~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
May 17, 2012

★~ Today’s Quote:  The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” ~Mark Twain

★~  Pack Rat Day:

Attics and basements were meant for storing old junk. But a pack rat asks, “Why stop there? If we park the cars in the driveway, we can also fill up the garage. And while we’re at it, let’s just live on the back deck and then we can use the whole house for storage.” Some may criticize the pack rat for living a life of clutter, but the pack rat lives by the motto, “Waste not, want not.” And who knows—some of that stuff might be worth a lot of money someday if they can ever part with it.

I am not a pack rat. What about you? What is your favorite treasure to save?

★~Cherry Cobbler Day:

Yum! What’s not to like about cherry cobbler? I like this recipe, but the recipe in your Betty Crocker cookbook (the one with the red checkered cover) that uses cherry filling and Bisquick is all also pretty darn good—especially if you don’t have a kid or spouse you can wrangle into the cherry pitting job. I have an old-fashioned cherry pitter that is fun to use and makes you feel a little like Ma on Little House on the Prairie, but a paper clip will work to coax the cherry pit out…however, unless you are my sweet mother, more than likely you are going to be squirted with cherry juice. I am also told that Good Grips  makes a darn fine cherry pitter.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1792- The buttonwood agreement was signed.Twenty-four brokers sat down to fix rates for commissions on stocks and bonds. From that agreement came what has been known since as the New York Stock Exchange or Wall Street.

♥~ 1932 – The U.S. Congress changed the name ‘Porto Rico’ to ‘Puerto Rico’

♥~ 1975 – NBC-TV paid a whopping $5,000,000 for the rights to show Gone with the Wind just one time. It was the top price paid for a single opportunity to show a film on television.

♥~ 1975 – Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy album was released and certified a platinum record on the very same day. It was the first album to be certified a million seller (in this case, a two-million seller) on the first day of release.

♥~ 1978 ~ Charlie Chaplin’s corpse, which had been stolen and held for ransom, was recovered.

♥~ 1986 – Whitney Houston became the first female singer to hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with three consecutive singles as Greatest Love of All reached #1. The other two were Saving All My Love For You and How Will I Know

♥~ 1989 – Vincent Van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet was auctioned for $82,500,000.

♥~ 2004 – First US same-sex marriages . Massachusetts became the first US state to sanction gay marriage. Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples received licenses and were married.

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1903~ James “Cool Papa” Bell, born in Starkville, Mississippi (1903). Cool Papa was perhaps the fastest baseball player of all times. He played baseball for almost 30 years in primarily in the negro leagues where records where statistics were not very reliable so we are not sure exactly how fast.

♥~ 1911 – Maureen (Paul) O’Sullivan actress: Tarzan films: Jane; Hannah and Her Sisters, Peggy Sue Got Married, The River Pirates; died June 23, 1998

♥~ 1936 – Dennis Hopper actor: Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now, Rebel Without a Cause, Giant, Hoosiers, Flashback, Blue Velvet, Super Mario Brothers, True Romance, Speed, Waterworld, Space Truckers; director: Easy Rider, Colors, Chasers; died May 29, 2010

♥~ 1942 – Taj Mahal (Henry St. Claire Fredericks) entertainer, songwriter: for film, Sounder; singer: urban folk-blues

★~ Did You Know:

♥~ The New York Stock Exchange is probably the most well known stock exchange in the world, but did you know it’s not the oldest in the US? The Philadelphia Stock Exchange was created two years earlier in 1790

♥~ The NYSE has its first million share day (where a million shares are exchanged) on December 15th, 1886.

♥~ Since October 10th, 1953, there has never been a sub-million share day.

♥~ In 1961, the average daily volume of the NYSE breaks 4 million.

♥~ The first stock ticker was invented by Edward A. Calahan in 1867.

♥~ The buttonwood agreement was named after the local Buttonwood tree the local name for the sycamore tree.

♥~ The longest period in which the exchange was closed occurred during WW1, when the NYSE was closed for four and a half months starting July 31st, 1914.

♥~ On December 1st, 2005, the highest price was paid for membership in the NYSE at $4 million. Thirty days later, December 31st, the NYSE moves away from seats to annual trading licenses.

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I have been cleaning my house room by room the last few weeks, using the anticipation of impending summer houseguests to help motivate me. As I clean, pitch and rearrange, I create a wish list for each room. For example, my bedroom needs new curtains, but I know this is the perfect project to save until my sweet mother arrives.

In the bathroom, I two light fixtures one of each side of the vanity mirror that don’t fit properly.I knew these light fixtures would not work the moment Joe showed them to me, but he insisted they were perfect. It’s amazing how you will go from agonizing over buying a brushed nickel showerhead, as opposed to a silver one, to accepting cheap poor-fitting light fixtures in order to wrap up a two-year bathroom renovation project that was supposed to take six weeks. Of course, after they were installed and the bathroom was finished, Joe saw the error of his ways and promised to fix the lighting fixtures. However, the idea of anyone walking back into my bathroom with a wrench and a drill brought me to near hysteria, so I tried to ignore the fixtures as they got worse. Fate had the last word, and I am still living with the fixtures. Yesterday, one slid down and cracked at the base, so the problem can no longer be ignored. However, I have no idea who to call or how to go about solving the problem. Care to enlighten me if you have any ideas?

I must get on with my rat killing and knock a few things off my list. The birdhouses were hung yesterday, the iris still flourishes, and today I might spend some time outside tidying up! When I mentioned to my neighbor that her walkways were cleaner than my kitchen floor, she told me it was a “Polish thing.” I think I might do the Irish thing and just sweep, spit and swear a bit at my walkways.

Hope you have a terrific Thursday.

 

My Cherry Pitter…

Good Grips….