~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
February 26,2012

Posted Update: February 26, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote: An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come. ~ Victor Hugo

★~ Note to sky watchers: Put on your winter coats and head out side tonight:

A crescent Moon is expected to align in the dark sky with Venus and Jupiter, forming a slender triangle off to the west. The moon and planets are the brightest objects in the night sky, NASA says. Together, they can shine through urban lights, fog, or even clouds.

★~ The Academy Awards:

Tonight is the biggest night of the year for the film industry — the Academy Awards! The first Academy Awards ceremony took place on May 16, 1929. It was a private dinner party with less than 250 guests in attendance, and tickets cost $5. The ceremony only lasted fifteen minutes! Today, an average of 40 million people will watch the ceremony on television.

The trophy for the Academy Awards is a knight gripping a crusader’s sword standing on a reel of film. The reel has five spokes representing the original branches of the Academy: actors, directors, producers, technicians, and writers. The statuette is officially known as the Academy Award of Merit but was nicknamed “Oscar” in the 1930s. Each of the Oscars costs $500 to produce and weighs about 8.5 pounds.

So, who will take home the award for Best Picture this year? Who will be the best dressed on the red carpet? Who will win our Odd Oscar pool? Might be you if you play with us!

★~ Fairy Tale Day: 

Gather round, and make yourselves comfortable . . .

Tell a Fairy Tale Day is all about exploring myths and stories, old and new, from grim(m) tales to urban legends.  Think you are too old for fairy tales? Take a look at these contemporary fairy tale books.

★~ For Pete’s Sake Day: 

If you really want to annoy an etymologist, suggest that this expression was born out Michelangelo fund raising efforts for St. Peter’s Cathedral. Personally, I think it would have made a great slogan. Too bad Mickie didn’t think of it.

This how the expression “for Pete’s sake” really came to be:  Once upon a time, people used the expression “for the love of God” in its purest sense, but then in the early1800’s, one carriage driver yelled at another carriage driver with annoyance, “For the love of God, get out my way!” and the ladies in the coach were shocked at the brutal blasphemy. Of course, the curse caught on, and more women swooned, so a committee was formed. Arguments were had and the name Mike was chosen to replace God and “for the love of Mike” became the curse of choice in the 1880s. This worked for a while before the mother of children named Mike (and there were many) got fed up with strangers yelling out their children’s names in irritation and would respond, “For pity sake, watch your tongue around my boy Mike.” People began to take pity on the children named Mike, so “for pity sake” took over. Perhaps because someone was hard of hearing, it became “for Pete’s sake” in 1918, and has remained a popular expression ever since.

Is this story a product of my imagination? I might have been inspired a little bit by Fairy Tale Day.

★~ National Pistachio Day:

The pistachio is a small bushy tree native to the Middle East. It produces bunches of fruit (similar to grapes) and the pistachio nut is the seed of that fruit.

The pistachio is rooted in royalty. As the legend goes, the Queen of Sheba made an official declaration that pistachios were an exclusively royal food. In fact, she even went so far as to forbid commoners from growing the nut for their own consumption. Nebuchadnezzar, the ancient king of Babylon, also had a passion for pistachios. It is said that he had pistachio trees planted in his hanging gardens. And the Mogul Emperor, Akbar the Great, hosted lavish banquets befitting his royal status, where he often served chicken; he ordered all the chickens to be fed pistachio nuts for six to eight weeks in advance to give them a more delicious flavor. Lucky chickens!

Pistachios have more antioxidants per serving than green tea, and they are also an excellent source of fiber, copper, manganese, and Vitamin B6.

To celebrate Pistachio Day, eat like royalty, and enjoy the nuts, ice cream, pistachio chicken, or pork chops.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1919 – Congress established Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

♥~ 1977 – The Eagles went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘New Kid On Town’, the group’s third US No.1.

♥~ 1991 – The U.S. issued a patent (#4,995,374) to William Black of Margate, Florida, for his Automatic Throw and Fetch Doggie Toy. The device will throw a ball, which a dog can fetch, return, drop into the funnel on top, and the machine will throw it again. And again and again.

♥~ 1997 – It took three people to wrestle a pet python named Squeezer into a sack after it broke out of its aquarium and went on a rampage in the owner’s home in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Animal control officials said 2-year-old pythons can become very aggressive.

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1802 – Victor Hugo the author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831), and Les Misérables (1862). Hugo was also a poet, playwright, and politician. By the time he died in 1885, at the age of 82, he was a national hero; journalists recorded everything he said on his deathbed, and 2 million mourners watched his funeral procession.

♥~ 1829 – Levi Strauss: created the world’s first pair of jeans—Levi’s 501 jeans—for California’s gold miners in 1850.

♥~ 1852- John Harvey Kellogg, doctor and cereal pioneer.

♥~ 1920 – Tony Randall (Leonard Rosenberg) actor: The Odd Couple, Pillow Talk, Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, Fatal Instinct, The Alphabet Murders; regular cameo appearances on David Letterman’s Late Show; died May 17, 2004

♥~ 1932 – Johnny Cash guitarist, Grammy award-winning country singer: Folsom Prison Blues [1968]; I Walk the Line, Don’t Take Your Guns to Town, A Boy Named Sue,Ring of Fire; TV show with wife June Carter; died Sep 12, 2003

♥~ 1953 – Michael Bolton Grammy Award-winning singer: When a Man Loves a Woman [1991], How Am I Supposed to Live Without You [1989]

★~ Did You Know: 

♥~ Pistachios aren’t nuts.  However, everyone calls them a nut because they look like “nuts” and are in the cashew family. Other things in the cashew family include sumac, mangos, and poison ivy.

♥~ Iran is the largest producer of pistachios in the world.

♥~ Pistachios are normally green but are often dyed to make them more eye-catching. In the U.S. pistachios are often red to disguise imperfections in the shells and to make the nuts stand out in vending machines.  Opinion: Dumb marketing idea.

♥~  California is the second largest pistachio producer, in fact, 98% of the pistachios produced in the United States are from California.

♥~ There are only two nuts mentioned in the bible (careful!) Pistachios and almonds.  Pistachios are mentioned in the Old Testament (Genesis 43:11). According to Moslem legend, the pistachio nut was one of the foods brought to Earth by Adam.  I believe this, a women would never agreed to something hard to open that ruined her nails.

♥~ Pistachios are called “the smiling nut” in Iran and “the happy nut” in China. People in the Middle East,  believe that if you are sitting under a Pistachio tree and you hear the shells snapping open, it is a sign of good luck.

#

Be back in a bit to muse.Odd Loves Company! Tell me what is your favorite Fairy Tale? Once upon a time there was a President and a Congress… 😉

♥