~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
May 15th, 2011

★~ Today’s Quote: Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.~ L. Frank Baum

★~ Peace Officers Memorial Day:

 

Today we honor federal, state and local officers killed or disabled in the line of duty. We take time, to think of those who lost their lives or have been injured while protecting our communities. Hat tip  to Police Officer Jim Mullen who makes KICK ASS APPLE SAUCE.

I would be remiss if I did not tell you that May 15th is the official day to begin wearing your straw hat. Everyone knows the major rules of fashion: no white after Labor Day, no sandals with socks, wear a sweater when your mother is cold, and no straw hats before May 15th. For those of you take these fashion rules lightly, let me remind you that according to Neil Steinberg’s book Hatless Jack, men have been murdered in living memory in the United States for the crime of wearing a hat out of season. Now put away your felt hat until September grab your straw hat, leave your worry on the doorstep, and just direct your feet to the sunny side of the street!

★~ Today is Chocolate Chip Day:

Chocolate Chip Day celebrates chocolate chips.  After all, where would chocolate chip cookies, cakes and muffins be without the chocolate chip!? Chipless that is where! Go forth and eat any number of chocolate chip delights or bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies, or brownies, or  a chocolate chip pie!

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1817~ Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason was founded in Philadelphia. It was it was the first private psychiatric hospital in the U.S. It is still in existence but is now called the Friends Hospital.

♥~ 1930 – Ellen Church became the first stewardess for an airline. Church served passengers flying between San Francisco, California and Cheyenne, Wyoming on Boeing Air Transport (later known as United Air Lines). She also served chicken, fruit salad and rolls.

♥~ 1970 – Close to You, the Carpenter’s second album and the one that launched them to meteoric fame, was released by A&M Records. The title song, (They Long to Be) Close to You, became a pop music standard and the first of six million-sellers in a row for Karen and Richard. In all, The Carpenters would have 10 gold records for singles and a dozen top ten hits to their credit. The duo won Best New Artist honors at the Grammy Awards in 1970.

♥~ 1988 – Carrie, the musical adaption of Stephen King’s novel about a troubled teenager with telekinetic powers, closed in New York after a brief run. It was one of the most expensive flops in Broadway history, losing $8 million.

♥~ 2010 – 16-year-old Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail around the globe solo, nonstop and unassisted. Watson cruised into Sydney Harbor, Australia in her pink, 34-foot (10m) yacht to a rock-star welcome of thousands.

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1856 ~ Lyman Frank Baum, The house began to pitch / The kitchen took a slich / It landed on the Wicked Witch in the middle of a ditch / Which was not a happy situation for the Wicked Witch! Who can remember where they were the first time they watched the Wizard of Oz?  Baum published Oz in 1900 and dedicated it, “To my good friend and comrade, My Wife.”  He adapted the book into a musical that became the basis the bases for the MGM musical, starring Judy Garland, Margaret Hamilton, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan, and Billy Burke among others.

★~ Did You Know:

♥~ For it’s time, The Wizard of Oz was an expensive movie. costing around $2.77 million . Most headlining feature movies, by comparison, cost around $1 million at the time. The Wizard of Oz, however, was not the costliest movie of the year: Gone with the Wind cost a whopping $4 million to make.

♥~ She’s really most sincerely dead.” It is interesting to note that the date inscribed on the certificate for the demise of the Wicked Witch of the East is the death date of L. Frank Baum – May 6.

♥~ Bert Lahr, the cowardly lion wore 50 pounds of genuine lion skins, lined with padding to fill out the costume.

♥~ The shot where sparks and fire comes from the ruby slippers when the witch reaches for them was filmed by having apple juice spew from the slippers and then speeding up the film and adding some lighting effects.

♥~ 40,000 poppies had to be made for the scene where Dorothy falls asleep in the field of flowers (real poppies would have wilted under hot lighting).  It took an aveage of 12 men working a week to place the flowers into position on the 2-acre set.

♥~ Margaret Hamilton (Wicked Witch) was a kindergarten teacher before becoming an actress.

♥~ Bert Lahr’s Cowardly Lion’s costume weighed 90 lbs.

♥~ Two white palomino ponies were painted with thicken Jell-O powder to get the beautiful effect for “The horse of a different color” shots as Dorothy and her friends are taken through the Emerald City. Shooting had to be done quickly because the horses would constantly try to lick their fur to get a sweet treat!

♥~ Ray Bolger was a smoker. Twice while filming he was smoking during a break; cigarette ash fell onto some of the straw of his costume, catching him on fire!

♥~The name OZ came to author L. Frank Baum while looking at his file cabinets, organized A-N and O-Z.

Today’s Silly:

Instruction About Church:
A Sunday school teacher asked the children just before she dismissed them to go to church, “And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?”

Annie replied, “Because people are sleeping.”

After the Preaching on the Devil:
Two boys were walking home from Sunday school after hearing a strong preaching on the devil. One said to the other, “What do you think about all this Satan stuff?”

The other boy replied, “Well, you know how Santa Claus turned out. It’s probably just your dad.”

Late for Bible Class:
A little girl, dressed in her Sunday best, was running as fast as she could, trying not to be late for Bible class. As she ran she prayed, “Dear Lord, please don’t let me be late! Dear Lord, please don’t let me be late!”

While she was running and praying, she tripped on a curb and fell, getting her clothes dirty and tearing her dress. She got up, brushed herself off, and started running again.

As she ran she once again began to pray, “Dear Lord, please don’t let me be late…But please don’t shove me either!”

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Have a wonderful Sunday and join me as take my cuppa El Morno over to a new post where I will share my real feelings about the Wizard of Oz. Naturally, your invited to share your real thoughts along with me.