~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
March 24, 2011

★~ Today’s Quote “This wasn’t just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it.” Dorothy Parker

★~ Today is National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day!  Enjoy this tasty combination of chocolate and fruit.  If you are like me and do not like raisins feel free to celebrate by just eating a piece of chocolate.

★~ Today in History

♥~  1958 – Elvis Presley reported to local draft board 86 in Memphis, TN. He became US 53310761. Oddly, since Elvis was now ‘government property’ serving his time in the Army, Uncle Sam stood to lose an estimated $500,000 in lost taxes each year that Private Presley was in the Army.

♥~ 1960 – A U.S. appeals court ruled that the novel, Lady Chatterly’s Lover, was not obscene and could be sent through the mail. Try it and see…

♥~ 1964 – The Kennedy half-dollar coin was first issued. It was minted in silver its first year, then switched to a copper-nickel alloy with other U.S. ‘silver’ coins the next year.

♥~ 1985 – The Golden Raspberry Awards were presented to parody the Oscar Awards. The movie, Bolero, won the big award, for John and Bo (I’m a 10!) Derek; winning honors for worst director and worst actress, respectively.

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1874 – Harry Houdini magician: the great Houdini, escape artist; died Oct 31, 1926

♥~ 1930 – (Terence Steven) Steve McQueen actor: The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, Papillon, Towering Inferno, The Sand Pebbles, Love with the Proper Stranger, Hell is for Heroes, Bullitt, The Hunter, Le Mans; died Nov 7, 1980

♥~ 1940 – Bob Mackie fashion and costume designer: 6 Emmy Awards, 3 Academy Award nominations; client list includes: Cher, Carol Burnett, Diahann Carroll, Bernadette Peters, Madonna, Carol Channing and RuPaul, The Carol Burnett Show [entire 11-year TV run]

♥~ 1946 – Colin Petersen musician: drums: group: The Bee Gees [the first non-Gibb brother to become a member]: Stayin’ Alive, How Deep is Your Love, Jive Talkin’, Night Fever, Tragedy, You Should Be Dancing, Love So Right

♥~ 1951 – Tommy Hilfiger fashion, perfume and cosmetics mogul.

★~ Did You Know:

♥~ The word raisin comes from the Latin racemus, which means a “cluster of grapes or berries.”

♥~ Two jars of raisins could be traded for one slave in Ancient Rome.

♥~ Seventy-five percent of grapes are eaten at breakfast.

♥~ California produces 95 percent of all raisins in the United States and about 50 percent of the raisins in the world.

♥~ If you put a raisin in a fresh glass of champagne, it will rise and fall continuously. This experiment will be demonstrated on Odd later today.

♥~ It takes four pounds of fresh Grapes to yield one pound of raisins?

♥~ The World’s Largest Box of Raisins sits at the office entrance to Sun-Maid raisins.  it is 2 feet high, 8 feet wide, 4 feet deep and holds about 16,500 pounds of raisins At one time, it did actually hold raisins, but the box is now empty.

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My mother explained to me during my impressionable years that raisins were evil, and I should never eat them. EVER. Mom told me that raisins sneaked into perfectly good food and popped out at you when you least expected it, ruining your cookie, bread or muffin experience. One time when I was in my 20s, I casually ate a oatmeal raisin cookie in front of her, and she almost fainted from the shock—and then became worried about the kind of people I might be hanging out with, now that I had moved out on my own. For God’s sake she ranted . . . no self-respecting cookie would ever be seen with a low down scoundrel of a raisin; trail mix did not even deserve raisins. Didn’t she raise me better? I promised never to eat another raisin—ever.

What about you?  How do you feel about raisins?  Be honest . . . you are among friends . . . unless, of course, my mom reads your comment . . . .Odd Loves Company!

♥