Gimme A Break

It has been a time of breaking. Sweetie has spilled his glass three times as he worked in his music room, and he got upset and lost his grip on the lid of the wooden trash can. The lid, very prettily painted, is now in two pieces.

Some days are just like that. He also had to come back in 5 times before he could leave for work. It started out as one of those days, and continued in fine form.

He also had some trouble at work, his phone didn't want to let him pick up any calls, and his favorite pair of khaki pants, well, the button fell off.

Twice he has almost kicked over the bowl of kitten formula in just the past fifteen minutes.

There are some days that just make you want a break. But not anything broken, thankyouverymuch.


Today is:

Chaos Never Dies Day (just look in my closets if you want proof)

Couch Beachcombing Day (Also called sofa diving, you will be amazed what you will find!)

Dia de los Natitas -- Bolivia (Day of the Skulls)

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Go To An Art Museum Today Day

Independence Day -- Cambodia

Inventor's Day -- Germany; Austria; Switzerland

Lord Mayor's Day -- London, England (traditional date)

Loy Krathong -- Thailand (Feast of Lights to appease the water spirits, dedicated to Mae Kongkha, Goddess of Rivers.)

National Kids Goal Setting Week -- through the 12th

National Scrapple Day

Night of Nicnevin (Gyre-Carling), Daughter of Frenzy, Banshee -- Scots Pagan

Schicksalstag -- Germany (Fateful Day)

St. Leo's Day

Tree Festival Day, Tunisia (equivalent to Arbor Day)

Wish-Granting Championship (Leprechaun) -- Fairy Calendar

World Freedom Day -- US



Birthdays Today:

Chris Hericho, 1970
Lou Ferrigno, 1951
Tom Fogerty, 1941
Mary Travers, 1936
Carl Sagan, 1934
Spiro Agnew, 1918
Hedy Lamarr, 1913
James William Fullbright, 1905
Ed Wynn, 1886


Today in History:

Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery, 694
The Family de' Medici were expelled from Florence, 1494
Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sight land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 1620
Hungarian parliament promises Protestants freedom of religion, 1681
The Rabbi Yehuda Hasid synagogue in Jerusalem is set afire by Arabs, 1720
Napoleon becomes dictator of France, 1799
The first US pharmacy college begins classes in Philadelphia, 1821
The NY Symphony Orchestra holds its first public performance, 1858
The first documented Canadian football game is held, at the University of Toronto, 1861
Ulyses Grant issues orders to bar Jews from serving under him, 1862
The Great Boston Fire destroys nearly 1,000 buildings, 1872
Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first US president to visit other countries during his tenure, visiting Puerto Rico and Panama, 1906
The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, the most destructive natural disaster ever to hit the lakes, destroys 19 ships and kills more than 250 people, 1913
Albert Einstein is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work with the photoelectric effect, 1921
Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours in the Northeast Blackout of 1965
First issue of Rolling Stone Magazine is published, 1967
Garry Kasparov 22, of the Soviet Union becomes the youngest World Chess Champion, 1985
The chemical element Darmstadtium is discovered, 1994
The Venus Express mission of the European Space Agency is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, 2005

I have created monsters.

The kittens that still have the runs, to keep them from dehydrating, have continued to eat from the bottle instead of being weaned to drink their formula from a bowl.

All of them eat solid food, and all of them drink water from the bowl. It is just the sick ones, that are also the smallest, and a couple of which were dehydrating to the point of needing subcue fluids, that still demand a bottle. Vociferously. Ferociously. Pushing each other out of the way, climbing my legs as I cringe in pain, needle like claws digging in, me yelling, "I am not a jungle gym!" to no avail.

Brat kittens. Sweet, cute, deceptive. Don't get me started about keeping them off the table. I have to keep the squirt bottle handy now, too.

Ah, well, those sweet little eyes, those plaintive voices -- I guess I will keep working with them. They are knuckleheads, and I am an old softy.


Today is:

Cooking Something Bold & Pungent Day

Dunce Day

Feast of the Four Crowned Martyrs (patrons of stonemasons, Freemasons)

Merchant Sailing Ship Preservation Day

National Parents as Teachers Day

National Harvey Wallbanger Day

St. Claude's Day (patron of sculptors)

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 Championship -- Fairy Calendar

World Urbanism Day


Anniversaries Today:

Opening of the Louvre, 1793
Mount Holyoke Seminary for Women is founded, 1837 (considered by many to be the first true college for women in the US)
Montana becomes 41st US State, 1889


Birthdays Today:

Masashi Kishimoto, 1974
Parker Posey, 1968
Leif Garrett, 1961
Mary Hart, 1951
Bonnie Raitt, 1949
Morley Safer, 1931
Patti Page, 1927
Esther Rolle, 1920
Margaret Mitchell, 1900
Milton Bradley, 1836


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 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

Bonfire Season

As noted yesterday, the cold has come, and #2 Son, the pyromaniac, considers it bonfire season.

He came running in yelling, "It exploded!"

Those are not words you want to hear from him. Trust me.

I asked what, and he said, "I think we have a problem!" Another set of words you do not want to hear from him. "We had a pack of sugar, like the kind they give you to put in your coffee, and we threw it in the fire, and it exploded!"

I explained to him that sugar is carbon based, a carbohydrate, and will burn. When thrown in a fire like that, it will all burn very rapidly, a mini explosion of sorts.

"Oh, so it's supposed to?! Cool! Can I take the sugar canister outside? I promise we won't use much! We just want to see what it looks like again from the roof."

On the roof? Is that what I have been hearing? I gave him the eye.

"Did I say roof? No, nobody's been on the roof." He tried to look innocent, that wide eyed honest and confused look that nails him every time.

Stay off the roof, I told him.

He did stay off the roof after that, but I forgot to say no to the sugar, and found my supply just a bit depleted later.

"Don't worry, mom," he said in the tone that makes me worry. "We stood back and used a spoon to fling the sugar in the fire. It was cool!"

It's going to be a long bonfire season.


Today is:

Day of Accord and Reconciliation -- Russia (formerly Great October Socialist Revolution Day, with the date determined by the Gregorian Calendar)

Feast of Blessed John Duns Scotus

Feast of Stolen Fire

International Tongue Twister Day

Magazine Day

National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day

National Day -- Northern Catalonia

National Notary Public Day

National Revolution and Solidarity Day -- Bangladesh

St. Florentius' Day

St. Willibrord's Day (patron of Holland; against epilepsy, convulsions)

Zero Tasking Day -- take the extra hour from ending Daylight Savings and do nothing, just relax and be


Birthdays Today:

Keith Lockhart, 1959
Joni Mitchell, 1943
Joan Sutherland, 1926
Al Hirt, 1922
Billy Graham, 1918
Dean Jagger, 1903
Leon Trotsky, 1879
Madame Curie, 1867
Captain James Cook, 1728


Today in History:

The oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, the Ensisheim Meteorite, strikes around noon in a wheat field near the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France, 1492
Pierre Gassendi observes the transit of Mercury as predicted by Kepler, 1631
Anne Htchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a heretic, 1637
The first edition of the "London Gazette", the oldest surviving journal, is published, 1665
Lewis and Clark first sight the Pacific Ocean, 1805
The first Thomas Nast cartoon depicting the Republican Party Elephant is published, 1874
Edward Bouchet becomes the first black to receive a PhD from a US college (Yale), 1876
Women in the U.S. state of Colorado are granted the right to vote, 1893
The first air freight shipment is undertaken by the Wright brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse (from Dayton, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio), 1910
Mao Tse Tung proclaims the "Chinese People's Republic", 1931
Fiorello H. La Guardia is elected the 99th mayor of New York City, 1933
Carl B. Stokes is elected as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American mayor of a major American city, 1967
Douglas Wilder wins the governor's seat in Virginia, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States, 1989
Mary Robinson becomes the first woman to be elected President of the Republic of Ireland, 1990
NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor, 1996

Which is Better?

"Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom!" Like the rapid fire staccato of a machine gun, #2 Son skidded to a stop next to me, calling for me with the intensity of a cat demanding its dinner. If you have ever had a cat, absolutely determined to be fed right this minute, you know how intense that really is.

"Look at this mom, look!" Looking down at me, he held aloft, for my inspection, one of his many sporting goods catalogs. He has never met a sporting goods catalog he didn't like.

"When I save up enough money, which one is better for me to get? A real wildebeest skin pelt, a genuine SWAT jacket, or a stuffed rattlesnake?"

What, I inquired, would you do with any of these things?

"Well," he answered, "the wildebeest skin would go on my bed. I've always wanted to wrap up in a real animal hide when I sleep. The SWAT jacket I could use when we play paintball and for when I ride around the neighborhood at night watching for trouble. You know Miss Dee asked me to keep an eye out because I know all the bad things that go down and can tell the Civic Association when someone is up to something. As for the stuffed rattlesnake," here his grin grew evil indeed, "I would use it to scare the piss out of dad!"

Well, at least he was being honest.

Who in the world wants, and who is crazy enough to produce, stuffed rattlesnakes? I asked.

"Oh, don't worry, they take out the venom sacs and put rubber inside the fangs, so even if there is dried venom in there, it won't hurt you if you scratch yourself on the fang. Besides, I know what to do if you get bit, and I know what to tell the ER people to mix for anti-venom."

Great, now he also thinks he is Marcus Welby, M.D., or maybe, for this generation, Dr. House.

Son, you save up, and then decide, I finally answered. After all, he spends it almost the minute he earns it, unless he gives me the money to keep for him, so it should take a little while.

Meanwhile, what he got paid most recently is going for marshmallows. The pyromaniac in him is out in full force, as the weather is good bonfire and roasting weather.


Today is:

Birth of Tiamat -- Ancient Babylonian Calendar (mother of gods, goddess of primeval chaos)

Constitution Day -- Dominican Republic; Tajikistan; Tatarstan

Green March -- Morocco

Gustavus Adolphus Day -- Sweden

Finnish Swedish Heritage Day -- Finland

Halfway Point of Autumn

International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict

Marooned Without A Compass Day

National Nachos Day

Peanut Butter Lovers' Day

Potting Shed Investitures (garden fairies) -- Fairy Calendar

Saxophone Day

St. Illtyd's Day (Abbot, cousin of King Arthur)

St. Leonard's Day (patron of prisoners, blacksmiths, porters, horses, locksmiths, coal miners, greengrocers; against robbery)

St. Paul of Constantinople's Day (Eastern)

Vira Nirvana -- Jain


Birthdays Today:

Pat Tillman, 1976
Rebecca Romijn, 1972
Ethan Hawke, 1970
Maria Shriver, 1955
Glenn Frey, 1948
Sally Field, 1946
Mike Nichols, 1931
Walter Perry Johnson, 1887
James Naismith, 1861
Ignace Paderewski, 1860
John Philip Sousa, 1854
Adolphe Sax, 1814 (yes, the musician who invented the Saxophone)


Today in History:

Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca becomes the first known European to set foot in Texas, 1528
Spain grants independence to the Dominican Republic, 1844
Scenes of Clerical Life, the first work of fiction by the author later known as George Eliot, is submitted for publication, 1856
Canada celebrates its first official, national Thanksgiving Day, 1879
Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa, 1913
Colonel Jacob Schick patents the first electric razor, 1928
Edwin Armstrong presents his paper "A Method of Reducing Disturbances in Radio Signaling by a System of Frequency Modulation" to the New York section of the Institute of Radio Engineers (hello, FM radio!), 1935
Parker Brothers acquires the forerunner patents for MONOPOLY from Elizabeth Magie, 1935
Plutonium is first produced at the Hanford Atomic Facility, 1944
The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation, 1962
Cuba and the United States formally agree to begin an airlift for Cubans who want to go to the United States, 1965
Green March begins: 300,000 unarmed Moroccans converge on the southern city of Tarfaya and wait for a signal from King Hassan II of Morocco to cross into Western Sahara, 1975
Australians vote to keep the Head of the Commonwealth as their head of state in the Australian republic referendum, 1999

The Back Stories

We got to the shelter, and Miss Kay was there. I got a couple of back stories and some info about the caretaker job. (That's our title, shelter caretakers.)

First, she was there to pick up Cali. Cali and Sebastian were brought to us when their owner's two-year-old son got cancer and the whole family had to move to be near St. Jude's Hospital. We knew from the beginning, even though Sebastian was sweet and loving and playful for being an elderly cat, that he was ill. There was a question about whether to even treat or not. The verdict is in, Cali will be kept in a foster home until she can be adopted, and Sebastian is receiving palliative care in another foster home. It seems several people shared my Bigger Girl's love for him, and fought for the right to take of him. He cannot get well, but will receive comfort care until he is either no longer comfortable, or simply crosses that bridge by himself. The fluid in his lungs and other problems cannot be fully cured.

Then, the rest of the story on Ms. Baby. It seems she was a nice, normal, not ready to take the skin off anyone who came near her cat when she was adopted from us a few years ago. The adopter noticed her personality changing over a year ago, and never once took her to the vet! They let her get worse and worse, for "no reason" in their words, and when they got to where they couldn't even go near her they insisted we take her back, as per the adoption agreement.

So, the original plan was to try to tame her down until we could get her to the vet. It isn't happening. She will come out, walk around among people sometimes, seem okay, but if you try to touch her you could lose a hand. She is living in the kitchen/store room because there is no way to clean a cage if she is confined to it. The new plan is to put her food in one of the humane traps we use to catch ferals for trap/neuter/release, catch her, and get her to the vet. Although she eats and uses the litter box, we know something is going on, she might even be diabetic for all we know -- she is very big, after all. There has to be a reason she has become this way, cat's personalities don't become like this for no reason.

There was a note, and a huge ream of paperwork, on one of the rooms, and that led to another back story, about Dora, and her identical triplet brothers Heathcliff, Peepers, and Squirt. The boys seriously look so much alike someone put their initials in their ears with a pen so we can tell the difference! They were a bottle feed group back after Hurricane Katrina, and the feeder who raised them decided she couldn't let them go and adopted all 4 together.

Well, now she is pregnant with her first baby, and she has other cats, and can't take care of so many, and.... Ridiculous. When you adopt, you adopt for life, unless your own life is at stake. Yet here we are. It would be like taking one of the cats we bottle raised and adopted, who has never been out of our house or lived anywhere else, Little Girlie or Badlands Blackie or Hope, and just sticking that poor animal in a shelter, although a nice one. The typical result, except for Dora, who is like her namesake and is outgoing and friendly and finishes her portion each day, they are not eating much.

It is because of the concern over their eating that we now have a ream of paper to deal with. We have to note if any of the food bowls seem to have been nibbled, and how much, and which bowl, and each cat has two bowls, one with dry and one with canned. We set out 4 bowls of dry food and 4 of Science Diet A/D (a/k/a kitten crack, if you wean a kitten onto it, you will never get it off), noting if any of the canned A/D has been eaten either. Because Peepers and Squirt will not get down off the top shelves of their room, their food has to be put up there.

Nacho, well, he has been moved to the big room with Grady, Clint, Ginny, and Prissy, and boy does he love it! It turns out the smaller colony room, well, he was bouncing off the walls, and thus scratching his neck into oblivion in frustration. He now seems to be healing, and him being in there seems to have mellowed Grady. He didn't even try to escape once! Clint was easily found, and Ginny and Prissy hissed at each other, but separated to their own favorite food bowl location as soon as there was anything available.

Frieda is doing okay, but Iggy seems to have dandruff! Zoe has gotten as huge as a moose, and T-Boy has become Ms. Baby's best friend forever. We leave his cage open so he can come in to eat and use the box, and the rest of the time he spends with her.

Lulu is done with her medication after the dose I gave her, and Cherry, Corrie, JuJu, Muffin, Tiffany, Roxanne, Sofia, Allie, Rallie, and Francie are doing well.

Gidget is back in a cage until a room opens up, as she was overwhelmed with her former roomies. She needs calm friends.

Dustie is doing great, but poor Angel has bleeding sores on her paw pads. They are being treated, and we think it is the stuff we clean with. Thus their room is to be cleaned with water only by the caretakers, and will be both cleaned and double rinsed during deep cleaning on Saturdays.

Which brings me to what I found out about the caretaker job. We were taught to do seven things in each room: feed, water, scoop the box, wipe down lower shelves with trifectant, sweep the area around the box or the whole room if it is very messy, clean anything else that needs it, and interact with the cats. Turns out, we are the only ones that consistently do it all.

I noted to Miss Kay that we needed to put a note on the door of Angel and Dustie's room so the others wouldn't use trifectant to clean in there, but would use only water. She said not to bother, the others usually don't clean shelves, and half the time don't sweep, either. Well. It explains why sometimes the footprints on the shelves look pretty thick.

So, those are the back stories from the cat shelter this week.


Today is:

Burning of the Tar Barrels -- Ottery St. Mary, Devon, UK (17 barrels soaked in tar are lit outside 17 taverns and carried through the town

Diwali -- Hindu, Jain, Sikh

Egyptian Day -- Medieval Europe day of bad forturne (common saying on this day was, "Notwithstanding, I will trust the Lord.")

Guy Fawkes' Day -- Canadian province of Newfoundland & Labrador; New Zealand; UK a/k/a Gunpowder Day, bonfires celebrate that Guy Fawkes plot did not succeed

Lewes Bonfire Night -- Lewes, East Sussex, UK

National Doughnut Day

National Men Make Dinner Day

Nones of November -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Popes Day -- US name for the remembrance of Guy Fawkes' Day

St. Elizabeth's Day and St. Zechariah's Day -- parents of John the Baptist (Elizabeth is patron of pregnant women)

Turning the Devil's Stone -- Shebbear, Devon, UK (erratic stone, possibly from an Ice Age deposit, turned every year on this day to assure good forturne)

Wuwuchim Fire Ceremonies begin -- Hopi Native American (celebration of Masaw, god of death, and Spider Woman, the earth mother)


Birthdays Today:

Judy Reyes, 1967
Tatum O'Neal, 1963
Tilda Swinton, 1960
Bryan Adams, 1959
Peter Noone, 1947
Sam Shepard, 1943
Art Garfunkel, 1941
Elke Sommer, 1940
Ike Turner, 1931
Vivien Leigh, 1913
Roy Rogers, 1911
Joel McCrea, 1905
Strom Thurmond, 1902


Today in History:

Wu MeKuan, a collection of 48 Zen koans, compiled in China, 1228
Publication of the Catholicon in Treguier (Brittany); it is the first Breton dictionary as well as the first French dictionary, 1499
St. Felix's Flood ravages the Dutch coast and destroys the city of Reimerswaal in the Netherlands, 1530
The Gunpowder Plot, in which Catholics were trying to blow up the English Parliament, is foiled, 1605
Susan B. Anthony is arrested for trying to vote in Rochester, NY, 1871
The first US patent for a gasoline driven motor car is granted to George B. Selden, 1895
Calbraith Rodgers arrives in Pasadena from Sheepshead Bay, NY, completing the first transcontinental plane flight, in 49 days, 1911
Colombia joins the United Nations, 1945
USS Rentz, USS Reeves and USS Oldendorf visit Qingdao (Tsing Tao) China — the first US Naval visit to China since 1949, 1986
André Dallaire attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Jean Chrétien of Canada, but is thwarted when the Prime Minister's wife locks the door, 1995
Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar are sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial, 2006
China's first lunar satellite, Chang'e 1 goes into orbit around the Moon, 2007

Common sense is the collection of prejudices aquired by age eighteen. ~ Albert Einstein

Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius. ~ George Bernard Shaw

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

That last one, I know a prime example. My brother-in-law, The Mouth. Master's degree, no common sense.

Enjoy use your common sense day. If you run into people without any, offer up a prayer of thanks that you do.

Today is:

Flag Day -- Panama

Giomo dell'Unita Nazionale e Festa delle Forze Armate -- Italy (National Unity and Armed Forces Day)

Guy Fawkes Carnival -- Bridgwater, Somerset, UK

Guy Fawkes Eve (sometimes called Mischief Night in some parts of Australia, UK, New Zealand, although that is more appropriate to April 30/October 30

Ludi Plebeii -- Ancient Roman Calendar (public games, through the 17th)

National Candy Day

Suez Day

St. Americus' Day (patron of America)

St. Charles Borromeo's Day

Thanksgiving Day -- Liberia

Unity Day -- Russia

Use Your Common Sense Day

Will Roger's Day

Waiting for the Barbarians Day (I thought they came and took over a long time ago!)

Yitzhak Rabin Memorial (unofficial, but widely commemorated)


Anniversaries Today:

Taking of the US Embassy in Teheran, Iran -- 1979
Discovery of King Tut's Tomb -- 1922
Abraham Lincoln weds Mary Todd, 1842
Mary II of England marries William, Prince of Orange, 1677 (ruled jointly as Willaim and Mary)


Birthdays Today:

Sean "Diddy" Combs, 1970
Matthew McConaughey, 1969
Ralph Macchio, 1962
Jeff Probst, 1962
Kathy Griffin, 1960
Markie Post, 1950
Laura W. Bush, 1946
Loretta Swit, 1937
Doris Roberts, 1930
Martin Balsam, 1919
Art Carney, 1918
Walter Cronkite, 1916
Will Rogers, 1879
Augustus Montague Toplady, 1740 (wrote the hymn "Rock of Ages")


Today in History:

The Flood of the Arno River causes massive damage in Florence, Italy, 1333
Joan of Arc liberates Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier, 1429
Thomas Wolsey, English cardinal, arrested, 1529
Mozart's Symphony No. 36 is performed for the first time in Linz, Austria, 1783
The Erie Canal is completed with Governor DeWitt Clinton performing the Wedding of The Waters ceremony in New York Harbour, 1825
Benjamin Palmer patents an artificial leg, 1846
Dentist John Beers of San Francisco patents the gold crown, 1873
Tonga adopts a constitution, 1875
James Ritty patents the cash register, to combat the pilfering of the till by the bartenders in his Ohio saloon, 1879
London's first deep-level tube railway opens between King William Street and Stockwell, 1890
The Italian unknown soldier is buried in the Altare della Patria (Fatherland Altar) in Rome, 1921
Nellie Tayloe Ross is elected the first female US State governor, in Wyoming, 1924
The rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio, 1955
Two-thirds of Florence, Italy is submerged as the River Arno floods; together with the contemporaneous flood of the Po River in northern Italy, this leads to 113 deaths, 30,000 made homeless, and the destruction of numerous Renaissance artworks and books, 1966
Genie, a 13-year-old feral child is found in Los Angeles, California having been locked in her bedroom for most of her life, 1970
The Netherlands experiences the first Car Free Sunday caused by the oil crisis, as the highways are deserted and are used only by cyclists and roller skaters, 1973
First conference that focuses exclusively on the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web, in San Francisco, 1994

Can You Please Take It In Order?

As I approached the checkout, I saw that it was Miss B. She is elderly, and very slow. Sweet as can be, but moves slow as molasses in January. I let the nice man with only two items ahead of me, thinking that way I would have time to unload my stuff in the order in which I want it bagged.

Yes, I am one of those annoying people who brings her own bags. And yes, I also want stuff bagged in certain order, so the cans don't crush the boxes, among other things.

I miss the self checkout. I could do it the way I like it. They were having too much trouble with people using them to steal, though, so they removed them.

So I put everything up there to be checked out in such a way that it will get loaded into bags in order. Inevitably, the checker reaches around what I have in front, and grabs other stuff! Why?

I scramble for another bag, asking her to please put the boxes with the other lighter stuff, and not to put the cans in there. We end up getting in each other's way. Why, I think to myself again.

Then there are the times I'm trying to unload stuff onto the conveyor belt, and the checker keeps grabbing stuff from behind, letting the one item at the front prevent the belt from moving up and giving me more room. Another thing I just don't understand.

Yes, this is my third day in a row to rant about something. Sorry. This one I just had to get out.

I will try to have something more fun tomorrow, but if you want to rant about something that bugs you in the comments, feel free. I will commiserate.


Today is:

Cliche Day

Give Someone A Dollar Today Day

Housewife's Day

Independence Day -- Dominica; Micronesia; Panama

Look for Circles Day

Meiji Setsu (Culture Day) -- Japan

National Sandwich Day

St. Hubert's Day (patron of hunters, mathematicians, foresters, furriers, makers of precision Instruments, Belgium; against dog bites, rabies)

St. Martin de Porres' Day (patron of hairdressers, persons of mixed race, public-health workers, race relations, TV in Peru)

St. Pirminius' Day (patron against snakebites. poisoning)

St. Winifred's Day


Birthdays Today:

Gemma Ward, 1987
Dolph Lundgren, 1959
Adam Ant, 1954
Kate Capshaw, 1953
Dennis Miller, 1953
Roseanne, 1952
Ken Berry, 1933
Michael Dukakis, 1933
Charles Bronson, 1921
Thomas Kyd, 1558


Today in History:

Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Muslim caliph, is killed by a Persian slave in Medina, 644
Charles VI expells all Jews from France, 1394
The English parliament accepts the Act of Supremacy, declaring Henry VIII to be the leader of the Church of England, 1534
Great Patent is granted to Plymouth Colony, 1620
A great panic occurs in Europe over the close approach of a comet, 1679
Spain acquires Louisiana, 1762
The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, opens in Montreal, Quebec, 1817
The Times of India, the world's most widely circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper, is founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce, 1838
"Black Bart the Poet", stagecoach robber, commits his last robbery, leaving behind a clue that leads to his capture, 1883
J.H. Hunter patents a portable weighing scale, 1896
Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market, 1911
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika, 1957