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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Sandee at Comedy Plus, and BeThere2Day.
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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.
This month, the prompts are being provided by River at her blog, Drifting Through Life.
This week's words are:
1. covered
2. alloys
3. skidded
4. potpourri
5. fixation
6. chemical
7. earmarked
8. lettuce
Jeremy SKIDDED into the booth at the diner where his cousin Jerome was waiting, slowing just long enough to mutter to Loretta, "Hamburger, please."
"LETTUCE and tomato?" she asked.
"Do I look like a rabbit?" Jeremy grinned. They went through that routine every time he ordered a burger.
"Are you as tired as I am?" Jerome asked.
"Yes, but we'll get used to it by Christmas," Jeremy replied.
"You'd think we'd be used to it by now, but the start of the new school year whips me every time. New faces in the classes, but the same old attitudes and excuses." Jerome stopped to take a sip of his coffee, then signaled to Loretta that it was time for a topping off.
She came over with the pot and another cup for Jeremy. "You two kvetching about school again?" she asked. "You know you wouldn't do anything else. You like them kids. Heck, even I like them kids, as long as they don't use ketchup to paint on the tables when they come in late Friday nights."
"Of course we wouldn't," Jerome said. "There aren't any other jobs in this tired old town anyway, and these kids know it. They're biding their time until they can leave. What I wish I could get into their heads more easily was the understanding that if they don't learn what we're teaching, they aren't going to do any better anywhere else than they'd do staying here and working on their parents' farms."
"At least most of the kids in your class want to be there," Jeremy said.
"In the woodworking class, yes. Civics, not so much."
"That's right, you did draw the short straw and get that class this year. Still, try getting CHEMICAL formulas into those heads. Last semester, after I'd spent more than a week and COVERED the reactions that create ALLOYS, half of them couldn't even list two of the metals used to form steel."
Loretta interrupted again, this time with their meals. "What do you think of the new teacher?" she asked.
"The one with a FIXATION on POTPOURRI?" Jeremy laughed.
"Ah, she's not so bad," Jerome said. "She certainly knows math, and even if her classroom smells like a candle shop, she cracked down on a couple of unruly students in a truly stunning manner.
"You know that old, gigantic tractor wheel that's been in the pasture next to the track since forever? She took them out there and told them to pick it up and turn it over. Then do it again. She told them to keep doing it until she told them to stop, and since Coach was out there, she had him watch while the track team was training to make sure they didn't stop. She went in and finished teaching the class. She told the students that anyone who cuts up in her class can expect to be doing that, and she hasn't had any trouble since."
"I'll bet that was a sight to see," Loretta laughed.
The men laughed with her, and Jerome said, "It's my week," passing her a couple of bills. She knew one was EARMARKED for her tip and thanked him.
"Next week?" Jeremy said.
"Of course," Jerome answered. "I wouldn't miss when it's your week to pay," and all three laughed as the two men went their separate ways.
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Today is:
Ayathrem -- Zoroastrianism (feast of bringing the herds and flocks home, a five-day feast, dates approximate)
Bring Your Teddy Bear to Work Day -- at your own risk! sponsored by Susan E. Schwartz of "Teddies Are The Answer"
Cephalopod Awareness Days: Fossil Day -- celebrating the most intelligent invertebrates in the world; today, for all the "incredible suckers that have gone extinct"
Child Rambunctiousness Appreciation Day -- remembering back to when we didn't say every kid with ants in his/her pants needed drugs
Children's Day / Feast of Our Lady of Aparecida -- Brazil
Cloud-Stamping Pentathlon -- Fairy Calendar
Day of Fortuna Redux -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of successful journeys and lucky homecomings, favored by travelers and soldiers)
Day of Giving the Black Land to Horus and the Red Land to Set -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)
Day of National Concern About Young People and Gun Violence -- US (students around the nation are asked to sign the Pledge Against Gun Violence)
"Discovery" of America by Columbus, actual date; most government holidays will be on the Monday nearest this date
Columbus Day -- Turks and Caicos Islands; US and Territories
Descubrimiento de América -- Mexico
Día de la Hispanidad or Fiesta Nacional de España -- Spain
Dia de la Raza -- Latin America and especially Guatemala (Day of the Race, or Day of the Natives)
Día de la Resistencia Indígena -- Venezuela (Day of Indigenous Resistance)
Dia de las Americas/Descubrimiento de America -- Uruguay
Dia de las Culturas -- Costa Rica (Day of the Cultures)
Dia del Descubrimiento de dos Mundos -- Chile
Discovery Day -- Bahamas
Encuentro de Dos Mundos -- Ecuador
National Heritage Day -- Turks and Caicos Islands
Pan America Day -- Belize
Emergency Nurses Day
Fiesta Nacional de Espana -- Spain (National Day/Hispanity Day)
Freethought Day -- celebration by Freethinkers of the effective ending date of the Salem witch trials
Independence Day -- Equatorial Guinea(1968)
International Moment of Frustration Scream Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, who want you to go outside at 1200GMT and scream for 30 seconds so we can all get it out of our systems
National Fossil Day -- US (National Park Service information)
National Gumbo Day
National Pet Obesity Awareness Day -- because about half of pets in the US are overweight or obese
National Pulled Pork Day
National Stop Bullying Day -- use #NationalStopBullyingDay to post on social media (begun in 2009 by eighteen 6th grade students at St. Stanislaus Kostka School, now a nationwide movement)
National Take Your Parents To Lunch Day -- US (sponsored by Kiwi Magazine, encouraging parents to go to school and have lunch with the children, learning what goes into a healthy lunch)
Native American's Day -- often celebrated on both the observed and the traditional Columbus Day; a day to mourn Native American victims of conquest and oppression, make peace, and celebrate the empowerment of Native Americans
Old Farmers Day -- an unsponsored day, and any day is a good day to honor the men and women who work hard to grow our food
SAVE Today -- US (Stop America's Violence Everywhere, a day created in 1995 by the American Medical Association Alliance)
St. Edwin of Northumbria's Day (Patron of converts, hoboes/tramps, homeless people, kings, parents of large families)
St. Wilfred of York's Day (Patron of Middlesbrough, England; Ripon, England)
Tavistock Goose Fair -- Tavistock, Devon, UK (known locally as the Goosey, dating back to 12th-century Michaelmas fairs, this original livestock fair is now mostly a fun festival)
World Arthritis Day -- people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases can make their voices heard today
Anniversary Today:
Day of Six Billion, 1999 (marking the world population reaching that number)
Birthdays Today:
Marion Jones, 1975
Kirk Cameron, 1970
Adam Rich, 1968
Hugh Jackman, 1968
Carlos Bernard, 1962
Ronald E. McNair, 1950
Susan Anton, 1950
Chris Wallace, 1947
Tony Kubek, 1936
Luciano Pavarotti, 1935
Dick Gregory, 1932
Charles Gordone, 1925
Jean Nidetch, 1923
Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1872
Jonathan Trumbull, 1710
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Jesus Christ, Superstar"(Rock opera), 1971
"The Bob Hope Show"(TV), 1953
"The Burns and Allen Show"(TV), 1950
"Call Me Madam"(Musical). 1950
Today in History:
The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon, BC539
King John of England loses his crown jewels in The Wash, 1216
Nichiren, Japans Buddhist monk who founded Nichiren Buddhism, inscribes the Dai-Gohonzon, 1279
Christopher Columbus' expedition makes landfall in the Bahamas, 1492
Massachusetts discontinues all witch trials, 1692
America's first asylum for "Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds" opens in Virginia, 1773
Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen; this celebration becomes the founding of the first Oktoberfest, 1810
Charles Macintosh, of Scotland, sells the first raincoat, 1821
Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) is enacted by British rule in India, which named over 160 local communities 'Criminal Tribes', i.e. hereditary criminals, 1871*
President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House, 1901
An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston, 1928
The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits, 1964
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams is published, 1979
The lowest recorded non-tornadic atmospheric pressure, 87.0 kPa (870 mbar or 25.69 inHg), occurred in the Western Pacific during Typhoon Tip, 1979
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the People's Republic of China, 1986
NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus, 1994
The proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world is born, 1999
The second Chinese human spaceflight, Shenzhou 6, is launched, 2005
The first of the thirty-three miners trapped in the Copiano mining disaster, Florencio Avalos, is rescued, 2010
The customary law preventing women from inheriting their family home is overturned in Botswana, 2012
A long-lost bust of Napoleon by Auguste Rodin is confirmed found in Madison borough hall, New Jersey; it is estimated to be worth at least $4m, 2017
California becomes the first US state to pass a law banning the manufacture and sale of new fur products, 2019
Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya becomes first to run a marathon in under 2 hours (1:59:40) in Vienna, Austria, 2019
*Not repealed until India's independence in 1949