Keeping Up with Her Takes Some Doing (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Poetry Monday, Fabulous, an A to Z Challenge Post

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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!

With her love of walks and almost insatiable appetite for books, our little Annie gives us a workout keeping up with her.

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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 Fabulous.               

I'm really not a narcissist,

that label's not on my list,

but the fact I am quite fabulous,

well on that, I do insist!

*******

Here's a fabulous joke,

the bullet lost his job,

he was fired.

Another fabulous joke,

the bike fell over,

it was two tired.

*******

I'd tell a fabulous pizza joke,

but it would be too cheezy.

I'd tell a fabulous wind energy joke,

in fact, it's really breezy.

*******

The fabulous skeleton could not get dates,

it was sad, he had no guts.

The fabulous pecan wanted to be eaten,

because he was just plain nuts.

*******

I know the poems aren't fabulous,

and not really so funny,

but it's a busy Sunday

and I am feeling punny!

*******

Future themes are:

April 13 Fabulous (Today!)

April 20 Superhero

April 27 Plaid

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

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Today is:

Day to Give Thanks for Fish/Seafood -- anniversary of the US Fishery Conservation and Management Act 1976

Environmental Protection Day -- anniversary of the 1962 publication of Silent Spring

Feast of Rotten Endings -- because some stories just don't end well

Huguenot Day -- Huguenot Society of the US (anniversary of the 1598 Edict of Nantes, in which King Henry IV promoted peace between Catholics and Protestants)

Ides of April -- Ancient Roman Calendar; also

     Festival of Libertas -- personification of freedom and political liberty

     Festival of Jupiter Libertas

     Festival of Jupiter Victor

International Plant Appreciation Day -- unsponsored by any but those who love plants

National Peach Cobbler Day

Poshui Jie -- Jinghong, China (Water Splashing Festival; a 3-to-four-day festival around this time)

Scrabble Day -- anniversary of the 1899 birth of its inventor, Alfred Mosher Butts

Songkran Festival / Chiang Mai Songkran / Tamil New Year / Bangla New Year / Bisket Jatra -- Bangladesh; Cambodia; India; Laos; Myanmar; Nepal; Singapore; Sri Lanka; Thailand (New Year festivals, celebrated over the next few days, as the sun enters the zodiac sign of Aries)

St. Hermengild's Day (Patron of converts; against drought, flood, and thunderstorms)

Theravada New Year -- Buddhist (through tomorrow; dates and length of celebration can vary locally)

Thingyan Eve -- Myanmar (Water Festival Eve; through the 17th)

Thomas Jefferson Day -- US

U.S. Elephant Day -- marking the arrival of the first elephant in the US in 1796

Yom HaShoah -- Judaism (Holocaust Remembrance Day; begins at sunset, through nightfall tomorrow)

Yayoi Matsuri -- Nikko, Japan (five-day spring festival)

Birthdays Today:

Jonathan Brandis, 1976

Rick Schroder, 1970

Garry Kasparov, 1963

Saundra Santiago, 1957

Max Weinberg, 1951

Peabo Bryson, 1951

Ron Pearlman, 1950

Al Green, 1946

Tony Dow, 1945

Lowell George, 1945

Jack Casady, 1944

Bill Conti, 1942

Paul Sorvino, 1939

Lyle Waggoner, 1935

Don Adams, 1926

Howard Keel, 1919

Eudora Welty, 1909

Samuel Beckett, 1906

Butch Cassidy, 1866

F.W. Woolworth, 1852

Thomas Jefferson, 1743

Guy Fawkes, 1570

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Arcadia"(Play), 1993

Casino Royale(Film), 1967

Silent Spring(Publication date), 1962

"El Capitan"(Operetta), 1896

"Messiah"(Oratorio, HWV 56), 1742

Today in History:

The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt with the capture of Louis IX of France, 1250

Henry IV of France signs the Edict of Nantes, granting freedom of religion and political rights to Huguenots (French Protestants), 1598

John Dryden, age 36, becomes the first English Poet Laureate, 1668

George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland, 1742

The first elephant seen in the Western Hemisphere arrives from India, 1796

The British Parliament grants religious freedom to Roman Catholics, 1829

Hungary becomes a republic, 1849

The first US Pony Express run is completed, 1860

George Westinghouse patents a steam powered brake, 1869

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded, 1870

J.C. (James Cash) Penney opens his first store, 1902

British troops fire on unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, India, killing at least 379 and wounding over 1,200 more, 1919

Helen Hamilton becomes the first woman US Civil Service Commissioner, 1920

Lord Clydesdale makes the first flight over Mt. Everest, 1933

The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated on the 200th anniversary of his birth, in Washington, D.C., 1943

Van Cliburn becomes the first American to win the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, 1958

Sidney Poitier becomes the first African American male to win the Best Actor Oscar for Lilies of the Field, 1963

An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon, 1970

The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan, 1972

Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the United States' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1, 1974

Portugal and the People's Republic of China sign an agreement in which Macau would be returned to China in 1999, 1987

Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament, 1997

Former President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak and sons, Alaa and Gamal, are detained for 15 days of questioning regarding charges of corruption and abuse of power, 2011

The People's Republic of China and the U.S. agree to work towards eliminating nuclear weapons in the Korean Peninsula, 2013

The world’s largest plane by wingspan (117m/385ft), built as a flying launch pad for satellites and called the Stratolaunch, takes its first flight from Mojave, California, 2019

Australian super-horse Winx ends her extraordinary career with a 3rd Queen Elizabeth Stakes win in Sydney giving her 33 consecutive race wins, a world record 25 Group One victories and $26.4 million Australian dollars prize money, 2019

Tropical Cyclone Ilsa makes landfall in remote western Australia, between De Grey and Pardoo Roadhouse, as a category five storm, setting a new sustained wind speed record of 218 kph (135 mph), 2023

The MacLean brothers, Ewan (32), Jamie (31), and Lachlan (27) of Scotland depart in a rowboat from Lima, Peru to cross the Pacific Ocean, headed for Australia hoping to raise funds for clean water access in Madagascar through donations, 2025*

*They arrived in a record-breaking 139 days and raised £1million.