Nov 10

AARRGGHH!

I was sure I said NO the first time…

Sep 10

Alarms

Sep 07

Labor Day Is the First Monday in September

labor-day

 

The first Monday of every September is dedicated to the men and women who have labored to build this country.  Through a time-honored tradition that has its roots in the coordinated efforts of the labor movement of the 1800s, we salute the American worker force.

Labor Day was celebrated for the first time in New York City in 1882.  It was originally celebrated on September 5th, but was moved to the first Monday in September in 1884.

Labor Day started out as a state holiday, getting voted in by individual states. As the day gained popularity, Congress declared Labor Day 1894.

With an added day to the weekend and the school year starting, Labor Day also signals the official end of summer.  Families take one last summer trip and cities hold one last festival for the season.

 

Aug 26

It’s Bittersweet This Year – Dog Day?

This is a post from last year but I’m sharing it again.  Mimi didn’t quite make it to Dog Day this year.  She died Sunday night, August 23rd.  There will be a “memorial-type” post later, when I get my act together.

Meanwhile, remember this:

 

 

A dog is man’s best friend.

National Dog Day is observed annually on August 26th.

This day encourages dog ownership of all breeds. Whether mixed or purebred, embrace the opportunity for all dogs to live a happy, safe and abuse-free life. Dogs give us companionship; they keep us safe, and they aid those in need. It is a goal for many on this day to find homes for all dogs in need of a loving family. The purpose of the National Dog Day Foundation is to rescue 10,000 dogs each year

When dogs find a forever home, their companionship creates lifelong benefits. They bring with them joy, loyalty, and devotion. Eventually, no matter the breed, these pets become family.

 

We had Mimi for most of her 12+ years of life.  After our previous dog died, I didn’t think I could ever get another dog but a friend was fostering a dog who’d just had puppies.  When I first met Mimi she was a bit nippy but we straightened that out fast!

 

Jun 09

It’s National Donald Duck Day

happy-birthday-dd

 

National Donald Duck Day is observed annually on June 9th.  This day commemorates the birthday of the funny animal cartoon character, Donald Duck. Donald made his first screen debut on June 9, 1934, in The Wise Little Hen.

Donald Duck usually wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie and is most famous for his semi-intelligible speech along with his mischievous and irritable personality

Donald Duck has appeared in more films than any other Disney character.   Donald was also declared in 2002 by TV Guide as one of the 50 greatest cartoon characters of all times.

It was in Donald’s second appearance in Orphan’s Benefit that he was introduced to his comic friend, Mickey Mouse.  Donald’s girlfriend, Daisy Duck, along with his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, were introduced shortly after that. 

In addition to animation, Donald is also known for his appearance in comic books and newspaper comic strips.

One of Donald Duck’s famous sayings is “Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.”

 

From http://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/days-2/national-donald-duck-day-june-9/

 

Jun 03

The Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting as an Espionage Tool

DURING WORLD WAR I, A grandmother in Belgium knitted at her window, watching the passing trains. As one train chugged by, she made a bumpy stitch in the fabric with her two needles. Another passed, and she dropped a stitch from the fabric, making an intentional hole.

Later, she would risk her life by handing the fabric to a soldier—a fellow spy in the Belgian resistance, working to defeat the occupying German force.Whether women knitted codes into fabric or used stereotypes of knitting women as a cover, there’s a history between knitting and espionage. “Spies have been known to work code messages into knitting, embroidery, hooked rugs, etc,” according to the 1942 book A Guide to Codes and Signals.

During wartime, where there were knitters, there were often spies; a pair of eyes, watching between the click of two needles.

Read more: The Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting as an Espionage Tool – Atlas Obscura

Jun 02

It’s Cancer Survivor’s Day

Observed annually on the first Sunday in June, National Cancer Survivor’s Day has been set aside to “demonstrate that life after a cancer diagnosis can be a reality.”

Each year on National Cancer Survivor’s Day, events and celebrations are held and hosted around the United States by local communities, hospitals and support groups honoring cancer survivors.  Events may include parades, carnivals, art exhibits, contests and testimonies. President George W. Bush and the National Cancer Institute director each included a commencement at the 2008 celebration.

So today is my day and my mom’s day and countless other people’s day.  I’m a kidney cancer survivor – 13 years now!

My mom survived colon cancer TWICE

My sister-in-law survived breast cancer TWICE

My DH survived melanoma and is working hard at surviving prostate cancer.

It hasn’t been all good though.  There have been many more in my extended family who did not survive, including my dad and my aunt. 

Congratulations to the survivors on this special “Who Knew” holiday, National Cancer Survivor’s Day

May 25

Memorial Day 2020

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 the merger into the state that had just been carved from British India.

peshawar

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.

From http://www.theblackwatch.co.uk/index/first-world-war

black watch

Black_Watch2

I guess this is why I love the Pipes and Drums of the Black Watch so much.

blackwatch-pipers

Thanks, Grandpa!

In August 2016 we went to the Edinburgh Tattoo for the second time. 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.

When we were there last time, I didn’t quite make it to the top of the hill but next time we go, maybe…

You know, I’ll find that, sooner or later.

Thanks again for your service, Grandpa – and everyone who served!

 

May 25

And…It’s Also National Tap Dance Day!

tap-dance-day

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 canceled.  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.

A couple years ago, a local teacher set up series of 5 classes and advertised on Nextdoor.  I signed up.  And, my mom fell and all my attention was directed in her way.

I reregistered for a later class and DH was diagnosed with cancer.  So, I canceled again 🙁

Maybe someday…

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 Michael Jackson 🙂

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

Today is Towel Day Again!

Each year, May 25 is Towel Day.  Do you know why?

towel

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

towel-day

This book is important to me because I read it while I was at NIH waiting for pituitary surgery.

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