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Carol H Tucker
Passionate about knowledge management and organizational development, expert in loan servicing, virtual world denizen and community facilitator, and a DISNEY fan
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beladona Memorial
Be warned:in this very rich environment where you can immerse yourself so completely, your emotions will become engaged -- and not everyone is cognizant of that. Among the many excellent features of SL, there is no auto-return on hearts, so be wary of where your's wanders...
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finally getting somewhat into the spirit
Acheivement unlocked: alll packages wrapped! How about you?
This day of the Advent season is like a hurdle I must get over, especially getting past 1:30PM for that is the time I got the phone call that changed my life. I was sitting in my direct report's office when the receptionist paged me. Asking her permission, I picked up her phone and dialed in and was told a policeman was trying to reach me. I took the call, found out Frank had been taken to the hospital and was given a number to call the doctor. My direct report ran to tell my boss that something was wrong and he arrived as I was dialing the hospital. That poor, harassed doctor tried very hard not to break the news to me on the phone that day, but I was too persistent and she couldn't answer my very logical questions and when I said to her half in jest "Doctor, are you trying not to tell me that my husband is dead?!".... well she had no choice but to answer that question. Thirteen years, three jobs and two apartments ago -- and I can still see that moment etched in my minds eye, the ice-cold flood of shock, looking at my boss as his eyebrows flew up as I quietly said "he's dead?" and she kept on talking about what happened and apologizing for blurting it out like that.... and then it is all a blur. I only remember vignettes of what happned afterwards, leaving work and driving to the hospital, calling the kids, arranging the funeral, the funeral home [how surprised the staff was that I wanted them to play Christmas carols -- but Frank so loved Christmas music], how I got through the holidays [and how grateful I was that we hadn't put up the tree yet], the next few weeks just all blur together.
Oh, I get ready for the holidays. I do my shopping. I play Christmas carols. I go to office parties. I make plans. I take vacation. I travel. I even decorate and wrap. But I cannot say that I am in the Christmas spirit, I cannot move on, until I can get past that memory.
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for tomorrow is promised to no one....
Today is the 6th day of the 50th week, the 15th day of the 12th month, the 349th day of 2017 [you only have nine shopping days left], and:
- Bill of Rights Day -- the United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly on this day in 1791
- Cat Herders Day
- Free Shipping Day
- International Tea Day
- National Cupcake Day
- National Lemon Cupcake Day
- National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day
- National Wear Your Pearls Day
- Underdog Day
On this day in...
1891 - James Naismith, from Almonte, Ontario devises The Rules of Basketball, inspired by a childhood game called Duck-on-a-Rock. He had been asked by staff of the YMCA's Springfield Training College to devise a good indoor phys-ed activity to keep a group of incorrigible students busy during the winter months. A week later, on December 21, 1891, Naismith's students will play the First organized basketball game in Springfield, Massachusetts
1895 – Houston received 20 inches (51 cm) snow, its largest snowfall from one storm on record.
1939 – Gone with the Wind (highest inflation adjusted grossing film) receives its premiere at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
1965 – Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7.
1966 - Walt Disney died at age 65.
1970 – Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully lands on Venus. It is the first successful soft landing on another planet
1973 – The American Psychiatric Association votes 13–0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders
1979 - Photo editor Chris Haney and sportswriter Scott Abbott devise the Trivial Pursuit board game, with a current events theme; form investor group with Haney's brother John and friend Ed Werner, and 30 others, including a copyboy from their newspaper; raised $40,000, rented an office and paid some of their help with shares; First 1,100 sets cost $75 each to manufacture; sold to retailers for $15 a game; took off at 1983 New York Toy Fair when distributed by US game company Selchow and Righter; now in 19 different languages
2000 – The third reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down.
2001 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 spent to stabilize it, without fixing its famous lean.
Sounds like good advice, neh? Endorsed by Steve Jobs who commented “If you live each day as it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right” , Ray Charles who quipped “Live each day like it's your last, 'cause one day you gonna be right”, and by various life coaches who point out the need to make every day count, it was refreshing to me when I found that not everyone thought it was a great idea. For one thing? Like so many things, awareness of your mortality needs to be taken in moderation, not a pathological and pathetic fear of dying. For another? You don’t want to sacrifice long-term planning for instant gratification, especially not when it comes to financial planning. Gloomy thoughts for only 10 days from Christmas, neh? I usually am pretty moody on this day, or at least I have been since 2005. You see, today in 2004 was Frank’s last day on Earth. I don’t remember anything remarkable about this day – not what we did or didn’t do, not what either of us were wearing, whether or not he was at the mall that day, not how the day ended. There was no consciousness or premonition that we were doing things for the very last time, that there would never be another Wednesday for us together. What would we have done differently if we had known? The list, I suppose, is almost endless but mostly involves touching people, saying good-bye and telling them how much they meant….
When you come right down to it, you really cannot live every day on the edge of forever, now can you? The mundane, everyday, trivial things may not seem that important or be what you remember, but they have to be tended to or life itself stops. We cannot be mindful and present 24/7, or at least I cannot and I rather suspect that anyone’s brain, soul and spirit would simply burn out under such unremitting pressure. We can, however, be more mindful of the present, letting go of the past and not wishing our lives away for the future. My one solid takeaway from what happened with Frank is that I need to always make a point of saying good-bye and telling my family that I love them, even when I am in a hurry or the kids are fractious, because that Thursday morning was one of the few times that I did not say that to Frank, and I never had the chance to say it again, and that regret still brings the tears stinging to my eyes after all this time.
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Today is the 5th day of the 50th week, the 14th day of the 12th month, the 348th day of 2017, and:
- Monkey Day -- created and popularized by artists Casey Sorrow and Eric Millikin beginning in 2000 to spread awareness for monkeys and "all things simian," including other non-human primates such as apes, tarsiers, and lemurs, and to show love and care for them
- National Bouillabaisse Day
- Roast Chestnuts Day
- Yoga Day
On this day....
1701 - The revenge of the forty-seven rōnin, also known as the Akō incident (赤穂事件Akō jiken) or Akō vendetta, in which a band of rōnin (leaderless samurai) avenged the death of their master. The Sengakuji Temple holds a festival commemorating the event each year
1782 – The Montgolfier brothers first test fly an unmanned hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2 km (1.2 mi).
1902 – The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu.
1911 - Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the geographic South Pole.
1958 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility [the point on the Antarctic continent most distant from the Southern Ocean and is far more remote and difficult to reach than the geographic South Pole].
1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
1972 – Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.
2004 – The Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is formally inaugurated near Millau, France.
Writing prompt of the day:
348. Night Owl: Write about staying up late at night.
I have never been a morning person -- in fact I have always considered myself to be one of the Jellicle Cats of rhyme and song – but a lifetime of having to get up early in the morning to go to school and then to work has taken its toll. These days I am lucky to be able to push aside the wall of weariness that descends in the evening and stay the course until after midnight and I wouldn’t even try to do that on a work night!
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13 DEC 2017
Today is the 4th day of the 50th week, the 13th day of the 12th month, the 347th day of 2017, and:
- Hanukkah ((2nd night))
- Independence Day -- Saint Lucia from United Kingdom in 1979
- Ice Cream Day
- National Cocoa Day
- National Day of the Horse
- National Violin Day
- Pick a Pathologist Pal Day
On this day in....
1294 – Saint Celestine V resigns the papacy after only five months to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit, after he issued a solemn decree declaring it permissible for a pope to resign
1577 – Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage
1642 – Abel Janszoon Tasman reaches New Zealand, in the service of the Dutch East India Company, the first known European explorer to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and New Zealand, and to sight the Fiji islands.
1758 - The Duke William, a deportation ship carrying Acadians from Île Saint-Jean (PEI) to France sinks in a storm in the North Atlantic with the
loss of over 360 lives, including Acadian lader Noel Dorion; one of the greatest marine disasters in Canadian history.
1928 – George Gershwin's An American in Paris is first performed. Freed bought the rights from his brother, Ira, for $158,750, over a game of pool in 1950 and the award-winning movie came out the next year.
1949 – The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem, which is a holy city of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the areas captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured and later annexed by Jordan. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, together with additional surrounding territory. Many United Nations (UN) member states formally adhere to the United Nations proposal that Jerusalem should have an international status
1958 - The squirrel monkey named Gordo survived a 300-mile journey into space and then travelled more than 1,500 miles in the rocket until it dropped in the South Atlantic. A technical problem with the recovery gear meant a parachute failed to open and the nose-cone sank taking Gordo with it
1962 – NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
1972 – Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" of Apollo 17. To date they are the last humans to set foot on the Moon
1979 - Supreme Court of Canada unanimously strikes down Québec and Manitoba laws which created unconstitutional unilingual courts and legislatures; unanimously upheld the power of the federal government to guarantee French and English can be used in the courts and legislatures across Canada
2017 - NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 35 mins 38 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Quote of the day:
“Live as long as you may, the first twenty years are the longest half of your life. They appear so while they are passing; they seem to have been so when we look back on them; and they take up more room in our memory than all the years that succeed them.”
~ Robert Southey, English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years
I once read an explanation of why time seems to move so slowly for the young and so rapidly for the older folks. Take me versus my oldest granddaughter as we remember the WDW family trip in 2016 some 21 months ago – for me that time passed represents just 2,58% of my life; for her that same time is a staggering 38.89% of her entire life. No wonder the memories we make in those first decades loom so large in our consciousness even as time passes! And Christmas really seems like it just never will come when you are little….
PS: I am not a good proofreader, for I tend to read what I meant not what is actually written. This means while I do go back and proofread my blog posts, my eyes tend to slip over missed words and misspelled items. Looking back over a couple of posts made in the past two weeks, I can see my level of distraction has increased and more errors have correspondingly snuck in. I even found a “u” instead of “you”, which is puzzling to me since I am not a fan of “r u here” type of shorthand even when texting.
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the spirit of the season....
Today is the 3rd day of the 50th week, the 12th day of the 12th month, the 346th day of 2017, and:
- Chanukah ((first night))
- Festival of Unmentionable Thoughts
- Gingerbread House Day
- Independence Day: Kenya from the United Kingdom in 1963
- National 12-hour Fresh Breath Day
- National Ambrosia Day
- National Cocoa Day
- National Ding-a-ling Day
- National Lost Day
- National Poinsettia Day
- Our Lady of Guadelupe ((feast day)) – The appearance of the Lady triggered the conversion of Mexico -- within six years of this apparition, six million Aztecs had converted to Catholicism. Her image is one of the few that show the Virgin Mary as pregnant and it has become one of the most reproduced religious icons.ever. There will be many parades and festivities today in various parts of the Americas.
Quote of the day:
“It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fifty words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese.”
~ Carl Sagan
Yes things happened on this day but nothing that peaked my interest today. And no, my meanderings have nothing to do with the quote so if you are seeking some sort of tie-in, you will come up short.
I am somewhat ambivalent about Advent. Oh I understand fully the religious significance of getting ready for Christmas, and have an Advent Wreath, although it has been a few years since I put it out. I love that there are holidays other than the Christian one to celebrate, each with their own traditions, especially food and decorations, and have no problem with a cheery “Happy Holidays” as a greeting. I am old enough to remember when it was a really big deal that stores and malls would open on the Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas – back in the day, everything was closed on Sundays. I always had countdown calendars for my kids where we ticked off each day as the big day came closer and closer. And both NORAD and GOOGLE have stepped up their game, providing a Santa Tracker to keep u all in a holiday mood.
Offset to this is the business side of life as the scramble to make the year-end numbers accelerates with more and more stridency. The weather turns cold and gloomy, November’s chill deepening into full on winter. Drivers become impatient as the feeling of time running out gets under their skin and it seems they drive more and more aggressively. I became a widow unexpectedly in the middle of the Advent season, and this year, my daughter is faced with major surgery I have heard stories of friends losing their jobs as company’s downsize for the coming new year, and things like insurance costs are already soaring as we have to pay for it in advance. The winds of change are sometimes as blustery and unkind as any winter storm… And folks are run-down and stressed out and catching colds that plague them *sniffles and coughs on cue*. When you come right down to it? It is an awful lot of work and expense for one day, isn’t it?
So what do I do during Advent? I decorate, wrap presents, listen to Christmas Carols and watch Christmas specials and hope quietly that some of the glitter wears off onto me
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51 down.....
Today is the 2nd day of the 50th week, the 11th day of the 12th month, the 345th day of 2017 [only 13 shopping days until Christmas], and:
- Green Monday
- Holiday Food Drive for Needy Animals Day
- International Mountain Day
- Kaleidoscope Day
- National App Day
- National Noodle Ring Day
- UNICEF Birthday – established in 1946
On this day in....
1620 - 103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock
1931 - The British Parliament passes the Statute of Westminster, confirming the Balfour Declaration of November 18, 1926 and legally making the Dominions autonomous communities within the British Empire, free to conduct their own domestic and foreign affairs; gives complete legislative equality to the Parliaments of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Newfoundland; marks the final independence of Canada from Britain.
1972 – Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the Moon. It is said, some 45 years later, that it is time to return.
Quote of the day:
“Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist
Only two more Mondays left in the year…..
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8 DEC 2017
Today is the 6th day of the 49th week, the 8th day of the 12th month, the 342nd day of 2017, and:
- Bodhi Day [Traditional -- see also Jan 5) -- the occasion when the Buddha attained enlightenment in 596 BC
- National Brownie Day
- national Christmas Tree Day
- National Salesperson's Day
- Official Lost and Found Day
- Pretend To Be a Time Traveler Day
- Take It in the Ear Day
On this day in...
1660 – A woman (either Margaret Hughes or Anne Marshall) appears on an English public stage for the first time, in the role of Desdemona in a production of Shakespeare's play Othello. Because being on stage was considered disreputable, young boys who's voice hadn't cracked yet usually played the female roles
1854 – In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived free of Original Sin.
1953 – US President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his "Atoms for Peace" speech, which leads to an American program to supply equipment and information on nuclear power to schools, hospitals, and research institutions around the world.
1963 – Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707 en route from BWI to Philadelphia, is struck by lightning and crashes near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 people on board. The plane was circling in a holding pattern with five other airplanes and at 8:58 pm the aircraft exploded. The crew managed to transmit a final message – "Mayday, mayday, mayday ... Clipper 214 out of control ... here we go" As a result, the FAA asked operators to install lightning discharge wicks (or static dischargers) on all commercial jets flying in US airspace.
1980 – Former Beatle John Lennon is murdered in front of The Dakota in New York City.
1987: Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev sign The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to reduce the size of their nuclear arsenals.
2010 – With the second launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 and the first launch of the SpaceX Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.
2017 - NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 35 mins 16 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Today is a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics [and a public holiday in some countries] as we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I always thought it was a feast day that celebrates Mary as she learns from the angel that she has been chosen to carry Jesus and she conceives by the Holy Spirit and it was something that makes absolutely no sense to me and never did even as a kid. Now I’m not talking about the whole religious aspect – that is a matter of faith not logic, rhyme or reason after all – but the timing just never made sense. If you read the stories, there is no indication this pregnancy was super-charged speedy, but if she found out she was pregnant on the 8th, then how did she have the baby only 17 days later on the 25th? It was many years before I realized the Church was saying Mary was conceived on this day without sin and today is indeed nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Mary, which is celebrated on September 8. While I hold the blessed mother in reverence, I have to say that I don’t find her a great role model for young girls since what is celebrated most about her is her passivity. Often referred to as “the new Eve” [who was, incidentally, was the only other woman born without the original sin], she is contrasted with Eve’s grasp for knowledge and therefore divinity because she permitted herself and her life to be invaded and rearranged, saying only "Let it be done unto me." The good Church Fathers just loved that passive acceptance from females and really encouraged every good little Catholic girl to emulate it -- I was never good at being that obedient…..
Nope.
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when the past doesn't stay past....
Today is the 5th day of the 49th wee, the 7th day of the 12th month, the 341st day of 2017, and:
On this day in....
1703 – in what came to be called The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, makes landfall. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people die -- it was the first weather event to be a news story on a national scale
1930 – W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts telecasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The telecast also includes the first television commercial in the United States, an advertisement for I.J. Fox Furriers, who sponsored the radio show.
1972 – Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.
1995 – The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.
1993 - Protesters lose a 20-year fight to save a 250-year-old chestnut tree in east London, making way for a motorway extension.
2017 - NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 35 mins 11 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Quote of the day:
“Love has no age, no limit; and no death.”
~ John Galsworthy OM, English novelist and playwright
Do you let go of people? I mean, when the relationship is over and you have flicked the done switch, have you given up on them? And if you did, is it one of those irrevocable decisions? What about your family? One of the things that I struggle with understanding parents who disown their sons and daughters when their lifestyle doesn’t jibe with their expectations. Or maybe “disowning” is too strong a word? But what would you call it when a parent stops talking to a child and no longer knows anything about how their offspring is faring?
I learned a long time ago that the opposite of love was not hate, it was indifference – the absence of caring, concern, thinking about. Can’t say that I ever really achieved it personally, not even with two ex-husbands and a mother who didn’t talk to me for over twenty years. As Bela cautions those who immerse themselves in world, there is no auto-return on hearts, and even when the relationship is over, even when there are good reasons for it to be over, I find that a piece of my heart, an echo of the emotional investment that I made during that relationship always remains with the one who is gone out of my life.
I don’t know if that is a good thing or not but that is what it is and who I am.
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Today is the 4th day of the 49th week, the 6th day of the 12th month, the 340th day of 2017 [you really don’t want to know how many shopping days there are until Christmas – suffice to say you should get cracking], and:
- Independence Day: Finland from Russia in 1917, Bophuthatswana from South Africa in 1977
- Miner's Day
- Mitten Tree Day
- National Gazpacho Day
- National Microwave Oven Day
- National Pawnbrokers Day
- Put on Your Own Shoes Day
- Special Kids Day
- St Nicholas Day
- World Trick Shot Day
ON this day in....
1752 - John Bushell publishes 8-page bound pamphlet for the Nova Scotia government, “An act for the relief of debtors;" the first book published in Canada
1768 – The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is published in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, as three volumes. The encyclopedia grew in size: the second edition was 10 volumes, and by its fourth edition (1801–1810) it had expanded to 20 volumes. The last print version was the 32-volume 2010 edition, which weighs 129 pounds and includes new entries on global warming and the Human Genome Project
1877 – The first edition of The Washington Post, founded by Stilson Hutchins, is published. Initially a four-page organ of the Democratic Party, it was sold in 1889 and became known as a conservative paper.
2006 – NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.
Quote of the day:
"In life, you have to take the pace that love goes. You don't force it. You just don't force love, you don't force falling in love, you don't force being in love - you just become. I don't know how to say that in English, but you just feel it."
~ Juan Pablo Galavis, American-born Venezuelan former professional soccer midfielder/forward, who retired in 2008. In 2013, he was chosen as the first Latino star of the ABC-TV reality show The Bachelor [he didn't end up marrying the one he picked]
I think about love a lot around this time of year. Wasn’t something that I noodled when I was married and I suspect that I rather took for granted that things would continue on between us as we walked down the years together, so being widowed was a bit of a shock, which since Frank died on December 16th, explains why I think about it now. I became sensitive to how relationships grow and often talk about levels of emotional investment, or degrees of connection, drawing on my observations to pontificate that expectations and perceptions can torpedo a promising relationship pretty quickly. In world [AKA Second Life], where everything seems to be on hyper speed, I have come to realize that there are those for whom “falling in love” is actually a lifestyle [or hobby or obsession – pick a word], which explains why some folks get married or collared in world multiple times to different people with neither ring nor collar lasting very long before they are off to experience the roller coaster rid of falling in love again with someone new. That’s not my thing, it takes me a while to get comfortable enough to become intimate with someone even virtually – which I guess makes me a little out of step with today’s action – and I have always felt that as a romantic partner, I have to grow on people rather than attract them from the outset. Those two articles about “slow love” were something that I bookmarked a while back and the idea really appeals to me. I don’t need the heady excitement of falling in love, I need the steady state of commitment and affirmation, a mutual dedication of time, focus and energy – a mutual addiction so to speak..
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5 DEC 2017
Today is the 3rd day of the 49th week, the 5th day of the 12th month, the 339th day of 2017, and:
- AFL-CIO Day -- The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL–CIO in 1955
- Bathtub Party Day
- Columbian International Day of The Reef
- International Ninja Day
- International Volunteer Day
- International Volunteer Day for Economic & Social Development
- Krampusnacht
- National Blue Jeans Day [not the same as Denim Day] -- wear jeans to communicate support of gay rights.
- National Communicate With Your Kids Day – how do you interact with your kids?
- National Commute With Your Baby Day – it ain’t easy
- National Sacher Torte Day -- a specific type of chocolate cake, or torte, invented by Austrian Franz Sacher[1] in 1832 for Prince Wenzel von Metternich in Vienna, Austria
- Repeal Day – Prohibition in the US came to an end when when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st amendment
- World Soil Day
- World Trick Shot Day
On this day in....
1492 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola, the second largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).
1766 – In London, auctioneer James Christie holds his first sale. I rummaged about, but cannot find out what was sold or for how much other than he had pictures.
1848 – In a message to the United States Congress, President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California. There is no record of him saying "thar's gold in them thar hills!"
1901 – Walt Disney, American animator, director, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded The Walt Disney Company, was born. He died in 1966
1905 - Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen telegraphs from Eagle City, Alaska, that he had successfully navigated the Northwest Passage on his ship Gjoa, but his feat was of little economic value – the first cargo ship didn’t get through until 1969
1932 – German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa. Would he be allowed to immigrate today? Maybe….
1952 – A cold fog, that came to be known as The Great Smog, descends upon London, combining with air pollution and killing at least 12,000 in the weeks and months that follow. The air pollution was mainly caused by burning low-grade, sulphurous variety of coal to keep dwellings warm and to power plants. It is estimated the following pollutants were emitted each day during the smoggy period: 1,000 tonnes of smoke particles, 140 tonnes of hydrochloric acid, 14 tonnes of fluorine compounds, and 370 tonnes of sulphur dioxide which may have been converted to 800 tonnes of sulphuric acid. The air above London still hasn’t completely recovered.
1964 – Lloyd J. Old discovered the first linkage between the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and disease—mouse leukemia—opening the way for the recognition of the importance of the MHC in the immune response.
2017 - NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 35 mins 01 sec of light-travel time from Earth
Been a while since I checked out the writing prompt of the day….
339. Pick Me Up:What do you do when you need a pick me up?
Well now that is a good question, especially this year, what with the news making me wonder about the country I live in, my daughter facing major surgery [and they are only keeping her overnight!?], and my usual angst about being widowed turning the holiday season decorations slightly gray. Do I do something different during the holidays than I usually do? Not particularly. I work on thinking about what is going right instead of what is going wrong. I try and keep busy in a way that doesn’t exhaust me either physically or emotionally [that isn’t very easy this time of year]. Because I have blood sugar issues, the solace of comfort foods is denied to me – this is a real downer since freshly baked bread has always been my downfall. Learned that when I was working part-time in the bakery for three years in high school and the start of college.—after working around them most donuts, cakes and cookies didn’t mean that much and I could do without them [well maybe not without Russian Teacakes and peanut butter cookies] more or less, but fresh baked bread and rolls? From the smell to the taste, I have been hooked for the past 52 years….. *coughs* Kinda strayed from the topic at hand, didn’t I? Mostly I dive into my 2nd Life – not just by heading in world, but also books, the world of my imagination that calls out to me, allows me to be immersed, permits me to travel through time and space, leaving the cares and woes of everyday life behind so that after the interlude I can reenter everyday life feeling renewed and refreshed.
But nothing beats the smell of freshly baked bread, not even a freshly cut Christmas tree – although it is pretty close!
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I have a 2nd Life
Bela is 12 years old today.
Yes beladona Memorial is the first avatar that I created in a virtual world. This, however, was not the first time that I had ventured into Second Life – the first time had been over a year earlier and it was a totally different type of experience as I rezzed into a corral with people sitting on the fence cheering. I couldn’t figure out what to do next, but the real issue was that I was trying to navigate while on a dial-up connection and I eventually abandoned the avatar and logged out leaving the original beladona stuck in a bush. I created the second beladona as a result of a conversation thread in Howard Rheingold’s Brainstorms community – he was going to do a presentation in world and was encouraging us all to come in and join him. By then I had a more robust line/connection but it was far from broadband and it was still pretty full of hiccups and glitches. I could move about, but I had trouble controlling the avatar and at one point I ended up flying up on the stage and had the devil’s own time figuring out how to get off. I didn’t stay for the entire lecture and certainly didn’t get much from it.
To my surprise, I found out that both of my kids were in world – Tasha Polecat and Madison Carnot – and in the early spring I ventured back. For a time I wandered about as a tiny pig. Then I switched to the persona that I kept for several months; from the get-go beladona was short and plumb with glasses and freckles, wandering about in jeans and a Bucket t-shirt, sandals, an Irish cap over bright red hair, and a backpack. The eyes changed a bit from brown to bright purple before settling on a clear green, but I never bought a shape. I remember a shape-creator ran a class for newbies on one of the education sims when I had been in world for about a year, and I went to see if I could get some tips about keeping the proportions right – she was very helpful [and actually rather complimentary about what I had done so far]. At that point I didn’t know how to edit prims, so when I bought a top that I couldn’t fit into, beladona had to slim down to fit into it. And I didn’t know how to adjust pose balls, so she ended up getting taller as well, although she still is short by SL standards at least she wasn’t in danger of being taken as a child anymore. After about eight months, she definitely had her own look
So many tales of learning how to navigate in world! I used to change clothes under the deck of the Bucket club, not realizing that folks could cam down and not understanding that I didn’t have to completely undress to change outfits. The entire program freezing solid because there were over 15K in world. Die-ins becaue LL shut the world down for an entire day to “bank on the pipes” – if you tried to log in while that was going on you got a screen that showed a gorilla with a wrench banging on pipes too. The days that I remember best are filled with friends, family and music. beladona’s beach has existed for over a decade now and has always had a pier on which folks could sit and talk and watch the sunset. In the past 12 years I have met so many people from different cultures, learned about different lifestyles, fallen in and out of love, been partnered , been married, made friends that moved into RL, and experienced loss as some just stopped logging in without us knowing what happened to them and some logged out of their real life. I would totally do it again – my only regret is that I didn’t spring for a lifetime membership when that was being offered for $10!
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who's fault is it then?
Today is the 6th day of the 48th week, the 1st day of the 12th month, the 335th day of 2017, and:
- Antartica Day -- In 1959, today was the opening date for signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent.
- Basketball Day [or you can celebrate on December 21st]
- Bifocals at the Monitor Liberation Day
- Civil Air Patrol Day
- Clark Kent's Birthday (Superman) -- (Note: Also June 18 in another Comic)
- Day Without Art
- Eat a Red Apple Day
- Faux Fur Day
- International Sweater Vestival
- Mawlid Al Nabi
- National Christmas Lights Day
- National Christmas Tree Lighting (DC)
- National Pie Day
- National Salesperson Day
- Rosa Parks Day
- Wear a Dress Day
- World AIDS Day
On this day in...
1913 – Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line and changed factories forever, to say nothing of the social and cultural impact of affordable cars.
1924 – The National Hockey League's first United States-based franchise, the Boston Bruins, played their first game in league play at home, at the still-extant Boston Arena indoor hockey facility ((when was the last time you used "extant" in a sentence?))
1952 – The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sex reassignment surgery.
1960 – Paul McCartney and Pete Best are arrested (and later deported) from Hamburg, Germany, after accusations of attempted arson.
1969 – The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.
2017 - NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 34 mins 39 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Quote of the day:
“We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change you're the one who has got to change.”
~ Katharine Hepburn, an American actress known for her fierce independence and spirited personality,
You know, the “not my fault” syndrome is pretty pervasive – we all have whined. But sometimes “not my fault” gets translated into “not my problem” and then things -- the economy, manners, tolerance – go to hell in a handbasket because no one is working for the betterment of anyone but themselves. Seems to me that owning up to your personal accountability and responsibility for making things a mess and working on that would be a good way to go about fixing things. In the end? The only REAL thing that we can do to make it a better world is make ourselves better people….
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30 NOV 2017
Reports
Reconciliations
Last minute requests and didjados
At least it isn't the end of the quarter or the year end!
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what others think....
Today is the 4th day of the 48th week, the 29th day of the 11th month, the 333rd day of 2017, and:
- Customer is Wrong Day
- Electronic Greeting Card Day
- International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People – declared by the UN back in 1977; in 2012 Palestine was given a non-voter observer status with a vote of 138 in favor to 9 against [including the US] with 41 abstentions
- National Chocolates Day
- National Lemon Creme Day
- National Package Protection Day
- National Square Dance Day
- Throw out Your Leftovers Day
- Women Wednesday
A lot happened on this day in History – but none of it of particular interest to me. To be fair, I feel the same way about current events for the most part -- other than the fact that NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 34 mins 28 secs of light-travel time from Earth today – powerful, rich, famous men are being called out for treating womenfolk like commodities; Trump et al is sounding foolish; Congress is getting ready to make the rich richer; and so on and so forth.
Quote of the day:
“Your reputation is in the hands of others. That's what the reputation is. You can't control that. The only thing you can control is your character.”
~ Wayne W. Dyer, American philosopher, self-help author, and a motivational speaker
Today I read and shared an article about two young men from San Diego traveling in Thailand who felt the need to take pictures of their bare buttocks in Bangkok's famous Wat Arun temple and post them online as part of their ongoing series of “Traveling Butts”. Now the reputation of Americans abroad has been rather dicey for years and Americans have been aware of that ever since The Ugly American was published back in 1958 highlighting the arrogance and incompetence of diplomats. Sadly it has come to mean the crass behavior, poor dress and linguistic ineptitude of the American tourist. Now I haven’t traveled overseas, so most of the tourists I have encountered are visiting here [especially at the House of the Mouse], and I can tell you that some of those from abroad are downright nasty to interact with – they don’t believe in standing in line for one thing and they are pushy as well as rude – and yet no one pontificates about “ugly Italians” or “ugly Japanese” now do they? It is only the US where the assumption is that unmannerly behavior is our default rather than wayward behavior of an individual. But we cannot do anything about that – our reputation is not within the sphere of our control. It is, however, within the sphere of our influence – and acting like a rectal cavity in someone else’s sacred place is definitely NOT the way to win friends and influence enemies.
These two young fools may end up paying dearly for their little lark and I’m not sure they shouldn’t. However, the State Department and the wheels of diplomacy will probably rescue them from the consequences of their heedless act; the reinforcement of the stereotype of the American tourist cannot be mended. Thanks a lot guys – you just made it harder for every single one of your fellow country folk who want to travel abroad.
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the last Tuesday in the month
Today is the 3rd day of the 48th week, the 28th day of the 11th month, the 332nd day of 2017, and:
- Giving Tuesday
- Independence Day: Panama from Spain in 1821; Mauritania from France in 1960
- It's Letter Writing Day
- Make Your Own Head Day
- National French Toast Day
- Red Planet Day
- Rockerfeller Christmas Tree Lighting
- Turkey Leftover Day
On this day in....
1520 – Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name. In this day and age it is hard to believe that some folks weren't convinced the earth was a globe until someone actually sailed all the way around it.
1582 – In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage licence; she was already pregnant with the couple's first child, to whom she gave birth six months later. Hathaway was 26 years old; Shakespeare was 18.
1925 – The Grand Ole Opry begins broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee, as the WSM Barn Dance.
1964 – Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars.
1967 – The first pulsar (PSR B1919+21, in the constellation of Vulpecula) was discovered by two astronomers Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish.
2017 - NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 34 mins 22 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Quote of the day:
“A note of caution: We can never achieve goals that envy sets for us. Looking at your friends and wishing you had what they had is a waste of precious energy. Because we are all unique, what makes another happy may do the opposite for you. That's why advice is nice but often disappointing when heeded.”
~ Marcus Buckingham, British author, motivational speaker and business consultant
My first reaction after reading this quote: Back in the day, knowledge management gurus were fond of talking about “best practices” – things that worked and worked well that could be shared from one organization to another. One thing that KM managers started to struggle with pretty quickly was dealing with showing the results of those best practices, especially if you got a savvy boss that wanted to know what the ROI for the new programs was. Turned out pretty quickly that what worked spectacularly for Organization A only provided mediocre results in Organization B and made no difference at all in Organization C – the missing component being the environment of each organization, which differed wildly according to industry, location, and corporate culture [just to rattle off a couple of the variables]. KM as a discipline took a severe hit and ended up being perceived as yet another management fad. Shame, many of us still work in stealth mode, making our contributions by encapsulating and sharing knowledge as much as we are able to do so
Of course I realize the message was not actually about the inability of knowledge management to prove its worth to organizations [especially small businesses] but to us as individuals warning us. To compare oneself to the lives and times of others is an excellent way to generate some pretty negative feelings, which is bound to impact your all over well-being. Let’s face it – some of those folks we see posting away on Facebook look like they are truly living the life of Riley. For me, seeing folks my age who are happily retired and traveling all about can start me pouting, forgetting that I am just seeing what they choose to let me see, not any of the prices they had to pay or the choices they had to make and live with. Nope, I stick to my own realm of existence and avoid wishing to have what others have, thank you very much – “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” as the saying goes. That said? I certainly would not mind winning the lottery… or powerball… or megamillions….
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the post Thanksgiving blues....
Today is the 2nd day of the 48th week, the 27th day of the 11th month, the 331st day of 2017, and:
- Cyber Monday
- National Bavarian Cream Pie Day
- National Craft Jerky Day
- National Electric Guitar Day
- National Pins and Needles Day
- Pie in the Face Day
- Turtle Adoption Day
On this day:
AD 25 – Luoyang is declared capital of the Eastern Han dynasty by Emperor Guangwu of Han. What got my attention about this entry was the archaic "AD" that was used -- these days you don’t see it very often. "AD" has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. In this protocol, "BC" denotes years before the start of the era and there is no year zero in this scheme, so the year AD 1 immediately follows the year 1 BC, which is why most experts agree that a new century begins in a year which has "01" as the final digits (e.g., 1801, 1901, 2001).
1810 – The Berners Street hoax was perpetrated by Theodore Hook in the City of Westminster, London – it was quite the practical joke but you have to feel sympathy for the poor lady who bore the brunt of it.
1830 – Saint Catherine Labouré experiences a Marian apparition. I have worn a Miraculous Medal since my mother bought it for me when I graduated from CCD in high school.
1896 – Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss is first performed. ((And there is an entire generation that immediately things "2001: A Space Odyssey" whenever we hear it.))
1924 – In New York City, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held, establishing a tradition that has held throughout the years, although it is not the country's oldest parade -- the whole idea started with The Santa Claus Parade in Peoria, IL, founded in 1887 under the sponsorship of Frederick Block and the Schipper & Block (later Block & Kuhl) Department Store. That is held on the day after Thanksgiving and is the oldest, continuously-held holiday parade in the country.
1945 – CARE (then the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) was founded to a send CARE Packages of food relief to Europe after World War II. ((I wonder if kids at came or college dorm students still call their packages from home CARE packages?))
1971 – The Soviet space program's Mars 2 orbiter releases a descent module. It malfunctions and crashes, but it is the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars.
And today-- NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 34 mins 16 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Quote of the day:
“The disturbers of happiness are our desires, our griefs, and our fears.”
~ Samuel Johnson, an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer
As I returned to work this morning, if felt like a very Monday-ish Monday. It occurred to me there are 28 days to the next federal holiday, which will be Monday, December 25th. Counting Tuesday 12.26 – and I do count that day since getting up and in the day after Christmas is really tough – there are four more Mondays in the year. 2017 is 91% history now. Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Was there family and food, both to eat and for thought? Was it a happy time for you? Or was it over-shadowed in some way – unmet expectations, conflict and/or contention, worry about the future, grief for things that happened in the past? And notice that swirling thoughts seldom are about anything really good happening – they usually involve obligations, duty, responsibility, finances, health issues, people you miss, problems you have to resolve. With all those thoughts swirling about, I’m pretty sure whatever happy feelings I had were pretty much being overwhelmed and smothered and I’m betting that I’m not the only one who catches themselves sabotaging their own well-being and equanimity in this manner.
Everything that I can think of to say about how to counter our expectations, griefs and fears comes off like a tired platitude [Take a deep breath... Smile... Be grateful... Live in the moment... Yaddyyaddyyada.] But you really do have a choice….
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The Tuesday before Turkey Day
Today is the 3rd day of the 47th week, the 21st day of the 11th month, the 325th day of 2017 [there are 33 shopping days until Christmas], and:
- Alascattalo Day (About Alaska & humor)
- False Confession Day
- National Entrepreneurship Day
- National Gingerbread Day
- National Red Mitten Day
- National Stuffing Day
- Pumpkin Pie Day
- World Hello Day
- World Television Day
On this day:
164 BC – Judas Maccabeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar. Hanukkah 2017 will begin in the evening of Tuesday, December 12 and ends in the evening of Wednesday, December 20
1676 – The Danish astronomer Ole Rømer presents the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light.
1905 – Albert Einstein's paper that leads to the mass–energy equivalence formula, E = mc², is published in the journal Annalen der Physik.
1969 – The first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and SRI.
1995 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 5,000 for the first time.
Today -- NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 33 mins 37 secs of light-travel time and Voyager II is 16 hrs 08 mins 45 secs of light-travel time from Earth
There are things that I really really really don’t want to read about. Like the latest sex scandals as the powerful are called out for their antics. Seriously folks, you are surprised that power corrupts? Or about tax reform – the rich are making sure that they stay rich by tromping down on everyone else. The latest antics of the administration, whether it is about the latest tweet storm or politicizing the Census Bureau or gutting rights in the name of “national security” or any of the maneuvers that foretell the powerful wanting to make sure they stay in power. Anything defending the way the US handles gums. Seriously, one could start suffering from PTSD from just staying up-to-date on current events. How can we possibly influence this deluge of …. [insert profanity or potty word of your choice here]?
While I am a firm believer in cultivating your own patch of the world – as Goethe famously said “Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean” -- I am also torn by my civic duty, the need to speak up for what is right and just. We can’t just sit back and let others carry the load or let the forces of intolerance and hatred win!
And so another blog post ends indeterminately, sounding just vaguely bewildered by everything that is happening as I feel.
I’m going back to my 2nd Life….
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yup, it's Monday
Today is the 2nd day of the 47th week, the 20th day of the 11th month, the 324th day of 2017, and:
- Africa Industrialization Day
- Beautiful Day
- Future Teachers of American Day – I belonged to this club all through school because I was going to be a teacher and never knew it had its own holiday
- Globally Organized Hug a Runner Day [aka GOHARD] – yeah, they engineered that name just to come up with a “cute” set of initials
- Name Your PC Day – my PC is always called beladona, because that is who I am online. Ah the days when you had to have a user name that was exactly eight letters in lower case
- National Absurdity Day
- National Peanut Butter Fudge Day – hands down my very favorite kind of fudge! OC, NJ used to have several shops that made this – there was one that would do a layer of peanut butter fudge with a layer of chocolate on the bottom that was just heavenly
- Transgender Day of Remembrance – there is a sad list of those lost to bigotry
- Universal Children's Day – hmmpf! My parents always told me that every day was children’s day, which is why we didn’t get a holiday like mothers and fathers
On this day:
1820 – An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America. The ship sank, and the surviving crew were reduced to cannibalism before they were rescued. First Mate Owen Chase returned to Nantucket on 11 June 1821 and four months later completed an account of the disaster, the Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex; the cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson, became a captain in the Merchant Service and later wrote another account of the sinking, titled The Loss of the Ship "Essex" Sunk by a Whale and the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats. Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick is in part inspired by this story.
1942 - US Army Corps of Engineers cut the ribbon on the 2451 km long Alcan Highway, running from Dawson Creek, BC, through the Yukon and on to Fairbanks, Alaska. It is still pretty much the only way to drive from the lower 48 to Alaska.
1959 – The Declaration of the Rights of the Child [AKA the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child] is adopted by the United Nations. The document listed five things that "... The child that is hungry must be fed, the child that is sick must be nursed, the child that is backward must be helped, the delinquent child must be reclaimed, and the orphan and the waif must be sheltered and succoured....."
1974 – The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T Corporation. This suit later leads to the breakup of AT&T and its Bell System. I'm still not 100% certain this was a good thing. OTOH, it was definitely a monopoly -- bear in mind, we only had land lines at this time. OTOH, the transition was both lengthy and painful and many prices for services went up dramatically.
1976 - Gordon Lightfoot's single, The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, telling the story of the shipwreck of an ore carrier during a gale on Lake Superior November 10, 1975, peaks at #2 on the Billboard pop char
1980 – Lake Peigneur drains into an underlying salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe had been drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine, causing water to flow down into the mine, eroding the edges of the hole. The resulting whirlpool sucked in the drilling platform, eleven barges [nine resurfaced later], many trees and 65 acres (26 ha) of the surrounding terrain. No human lives were lost -- 55 miners were able to evacuate, the crew of the drilling rig got off in time and a local fisherman was able to motor away from the maelstorm -- but three dogs were reported killed.
1985 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released. It seemed so unwieldy at first to those of us accustomed to DOS, but the mouse becoming more common equipment made a big differnce
Quote of the day:
"Do not falter or shrink; But just think out your work, And just work out your think."
~ Nixon Waterman (1859 - 1944) newspaper writer, poet and Chautauqua lecturer
So it is Monday. I am lucky that I have a job to come to and can work at a salary that enables me to be fairly comfortable. And it is a short week because I have off Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving, a luxury that many folks do not have. Oh I would like to retire, and to travel more, but at least I don’t need a net income of $190,000 a year to pay a driver, a chef, and a housekeeper. I guess my “happiness number” would be a gross reitred income of about $200K a year to permit me to live the life that I would like to become accustomed to….
47 Mondays down, only five more to go for the year!
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the Friday before Thanksgiving
Today is the 6th day of the 46th week, the 17th day of the 11th month, the 321st day of 2017, and:
- Electronic Greeting Card Day
- Homemade Bread Day
- International STAND UP to Bullying Day
- International Students' Day
- National Baklava Day
- National Farm Joke Day
- National Take a Hike Day
- National Unfriend Day
- Petroleum Day
- Substitute Educators Day
- The Little Mermaid Day
- World Peace Day
- World Prematurity Awareness Day
ON THIS DAY:
1800 – The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C. Why DC? It was designated as the capital back on July 16, 1790 because at the time it was the geographic center of the United States
1858 – Modified Julian Day zero; astronomers had originally taken noon GMT -4712-01-01 JC (January 1st, 4713 BC) as the start of the Julian Calendar. The modification provided that a day be defined as to begin at midnight rather than noon, and for dates in the period from 1859 to about 2130 only five digits need to be used to specify the date rather than seven. Did you know that a "day" has different definitions? Generally when calendricists use the term "days" they are talking of nychthemerons.
1869 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated.
1950 – Lhamo Dondrub is officially named the 14th Dalai Lama at the age of 15, a position he still holds today.
1970 - The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon -- the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world and is released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.
1973 - President Nixon told an Associated Press managing editors meeting in Orlando FL, that ``people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook.'' He resigned 265 days later to avoid impeachment.
1978 – The Star Wars Holiday Special airs on CBS, receiving negative reception from critics, fans, and even Star Wars creator George Lucas. ((it was pretty awful))
And today - NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 33 mins 09 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Quote of the day:
“It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.”
~ Mother Teresa
Yesterday the House passed a tax bill that benefits the richest members of our society. The Senate is pondering a tax bill that does the same thing, and adds a provision that eviscerates the Affordable Care Act [AKA Obamacare]. Why do these “good” Christians feel that their mission is to only help the wealthy while ignoring those who are in desperate need of assistance? They go to church. They profess to love God, to follow Christ, to be moral. Why doesn’t the plight of those on lower down on the economic ladder touch their hearts? Because Calvinism teaches them that while they have to “love thy neighbor as thyself”, they take it as an abstract – it has nothing to do with THOSE people. They only have to love people who are far away, not the desperate folks outside the legislative chambers. While all of us find it easier to love humans than love our fellow human, the measure of a society’s morality is in the ability to take care of the less fortunate for the fortunate few take care of their selves….
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all the feels
Today is the 3rd day of the 46th week, the 14th day of the 11th month, the 318th day of 2017, and:
- International Girls Day
- International Selfie Day
- Loosen Up, Lighten Up Day
- National American Teddy Bear Day
- National Pickle Day
- National Spicy Guacamole Day
- National Young Readers' Day
- Operating Room Nurse Day
- Spirit of National Speakers Association Day
- World Diabetes Day
On this day :
1770 – James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile -- but modern historians give the credit to the Jesuit Pedro Páez, who gave a vivid account of the source of the Nile in Ethiopia.
1851 – Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the USA.
1886 – Friedrich Soennecken first developed the hole puncher, a type of office tool capable of punching small holes in paper.
1889 – Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in 72 days.
1922 – The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the United Kingdom.
1969 – NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon.
1971 – Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars.
1972 - the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 1,000 for the first time, ending the day at 1,003.16.
1978 – France conducts the Aphrodite nuclear test as 25th in the group of 29, 1975–78 French nuclear tests.
A researcher spent time watching people lean on plinths, feel hieroglyphics, and fist-bump statues in order to understand why we touch exhibits. It was an interesting article, bit of a long read, and commented on the need for humans to engage their sense of feel at times in order to connect with the history or art. There is a tension between preservation and enjoyment – who hasn’t gone to see something only to be disappointed to find out that they can only view part of it from a distance? And there are treasures, such as the Palaeolithic cave paintings in Lascaux Cave near Montignac, France, that are no longer even open to the public. Not that there isn’t good reason for this protectiveness given that there are always those who seem to be willing to wantonly destroy treasures
Some years ago, the first time Frank, Tom, and I went to the Kennedy Space Center, I experienced this need in a very profound way. We spent the day there, taking the historical tours, clicking our cameras, watching the films and lectures, wandering about. Although we touched the moon rock on display, the impact of that was minimal – too many hands had worn it smooth and it didn’t feel like a moon rock [that said without knowing how a moon rock is supposed to feel after all]. Three experiences from that trip stand out in my memory: First, the thickness of the tiny windows in the concrete bunker where the first rockets were tested – the scientists used to peer out those windows and watch the flame underneath the rockets, adjusting the fuel mix until the color looked right before launch. Second, the command center that guided astronauts to the moon – I remember seeing that on TV and it looked so …. high tech! But in person and decades later, it looked shabby and thrown together. The guide pointed out that we had home PCs that were more powerful than the wall of computer we faced – and there were places where the wires had been spliced together with duct tape – and we sent men to the moon using that. And last, the Apollo 14 command module. It is on display and encased with a clear acrylic shell for preservation. While the guide was talking, Frank [who was very observant], tapped my shoulder then pulled both Tom and I away from the front of the display to the back where he was standing and pointed. There was a tiny gap between the acrylic plates where they overlapped, just large enough to wriggle a fiber through and actually touch the capsule. Actually touch something that had been to the moon and back! We were thrilled beyond measure. A couple years later, we took my daughter and the gap was still there and she got to touch it too, but then when we returned again, the gap had been repaired and the opportunity lost. I’m sure the module is being carefully preserved and I am glad for that, but I mourn that my granddaughters will not have that same moment of connection. At what point are things so well protected that they can no longer be enjoyed?
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yet another Monday
Today is the 2nd day of the 46th week, the 13th day of the 11th month, the 317th day of 2017, and:
- Actors' Day
- National Indian Pudding Day
- National Mom's and Dad's Day
- Sadie Hawkins Day -- an American folk event and pseudo-holiday originated by Al Capp's classic hillbilly comic strip Li'l Abner (1934–1978)
- Start a Rumor Day
- World Kindness Day
- World Orphans Day
On this day:
1841 – James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism, which leads to his study of the subject he eventually calls hypnotism.
1896 - Te Maari, a crater at the northern end of the Tongariro range in New Zealand, erupted spectacularly. It continued to erupt sporadically for nearly a year
1940 – Walt Disney's animated musical film Fantasia, the third Disney animated feature film, is first released, on the first night of a roadshow at New York's Broadway Theatre.
1947 – The Soviet Union completes development of the AK-47, one of the first proper assault rifles. – a military assault weapon that has made its way into civilian life
1971 - space probe Mariner 9 reaches Mars and goes into orbit, but scientists have to wait for clear pictures because of a Martian dust storm.
1974 – Ronald DeFeo, Jr. murders his entire family in Amityville, Long Island in the house that would become known as The Amityville Horror [film adaptations in 1979 and 2005]
1976 - Gordon Lightfoot's single, The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald, peaks at #1 on the Billboard pop chart.
1982 – Ray Mancini defeats Duk Koo Kim in a boxing match held in Las Vegas. Kim's subsequent death of a subdural hematoma (on November 17) leads to significant changes in the sport. Minutes after the fight was over, Kim collapsed into a coma, and was removed from the Caesars Palace arena on a stretcher. These included: reduction of title fights from fifteen rounds to twelve; new medical procedures were introduced to fighters' pre-fight checkups, such as electrocardiograms, brain tests, and lung tests; the number of ring ropes was increased from three to four to prevent fighters from falling through the ropes and out of the ring.
1997 - The Disney musical "The Lion King" opened on Broadway – I’ve seen this show. You may think that making a play from a cartoon wouldn’t be something you would want to see, but it is a spectacular show.
2017 - NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 32 mins 39 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Quote of the day:
"There's so many of these songs that either are very overtly or kind of quietly speaking to the island of broken toys. It's the people that are, for whatever reason, outsiders –- people that feel like they don't fit in, in one way or another, those songs are there for them."
~ Michael Stipe, R.E.M. about the hit song Everybody Hurts
For those of us lucky enough to get off on Friday for the federal holiday [Veterans’ Day] on Saturday, it was a long weekend. And yet as I talk to those around me, the general consensus is that it wasn’t terribly relaxing or long enough. Already we are setting our sights on next weekend, or to the Thanksgiving holiday – a focus being aided and abetted by the number of Black Friday ads already surfacing. The holidays are bearing down upon us with all their burdens and joys, all the expectations and worries, all the celebrations and the parties. Thanksgiving is the official start of that holiday season, and it will be here in just ten days. Christmas follows 32 days later. The end of the year is only 46 days away. My first thought, as my daughter faces a bilateral mastectomy a week before Christmas, is that I wish it was all over and done with and she was on the road to recovery. I look at my goals for 2017, especially the spiritual ones, and wonder why my second thought is that I haven’t finished my Christmas shopping and what I have hasn’t been wrapped. Have I lost the reason for the season? It is a time that seems to leave some behind it its wake as it plows on and the refrain of the Country & Western song I once wrote starts to sound in my ears:
Good people think of me when you go to pray,
For the Lord and I we haven’t had a lot to say,
And Heaven only knows just when I lost my way,
But Christmas this year is just another day…..
And then I take a deep breath. Time to resolve to take it one day at a time, neh? The holidays will come and go. First, let me get through Monday….
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Ah November....
Today is the 5th day of the 45th week, the 9th day of the 11th month, the 313th day of 2017, and:
- Carl Sagan Day – he would’ve been 83 today
- Go to an Art Museum Today Day
- Independence Day: Cambodia from France in 1953
- International Tempranillo Day ((a type of grape indigenous to Spain and used in the Rioja and Ribera del Duero wines))
- Kristallnacht [AKA "Night of Broken Glass"] – in 1938 Nazis looted and burned synagogues and Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria
- National Chaos Never Dies Day
- National Microtia Awareness Day
- National Scrapple Day
- World Freedom Day -- started in 2001, a United States federal observance declared by then-President George W. Bush to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe
- World Usability Day
On this day in....
1620 – Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sight land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts after being at sea for about 96 days. There were 102 passengers, and the crew is estimated to have been about 30
1965 - A faulty relay switch fails at 5:16 pm at Ontario Hydro's Queenston generating station, causing a power outage that plunges New York City into darkness at the height of rush hour, and trapping 800,000 people in subways, elevators and skyscrapers. Over 30 million people in Ontario, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire lose power for most of the night
1967 – NASA launches the unmanned Apollo 4 test spacecraft atop the first Saturn V rocket from Cape Kennedy, Florida.
1970 – The Supreme Court of the United States votes 6–3 against hearing a case to allow Massachusetts to enforce its law granting residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war.
1979 – A nuclear false alarm is raised when a technician in NORAD loaded a test tape, but failed to switch the system status to "test", causing a stream of constant false warnings to spread to two "continuity of government" bunkers as well as command posts worldwide. As a result, the NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland detected purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled.
1998 – Capital punishment in the United Kingdom, already abolished for murder, is completely abolished for all remaining capital offences. To date -- 57 countries retain it in both law and practice; 28 have it in law but haven't executed anyone in ten or more years; 8 have abolished it, but retain it for exceptional or special circumstances (such as crimes committed in wartime); and 103 have abolished it for all crimes
2005 – The Venus Express mission of the European Space Agency is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan; the objective of the mission was the long term observation of the Venusian atmosphere.
2017 -- NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 32 mins 07 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Quote of the day:
“The last dying days of summer, fall coming on fast. A cold night, the first of the season, a change from the usual bland Maryland climate. Cold, thought the boy; his mind felt numb. The trees he could see through his bedroom window were tall charcoal sticks, shivering, afraid of the wind or only trying to stand against it. Every tree was alone out there. The animals were alone, each in its hole, in its thin fur, and anything that got hit on the road tonight would die alone. Before morning, he thought, its blood would freeze in the cracks of the asphalt.”
― Poppy Z. Brite [AKA Billy Martin], American author.
For the first time this season, I got out my winter coat this morning. It isn’t that it is that cold outside, but it is chilly and damp typical November day – the first and I don’t like being cold – who does? This time of year always makes me think of my father…. Dad worked on the pipeline in Prudhoe Bay and lived for a while in Anchorage, Alaska. Now I lived there too for a bit, and while it is definitely cold, it is a really dry cold and you can bundle up against it. Don’t get me wrong – 70 below zero is COLD, but you could layer up and stay warm. So when my father would fly into town to go to Thanksgiving dinner at Grandmom’s he was pretty casual about it being in the upper 30s and low 40s – after all, he was used to living and working in subzero conditions for crying out loud! So he would stroll off the plane with a light jacket or blazar on…. And thrice he went back to Alaska wearing a heavy winter coat and boots that he had to buy here during his stay, much to my [unexpressed] amusement. You see, living in such a dry climate, he had forgotten how the damp aggravates the feeling of cold, how the moisture seems to seep into your bones, and how once you got chilled you couldn’t get warm again. November does that to you – the bright colors of fall fading, the weather turning dank, the holidays are over the horizon out of sight, and the gloom starts to seep into your very soul – I always wonder around this time of year why I never picked up and moved to Florida to work for the House of the Mouse like I always said that I would because right about now, the summer heat doesn’t seem so bad even with high humdity.
And there are freeze warnings for tonight, the first killing frost of the season is nigh…. Ah November!
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the Trump dump....
Today is the 3rd day of the 45th week, the 7th day of the 11th month, the 311th day of 2017, and:
- Election Day (US)
- Employee Brotherhood Day (SpongeBob Squarepants)
- Hug a Bear Day
- International Merlot Day
- Little League Girls Day
- National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day
- National Canine Lymphoma Awareness Day
- Notary Public Day
On this day in...
1492 – The Ensisheim meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the Earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France.
1908 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are reportedly killed in San Vicente Canton, Bolivia.
1911 - Marie Curie became the first multiple Nobel Prize winner when she was given the award for chemisty eight years after garnering the physics prize with her late husband, Pierre. (She remains the only woman with multiple Nobels and the only person to receive the award in two science categories.)
1996 – NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.
2017 - NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 31 mins 52 secs of light-travel time and Voyager 2 is 16 hrs 06 mins 22 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Bias. The one thing that we were taught in Journalism 101 was the 5th Estate had the responsibility of reporting the news, of sharing facts not opinions. But we were also taught how to phrase things to make them readable, which meant tailoring the language and vocabulary to the standard reading level, and also to make them interesting – and it is the latter that tends to get things a bit twisted when you start with “knowing your audience”. You learn which stories will sell, and which will not. You learn that when you weight your words with semantic overtones then you can utilize underlying meanings to supplement the paucity of words in the space you are allotted so that you can tell the story you perceive and slowly, inexorably, you slip from objective fact to subjective interpretation
Yesterday there was a flurry of activity in the news and in social media. DJT had done it again and made himself into the clownish quintessential Ugly American, breaking delicate Japanese protocols and turning ceremony into charade. The story was picked up and spread by newscasts and articles. Except that isn’t what happened – the video present had been edited. In one small story, the entire ridiculous and constant claims of “fake news” was glaringly shown to have some basis in all too real fact. And how does this happen? Let’s be kind and assume they are trying to tell a compelling story, and looking for ways to illustrate their narrative. We won’t assume that it is a naked propaganda effort, or at least I won’t but I guarantee you that there are others who feel that way. No this is not the fault of “social media”, editing/cropping pictures and text has been around for a very long time; in fact, I would argue that they both have been in play since we started writing things down to be shared. Case in point:
Obviously if you only see the picture on the left, you are seeing an American soldier brutalizing a hapless prisoner. If you only see the picture on the right, you are seeing an American soldier offering aid to a distressed person. Only if you see the entire picture is the conflicted nuances apparent – the man is both a prisoner and being offered water – but that doesn’t necessarily tell a story that fits in with the narrative the reporter or the editor is trying to convey. Personally I resent having narratives thrust at me that show everything in black and white. I detest DJT [and HRC for that matter when you come right down to it], but I don’t demonize either of them even when I deplore their actions – and I don’t think Bernie is a perfect solution either. They are human and therefore a mixture of positives and negatives, neh? So give the devil his due now and then! There are many of us who are looking for that kind of reporting though! It certainly would be less stressful than trying to read all the different sides and piecing together the picture on our own as we struggle to stay informed
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6NOV17
Today is the 2nd day of the 45th week, the 6th day of the 11th month, the 310th day of 2017, and:
- Basketball Day
- Color The World Orange Day -- to spread awareness of COMPLEX REGIONAL PAIN SYNDROME (CRPS), AKA REFLEX SYMPATHETIC DYSTORPHY (RSD)
- Fill Our Staplers Day: 6 (always Day after Daylight Savings Ends)
- International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict
- Job Action Day
- Malaria Day in the Americas
- Marooned Without a Compass Day
- National Nachos Day
- National Saxophone Day
- Traffic Directors Day
On this day:
1528 – Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca becomes the first known European to set foot in the area that would become Texas. His ship was wrecked on or near Galveston Island as they were trying to get to Mexico -- searching for a city of gold.
1944 – Plutonium is first produced at the Hanford Atomic Facility and subsequently used in the Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
1971 – The United States Atomic Energy Commission tests the largest U.S. underground hydrogen bomb, code-named Cannikin, on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians.
1995 – Cleveland Browns relocation controversy: Art Modell announces that he signed a deal that would relocate the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore, the first time the city had a NFL team since 1983 when they were the Baltimore Colts. This was pretty controversial, especially because later Cleveland was awarded another franchise; many felt that we should've waited to get a team rather than take one from somewhere else
2017 - NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 31 mins 42 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Today has often been election day as Election Day in the United States is the Tuesday following the first Monday in November, which can fall on or between November 2 and November 8 [and overall it seems to be a good day for Republicans]:
1860 – Abraham Lincoln is elected as the 16th President defeating Democrat Stephen A. Douglas
1861 – Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America, running unopposed
1900 - William B. McKinley is reelected President defeating Democrat William Jennings Bryan.
1928 – Herbert Hoover is elected the 31st President defeating Democrat Alfred E. Smith
1956 – Dwight D. Eisenhower is reelected President defeating Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson
1984 – Ronald Reagan is reelected President defeating Democrat Walter Mondale
2012 – Barack Obama is reelected President defeating Republican Mitt Romney
Quote of the day:
"We cheerfully assume that in some mystic way love conquers all, that good outweighs evil in the just balances of the universe and that at the eleventh hour something gloriously triumphant will prevent the worst before it happens."
~ Brooks Atkinson (1894 - 1984), American theatre critic
There are times when the quote that comes across for the day seems to tie in with the things that happened on this day. Today is one of those days, but teasing out the connection that I see so that it can be articulated is a bit of a challenge for some reason. In order for one team to win, the other team has to lose. Bob Irsay took our Colts to Indianapolis [on March 29th, 1984 in Mayflower moving vans, and Baltimore never forgave or forgot] and Art Modell changed the Cleveland Browns to the Baltimore Ravens eleven years later [at least he had the dignity to change the name and branding]. Each move left some fans howling with anger and despair but the NFL plowed forward and life went on in the sports world. For one man… *coughs* for one person to become the President, someone else failed to do so, and they and their followers must live under the new administration for the next four years.
At no point do we think that it can be the end of life as we know it – football continues to be played and Inauguration Day rolled around on January 20th of the next year -- and yet I find myself thinking about the frog in boiling water analogy. Do we accept the loss because we are just assuming that everything will ultimately be okay and we are guilty of sitting around in complacency while things fall apart around us?
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DST becomes EST
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the 1st Friday in November
Today is the 6th day of the 44th week, the 3rd day of the 11th month, the 307th day of 2017, and:
- Cliché Day
- Fountain Pen Day
- Give Someone a Dollar Today Day
- Independence Day -- Panama from Colombia in 1903; Dominica from the United Kingdom in 1978; the Federated States of Micronesia from the United States in 1986
- Love Your Lawyer Day
- National Housewife Day
- National Jersey Friday
- National Medical Science Liaison Awareness and Appreciation Day
- National Sandwich Day
- Punkin Chunkin – the festival was scheduled to start today but cancelled on 8/23/17 for "Legal Reasons" -- a law suit has been filed following an accident last year but there have also been safety issues and insurance requirements
- Public Television Day: 3
- Stout Day
On this day in:
1873 - First 150 North West Mounted Police (NWMP) recruits sworn in at Lower Fort Garry after arduous overland journey from the east; training begins for their march westward in 1874; recruited by the militia from Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
1957 – Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika. She was never expected to return -- apparently she was supposed to eat a poisoned meal and die quietly before the fiery re-entry, but when things went wrong she perished rather horribly within hours of dehydration and overheating
1973 – NASA launches the Mariner 10 toward Mercury. On March 29, 1974, it becomes the first space probe to reach that planet.
2017 - NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 31 mins 16 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Quote of the day:
"A man said to the universe: “Sir I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe, “The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation.”"
~ Stephen Crane, writer
Does the universe care? I remember back in the day when I thought our generation was going to change the world, when I truly believed what I said and did would make a real difference in the course of events. I had this conviction despite my studies of history, social sciences, and politics. I held this conviction in the teeth of my mother’s disdain, my contemporaries amusement, and Gramdmom Hughes’ obvious tolerance of foolishness. I was going to make a difference. I was going to matter. I was not going to be just another cog in the wheel. When I look back at this belief, I am both bewildered at the certainty I felt that I would be able to do this -- whether as a teacher, or by joining the Peace Corps, or by entering a career in the State Department [the Peace Corp and the State Department were my fall back plan if I didn’t feel I was succeeding as a teacher] or through my writings – and confounded that I don’t remember the loss of such an overwhelming conviction. Was it when it became apparent that the job of my dreams was not available? Was it when I faced the reality that my writing was not catching anyone’s imagination but my own? Was it when I got pregnant and realized that I had a new life for which I was responsible? Whatever the catalyst was, by my mid-20s I decided that the universe did not particularly care about me, that my life and times were not a focal point on which far-reaching change was hung, and that changing the course of history was beyond my sphere of influence.
But somewhere, hidden deep inside the pragmatic thinking and prosaic determination, is that youngling who refuses to accept anonymity and still dreams of making a difference and I really like her. May she always dance in those inner regions of my soul
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All Saints Day
Today is the 4th day of the 44th week, the 1st day of the 11th month, the 305th day of 2017 [with only 53 shopping days until Christmas], and:
- All Saint's Day
- Autistic Speaking Day
- Dia de Los Muertos: 1 (Day of The Dead)
- Extra Mile Day
- Give Up Your Should's Day
- Hockey Mask Day
- Independence Day: Antigua and Barbuda from the United Kingdom in 1981.
- International Stress Awareness Day
- National Author's Day
- National Calzone Day
- National Deep Fried Clams Day
- National Eating Healthy Day
- National Family Literacy Day
- National Go Cook For Your Pets Day
- National Vinegar Day
- Prime Meridian Day – set up in 1884
- World Vegan Day
On this day:
1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time. He had begun working on it in 1508
1520 – The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first discovered and navigated by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage.
1604 – William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.
1611 – Shakespeare's play The Tempest is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.
1765 – The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the Thirteen Colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America. It required revenue stamps to be placed on commercial and legal documents, pamphlets, newspapers, almanacs, playing cards and dice. It was repealed in 1766. Historians tend to see the colonists' reactions to this as the beginning of the American revolution because it was seen as taxation without representation and a violation of their rights as Englishmen.
1894 – Thomas Edison films American sharpshooter Annie Oakley, which is instrumental in her hiring by Buffalo Bill for his Wild West Show in 1885. She promoted the service of women in combat operations for the United States armed forces as 'lady sharpshooters'.
1895 - First Paid Film Screening The Griffo-Barnett prize boxing fight is shown to a paying audience in a store on lower Broadway. This was the first paying audience for a film.
1896 – A picture showing the bare breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time as a result of an editorial decision to show pictuares of natives as they actually are
1941 – American photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography
1944 - Harvey by Mary Coyle Chase opens in New York, featuring a giant imaginary rabbit. Most folks don’t realize that it was a play first since the 1950 movie is remembered so fondly
1950 – Pope Pius XII claims papal infallibility when he formally defines the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. Popes are only considered infallible when speaking ex cathedra [with papal authority], otherwise he is as prone to error as any human. Although it was always part of Roman Catholicism, it was affirmed by Vatican I in 1870 and since then this is the only example.
1952 – The United States successfully detonates Ivy Mike, the first hydrogen bomb in a test at Eniwetok atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Word of the day:apodictic – an adjective defined as expressing or of the nature of necessary truth or absolute certainty
Actually, bread wasn’t sold already sliced until 1928 – and not everyone was impressed. It was even banned during WWII because the steel that went into the slicing machines was supposedly needed for military purposes, but there was such a public outcry that the ban was quickly lifted, the government claiming the steel savings weren’t as much as projected. Having worked for a couple of years in a bakery, this particular saying has always amused me because when buying fresh bread, people have pretty strong opinions on how it should be sliced. And if you have ever baked bread, cutting it can be a bit of a challenge to do without squashing the bread!
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All Hallows Eve
Today is the 3rd day of the 44th week, the 31st day of the 10th month, the 304th day of 2017, and:
- Books for Treats Day
- Carve a Pumpkin Day
- Day of the Seven Billion
- Girl Scout Founder's Day
- Halloween or All Hallows Eve
- National Caramel Apple Day
- National Doorbell Day
- National Increase Your Psychic Powers Day
- National Knock-Knock Jokes Day
- National Magic Day
- Reformation Day (various Protestant churches with a particular emphasis in Lutheran and Reformed ones)
- Samhain
- Scare a Friend Day
- Sneak Some of the Candy Yourself Before the Kids Start Knocking Day
- Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF Day
- World Cities Day
- World Savings Day -- announced in Milan, Italy by the Members of the Association at the 1st International Savings Bank Congress (World Society of Savings Banks) in 1924 to bring to mind the thought of saving to the worldwide public and its relevance to the economy and the individual
On this day:
1938 - The day after his "War of the Worlds" broadcast had panicked radio listeners, Orson Welles expressed "deep regret" but also bewilderment that anyone had thought the show was real.
1941 – After 14 years of work, Mount Rushmore is completed. If you haven't been there, I recommend making the trip. I was indifferent to it until we went, and the entire family was fascinated by the monument, which the kids christened "the Presidents' Faces". Photos really don't do it justice!
2000 – Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been crewed continuously since then.
2011 - the day that has been officially designated by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as the approximate day on which the world's population reached seven billion people.
2017 - NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 30 mins 49 secs of light-travel time and Voyager 2is 16 hrs 05 mins 07 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Quote of the day:
"I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him."
~ Booker T. Washington (1856 - 1915), American Educator and Black Leader
“Hate” is a strong word, one that gets bandied about as often as “love” as we ever are searching for words to indicate strong emotions. While I will and have stated that I hate liver, and have not only refused to eat it but never served it to my kids, the truth is that I just dislike it intensely [like coconut]. I have two ex-husbands, and while I still have some emotional baggage from the marriages, I cannot say that I ever “hated” them – never gave them that much control over me and the divorces taught me that the opposite of love was not hate, but indifference. It was years later that I found out that insight was not original, and there was a famous quote that reflected it already, but for me, the revelation that if I had strong feelings for or about someone, then I was ceding to that person a measure of control over my life was pretty stunning
Enjoy your evening….
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happy Monday
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there oughta be a law....
Seriously folks, can we just enjoy Halloween and Thanksgiving before plunging into the Christmas season?
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Today is the 6th day of the 43rd week, the 27th day of the 10th month, the 300th day of 2017, and:
- American Beer Day – even after Prohibition ended a few states continued to prohibit alcohol but Mississippi stayed “dry” until 1966.
- Boxer Shorts Day – were invented in 1925 by a boxers’ manager
- Cranky Co-Workers Day – if you think you don’t have any cranky co-workers, that just might mean it is you, neh?
- Frankenstein Friday – always the last Friday in October, it was created by Ron MacCloskey from Westfield, New Jersey in 1997 and he awards "The Franky Award" to someone who has made a significant contribution to the promotion of Frankenstein.
- Independence day: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines from the United Kingdom in 1979; Turkmenistan from the Soviet Union in 1991
- National Bandanna Day
- National Black Cat Day
- National Breadstick Day
- National Potato Day
- Navy Day -- celebrated today starting in 1922 because it is the birthday of 26th President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919, served 1901-1909), who was a naval enthusiast/promoter of sea power and former assistant Secretary of the Navy
- Occupational Therapy Day
- Sylvia Plath Day -- the American poet known for an intense, confessional quality of writing, was born in 1932.
- World Day for Audiovisual Heritabe
On this day:
312 – Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross -- a German scholar named Peter Weiss argued that what Constantine may have seen was a “solar halo” – with the result that he became Christian.
1936 – Mrs Wallis Simpson [who was from Baltimore] obtains her divorce decree nisi, which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne to be with the woman he loved. He did try proposing an alternative solution of a morganatic marriage, in which he would remain king but Simpson would not become queen. She would enjoy some lesser title instead, and any children they might have would not inherit the throne, but the British government wouldn't agree. He was king for 326 days and is one of the shortest-reigning monarchs in British history.
His brother, Prince Albert, Duke of York, succeeded to the throne as George VI and his oldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth, became heiress presumptive.
1967 – Catholic priest Philip Berrigan and others of the 'Baltimore Four' protest the Vietnam War by pouring blood on Selective Service records. Frank arrested him, and was not gentle as the group had pushed and pummeled the lady who was in the office to get to the records. In the pictures of Father Berrigan's arrest, those are Frank's handcuffs on him
1994 – Gliese 229B [a brown dwarf] is the first Substellar Mass Object to be unquestionably identified.
2017 -- NASA Voyager 1 is 19 hrs 30 mins 12 secs and Voyager 2 is 16 hrs 04 mins 23 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Forty years ago, in the afternoon, I was sitting on the telephone in my kitchen in our house on Poplar Drive, having a rather contentious conversation with my son’s pre-school teacher who was perturbed because he had refused the drink she had provided for snack. I patiently explained that he only liked milk and apple juice, although he would drink water. She was all huffy and told me that he should be drinking kool-aid [I hate that stuff] and Coke and the way that I was talking about these drinks, one would think they were bad for kids…. And then suddenly she stopped. I gently agreed that they were bad for kids in my opinion, and agreed that there was no reason that she should have to supply my son with anything special because he could always drink water. I was just shy of nine months pregnant, the baby wasn’t due for another two weeks although I was and felt huge and I am sure that my fatigue and exasperation were showing. Still huffy, she got off the phone and I hung up and stood up
WHOOSH!!
My water broke and there was amniotic fluid everywhere and I do mean everywhere – every time I bent over to try and mop it up, more came out. And six hours later, a little girl baby had joined our family. She has grown into an amazing woman and has two little girls of her own now, but to me, she will always be my baby daughter
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on Friday's Eve
Today is the 5th day of the 43rd week, the 26th day of the 10th month, the 209th day of 2017, and:
- Horseless Carriage Day
- Independence Day: Norway from Sweden in 1905
- Intersex Awareness Day
- National Day of The Deployed
- national Mincemeat Day
- National Mule Day -- honors the importation of the first Spanish Jacks to the US which were a gift from King Charles III of Spain delivered in 1785 in Boston; George Washington then began breeding them in the US.
- Worldwide Howl at The Moon Night ((the waxing moon isn't even quit at the 1st quarter tonight in case you were wondering))
On this day:
In 1825 – the Erie Canal opens providing passage from Albany, New York to Lake Erie. Back in the day, at 363 miles, it was the second longest canal in the world [the Grand Canal in China was longer] and it took eight years to build, and contributed to making Niagara Falls a tourist [and honeymoon] destination. A section of the canal is still open today, although it is used primarily for recreational boat traffic and is still celebrated in song.
In 1861 – The Pony Express [the popular name for the Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express Company] officially ceases operations after only 18 months. The route stretched 1,800 miles and took the riders around 10 days [a vast improvement in communications, which could take up to a month]
In 1881 – Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and "Doc" Holliday confronted Ike Clanton's gang in a gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Three members of Clanton's gang were killed; Earp's brothers were wounded. The “dime novels” and newspapers of the day fastened on this fight, the culmination of a feud, as a symbol of order VS lawlessness of the Wild Willd West and as such there have been books, and www.tcm.com%2Fmediaroom%2Fvideo%2F303141%2FGunfight-At-The-O-K-Corral-Movie-Clip-I-Like-Your-Cut.html&usg=AOvVaw1lObRDvoM7ujI3hLGS-j0Hwww.tcm.com%2Fmediaroom%2Fvideo%2F303141%2FGunfight-At-The-O-K-Corral-Movie-Clip-I-Like-Your-Cut.html&usg=AOvVaw1lObRDvoM7ujI3hLGS-j0H">movies, and even a Star Trek episode that harken back to it.
In 1977 – Ali Maow Maalin, the last natural case of smallpox, develops rash in Merca district, Somalia. The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination. BUT the virus still exists….
In 2017 -- NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 30 mins 02 secs of light-travel time from Earth. I like to keep track of how far humans have ventured into the final frontier.
Quote of the day:
“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt, humanitarian
I have had this hanging on the walls of my offices and/or cubicles for the past 20 years or so. It is not obvious – it is part of a quartet of motivational shots that show the sea and ships [the others are sayings about Risk Challenges, and Change] so unless you read the fine print, you don't realize wht is says – but of all the inspirational fodder that I used to be so fond of as a manager, it is the one that I always make sure that I hang up. I like the subtle reminder that it isn’t all about me, that whether I will or no, I do have an impact on the folks around me both in my private and work lives and probably in my 2nd Lives as well. Where some might see it as a put down, I view it as being vaguely comforting to know if nothing else, I can and will be a bad example
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Wednesday 10.25.2017
Today is the 4th day of the 43rd week, the 25th day of the 10th month, the 298th day of 2017 [with only 60 shopping days until Christmas], and:
- Chucky, The Notorious Killer Doll Day
- International Artist Day
- Lung Health Day
- National Cartoonists Against Crime Day
- National Greasy Foods Day
- Punk for a Day Day
- Sourest Day
- Unity Day – together against bullying and you are supposed to be wearing orange today
- World Pasta Day
- World Pizza Makers Day
ON THIS DAY:
In 285 – Execution by beheading of Saints Crispin and Crispinian [twin brothers it is said] during the reign of Diocletian, now the patron saints of leather workers, curriers, and shoemakers. Their feast day was removed from the Roman Catholic Church's universal liturgical calendar following the Second Vatican Council
In 1854 -- at 11 am, in a cavalry charge down a long valley, in full view of the Russian army, to take some guns. In the end, of the roughly 670 Light Brigade soldiers, about 110 were killed and 160 were wounded, a 40 percent casualty rate; they also lost approximately 375 horses – and were immortalized by Tennyson
In 2017 -- NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 29 mins 53 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Quote of the day:
"A calm and humble life will bring more happiness than the pursuit of success and the constant restlessness that comes with it."
~ Albert Einstein ((who apparently wasn't much of a tipper))
I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes people happy – and the realization that I cannot MAKE anyone else be happy is something that always sits a little uneasily on me. This realization is something that puzzles me, mainly because I think someone can make another person unhappy and seems to me that you can make someone unhappy then you should be able to make someone happy then? Certainly you can make someone uncomfortable; you can make someone poor; you can make someone busy; you can make someone tired – all of these things all factor into what I would call being unhappy because they induce anxiety, stress worry, and concern, but I guess when you come right down to it? Although you can impact an individual’s environment, you cannot determine how they are going to feel about what you are doing or not doing. It all gets a little fuzzier when it comes to relationships, doesn’t it? Lies, infidelity, abuse – these things certainly are generally held to be negatives that will make the other person[s] in a relationship with you miserable – I know it would for me. But on the other hand, for some folks who are into humiliation and pain, it is something that they crave and they would be miserable without it. Conversely, while devotion, attentiveness, kindness are generally considered to be desirable traits in a relationship, having them present doesn’t mean you are happy with that person. Like I said, I find it puzzling. I’m not even sure I can make me happy at times! Maybe I need to add glitter….
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October waning
Today is the 3rd day of the 43rd week, the 24th day of the 10th month, the 297th day of 2017, and:
- 40-Hour Work Week Day -- in 1940, the 40-hour work week went into effect in the United States. It only took 74 years to get businesses to accept it, thanks to steady pressure from the unions. Nowadays? Employers are expecting much more than eight hours a day, especially if you are in management!
- Black Thursday -- in 1929 there was a stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange, which kicked off the 12 year Great Depression.
- Food Day
- Independence Day -- Zambia from United Kingdom in 1964
- National Bologna Day
- National Crazy Day
- National Good and Plenty Day
- Take Back Your Time Day
- United Nations Day – formally founded in 1945 as 51 countries come together “…to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war; to reaffirm faith in human rights; to promote social progress and better standards of life; to practice tolerance and live together in peace and unite their strength to maintain international peace and security.” In 1949 the cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters in New York is laid.
- World Development Information Day
- World Polio Day
ON THIS DAY:
IN 1590 – John White, the governor of the second Roanoke Colony, returns to England after an unsuccessful search for the "lost" colonists. This is one of the mysteries of the colonial period - what happened to those people?
In 1851 – William Lassell discovers the moons Umbriel, and Ariel, orbiting Uranus. Lassell created the modern big reflecting telescope, was an amateur astronomer, and had the discovered Triton [Neptune's largest moon] in 1846
In 1901 – Annie Edson Taylor [with her kitten] becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel [specially built of course]. She did it for the money -- put the cash award into the mortgage on a Texas ranch; hoped to make a fortune by touring the world, but ends up dying in poverty. Would you believe that it is estimated 5,000 people have died trying to go over the falls in everything from a barrel, to a kayak, to just diving in.
In 2008 – 79 years to the day after the stock market crashed ushering in the Depression, "Bloody Friday" saw many of the world's stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices. In the US at least, this triggered a very deep recession that some consider the death knell of the middle class.
In 2017 -- NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 29 mins 43 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Picture of the day: Look Up
Quote of the day:
“You know, a lot of people come to me and they say, "Steve, how can you be so funny?" There's a secret to it, it's no big deal. Before I go out, I put a slice of bologna in each of my shoes. So when I'm on stage, I feel funny.”
~ Steve Martin, American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician
“I feel funny” is one of those colloquial expression I think, that is [or was at least] used by kids as they struggle to convey to parental units and other in-charge folks that something is not right, that something seems odd. When my kids said it, it usually referred to either abdominal pain [which resulted in either diarrhea or vomiting] or a headache, and Mom mode meant that I started taking temperatures and asking lots more questions. I have used it myself to mean feeling uncomfortable or uneasy, as in I feel funny traveling by myself at times. Haven’t heard my granddaughters say it yet so I don’t know if it is a generational saying that is dying out or not.
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an economy by any other name
Today is the 2nd day of the 43rd week [and slightly less likely to occur on a Monday or Saturday], the 23rd day of the 10th month, the 296th day of 2017 [81% of the year is past us now], and;
- Lung Health Day
- National Boston Cream Pie Day – this is my very favorite kind of cake to the point where Boston Cream donuts, the now extinct Boston Cream cheesecake, and eclairs are all deserts that I crave. Shame that most places just use vanilla pudding for the filling instead of the real rich custard though.
- National Canning Day
- National iPod Day
- National Mole Day-- celebrated among chemists, chemistry students and chemistry enthusiasts, it has nothing to do with the animal or spying
- National Slap Your Irritating Co-Worker Day ((I'm happy to report that I didn't get slapped today -- but whether or not it means I am not irritating or they are worried about liability issues, I cannot say))
- Swallows Depart from San Juan Capistrano Day -- Every year around the Day of San Juan the famous cliff swallows of San Juan Capistrano swirl into the sky and head back to their wintering grounds in Argentina, 6,000 miles south but I cannot find confirmation of when they left in 2017
- TV Talk Show Host Day – in 1925 comedian and talk show host Johnny Carson was born in Corning, Iowa. He is best known for his 30 years as host of The Tonight Show.
ON THIS DAY:
In 1884 -- Moosomin newspaper [in Saskatchewan, Canada] reports the first shipment of four railroad cars of buffalo bones to the US; used as fertilizer, and burned to make carbon black; 20,000 tons of this prairie cash crop will be shipped out before 1897. I had heard of Indians and mountain men burning buffalo chips for fuel, but apparently their bones actually burned better – interesting to contemplate what the pioneers did with the mountains of carcasses left by the likes of Buffalo Bill, neh?
In 1983 -- Dedication of the Guan Yin Buddhist Temple in Richmond; Canada designed by architect Vincent Kwan, it is North America's most architecturally authentic Chinese imperial temple, resembling Beijing’s Forbidden City. Guan Yin is the Chinese Bodhisattva/ Goddess of Compassion, Mercy and Kindness, considered to be a mother-goddess and patron of seamen. .
In 2012 – After 38 years, the world's first teletext service (BBC's Ceefax) ceases broadcast due to Northern Ireland completing the digital switchover. Looks like it was a handy program, especially pre-internet, and I wish the US had developed something like it
In 2015 – The lowest sea-level pressure in the Western Hemisphere [872 mbar (hPa); 25.75 inHg], and the highest reliably-measured non-tornadic sustained winds [maximum sustained winds of 215 mph], are recorded in Hurricane Patricia. The highest wind speed [outside of a tornado that is] was during the passage of Tropical Cyclone Olivia on 10 April 1996 when an automatic weather station on Barrow Island, Australia recorded 253 mph mph gusts
Quote of the day:
"Choice of attention, to pay attention to this and ignore that, is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer."
~ W. H. Auden (1907 - 1973) British Poet
We have been talking about the attention economy for a very long time [the book by Thomas H Davenport came out in 2002] and those discussions had a huge impact on the way that I view relationships because for the first time, I saw attention as a finite resource – folks only have so much bandwidth and when that pipe is full, then they lose focus. I have summed up that personal observation succnectly by stating “while love is infinite and flows freely, time and attention are both finite resources”; it is my strongest caveat against polyamory actually. But the attention economy was just one of the idesa we had about what would replace the Industrial Revolution: the knowledge economy, the experience economy, the technological economy, the gig economy, the service economy, etc, etc, and so forth. Whatever you call it, IMNSHO, we are in the throes of the transition and have been for the past thirty some years, which explains a lot about the kind of societal upsets we are experiencing. I hope I live long enough to see things settle down – and to get that self-driving, flying car.
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I yam who I yam....
Today is the 6th day of the 42nd week, the 20th day of the 10th month, the 293rd day of 2017, and:
- Birth of the Bab -- a prophet who foretold the coming of the Bhá’u’lláh, the founder of the Bahá’í faith
- Miss America Rose Day
- National Brandied Fruit Day
- National Call-in Day for Health Reform
- National Mammography Day
- National Pharmacy Buyer Day
- National Suspenders Day
- The International Day of the Air Traffic Controller
- World Osteoporosis Day
- World Student Day
ON THIS DAY:
1720 – Caribbean pirate Calico Jack [born Jack Rackham] is captured by the Royal Navy; he was hung the next day. It appears he is famous mainly for having two female crew members
1818 - Britain and the US sign the Convention of 1818, aka the Treaty of Joint Occupation of Oregon aka the Treaty of London; to improve relations in the wake of the War of 1812; agree that their mutual boundary should run westward from the Lake of Woods (in Minnesota), along the 49th parallel of north latitude to the Rocky Mountains; they also sign a North American Fishing Convention which restores US fishing and curing rights around the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Article 3 provides for joint control of the Oregon country – all of which isn’t quite as straightforward as it sounds
1952 -- Freddy the Pilot was published
1958 -- Freddy and the Dragon was published This was hands down my favorite series of books when I was young. Freddy was written by the same author who gave us Mr. Ed [which was also a TV show that I enjoyed] and he has his own very active fan club and yes I am a member although I have yet to make it to the annual convention. My mother, who monitored my reading pretty closely, had assumed that Freddy was a little boy – much to my adolescent disgust because who wanted to read about a little boy? -- and when she found out he was a pig, she tried unsuccessfully to ban the books as “ridiculous fantasy”. She kinda washed her hands of me after I discovered science fiction and fantasy.
1992 -- The host Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2 in the first World Series game played outside the United States. Always seemed a bit bombastic of us to claim this is a "world series" when only American teams are playing! That is exactly like the "Miss Universe" title -- why do we think that an Earth gal is all that and a bag of chips?
Picture of the day: The photographer lives near my friend in Las Cruses and takes absolutely stunning pictures of the desert. The juniper in this picture is well over a century old and is now dying
Quote of the day:
"You are today where your thoughts have brought you, you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you."
~ James Allen (1864 - 1912), British philosophical writer
This quote resonates with me. I firmly believe that I am who I am today because of the choices that I have made. Who I will be tomorrow is based on the choices I am making [or in some cases not making today], and I could not go back and change these choices without changing who I am. It is a common theme in fiction, for example Jean Luc Picard faced this courtesy of Q and Peggy Sue found out that she couldn’t change the past except in small details. My kids once asked me if I would change anything in the past – especially the two marriages that ended in rather acrimonious and contentious divorces – and I told them I would not, because then neither of them would’ve been born and I didn’t want to change that.
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the Festival of Lights
Today Hindus all over the world are celebrating Diwali with feasts and lights of all kinds, with gifts and family!
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one of those days
yup. That about sums it up
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a Tuesday of no particular note
Today is the 3rd day of the 42nd week, the 17th day of the 10th month, the 290th day of 2017 [it’s too close to be funny so I’m not telling you how many shopping days until Christmas this year anymore], and:
- Black Poetry Day ((a day for poetry to celebrate the color black, a day for poetry about blacks, a day for poetry by blacks, or a day to write poetry about your dystopian vision))
- Four Prunes Day – you can rely on these dried plums to keep you regular and they make really moist bread too
- Information Overload Day
- International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
- Mulligan day -- since the 1920’s, in golf, a mulligan happens when a player gets a second chance to perform a certain move or action. I think I like the idea of having a day devoted to do-overs whether it is an old relationship or just a hobby that you put down
- National Edge Day
- National Face Your Fears Day
- National Pasta Day
- National Pharmacy Technician Day
- Pay Back A Friend Day
- Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity
- Spreadsheet Day
- Wear Something Gaudy Day
- World Trauma Day
On this day:
In 1814 – Eight people die in the London Beer Flood. Yup, you read that right -- there was a fatal flood in London of beer, over one million litres in volume and in a tidal wave at least 15 feet high.
In 1933 – Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States. Actually he was already in the US and when Hitler came to power he didn’t return because he was Jewish. The fact that the Nazis ridiculed his Theory of Relativity and specifically denounced him had a lot to do with that decision. He did return to Europe, and renounced his German citizenship while staying in Belgium in March, returning to the US in October to take a position in Princeton
In 1965 – The 1964–65 New York World's Fair closes after a two-year run. More than 51 million people had attended the event -- my mother and I went to see it the summer of '65, one of the few outings that I can recall going on with her. We traveled up for the day on the train. I remember the Parker Pen exhibit where I ended up with my pen pals; walking through the GM giant automobile motor; It's a Small World; and Mom fussing because the Maryland pavilion was serving crab cakes on hamburger rolls instead of properly on crackers.
In 1973 – OPEC imposes an oil embargo that lasted until March 1974 against a number of Western countries, considered to have helped Israel in its war against Egypt and Syria. Do you remember sitting in line to get gas, when you could only buy on certain days depending on your license plate number [odd or even last digit] and the Christmas without lights?
In 2017 -- NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 28 mins 33 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Picture of the day: I couldn’t find the original source of the picture, but it is all over the wallpaper sites!
Quote of the day:
“We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.”
~ Henry Ward Beecher
I remember having this conversation with the CEO at Commercial & Farmers Bank, in the lunchroom. The point I made as he reflected on his past, was that in his life he had X amount of KSA. If his mother had stayed with the coal miner she divorced, then that KSA would’ve only taken him so far. But because she went back to his grandfather, who was a university professor, he started much further up on the social scale and that same KSA took him to where he was. Got chewed out by the executive secretary for that one because Roberta, bless her heart, thought it was disrespectful of me to talk to him like that, but Jack understood what I meant and agreed with me. Unbeknownst to me, I was describing the advantages of starting from a place of privilege; I was just explaining why I wasn’t particularly impressed by titles or position.. Never have been. Never will be.
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just another Monday....
Today is the 2nd day of the 42nd week [just think, 4/5 of the year is gone!], the 16th day of the 10th month, the 289th day of 2017 [with 69 shopping days until Christmas], and:
- Global Cat Day
- International Adjust Your Chair Day
- Multicultural Diversity Day
- National Boss Day
- National Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day
- National Cut Up Your Credit Card Day
- National Department Store Day
- National Dictionary Day
- National Feral Cat Day
- National Learn a Word Day
- National Liquor Day
- Steve Jobs Day
- World Food Day
- World Spine Day
On this day: I am trying out a new format and only posting things that for one reason or another interests me.
In 1793 – Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis XVI, is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution. She was 38, and there seems to be some doubt whether or not she really said “let them eat cake” .
In 1843 – Sir William Rowan Hamilton comes up with the idea of quaternions, a non-commutative extension of complex numbers. The definitions don’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but I found out they're used in computer graphics and mechanics calculations to calculate movement and rotation
In 1869 – The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered", as George Hull passes off a stone statue as a petrified man.
In 1923 – The Walt Disney Company is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney. I will never forget the moment I fell in love with Disney – it was in the summer of 1986 on EPCOT’s Imagination ride.
In 1962 – the world came to and teetered on the brink of nucklear war as a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union known as the Cuban missile crisis [AKA the October Crisis, the Caribbean Crisis, or the Missile Scare] began as President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba.
Quote of the day:
“I would like to become tolerant without overlooking anything, persecute no one even when all people persecute me; become better without noticing it; become sadder, but enjoy living; become more serene, be happy in others; belong to no one, grow in everyone; love the best, comfort the worst; not even hate myself anymore.”
~ Elias Canetti, The Human Province
Why this quote? Because it speaks to me about goals. Because like so many folks, I am my own worse critic. I always find it interesting in a rather depressing and disturging way when I shut down because I don’t know what to say, and my body language and facial expression are taken to mean disapproval or judgement. I guess because I come across as garrulous at times when I am silent, folks read more into it? I don’t know. As I grow older, I find that I have a tendency to close down more and more, and that of coursse is a self-fulfilling activity because the more I stay alone the more I am alone, the more up-tight I am in company the more difficult I find it to relax. It is easy to concentrate on all the negatives and forget to give oneself credit for all the positives, neh?
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10.11.2017
Today is the 4th day of the 41st week, the 11th day of the 10th month, the 284th day of 2017, and:
- "You Go, Girl" Day
- Emergency Nurses Day
- General Pulaski Memorial Day
- International Day of the Girl Child
- International Top Spinning Day
- Myths and Legends Day
- National Bring Your Teddy Bear to Work and School Day
- National Coming Out Day
- National Food Truck Day
- National Fossil Day
- National It' My Party Day
- National Pet Obesity Awareness Day
- National Sausage Pizza Day
- National Stop Bullying Day
- National Take your Parents to Lunch Day
- Southern Food Heritage Day
- Stop America's Violence Everywhere Day
Quote of the day:
"True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only."
~ Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld, French author of maxims and memoirs
Sounds like advice to de-clutter your prose and communications. Not too sure how I feel about this as polished rhetoric is pretty much inimical to babbling, and babbling is what I do best. That and asking questions…..
So, what do you thiink about trimming things here in the blog? Should I keep culling the history pages and listing what happened on this day that I find interesting? Or is just another list not something you are interested in reading about? Like today -- back in In 1582 – this day doesn’t even exist in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain because they switched to the Gregorian calendar. Back in those days, when a Pope issued a papal bull most of the Western world paid attention because they were all officially Roman Catholic, so ten whole days just disappeared from the calendar as they jumped from Thursday, October 4th to Friday October 15th overnight. Are you the slightest bit impressed t know that in 1767 the surveying for the Mason–Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania was completed? That is the unofficial divide between the North and the South on the East Coast, you know. Or how about the fact that in 1910 Theodore Roosevelt became the first US president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey in a plane built by the Wright brothers at Kinloch Field (Lambert–St. Louis International Airport) in St. Louis, Missouri. The press was not impressed. Do you want to know that NASA launched a moon probe the year after the Russians shocked the world with Sputnik? It was 1958 -- a lunar probe called Pioneer 1, but it fell back to Earth and burnt up. They did better a decade later, in 1968 NASA launched Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard. Do you care that 42 years ago today the NBC sketch comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live debuted and is apparently still ruffling feathers today?
Maybe I should stop just listing thing and go back to the kind of discussion of things that happened on this day in history like I just did. Don’t know precisely when I went to the list, but babbling is much more interesting I think
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the day after a long weekend....
Today is the 3rd day of the 41st week, the 10th day of the 10th month, the 283rd day of 2017 [chew on that for a moment – over ¾ of the year is history], and:
- Ada Lovelace Day --
- Headspace Day [Australia]
- Hug a Drummer Day
- International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction
- International Newspaper Carrier Day
- International Stage Management Day
- National Angel Food Cake Day
- National Cake Decorating Day
- National Face Your Fears Day
- National Handbag Day
- National Love Your Hair Day
- National Metric Day
- National SHIFT10 Day – encouraging you to buy more from small retailers
- National Tuxedo Day
- Powers of Ten Day
- Squid and Cuttlefish Day
- US Naval Academy Day
- World Child Development Day
- World Homeless Day
- World Hospice and Palliative Care Day
- World Mental Health Day
- World Porridge Day
Quote of the day:
“Doing nothing is very hard to do ... you never know when you're finished.”
~ Leslie Nielsen, Canadian actor, comedian, and producer
At least it is a short work week, neh?
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October 9th
Today is the 2nd day of the 41st week, the last day of a 3-day weekend, the 282nd day of 2017, and: -
Columbus Day -- the 2nd Monday of October these days instead of the 12th -
Curious Events Day -
Fire Prevention Day -
International Beer and Pizza Day -
Leif Erikson Day -
National Chess Day [debatable, some say it is the 13th] -
National Kick Butt Day -
National Moldy Cheese Day -
National Online Banking Day -
National Pro-Life Cupcakes Day -
National Sneakers Day -
Native American Day -
Nautilus Night (Cephalopods) -
Submarine-Hoagie-Hero-Grinder Day -
World Post Day See? I am not the only one who dreads Monday morning!
Today is my mother's birthday. Had she lived, she would be 90 today. I have written before about my relationship with her, or rather the lack of a relationship, but on this day I always revisit the past. It isn't so much that I regret what happened -- I just wish that things had been different. As I deal with my daughter's difference in child-raising philosophy, I often wonder what she would've thought of the choices I made in raising my kids. You see, in my mother's family, loving someone was dependent on their being aware of their place in the family, of their accepting the roles and responsibilities that being a family member entails, that they conform. If you didn't do those things, if you went off the rails or were other than what was expected? Then they couldn't love you, couldn't accept you. Her family totally would've cast anyone out who loved someone "inappropriate" -- a married person, a member of the same sex, a member of a different ethnicity. Fortunately, my father's family were more inclusive -- while reserving the right to be all kinds of judgemental and reading you the riot act, their love was unconditional. They may not like what you are doing or what you became, but they would always love you and wouldn't think of casting you out. And that was what I tried to give my two children, unconditional love, the feeling that no matter what, I would always love them. My mother couldn't give it to me, or to her grandchildren, because she had never had it herself and didn't know what it looked like. And to my sorrow, she didn't get it from her daughter either -- that is what I wish I could've done better. I couldn't handle her disapproval and distaste and I withdrew -- we were estranged for most of my adulthood.
I'm not a cemetary visitor -- always thought I would be one of those punctilious folks who showed up with flowers on every birthday and holiday -- but on this day, I think about my mother and her life, that I had known her better as a person instead of a parent, and wish that she could've shared more of her journey with me and my kids. On this day, I know that there will never be a chance to build a bridge between us, and it is that lost potential that I actually am grieving for....
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3 day weekends
Today is the 6th day of the 40th week, the 6th day of the 9th month, the 279th day of 2017 [with only 77 shopping days until Christmas], and:
- American Libraries Day
- Come and Take It Day
- Garlic Lovers Day
- Jackie Mayer Rehab Day
- Lee National Denim Day
- Mad Hatter Day
- Manufacturing Day
- National Diversity Day
- National German American Day
- National Noodle Day
- National Physician's Assistant Day
- National Plus Size Appreciation Day
- Plaidurday
- World Smile Day
ON THIS DAY:
105 BC – The Cimbri inflict the heaviest defeat on the Roman army of Gnaeus Mallius Maximus at the Battle of Arausio:.
1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day is skipped in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1600 – Jacopo Peri's Euridice, the earliest surviving opera, receives its première performance in Florence, signifying the beginning of the Baroque period
1683 – German immigrant families found Germantown in the colony of Pennsylvania, marking the first major immigration of German people to America.
1889 - The Moulin Rouge cabaret opened in Paris.
1890 - US President William McKinley brings in the protective McKinley Tariff; Canada applies counter-tariffs soon after; this punitive American measure stifles trade and leads to recession on both sides of the border
1927 – Opening of The Jazz Singer, the first prominent "talkie" movie.
1977 – The first prototype of the Mikoyan MiG-29, designated 9-01, makes its maiden flight.
1995 – 51 Pegasi is discovered to be the second major star apart from the Sun to have a planet orbiting around it.
2007 – Jason Lewis completes the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.
2008 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed below 10,000 for the first time since 2004.
Picture of the day:
Quote of the day:
“But what is work and what is not work? Is it work to dig, to carpenter, to plant trees, to fell trees, to ride, to fish, to hunt, to feed chickens, to play the piano, to take photographs, to build a house, to cook, to sew, to trim hats, to mend motor bicycles? All of these things are work to somebody, and all of them are play to somebody. There are in fact very few activities which cannot be classed either as work or play according as you choose to regard them.”
~ George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier
Me? Most of my daily activities Monday through Friday are definitely classifed as “work”. I managed to make it through the EOM/EOQ and only have a couple of reports that aren’t as time sensitive to generate. And not only did I get a short work week this week courtesy of my trip to Anime Weekend Atlanta, I also get a short work week next week courtesy of Christopher Columbus!
Know what? I don't even care that it i unseasonably warm and I don't have A/C!
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back from my trip
buckle your seatbelts - it's going to be a bumpy ride
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the days of our lives
Today is the 2nd day of the 39th week, the 25th day of the 9th month, the 268th day of 2017 [with only 90 shopping days until Christmas], and:
- Family Day
- International Ataxia Awareness Day
- Math Storytelling Day
- National Comic Book Day
- National Cooking Day
- National Crab Meat Newburg Day
- National Food Service Employee Day
- National Lobster Day
- National One-Hit Wonder Day
- National Psychotherapy Day
- National Research Administrator Day
- National Tune-Up Day
- World Dream Day
- World Pharmacist Day
ON THIS DAY:
275 – In Rome (after the assassination of Aurelian), the Senate proclaims Marcus Claudius Tacitus Emperor.
762 – Led by Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, the Hasanid branch of the Alids begins the Alid Revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate.
1513 – Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches what would become known as the Pacific Ocean by crossing the Isthmus of Panama.
1690 – Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, the first newspaper to appear in the Americas, is published for the first and only time.
1789 – The United States Congress passes twelve amendments to the United States Constitution: The Congressional Apportionment Amendment (which was never ratified), the Congressional Compensation Amendment, and the ten that are known as the Bill of Rights.
1790 – Peking opera is born when the Four Great Anhui Troupes introduce Anhui opera to Beijing in honor of the Qianlong Emperor's eightieth birthday.
1906 – Leonardo Torres y Quevedo demonstrates the Telekino, guiding a boat from the shore, in what is considered to be the first use of a remote control.
1929 – Jimmy Doolittle performs the first blind flight from Mitchel Field proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing is possible.
1956 – TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system, is inaugurated.
1992 – NASA launches the Mars Observer, a $511 million probe to Mars, in the first U.S. mission to the planet in 17 years. Eleven months later, the probe would fail.
2017 - NASA Voyager is 19 hrs 24 mins 31 secs of light-travel time from Earth
Who do you think of when you use the phrase “the older generation”?
If you are like me, the first thing that comes to mind are our grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles – and any of their contemporary cousins etc that we know about. Oh there is a moment of disorientation when your grandparents and their cronies fade away, or when you look at your grandchildren and remember how OLD your grandmother looked to you when you were their age, but I doubt that you give it much thought. When your parents go, that gives you pause. Not only are you an orphan now, not only have you lost the two people you have literally known all your life, but somehow there is the first stirring of the thought that you are next in line. That incipient thought strengthens as your parents’ generation ends their life journeys – your cousins, your friends, your associates start to find themselves standing as the “older generation” now.
Somehow I am not prepared for this. I rather thought that when I reached this point, I would be …. wiser, more settled, more experienced with a richer tapestry behind me -- in short, I would be a true wise woman, ready to take my respected place in society. Well that isn’t happening! I don’t think of myself as “old”, never did get the hang of acting my age and quite frankly? At times I am *coughs* hot to trot as the saying goes and more than a little annoyed that men my age are all going for gals 15 years younger while the 15 year younger guys are rather uninterested in my person. I am still working for a living. Experience? kinda a relative term -- my internal and 2nd lives are richer and more varied than my 1st life, and I have a wealth of interpersonal interactions, but I haven’t done a lot of travel, of seeing and doing things. . And yet, I am 67 and today I realize the generation of my family before me is all but gone, leaving me and my six cousins facing the future and the past in a society that seems to treasure its older folks less and less.
*whispers* but as far as I am concerned, “old” is still 15 years older than me….
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that time of year
Today is the 6th day of the 38th week, the 22nd day of the 9th month, the 265th day of 2017 [with only 93 shopping days until Christmas], and:
- American Business Women's Day
- Autumnal Equinox [AKA the first day of fall] in the Northern Hemisphere
- Bright Pink Lipstick Day
- Chainmail Day
- Dear Diary Day
- Elephant Appreciation Day
- Hobbit Day
- Independence Day: Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire in 1908 and Mali from France in 1960.
- International Day of Radiant Peace
- Love Note Day
- Mabon -- a harvest festival, the second of three [Lammas and Samhain are the other two], that encourages pagans to “reap what they sow,” both literally and figuratively.
- National Centenarian's Day
- National Elephant Appreciation Day
- National Hobbit Day
- National Ice Cream Cone Day
- National Legwear Day
- National White Chocolate Day
- Native American Day
- Proposal Day
- Spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere
- World Carfree Day
- World Rhino Day
ON THIS DAY:
904 – The warlord Zhu Quanzhong kills Emperor Zhaozong, the penultimate emperor of the Tang dynasty, after seizing control of the imperial government.
1538 - Jacques Cartier receives 50 écus d'or from the French royal treasury for the instruction of Aboriginal youth
1692 – The last of those convicted of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials are hanged; the remainder of those convicted are all eventually released.
1823 – Joseph Smith states he found the golden plates on this date after being directed by God through the Angel Moroni to the place where they were buried.
1888 – The first issue of National Geographic Magazine is published.
1892 – Lindal Railway Incident, providing inspiration for "The Lost Special" by AC Doyle and the TV serial Lost. The locomotive involved still lies buried beneath the railway, though the depth remains a source of speculation.
1927 – Gene Tunney successfully defended his heavyweight boxing title against Jack Dempsey in the "long count" fight in Chicago. ((for some reason Alexa thought this was the most important news story for this day and went on at length about it))
1949 - The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb.
1964 - The musical "Fiddler on the Roof" opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 3,242 performances.
1979 – A bright flash, resembling the detonation of a nuclear weapon, is observed near the Prince Edward Islands. Its cause is never determined.
1969 - Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants hit his 600th career home run during a game in San Diego.
2004 - "Lost" premiered on ABC.
2017 – OSIRIS-REx swings by Earth for a gravity assist to its speed
Word of the day: dotard
Quote of the day:
According to the meteorological calendar, the fall season started back on September 1st and will end on November 30th. While the date on the calendars are determined by astronomical calculations and thus very from year to year, the weather gurus broke the seasons into three month groups based on the annual average temperatures – which tends to match more closely with how we feel about the weather.
Fall has always been my favorite time of year. As a kid, I was always ready to leave summer behind and go back to school usually with new clothes and that feeling of starting afresh, a new beginning Never a fan of hazy, hot, humid weather, I enjoy the crisp mornings and nights of the new season. Despite having hayfever, the leaves and nuts falling from the trees has always fascinated me. And the trifecta of holidays that rolled out in my life – Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas -- one right after another in a glittering panoply! Other folks celebrate too – Eid al-Adha and Muharram, Rosh Soshana and Yom Kippur, Diwali, Bodhi, Chanukah and the Winter Solstice. So much to do, to see, to taste, to hear!
It ALMOST makes up for the winter.....
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Friday Eve musing
Today is the 5th day of the 38th week, the 21st day of the 9th month, the 264th day of 2017:
- International Day of Peace
- Islamic New Year
- Miniature Golf Day
- National Farm Safety for Kids
- National Pecan Cookie Day
- National Surgical Technologists Day
- National Teach Ag Day
- Pause the World Day
- RAINN Day (Rape Abuse Incest National Network)
- Rosh Hashanah [started at sundown yesterday]
- World Alzheimer's Day
- World Gratitude Day
- and the last day of summer....
ON THIS DAY:
455 – Emperor Avitus enters Rome with a Gallic army and consolidates his power.
1621 - King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) officially grants Canada (including Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and parts of Maine) to his secretary Sir William Alexander, first Earl of Sterling
1843 – John Williams Wilson takes possession of the Strait of Magellan on behalf of the newly independent Chilean government.
1897 - the New York Sun ran an editorial answering a question from an 8-year-old girl that included the line, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."
1931 - Britain went off the gold standard.
1933 – Salvador Lutteroth ran the first ever EMLL (now CMLL) show in Mexico, marking the birth of Lucha libre.
1937 – J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published
1942 – The Boeing B-29 Superfortress makes its maiden flight.
1957 - Raymond Burr stars in Perry Mason, premiering on CBS; the creation of attorney/novelist Erle Stanley Gardner, it First appeared a CBS radio series (1943-1955); the Vancouver-born actor will play the TV role for 9 seasons, making it the longest-running lawyer series on television.
2003 – The Galileo Probe is terminated by sending it into Jupiter.
Quote of the day:
“So let's stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall”.
~ Romans 14:13 NLT
I was looking for a picture about Thursday, a cute little quote about how it is just one more day until Friday. Instead I found this:
Made me well up. When I look back on my life, on relationships that have ended, on people who left taking a piece of my heart with them, I have wondered more than once if they think of me and wonder ….. So I am sharing it.
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once more.....
Today is the 4th day of the 38th week, the 20th day of the 9th month, the 263rd day of 2017, and:
- National Gibberish Day
- National Punch Day
- National Rehabilitation Day
- National School Backpack Awareness Day
- National String Cheese Day
ON THIS DAY:
622 – Muhammad and Abu Bakr arrived in Medina
1378 – Cardinal Robert of Geneva, called by some the "Butcher of Cesena", is elected as Avignon Pope Clement VII, beginning the Papal schism.
1498 – The 1498 Nankai earthquake generates a tsunami that washes away the building housing the statue of the Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan; since then the Buddha has sat in the open air.
1519 – Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain on a voyage to find a western passage to the Spice Islands in Indonesia.
1596 – Diego de Montemayor founds the city of Monterrey in New Spain.
1870 – Bersaglieri corps enter Rome through the Porta Pia and complete the unification of Italy, ending de facto the temporal power of popes.
1893 – Charles Duryea and his brother road-test the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile.
1946 – The first Cannes Film Festival is held, having been delayed seven years due to World War II.
1973 - Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a $100,000 winner-take-all tennis match.
1998 - After playing in a record 2,632 consecutive games over 16 seasons, Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles sat out a game against the New York Yankees.
Word of the day: holus-bolus
Quote of the day:
Robert Greene’s 47th Law of Power: "Do not go past the mark you aimed for; in victory, learn when to stop."
~ HT Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
The GOP in the Senate has once again decided that the rest of the country has more health care insurance coverage than it needs or deserves, so they are once more trying to ram through a repeal of the ACA [AKA Obamacare]. The GOP has a long history of making health care pricey and unavailable, neh? Richard Nixon saw to it back in 1973 that medical insurance agencies, hospitals, clinics and even doctors, could begin functioning as for-profit business entities instead of service organizations, making them more mindful of their bottom lines than the patients’ wellbeing because investors need to make money. Ronald Reagan warned repeatedly that “socialized medicine would curtail American’s freedom”. Today’s GOP, in an absolutely stunning triumph of Calvinism and Libertarianism, wants to make sure the wealthy do not have to give anything in the way of taxes to those less fortunate.
How about all of Congress – House and Senate – and the White House get the same exact coverage that they vote for the rest of the US? Let’s see how they handle the next catastrophic illness or accident in their family!
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CEOExpress
