~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
May 3, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote:  “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” ~Albert Einstein

★~ International Tuba Day: 

Tubas get no respect, or least that’s what Joel Day believed when he created International Tuba Day in 1979. At the time, Joel was a tuba player in a band at Lower Merion High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Today we take a moment to honor the tuba, patented in 1835 by Wiebrecht and Moritz in Germany. Where would we be without the “oompa” in concert music? More than likely snoozing and snoring.  And, let’s face it a marching band without a tuba wouldn’t even be a band. Let’s give tuba players everywhere a great big OOMPA!

★~ Lumpy Rug Day:

Today,  is about lumpy rugs, literal and figurative, and, somewhat misleadingly, about the cathartic importance of beating them, literally and figuratively. Have you swept any mildly uncomfortable truths under the area rug of denial? Does your toupée of self-awareness need to be adjusted? Has the baby powder of iniquity left a discolored patch on your carpet of moral tidiness? Today is the day to thwack it mightily with the rug beater of candor, center it on your balding pate in the mirror of personal revelation, or shampoo it with the shampoo of righteousness. Um, respectively.

★~ Two Different Colored Shoes Day:

For 364 days a year, most people wear matching footwear, but today is your excuse to step outside the box.

Dr. Arlene Kaiser created National Two Different Colored Shoes Day to recognize and celebrate human diversity. According to Dr. Kaiser, the simple act of wearing two different colored shoes proclaims your individuality.

Wearing two different colored shoes can be as simple as wearing a black shoe and a brown shoe, or as outrageous as wearing a flip-flop and a boot. However you decide to express yourself today, do so with flair!

★~ Paranormal Day:

Paranormal simply describes anything that is beyond or contrary to what is deemed scientifically possible. That covers a lot of possibilities, doesn’t it? You, pull out the Ouija board, or watch Poltergeist, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or Stargate. The possibilities are limitless…

~ One of the most celebrated modern-day medium is the Brazilian Carlos Mirabelli, who has produced full-form materializations of dead relatives who could be spoken with and even touched. He has achieved this in full light and in test conditions, tied up in a sealed room; his exploits have been attested to by scores of prominent Brazilians and there has been no implication of fraud.

~ The most celebrated example of clairvoyance was that by Emmanuel Swedenborg, on 19 July 1759, who described in vivid detail to a reception full of local notables in Goteborg the progress of a disastrous fire which was sweeping through Stockholm, 300 miles away. At six he told them the fire had just broken out; at eight he told them it had been extinguished only three doors from his home. Two days later a messenger from Stockholm confirmed every detail.

~ The most celebrated levitator in history was St Joseph of Copertino, a dimwitted monk who would soar into the air whenever he felt religious ecstasy. He had no control over his ‘flights’, which could last for minutes and were attested to by scores of witnesses from the Pope downwards.

★~Raspberry Tart Day:

A sweet tart, tout de suite!

It’s that time of year when fresh berries are coming into season, and filling the tables at your local farmers market or grocery store. What better time to make yourself a sweet taste of summer?

The sweet fruit tarts that we know and love today evolved from medieval tarts, which were typically filled with meat and served as dinner. But when our ancestors decided to replace the hearty meat with rich custard and fresh fruit, a whole new kind of dessert filled the realm.

Tarts are typically made using a shortbread pastry base – sweet, a little crumbly and very buttery, it tastes a bit like the cookie for which it is named. Then, vanilla custard or pastry cream is spread on top, followed by fresh raspberries standing at attention, or if you can’t find any, raspberry preserves work well in a pinch. If you’re feeling extra decadent, try a chocolate raspberry tart with white chocolate cream.

You can also make mini tartlets if you’re afraid one big tart will disappear too fast. But don’t worry, Raspberry Tart Day will come again in August!  Raspberry Tart Tested Recipe

★~ Today in History:

♥~1939 – Belly up to the bar for this one. Beer Barrel Polka, one of the standards of American music, was recorded by The Andrews Sisters for Decca Records. Patti, Maxine and LaVerne turned this song into a giant hit.

♥~ 1971- National Public Radio, the U.S. national, non-commercial radio network, was born. NPR’s most popular shows also include: Talk of the Nation, fascinating and thought-provoking discussions on the day’s issues and what’s behind the headlines; NPR’s Performance Today, a daily portrait of what’s happening in the world of classical music; and Car Talk, starring America’s funniest auto mechanics, the M.I.T. educated grease monkeys, Tom and Ray Magliozzi. Today, NPR’s satellite-based radio network of almost 600 member stations broadcasts NPR-produced or acquired programs to 13-million listeners in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

♥~ 1973 – Chicago’s Sears Tower was topped out. It was the world’s tallest building at the time –108-story, 1451-feet.

♥~ 1988 – The White House acknowledged that first lady Nancy Reagan had used astrological advice to help schedule her husband’s activities. The unflattering revelations were included in an about-to-be published memoir by former chief-of-staff Donald Regan

♥~ 2006 – Sotheby’s auction house sold Dora Maar au Chat, a painting by Pablo Picasso, for $95.2 million, the second highest amount paid (to that time) for a painting at auction.

♥~ 1986 – Horse racing legend Bill Shoemaker became the oldest jockey to win the the Kentucky Derby. ‘The Shoe’ was atop Ferdinand for the win. Shoemaker was 54 years old. It had been 32 years since Shoemaker’s first Derby victory back in 1955.

★~Born Today:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/SzlpTRNIAvc[/youtube]

♥~ 1898 – Golda Meir first woman ambassador, minister, Prime Minister of Israel [1969-1974]; one of only two women to sign the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel; was given Israel’s first passport; died Dec 8, 1978

♥~ 1919 – Pete Seeger Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician: banjo, guitar, mandolin; singer: groups: groups: Almanac Singers, Weavers; solo: Little Boxes; songwriter: Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, Turn, Turn, Turn, co-wrote: If I Had a Hammer; social, civil and political activist.

♥~ 1933 – James Brown The Godfather of Soul: singer: Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag, Please, Please, Please, I Got You (I Feel Good), It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World, Living in America; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer [1986]; died Dec 25, 2006

♥~ 1950 – Mary Hopkin singer: Those Were the Days, Goodbye, Temma Harbour, If You Love Me

♥~ 1975 – Christina Hendricks Mad Men, Kevin Hill, Beggars and Choosers, Life, South of Pico, Hunger Point, Sorority

★~ Good to Know:

♥~ In November, ABC News reported that Serbia’s most famous vampire, Sava Savanovic (pictured in this rare sepia photograph), was on the loose in Zarozje village, allegedly in the market for new real estate after the collapse of his former residence. “I understand that people who live elsewhere in Serbia are laughing at our fears, but here most people have no doubt that vampires exist,” said a local municipal assembly member. A strong belief and interest in vampires is a major force in heavily forested, mountainous regions like those of Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Croatia, according to Dr. James Lyon, a Balkan historian. “Not,” he notes, “[as] potential boyfriends.”

♥~ The Baltic Sea “UFO” first made headlines in the summer of 2011, but interest in the object resurfaced this summer, when the group of divers investigating the formation (or aircraft), the Ocean X Team, reported that the object was giving off “electrical interference” that broke all the devices they could have used to prove that it was totally Corellia-based in origin. Turns out, it was just a bunch of dumb sea rocks.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/7ykCaBMkQEQ[/youtube]

♥~ Ghost temper tantrum: A grocery store in south Australia caught a ghost throwing Fruit Roll-Ups, perhaps because he loves them too much, on their security cameras.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/VTexnn_n-Ks[/youtube]

♥~ “That does not look like a firework to me,” reports a British man. “That was totally our blimp,” replied Goodyear. But that’s what they would say. . .

 

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Yes, we did find the perfect Prom suit for my dear boy with two days left to spare. God Bless the 30 minute, on the spot, tailor. More soon, maybe even a picture…I am a little weary…I didn’t sleep all that well, nightmares about the tie thingy that keeps the tie in place. I know Joe had one…motherhood is not for the faint of heart.

Any paranormal sightings in your hood? TGIF.

Wishing you a extraordinary Friday!

Odd Loves Company!