~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
November 28, 2012

★~ Today Quote:

“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”  William Blake

★~ November Full Moon:

The November full moon was dubbed the Beaver Moon by the Native American tribes of New England and the Great Lakes because at this time of year, beavers are industriously preparing themselves for the coming winter.

★~ Red Planet Day:

Today we celebrate the red planet Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun and the seventh largest. Does anyone have a pair of those antennae that I can borrow, or are you wearing them?

★~ French Toast Day:

French toast is the perfect way to start your day. Although it is typically made with bread, milk, and eggs, and then topped with delicious maple syrup, many variations of this classic breakfast can be found around the world.

The origin of French toast is unknown, but recipes date back to the 16th century in Europe. Prior to the Hundred Years’ War, French toast was known in England as “poor knights’ pudding” because it was a basic and affordable dish that a knight with no money could afford. In France, it was called “pan perdu” or lost bread, because it was a way of using lost or stale bread.

I love this French Toast Recipe

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1895 –The first automobile race in America began, as six cars traveled from Jackson Park in Chicago to Waukegan, Illinois. J. Frank Duryea was the winner, traveling at a blazing speed of 7 and 1/2 miles per hour! It took him 7 hrs. 53 minutes to make the trek (bathroom stops not included). He won $2,000 for the effort.

♥~ 1922 – The first words to be written using skywriting were  “Hello USA”. They appeared in the sky over New York City.

♥~ 1948 – The Polaroid Land Camera first went on sale at a Boston department store. The 40 series, model 95, roll film camera went on sale for $89.75.

♥~ 1974 – John Lennon appeared in concert for the last time — at NYC’s Madison Square Garden. Lennon joined Elton John to sing Whatever Gets You Through the Night as well as I Saw Her Standing There.

♥~ 1988 – Picasso’s Acrobat and Young Harlequin brought £21 million at Christie’s in London. The painting was one of many that Adolf Hitler had sold in 1939 to ‘cleanse’ Germany of the disturbing images created by painters such as Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.

♥~ 1991 – A man in Waco, Texas, held up a Circle K store after first diverting the clerk’s attention by putting a $20 bill on the counter and asking for change. When the register was opened, the robber pulled out a gun and demanded all the money. The clerk put everything in a bag and handed it to the robber–all $15. The robber fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter.

♥~ 1992 – Whitney Houston’s single, I Will Always Love You, began an incredible fourteen-week run at the top of the U.S. singles chart. The song, from the soundtrack of the movie The Bodyguard, was #1 through Feb 27, 1993.

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1757 – William Blake poet: English visionary poet and artist born at London, England. Composed “The Tyger,” which begins memorably, “Tyger! Tyger! burning bright/In the forests of the night,/What immortal hand or eye/Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” Blake died in London on Aug 12, 1827.

♥~ 1945 –  R.B. Greaves singer: Take a Letter Maria; singer Sam Cooke’s nephew

♥~ 1967 – Anna Nicole Smith model: Playboy Playmate [May 1992], Playmate of the Year [1993]; actress: The Hudsucker Proxy, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult; died Feb 8, 2007).  Anna Nicole daughter is in the news as she starts her modeling career at the age of 6, modeling Guess jeans

★~ Did You Know:

The full moon is a pretty popular scapegoat for bad luck and bizarre behavior. It’s said that crime rates increase and emergency rooms are much busier during the full moon. (Plus, there’s that whole werewolf thing!) Why would this be? The reasoning is that the Moon, which affects the ocean’s tides, probably exerts a similar effect on us, because the human body is made mostly of water.

This belief that the moon influences behavior is so widely held—reportedly, even 80 percent of nurses and 64 percent of doctors think it’s true—that a team of researchers at Université Laval’s School of Psychology in Canada decided to find out if mental illness and the phases of the moon are linked.

To test the theory, the researchers evaluated 771 patients who visited emergency rooms at two hospitals in Montreal between March 2005 and April 2008. The patients complained of chest pains; doctors could not determine a medical cause for the pains. Many of the patients suffered from panic attacks, anxiety and mood disorders, or suicidal thoughts.

When the researchers compared the time of the visits to the phases of the moon, they found that there was no link between the incidence of psychological problems and the four lunar phases, with one exception—in the last lunar quarter, anxiety disorders were 32 percent less frequent. “This may be coincidental or due to factors we did not take into account,” says Dr. Geneviève Belleville, who directed the team of researchers. “But one thing is certain: we observed no full-moon or new-moon effect on psychological problems.”  So rest easy (or maybe not): If people are acting crazy during the full moon, it’s likely because they’re just that crazy all the time.

However, the light of the moon is thought to impact the behavior of hundreds of species of reef-building coral spawn, after the full moon, hundreds of spawn synchronously, releasing their eggs and sperm into the water in one of the biggest moonlight orgys on Earth. The Azara’s owl monkey also enjoys staying up late hooting and hollering to the light the full moon.

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I like to howl at the full moon. In fact when I see a full moon, I must howl. Is this tue for you too? Or is it just me?

Cole is studying Dante’s Inferno. Do you remember what the 7 deadly sins are according to Dante? Sheesh, hearing the descriptions of the punishment in hell for committing them, does make you want to stick to the righteous path…I’m going to avoid being wrathful today and I won’t be super sizing anything at McDonalds. When Cole complained about reading Dante, I shared with him that some colleges and school were banning Dante because “Schoolchildren and university students who studied the work lacked “the filters” to appreciate its historical context and were being fed a poisonous diet of anti-Semitism and racism . . .”  Cole was incensed when he read the article and immediately stuffed it in his backpack to take to school. I was so pleased with his strong stance against censorship until I realized he was taking the article to school, as proof that his teacher is poisoning his young and impressionable mind,  by making him study Dante. Give me strength.

Odd Loves Company….

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