Sweetie, in true Southern tradition, now comes home at noon to have dinner, and has a lighter supper at night. It's much better for him, and he's enjoying not having his heaviest meal of the day just a few hours before bed.
Little Girl is enjoying sometimes taking a break from her homework and making that supper for him in the evening, or helping me do it. Usually it's sandwiches, or a large salad, or an omelet, something simple. So i was showing her how he likes his omelets made. One yolk with several whites, a bit of water, mix well with a big pinch of sea salt, and then there is pepper.
She grabbed the pepper shaker, and gave it a tiny dusting over the egg mixture in the bowl. "Is that enough?" she asked.
Smiling, i grabbed the pepper and put in about 10 times what she had put in there and said, There, that's enough for now. He will add more later.
"That's enough to make me sneeze right now, just looking at it!" Little Girl exclaimed.
"Yes, and he will sneeze like a maniac while adding more!" Bigger Girl noted as she came in.
"That's true!" Little Girl said. "What is it about dads that they all sneeze like that! It's loud enough to hear it all over the house! All dads do that, what is with that?"
Well, i'm not sure, i told her. But in our case, it came in handy.
"How so?" both girls asked.
Every time i had a baby, the day after the birth, he would tiptoe into the hospital room while the baby was asleep, and make a big deal out of being quiet for the baby, then let out with one of his huge sneezes. At that point, the baby would cry and i would note that that one passed its hearing test!
Upon hearing that, they laughed, but it's true.
And what is it with guys sneezing so loud, anyway?
Today is
Dia del Nino -- Honduras (Children's Day)
Harvest Home Nibbling Contest -- Fairy Calendar (Gremlins)
National Championship Air Races -- Reno, NV, US (through Sunday)
National Day -- Gibraltar
Pendleton Round-Up -- Pendleton, OR, US (traditional rodeo with the participation of local Native tribes; through Saturday)
Pennsylvania RV & Camping Show -- Hershey, PA, US (the largest RV and Camper show in the world, with the first to days for industry only; through Sunday)
Saint George's Caye Day -- Belize (National Day)
Sewing Machine Day -- date of issuance of an early sewing machine patent, to Elias Howe; some sites call this "Sew Be It! Day"
Swap Ideas Day -- Robert L. Birch of Puns Corp wants people to explore ways in which their ideas can be put to work to benefit all humanity and develop incentives to encourage using our creative imaginations
St. Finian's Day (Patron of Ulster, Ireland)
St. Nicholas of Tolentino's Day (Patron of animals, baby, dying people, mariners/sailors, sick animals; Albi, Italy; Cabanatuan, Philippines; Guimbai, Philippines; Lambuna, Philippines; Mati, Philippines; Tandag, Philippines; Toentino, Italy)
Teacher's Day -- China
The Masters -- Spruce Meadows, Calgary, AB, Canada (The international horse show jumping competitions; through the 14th)
TV Dinner Day
World Suicide Prevention Day
Birthdays Today:
Clark Johnson, 1964
Randy Johnson, 1963
Colin Firth, 1960
Amy Irving, 1953
Joe Perry, 1950
Judy Geeson, 1948
Jose Feliciano, 1945
Stephen Jay Gould, 1941
Karl Lagerfeld, 1938
Charles Kuralt, 1934
Roger Maris, 1934
Arnold Palmer, 1929
Rin Tin Tin, 1918
Fay Wray, 1907
Adele Astaire, 1896
Elsa Schiaparelli, 1890
Franz Werfel, 1890
Ian Fleming, 1888
Isaac Kauffman Funk, 1839
Marie Laveau, 1801
Carter Braxton, 1736
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"The X Files"(TV), 1993
"Gentle Ben"(TV), 1967
"The Road Runner Show"(TV), 1966
"Gunsmoke"(TV), 1955
"Benvenuto Cellini(Berlioz opera), 1838
Today in History:
The Battle of Marathon takes places between the forces of the Persian Empire and those of Athens, BC490*
An earthquake known as "The Lesser Judgment Day" hits Istanbul, 1509
John Smith is elected president of Jamestown, Va., Colony Council, 1608
Nathan Hale answers the call of George Washington for a volunteer spy, 1776
Simón Bolívar is named President of Peru, 1823
Elias Howe is granted a patent for the sewing machine, 1846
George Mary Searle discovers the asteroid 55 Pandora, 1858
Lincoln Highway, the first paved coast-to-coast road in the US, opens, 1913
Austria and the Allies sign the Treaty of Saint-Germain recognizing the independence of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, 1919
20 African-American students enter public schools in Alabama, 1963
Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by guillotine in France, 1977
Switzerland, traditionally a neutral country, joins the United Nations, 2002
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in history is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland, 2008
*actual date disputed, but it was the 9th day of the 9th moon on their calendar
Sweetie came in with good news. It seems that our illustrious Guv'ner here in the Gret Stet of Looziana (at least, that's how some people here sarcastically refer to Louisiana) has kept his promise to come up with a 4% pay raise for state employees.
Considering that he hasn't had a raise in several years, and prices have gone up enormously, and this is only going to result in just enough each month to maybe cover half a week's groceries in this house with teens and a man who eats as if he were still a teenage farm boy, i was rather underwhelmed.
At first, my response was, well maybe that is something to sneeze at, playing on the original expression. Then i got to wondering about the origin of the idiomatic expression "it's nothing to sneeze at."
My first hit on Google came up with the site of The Free Dictionary, which defined the expression and gave, as an example of use, "An extra two thousand bucks a year is nothing to sneeze at."
Talk about appropriate! Maybe the raise is nothing to sneeze at, even if it isn't going to result in quite that much, after taxes.
Looking further down the Google results page, the next one said, "I wouldn't sneeze at that amount of money if I were you. It's better than nothing."
Hmm, think the Good Lord is trying to tell me something? Yes, i do, and i am grateful, because Sweetie has a job, even if it does make him crazy.
Further looking up the expression shows that the earliest noted uses were things like, "It's a sort of thing a young fellow of my expectations ought to sneeze at." That was apparently how it was used in 1806, as a way of showing derision. It seems unusual, since we don't generally sneeze on command, but apparently "sneeze" originally also included the meaning "snort." Sort of a sniff of disdain, i gather, in this use. The expression originally meant to take something lightly, or look down on it, sniffing or snorting in a rude, pretentious way.
Now, we use it the opposite way, saying things are nothing to sneeze (or snort) at.
In this day and time, a raise by any amount is surely that.
Today is:
Armed Forces Day -- Chile
Cosmetic Bridge Day -- seems internet generated, but i'm sure your dentist will approve
Day of the First Appearance of the Slovak National Council -- Slovakia
Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 9, Freedom (sponsored by We, the World)
Full Harvest Moon a/k/a Full Corn Moon/Indigo Moon/Wise-Crone Moon (with so much food ripe for gathering, harvesting can go on well into the night by the light of the hugely full Harvest Moon)
Binara Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka
Chusok -- South Korea (Harvest Moon Festival; began yesterday, through the 20th; a harvest festival and day to give homage to the ancestors and celebrate family)
Han'gawi -- North Korea (Harvest Moon Festival; through the 21st; a harvest festival and day to give homage to the ancestors and celebrate family)
Taw Thalin Full Moon -- Myanmar
Zhongqiu Jie / Chong Chao -- China; Macau; Taiwan (Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival, the birthday of the earth god T'u-ti Kung, celebrating the harvests, family, and eating moon cakes, matchmaking, sky lanterns, Fire Dragon Dances, and more)
Independence Day -- St. Kitts and Nevis(1983)
International Talk Like a Pirate Day -- www.talklikeapirate.com
Jubilee of the Moth Moons -- Fairy Calendar
National Butterscotch Pudding Day
Navajo Sing Festival -- Navajo Native Americans festival in thanksgiving for the harvest, begun at the full moon, and through the 26th
Osage River Mountain Man Festival and Black Powder Shoot -- Lake Ozark, MO, US (reenactment of a pre-1840s wilderness rendezvous; through Sunday)
St. Januarius of Naples' Day (a/k/a Gennaro of Naples; Patron of blood banks; Naples, Italy; against volcanic eruption) related observance
Feast of San Gennaro -- NYC, NY, US (began on the 13th, continues to the 23rd; one of the highlights of the festival is this, the actual Saint's day)
Sukkot -- Judaism (began at sunset yesterday, through sunset on the 25th)
Women's Suffrage Day -- New Zealand
Birthdays Today:
Jimmy Fallon, 1974
Jim Abbot, 1967
Trisha Yearwood, 1964
Joan Lunden, 1950
Leslie "Twiggy" Lawson, 1949
Jeremy Irons, 1948
Randolph Mantooth, 1945
"Mama" Cass Elliot, 1941
Bill Medley, 1940
Paul Williams, 1940
David McCallum, 1933
Adam West, 1928
Duke Snider, 1926
Joseph Pasternak, 1901
Today in History:
Edward, the Black Prince, commands the forces which defeat the French army and capture France's King John II, 1356
Giles Corey is pressed to death after refusing to plead in the Salem Witch Trials, 1692
The Continental Congress passes the first budget of the US, 1778
Ephraim Morris patents the railroad brake, 1838
Bond and Lassell discover Hyperion, moon of Saturn, 1848
New Zealand becomes the first country to grant all of its women the right to vote, 1893
Funeral of assassinated President William McKinley, 1901
Mickey Mouse makes his screen debut as Steamboat Willie, at the Colony Theater in NYC, 1928
The Council of Europe is founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich, 1946
Nikita Khrushchev is barred from visiting Disneyland, 1959
Betty and Barney Hill claim that they saw a mysterious craft in the sky and that it tried to abduct them, 1961
The Solomon Islands join the United Nations, 1978
Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons :-) and :-( on the Carnegie Mellon University Bulletin Board System, 1982
Ötzi the Iceman is discovered by German tourists, 1991
The BP oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico was declared “effectively dead” by retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man on the blowout disaster, 2010
