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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.
The time has come for another civic association meeting. Hooray.
We do not, thank heaven, live where there is a homeowner association. You know, where Mr. and Mrs. Barney Fife have nothing better to do that snoop in everyone else’s business, and have a bunch of rules they can enforce.
We do have a civic association that cannot enforce anything other than the actual rules passed by the parish council that apply to every neighborhood. No one having to approve our choice of paint color or fussing if our mailbox gets a dent in it is a nice thing.
The meeting itself is always at the Baptist church across the highway. It starts with a prayer from the pastor and the Pledge of Allegiance, and no one complains about either one.
As far as such meetings go, it is pretty standard stuff, but we all look forward to the door prizes at the end of the evening. Not that i ever win, but hope springs eternal.
And now, to top it off with some of the pictures Grandma sent. No, i don’t know who takes these, but they get passed on to her and she passes them to me, and they are too good to just keep to myself.
Have a great Tuesday, everyone!
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Today is:
Army Day -- Armenia
Data Privacy Day -- International
Festival of the Lenaia to Dionysus -- Ancient Greek Calendar, end January through early February
Jackhammer Day -- US (the pneumatic jackhammer was patented this day in 1894 by Charles Brady King of Detroit, MI)
National Blueberry Pancake Day
National Kazoo Day -- because anyone can play one!
National Speak Up and Succeed Day -- become one of those people who aren't afraid of public speaking, practice! originally sponsored by Polished Presentations International, but they no longer have a website, but i'm sure Toastmasters International can help
National Spieling Day -- internet generated, and whatever your area of expertise, spiel about it today
Rinkydinks Annual Snowball Fight -- Fairy Calendar
Runic Half-month Elhaz (elk) commences
St. Charlemagne's Day (Patron of the University of Paris)
St. Thomas Aquinas's Day (Patron of academics, apologists, book sellers, chastity, colleges, learning, pencil makers, philosophers, publishers, scholars, schools, students, theologians, universities; Aquino, Italy; Belcastro, Italy; Falerna, Italy; University of Vigo; all Catholic academies, schools, and universities; against lightning, storms)
Telephone Exchange Day -- US (the first telephone exchange was set up in New Haven, CT with 22 subscribers on this day in 1878)
Up-Helly-AA Day -- Lerwick, Shetland (the largest fire festival in Europe, with tomorrow as a day off so everyone can recover)
Anniversary Today:
Adoption of the Great Seal of the United States, 1782
Birthdays Today:
Elijah Wood, 1981
Nick Carter, 1980
Joey Fatone, Jr. 1977
Kathryn Morris, 1969
Sarah McLachlan, 1968
Harley Jane Kozak, 1957
Nicolas Sarkozy, 1955
Rick Warren, 1954
John Beck, 1943
Susan Howard, 1943
Alan Alda, 1936
Susan Sontag, 1933
Claes Oldenburg, 1929
Jackson Pollack, 1912
Robert Stroud, 1890 (The Birdman of Alcatraz)
Arthur Rubenstein, 1887
Auguste Piccard, 1884
Jean Felix Piccard, 1884
Colette, 1873
Jose' Marti, 1853
Henry Morton Stanley, 1841
Alexander Mackenzie, 1822
Peter the Great of Russia, 1775
St. Thomas Aquinas, 1225
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Fantasy Island"(TV), 1978
"Barnaby Jones"(TV), 1973
"Symphony No. 1/Jeremiah"(Bernstein), 1944
Today in History:
The Walk to Canossa: The excommunication of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor is lifted by Pope Gregory VIII, 1077
The first Crusaders begins siege of Hosn-el-Akrad Syria, 1099
Pope Alexander VI gives his son Cesare Borgia as hostage to Charles VIII of France, 1495
Edward VI, age nine, succeeds his father Henry VIII as king of England, 1547
By the Edict of Orleans, the persecution of French Huguenots is suspended, 1561
Articles of the Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning freedom of religion in Poland, 1573
Sir Thomas Warner found the first British colony in the Caribbean, on St. Kitts, 1624
The Russian Academy of Sciences was founded in St. Petersburg by Peter the Great, and implemented in the Senate decree (it was called St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until 1917), 1724
Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity, 1754
London's Pall Mall is the first street lit by gaslight, 1807
Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom, 1813
The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean on the Panama Railway, 1855
In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the world's largest snowflakes are reported, being 15 inches (38 cm) wide and 8 inches (20 cm) thick, 1887
Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent became the first person to be convicted of speeding in an automobile. He is fined 1 shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thus exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h), 1896
The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, D.C. with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie, 1902
An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard, 1915
The first Jewish US Supreme Court justice, Louis Brandeis, appointed by Wilson, 1916
A symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to honor the unknown dead of World War I, 1921
The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhary Rehmat Ali Khan and is accepted by the Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence, 1933
The Lego company patents the design of its Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today, 1958
The current design of the Flag of Canada is chosen by an act of Parliament, 1965
Tropical Storm Domoina makes landfall in southern Mozambique, eventually causing 214 deaths and some of the most severe flooding so far recorded in the region, 1984
Supergroup USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa) records the hit single We Are the World, to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief, 1985
Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart after liftoff killing all seven astronauts on board, 1986
Hundreds of thousands of protesters filled up the Egyptian's streets in demonstrations referred to as "Friday of Anger" against the Mubarak regime, 2011
DNA analysis confirms that the 6th C Plague of Justinian was caused by a variant of Yersinia pestis, which is the same bacteria for the Black Death, 2014
Seven survivors from the missing Kiribati ferry carrying 100 people are rescued after week at sea, 2018
A draft framework for a peace agreement to end the 17-year conflict in Afghanistan is agreed upon by US and Afghan negotiators, 2019
