★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~ August 28, 2012:

★~ Meet Maggie: Do you remember the story of the “devil dog”? Well, when he was at camp, so was Maggie, and she did not like his attitude one bit! On the way outside on one of the days he was here, she stood outside his crate and let him know, in no uncertain terms, that his camp attitude was not ok with her. I love Maggie. Unfortunately, she is moving with her family in a couple of weeks to St. Louis and will be dearly missed. ★~Today’s Quote: The first rule of hurricane coverage is that every broadcast must begin with palm trees bending in the wind.~ Carl Hiaasen ★~ Race Your Mouse Around The Icons Day: Today you are encouraged to go crazy with your cursor! Race your mouse in and out of your icons when web pages are slow to load. I raced my mouse for the first time in 2011 on Race Your Mouse Day and was fairly pleased with my performance. However, this year my Mac has a new battery and I cleaned the gunk off the track pad, so I’m ready to beat the tail off your mouse. Let ‘er rip! ★~ Cherry Turnover Day: Let’s clean up a common misunderstanding right off the bat. Cherry turnovers are not popovers, which are considered to be a quick bread rather than a pastry; turnovers are light, airy, and filled with some luscious goodness, from cherries to cream cheese to nuts. As you probably guessed, the best way to celebrate National Cherry Turnover Day is to enjoy one of these tasty temptations. You can pick some up at your local bakery, enjoy my favorite store-bought choice (Pepperidge Farm) or try your hand at making your own. Here is a great cherry turnover recipe. ★~ Today in History: ♥~ 1837 – Pharmacists John Lea and William Perrins of Worcester, England began the manufacture of Worcester Sauce. Check here for the ingredients. ♥~ 1907 – It isn’t often that entrepreneur teenagers develop small businesses into corporate giants. But that’s in Seattle when nineteen-year-old Jim Casey borrowed $100 from his friend, Claude Ryan, and started a local delivery service. They called it the American Messenger Company. Jim’s slogan was, “Best service, and lowest rates.” The company did well because Jim and Claude stuck to their principles: round-the-clock customer service, courtesy, reliability and low rates. Today, United Parcel Service “operates an international small package and document network in more than 200 countries and territories, spanning both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. With its international service, UPS can reach over four billion people.” So give that package to the UPS man in the Buster Brown truck. (Truck drivers refer to the UPS trucks as Buster Brown when chatting on the CB.) ♥~ 1963 – Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in the shadows of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Some 250,000 people witnessed one of the most stirring speeches of the century. ♥~ 1991 – In Newport, South Carolina, 15-year-old Dirk Tanis escaped from his burning home after Spuds, the family Dalmatian, bit his hand to wake him up. Safely outside, Dirk then watched Spuds carry out Gizmo, a 5-month-old kitten, by the scruff of its neck. ♥~ 1993 – Billy Joel’s album River of Dreams hit #1 in the U.S. It was his first album to debut at #1 and stayed at top for three weeks. ♥~ 2000 – Foster’s Brewing of Australia announced a deal to buy the Beringer winery in California for $1.5 billion. The deal created the world’s largest premium wine company. ★~ Born Today: ♥~ 1925 – Donald (David Dixon) O’Connor dancer, singer, actor: Singin’ in the Rain, Francis the Talking Mule series, The Donald O’Connor Show, Call Me Madam, Walking My Baby Back Home, There’s No Business Like Show Business, The Buster Keaton Story, Toys, Out to Sea; died Sep 27, 2003 ♥~ 1943 – David Soul (Solberg) actor: Starsky and Hutch, Salem’s Lot; singer: Don’t Give Up on Us ♥~ 1961 – Jennifer Coolidge actress: American Pie, A Cinderella Story, Legally Blonde, Robots, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Joey, For Your Consideration, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events ♥~ 1965 – Shania Twain (Eilleen Regina Edwards) Grammy Award-winning singer: The Woman In Me [1996]; Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?, Any Man of Mine, No One Needs to Know, [If You’re Not in It for Love] I’m Outta Here! , Come On Over ♥~ 1968 – Billy Boyd actor: The Lord of the Rings series, The Flying Scotsman, On a Clear Day, Instant Credit, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World ♥~ 1969 – Jason Priestley actor: Beverly Hills 90210, Sister Kate, Calendar Girl, Tombstone, The Boy Who Could Fly. ★~ Did You Know: As Hurricane Issac moves towards and hopefully misses New Orleans lets look at how this massive, destructive force got his name. In the beginning Hurricanes were named after Catholic saints. Later on, the latitude-longitude positions of a storm’s formation was used as a name. This was a little too cumbersome to use in conversation. Military meteorologists started giving female names to storms during World War II, and in 1950 the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) adopted the method. The WMO devised a system of rotating, alphabetical names. (Names can be retired at WMO meetings by request from a nation that has been hit by the storm. The name is then not used for 10 years, which makes historic references and insurance claims easier.) In 1979, the system was given a dose of political correctness: male names were added to the Atlantic hurricanes list, as were French and Spanish names, reflecting the languages of the nations affected by the storms. Eastern Pacific hurricanes started using male names the previous year.Today, the WMO uses six lists of 21 names (Q, U, X, Y and Z names are not used) that it cycles through every six years, with the gender of the season’s first storm alternating year to year, and genders alternating through the rest of the hurricane season. If there are more than 21 named storms in a year, as there were in 2005, the rest of the storms are named for letters in the Greek alphabet. Occasionally, a storm suffers something of an identity crisis and has its name changed. This happens when a storm crosses from one ocean to another, or if it dies down and then redevelops. Are you wondering if your name made the Hurricane list this year? If your name is Alberta, then yes. Here’s the 2012 list: Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby, Ernesto, Florence, Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk, Leslie, Michael, Nadine, Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sandy, Tony, Valerie, William. If you live in Isaac’s path, I hope you have packed up the babies, grabbed the old ladies and hightailed it to safe ground. # [youtube]http://youtu.be/nrhD8JPn7Vo[/youtube] I just loved this video about Kira, an ordinary dog with extraordinary friends. Each day, she leaves boring canine pursuits on the shore and heads out to sea to do something much more exciting: swimming with wild dolphins! Thanks to El Morno reader Cynthia for sharing this…! Every Tuesday is Rant Day here at El Morno (and you can rant about the fact that I often forget to remind you of this if you want). So if something is bugging you, please feel free to rant up a storm (or not). On Odd, your Tuesday rants will always be honored, and I promise we will be mad as hell right along with you! ♥~