...with which to start the week.
There's an old joke that has three people discussing what they hope others will be saying about them at their funeral. The third, always the wise cracker of the joke, says he hopes people will say, "Look, he's moving!"
Well, in an interesting real life twist on the joke, a woman in Philadelphia named Sharolyn Jackson has turned up alive two weeks after her funeral. It seems the body was identified by pictures being shown to family members, and at the funeral even her mother said it looked exactly like Ms. Jackson, except for the nose. The family apparently thought something must have happened to her nose when she died or was embalmed.
Meanwhile, officials will have to exhume the body and try to figure out who she is. Let's hope they find out quickly, as it must be awful for that woman's family just not to know.
Around here, it's going to be a typical Monday, i hope. Since i can't eat today in preparation for tomorrow's check on the plumbing, i've stocked up on juices, will pull out my juicer so as to add a bit of fresh veggie juice to what i have. Also, i want to cook enough to last a couple of days for everyone else, and make my life easier after the test.
It's also a big laundry and ironing day, if the weather cooperates. Three loads at least. Plus feed the kittens, two of which are isolated for ringworm and two of which still don't have their eyes open.
How do i get myself into these things? Oh, yeah, by living. If it's not one thing, it's your mother; or the other, or something like that.
Also, Little Girl is wanting to paint my three-bladed stand fan in the three primary colors to see if it will make a rainbow when it spins. That ought to be an interesting experiment, to say the least. Maybe, if i'm woozy after the procedure, it will make everything seem even more surreal.
Today is:
Araw ng mga Bayahi -- Philippines (National Heroes' Day)
August / Summer Bank Holiday -- UK
Be Kind to Humankind Week: Motorist Consideration Monday
Birthday of Set -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)
Burning Man 2013 -- Black Rock Desert, NV, US (through Sept. 2; a radical way to celebrate the arts through desert survival and building a 50-foot statue to be burned)
First Thnork of the Year -- Fairy Calendar
Heroes Day -- Namibia
Ilmatar Day -- Finland (Water Mother, goddess of the heavens)
Liberation Day -- Hong Kong
Make Your Own Luck Day -- for those who refuse to sit around and wait for it
National Cherry Popsicle Day
National Day of Repentance -- Papua New Guinea
National Dog Day -- sponsored by the Animal Miracle Foundation
National Old-Time Country, Folk, and Bluegrass Music Festival -- LeMars, IA, US (largest and oldest festival devoted to rural music, arts, and crafts; through Sept. 1)
Ould Lammas Fair -- Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, Ireland (claims to be Ireland's oldest festival; through tomorrow)
St. Adrian of Nicodemia's Day (Patron of butchers, prison guards, soldiers; against plague)
Women's Equality Day -- US (commemorates Women's Suffrage)
Yoshida no Hi Matsuri -- Yoshida, Japan (fest to mark the end of Mt. Fuji climbing season; through tomorrow)
Birthdays Today:
Macaulay Culkin, 1980
Branford Marsalis, 1960
Ben Bradlee, 1921
Mother Teresa, 1910
Christopher Isherwood, 1904
Peggy Guggenheim, 1898
Albert "Bertie" von Saksen-Coburg-Gotha, husband of queen Victoria, 1819
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, 1743
Today in History:
Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pieta, 1498
The Pennsylvania Ministerium, the first Lutheran denomination in North America, is founded in Philidelphia, 1748
John Fitch is granted a US patent for his working steamboat, 1791
Charles Thurber patents a typewriter, 1843
The first news dispatch by telegraph is made, 1858
Major eruption of Krakatoa, 36,000 dead, 1883
19th Amendment to the US Constitution, granting women the vote, takes effect, 1920
The first Major League Baseball game is telecast, 1939
The USSR announces the first successful test of an ICBM, 1957
The Charter of the French Language is adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec, 1977
John Paul I is elected Pope, 1978
The agreement on how to divide the Czech Republic and Slovakia is signed, 1992
Russia unilaterally recognizes the independence of the former Georgian breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia, 2008
A few tidbits for a weird Wednesday:
In Springfield, Massachusetts, yesterday, two cows escaped from the trailer in which they were being transported when the latch broke. Traffic was slow, and they, of course, slowed it to a standstill. Luckily for the cows, the police, and everyone else, a man in traditional cowboy garb got out of one of the cars caught in the debacle, pulled out his lasso, and expertly roped the critters, getting them back into the trailer. Talk about being in the right place at the right time...
A Panama City Beach, Florida, man was so scared to tell his wife that he had spent some money, that he instead lied and told her he had been robbed. She insisted he file a police report, which he did, but now that he has admitted he made it up, he is charged for making the false report. I wonder if he would rather face the judge than his wife...
A Clendenin, West Virginia hunter found a huge egg in the woods that had local wildlife experts rather flummoxed. Turns out it was planted there by another hunter, who had gotten the egg from a nearby ostrich farm and set it out as a practical joke on his brother. The hunter who found it has given it to his wife, who emptied it, bleached it, and has it on her counter. Talk about a hunting trophy...
Enjoy tonight's Full Cold Moon, everyone!
Today is:
Feast of Shiva -- Hindu
Full Cold Moon
Independence Day, United Arab Emirates
International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
National Fritters Day
National Roof-Over-Your-Head Day
Pan American Health Day
Republic Day, Laos
Special Education Day
St. Bibiana's Day (patron against hangovers)
Sugarplum Festival
Walter Plinge Day, UK
Birthdays Today:
Monica Seles, 1973
Lucy Liu, 1968
Cathy Lee Crosby, 1948
Gianni Versace, 1946
Maria Callas, 1923
Randolph Hearst, 1915
Charles Ringling, 1863
Georges Seurat, 1859
Today in History:
The University of Leipzig opens, 1409
Napoleon defeats the Russians and Austrians at Austerlitz, 1805
The first Savings bank in the US opens, the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, 1816
US President James Monroe declares his "Monroe Doctrine", 1823
US President James K. Polk declares it is the "Manifest Destiny" of the US to expand into the West, 1845
Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the US, in NYC, 1867
Pu Yi (Hsuan-T'ung) became China's Last Emperor at age 2, 1908
Traditional societies have usually taken one of two views, according to anthropologists, of women.
In one view, the female is another mouth to feed, a drain on the family, and has to come with a dowry. If she doesn't have enough to bring with her because her family is poor, she might not even get married. Traces of this are still seen in China and India, where females are often undervalued, sons are considered to be better than daughters, and in some places, the number of female babies aborted or killed as soon as they are born is so high that the men can't find enough women to go around.
Then there is the bride price view. In this take, the woman's potential to bear children, thus increasing the family and its ability to work the land, is highly valued, and a man must pay a good price to get a good wife.
In modern Western society, you see traces of both systems, which is why the bride's family provides certain things for the wedding, and the groom's family is supposed to provide other amenities.
Well, there seems to be a new side to the story.
In India, where up until a decade or so ago, a man with several daughters was considered a poor man because of all the dowries he would have to provide, no matter how wealthy he actually was, a new awareness is dawning.
It seems that more brides are refusing to marry a man who cannot provide her with indoor plumbing.
A radio jingle there says it all: "No loo? No 'I do!' "
My college professor who taught Chinese history summed up Chinese history as, they kill off lots of the female babies, the men who can't find brides go off into the mountains and become bandits, eventually there are so many such unmarried men that they end up having some sort of revolution where these excess men get killed off, and the cycle repeats.
In India, the fact that the females are a bit more scarce is instead leading to a plumbing revolution. One that will raise the standard of living for the people as a whole.
Interesting news indeed.
Link to the full story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/11/AR2009101101934.html
Today is:
Army Day, Honduras
Babbling Day
Compact Day, Marshall Islands
Independence Day, Costa Rica
Lancing Tournament
National Day, Somalia
National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day
National Shut-In Day
National Youth Health Awareness Day
Overseas Chinese Day, Taiwan
St. John of Bridlington's Day (patron against complications in childbirth)
St. Ursula's Day (patron of teachers, schoolgirls, orphans, tailors, universities; against the plague)
Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce Day
Trafalgar Day
Birthdays Today:
Jeremy Miller, 1976
Carrie Fisher, 1956
Benjamin Netanyahu, 1949
Judge Judy Sheindlin, 1942
Celia Cruz, 1925
Joyce Randolph, 1925
Dizzy Gillespie, 1917
Alfred Nobel, 1833
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772
Today in History:
Constantinople emperor Constantine the Great rules laws against Jews, 335
Sultan Kilidj Arslan of Nicea defeats 1st Crusaders, 1096
Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg., 1512
Ferdinand Magellen arrives at Tierra Del Fuego (Pacific Ocean), 1520
Sea battle at Dunes, Lt Admiral Maarten Tromp defeats Spanish armada under De Oquendo, 1639
First display of the word "Liberty" on a flag, raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts and which was in defiance of British rule in Colonial America, 1774
US Navy frigate Constitution, Old Ironsides, launched in Boston, 1797
Battle of Trafalgar, Adm Nelson defeats French & Spanish fleet & dies, 1805
The Penang Free School is founded in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, by the Rev Hutchings. It is the oldest English-language school in Southeast Asia, 1816
Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement (Yorkshire England), 1824
Thomas Edison perfects carbonized cotton filament light bulb, 1879
First transatlantic radiotelephone message, Arlington, Va to Paris, 1915
