~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
January 16,2012

 

★~ Today’s Poem:
“The Dragon of Grindly Grun”
I’m the Dragon of Grindly Grun,
I breathe fire as hot as the sun.
When a knight comes to fight

I just toast him on sight,
Like a hot crispy cinnamon bun.

When I see a fair damsel go by,
I just sigh a fiery sigh,
And she’d baked like a ‘tater-
I think of her later
With a romantic tear in my eye.

I’m the Dragon of Grindly Grun,
But my lunches aren’t very much fun,
For I like my damsels medium rare,
and they always come out well done.

©1974 Evil Eye Music Poem and drawing by Shel Silverstein

★~ Do Nothing Day:

Founded in 1973 “to protest the proliferation of special days and weeks by providing Americans with one 24-hour period when they can just sit–without celebrating or honoring anything.” Founder Harold Coffin was selected as Chairman of NNF “Because nothing is something he does better than anybody else.” “The only regret of the negative thinkers in the Nothing Foundation is that in order to combat the proliferation of special days they were forced to create an additional special day.” An expression of interest in the foundation’s purposes qualifies one for membership. Total number of members is unknown. The group does not publish anything, and does not hold meetings or conventions.

★~Dragon Appreciation Day!

Today is not only Dragon Appreciation Day, it is also the year of the Dragon on the Chinese calendar. The dragon is a creature of myth and legend. A symbol of good fortune and sign of intense power, the Oriental Dragon is regarded as a divine beast–the reverse of the malicious monster that Westerners felt necessary to find and slay. In Eastern philosophy, the Dragon is said to be a deliverer of good fortune and a master of authority. If you were born in 1904 * 1916 * 1928 * 1940 * 1952 * 1964 * 1976 * 1988 * 2000 *2012, you are a dragon!

The last decade has brought us many dragons to admire. You can also find these fantastic creatures in local parks, in the form of statues. There’s the colorful mosaic statue in Nashville, Tenn., or the dragon statue in Parfet Park in Golden, Colo.

Notable dragons you can appreciate:

Toothless in “How to Tame Your Dragon”

Norbert, Hagrid’s dragon–or any other dragon in the Harry Potter series

Donkey’s love, Dragon, in Shrek 2

Puff the Magic Dragon

Saphira in Eragon

★~ Fig Newton Day:

I am going to divulge a family secret that my mother and I have tried to hide behind the Bisquick in the pantry for years. My dad loves Fig Newtons and–even worse–sometimes he washes them down with a can of Mr. Pibb. The man that seldom snacks insists on Fig Newtons for all road trips and there they ride in all their awfulness, next to the Oreos and Chocolate Chip cookies…terrifying the Lay’s potato chips. My mother wonders where she went wrong and has tried to inhibit and redirect his appetite for Newtons, but she had to admit defeat to this cookie defect in my dad’s personality. Terror struck my heart when Cole, after spending time with his grandfather, told me the fruit Fig Newtons were not too bad. Early intervention on my part saved him from the evil of Fig Newtons and now he walks the righteous Oreo and Keebler chocolate chip cookie path.

I could not in good conscience encourage eating Fig Newtons; however, if you have already strayed from the good cookie flock then Odd will allow you one day of indulgence without harassment.

★~Spicy Food Day:

Archaeological evidence suggests that people have been using hot spices in their recipes for over 6000 years. The hottest chili pepper in the world is the Naga Jolokia. On average, one of these peppers is over 170 times spicier than a jalapeno pepper!

To celebrate this holiday, try a few hot peppers or hot sauces with your food today! A few hot peppers could burn the taste of Fig Newton off your tongue!

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1866 – Mr. Everett Barney patented the all-metal screw clamp skate. Remember those? They would clamp on to the edges of the soles of shoes and you tightened them with a key. With the advent of athletic shoes, there was no place to clamp the skates so the clamp skate disappeared. In its place? Roller blades!

♥~ 1961 – Mickey Mantle signed a contract which made him the highest paid baseball player in the American League. ‘The Commerce Comet’ stepped up to the plate for $75,000 for the 1961 season.

♥~ 1976 – The album, Frampton Comes Alive, was released by Herb Alpert’s A&M Records. The double LP soon reached the top spot of the album charts and stayed perched there for 17 weeks. It sold 19 million copies in its first year in the record racks.

♥~ 1990 – Massachusetts farmer Frank Montague reported that a moose had fallen in love with his cows, and that there really wasn’t much anybody could do about it.

♥~ 2004 – Starbucks opened its first coffee shop in France. The store is located in the heart of the city at 26 Avenue de l’Opera, one of Paris’ popular tourist and shopping districts.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1910 – Dizzy (Jay Hanna) Dean Baseball Hall of Famer: SL Cardinals [World Series: 1934/all-star: 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937], Chicago Cubs [World Series: 1938], SL Browns; broadcaster: SL Browns, Mutual Radio net, ABC/CBS Game of the Week; died July 17, 1974;

♥~ 1935 – A.J. Foyt, Auto racer

♥~ 1943 – Ronnie Milsap, Country singer

♥~ 1974 –  Kate Moss supermodel

♥~ 1950 – Debbie Allen, Dancer, choreographer (“Fame”)

★~ Did You Know:

♥~ Sorry, cookie-munching science geeks, the Fig Newton was not named after Sir Isaac Newton. That’s a myth.

♥~ The Kennedy Biscuit Co. in Cambridgeport, Mass., named the cookie after the nearby town Newton, Massachusetts.”

♥~ Baker James Henry Mitchell invented a machine that was a funnel within a funnel to fill a cake-like cookie with the fig jam and created the Fig Newton.

♥~ Fig Newtons were one of the first commercially baked products in America.

♥~ This cookie is the 3rd most popular cookie in the U.S., over 1 billion are consumed each year. I find this figure appalling…Really Americans? Next you are going to tell me Newt Gingrich should be president!

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You know…I just bet my dear daddy (Charlie) would love to be wished a Happy Fig Newton Day! His e-mail is Cljensennm at gmail.com (change the at for an @)

I will leave you with this sage advice: Never Ever Tickle The Tail Of A Sleeping Dragon OR challenge a Fig Newton cookie lovers right to take his cookies on a road trip.

Odd Loves Company…so leave a comment if you have an El Morno moment!