July 5, 2012: Bikini Day, Graham Cracker Day, Apple Turn-Over Day!

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July 5, 2012

Robin Playing in the Sprinkler

Do you think there is a 12-step program for people addicted to watering the grass? I may have a problem. I love setting up the sprinkler, making sure it is in the perfect spot and then watching it go back and forth, back and forth, back and…well, you get the idea. I turn it on when I let my campers out around 6 a.m., and even after the grass is evenly watered I have a hard time turning it off; I rationalize that the birds love to play in the water. Eventually I turn the knob toward off, but each day it takes me a little longer. I may need an intervention if the robins start to show up with webbed feet.

On El Morno’s Fourth of July post I wrote that Americans eat about 155 million hotdogs on July Fourth. Today I would like to share that Joey Chestnut, the 28-year-old San Jose, Calif., man nicknamed “Jaws” has taken the top prize at the annual Nathan’s Famous July 4 International Hot Dog-Eating Contest—chowing down an eye-popping 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes. His efforts were rewarded with ,000 and a mustard-yellow champions belt. (Pictures: 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes.) Last year, Chestnut ate “only” 62 hot dogs and buns to win the competition. According to the Nathan’s website, one of its natural casing hot dogs contains 290 calories (150 from fat), 17 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat and 710 milligrams of sodium. That means the 28-year-old Chestnut took in nearly 20,000 calories, more than 1,150 grams of fat, over 400 grams of saturated fat and a whopping 48,300 milligrams of sodium.

Today is Bikini Day. I don’t even own a bathing suit right now and probably won’t run right out and buy a bikini, but I’m happy to celebrate the right of women to wear a bikini. Nobody has challenged that right yet, at least as far as I know. The skimpy two-piece bathing suit created by Louis Réard was launched on this day in 1946 at a fashion show in Paris. The bikini is named after the islands on which atomic bombs were tested. The new bathing suit went off with a bang, and summer has never been the same. This is a fun link: The bikini history in pictures.  Click ‘Did You Know’ for more about bikini’s.

It’s not hard to pack an itsy-bitsy, teenie-weenie bikini in your suitcase when you travel, but if you are packing a few more of life’s bare necessities you might want to take a lesson from Louis Vuitton. This interactive guide to packing can teach you a few tips and tricks for maximizing your suitcase space and folding your clothes to reduce wrinkles. It might take you a little bit of time to get the hang of interacting with the video, but it’s worth the short learning curve. Tip: Choose your language in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. Art of Packing

Apple turnovers and graham crackers (celebrated on July 5) are a perfect food tribute to The Andy Griffith Show and the sheriff who brought calming, homespun fun into our living rooms on prime time television. I bet Aunt Bee could make swell apple turnovers and whip up a dandy pie with a perfect graham cracker crust. I loved The Andy Griffith Show; the world needs a lot more Mayberry and a lot less Gossip Girl and Jersey Shore. R.I.P., Andy.

Hope you are finding ways to beat the heat. I just heard Chicago is under a weather warning and we can expect hail, lightning, high winds and rain. No locusts, though.

What were your favorite childhood sitcoms? 

Odd Loves Company,

10 thoughts on “July 5, 2012: Bikini Day, Graham Cracker Day, Apple Turn-Over Day!

  1. OMG I beat Mike?? Ha! I love the Brady Bunch, Hazel, Nanny and the Professor and adored The Andy Griffith. The interactions between Andy and Barney still crack me up.
    Maybe setting a timer would help curb your sprinkler addiction! But as hot and dry as is I’m not sure you can water too much.

    • I have started setting a timer but still let it run too long to give the birds a break. You certainly mention all my favorite old sit-coms!

  2. Fine. Congratulations. I’m second. Having the Fourth in the middle of the week has my timing all screwed up. Sixty-four hotdogs? The thought makes me sick. I’m not sure if it was a childhood sit-com but I like Hogan’s Hero’s and The Ghost and Mrs. Murir. Mrs. Murir (Gene Tierney) was prettier than Mrs. Brady. The Andy Griffith show was a little too saccharin for me.

    Big fan of apple turn-overs. Pepperidge farm.

    • Loved The Ghost and Mrs. Murir! Oh I bet you can whistle the whole Andy Griffith theme song!

      Pepperidge Farm apple turn overs are the best!

  3. Hot, humid, awful weather. Kids don’t want to do anything but stay inside and whine.Funny, I was thinking we would do a rerun day with some of the old sitcoms from my childhood. We watch very little television so it might be novel for them and I’m running out of patience and ideas when it comes to arts and crafts. I have been setting up the sprinklers in the late afternoon and running through them myself a few time. It’s fun and cools me off.

    Love El Morno!

    • I have been whining a lot too! A rerun day sounds like a great way to spend the day inside…pop some corn….give yourself a break from glue and glitter.

  4. Domer told me about that guy who ate all those hot dogs — funny, but there’s NO WAY I would’ve even tried that competition. Food should be savored, not gobbled! Even chocolate, and I lurv chocolate! And apple turnovers! Stay safe in that weather — say, send some rain downstate, ok?!

    • I would not even watch the video! So gross. The prize money is $10,000 but something just are not worth the money–even a lot of money!

  5. Keep that sprinkler going Katybeth. Those poor robins and other birds are in dire need of a shower and water to bring the worms to the surface. I am feeling sooo bad for those poor little birds. I am forever putting fresh water in the bird bath. One poor baby bird yesterday looked like he wasn’t going to make it. I think it was a black bird, but still I tried to save him. He hardly had any feathers on him and he could only hop around. He couldn’t reach the bird bath so I got the boot tray we use in the winter and I took that and filled it with water and put a rock in it and picked that poor scraggley little bird up and put him right in the middle of the pan. He sat there forever and when he did hop out, he would come back and get in the pan again. I don’t know what happened to him, but I’m sure he is in bird heaven today.

    • What a sweet story Carol!! Your such a good soul!

      I do keep the sprinkler on as long as I can…and set up the kiddie pool in the back yard for the birds to play in when the campers are napping and they do play in it!

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