Wordless Wednesday: Food Web

Epic battle, timeless dance, life and death:

The bug stuck in the web was bigger; the spider still won.

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday.





Today is:

Be Kind to Humankind Week:  Willing to Lend a Hand Wednesday

Columbia County Fair -- Chatham, NY, US (be a kid again at the 176th annual fair; through US Labor Day)

La Tomatina -- Buñol, Valencia, Spain (annual citywide food fight festival in which around 30,000 people take to the streets to pelt each other with tomatoes)

Day of Solidarity and Freedom -- Poland (Anniversary of the 1980 August Agreement)

Eat Outside Day -- as long as you won't pass out from the heat

Eleusinia Games -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate; 3 days of games with grain as prizes)

Festal Day -- Order of the Eastern Star

Invent A New Sandwich Day -- spread around the internet like good mayo; go ahead, have fun with this

Independence Day -- Kyrgyzstan(1991); Malaysia (Hari Kebangsaan/Freedom Day, 1957); Trinidad & Tobago(1962)

International Day of Blogs and Bloggers -- www.blogday.org

International Overdose Awareness Day -- prevention and remembrance 

Limba Noastra -- Moldova (Day of Our Language)

Love Litigating Lawyers Day -- yes, G-d tells us to love everybody, even litigation attorneys but He never said doing it would be easy; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

National Trail Mix Day

Nugget Best in the West Rib Cook-Off -- Sparks, NV, US (with rib cookers from across the country competing, this is a rib eater's delight, and even includes a rib-eating contest and free nightly concerts; through Labor Day)

St. Raymond Nonnatus' Day (Patron of babies, childbirth, children, expectant mothers, falsely accused people, infants, midwives, newborn babies, obstetricians, and pregnant women; Baltoa, Dominican Republic; against fever)

Umhlanga -- Swaziland (Reed Dance Public Holiday and final day, culmination of the Reed Dance Celebration begun last week and sponsored by the Royal Family)


Birthdays Today:

Jeff Hardy, 1977
Chris Tucker, 1972
Debbie Gibson, 1970
Glenn Tilbrook, 1957
Edwin Corley Moses, 1955
Richard Gere, 1949
Itzhak Perlman, 1945
Van Morrison, 1945
Jack Thompson, 1940
Marva Collins, 1936
Frank Robinson, 1935
James Coburn, 1928
Buddy Hackett, 1924
G.D. Spradlin, 1920
Alan Jay Lerner, 1918
William Saroyan, 1908
William Shawn, 1907
Arthur Godfrey, 1903
Maria Montessori, 1870


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Alice"(TV), 1976
"The Great Gildersleeve"(Radio), 1941
"The Threepenny Opera/Die Dreigroschenoper"(Play), 1928


Today in History:

Traditional date upon which Ayonwentah (Haiwatha) and Deganawidah (The Great Peacemaker) assist the Iroquois tribes in establishing the Confederation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy, or League of Five Nations), 1142
Lewis and Clark begin their expedition, 1803
A nuts and bolts machine is patented by Micah Rugg, 1842
The first professional football game is played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 1895
Thomas Edison patents the Kinetograph, 1897
Mrs. Adolph Landenburg, a horse rider, debuts the split skirt, 1902
Debut of Foghorn Leghorn, 1946
Solidarity Labor Union forms in Poland, 1980
Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris, 1997
Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police, 2006
In Sudan, the People's Liberation Army announces it will demobilize its child soldiers by the end of the year, 2010

Hanging Around

There's a rumor going around that women don't like spiders.  At least, that's what i read at The Chubby Chatterbox.

Well, actually, i am an arachnophile.  In this house, we go out of our way to protect spiders, make sure we keep the friendly kind around so they can keep the bug population down, and Little Girl pointed out a great web in our palm plant the other day.

While i'm not sure what kind of spider made that, it's a really fabulous design. 

This next picture may be a bit scary if you don't like spiders. which is why i didn't lead off with it.  It's not a good shot, but it's a spider that's been taxidermied, in a plastic bag.  The girls argue over whose property it is.

SpiderBro'

They named him SpiderBro' and he measures 8 inches from front leg tip to back leg tip.  He is often used to spook other people, but around here, no one thinks twice when he shows up in all sorts of places.

No one thinks twice before rescuing a spider and taking it outdoors, either.  We like our 8 legged friends, and let them hang around and do their thing, which is catching the nasty flies and skeeters.




Today is:

Autumn Equinox Festival at Chichen Itza -- beginning today, thousands will gather for the amazing play of light and shadow each evening at sunset (through the 27th)

Birthday of Crown Prince Tupouto'a 'Ulukalala -- Tonga

Citizenship Day -- US

Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 7, Women (sponsored by We, the World)

Feast of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Fundacion de Melilla -- ML, Spain

Kentucky Bourbon Festival -- Bardstown, KY, US (self explanatory; through Sunday)

National Apple Dumpling Day

National Heroes Day -- Angola

Niketeria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Opening of Parliament -- Netherlands (holiday in The Hague)related observance
     Prinsjesdag -- Netherlands  (technically translates "Prince's Day;" the day Parliament opens and the reigning sovereign, now Queen Beatrix, gives the Speech from the Throne and the Minister of Finance proposes next year's budget)

Operation Market Garden Remembrance -- Netherlands

Pledge Across America Day -- US (beginning of Constitution Week)

Return of Kelp-Koli Celebration -- Fairy Calendar (under duress, of course)

Stigmata of St. Francis' Day

St. Hildegard von Bingen's Day (author of treatises on natural healing and the first musical composer whose biography is known)

St. Lambert's Day (Patron of Middelaar, Netherlands)

VFW Ladies Auxiliary Day -- anniversary of founding in 1914


Anniversary Today:

The Constitution of the United States is signed, 1787
American Professional Football League (later the NFL) founded (a/k/a the Swallowing Up of Weekends), 1920



Birthdays Today:

Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, 1951
John Ritter, 1948
Ken Kesey, 1935
Anne Bancroft, 1931
Roddy McDowall, 1928
Hank Williams Sr., 1923
Jerry Colonna, 1904
John Willard Marriot, 1900
Baron Friedrich Von Steuben, 1730



Today in History:

The Battle of Thermopylae, fought between 300 Spartans, led by their king, Leonidas, and the Achaemenid Empire begins, BC480
Arabs conquer Alexandria, and destroy its library for the last time, 642
Netherland sailors discover Mauritus, 1598
Massachusetts Bay Colony gets a new charter, 1691
Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain, 1776
US Constitution is adopted by the Philadelphia convention, 1787
Sprinkler system for extinguishing fires is patented by Phillip W. Pratt, 1872
The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes killing Selfridge, who becomes the first airplane fatality, 1908
The first transcontinental airplane flight, from New York to Pasadena, is completed after 82 hours 4 minutes, 1911
The Okeechobee Hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing upwards
of 2,500 people, the third deadliest natural disaster in United States history, behind the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, 1928
The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives, 1949
Television is first broadcast in Australia, 1956
Malaysia joins the United Nations, 1957
Bangladesh, Grenada and Guinea-Bissau join the United Nations, 1974
The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, is unveiled by NASA, 1976
The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt, 1978
Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America, 1983
Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations, 1991
The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet, 1991
Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the long-dormant volcano in at least 10,000 years, 2006