Mama Love (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week and Poetry Monday, Captain

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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!

Mama love, caught at church:

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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 Captain.                       

Today i am featuring two poems, one new one, and one originally written as a Monthly Poetry Challenge back when Ms. Karen used to give out a monthly poetry topic.

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A new captain had been sent

to command a small base

and was being given a tour

to inspect the place.

Two soldiers were guarding a bench

in the glaring summer sun,

they were doing their best

though such a job is not fun.

He asked why they'd been assigned

this rather wearisome task,

they said the previous captain

was the one he'd have to ask.

He called the previous captain

now a major in another state,

he asked about the bench,

why did it so highly rate?

The major said he had

not a single clue,

to ask the previous captain,

he'd had it guarded, too.

The previous CO, now a colonel,

was tracked down far away,

the captain asked again,

how a bench held such sway.

The colonel had no answer

that well with the captain did sit,

he'd simply found it guarded 

and said to continue it.

The previous, now a general,

he found and asked, why the fret

about the thing and the general said,

"Wait, is that bench paint still wet?"

*******

Twas the second day of a brand new year,

First Officer Simons came on duty.

His first job was peep at the Captain's Log,

The prior day's entry was a beauty.

The Captain had written of New Year's Day,

"First Officer Simons arrived on the bridge drunk."

Simons turned pale upon reading this note,

And went about his duties in a bit of a funk.

When later Captain Laine arrived on the bridge,

Simons asked him aside for a talk.

"Sir, I read your entry for yesterday,

And really, at your note I must balk.

"The fact is I did see the New Year in

With a bit of an extra tot,

But nothing too much for the day of the year,

To call me drunk puts me in a spot!

"Of course I would like to someday soon

Receive a good promotion,

This could hurt my advancement plans

And add to my life much commotion!"

The Captain looked at his First and said,

"The log is correct factually.

If you do not like the consequences,

It's all on your head, actually."

Simons was silent and did his job,

He wouldn't be hangdog,

And as his shift was ending,

He made his note in the Captain's Log.

Captain Laine, coming in to relieve him,

Was surprised to see it say,

"January 2nd, Captain Laine

Came to the bridge sober today."

*******

Future themes are:

June 2 Captain (Today!)

June 9 Sting

June 16 Possible

June 23 Uniform

June 30 Scramble

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Today is:

Birthday of SPB Yang di-Pertuan Agong -- Malaysia (in this elective monarchy, the current king's birthday is celebrated on the first Monday in June, regardless of his actual birth date, although it is moved if it will intersect with Ramadan)

Coronation Day and Social Forestry Day -- Bhutan (anniversary of  the coronation day of the Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the 4th Druk Gyalpo, in 1974, and the day children plant trees)

Emanicipation Day -- Tonga (obs.)

Festa della Republica -- Italy (National Day/Feast of the Republic)

Festival of Utter Confusion -- an internet declared holiday, and this is the one for me!

Hristo Botev Day -- Bulgaria (poet and national hero who fell fighting the Turks this day in 1876)

"I Love My Dentist" Day -- no one will claim starting this one, so it makes me suspicious

Isabel Province Day -- Isabel Province, Solomon Islands

June Bank Holiday -- Ireland

King's Birthday -- Cook Islands; New Zealand; Niue

National Bubba Day -- created by comedian T. Bubba Bechtol for Bubbas everywhere to have their day

National Leave the Office Earlier Day -- sponsored by Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro, who urges people to maximize productivity so they can leave the office earlier every day www.theproductivitypro.com/index.htm

National Rocky Road Day

St. Blandina's Day (Patron of girls, people falsely accused, torture victims; Lyon, France)

St. Elmo's Day (a/k/a St. Erasmus; Patron of ammunition workers, boatmen, childbirth and women in labor, explosives workers, mariners, navigators, ordnance workers, sailors, watermen; Gaeta, Italy; against abdominal pains, appendicitis, birth pains, childhood intestinal disease, colic, danger at sea, intestinal disorders, seasickness, stomach diseases, storms)

Western Australia Day -- Western Australia (formerly called Foundation Day)

Yell "Fudge" at the Cobras in North America Day -- at noon, your local time, because according to Wellcat Holidays, cobras hate fudge and will not stay if we mention it

Anniversaries Today:

U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom, 1886 (only president to wed in the executive mansion)

Elizabeth II is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Her Other Realms and Territories & Head of the Commonwealth, 1953 (the first major international event to be televised)

Birthdays Today:

Justin Long, 1978

Zachary Quinto, 1977

Queen 'Masenate Mohato Seeiso, Queen consort of Lesotho, 1976

Wayne Brady, 1972

Wentworth Miller, 1972

Joel Tobeck, 1971

Dana Carvey, 1955

Gary Grimes, 1955

Dennis Haysbert, 1954

Diana Canova, 1953

Cornel West, 1953

Jerry Mathers, 1948

Marvin Hamlisch, 1944

Charles Haid, 1943

Stacy Keach, Jr., 1941

Charlie Watts, 1941

Sally Kellerman, 1937

Milo O’Shea, 1926

Johnny Weissmuller, 1904

Hedda Hopper, 1890

Sir Edward Elgar, 1857

Thomas Hardy, 1840

Marquis de Sade, 1740

Martha Dandridge Custiss Washington, 1731

Today in History:

The Vandals enter Rome and begin 2 weeks of plundering, 455

The First Siege of Antioch ends when Crusader forces take the city, 1098

The first Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France, 1615

Bridget Bishop is the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692

The Derby horserace is held for the first time in Epsom, England, 1780

P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the United States, 1835

The Slavic congress in Prague begins, 1848

Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his early radio device, 1896

U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act, making Native American Indians withing US territories and states US citizens, 1924

Lou Gehrig begins his streak of 2,130 consecutive games played, 1925

In a referendum, Italians vote to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic, and exile their king, Umberto II di Savoia, 1946

The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations, 1955

Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft land on another world, 1966

Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country, 1979

The Bhutan Broadcasting Service brings television transmissions to the Kingdom for the first time, 1999

Europe launches its first probe to voyage to another planet, Mars, 2003

The World Health Organization announces the E. coli strain responsible for the 2011 E.coli O104:H4 outbreak had never before been isolated from patients, 2011

The US Congress passes new legislation to reform National Security Agency procedures, restricting gathering of phone records, 2015

One hundred volunteers in Bhutan set a world record for tree planting, setting out 49,672 in 1 hour, 2015

Queen Elizabeth II marks her Platinum Jubilee with a military parade as the start of four days of celebrations, 2022

The Chinese spacecraft Chang'e-6 successfully lands on the far side of the Moon to collect and analyze rock samples, 2024

Mexico elects former Mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, as its first woman president, 2024