Monday, May 13, 2024

Abby's Corner (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week and Poetry Monday

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Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus.


Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays.  Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it.


Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you.  What better way to start the week than with a smile!


While Abby, unlike Lulu, is not afraid of thunder, she still doesn't like rain and storms because it means she cannot go outside and perform her perimeter check.  She has a corner she goes into when she's pouting a bit about the rain.









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Sparks is the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, who wanted us to post something positive and uplifting at the start of the week.  While she no longer blogs, i like to post an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.     






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Our dear friend Diane is taking a break

accommodations we must make

we miss her poetry and wit

so carry on as Poetry Monday's a hit!


Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border Charlotte/Mother Owl and i are keeping it going while she takes a blog break, we hope temporarily.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let us know!


This week the theme is Event.  And please note, this is not intended as a political poem, it is a joke.                       



February's a short month

but it has two famous events.

One's Groundhog Day and the other,

a State of the Union by US Presidents.


One of them is a meaningless ritual,

I'll say it without tact,

we look to an unreliable mammal

to prognosticate with no basis in fact.


The other also involved prediction

that is supposed to be thorough,

by pulling a defenseless groundhog

right out of his winter burrow!



Future themes are:


May 13 event (Today!)

May 20 pizza

May 27 politics

June 3 egg

June 10 wild

June 17 bread

June 24 muse


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Today is:


Ancestors' Day -- Russian Christians; Belarus (Radunitsa, a Slavic tradition after Thomas Sunday)

     Day after the Octave of Easter by the Orthodox Calendar


Arlington National Cemetary Day -- US (the first serviceman to be interred here was Private William Henry Christman, on this date in 1964)


Bun Bung Fai (Rocket Festival) -- Yasothon, Thailand (through the 14th, teams compete to build the highest flier, with no regard for safety!)


Celtic Tree Month Huath (hawthorn) commences


Frog Jumping Day -- original date for celebrating Twain's short story


Garland Day -- Abbotsbury, Dorset, England


King Norodom Sihamoni's Birthday -- Cambodia


Lemuralia -- Ancient Roman Empire (third day)


Leprechaun Day -- spread around the internet, presumably by the little people themselves, as since St. Patrick gets a day, so should they!


National Apple Pie Day


National Fruit Cocktail Day


Pastele Blajinilor -- Moldova (Memory/Parent's Day)


Pilgrimage to Fatima -- Fatima, Portugal (procession, mass, and etc. to commemorate the first appearance of the Virgin of the Rosary to the three shepherd children on this day in 1917)


St Julian of Norwich's Day (Author of what is believed to be the first book written by a woman in the English language, Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love, around 1393)


St. Servatus' Day (3rd Ice Saint, Patron for success; against foot problems, lameness, leg problems, mice, rats, rheumatism, vermin)


Te Aso o te Tala Lei -- Tuvalu (Gospel Day)


Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show (through tomorrow)


Women's Check-up Day 2024 -- US (always the Monday after Mother's Day, encouraging women to be proactive about their health)   


Yom HaZikaron -- Israel (Memorial Day; ends at sunset)


Yom Ha'Atzmaut -- Israel (Independence Day; beings at sunset, through tomorrow sunset)




Birthday Today:


Debby Ryan, 1993

Robert Pattinson, 1986

Samantha Morton, 1977

Darius Rucker, 1968

Darius Rucker, 1966

Stephen Colbert, 1964

Julianne Phillips, 1962

Dennis Rodman, 1961

Frances Barber, 1957

Stevie Wonder, 1950

Bobby Valentine, 1950

Franklyn Ajaye, 1949

Tim Pigott-Smith, 1946

Mary Wells, 1943

Ritchie Valens, 1941

Harvey Keitel, 1939

Beatrice Arthur, 1923

Joe Louis, 1914

Arthur Sullivan, 1842

Maria Theresa, 1717



Debuting/Premiering Today;


Let It Be(Film), 1970

"Paint It Black"(Single release), 1966

"The Pajama Game"(Musical), 1954

Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Violoncello and Orchestra (Bloch concerto), 1917

"Apollo et Hyacinthus"(opera, Mozart K 38), 1767



Today in History:


The forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother, 1568

A major earthquake in Santiago, Chile, kills 1/3 of the population, 1643

Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England  with eleven ships full of convicts (First Fleet) to establish a penal colony in Australia, 1787

Ecuador  gains its independence from Gran Colombia, 1830

The first performance of Finland's national anthem, 1848

Queen Victoria declares Britain neutral in the US Civil War, 1861

The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, 1861

Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway, 1880

The Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) is established in the United Kingdom, 1912

Igor Sikorsky becomes the first man to pilot a four-engine aircraft, 1913

The first commercial FM radio station in the United States (WDRC-FM) is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut, 1939

Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons, 1940

The trade mark Velcro is registered, 1958

The Free Speech Movement is born at UC Berkeley, 1960

Dr. Zakir Hussain becomes the third President  of India and the first Muslim President of Indian Union, 1967

Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike, 1989

Johnny Carson makes his last television appearance on Late Show with David Letterman, 1994

A 33 years old British mother Alison Hargreaves, became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas, 1995

Star Trek: Enterprise broadcasts its final show in the U.S., 2005

Construction of the Calafat-Vidin Bridge between Romania and Bulgaria begins, 2007

In Belize, a construction company requiring road fill gravel destroys a 2,300 year-old Mayan pyramid, 2013

A 22 year old UK blogger halts the spread of a global ransomware cyber-attack by accidentally identifying its "kill switch", 2017

Undersea explorer Victor Vescovo makes the deepest dive ever to the bottom of the Mariana Trench at 10,927m (35,849ft), and finds plastic waste, 2019

The journal Nature Geoscience publishes a study showing the moon is shrinking because of moonquakes as it cools, 2019

The Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica calves the world's largest iceberg, named 'A-76,' at 1,667-square-miles (4,320 square km) , 2021

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Reasonable (Cajun Joke), Sunday Selections and Sunday Selfie

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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.


Later, Grandma and i had a nice visit yesterday and i told her she'd have a Mother's Day gift delivered.  I didn't tell her we are sneaking down there today to deliver it ourselves.


Aline done drove home from de college fo' Mother's Day.  Boudreaux done met her at de car an' say, "I be's glad you here.  I done got you Mère de flower, an' Tee done gots de chocolate, what you done got?"


An' Aline say, "I done brought de bottle o' wine."


An' Boudreaux say, "What make you t'ink o' dat?"


An' Aline say, "Mais, bein' de Mère fo' me an' Tee be de reason she drink, right?"



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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.       



Flowers (including a few playing with the macro setting on my phone camera), the kids next door wanted me to see their kiddie pool (it has a slide!), a sign i barely managed to snap stopped in traffic, the cookies Grandma is getting as part of her Mother's Day gift, and skies (including a reflection in my car window).































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This week, CueBall wants to join the Kitties Blue at The Cat On My Head for their Sunday Selfies Blog Hop.   


He says he couldn't help turning over his whole gravity water bowl and flooding his cube and the storage under it, there was an earthquake and he fell into it and it turned over as he scrambled to get out!








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Today is:


Day of Purification of All Things -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)


Fibromyalgia Awareness Day   


Hug Your Cat Day -- another date given on many sites, and here's some advice about how to do it safely    


Infant Mortality Awareness Day -- as so many of us celebrate mothers today, let's remember those who have lost children


International CFS/ME Awareness Day -- bringing awareness about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis     


International Nurses Day -- birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale


Limerick Day -- birth anniversary of Edward Lear


Mother Ocean Day -- celebrate the wonders of the ocean, wherever you happen to be; day originally proposed by the South Florida Kayak Fishing Club


Mother's Day -- Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Aruba; Australia; Austria; Bahamas; Bangladesh; Barbados; Belgium; Bermuda; Bonaire; Botswana; Brazil; Brunei; Canada; Cambodia; Chile; China(People's Republic of China); Colombia; Croatia; Cuba; Curaçao; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Dominica; Ecuador; Estonia; Ethiopia; Fiji; Finland; Germany; Ghana; Gold Coast; Greece; Grenada; Guyana; Honduras; Hong Kong; Iceland; India; Italy; Jamaica; Japan; Kurdistan; Latvia; Liberia; Liechtenstein; Macao; Malaysia; Malta; Myanmar; Netherlands; New Zealand; Pakistan; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Philippines; Puerto Rico; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Samoa; Singapore; Sint Maarten; Slovakia; South Africa; Sri Lanka; Suriname; Switzerland; Taiwan; Tanganyika; Tonga; Trinidad and Tobago; Turkey; Uganda; Ukraine; United States; Uruguay; Vietnam; Venezuela; Zambia; Zimbabwe                  


National Nutty Fudge Day


Odometer Day -- actually first called a "roadometer", it measured wagon wheel revolutions, as 360 of them made a mile, and was invented and first used this day by William Clayton, Orson Pratt, and Appleton Milo Harmon, Mormon pioneers traveling to Utah in 1847


Olde May Day (Julian Calendar)


Resistance and Liberation Day -- Lebanon


Rotuma Day -- Rotuma, Fiji


Saint Andrew, the First Called Day -- Georgia


Snellman Day/Day of Finnish Identity -- Finland


State Flag and State Emblem Day -- Belarus


St. Diomma of Kildimo's Day (Patron of Kildimo, County Limerick, Ireland)


St. Francis Patrizi's Day (Patron of reconciliations)


St. Pancras' Day (2nd Ice Saint; Patron of children, oaths, treaties; Albano, Italy; Iserlohn, Germany; Pontevico, Italy; Sestino, Italy; against cramps, false witness, headaches, and perjury)


Yom HaZiKaron -- Israel (Memorial Day)





Anniversaries Today:


Mick Jagger marries Bianca De Macias, 1971

Eddie Fisher marries Elizabeth Taylor, 1959 

Coronation of George VI of England, 1937

Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Bohemia, 1743

National University of San Marcos is founded in Lima, Peru (oldest in the Americas), 1551

Jagiellonian University is fouded in Krakow, Poland (oldest in Poland), 1364

Richard I (Lionheart) of England marries Berengaria of Navarre, 1191



Birthdays Today:


Emily VanCamp, 1986

Cheryl Burke, 1984

Jason Biggs, 1978

MacKenzie Astin, 1973

Christian Campbell, 1972

Jamie Luner, 1971

Kim Fields, 1969

Tony Hawk, 1968

Stephen Baldwin, 1966

Emilio Estevez, 1962

Ving Rhames, 1961

Kim Greist, 1958

Bruce Boxleitner, 1951

Gabriel Byrne, 1950

Lindsay Crouse, 1948

Steve Winwood, 1948

Millie Perkins, 1938

George Carlin, 1937

Tom Snyder, 1936

Frank Stella, 1936

Burt Bacharach, 1929

Yogi Berra, 1925

Mary Kay Ash, 1918

Katharine Hepburn, 1907

Florence Nightingale, 1820

Edward Lear, 1812



Debuting/Premiering Today:


"Lena Horne: The Lady And Her Music"(Musical revue), 1981

"Mary Had a Little Lamb"(Paul McCartney & Wings single release), 1972

"The Poisoned Kiss, or The Empress and the Necromancer"(Opera), 1936

The Symphony No. 1 in F minor(Shostakovich Op. 10), 1926

"L'elisir d'amore / The Elixir of Love"(Opera), 1832



Today in History:


Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the papacy, is consecrated in Rome, 1328

Rao Jodha, a Rajput chief of to the Rathore clan, founds Jodhpur, India, 1459

Philip Lenzi places the first ice cream advertisement, in the NY Gazette, 1777

Society of St Tammany is formed by Revolutionary War soldiers; it later becomes an infamous group of NYC political bosses, 1789

The Manitoba Act is given the Royal Assent, paving the way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15, 1870

US District Court Judge J. Dundy rules, in Standing Bear vs. George Crook, that Native Americans are persons within the meaning of the laws of the United States, 1879

Tunisia  becomes a French protectorate, 1881

In the North-West Rebellion, the four-day Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel Métis against the Canadian government, comes to an end with a decisive rebel defeat, 1885

Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh is found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey, 1932

Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin, 1941

A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada, 1958

West Germany and Israel establish diplomatic relations, 1965

The U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez seized by Cambodian forces in international waters, 1975

South Africa prisoner Nelson Mandela sees his wife for 1st time in 22 years, 1984

Amy Eilberg is ordained in New York as 1st woman Conservative rabbi, 1985

Fred Markham of the US becomes the first person to pedal a bike at 65mph unaided by wind, 1986

Ingrid Baeyens becomes the first Belgian woman to ascend Mount Everest, 1992

Russia and chechnya sign a peace agreement after 400 years of conflict, 1997

The Texas, US, legislature is brought to a standstill when 59 Democratic lawmakers go into hiding in a dispute with Republicans over redistricting, 2003

An 8.0 earthquake in southwest China kills more than 69,000 people, 2008

Queen Elizabeth II becomes the second-longest-reigning monarch in British history, 2011 

Pope Francis canonizes the 813 martyrs of Otranto as Saints, 2013

Brazil declares an end to the Zika national emergency as cases decrease, 2017

The first images of the supermassive blackhole Sagittarius A that lies at the heart of the Milky Way captured by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration are published, 2022