~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
October 12, 2011

★~ Today’s Quote:  “As the farmer who won the lottery said when asked what he was going to do with his winnings “Keep farming until it’s all gone” ~ anonymous

★~ International Moment of Frustration Scream Day: 

Today, all citizens of the world are invited to go outdoors and have a moment of loudness for 30 seconds. That little skin thing that hangs in the back of your throat should be vibrating, and your eyes should be bulging while you let out your frustrations and give the world your finest scream. Now, doesn’t that feel better?

★~ Farmer’s Day:

Eee-ey-ee-eye-oh — yay! Old MacDonald is finally getting his due. The men and women who sow the seeds are finally getting their just rewards: a day dedicated only to them! Know any farmers? Shake their hands and thank them for their skill and hard work.

★~ National Gumbo Day: 

Gumbo is a tasty, stew-like dish that originated in Louisiana. The name comes from an African word for okra. Similar to Louisiana itself, gumbo reflects an amalgamation of many cultures. Elements in the recipe can be linked to West African, Choctaw, and French cuisine. As a result, there are many variations of gumbo, and to this day chefs argue over the true recipe. The first historical reference to gumbo appears in an 1803 document, which describes the menu at a gubernatorial reception in New Orleans.

Enjoy Louisiana’s most famous dish served over brown or white rice, and celebrate National Gumbo Day!

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1944 – A huge crowd of swooning bobbysoxers stopped traffic in New York’s Times Square as Frank Sinatra made his triumphant return to the famed Paramount Theatre. In what was called the ‘Columbus Day Riot’, 25,000 teenagers, mostly young women, blocked the streets, screaming and swooning for Frankie. Sinatra later explained, “It was the war years, and there was a great loneliness. And I was the boy in every corner drug store … who’d gone off, drafted to the war. That was all.”

♥~ 1963 – Traffic on the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge was reconfigured — with five westbound lanes on the upper deck and five eastbound lanes on the lower deck.

♥~1976 – Chart Topper: If You Leave Me Now, Chicago

♥~ 1999 – According to estimates by the United Nations, the world’s population had reached 6 billion. The new benchmark came 12 years after the previous billion.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1891 – Perle Mesta (Skirvin) socialite: ‘The hostess with the mostes’; diplomat: appointment as U.S. envoy to Luxembourg [1949] inspired Broadway play Call Me Madam;died Mar 16, 1975

♥~ 1908 – Paul Engle, born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa  into a farming family, best known for his work with the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.  A poet, novelist and editor, his books include Worn Earth (1932), American Child: Sonnets for My Daughter (1956), Poems in Praise (1959), and Embrace: Selected Love Poems

♥~ 1916 – Alice Childress, born in Charleston, South Carolina ), moved with her family to Harlem as a child, and every Wednesday night she went to her grandmother’s church for something called “Wednesday night testimonials.” She said, “I remember how people, mostly women, used to get up and tell their troubles to everybody. … I couldn’t wait for person after person to tell their story.” She decided she wanted to grow up and tell those women’s stories to the world. She went on to write plays such as Trouble in Mind (1955) and Wine in the Wilderness (1969), and novels including A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich (1973) and A Short Walk (1979).

♥~1921- Arthur “Art” Clokey was a pioneer in the popularization of stop motion clay animation, beginning in 1955 with a film experiment called Gumbasia, influenced by his professor, Slavko Vorkapich, at the University of Southern California. From the Gumbasia project, Art Clokey and his wife Ruth invented Gumby. Since then, Gumby and his horse Pokey had become a familiar presence on television, appearing in several series beginning with the Howdy Doody Show and later The Adventures of Gumby. The characters enjoyed a renewal of interest in the 1980s when American actor and comedian Eddie Murphy parodied Gumby in a skit on Saturday Night Live. In the 1990s Gumby: The Movie was released, sparking even more interest.

♥~ 1935 – Luciano Pavarotti Emmy Award-winning opera star: Pavarotti in Philadelphia: La Boheme [1982-1983]; actor: Yes, Giorgio; died Sep 6, 2007

♥~ 1950 – Susan Anton singer: Killin’ Time [w/Fred Knoblock]; actress: Cannonball Run 2, Goldengirl, Baywatch, Stop Susan Williams

♥~ 1970 – Kirk Cameron actor: Growing Pains, Listen to Me, The Best of Times, Like Father, like Son, Two Marriages

★~ Did You Know: 

♥~ Nearly two million people farm or ranch in the United States. Almost 90 percent of U.S. farms are operated by individuals or family corporations.

♥~ Today’s American farmer feeds about 155 people worldwide. In 1960, that number was 25.8.

♥~  Nearly 30 percent of today’s farmers and ranchers have attended college, with over half of this group obtaining a degree. A growing number of today’s farmers and ranchers with four-year college degrees are pursuing post-graduate studies.

♥~  Based on acres: Iowa is the largest farming state-25.1 million acres and grows more corn (13.1 acres) than any other state.

♥~ Illinois right behind  Iowa growing 12.1 million acres of corn.

♥~ The top wheat state is Kansas at 8.8 million acres..

♥~ The top hay state is Texas at 4.5 million acres. .

♥~ Iowa has the most soybean acres at 9.8 million, Illinois is second at 9.0 million and Minnesota is third at 7.1 million acres.

♥~ Texas ranks #1 in cotton growing about 43% of the total acres of cotton grown in the US.

♥~ There are 135,996 farms in Australia covering 61% of Australia’s landmass.

♥~ Soybeans are an important ingredient for the production of crayons. In fact, one acre of soybeans can produce 82,368 crayons

♥~ Highway to Hooterville–Fun Farm picture!

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My grandfather had a cotton farm in El Paso, Texas where I grew up, and I can still remember the great big trucks filled with cotton. There were also pecan trees, sweet pomegranates and grapes, irrigation ditches, and mean geese. I don’t really remember anyone working on the farm . . . my grandparents always seemed to be having coffee or going to K-mart. But I’m pretty sure the cotton did not pick itself, and the pecans did not drop from the trees into the buckets. Memories from childhood are selective, aren’t they?

Screaming? I would rather not . . . I’m not stifled, just lazy. Screaming takes so much energy. I may give the day a hoot and a holler though, just to be a good sport.

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday. I will be back soon to muse about the food of the day — or rather, days — soon. My mom is visiting, and isn’t that a wonderful excuse to be behind.

If you have an El Morno moment, leave a comment. Odd Loves Company!

♥
Kb