~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
October 19, 2011

★~ Today’s Quote: “Some women hold up dresses that are so ugly and they always say the same thing: ‘This looks much better on.’ On what? On fire?” Rita Rudner quotes

★~ Hagfish Day:

Hagfish are believed to be one of the world’s ugliest living creatures, made even more repugnant by their production of slime as a defense mechanism. No doubt about it, you won’t find many hagfish shown off in ponds or at SeaWorld. At aquariums, the only reason people stop to look at the hagfish is to notice how ugly they are. Can you imagine being on display and constantly being called UGLY? Not only ugly, but the ugliest creature that ever lived! It breaks your heart, doesn’t it? Well then, let’s just all agree that beauty is not fin deep and acknowledge the hagfish for . . . well . . . ok . . .. The hagfish is brilliant at fulfilling its primary function in the ecosystem, which is pretty much grossing out the other fish by giving them big slimy hugs and sliming away. The hagfish also reminds us that all sea creatures — even the ugly, slimy, misunderstood, or unusual — deserve respect for their roles in the ecosystem.

Speaking of hagfish, today is also…

★~ Seafood Bisque Day:

Seafood bisque is French soup that includes lobster, crab, shrimp, and crayfish. Some culinary historians believe that the word bisque is derived from the fact that this type of soup is cooked not once, but twice. Others believe that the origin of the word relates to the Bay of Biscay. Regardless of the origin, seafood bisque is fabulous! If you want to make your own seafood bisque, all you need to do is this:  Lightly sauté the crustaceans in their shells, then simmer them in wine. Once cooked, purée them in a food processor. Then add cream to the mixture to thicken the soup to your desired consistency. After that, just add a sprig of parsley and it’s ready to serve! Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s is, of course, another option.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1872 – The world’s largest gold nugget (215 kg) was found in New South Wales, Australia.

♥~ 1937 – “The freedom of the press is a flaming sword. Use it justly, hold it high, guard it well.” The radio classic, Big Town, made its debut on CBS radio.

♥~ 1982 – Auto manufacturer John DeLorean was arrested in Los Angeles and charged in a $24 million cocaine scheme aimed at salvaging his bankrupt sports car company. He was tried and acquitted.

♥~ 1985 – Take on Me, by a-ha, reached number one on the pop music charts.

♥~ 1983: The annual 2-day White Elephant Sale at the Cleveland Convention Center made $427,935.21, most ever raised at a 2-day rummage sale.

♥~ 1997: Holly, Colorado, designated the school crossing guard to handle emergencies after the town marshall and his deputy resigned and another deputy was fired. It worked out okay. In six weeks, the community of 900 had only one emergency when somebody stole the trash can at the car wash.

♥~ 2003:  In London, magician David Blaine emerged from a clear plastic box that had been suspended by a crane over the banks of the Thames River. Blaine had entered the box on Sep 5 and survived only on water for 44 days and nights.

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1850:  Annie Smith Peck One of the world’s  most renowned mountain climbers.When Annie turned 45, she gained international recognition by climbing the Matterhorn — After the Matterhorn, she climbed the 21,812 foot-high Huascaran, a mountain peak in Peru. She  was the first American to reach this high a pinnacle in the Western Hemisphere. Next she climbed, Mt. Coropuna, also in Peru. It was a mere 562 feet shorter than Huascaran. Not bad for a 61-year-old woman. When Annie got to the top of this mountain she placed a banner there that said, “Votes for Women.”

Why did Annie Peck climb those peaks? Because they were there…

♥~ 1937 – Peter Max (Finkelstein) pop artist: psychedelic best-selling poster; designer: postage stamp: Expo ’74; 1982 World’s Fair official artist

♥~ 1945 – John Lithgow Emmy Award-winning actor: 3rd Rock from the Sun]; Tony Award-winning actor: The Changing Room[1973]; Twilight Zone-The Movie, I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can, The World According to Garp, Terms of Endearment, Raising Cain, The Pelican Brief, Cliffhanger, Twenty Good Years

★~ Did You Know:

♥~ It has been estimated that, worldwide, the total amount of gold ever mined is 152,000 metric tons, only enough to fill 60 tractor trailers. In comparison, each year 907 million metric tons of iron are produced worldwide. This is equivalent to 6,000 times the total gold produced throughout history.

♥~ More than 90 percent of all gold ever used has been mined since 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill, California, sparking the greatest gold rush of all time.

♥~ Gold nuggets are solid lumps of gold. Nuggets are rare, making up less than 2 percent of all native gold ever mined.

♥~ Oceans are the greatest single reservoir of gold at Earth’s surface, containing approximately eight times the total quantity of gold mined to date. However, the current cost of extracting it is more than the gold is worth.

♥~ Gold is so malleable that a single ounce of it (about the size of a quarter) can be beaten into a thin continuous sheet measuring roughly 100 square feet. That means it would take 576 ounces (or just 36 pounds) of gold to completely cover a football field, or a whopping 367,211 ounces (or about 11 tons) of gold to completely blanket all of Central Park.

♥~ One ounce of gold can be stretched into a thin wire measuring only five microns, or five millionths of a meter, thick, that would reach in a straight line from midtown Manhattan across Long Island Sound to Bridgeport, Connecticut—a distance of 80 kilometers or 50 miles.

♥~ The oldest worked-gold objects, the products of the ancient Thracian civilization, were made as early as 4000 BC, and were discovered at a burial site in Varna, Bulgaria.

♥~ In the Aztec language, the name for gold is teocuitlatl, which means “excrement of the gods.”

♥~ The “Welcome Stranger,” the largest gold nugget ever recorded, was found in Victoria, Australia, in 1869. It weighed 78 kilograms (about 172 pounds). When it was melted down, it produced 71 kilograms (156 pounds) of pure gold.

♥~ The largest gold nugget believed to exist today is the “Hand of Faith,” a 60-pound specimen discovered in Victoria, Australia, in October, 1980. It is currently on display at the Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas.

♥~ The Federal Reserve Bank of New York holds the world’s largest accumulation of monetary gold. The vault is 25 meters (80 feet) beneath the street and holds $147 billion worth of gold bullion. The bedrock of Manhattan is strong enough to support the weight of the vault, its door, and the gold inside.

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My roofer is supposed to show up today — the roofer that I felt really good about hiring until he took my deposit check and said, “You’re gonna love me . . . .”  Why do all contractors say that to me? I don’t want to love them. I just want them to show up and do the job. And so far my track record is just about as impressive as Zippy Chippy the race horse that has the record for the most losses. They show up, they promise me the world, offer impressive references, tell me I will love them, and then, after I hire them, the relationship is over — without so much as a nail in my roof! But not this time . . . not this time. “Mr. You Are Going To Love Me” is supposed to show up today, but when I called yesterday to confirm, he was concerned about the weather and vague about whether he had ordered the materials. As God is my witness, rain, lightening, and thunder are going to be the least of his problems if he does not get his low-down, sorry ass over to my house to start and finish my roof. I mean it!! Really, I do!! I am watching the Honey Badger video and taking notes! LOTS OF NOTES!

I will keep you posted, but in the meantime, Odd really needs company today

♥
Kb