May 30
May 30, of each year, National Hole in My Bucket Day is observed. This wacky holiday is in honor of the fun children’s song; There’s a Hole in My Bucket.
The song which has origins in 1700 Germany, is about a back and forth conversation between Henry and Liza. Henry needs to fix his leaky bucket. In each stanza, Henry asks Liza for advice. In the end, he needs a bucket to carry water to repair his bucket.
What if every children’s song had its own national day? Sheesh!
May 27
Thanks, Grandpa… You weren’t American, but you fought valiantly for the cause overseas.
I never met my grandfather. He had died in Peshawar, India, fighting for the Black Watch during World War l. Peshawar was on the northern frontier of British India, near the Khyber Pass.
In 1947, Peshawar became part of the newly independent state of Pakistan after politicians approved merger into the state that had just been carved from British India.
We have a trunk of his belongings, though, and it’s very interesting to recreate his life.
My dad was born in Scotland in 1913.
In 1914, my grandfather was involved in this:
On the outbreak of war there were seven Black Watch battalions – for in addition to the Regular 1st and 2nd Battalions and 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion there were a further four Territorial ones which had become part of the Regiment in 1908. They were the 4th Dundee [Mary O’Note: I’m pretty sure this was his, since that’s where my dad was born], 5th Angus, 6th Perthshire and the 7th Battalion from Fife. The 1st Battalion was in action at the very start of the war taking part in the Retreat from Mons before turning on the Germans at the River Marne and the subsequent advance to the Aisne. Trench warfare then set in and the 2nd Battalion arrived from India, both battalions taking part in the Battle of Givenchy. Meanwhile the Territorial battalions had been mobilised at the start of the war but only the 5th was in action in 1914.
I guess this is why I love the Pipes and Drums of the Black Watch so much.
Thanks, Grandpa!
For several Augusts, we went to the Edinburgh Tattoo. This had been on my bucket list for a long time since my grandfather was in the Black Watch and I just love to hear bagpipes. Even my cellphone ringtone is Scotland, the Brave.
My mom says that my Grandfather’s name is inscribed as a war hero in Edinburgh Castle, where the Tattoo is held. You know, I’ll find that!
Thanks again for your service, Grandpa – and everyone who who served!
May 25
Another of the Who Knew?-type posts. It’s National Tap Dance Day. When I was a little kid, I took the “required” ballet and tap classes for a year. My mom has a picture of me in my tutu and one in my majorette costume for the tap recital. I imagine I only took for the year because those costumes cost extra money.
Later on, I bought tap shoes – still unused – and signed up with a friend for a local adult tap class. Unfortunately, we were the only ones who signed up for the class and it was cancelled. It was a major nightmare trying to get our money back. They wanted to give us a credit for the next time, but that would cost more money which we didn’t want to pay.
But, I digress.
National Tap Dance Day falls on May 25 every year and is a celebration of tap dancing as an American art form. The idea of National Tap Dance Day was first presented to U.S. Congress on February 7, 1989 and was signed into American law by President George H.W. Bush on November 8, 2004. The one-time official observance was on May 25, 1989.
Tap Dance Day is also celebrated in other countries, particularly Japan, Australia, India and Iceland.
National Tap Dance Day was the brainchild of Carol Vaughn, Nicola Daval, and Linda Christensen. They deemed May 25 appropriate for this holiday because it is the birthday of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, a significant contributor to tap dance.
Even Legos can tap to Puttin’ On The Ritz! A tribute to Fred Astaire, in the classic scene from the 1946 musical, Blue Skies, with the music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Although originally written for vaudevillian Harry Richman in 1930, the lyrics were readapted along with a brand new dance sequence some 16 years later.
Here’s the original from Blue Skies, although some has been cut with stills of Fred inserted:
And another version, with Taco 🙂
Just for comparison, the real original 1930 movie footage of Irving Berlin’s world-famous song, sung by Harry Richman, from the film of the same name.
And something completely different with my old favorites, The Nicholas Brothers from the film Stormy Weather.
May 25
Each year, May 25 is Towel Day. Do you know why?
Towel Day is celebrated every year on 25 May as a tribute to the author Douglas Adams by his fans.
On this day, fans carry a towel with them, as described in Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, to demonstrate their appreciation for the books and the author.
The original quotation that explained the importance of towels is found in Chapter 3 of Adams’ work The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost.” What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)
—Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
This book is important to me because I read it while I was at NIH waiting for pituitary surgery.
May 24
From Book Riot
Little Free Libraries are pure literary generosity.
These charming book exchanges, which stand in front yards across the country (and around the world), are typically self-sustaining. Neighbors take a book when they see something they like, and donate a book when they have one to share.
Through this cyclical system, Little Free Libraries are kept full, with inventory that constantly changes.
But, recently, there have been reports of ne’er-do-wells who don’t get the honor-system concept. Instead of choosing one book, or dropping off a title or two, these killjoys take all the books — every last one — leaving nothing but empty shelves for the next patron to find.
Read more at http://bookriot.com/2015/08/04/can-rob-little-free-library/
Luckily, nothing like this has happened to our LFL, Greenbriar Little Free Library #33664 (https://www.facebook.com/GreenbriarLittleFreeLibrary/), although I read stories about theft and vandalism on a Facebook page for LFL stewards.
What do you think? Is it possible to steal something that is free?
May 24
May 23
See a penny, pick it up… All day long you’ll have good luck.
When you are out and about today, look on the ground for pennies. It just might be your lucky day!
My mom is forever picking up pennies – or anything that’s cash-looking. She’s made a record over the years of how much money she’s found on the street and the total amount is pretty staggering.
Finding a penny has long been considered a good omen, suggesting something good will happen in the life of the finder. Some superstitious people believe that you should only pick up a penny that’s lying face up.
Some believe we should no longer mint pennies because they cost more to make than they are worth.
Years ago a penny was able to buy something – like penny candy. Today, due to inflation, the penny does not buy much of anything. The metal value and cost of minting pennies exceed their face value. Many nations have stopped minting equivalent value coins and efforts are being made to end the routine use of pennies in several countries including the United States.
The U.S. minted 8 billion pennies in 2014, spending almost $132 million for currency worth less than $50 million, according to Citizens to Retire the Penny, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to educating the public on why the U.S. should ditch the penny.
1793 – The first pennies in the United States were made of copper.
National Lucky Penny Day is observed each year on May 23rd.
May 12
Mom and me, w-a-a-a-y back in sepia, black and white photo times…
My mom is 100 years old in 2024! Happy Mother’s Day, Mom 🙂
May 12
I don’t know why geese fascinate me but they have for years. I love how the father stands watch over the family-to-be and when they’re crossing the street – mom in front, babies, then dad.
Lately, I’ve been seeing goose families everywhere.
When I went to an appointment last week, I noticed a goose family had set up a home on the verge across from Harris Teeter.
Several years ago, I took this picture of a goose waiting outside the emergency room. I’d taken my mom to an appointment and saw him there. I dropped her off and circled back. The goose was still there. Was he waiting for a friend or what?
Naturally, I have been fascinated by the story coming out of Cincinnati this week: “Clever Mother Goose Calls Cincinnati Police To Help Trapped Baby Bird”
Cincinnati police responded to an unusual distress call on Monday… from a mother goose.
The bird was pecking on the door of a police cruiser in an apparent bid for some attention.
“It kept pecking and pecking and normally they don’t come near us,” Sergeant James Givens told WKRC. “Then it walked away and then it stopped and looked back so I followed it and it led me right over to [a gosling] that was tangled up in all that string.”
The baby bird was caught in string from a balloon.
Givens and specialist Cecilia Charron called the SPCA for backup, but when no one was available they decided to help the gosling themselves.
With Givens recording and mother goose honking, Charron freed the baby bird from the balloon.
The baby animal promptly ran off to join the rest of the family
From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mother-goose-baby-rescue-cincinnati_us_5732a7a4e4b096e9f0932ee0
I know a lot of people think geese are a nuisance crossing the street, pooping all over but I think that they’re cute and I love that they mate for live.
Maybe the geese think we’re a nuisance, too!
May 09
18 years ago today, I had my left kidney and 10 pounds of cancer removed. This anniversary is, of course, a big 
A few weeks before that surgery, I had returned to Johns Hopkins to be retested for Growth Hormone. There’s a whole lot of info on my past experiences with HGH in my bio at https://cushingsbios.com/2013/04/29/maryo-pituitary-bio/ This excerpt is from that blog post:
Wow, what a nightmare my argenine retest started! I went back for that Thursday, April 27, 2006. Although the test was shorter, I got back to my hotel and just slept and slept. I was so glad that I hadn’t decided to go home after the test.
Friday I felt fine and drove back home, no problem. I picked up my husband for a biopsy and took him to an outpatient surgical center. While I was there waiting for the biopsy to be completed, I started noticing blood in my urine and major abdominal cramps. I left messages for several of my doctors on what I should do. I finally decided to see my PCP after I got my husband home.
When Tom was done with his testing, his doctor took one look at me and asked if I wanted an ambulance. I said no, that I thought I could make it to the emergency room ok – Tom couldn’t drive because of the anaesthetic they had given him. I barely made it to the ER and left the car with Tom to park. Tom’s doctor followed us to the ER and became my new doctor.
They took me in pretty fast since I was in so much pain, and had the blood in my urine. They thought it was a kidney stone. After a CT scan, my new doctor said that, yes, I had a kidney stone but it wasn’t the worst of my problems, that I had kidney cancer. Wow, what a surprise that was! I was admitted to that hospital, had more CT scans, MRIs, bone scans, they looked everywhere.
My open radical nephrectomy was May 9, 2006 in another hospital from the one where the initial diagnosis was made. My surgeon felt that he needed a specialist from that hospital because he believed preop that my tumor had invaded into the vena cava because of its appearance on the various scans. Luckily, that was not the case.
My entire left kidney and the encapsulated cancer (10 pounds worth!) were removed, along with my left adrenal gland and some lymph nodes. Although the cancer (renal cell carcinoma AKA RCC) was very close to hemorrhaging, the surgeon believes he got it all. He said I was so lucky. If the surgery had been delayed any longer, the outcome would have been much different. I will be repeating the CT scans every 3 months, just to be sure that there is no cancer hiding anywhere. As it turns out, I can never say I’m cured, just NED (no evidence of disease). This thing can recur at any time, anywhere in my body.
I credit the argenine re-test with somehow aggravating my kidneys and revealing this cancer. Before the test, I had no clue that there was any problem. The argenine test showed that my IGF is still low but due to the kidney cancer I cannot take my growth hormone for another 5 years – so the test was useless anyway, except to hasten this newest diagnosis.
So, how am I “celebrating” my cancer anniversary? Yes, I’m retesting to see if I can go back on growth hormone, the drug that either helped my cancer to grow or helped diagnose it.
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