First Day of School

"That was quite a first day!" Little Girl told me when i got home from work on her first day of school.

What happened? i asked.

"Well, first, they put me in the wrong math class.  It's okay, though, the same guy teaches both, and it turns out that every one of us need to be in the other class, so they are just going to make the one I'm into the other class."

That's odd that everyone ended up in the wrong class, i noted.

"Well, three of our four guidance counselors left, so almost everyone is in the wrong classes.  One senior was put in physical science, which he took in ninth grade, instead of physics.  Next week they will move everyone who requests a change, so you'll have to sign a change request so I can be in the other math."

Sounds good, i said.  And did they put you in the AP class?

"They put me in four AP classes!  All four of my core classes, history, English, math, and science are AP honors.  Then they gave me my last PE I have to take, and three classes I don't even need just to make it a full schedule.  If you sign for it, I can drop two of them, they won't make a difference for TOPS or college entrance, and I really don't need them.  The third one I do like, I can do more sewing and cooking and stuff, I enjoy that class.  But if I drop those two I don't need I'll have more time to study for the classes I do need."

Sounds good, i said again.

"And I really don't know if I'm going to like the new librarian," she continued.

What happened to Señor? i asked.

"Oh, he went to the new science and technology high school they just opened, and he's going to love it there.  The new guy, I don't know, he looks kind of greasy to me.  I don't know if I'm going to like him or not."

"Something really funny happened, too.  You remember Mr. Marshall?  Well, I saw him in the hall, or I thought I did, and later on I went over toward him, and it wasn't him, but it's a new teacher who looks almost exactly like him and who teaches the same classes!  I went to Ms. Tanya and asked her, 'Hey, what happened to Mr. Marshall?' and she said, 'Oh, he and his wife moved to Texas'!  But this new guy, he looks almost identical to Mr. Marshall, it is so weird!"

"Oh, and I think I'm really going to enjoy European history this year.  The teacher asked us what one event changed the course of European history more than any other, and I knew the answer, the Black Plague.  He also asked one none of us knew.

"Okay, he held up an envelope and said, 'There's a substance in this envelope that, back in 1450, was worth more than gold.  People traveled over land and sea to get it, and died to bring it back to Europe.  What was it?'  Do you think you know?"

It had to be tea or a spice of some sort, i said.

"It was black pepper!  This teacher really knows a lot of fun details and I think I'm going to love his class."

Sounds like an auspicious beginning to me, even with the one class mix up.

Today is:

Anjin Matsuri -- Ito City, Japan (commemorations William Adams (1564-1620), a naturalized British shipwright, called "Anjin Miura" in Japan, a great contributor to the early development of Japanese ship-building industry; through the 10th)

BaBa Day -- Taiwan (ba ba is Mandarin for both "father" and "8-8")

Bonza Bottler Day™

Bud Billiken Parade -- Chicago, IL, US (second largest parade in the US, as well as the oldest and largest African-American parade in the US, begun in 1929)

Cowes Week begins -- Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK (the largest, longest-running and most prestigious international sailing regatta in the world; through the 15th)

Crater Lake Rim Runs and Marathon -- Crater Lake National Park, OR, US (one of the toughest and most spectacular runs ever, around the deepest lake in the US)

Dalek Day -- on the birth anniversary of the creator of these Scifi baddies, Terry Nation

Elvis Week -- Memphis, TN, US (ten days of celebrating The King)

Ferry Fair Festival -- South Queensferry, Edinburgh, Scotland (centuries old fair, around the time of the Burry Man Parade, originally for farmers to find labour for harvest, now for fun; this year's big Ferry Fair Day is Aug. 15)

Festival for Venus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (sunset to sunset)

Finest Fairy Finals -- Fairy Calendar (Do only the finest fairies take finals? How do the others get a final grade? :D )

Fourteen Holy Helpers' Day (Patrons against diseases)

Happiness Happens Day -- sponsored by the Secret Society of Happy People, to encourage sharing happiness and discourage parade raining; on the anniversary of their founding in 1997 

International Hangover Day -- always the day after International Beer Day, which should tell you something, and sponsored by the same group that does International Beer Day, which should tell you something more!

Inter-State Fair and Rodeo -- Coffeyville, KS, US (rodeo, livestock shows, carnival, and more; through the 15th)

Kranti Diwas -- Mumbai (former Bombay), India (a/k/a Freedom Day or Quit India Day; anniversary of Gandhi's Quit India speech to the British authorities in 1942)

Namesday of the Queen -- Sweden (Queen Sylvia; an official Flag Day)

National Frozen Custard Day

National Garage Sale Day -- US (the goal, according to C. Daniel Rhodes, is to turn the nation into a giant shopping mall on the second Saturday of August each year)

Odie Day -- Garfield's pal Odie, who first appeared in the strip on this day in 1978

Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, and i love the stuff but can't grow plants to save my life, i'll leave the porch light on for you if you will bring me some!

St. Cyriacus' Day (Patron of the eyes; Altidona, Italy; against diabolical possession, eye disease, and temptations, especially temptations at the time of death)

St. Dominic's Day (Founder of the Dominican Order[Friars]; Patron of astronomers and astronomy, falsely accused people, scientists; Batanes-Babuyanes, Philippines; Bayombong, Philippines; Dominican Republic; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Santo Domingo Indian Pueblo; Valletta, Malta)

St. Mary MacKillop's Day (First native-born Australian saint; Patron of Australia; Wagga Wagga, Australia)

Streetscene -- Covington, VA, US (car show, open to all types of vehicles; come show off your ride!)

The Date To Create -- can't find anything on this one, just listed at a couple of sites, but go have fun creating something!

Wakulima ya Nane Nane -- Tanzania (Peasants' Day/Farmers' Day)

Watermelon Festival -- Rush Springs, OK, US (fun all day and free watermelon for all)

World Cat Day / International Cat Day -- begun in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and other animal rights groups 


Birthdays Today:

Roger Federer, 1981
Michael Urie, 1980
Drew Lachey, 1976
The Edge, 1961
Deborah Norville, 1958
Randy Shilts, 1951
Roberta Cooper Ramo, 1942
Keith Carradine, 1949
Connie Stevens, 1938
Dustin Hoffman, 1937
Mel Tillis, 1932
Esther Williams, 1923
Rory Calhoun, 1922
Dino De Laurentis, 1919
Russell Markert, 1899
Fredric March, 1897
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, 1896
Emiliano Zapata Salazar, 1879
Matthew Henson, 1866
Emperor Horikawa of Japan, 1079


Today in History:

The Romans destroy the Tower of Antonia, 70
Otto I (The Great) crowned German king, 936
Vijayanagara Empire is rebegun with the crowning of emperor Krishnadeva Raya, 1509
The cornerstone for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg observatory is laid on Hven, 1576
John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in search of the Northwest Passage, 1585
The first known ascent (indoors) of a hot-air ballon by Bartolomeu de Gusamao, 1709
Jacques Balmat and Dr Michel-Gabriel Paccard become the first to ascend Mont Blanc, 1786
Metal bullet cartridges are patented by Smith and Wesson, 1854
Mimeograph is patented by Thomas Edison, 1876
Wilbur Wright makes the brother's first public flight, at a racecourse in Le Mans, France, 1908
The millionth patent is filed in the United States Patent Office by Francis Holton for a tubeless vehicle tire, 1911
The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight, 1929
The United Nations Charter is signed by the United States, the 3rd nation to join, 1945
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is founded by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, 1967
Richard Nixon announces his resignation as President of the United States, effective the next day, 1974
The lights go on at Wrigley Field for the first time, making it the last staduim in the majors to host a night game (which was subsequently rained out!), 1988
Iraq occupies and annexes Kuwait, leading to the Gulf War to liberate Kuwait within a couple of weeks, 1990
Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor, 2000
Archeologist excavating the Templo Mayor, one of the Aztec's main temples in their capital city of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico city), make an unprecedented find - the skeleton of a young woman inside a burial, surrounded by piles of 1,789 human bones, 2012

Feline Friday: We has met the enemy!

Feline Friday is hosted by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude, and i'm going to believe it's because he likes cats.

Feline Friday is simple to join. All you have to do is..

1) post a picture, drawing, cartoon or video of a cat (They may be silly or cute)
2) go to Steve's page, linked above, then on the menu bar click on the Feline Friday tab to get the code
3) paste the code under your cat picture
4) add your name and link

That’s all there is to it! Be sure to check back every so often and visit all the Feline Friday bloggers. Also, please leave a nice comment on their blogs. Nasty comments will be deleted!

The kittens have decided that shoes are the enemy, and they are especially enamored with battling Little Girl's work shoes.

Being kittens, though, they are easily distracted:

We must defend the world from the evil shoe!

Oh, wait, what's that?

Um, where was I?

Oh, yeah!  Okay, back to business.

Today is:

Abbotsford International Airshow -- Abbotsford, BC, Canada ("Canada's National Air-show" and the leading air show in North America, attracting the world's top aeronautical performers; through Sunday)

Assyrian Martyrs Day -- various Assyrian communities

Battle of Boyaca Day -- Colombia

Boom Days -- Leadville, CO, US (celebrate the mining heritage of the Rockies with a parade and even a celebrity pack burro race; through Sunday)

Braham Pie Day -- Braham, MN, US (a home-made pie festival)

Capitolfest -- Capitol Theatre, Rome, NY, US (showing rare silent and early films; through Sunday)

Constitution Day -- Anguilla
 
Cranham Feast and Deer Roast -- Cranham, Gloucestershire, England (a three day traditional feast and fair that dates back to the 1700's; through Sunday)

Edinburgh Festival Fringe -- Edinburgh, Scotland (the largest art gathering in the world; through the 31st)

Edinburgh International Festival -- Edinburgh, Scotland (one of the world's most exciting venues for opera, dance, theater, classical music and the visual arts; through the 31st)

Ginza Holiday: Japanese Cultural Festival -- Midwest Buddhist Temple, Chicago, IL, US (experience the traditions of Japan, through Sunday)

Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival -- Grand Targhee Resort, Alta, WY, US (bluegrass music at its finest on a pristine mountainside in the Grand Teton Mountains; through Sunday)

Harvest Holiday -- Slavic Pagan Calendar (reaping ceases for a few hours in honor of Volos' beard; bread is eaten and offerings given to Mother Earth and Volos for a bountiful harvest)

Independence Day / National Day -- Cote d'Ivoire(1960)

International Beer Day -- Uniting The World Through Beer 

Kool-Aid Days -- Hastings, NE, US (3 days of celebrating in the town where Edwin Perkins invented Kool-Aid over 80 years ago)

Ma and Pa Kettle Days -- Kettle River, MN, US (fun on the Kettle River; through tomorrow)

Musikfest -- Bethlehem, PA, US (10 days, 15 stages, over 500 musical performances, so there is something here for everyone!)

National Lighthouse Day -- US (American Lighthouse Foundation)

National Raspberries in Cream Day

Onekama Days -- Onekama, MI, US (family fun, through Sunday)

Particularly Preposterous Packaging Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, and especially the kind no one can open without a machete, what's with that!

Professional Speaker's Day 

Purple Heart Day -- US (originally instituted this day in 1782 by George Washington)

Rainforest World Music Festival -- Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia (music in the jungle, featuring local and international artists performing wild music and dance in the mud and tropical rain; through Sunday)

Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo -- Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland (display of military color an pageantry; through the 29th)

Say "Cheese" Day -- begun by ecard companies looking for something to celebrate; in my family, we do not say "Cheese", we say "Chicken Lips!" Try it some time when walking past tourists who are trying to get a good photo, and watch them smile genuine smiles and come up with a good picture.

Sea Serpent Day -- no one knows why today, just enjoy

Sinjska Alka -- Sinj, Croatia (knight tournament in which the whole district takes pride in keeping the tradition by making and restoring all the equipment used, with accompanying festivals and fun at home, in church, and in public; through Sunday)

Smartest Leprechaun Eisteddfod -- Fairy Calendar

St. Albert of Trapani's Day (Patron of Carmelite schools; Messina, Italy; Trapani, Italy)

St. Cajetan's Day (Patron of job seekers and the unemployed)

Take Last Winter's Snowballs Out of the Freezer and Have a Fight Day -- in the northern hemisphere, it's certainly hot enough; southern hemisphere people, put some snowballs in the freezer now (if you have snow) to save for some boring day in the January heat

Tetonkaha Rendezvous -- Lake Benton, MN, US (come to the Hole in the Mountain County Park where they reenact the fur-trading atmosphere of the 1840s, complete with muzzle-loader contest, tomahawk and knife throwing, log sawing, and more; through Sunday)

Torneo dei Rioni (Tournament of the Districts) -- Oria, Italy (3 day reenactment of the tournament ordered by Frederick II in 1225; features jousting, processions, ceremonies, a Palio horse race, medieval fanfare, food and fun as the town's four districts battle it out for bragging rights)

Twins Day Festival -- Twinsburg, OH, US (no, you aren't seeing double, it's a celebration of multiples; through Sunday)


Birthdays Today:

Charlize Theron, 1975
Harold Parrineau, 1963
DeLane Matthews, 1961
David Duchovny, 1960
Alberto Salazar, 1957
John Glover, 1944
Garrison Keillor, 1942
B.J. Thomas, 1942
Abebe Bikila, 1932
"The Amazing" James Randi, 1928
Carl "Alfalfa" Switser, 1927
Stan Freberg, 1926
Ralph Johnson Bunche, 1903
Rudolf C. Ising, 1903
William Boyd McKechnie, 1886
Billie Burke, 1884
Mata Hari, 1876
Nathanael Greene, 1742


Today in History:

Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedon, following the death of Alexander the Great, BC322
Construction of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore begins in Florence, 1420
Coup again the Tianshun Emperor by the Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin, 1461
Francis Drake's fleet returns to Plymouth, 1573
The first documented performance of Macbeth, at the Great Hall at Hampton Court, 1606
Sieur de La Salle's brigantine Le Griffon becomes the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes, 1679
Cherokee Indians take Ft. Loudon, Tennessee, 1760
George Washington creates the Order of the Purple Heart, 1782
Simon Bolivar triumphs over the Spanish at the Battle of Boyaca, 1819
The long simmering tension between the Hatfields and the McCoys on the Kentucky/West Virginia border erupts into full scale violence on election day, 1882
The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York, 1927
IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I), 1944
Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America, 1947
Explorer 6 transmits the first TV photo of Earth from space, 1959
The "artistic crime of the century" occurs when Philippe Petit of France, after months of planning and smuggling in materials, makes an illegal tightrope walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, 1974
Viking 2 enters orbit around Mars, 1976
The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication, 1981
Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts, 1985
Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants breaks baseball great Hank Aaron's record by hitting his 756th home run, 2007

Six Sentence Story: Reservations

She heard the little girl crying in fear, and that's what got to her; although the grown-ups standing there screaming at each other was almost bad enough by itself, it was the crying that made her throw her reservations to the wind and step out to do something about the situation in spite of the danger.

She headed out and let them have it verbally, "Look at you two, your mothers would be ashamed of you, behaving this way, screaming at each other in public instead of talking things out calmly, and you are making your little girl cry, right at Christmas time!"

The shock of her outburst stopped them both cold and as they began to mutter apologies she turned to the little girl and asked, "Sweetheart, would you like to come in my apartment and have a snack while your mother and father talk about their issue calmly and solve it like adults?" and she led the child into her home to dry the tears and let her have some Christmas cookies with her own three children.

Many things changed after that incident; she had gained the respect of all the neighbors in that apartment complex, who never again let her get all of the way to the dumpster with her garbage or all of the way back from her car to her apartment with a grocery bag before one of them would grab whatever she was carrying and say, "Let me get that for you!"

Several months later, the father very quietly alluded to the incident by telling her, "I want you to know we're both still trying to behave, and not yell, we just talk, and things are getting better!"

Smiling, she told him "Good for you!" and thought to herself that it was amazing she had taken such a chance and instead of them turning on her and harming her, which in that rough neighborhood could have happened, they had taken her words to heart and were changing their marriage.

(Note:  this is based on a true story told to me by DiDreaming.)

Linking up with Uncharted Blog and Six Sentence Stories.

Today is:

Accession Day -- United Arab Emirates (accession of H.H. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan)

Best Elf Awards -- Fairy Calendar

Edmonton Folk Music Festival -- Gallagher Park, Edmonton, AB, Canada (folk music of all kinds and fun for the whole family; through Sunday)

Feast of Everything Green Except Money -- Hooray for veggies! You'll need them before you have that root beer float.

Festival at Sandpoint -- Lake Pend Oreille, Sandpoint, ID, US (internationally renowned summer concert series in a casual and relaxed atmosphere; through the 16th)

Festival of Nut and Ra; Chief Festival of Thoth -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Hiroshima Day

Hope Watermelon Festival -- Hope, AK, US (if you've never had Hope watermelons, you've missed the best!  Through Saturday)

Independence Day / National Day -- Bolivia; Jamaica

"Li'l" Margaret's Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival -- Leonardtown, MD, US (bluegrass music, crafts, old time tractors and cars, and home-cooked meals; bring a lawn chair!  through Saturday)

Mountain Dance and Folk Festival -- Asheville, NC, US (celebrating the cultural heritage of the southern Appalachian Mountains; through Saturday)

National Fresh Breath (Halitosis) Day -- shouldn't that be labeled anti-halitosis?

National Root Beer Float Day -- A&W Root Beer really gets into this day http://awrestaurants.com/rootbeerfloatday

Peace Festival -- Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima, Japan

Ribfest -- Kalamazoo, MI, US (live festival and cook off; through Saturday)

Sts. Justus and Pastor's Day (Patrons of Alcala, Spain; Madrid, Spain)

Tanabata Festival -- Sendai, Japan (Japan's largest Tanabata 'Star Festival', through the 8th)

Teinne Festival -- Ancient Celtic Calendar (Teinne, the Celtic Holy Fire, sometimes called Tan; date approximate)

Transfiguration of the Lord -- Orthodox Christian

Turku Music Festival -- Turku, Finland (music from medieval to modern, by world-famous artists in the historic venues of Finland's oldest city, in historic buildings all over the city; through the 15th)

Wiggle Your Toes Day -- internet generated, and my suggestion is to celebrate it with a cool drink out by the pool!


Birthdays Today:

Romola Garai, 1982
Melissa George, 1976
Soleil Moon Frye, 1976
M. Night Shyamalan, 1970
Michelle Yeoh, 1962
Catherine Hicks, 1951
Dorian Harewood, 1950
Shirley Ann Jackson, 1946
Peter Bonerz, 1938
Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob, 1934
Andy Warhol, 1928
Robert Mitchum, 1817
Lucille Ball, 1911
Clara Bow, 1905
Hoot Gibson, 1892
Alexander Fleming, 1881
Louella Parsons, 1881
Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, 1861
Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1809 
Daniel O'Connell, 1775


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Help"(Album debut), 1965


Today in History:

Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada founds the city of Bogota, Colombia, 1538
Holland (The Dutch Republic) sells Brazil to Portugal and the two 
countries sign the Treaty of The Hague, 1661
The first private military school in the US, Norwich University, is 
founded in Vermont, 1819
The Russian Geographical Society is founded in Saint Petersburg, 1845
William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by the electric chair, 1890
Alice Ramsey takes three friends (none of whom could drive) to become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip, 1909
Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel, 1926
Prometheus, a bristlecone pine and the world's oldest tree, is cut down by the US National Forest Service, for reasons even they cannot explain, 1964
The Federal Voting Rights Act is signed, 1965
A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters (13 inches) of rain in a day on Sydney, 1986
The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, 1990
NASA makes the still disputed announcement that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms, 1996
The incoming coalition government of the United Kingdom discontinues the use of the controversial ContactPoint database of all children in that country, 2010
After a century of silence, Mount Tongariro in New Zealand erupts, spreading volcanic ash across the country's central North Island and affecting airports, 2012
The Curiosity Rover, controlled by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, lands safely on the surface of Mars, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: How do you know?

The home to which DiDreaming has moved is owned by a very nice lady who is a Mormon.  How do you know you are living in a house that is owned by a Mormon?

You open the linen closets to put linens in there and instead find two years worth of food stored.

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday.

Today is:

Barsi Bhagat Puran Singh -- Sikhism

Bogota Carnival -- Bogota, Colombia (celebrating the city's Hispanic founding; through tomorrow)

Canadian Open Old Time Fiddle Championship -- Shelburne, ON, Canada (through Sunday)

Celtic Tree Month Coll (Hazel) commences

Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead Day -- uttered this day by Admiral Farragut at the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864

Festival Wednesday -- British Virgin Islands

Hanakasa Matsuri -- Yamagata City, Japan (10,000 costumed dancers perform; through the 7th)

Independence Day / Republic Day -- Burkina Faso (former Upper Volta)(1960)

International Beer Day

National Blackmail Day -- according to mostly ecard sites, with suggestions to send a card to the friend who has told you his/her secrets, with the notice that you plan on celebrating this date!

National Underwear Day -- sponsored by www.freshpair.com, which encourages people to rethink their underwear style, make sure they have the right fit, and which gives away free underwear 

National Waffle Day

Nuestra Senora de Africa -- CE, Spain (Day of Our Lady of Africa, also called Fiestas Patronales)

Oyster Day

Pixie of the Year Competition -- Fairy Calendar

Sacrifice to Salus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of health, associated with Greek Hygeia)

St. Afra of Augsburg's Day (Patron of converts, martyrs, penitent women; Augsburg, Germany)

St. Oswald of Northumbria's Day (Patron of Zug, Switzerland)

Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian defenders -- Croatia

Work Like a Dog Day -- different from work-a-holics, people who work like a dog work hard while they are at it, and rest when they aren't


Birthdays Today:

Jonathan Silverman, 1966
Patrick Aloysius Ewing, 1962
Maureen McCormick, 1956
Erika Slezak, 1946
Loni Anderson, 1946
Ja’net DuBois, 1938
John Saxon, 1936
Neil Armstrong, 1930
Sydney Omarr, 1926
Raoul Wallenberg, 1912
John Huston, 1906
Conrad Potter Aiken, 1889
Joseph Merrick, 1862
Guy de Maupassant, 1850
Thomas Lynch, Jr., 1749
John Eliot, 1604
Joseph Justus Scaliger, 1540


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Revolver"(Beatles Album, release date), 1966
"Eleanor Rigby" & "Yellow Submarine"(Beatles singles, A & B side respectively, release date), 1966
"American Bandstand"(TV, national premiere), 1957
"Andy Capp"(Comic strip), 1957
"Little Orphan Annie"(Comic strip), 1924


Today in History

The last outpost of Bar Kockba, Betar, falls to Rome, 135
Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Northumbria at the Battle of Maserfield, 642
King Edward and Earl Aetherlred, leading the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, defeat the last major Viking army to raid England at the Battle of Tettenhall, 910
Anti-Jewish riots in Arnstadt, Germany, 1264
Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes first English colony in North America, at what is now St John's, Newfoundland, 1583
The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America, 1620
New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he had published was true, 1735
US Army abolishes flogging, 1861
Standard Oil of New Jersey is established, 1882
The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor, 1884
Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in the first long distance automobile trip made in her husbands invention, the first patented automobile; her journey was to publicize the invention, and she garnered attention and sales, 1888
The first electric traffic light is installed, in Cleveland, Ohio, 1914
Debut of the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie", by Harold Gray, 1924
Debut of the comic strip "Andy Capp", by Smythe, 1957
Nelson Mandela is jailed, 1962*
The United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty, 1963
The city of Knin, a significant Serb stronghold, is captured by Croatian forces during Operation Storm, 1995
The Copiapo mining accident traps 33 Chilean miners about 2,300ft below the ground, 2010

*Released in 1990

Visiting

Yesterday, after cleaning for my Monday lady, Ms. S, i headed down to the Mobile, Alabama area to visit my good friend, DiDreaming.

DiDreaming is the friend who allows me to use power tools.

While i named my GPS "Minnie," because that's what our other friend Eagle named her Garmin and i thought it was a cute name, DiDreaming named hers "Dammit."  "Dammit, I'm not going that way!" she yells at it.

This is a trip i've been wanting to take since Easter break, and one thing and another have prevented it until now.

Her living situation has changed since the last time i visited.  She's in a nice house near woods and cows, renting a room.

The trip down was amazingly uneventful.  With the number of times we've taken the trip to or past Mobile from our area, i was shocked at the light traffic, how fast i got through the tunnel, and how i made such great time.  If all of our trips were this easy, i might not have so many gray hairs.

Well, no, i'd have them, because i get them from my kids, but it's nice to think about.

The family did try to make it harder.  On the way down, i got no fewer than 7 phone calls and 3 texts.

No, i did not read or answer the texts until i got off the interstate.  Dansig is ready for his next bottle of antibiotic, and Sweetie got his errands run, and etc.

And yes, one of the calls was not from family.  It seems i've won a $10 gift card from a local store's monthly raffle.  That's a call i didn't mind receiving.

Anyway, when i arrived we visited for a while, and then went out for Indian food (and to find wifi to post this, the one at their house was toasted by a storm), and today we are tackling making her room a bit tidier, since everything she owns is now in it, or in a small storage area in the back of the house.

It's going to be a good visit, and i'll go find wifi again today, but i probably won't be around much besides that.

Today is:

August Tuesday / Culturama -- St. Kitts and Nevis

Carnival Tuesday -- Antigua and Barbuda (Last Lap Jump Up)

Champagne Day -- internet generated holiday, probably created by someone who wanted an excuse to celebrate

Coast Guard Day -- US (anniversary of founding in 1790)

Constitution Day -- Cook Islands

Fairy Drying-Out Day -- Fairy Calendar (makes sense, as we washed them yesterday. Now it begs the question, how does one dry a fairy?)

Festival of the Dead; Sunset Ceremony -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival Tuesday -- British Virgin Islands

Fiestas de la Virgen Blanca -- Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Basque Country, Spain; through the 9th

Fiestas Patronales -- El Salvador (through the 6th)

Hot August Nights -- Reno, NV, US (celebrate cars and music of the 50's and 60's at the largest  classic car and nostalgia event in the United States; through Saturday)
 
Matica Slovenska Day -- Slovakia (main Slovak cultural institution, established 1863)

National Lasagna Day

National Night Out -- US (sponsored by National Association of Town Watch, to heighten crime and drug prevention awareness)

Nicole Robin Day -- St. John, USVI(unofficial celebration her safe return, with the crew, to the Virgin Islands after being held by Cubans.)

Single Working Women's Day

St. John Baptist Mary Vianney's Day (Cure of Ars; Patron of confessors, parish priests; Dubuque, Iowa; Kamloops, BC; Kansas City, KS; Saint Paul and Minneapolis, MN)

Vigil of St. Oswald -- Anglo-Saxon holy day, commemorates the day before King Oswald's death in 642

Zuni Corn Dance -- the Zuni Native Americans give thanks to Mother Earth, the Kokos (Nature Spirits), and the Corn Maidens for the maize harvest; through the 7th


Birthdays Today:

Cole and Dylan Sprouse, 1992
Daniel Dae Kim, 1968
Roger Clemens, 1962
Barack H. Obama, 1961
Billy Bob Thornton, 1955
Kristoffer Tabori, 1952
Richard Belzer, 1944
Maurice "Rocket" Richard, 1921
Helen Thomas, 1920
William Howard Schuman, 1910
Glenn Verniss Cunningham, 1909
Louis Armstrong, 1901*
Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, 1900
Louis Vuitton, 1821
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792


Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Saturday Evening Post(Magazine, first issue), 1821


Today in History

The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans, 70
A supernova is observed in constellation Cassiopeia, 1181
The first printing of Zohar (Jewish Kabbalah), 1558
A hurricane in the Carribean kills thousands in Guadeloupe, Martinique, and St. Christopher, 1666
Dom Perignon invents champagne (traditional date), 1693
First edition of the Saturday Evening Post, which was published until 1969, 1821
The family of Lizzie Borden is found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home, 1892
The Greenwich foot tunnel under the River Thames opens, 1902
The Supreme Court of Japan is established, 1947
The Billboard Hot 100 is founded, 1958
American civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21, 1964
The African republic Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso, 1984
Operation Storm begins in Croatia, 1995
Prime Minister Paul Martin announces that Michaëlle Jean will be Canada's 27th Governor General, 2005
California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed by the state's voters in 2008, is overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 2010
Britain has their greatest success in one day at an Olympics since 1908, winning six gold medals and a silver on Day Eight of the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012
South Africa's Oscar Pistorius becomes the first amputee to compete at the Olympic Games in the 400 meters, 2012
Actor Peter Capaldi, of Scotland, lands the role of the Doctor in the twelfth incarnation of the 'Doctor Who' British science fiction show, 2013


*In several interviews, Satchmo claimed to have been born on July 4, 1900. Historians always disputed that claim, saying it was too neat and tidy, and his baptismal records, found in a church basement, proved otherwise. Some biographies still give the July 4, 1900 date in error.