Loathe (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day, and Brian's Thankful Thursday, an A to Z Post

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To enjoy more blogs participating in the A to Z Challenge, click here.     

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"I loathe going to board meetings," he whined, "they ought to be called 'bored' meetings."

"Would you rather be at a board meeting and be bored or be a wooden board and be bored with a drill?" she asked with a grin.

"I think I'd rather buy a board than get bored on board a board."

"Just think, it could be worse, you could be a bored boar watching a boring play on the boards, or on a board that plays boring board games."

"Very funny, but it still doesn't change the fact that I absolutely loathe going to these board meetings."

"At least you get to write on a dry erase board when you're there -- they're quite remarkable, you know."

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

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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!

Last week, i posted a fence with some "character."  This one seems to have a little too much character.

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

From Mom:  I  know we missed a turn!

From Dad:  No, it's a ways yet.

From Sister:  Mom, he's hitting me!

From Brother:  Are we there yet?

From Mom: Honey, we're gonna be late!

From Dad:  We'll be fine, you'll see.

From Sister:  His tail's on my side of the seat!

From Brother:  I need to go pee!

From Mom:  At last, here we are!

From Dad:  I told you it'd be all right.

From Brother and Sister both at the same time:

And see, we promised not to fight!

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

Today i'm thankful for laughter, i spent a few minutes watching some funny, clean videos and it's amazing how much it can lift your mood to laugh for a few minutes.

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Today is:

Ambedkar Jayanti -- India (birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, father of the Indian Constitution)

Americas Day -- Honduras

Bisket Jatra -- Nepal (Nepali New Year)

Black Day -- South Korea (for those who got neither Valentine's gifts nor White Day gifts; singles wear black and get together to eat black noodle soup)

Celebrations in the Houses of Ra, Osiris, and Horus -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Children with Alopecia Day 

Day of Mologa -- Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia (commemorates the destruction of the town of Mologa during the construction of the Rybinsk Reservoir)

Day of the Georgian Language -- Georgia (marking the 1978 protests of Soviet attempts to suppress the Georgian language)

Elfin Choir Congress -- Fairy Calendar

Ex Spouse Day -- why?

International Moment of Laughter Day -- started by Izzy Gesell 

Kinetoscope Day -- the first commercial exhibition of motion pictures through Edison's "peep show" device occurred on this day in 1894

Look Up At The Sky Day -- internet generated, no history on this one, but if it's a pretty day, take advantage of it (some sites say April 12, but since we don't know who started it, today is fine)

Mahavir Jayanti -- Jain (honoring Lord Mahavira on the founder's birth anniversary; local dates may vary)

Maundy Thursday -- Christian (a/k/a Holy, Green, Chare, Sheer, or Shere Thursday; commemoration of the Last Supper)

     Procession of the Addolorata -- Taranto, Italy

National Dolphin Day -- US

National Love Our Children Day -- sponsored by STOMP Out Bullying and Love Our Children USA

National Pecan Day   

N'Ko Alphabet Day -- Mande Language Speakers

Pan American Day -- Order of the American States

Pesach/Passover -- Judaism (begins this evening, through the evening of April 23)

Pathologists' Assistant Day -- US (American Association of Pathologists' Assistants)     

Rato Machhindranath Jatra -- Nepal (chariot races for the god of rain; cannot confirm this year's date, but always begins mid-April)

Reach as High as You Can Day -- internet generated, and listed on various dates; a good idea, anyway, whenever you decide to celebrate it

Runic Half Month of Man (humanity) begins

Sacrifices to Leto, Pythian Apollon, Zeus, Hermes, and the Dioscuri in the Deme of Erichia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Sidereal Equinox New Year Celebrations -- throughout South and Southeast Asia, including

    * Assamese New Year, or Rongali Bihu (India's Assam Valley)

    * Bengali New Year, or Pohela Boishakh (Bangladesh and India's West Bengal state)

    * Burmese New Year, or Thingyan (Burma)

    * Hindu and Sikh New Year, or Vaisakhi (Punjab region)

    * Khmer New Year, or Chol Chnam Thmey, most commonly celebrated on April 13 (Cambodia)

    * Lao New Year, or Songkan / Pi Mai Lao, generally celebrated from 13-15 Aprill(Laos)

    * Malayali New Year, or Vishu (India's Kerala state)

    * Nepali New Year, or Bikram Samwat / Vaishak Ek (Nepal)

    * Oriya New Year, or Maha Visuba Sankranthi (India's Orissa state)

    * Sinhalese New Year, or Aluth Avurudhu (Sri Lanka)

    * Tamil New Year, or Puthandu (India's Tamil Nadu state)

    * Thai New Year, or Songkran, celebrated from 13-15 April(Thailand)

    * Tuluva New Year, or Bisu (India's Karnataka state)

Sommarsblot -- Ancient Norse Calendar (celebration of the coming summer, with sacrifices to the gods over the next several days; through Walpurgis/May 1)

Spring Hula Hooping Day -- try out the old hula hoop one more time, then toss it

St. Benezet's Day (Patron of bachelors, bridge builders; Avignon, France)

St. Lydwina of Schiedam's Day (Patron of ice skating/roller skating/skaters, prolonged suffering, sick people; Schiedam, Netherland; against bodily ills and sickness) 

St. Peter Gonzalez's Day (Patron of boatmen, mariners, sailors, watermen)

St. Tiburtius' Day (Considered the day the cuckoos return to England for the spring)

Takayama Spring Festival -- Takayama City, Japan (often considered one of the 3 most beautiful festivals in Japan; through tomorrow)

Thingyan -- Myanmar (Burmese Water Festival; through the Myanmar New Year on the 17th)

Vaisakhi/Baisakhi -- Sikh (celebration of the spring grain harvest and of the rebirth of the Sikh religion in the 15th Century)

Youth Day -- Angola

Birthdays Today:

Abigail Breslin, 1996

Sarah Michelle Gellar, 1977

Adrien Brody, 1973

Anthony Michael Hall, 1968

Greg Maddux, 1966

Cynthia Cooper, 1963

Robert Carlyle, 1961

Brad Garrett, 1960

Emma Thompson, 1959

Ritchie Blackmore, 1945

Julie Christie, 1941

Pete Rose, 1941

Loretta Lynn, 1935

Rod Steiger, 1925

John Gielgud, 1904

Arnold Joseph Toynbee, 1889

Anne Sullivan, 1866

Emperor Momozono, 1741

Christiaan Huygens, 1629

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Boys in the Band"(Musical), 1968

"Bye Bye, Birdie"(Musical), 1960

The Grapes of Wrath(Publication date), 1939

"Jeux d'enfants"(Ballet), 1932

"Murders in the Rue Morgue"(Publication date), 1841

American Dictionary of the English Language(Publication date), 1828

Today in History:

Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, who is wounded, BC 43

Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, surrounds the Jewish capital with four Roman legions, beginning the Siege of Jerusalem, 70

Temur, grandson of Kublai Khan, is elected Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, 1294

The foundation stone of Cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France is laid, 1434

Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush establish the first abolitionist society in the US, 1775

Napoleon calls for establishing Jerusalem for the Jews, 1799

Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary, 1828

The Donner Party departs Springfield, Illinois, 1846

Harriet Tubman begins her first Underground Railroad run, 1853

William Bullock patents the continuous-roll printing press, 1863

Abraham Lincoln is shot at Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth, 1865

Canada sets denominations of currency as dollars, cents, & mills, 1871

Canada passes the Dominion Lands Act, 1872

The RMS Titanic hits an iceberg  at 11:40pmand sinks 2 hours later, 1912

The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden, 1927

The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press, 1939

The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit, 1958

The heaviest hailstones ever recorded, at 1 kilogram, hailstones fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92, 1986

The most costly natural disaster in Australian history, a hailstorm, strikes Sydney, Australia, 1999

The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%, 2003

The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County, 2005

Ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano drifts towards Europe, causing air traffic to close over Northern Norway, 2010

The first-ever European MP's of Croatia are determined in an election held in anticipation of Croatia gaining formal entry into the European Union, 2013

Seychelles President Danny Faure makes the first-ever live speech from a submersible, pleading for better marine protection, 2019

Coinbase becomes the first major cryptocurrency company to trade shares on the New York stock exchange, 2021

Mr. Cal (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Quick, a Quip! (Poetry Monday)

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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!

Yesterday Becca and i took Mr. Cal for a walk before church, and he was sniffing around so much he got a leaf in his beard.

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 Sparks, the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, is on hiatus, so here's an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.     

source

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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is on a blog break and is sorely missed, we hope she comes back soon.   Charlotte/Mother Owl participates, and now Karen at Baking in a Tornado is jumping in at least once a month, too.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let Diane know!

This week the theme is Puns.                       

It's Abet and Aid Punsters Day

That means we're having fun,

Trying to get those groaners out,

Make you smile with many a pun.

I went and bought a sweater

In the size of large,

When i washed it, it held so much static,

They gave me a new one, no charge.

All the fruit were having a race

'Cause they got out on the loose,

The orange was ahead for quite a while,

But lost to the apple when it ran out of juice.

I'd gone to Scotland and was boating,

Out on a famous loch,

When our boat's engine began to sound sick,

And a sick boat has to quickly get to the doc(k).

Monocles are making a comeback,

So when you are running about,

Watch for those one piece lenses,

You just have to keep an eye out.

I went to pay a bill one day,

Bringing cash and my change bag contents,

But I kept counting my change all wrong,

Seems I have more dollars than sense.

A priest friend had a meeting,

The laity committee had a report,

He couldn't find his ministerial collar,

He's got a lay date and he's a collar short!

Hope you liked my tern of puns,

Write your own and be a go-getter,

I'll flock to read them if you post some,

And won't be bittern if yours are better!

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Today is:

Abet and Aid Punsters Day -- promoted by Punsters Unlimited, which seems to know better than to host a website

Cook Something Bold & Pungent Day -- especially for those who have had to close up the house for winter, we need to create a beautiful aroma for the house; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Deepavali/Diwali(Festival of Lights) -- Hindu; Jain; Sikh (fifth day of the festival)

     Bhai Tika -- ritual where sisters honor brothers for the protection they give

     Gyan Panchami -- Jain (celebration of knowledge and education)

Dunce Day -- death anniversary of John Duns Scotus (one of the three most important philosopher-theologians of the Middle Ages, he was called the "Subtle Doctor" but his enemies turned his name into the word we use today for someone who isn't too bright)

Feast of the Four Crowned Martyrs (Patrons of cattle, masons, sculptors, stone cutters; against fever)

Festival of the Mania -- Ancient Roman Calendar (to placate the Manes)

Fuigo Matsuri -- Kyoto City, Japan (Bellows Festival, Shinto festival in honor of Inari, the kitchen hearth goddess)

Global Entrepreneurship Week begins  www.genglobal.org/gew

Heir to the Throne Day -- Tuvalu (Prince of Wales birth anniversary celebration)

I Hate to Cook Day -- internet generated, and probably started by someone who wanted an excuse to go out to dinner!

National Cappuccino Day

National Day -- Tonga(obs.)

National Harvey Wallbanger Day

National Parents as Teachers Day -- US

Pohnpei Constitution Day -- Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia

Saints, Doctors, Missionaries, and Martyr's Day -- Church of England

Synaxis of the Archangel Michael and the other Bodiless Powers of Heaven -- Eastern Orthodox Church

Wish-Granting Championships -- Fairy Calendar (Leprechauns)

World Orphans Day -- originally an initiative of The Stars Foundation; cannot find a current sponsor, although there is a Facebook page with a different date, and here is a site where you can find out more about orphans in the developing world      

World Urbanism Day/World Town Planning Day

X-Ray Discovery Day / World Radiography Day -- commemorating the discovery, in 1895, of x-rays     

Anniversaries Today:

Montana becomes 41st US State, 1889

Mount Holyoke Seminary for Women is founded, 1837 (considered by many to be the first true college for women in the US)

Opening of the Louvre, 1793

Birthdays Today:

Tara Reid, 1975

Masashi Kishimoto, 1974

Parker Posey, 1968

Courtney Thorne-Smith, 1967

Gordon Ramsay, 1966

Leif Garrett, 1961

Rickie Lee Jones, 1954

Alfre Woodard, 1953

Mary Hart, 1951

Bonnie Raitt, 1949

Virna Lisi, 1937

Morley Safer, 1931

Patti Page, 1927

Christiaan Barnard, 1922

Esther Rolle, 1920

Martha Gellhorn, 1908

Margaret Mitchell, 1900

Hermann Rorschach, 1884

Milton Bradley, 1836

Edmond Halley, 1656

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Six Degrees of Separation"(Guare drama), 1990

"Night and Day"(Stoppard play), 1978

"Days of our Lives"(TV), 1965

"Life With Father"(Play), 1939

Sister Carrie(Publication date), 1900

"Ruy Blas"(Victor Hugo drama), 1838

Today in History:

Emperor Theodosius declares Christianity to be the state religion, 392

Uprising against Piero de' Medici in Florence, Italy, 1494

First meeting of Montezuma and Hernando Cortez in Tenochtitlan, Mexico, 1519

The Bodleian Library at Oxford University is opened to the public, 1602

Benjamin Franklin opens the first US library, in Philadelphia, PA, 1731

Elijah Craig, of Bourbon, Kentucky, US, first distills Bourbon whiskey from corn, 1789

Sarah Bernhardt makes her US debut at NY's Booth Theater, 1880

The New Orleans general strike begins, uniting black and white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time, 1892

Wilhelm Roentgen of Germany discovers X-rays, 1895

The New Testament Gospels are translated into Demotic Greek (as opposed to the Koine Greek of ancient texts), resulting in bloody clashes in Athens, 1901

The first Washington state elections in which women could vote take place, 1910

Operation Grapple X, Round C1: Britain conducts its first successful hydrogen bomb test over Kiritimati in the Pacific, 1957

Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate, 1966

Manolis Andronikos discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great's father), 1977

The UN Security Council demands that Saddam Hussein disarm or face serious consequences, 2002

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao releases pictures of the moon's Sinus Iridium, or Bay of Rainbows, taken during the Chang e-2 lunar mission, 2010

The potentially hazardous asteroid 2005 YU55 passed 0.85 lunar distances from Earth (about 324,600 kilometres or 201,700 miles), 2011

Mikhail Gorbachev warns that tensions between America and Russia over Ukraine have put the world on the brink of a new Cold War, 2014

Louvre Abu Dhabi is inaugurated, the largest art museum on the Arabian peninsula, 2017

Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa breaks the world record for surfing the biggest-ever wave at 24.4m at Nazaré, Portugal, 2017

Richard Branson's Virgin Hyperloop in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, runs its first test of a high-speed levitating pod system to carry people and cargo, 2020