~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
November 23rd

★~  Today’s Quote:  “I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharking and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is much more respecta”  Benjamin Franklin quotes

★~ Tie One On Day: 

Tie One On (an apron, of course!) and put the “give” back into Thanksgiving by sharing your good fortune with someone in need of a kind gesture. On the eve of Thanksgiving, wrap a loaf of bread in an apron and tuck a note of encouragement in the pocket and deliver the wrapped bread to someone in need of spiritual or physical sustenance

Isn’t this a nice custom?  I don’t have a apron (not one) but I do have couple new dish towels…I might buy a loaf of bread from the bakery and wrap it up and pass it on. I bet you could also use a pie or some cookies.  Are we too late for this custom this year? Well then let’s put it on the calendar to remember earlier next year.

★~ Espresso Day:

I have to admit that I have never experienced what aficionados claim to be coffee in its truest form; espresso. Too strong!  Generally, espresso describes any type of coffee that has been brewed by steam. The word refers to the method of preparation and not to any specific brand. But like all relative things in life, some espressos are better than others.

What does espresso mean anyway? Well, there are several thoughts on the subject. The word expresso is generally thought to mean fast or straight through (like an express train). The truth among the grinds is that espresso is anything but a fast cup of coffee. The Italian verb esprimersi means to express oneself, to word. Also, there is the verb espirare, meaning to expire, which after drinking several cups of the strong brew some people probably did. The more accepted connotation is from the adverb espressamente which means expressly for you. It is a word that is applied to food and drinks that are made at the moment of asking. Although it has now changed from an adverb to a noun, an espresso by any other name is still a you-know-what.

Louis Bernard Babaut created the first known espresso machine in 1822. It was commercialized by Edward Loysel de Santais in 1843 and presented to the world at the Paris Exposition in 1855. This early machine had two teeny, tiny drawbacks. It sort of blew up from time to time whenever a steam fitting or chamber failed, taking with it whosoever had mastered (or in this case, failed to master), the secrets of its operation. Another drawback was that the coffee would burn if care was not taken to insure that the steam chamber didn’t get too hot. Making espresso in the old days, was a real art that required skill, knowledge and interpretation on the part of the operator.

Fortunately today you can just pop into your local coffee house and order an espresso or and it will be prepared for no one but yours truly and if your lucky it will be delivered to you expresso

Note to EL Morno friend Antoinette (coffee expert and fluent in Italian)  please forgive me for murdering the Italian word espresso…if you had not been otherwise ocupado I would have asked.

★~ Today in History:

♥~  1889 – The Jukebox made its debut at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco. It consisted of an Edison Class M Electric Phonograph inside an oak cabinet with tubes sticking out, and by depositing a coin you could listen to the recording through the tube. In its first six months of service, the Nickel-in-the-Slot earned more than $1,000

♥~ 1936 – LIFE magazine debuted. The first cover pictured the Fort Peck Dam in Montana (part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program) photographed by Margaret Bourke-White. On page 2, a photo showed a doctor slapping a newborn baby — and the caption read, “LIFE begins.”

♥~ 1954 – Bruce Hornsby musician: piano, singer: group: The Range: The Way It Is

♥~ 1964 – The Vatican abolished Latin as the official language of the Roman Catholic liturgy. In 1988, however, Pope John Paul II, in a binding pronouncement, decreed that respect must be shown everywhere for the feelings of all those attached to the old Latin tradition by wide and generous permission for celebration of the old (Tridentine) rite. By the close of the twentieth century, the Tridentine Mass was once again being widely celebrated throughout the world with the permission and encouragement of many Catholic Bishops.

♥~ 1974 – One Hit wonder Billy Swan reached the #1 spot on the singles charts  with I Can Help was the most popular song in the U.S. for two weeks.

♥~ 1984 – Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie passed his way into sports history by leading Boston College past Miami, 47-45, at the Orange Bowl in Miami. Flutie threw a 48-yard pass on the final play of the game. That play became known as ‘The Pass’. Incidentally, coaches said the 175-pound senior was too short to play football.

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1859 – Billy The Kid, Legendary outlaw of western US. Probably named Henry McCarty at birth (New York, NY), he was better known as William H. Bonney. Ruthless killer, a failure at everything legal, he escaped from jail at age 21 while under sentence of hanging. Recaptured at Stinking Springs, NM, and returned to jail, he again escaped, only to be shot through the heart by pursuing Lincoln County sheriff Pat Garrett at Fort Sumner, NM, during the night of July 14, 1881. His last words, answered by two shots, reportedly were, “Who is there?”

♥~ 1888 – Harpo (Adolph) Marx comedian, musician: harp, piano; silent member of the Marx Brothers comedy team: Animal Crackers, A Day at the Races, Duck Soup, Horse Feathers, Monkey Business, A Night at the Opera, Go West, At the Circus; actor: Silent Panic; died Sep 28, 1964

♥~ 1992 – Miley Cyrus actress: Hannah Montana; songwriter, singer: Who Said, Best of Both Worlds, True Friend

★~ Did You Know: 

♥~  Americans feast on 535 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving

♥~ Turkeys can drown if they look up when it is raining. I’m not sure I believe this. Let me ask one of our  El Morno experts Carol Smith…is this true?

♥~ A spooked turkey can burst into flight approaching speeds between 50-55 mph in a matter of seconds

♥~ Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States. It was Thomas Jefferson who opposed him and this is why it is believed that Franklin named the male turkey ‘tom’ to spite Jefferson

♥~ There are three places in the United States named after the holiday’s traditional main course — Turkey, Texas; Turkey Creek, La.; and Turkey, N.C. There are also nine townships around the country named “Turkey,” with three in Kansas.

♥~ The Guinness Book of Records states that the greatest dressed weight recorded for a turkey is 39.09 kg (86 lbs), at the annual “heaviest turkey” competition held in London, England on December 12, 1989.

♥~ I am including this fact because I like the green bean casserole and have heard so many disparaging  remarks about it this year…More than 40 million green bean casseroles are served on Thanksgiving. So there!

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Do you need a party favor for your Thanksgiving table? You could make the  Pilgrim people.

Or perhaps you would like to make this Clothespin and muffin paper turkey!!!

Fine!!!  Don’t make the them but it could be fun. Where is your Thanksgiving spirit??

Wait one minute….I know….

What about Oreo Turkeys and Cookie Pilgrim Hats?

I heard that!!  I hope you are happy now…I  think you just crushed my Thanksgiving spirt. I will just go away now….

But I will be back!!  Yet another thing to be thankful for….right!!!! Right??

Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday…be mindful in those wild and crazy parking lots…there are lots of turkeys out there. . .

Odd Loves Company so if you have a El Morno moment tell us about your Thanksgiving plans.

♥