Help? (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day and Brian's Thankful Thursday

 ***********************************

"You look like you're about to be hanged without benefit of clergy."

"What?"

"Why the long face, son?"

"Math homework, and on the weekend, too!"

"Don't worry, I'll help, you can't go outside or watch TV tonight until it's done, that way you won't have to worry about it tomorrow or Sunday."

"Thanks a lot, Dad!"

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Benefit.      

***********************************

While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!

***********************************

It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

Keeping the cubs entertained

is the part of my job I like best,

they jump and squeal and burn energy

and I just lie here and rest!

***********************************

Angel Brian's Family of Brian's Home - Forever hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful the Thanksgiving plans are made, food ordered, and a trip to the store for the rest of the items is already in the works.

***********************************

Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Bangladesh

Caregiver Rights Day -- UK (with information to help carers available here)   

Catholic School Principal Appreciation Day -- originally designated by the National Catholic Education Association 

Fast for an Abundant World Harvest -- now unsponsored, but one way to help can be found here 

Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin -- Eastern and Roman Catholic Christian (those following the Gregorian Calendar)

Festival of Madonna della Salute -- Venice, Italy

Furniture Memory Day -- an internet generated test of your memory; see if you remember where you got each piece of furniture you own, how much it cost, and how its most precious scratch came to be; you are also encouraged to dust if you want to

General Framework Agreement Day -- RS, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Gerard d'Aboville Day -- marking the day, in 1991, he arrived in Ilwaco, WA, US, after departing Japan 4 months earlier in a rowboat!

Gingerbread Day

Great American Smokeout -- save money and your life, try not to smoke today; started by the American Cancer Society 

National Stuffing Day -- various dates given on many sites, so if you enjoy stuffing, celebrate them all

No Music Day -- www.nomusicday.com for the explanation

St. Gelasius' Day

Use Less Stuff Day -- a great idea!  not an officially sponsored day, but you can get information about using less stuff at www.use-less-stuff.com/

World Hello Day -- recognizing the importance of communication in world peace, say hello to people you don't usually greet today 

World Philosophy Day -- UNESCO 

World Television Day -- UN

Anniversaries Today:

South Carolina becomes the 12 US State, 1789

Birthdays Today:

Tasha Schwikert, 1984

Ken Griffey, Jr., 1969

Troy Aikman, 1966

Bjork, 1965

Nicolette Sheridan, 1963

Cherry Jones, 1956

Cynthia Rhodes, 1956

Lorna Luft, 1952

Goldie Hawn, 1945

Harold Ramis, 1944

Marcy Carsey, 1944

Tweety Bird, 1942

Juliet Mills, 1941

Marlo Thomas, 1938

James DePreist, 1936

Laurence Luckinbill, 1934

Joseph Campanella, 1927

Stan Musial, 1920

Coleman Hawkins, 1904

Rene Magritte, 1898

Hetty Green, 1834

William Beaumont, 1785

Josiah Bartlett, 1729

Voltaire, 1694

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"I'm Gonna Make You Love Me"(Single release), 1968

"A Tale of Two Kitties"(Warner cartoon, debut of Tweety Bird), 1942

"The Relapse, or, Virtue in Danger"(Vanbrugh play), 1696

Today in History:

Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem; this is the event commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah, BC164

The Pilgrims, aboard the Mayflower, reach what is now called Provincetown Harbor, Massachusetts, and sign the Mayflower Compact, 1620

Richard Johnson, a free black, is granted 550 acres in Virginia, 1654

In Paris, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, Marquis d'Arlandes, make the first untethered hot air balloon flight, 1783

Colonel Napoléon Bonaparte is promoted to full general and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the French Republic, 1791

First Jewish Reform congregation in US forms, Charleston, SC, 1824

Moses F Gale patents a cigar lighter, 1871

Tom Edison announces his "talking machine" invention (phonograph), 1877

Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, becoming the first female United States Senator, 1922

First commercial crossing of Pacific by plane (China Clipper), 1935

The Alcan Highway is completed, 1942*

The British Natural History Museum announces that the "Piltdown Man" skull is a hoax, 1953

The first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and SRI, 1969

Gerard d'Aboville completes his four-month solo journey to row across the Pacific Ocean, 1991

The Dayton Peace Agreement is initialed at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1995

NATO invites Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members, 2002

Iran's President Ahmadinejad rejects the country's successful family planning program and tells Iranian girls they should marry at 16, 2010

The three most senior surviving members of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime are charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, 2011

For the second time in four months, New Zealand's Mount Tongariro volcano, on the North Island, erupts, 2012

The Alabama parole board grants posthumous pardons to three members of the Scottsboro boys, 2013

Mt Agung on the Indonesian island of Bali begins erupting, 2017

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a measles epidemic has so far killed over 5,000 people in this year, making it the world's largest and fastest moving epidemic, 2019

Raven Chacon's "Voiceless Mass" premieres at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee and becomes the first work by an Native American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, 2022

Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance, world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, pleads guilty to allowing customers to launder money and is ordered to pay $4.3 billion in fines to US government, 2023

*Not opened to general vehicular traffic until the next year

Children's Products Can Have Some Funny Names (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

***********************************

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Steve at BeThere2Day, Catsynth, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

***********************************

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.    

The prompts will be posted by Elephant's Child this month and are provided by  Alex J. Cavanaugh.    

This week's prompts are:

• pyromaniac
• midnight
• parrot
• frozen
• razor's edge

And/Or 

• anguish
• alligator
• taco
• predictable
• staple

Charlotte (MotherOwl)  has given us Pearl Opal Green as the colour of the month.  If you can also incorporate it into your stories she (and EC) will be grateful.

#2 Son, who loves to live life on the RAZOR'S EDGE, was my little "PYROMANIAC."  That's the title i gave him after he, at age 9, watched me at the BBQ pit and said, "That's not how Grandpa does it.  Want me to show you?"

I gladly handed him the tongs and from that moment he was our BBQ/Smoker master.  He could start a fire lickety split, in a regular smoker/BBQ or at the creek, where he would cook whatever fish he'd caught.  He had many fishing poles, some he bought, including a Pearl Opal Green beauty he still has, and sometimes he would make one with a pole he'd cut in the woods, plus string and a safety pin.

He also made himself a bow and arrows and taught himself to shoot, and learned to swing a golf club by standing on our roof, the ball balanced on the ridge, using clubs someone had thrown away.  His pride and joy was a Big Bertha a church pastor didn't want any longer.

He did not and will not live a PREDICTABLE life.  He'd also catch snakes at the creek and bring them home as pets, has caught and cooked turtles and while he doesn't have a license so he doesn't actually catch them, he will sometimes stay out in the swamps until after MIDNIGHT to track ALLIGATORs just for the fun of it.

Don't get me wrong, he also loves TACOs and FROZEN corn dogs, and makes pizza and calzones from the restaurants he manages a STAPLE of his diet, but he's not afraid to try new things.

He and his bride are even talking about getting a PARROT, since they both like birds (they had a couple of budgies from when she was single, but they have since flown to the "rainbow bridge").  I think though, for now, they're content with just having the baby to care for; it caused them great ANGUISH to have to re-home the blue heeler dog, Jock, as it was growling at and trying to attack the baby from the moment they brought her home.

Their plans are, once the lease is up on their apartment next May, to have their RV ready and #2 Son will apply for jobs in Alaska, since she has family there.  Her job is online and can go wherever she has internet access.

They'll drive the RV to Alaska and live in it until they can buy a small plot of land and a yurt where they can do some homesteading as well as work.

As i said, a bit on the edge, right where he likes to be.

***********************************

Today is:

Absurdity Day -- an internet generated absurd holiday

Africa Industrialization Day -- UN

Air Your Dirty Laundry Day -- internet generated, and be careful with this one!

Beaujolais Nouveau Release -- France (at midnight, so really most of the celebration is tomorrow, a new wine celebration marked with fireworks and festivities)

Clean the Cat Hair Out of the Vacuum Cleaner Day -- internet generated, and always tops on my chore list

Dia de la Soberania Nacional -- Argentina (Sovereignty Day)

Day of Sekhmet and the Purifying Flame -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Day of National Sovereignty -- Argentina (commemorates the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado)

Dia da Consciencia Negra -- Brazil (Black Consciousness Day)

Geographic Information Systems Day   www.gisday.com/

Globally Organized Hug A Runner Day aka G.O.H.A.R.D

Name Your PC Day -- mine is Ol' Bessy, a/k/a Old Crankypants; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays  

National Educational Support Professionals Day -- US

National Peanut Butter Fudge Day

Praetextatus and Paulina's Day -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Guardians of the Eleusinian Mysteries, pagan activists and devotees who tried to save Roman religions; date approximate)

Repentance Day -- Saxony, Germany (Day of Prayer and Repentance [Buss und Bettag])

     Buss und Bettag -- German speaking Lutheran, Reformed, and United Protestants (Day of Repentance and Prayer)

Revolution Day -- Mexico (traditional)

St. Edmund the Martyr's Day (Patron of kings, torture victims, wolves; East Anglia, England; against plagues)

Teachers' Day -- Vietnam

Transgender Day of Remembrance -- memorial for those who have been killed because of transphobia

Universal Children's Day -- UN

World COPD Day -- International (helping people understand Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; this year's theme is "Know Your Lung Function")   

Zumbi Day -- Brazil (death anniversary of Zumbi dos Palmares, a day of Afro-Brazilian consciousness, as he was a hero and freedom fighter)

Anniversaries Today:

The Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London, 1947

The first municipal airport in the US opens, in Tucson, AZ, 1919

Birthdays Today:

Sabrina Lloyd, 1970

Ming-Na Wen, 1967

Sean Young, 1959

Bo Derek, 1956

Steve Dahl, 1954

Richard Masur, 1948

Duane Allman, 1946

Judy Woodruff, 1946

Veronica Hamel, 1943

Joe Biden, 1942

Dick Smothers, 1939

Don DeLillo, 1936

Richard Dawson, 1932

Estelle Parsons, 1927

Kaye Ballard, 1926

Robert F. Kennedy, 1925

Nadine Gordimer, 1923

Gene Tierney, 1920

Robert Byrd, 1917

Alistair Cooke, 1908

Chester Gould, 1900

Edwin Hubble, 1889

Karl von Frisch, 1886

Kenesaw Mountain Landis, 1866

Selma Lagerlof, 1858

Sir Wilfred Laurier, 1841

Thomas Chatterton, 1752

Oliver Wolcott, 1726

Susanna Wesley, 1669 (mother of John, Charles, and 17 other children)

Peregrine White, 1620 (born on the Mayflower)

Maximinus, Roman Emperor, 270

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Beatles Anthology 1(album release), 1995

The Day After(TV movie), 1983

"A Soldier's Play"(Fuller Pulitzer winning play), 1981

"Cabaret"(Musical), 1966

"The Seven Year Itch"(Play), 1952

"The Children's Hour"(Play), 1934

"The Goldbergs"(Radio), 1929

The Sheik(Film, with Rudolph Valentino), 1921

"Das Lied von der Erde/The Song of the Earth"(Mahler symphony), 1911

"The Doctor's Dilemma"(Play), 1906

"Fidelio"(Opera, Beethoven Op. 72), 1805

Today in History:

Bögü, Khan of the Uyghurs, conquers Lo-Yang, capital of the Chinese Empire, 762

Zumbi, the last leader of the Quilombo dos Palmares of Brazil, is executed, 1695

New Jersey becomes the first state to ratify the US Bill of Rights, 1789

Curacao's government forbids slave work on Sunday, 1795

Howard University is founded in Washington, D.C., 1866

US State Department starts requiring photographs for passports, 1914

The first municipally owned airport in US opens, in Tucson Az, 1919

In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation, 1962

The SETI Institute is founded, 1984

Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released, 1985

The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million, 1989

In England, a fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, badly damaging the castle and causing over £50 million worth of damage, 1992

The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya, is launched, 1998

The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level in eleven years, 2008

NATO agrees to begin handing over Afghanistan's security to the Afghan military, 2010

The UN World Meteorological Organization announces the 2011 greenhouse gasses reached record levels, 2012

A vote of the General Synod of the Church of England approves women to be ordained bishops beginning the next year, 2013

Atlanta's Georgia Dome, once the world's largest covered stadium, is destroyed in a controlled implosion, 2017

The Oxford Dictionary word of the year is "climate emergency," 2019

New York state activates the National Guard to assist with historic snow levels of up to 6 1/2 feet around the Buffalo area, 2022