Sunshine (Feline Friday), Friendly Fill-Ins, and Nature Friday

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Feline Friday was originally started by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude (may he rest in peace), and i'm going to believe it's because he liked cats.

He handed hosting duties off to Sandee at Comedy Plus, and now she has entrusted it to me.

Feline Friday is simple to join.  All you have to do is: Post a picture, drawing, cartoon or video of a cat (they may be silly or cute).  Then add your link!

One thing for sure is this is a fun and easy meme to do.  So come and join us in Feline Friday.

What better way to start the weekend than with a feline!

This is Sunshine.  He was a neighbor's cat but decided he liked Ms. GA better and joined her semi-feral clowder years ago.  He's now the senior cat on the premises and he has been diagnosed with cancer.  While his days are numbered, he still likes to come up and sit on the swing and just take life easy.

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Friendly Fill-Ins are easy to do. There are four statements: the first two statements are provided by Ellen of 15AndMeowing, and the final two are offered by Lorianne The Menagerie Mom of Four-Legged Furballs. They try to make sure the statements will be fun to both answer and share. The linky will be posted at or about 12:00 AM on Friday. Please head over to one of their sites, link up, and share your thoughts!      

Here are this week's statements with my responses underlined:

1. If I were to start a museum, it would be a museum of _______________________________.

2. If I see __________________one more time I am going to lose my mind.

3. _________ is the strangest thing I believed as a child.

4. If my life had a mascot, it would be a _________.

1. If I were to start a museum, it would be a museum of   old gadgets and gizmos and people would have to guess what they were used for and try to figure them out before the answer was revealed.

2. If I see   a certain person i know putting recyclables in the trash   one more time I am going to lose my mind.

3. That i might run out of books to read someday   is the strangest thing I believed as a child.

4. If my life had a mascot, it would be a   burro, the small kind with the cross on its back.

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Nature Friday is hosted by LLB in Our Backyard.  Simply post a picture of the natural world, and link up!

We've had some beautiful sunsets lately.   

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Today is National Kitten Day!  Raising awareness of the plight of the many kittens which end up in shelters each year and to promote the adoption of kittens.

Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere for the event badge.       

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Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Mauritania

Capybara Appreciation Day

Clerihew Day -- in honor of the poetic form he invented, the clerihew:

     Edmund's middle name was Clerihew

     A name possessed by very few

     But verses by Mr. Bentley

     Succeeded eminently!

Collector Car Appreciation Day -- brought to you by the SEMA Action Network 

Don't Step On A Bee Day -- Wellcat Holidays wants to remind you, when going barefoot this time of year, watch out!

Feast Day of Knut the Reaper, Hela, Holda, and Skadi -- Norse deities whose celebration this day is due to their later association with Danish King Canute the Great

Gospel Day -- Kiribati

Independence Day -- Bahamas(1973)

Lady Godiva Day -- tradition says she took her famous ride on this day in 1040

National Kitten Day

National Pina Colada Day

Pick Blueberries Day -- variously set on different days in July depending on the website; with blueberries being so good for you, find a day to go gather or buy some soon

Silence Day -- followers of Meher Baba

St. Amalburga's Day (Patron of people with fever; Ghent, Belgium; against arm pain, bruises, and fevers)

Teddy Bear Picnic Day -- no idea why today, especially when the author of the song, Jimmy Kennedy, was born on July 20

Anniversaries Today

Wyoming becomes the 44th US State, 1890

Birthdays Today

Jessica Simpson, 1980

Andre Nolan Dawson, 1954

Arlo Guthrie, 1947

Sue Lyon, 1946

Ron Glass, 1945

Virginia Wade,1945

Arthur Ashe, 1943

Lawrence Pressman, 1939

Jerry Herman, 1933

David Norman Dinkins, 1927

Fred Gwynne, 1926

Jean Kerr, 1923

Jake LaMotta, 1921

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 1921

David Brinkley, 1920

Don "Mr. Wizard" Herbert, 1917

John Gilbert, 1897

Edmund Clerihew Bentley, 1875

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, 1875

Marcel Proust, 1871

Nikola Tesla, 1856

Adolphus Busch, 1839

James Whistler, 1834

George Mifflin Dallas, 1792

William Blackstone, 1723

John Calvin, 1509

Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Fox And The Hound(Animated film), 1981

"Your Hit Parade"(TV), 1950

Today in History

Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia at the Battle of Dyrrhachium, BC48

The most severe of several early fires of London burns most of the city to the ground, 1212

Lady Jane Grey takes the throne of England, 1553

Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Mackenzie River delta, 1789

The Vellore Mutiny is the first instance of a mutiny by Indian sepoys against the British East India Company, 1806

The United States takes possession of its newly bought territory of Florida from Spain, 1821

Big Ben, the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, rings for the first time, 1859

The eruption of Tarawera volcano destroys the famous pink and white calcium carbonate hot-spring terraces of North Island, New Zealand, 1886

Meher Baba, self-declared Avatar of the Age, begins his silence of 44 years; his followers observe Silence Day on this date in commemoration, 1925

In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act, 1925

Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world, 1938

Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit, 1962

Boris Yeltsin begins his 5-year term as the first elected President of Russia, 1991

In London scientists report the findings of the DNA analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton which supports the "out of Africa theory" of human evolution, 1997

Spain opens its first mosque since the Moors were expelled in 1492, in Granada, 2003

Frances O'Grady is appointed the first female General Secretary by Britain's Trade Union Congress, 2012

NASA's Juno spacecraft makes the closest ever pass over Jupiter's Great Red Spot at 9,000 kilometers overhead, 2017

An original sketch of Winnie-the-Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood by E.H. Shepard sells for £430,000 in London, a record price for a book illustration, 2018

The journal Nature publishes an article about the earliest evidence of modern humans outside of Africa, a 210,000-year-old skull from Apidima Cave, southern Greece, 2019

A fourteenth century document by a civil servant asking for time off is finally identified as the only known handwriting by Geoffrey Chaucer, 2023

Lost Smarts (Cajun Joke) and Sunday Selections

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Just because Sandee of Comedy Plus is no longer hosting a Silly Sunday blog hop, do not expect me to quit telling Cajun jokes, especially as it has now become a habit.

Sweetie was fussing yesterday after i got home.

"I can't find my vitamin D bottle that I just bought!  Where is it?"

He searched, then searched more, then fussed, and found my bottle.

"If I brought yours in, I know I brought in mine, and I'm going to find it!"

A moment later i finished what i was doing, got up, picked up the bag where he keeps all of his vitamins, and said, here it is!

"Where'd you find it?" he asked.

You put it away where it should be, that's why you couldn't find it, i told him.

"How do you expect me to find something if it's put away where it belongs?" he asked.

Boudreaux be done fumin' 'roun' de house an' Tee done ax Clothile, "What fo' Père be so angry?"

An' Clothile say, "He cain't fin' him de cell phone."  An' Tee say, "Agin?"

An' Boudreaux say, "Don' you done be callin' it no smart phone, neither!"

An' Tee say, "Why not?"

An' Boudreaux say, "Mais, it don' be smart until I come in de house an' say, 'Phone, where you be?' an' it answer an' tell me itse'f!"

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Sunday Selections was started as a way for bloggers to use photos that might otherwise just languish in their files.  The rules have been relaxed, and it is now simply a showcase for your photos, new or old, good or bad, although nothing rude, please.  It was hosted by River, who still participates, and is now hosted by Elephant's Child.        

Sunsets here where we live are stupendous, and let's add a rainbow from yesterday.

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Today is:

Alexandra Rose Day -- anniversary of the tradition started by Queen Alexandra on this day in 1912, in which roses and rose emblems were sold in London and the UK, with the money going to smaller charities that are not usually in the national spotlight; also by tradition, the Lord Mayor of London bought the first rose

     Alexandra Rose Charities still exists, but uses other forms of fundraising and now supports healthy eating initiatives among lower income mothers and children

America's Kids Day -- founded to encourage parents to teach their children the value of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

Armed Forces Day -- Azerbaijan

Barcode/UPC Day -- the first scanner, at Marsh's Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, scanned its first item, a pack of Wrigley's gum at 8:01am this day in 1974

Beautician's Day -- on a couple of websites, while other list other days; if yours puts the "beauty" in beautician, remember her next time you go have your do tended to

Descendent's Day -- on the final Sunday of June each year, an encouragement for all the world's citizens to take an accounting of their activities during the prior year and how those will affect those who come after us

Feast of All Saints/Sunday of All Saints -- Orthodox Christian

Handing Back of Tiger-Get-By's Presents -- Fairy Calendar

Holiday for the Shemsu of Heru -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Independence Day -- Madagascar[Fetin'ny Fahaleovantena]; Somalia

International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking -- UN

International Day in Support of Victims of Torture -- UN

Log Cabin Day -- The Log Cabin Society, dedicated to preserving log cabins and the old-fashioned ways of life; many places that have historic log cabins plan big events the last Sunday in June to celebrate

Mother's Day -- Kenya

National Canoe Day -- Canada

National Chocolate Pudding Day

St. Pelayo's Day (Patron of abandoned people, torture victims; Castro Urdiales, Spain; Torreira, Portugal) 

Sunthorn Phu Day -- Thailand (celebration of the country's best-known Royal Poet)

Ziua Tricolorului -- Romania (Flag Day)

Birthdays Today:

Jennette McCurdy, 1992

Jason Schwartzman, 1980

Derek Jeter, 1974

Gretchen Wilson, 1973

Chris O'Donnell, 1970

Paul Thomas Anderson, 1970

Sean P. Hayes, 1970

Harriet Wheeler, 1963

Greg LeMond, 1961

Chris Isaak, 1956

Claudio Abbado, 1933

Eleanor Parker, 1922

Charlotte Zolotow, 1915

"Babe" Didrikson Zaharias, 1914

Colonel Tom Parker, 1909

Peter Lorre, 1904

Pearl S. Buck, 1892

Sir Robert Laird Borden, 1854

Lord Kelvin, 1824

Abner Doubleday, 1819

Arthur Middleton, 1742

Debuting/Premiering Today:

For Your Eyes Only(Film), 1981

"Absurd Person Singular"(Play), 1972

"A Hard Day's Night"(Album, US version, release), 1964

"The Valkyrie"(Opera, WWV 86B), 1870

Today in History:

Roman Emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire; General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by the troops on the battlefield, 363

The legendary Pied Piper leads 130 children out of Hamelin, German, 1284

Richard III is crowned king of England, 1483

Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima, 1541

W. K. Clarkson patents the first bicycle, 1819

The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States, 1870

The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity, 1909

The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco, 1945

William Shockley files the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor, 1948

The Berlin Airlift begins, 1948

The Saint Lawrence Seaway opens, opening North America's Great Lakes to ocean-going ships, 1959

The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, 1974

Indira Gandhi establishes emergency rule in India, 1975

The CN Tower, the world's tallest free-standing structure on land, is opened to general public, 1976*

Biologists J. Craig Venter and Francis S. Collins announced that their research groups had mapped the human genome, 2000

Wangdue Phodrang Dzong, the four thousand year old ridge-top monastery in Bhutan catches fire and is destroyed; no relics were lost in the fire because the monastery was under renovation, 2012

Following the military coup in Thailand, people are warned that anyone calling for protest on social media will be prosecuted for sedition, 2014

The city of Falluja is freed from Islamic State control after a month-long campaign by Iraqi forces, 2016

Iceland’s presidential election is won by history professor Guðni Jóhannesson, 2016

The Panama Canal's third set of locks opens for commercial traffic, doubling the Canal’s capacity, 2016

A polio outbreak is confirmed in New Guinea by the World Health Organization, 18 years after it was declared free of the disease, 2018

More than 5,000 smuggled turtles are discovered in luggage at the Kuala Lumpur Airport, Malaysia, bound for India, 2019

*It is still the tallest in the Western Hemisphere