March 8, 2012: International Women’s Day

~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
March 8, 2012

Post Updated: March 8, 2013 

★~ Today’s Quote: “May Solidarity shine today & always. May women be equal. May there be no violence. Peace!”

★~ International Women Day:

The first National Women’s Day, backed by the Socialist Party of America, was observed in the United States in 1909. Two years later, International Women’s Day was marked in numerous European countries, as more than a million people reportedly attended rallies for women’s rights.

“International Women’s Day has become a powerful day for women activists banding together to have their voice heard,” Glenda Stone, founder of the global hub International Womens Day. com, tells Comic Riffs. “It has also become a mainstream day for celebrating the success of women in all fields across all countries.

“The true depth that lies behind why this day is so powerful, however,” Stone continues, “should really only be measured by three things: the level of awareness increased globally for overcoming inequalities for women; the levels of action and finance that are allocated directly as a result of Women’s Day campaigning; and the decrease or eradication of inequalities against women worldwide.”

★~ Peanut Butter Cluster Day:

Peanuts, Chocolate, Carmel! Yum. Just take a few peanuts put them on a a non-stick cookie sheet and top with melted caramel and chocolate. Allow then to cool and then break apart and eat! If you don’t eat peanuts today is also popcorn lovers day!

★~ Today in History:

♥~ Worm Moon – Full Moon phase at 4:39 am. The worm moon was named  by Native American tribes of New England and the Great Lakes because at this time of year there are signs of earthworms as the ground thaws in preparation for spring.

♥~ 1979 – Rod Stewarts Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? Topped the charts.

★~Born Today: 

♥~ 1943 – Lynn Redgrave actress: Georgy Girl, House Calls, Chicken Soup, Centennial, Rehearsal for Murder.

♥~ 1945 – Mickey Dolenz singer, drummer: group: The Monkees:

♥~ 1946 – Randy Meisner singer: base: group: The Eagles: Take it Easy, Best of My Love, Take it to the Limit

♥~ 1959 – Aidan Quinn actor: Legends of the fall, Avalon All my Sons

♥~ 1977 – James Van Der Beek actor: Dawson’s Creek, Standing Still, Texas Rangers, The Rules of Attraction, Varsity Blues, I Love You, I Love You Not, Angus

★~ Did You Know: 

♥~ There are currently 17 countries with women as head of government, head of state, or both, which, according to the UN, has more than doubled since 2005.

♥~ Of the 157 million women currently living in the US, nearly 85.4 million (54%) are mothers.

♥~ Generally considered to be the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji was written in Japan around AD 1000 by Murasaki Shikibu.

♥~ In the culture of the Tiwi of northern Australian, all females must be married at all times.

♥~ The first female governor of a US state was Wyoming governor Nellie Tayloe Ross, elected in 1924. Wyoming was also the first state to give women the right to vote, enacting women’s suffrage in 1869.

♥~ Sandra Day O’Connor ~ first woman on the Supreme Court, 1981 (El Paso, Texas)

♥~ Jeannette Rankin, a Republican from Montana, was the first woman elected to serve in the US Congress. She was also the only member of Congress to vote against entering the second world war.

♥~ The probability of a woman giving birth to a baby girl instead of a baby boy increases significantly the nearer the mother lives to the equator, research has shown.

♥~ In 2008, US army general Ann E Dunwoody became the first women in US military history to reach the rank of four-star general.

♥~ The sign sometimes used to represent the female sex (♀) is also the symbol for the planet Venus, and is believed to be a stylized representation of the Roman goddess Venus’s hand mirror.

♥~ Mary, Queen of Scots, was said to have been a golf enthusiast, and possibly coined the term “caddie”, from the word “cadet”.

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Cole became a licensed driver yesterday afternoon. He was so nervous before the test that he made me a wreck. (Of course the pun is intended. A WRECK!) The kid that drove with complete confidence for an entire year needed his mother to grab him by the shoulders and tell him to look her in the eyes so she could assure him that if his mother said he was ready to drive on his own, there was no way on earth he could fail a driving test.

I was right, of course. However, he did share this story that left me shaking my head….

“Mom, the instructor was real nice. She said she wouldn’t talk to me because she did not want to break my concentration, but that did not mean I wasn’t doing just fine. We came to a red traffic light and I brought the car to a complete stop. I then looked all around me for a sign that said I could not turn on red. When I did not see a sign, I made my turn.”

“Cole, you turned right on red?”

“Yes. Anyway, when we returned, the instructor looked at her clipboard and asked me if I realized I had turned right on a red light. I said yes and then she told me that it was ok to turn right on red…”

I wanted to scream, “REALLY, COLE!!! REALLY!” But he passed the test and it was his birthday, so I just took a deep breath and congratulated him on driving with confidence and paying careful attention to the signs around him. And then I gave him a loving swat across the head, and prayed for strength.

This morning, he woke me up bright and early to ask if I would like him to run out and buy us both Starbucks. And as I watched him drive off, I realized just how proud I was of him.

 

7 thoughts on “March 8, 2012: International Women’s Day

  1. Your other readers are going to think I’m an El Morno Stalker. Congratulations Cole!

    I’m not a women but I am happy to celebrate women any time. I like chocolate covered peanuts.

    See you tomorrow in the Morno or the Nighto–I am learning to be more flexible.

  2. Step One on the Roots-and-Wings path, Getting One’s Driver’s License. Congratulations to Cole AND to you — he couldn’t have performed so well if you hadn’t taken the time to practice and teach him (we all know the schools don’t, ha!). Anyway, what an exciting birthday for him — Domer got his license on his b-day and often complained that ALL his friends were driving by themselves much earlier than he could!

    • Thanks Debbie. It is so much fun! I’m not worried because I stuck a St. Christophers medal on the vizor and told Joe to stay on his toes.
      Do you know that Cole is the first kid in his 10th grade class to get his D.L. So many of our kids rely on pubic transportation that it is just not that important to them. We live in the city but public transportation is not handy so it has been much more important to Cole and frankly i see it as an important rite of passage–
      It’s fun sharing some of these milestones together, isn’t it? I might have to encourage Cole towards N.D.! His great grandfather would do back flips in heaven!

      • N.D. has a way of selling itself! The minute Domer’s feet touched campus, this glow came over him and he announced, “Mom, if I can get in, this is where I want to be!” He’s never doubted that he’s in the right place (nor have I, and that’s a blessing!)

  3. I’m so proud of Cole. Of course his Mom deserves some credit too. She let him drive on every occassion, rain, snow, night. i was begining to wonder if she was brave or dumb!!! 😀 Not really. I’m worried about her though, I’m not at all sure she is ready to amuse herself. Once a kid can drive alone—that’s what they want to do!!
    MJ

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