~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
September 18, 2012

★~  Hug a Greeting Card Writer Day:

My new favorite greeting card reads, “We’ll Be Friends ‘til We’re Old and Senile…and Then We’ll Be New Friends!” I often stand in front of greeting card racks, giggling. An instant pick-me-upper! However, given the price of cards these days, I often cheat and take a picture of the inside of a card I like and then ask Cole to draw a picture to go along with the words I write or type on the card. What can I tell you? We are a frugal family! (New iPhones every year don’t come cheap.) I’m not sure how you go about hugging a greeting card writer (I don’t know a single one), so let’s just celebrate by stopping by a greeting card counter and offering up a giggle or two.

★~National Cheeseburger Day:

Fire up the grill or head to your favorite restaurant because today is National Cheeseburger Day!

There are several theories about the origins of the cheeseburger. One story claims that the cheeseburger was created between 1924 and 1926 by a chef named Lionel Sternberger. As the story goes, a homeless man dining at Sternberger’s restaurant in Pasadena, California, suggested the addition of a slice of cheese to his hamburger order. Sternberger complied, eventually added it to his menu, and the rest is history.

There are plenty of cheeseburger variations, but one famous version is the Luther Burger, a bacon cheeseburger served on a Krispy Kreme doughnut (reportedly based on the favorite snack of R&B singer Luther Vandross)

No matter how you like your Cheezburger (Chicago speak) why not enjoy one today.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1830 – A race was held between a horse and an iron horse. Tom Thumb, the first locomotive built in America, was pitted against a real horse in a nine-mile course between Riley’s Tavern and Baltimore.Tom Thumb suffered mechanical difficulties including a leaky boiler. If you had your money on the horse, you won! Tom Thumb lost by more than a nose.

♥~1891 – White Women Made American Indian Chief – Harriet Maxwell Converse was made a chief of the Six Nations Tribe at the Tonawanda Reservation, NY. She was given the name Ga-is-wa-noh, which means “The Watcher.” She had been adopted as a member of the Seneca tribe in 1884 in appreciation of her efforts on behalf of the tribe.

♥~ 1895 – If you’ve ever had a chiropractic adjustment you owe it to not only your chiropractor, but to Daniel David Palmer. He gave the first chiropractic adjustment to Harvey Lillard in Davenport, Iowa (now the home of Palmer Chiropractic College).

♥~ 1932 – Peg Entwistle, formerly a successful Broadway actress, had made only one film in Hollywood, and could not land another movie job. She was broke, depressed and didn’t even have train fare back to New York. But Entwistle became a Hollywood legend when she leaped into history. She climbed to the top of Mount Lee to the huge ‘HOLLYWOODLAND’ (as it read at the time) sign and up the ladder to the top of the 50-foot high letter ‘H’, from which she leaped to her death. There are still some who believe the sign is haunted by her ghost.

♥~ 1955 – What had been The Toast of the Town on CBS Television (since 1948) became The Ed Sullivan Show. This “rilly big shew” remained a mainstay of Sunday night television until June 6, 1971. Sullivan was a newspaper columnist/critic before and during the early years of this pioneering TV show.

♥~ 1964 – The Addams Family Premiere:   Charles Addams’s quirky New Yorker cartoon creations were brought to life in this ABC sitcom about a family full of oddballs. Cousin Itt was my favorite!

♥~ 1965 – Larry Hagman (Captain Tony Nelson) and Barbara Eden (Jeannie) starred in the first episode of I Dream of Jeannie on NBC-TV.

♥~ 1965 – Get Smart Premiere:  A spy-thriller spoof appearing on both NBC (1965–69) and CBS (1969–70).

♥~ 1993 – Garth Brooks’ In Pieces debuted at #1 in the U.S. on both the Billboard Hot 200 and Country LP charts. The album has sold over 8 million copies.

♥~ 2007 – A cranberry report out this day said cranberry juice combats a wide range of bacteria, including those that cause stomach ulcers, gum disease and food-borne illnesses as well as urinary tract infections. Research suggested that astringent compounds in the berry, called proanthocyanidins, work to prevent infection-causing bacteria from adhering to cells in the urinary tract.

★~Born Today:

 

♥~ 1709 – Samuel Johnson writer: created the first true dictionary of the English language in 1755; poet; essayist; novelist: Rasselas: Prince of Abyssinia; died Dec 13, 1784

♥~ 1910 – Ray Geiger editor: The Farmer’s Almanac [1934-1993]; the longest-held position of any almanac editor in America; died Apr 1, 1994

♥~ 1939 – Frankie (Frances) Avalon (Avellone) singer: Venus, Bobby Sox to Stockings, A Boy Without a Girl, Just Ask Your Heart, Why, Dede Dinah; actor: Disc Jockey Jamboree, Guns of the Timberland, The Carpetbaggers, Beach Party series, Back to the Beach

♥~ 1971 – Lance Armstrong world/Olympic cycling champ [U.S]: won the Tour de France seven straight times [1999-2005]

★~ Did You Know:

Have you ever wondered which Hallmark card was the companies best seller?

Since 1916, Hallmark has churned out billions of greeting cards, but no single card has had the staying power of the legendary Pansy Card—the king of the racks. Somehow the notoriously bland card was a rock star from the get-go. Back when it debuted for Mother’s Day in 1939, kids plunked down a hard-earned nickel for the card as an expression of their love.

More than seven decades later, you can still walk into a Hallmark store and buy the Pansy Card for a mere 99 cents. The company didn’t start tracking sales for individual cards until 1942, but in the years since, customers have bought more than 30 million Pansies.

So, what gives the card its power? The pleasant imagery and vague wording makes it suitable for nearly any occasion. And we mean any occasion: Hallmark claims that in 1958, two men wandered into their corporate offices in Kansas City and asked the receptionist what she would recommend for a friend whose execution was imminent. They walked away with the Pansy Card, apparently quite satisfied.

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Speaking of greeting cards, thank you El Morno friend Liz for sharing these two signs that sent me into a fit of giggles.

Do you think I’m easily amused?

Yesterday I made a pot of spaghetti sauce. I’m delighted to report that nothing catastrophic happened, and it’s very good, if I do say so myself. While I was making it, I couldn’t help but remember the time Joe made spaghetti sauce. For some reason, he poured the sauce into the blender, and because I “distracted” him (his words, not mine) he turned on the blender without putting on the top first. Maybe I will tell the whole story later today…

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