Coast Guard Day, Watermelon Day

★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
August 4, 2014

SUNRISE

★~ Today’s Quote: “My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&M’s and a chocolate cake. I feel better already.” Dave Barry

★~ Coast Guard Day:

Coast Guard

 

U.S. Coast Guard:  On August 4, 1790  Congress authorized the President to build and equip ten boats to collect revenue, and provide for a complement of officers and men to operate them. This early service known as the Revenue Marine (later the Revenue Cutter Service) represented an attempt to counter a serious smuggling problem that had tremendous financial impact on the nation’s ability to enforce its laws at sea.

Currently, The Coast Guard oversees maritime safety and security, national defense, mobility, and the protection of natural resources. That means they protect the international water borders, prevent smuggling (drug busts!), perform search and rescue, as well as protect the coastal environments. That’s a pretty darn big job. Hats off to the Coast Guard!

★ – Watermelon Day: 

watermelon day

Full disclosure Watermelon Day was yesterday, but since today’s food of the day is rather vague I thought we would make-up Watermelon Day.

Watermelon goes back as far as the 12th Egyptian Dynasty, with seeds found in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Pioneer David Livingstone was also impressed by the abundance of watermelons he encountered throughout his missionary travels through Africa in the mid-19th century. It is believed that the watermelon originated somewhere in Africa.

You can celebrate “National Watermelon Day” by eating watermelon as a snack, or enjoying it as a side dish, a dessert, or adult beverage (when fortified with alcohol or made into wine).

★~ Today in History:

Coast Guard Day

♥~ 1922 – Every telephone in the U.S. and Canada went dead as the Bell System shut down all its switchboards and switching stations for one minute in memory of Alexander Graham Bell, who had died two days earlier. During this time, none of the 13 million telephones in operation could be used.

♥~ 1983 – New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield threw a baseball during warmups and accidentally killed a seagull! After the game, Toronto police surrounded the slugger and arrested him for “causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.”

★~Born Today:

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

♥~ 1834 – John Venn FRS,  was a British logician and philosopher. He is famous for introducing the Venn diagram, which is used in many fields, including set theory, probability, logic, statistics, and computer science. Check out  Google’s latest Doodle marking the 180th anniversary John Venn’s birth.

♥~ 1901 – (Daniel) Louis Armstrong Satchmo: jazz musician: trumpet; Grammy Award-winning singer: Hello, Dolly! [1964], Lifetime Achievement Award [1971]; It’s a Wonderful World, Mack the Knife, Blueberry Hill; appeared in films: The Five Pennies, The Glenn Miller Story, Hello Dolly!, High Society; American ambassador of good will; inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [1990]; died July 6, 1971

♥~ 1961 – Barack Obama 44th U.S. President [2009- ], first African American to be elected U.S. President; U.S. Senator from Illinois [2005-2009]; Illinois State Senator [1997-2004]; president of Harvard Law Review [1990]; married [Jun 1989] to Michelle Robinson; two daughters: Malia Ann and Natasha [‘Sasha’]

♥~ 1961 – Lauren Tom actress: The Joy Luck Club, When a Man Loves a Woman, Grace Under Fire, DAG, Max Steel

★~  Pepquinos Gallimaufry: 

Coast Guard Day, Watermelon Day

While they might look genetically-engineered, Pepquinos come from an ancient wild plant in South America, and are 100% natural. They are just 3-cm-long and 2 cm in diameter, but apart from their size, they look just like regular watermelons. But only on the outside, because once sliced, the juicy green flesh of a cucumber is revealed. They also have the crisp fresh taste of cucumbers and usually served in luxury restaurants, as appetizers, in summer salads, stir fried and even as a sorbet.

The rare Pepquinos were discovered and brought to Europe in 1987, by a Dutch company that later began producing them and selling seeds. They’ve only recently started cultivating them in the US and Asia, but their popularity in foodie communities is growing rapidly. The growth cycle of the Pepquinos plant is between 60 and 85 days, and a single string yields 60 to 100 fruit.

A Pepquinos by any other name could be called a Cucamelon which is what Diane (Tangled In Kudzu) called them. No matter, they sound tasty and I want to try one!

#

I am proclaiming the first week of August: Finish It Week!

Just Do It!  has us swimming in half finished project that I hope to wrap up this week.  I’ll share as I go along, but todays riveting project is to finish painting the picnic table. Yes, the picnic table, I’ve been talking about for the past two weeks.  It’s half painted. What happened? Well, boards fell off, the foot rotted, and the paint bubbled. Ok? Nothing, is ever as easy as I tell myself it will be. Perhaps, you would like to suggest, that if we planned and researched our projects more thoroughly our troubles would be fewer. HA.  If I knew how hard most of these “anybody can do them projects” would be before I started – I wouldn’t ever start anything. Skewed logic? No. Starting is the hardest part. Finishing, of-course, is the second hardest part, but at heart I’m a finisher and what is started will be done. Sometimes, it just takes me awhile to figure out how to do it or  fix what we have done. But along the way I learn a lot the hard way. For example,  I speak VW bug fluently. Yes, the June Bug still resides with us. Cole plans to update his long lost blog this week. He has a to finish list too.

Do you have anything you can finish along with me this week? Odd Loves Company!

Have a most Merry Monday!

16 thoughts on “Coast Guard Day, Watermelon Day

  1. Love me some Dave Barry and watermelons. So great is my watermelon fondness we’re growing our own this year. So far so good. Cucamelons will go in the Garden next year. Dave Barry is fully grown or I’d stick him in there too! Thanks for the link back. Xoxo

    • Isn’t Dave Barry a hoot? So funny. I love watermelon but have never tried growing it. Let us know hows your watermelon grows!
      Those baby whatchamacallits are so cute. I can’t wait to see how they taste.

  2. …and it’s also the Civic Holiday in Canada. Also called Simcoe Day in Toronto. The day is ostensibly to honour John Graves Simcoe, first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. But really it’s primarily a long weekend in August celebrated because the summer is just so short in Canada that everyone thought each of the four summer months needed a long weekend. Of course, not every province celebrates it, but most do. And it’s also Caribana weekend in Toronto – a huge party that celebrates Carribean culture.

    More facts than you needed, I’m sure.

    But let me finish. I just want to say this about Dave Winfield. He aimed at the seagull. Killed it in front of fans – including kids, during the Fifth inning. Granted, the old Exhibition Stadium was right next to the lake and seagulls were a big problem – all those popcorn and peanut snacks. And flocks would settle on the field and not move. But still… However, all was eventually forgiven in 1992 with his extra inning hit that won Toronto their first World Series!

    Okay, I think I’m finished my Canadian themed stories.

    Now I have to figure out what else I can finish this week. There is a might long list, let me tell you!

    • Joanne? Are you really from Ohio???
      Thanks for the details and filling in the blanks. I didn’t know but glad the Seagull killer wasn’t all bad.
      Oh, I have not finished my movie but I plan to this week. 😀

  3. Watermelon is always a treat. Although I seem to remember Joanne has a bad experience with it. Or maybe it was another El Mornoer.
    Tipping my hat to the Coast Guard.
    I hope to start and finish replacing my roof this week. I’m not doing the work but if it doesn’t rain hopefully the guys that are will get on it and finish it.
    You are easily amused. Funny.

  4. I think I’m a better starter than a finisher — we’d work well together, huh?!

    Love watermelon — it so reminds me of summer days. Why, even Dallas loves watermelon!

    Sorry to hear your picnic table project has stalled. I do know what you mean, though. DIY stuff always looks like fun until you get in the murky middle (same’s true for novel-writing, ha!)

    • I’ve never given my pups watermelon. I’ll have to try it.
      Well, lately it seems all I’ve done is start…one step up and two steps back cha cha cha. But yes, I like to say DONE.
      My house is much cleaner when I get the urge to write. So odd how that happens.

  5. I love watermelon and eat it every day for breakfast. I loved the bear joke but I’m never going camping again.

  6. I had watermelon today which explains my many trips to the loo. Good golly it makes me wee. But yummy –oh so yummy. The other adorable watermelon looking thing has me captivated. I want some. I must have some. Diane needs to hurry up and grow them. And then share.
    The bear pic had me giggling today. Can’t wait to see how the picnic table turns out!!!

    • Thanks for sharing, sweetie.
      I’ve been looking for so mini melons. No luck. Yet.
      Glad you are easily amused too!

  7. Internet does not care for me to post this. Tried 3xs last evening…….nooooo. Maybe today!
    My brother was a Coastie. I remember wearing his too large pea coat around.
    Louis Armstrong was a classic entertainer!
    I have not checked off much on my to-do summer list. Shame.
    Let’s see if this sends.

    • Sorry for the troubles. I hope it wasn’t Odd.
      Those pea coats are nice!
      I bet you have accomplished more than most of us! And enjoyed some summer too. That’s the most important part.

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