954

Edgar Winter, 1946

Don Francisco, 1940

Maggie Smith, 1934

Nichelle Nichols, 1933

Martin Milner, 1931

Johnny Otis, 1921

Sam Levenson, 1911

Lew Ayres, 1908

Cliff Arquette, 1905

Earl "Fatha" Hines, 1905

Hendrik Meijer, 1883

Woodrow Wilson, 1856

John Molson, 1763

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Gulag Archipelago"(Publication date), 1973

"Last of the Red Hot Lovers"(Play), 1969

"Night of the Iguana"(Play), 1961

"On the Town"(Musical), 1944

"Tip-Toes"(Musical), 1925

"St. Joan"(Play), 1923

"Cyrano de Bergerac"(Play), 1897

Today in History:

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, a/k/a Westminster Abbey, is consecrated, 1065

The reign of Emperor Hanazono of Japan begins, 1308

Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star, 1612

King Taksin is crowned as king of Thailand and establishes Thonburi as a capital, 1768

Construction of Yonge Street, formerly recognized as the longest street in the world, begins in York, Upper Canada (present-day Toronto, Ontario), 1795

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes Echigo, Japan, killing 30,000+, 1828

John Calhoun becomes the first US Vice President to resign (over differences with President Andrew Jackson), 1832

Spain recognizes independence of Mexico, 1836

South Australia and Adelaide are founded, 1836

Rangoon Burma, destroyed by fire, 1841

The United States claims Midway Island, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits, 1867

The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines, marking the debut of the cinema, 1895

The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco, California, 1912

The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park, 1950

Alexander Solzhenitsyn publishes "Gulag Archipelago", 1973

Winnie Mandela is banished from South Africa, 1976

The first American "test-tube baby", Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born in Norfolk, Virginia, 1981

U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years, 2000

At 115 years old and 266 days, Jiroemon Kimura of Japan becomes the world's oldest living person, 2012

Iranian woman Vida Mohaved is arrested for protesting against the policy of the compulsory hijab, sparking other protests, 2017

L’Oréal heiress and businesswoman Françoise Bettencourt Meyers is the first woman to be worth $100 billion, 2023