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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.
Part of today’s post is also a writing challenge. This is how it works: one of the contributing bloggers picked a number between 12 and 74. The submitted number is a challenge to participating bloggers to write at least one piece using that exact number of words.
This month, the word count number is: 40
It was submitted by: Karen of Baking in a Tornado
Links to the other Word Counters posts:
We know cat lovers who can put us to shame. Mr. BA and Ms. GA washed their sheets but didn't get the bed remade before Abigail and Big Red got snuggled in the blankets, so they used the guest bed!
Ms. S was given a warning from her doctor that she's lost too much weight, and i can tell you why. When i got her meal served up, she said, "I filled up on smells and now I'm not hungry!"
We've had quite a bit of ice, and very cold temperatures, with wires or poles down and no electricity in many places. Ms. V and her family have a generator, so i was able to finish cleaning Carl's apartment anyway.
While i was cleaning, the family across the street called. After the Flood of 2016, they stayed in Carl's apartment while rebuilding their house, and they were asking to use the apartment now during the power outage, it's so cold.
Ms. V told them, "Well, since 'mimi' is cleaning the apartment today, of course you can use it! Otherwise, it wouldn't be fit for you to stay in there!" Talk about pressure, i sanitized everything and hand scrubbed the floors.
Our neighborhood also has poles down, and i've never seen the trees so bent under the weight of the ice on them. Those of us with generators are thankful during summer storms, and doubly so now. Swamps don't need ice!
Now for some interesting inventions, fun facts, and funnies, all courtesy of Grandma forwarding them to me:
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| Instead of a door knob, open the door with your foot! |
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| Pedestrian crossing that can give extra time to the elderly or disabled. |
Do you remember these and how to use them?
Funnies:
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| Finally, we've needed this place! |
Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!
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Today is:
9-1-1 Day -- the first 911 call in North America was placed, demonstrating the new system, on this day in 1968
Akiyoshidai Yamayaki -- Akiyoshidai, Japan (dry grass on the mountain side is burned in this coming of spring ceremony; date subject to change)
Bonten Matsuri -- Miyoshi-jinja Shrine, Akita, Japan (two day festival to ask for good crops this year)
Do a Grouch a Favor Day -- internet generated attempt to get us to either get the grouches on our side, or make us cynical
Independence Day -- Lithuania (National Day/Restoration of Statehood)(1918)
International Pancake Day
Kyoto Protocol Day -- International (treaty on climate change; today is proposed as "Wear purple for Kyoto Day")
Mardi Gras -- Fat Tuesday, Carnival, the last day to feast before the Lenten fast begins tomorrow, greeted with revelry in many parts of the world; related observances and names:
Scotland, Fasten's E'en or Bannocky Day
Portuguese, Terça-feira Gorda
Italian, Martedì Grasso
Swedish, Fettisdagen
Danish, Fastelavn
Norwegian, Fastelavens
Estonian, Vastlapäev
Spanish, Martes de Carnaval
German, Faschingsdienstag
Hawaiian, Malasada Day
Lithuanian, Uzgavenes
Icelandic, Sprengidagur (literally, Bursting Day)
also Pancake Day or Bursting Day, the day to eat the last of the eggs and butter in the form of some kind of fried cakes, and to eat until bursting
National Almond Day
Respectable Tales of Kelp-Koli -- Fairy Calendar (5 minutes only)
Shrove Tuesday -- Christian
St. Juliana of Cumae's Day (Patron of the ill)
St. Onesimus' Day (runaway slave of Philemon, converted by Paul, of whom the Letter to Philemon was written)
Vasant Panchami / Saraswati Puja -- Hindu (celebrating Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge)
Birthdays Today:
Christopher Eccleston, 1964
John McEnroe, 1959
Ice T, 1959
LeVar Burton, 1957
James Ingram, 1956
William Katt, 1951
Richard Ford, 1944
Barry Primus, 1938
Sonny Bono, 1935
Vera-Ellen, 1921
Patty Andrews, 1920
Jimmy Wakely, 1914
Hugh Beaumont, 1909
Richard McDonald, 1909
George Kennan, 1904
Edgar Bergan, 1903
Robert Joseph Flaherty, 1884
Johann Strauss, 1866
Nichiren, 1222
Emperor Yingzong of China, 1032
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"What's My Line"(TV Game Show), 1950
"Le Voyageur Sans Baggage"(Anouilh Play), 1937
"The Marquise"(Coward Play), 1927
"Chung Sai Yat Po"(Publication; first Chinese daily newspaper in US), 1900
"Werther"(Massenet Opera), 1892
"Ladies' Home Journal"(Publication), 1883
"Orpheus"(Liszt Opera), 1854
"Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard"(First Publication), 1751
Today in History:
9th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet, 374
Pope Gregory the Great issues a decree saying that "God bless you" is the correct response to a sneeze, 600
English king Charles I accepts Triennial Act, requiring the king to assemble Parliament at least once every 3 years, 1641
The first known check (cheque) is written, for 400 English Pounds Sterling (currently on display at Westminster Abbey), 1659
Kentucky passes a law permitting women to attend school under certain conditions, 1838*
Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulus, 1838
American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica, 1840
The Battle of Sobraon ends the First Sikh War in India, 1846
Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established, 1852
The French Government passes a law to set the A-note above middle C to a frequency of 435 Hz, in an attempt to standardize the pitch, 1859
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks forms, 1868
The "Ladies Home Journal" begins publishing, 1883
The first Chinese daily newspaper in the US, Chung Sai Yat Po, begins publication in San Francisco, 1900
The first US Esperanto Club organizes in Boston, 1905
The first synagogue in 425 years opens in Madrid, Spain, 1917
Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, 1923
The first patent is issued for a tree, to James Markham for a peach tree, 1932
Wallace H. Carothers receives a United States patent for nylon, 1937
Canadians are granted Canadian citizenship after 80 years of being British subjects. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes the first Canadian citizen, 1947
Britain abolishes the death penalty, 1956
Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1, 1959
In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service, 1968
The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois), 1978
The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed "Ivan the Terrible" in Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem, 1987
The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia, 2005
The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army, 2006
China announces it will relocate 9,000 people in Guizhou province, before completion of world's largest telescope (FAST), designed to look for extraterrestrial life, 2016
Pope Francis defrocks ex-cardinal and archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick for sexually abusing minors and adults, making him the first Cardinal to be removed for sexual abuse, 2019
The United States removes 400 citizens quarantined for Covid19 on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama, Japan, 2020