~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
February 7,2013
The Bay Lights, Bridge Art Installation Nears Grand Lighting Ceremony. Eight times the scale of the Eiffel Tower’s 100th Anniversary lighting, The Bay Lights spans 1.8 miles, consisting of 25,000 energy-efficient white LEDs, individually designed and programmed, sparkling in an array of never-repeating designs each evening for two years.
★~ Today’s Quote: “Home is the nicest word there is.” ― Laura Ingalls Wilder
★~ Wave All Your Fingers at Your Neighbor Day:
Not one, not two, not even three! Make sure you wave all your fingers at your neighbor today. That’s right, turn to the person on your right, put on a big smile and… jazz hands!
★~ Fettuccine Alfredo Day:
Fettuccine Alfredo was first created by Alfredo de Lelio in Rome in 1914. Though it was an instant success in Italy, it did not become popular in other parts of the world until after World War II.
Fettuccine noodles are wider and flatter than linguine. They also have flat edges, unlike round spaghetti noodles. The translation of the word “fettuccine” in English is “little slices” of pasta. Pasta was designed in various shapes and textures in order to hold sauces differently in certain dishes? Wide noodles (like fettuccine) work best with cream sauces.
To celebrate National Fettuccine Alfredo Day, Cook your fettuccine in boiling water with a little bit of salt until al dente. Drain. Add melted butter, grated parmesan cheese, heavy cream and toss it all with a bit of seasoning. Sprinkle with a bit more parm and serve. Add broccoli or chicken for a contemporary twist!
Bon appétit!
★~ Today in History:
♥~ 1827 – Ballet was introduced to the US by renowned French danseuse Francisquy Hutin with a performance of The Deserter, staged at the Bowery Theater, New York, NY. A minor scandal erupted when the ladies in the lower boxes left the theater upon viewing the light and scanty attire of Mme Hutin and her troupe. Click to learn more about the Ballet
♥~ 1962 – The U.S. began an economic embargo on Cuba, which remains in effect today. The embargo came in response to Cuba’s allegiance with the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
♥~ 1964 – More than 3,000 fans jammed JFK Airport in New York City as Beatlemania invaded the U.S. The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr arrived for their first U.S. visit (including an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show). The ‘Fab Four’ controlled the top spot on the pop music charts for the next 15 weeks and owned the top of the album charts for 10 weeks. Meet The Beatles, indeed!
♥~ 1985 – New York, New York became the official anthem of the Big Apple. The announcement was made by then New York mayor, Ed “How’m I Doin’?” Koch. Sinatra fans rejoiced at the honor.
♥~ 1986 – History’s most productive duck died in Princes Risborough, Great Britain. The Aylesbury duck laid 457 eggs in 463 days, including 375 days in a row.
♥~ 1987 – Madonna’s Open Your Heart hit #1 in the U.S. It was the third straight number-one single from her True Blue album.
♥~ 1990 – The Soviet government made a major policy change, when the Communist party gave up its monopoly on power in the nation. Less than two years later, the Soviet Union would be disbanded.
★~Born Today:
♥~ 1478 – Sir Thomas More ‘Man for All Seasons’: statesman, author; found guilty of treason: beheaded July 6, 1535; sainted in 1935
♥~ 1812 – Charles Dickens novelist: David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist; died June 9, 1870
♥~ 1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder writer: Little House series including Little House on the Prairie and Little House in the Big Woods; died Feb 10, 1957…..”Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs….
♥~ 1960 – James Spader Emmy Award-winning actor: Boston Legal [2004, 2005, 2007]; The Practice, Crash, Wolf, Stargate, True Colors, sex, lies and videotape, Wall Street, Mannequin, Endless Love, The Family Tree
♥~ 1962 – (Troyal) Garth Brooks Grammy Award-winning singer: In Another’s Eyes [1998 w/Trisha Yearwood]; Friends in Low Places, The Thunder Rolls; LPs: Ropin’ the Wind[first LP in history to debut at #1 on Billboard’s pop and country charts], The Chase, In Pieces, Fresh Horses, Sevens, Double Live; has sold over 80 million albums — second only to The Beatles
♥~ 1962 – David Bryan musician: keyboard: group: Bon Jovi
★~ Did You Know: Cat in, iron out as Monopoly token!
Yep, it’s true! On Wednesday Hasbro announced that Monopoly fans had voted in an online Facebook contest to add a cat token to the game (much to Scottie’s dismay), replacing the iron. The Scottie dog was the most popular of the classic tokens and received 29 percent of the votes. The shoe, wheelbarrow, and iron were neck and neck for elimination in the final hours of voting, but in the end the iron got the lowest number of votes and was kicked to the curb.
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El Morno friend Julianne: SEE! I knew it! Ironing is losing popularity! A big HA HA HA. I have been on the cutting edge of this want-a-be trend my whole life. I do not iron—ever. I choose my fabrics carefully and have learned to remove clothing from the dryer promptly. If I forget to remove the clothes from the dryer, I do not pass go, but return to the rinse cycle on the washing machine. I also have a dry cleaner’s three blocks from home, and the owner—who loves me—will iron one of Cole’s shirts for me on the spot. Is it embarrassing to show up at the dry cleaner’s with an ironing emergency? Nope. In case you’re wondering, I grew up with pressed clothes and ironed bed sheets. My sweet mother irons. In fact, she doesn’t leave home without an iron. Joe could iron, and I’m sure Cole could figure out how to iron. If he ever wants to give it a try, he can watch a YouTube video. We have an ironing board and an iron somewhere in the basement.
Ironing is such a huge topic. When I asked the question “Do you iron?” a few years ago on Facebook, it generated over 500-comments-worth of discussion.
Recently, two fellow bloggers wrote posts about ironing:
But the trend is clear—ironing is on the decline. One down … cooking left to go.
Do you iron?
Odd Loves Company!
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Morno,
Wow, the SF Bay Bridge really got a make over. Watch out Golden Gate Bridge. If I walk around waving all my fingers people are going wonder about me more than they already do. Fettuccine is one of my favorite pasta dishes.
I don’t iron but I think it was a more interesting Monopoly piece than a cat.
Make it a good one.
If they wonder about you anyway, what does it matter? You would chose the iron over the cat? How interesting…
Looks like we were all thinking about the poor iron today!!! Thanks for the shout out and link!!! Funny how many strong comments on ironing there were! I need a new washer/dryer so I can cut down on it!!! I just like that freshly pressed look I guess or something. Happy Thursday!
Nothing wrong with freshly pressed! I am more tend more towards the Annie Hall look (dating myself) so freshly pressed seldom applies.
Yes, ironing is always hotly debated!
i am a traditionalist……give me red sauce for my pasta.
on the whole, i like my neighbors. as long as they’re quiet at appropriate hours, i’m good.
only if *pressed* will i iron………
off & on rain all week. today will dry everything out. agility was canceled which was a bummer.
good day!
Only if pressed..I love a good pun! No agility? Poor Nikki. Hope the weekend is cool and dry.
I wonder if the iron got axed because no one these days has seen one. Poor Iron. Even when my kids were little, they thought the ironing board was either one strange table or Mom’s taking up surfing. Maybe it was because I hid it under my bed and took it out like some magic act. Anyhow, I heard since Monopoly after all these years changed the game piece other board games are forced to make changes as well. Candyland is considering changing to Veggieland. To encourage kids to eat better. Ha ha. 😉
Too funny! Organic veggies..right? Gumdrop land becomes brocoli land? It is going to be a hard sell.
Love the jazz hands.
Me too!
Wow, I had no idea about the new monopoly piece. I don’t mind losing the iron but adding a cat? Why? I like cats a lot but they are ready have a great dog so why not come up with something more original.
Those Jazz Hams are very cute.
I could go for some Fettuccine Alfredo. Maybe tonight for dinner.
Yep, I iron but I also look for fabrics that don’t require it and use the dry cleaners on a fair number of occasions.
Bay Bridge is beautiful
I guess all the cat people wanted to Monopoly to give the cat some respect. I agree tho I would have voted for the diamond ring or the robot!
Well I’m glad they did not replace the wheelbarrow. If something had to go glad it was the iron. I read one of the replacement choice was a diamond ring. Why would anyone vote for a cat over a Diamond ring?
We will be in San Fran later in the month and I’m looking forward to seeing the Bay Bridge all lit up.
Its a great bridge and handles more traffic than the GGB does so I am glad to see it receive a make over.
Those Jazz Hams are very cute.
Enjoy your day.
The Bay Bridge is lovely but I am not a fan of bridges. I don’t mind high place, tight spots, or public speaking but I am just not a fan of bridges and would rather admite them from afar. At least this one has 6 lanes.
You are so right! I would have picked the diamond ring.
Thanks for the shout out! But I’m gonna miss that iron — it was sturdy and sensible and dependable (not like most cats, which I tend to think of as sneaky and unpredictable!).
Not a fan of Alfredo sauce — I like tomatoes.
Had to take ballet when I was a child and hated it (particularly the leotards, which never seemed to cover enough, and the dance studio, which was about 30 degrees too cold!)
RIP iron. I was not a fan of ballet either…maybe because I was so bad at it.
I’m going to whine all week–How can it only be Thursday! I have a basket of clothes that need ironing. Maybe I could drop it off with one of the bloggers who likes to iron. Where do they live? Fettuccine sounds good but it’s too much trouble. Boiling water, opening jars….I think we’lll have peanut butter and jelly tonight. But that requires opening two jars. McDonalds here we come. Vacation is in the works as soon as it’s book my enthusiasm will be renewed.
Poor dear Liz! I hope that vacation is planned and you are out the door for a break very soon.
Can I just wave one of my fingers to my neighbor? Guess which one…:)
Yep. El Morno encourages celebrating every day in your own special way!
I love Fettuccine Alfredo. I make a divine one! I also love spaghetti with red sauce.
We were very fortunate to have a wonderful live in maid while Katybeth was growing up, she’s the one who ironed, not me. I still very rarely iron.
I’m in El Paso teaching my dog to track. She better buckle down because we’ve only got 9 more days until the test!!
MJ
Oh thats right…we had Maria and Ernestina. You always want to have an iron and ironing board available at my house! And I worry about finding them the moment you plan a trip to see us!
Go Trinket!
Love, love Fettuccine Alfredo..and it is easy to make..
I only iron my linen clothes, sometimes,..I discovered that if you let linen drip dry they are not as wrinkled as they are when dried in a drier..I really don’t mind the crumpled look..but some people don’t get it . 🙄
The crumpled look is so underrated!! I had Fettuccine last night. Yum.
Busy week, just getting caught up on the backlog of el morno’s. Guess you can say I’m reading el weeko (that’s weak, I know).
Love the Italian version of Alfreddo. No cream, no butter. Olive oil and the hot oiled pasta is dropped into a big wheel of Parmesan reggiano and stirred until every fettuccine strand is coated in the melty cheese. OMG. Unfortunately it spoiled me – I never order the north American version.
I would have (and should have) voted for the iron. My mother had a clothesline for clothes (I swear, we didn’t have a dryer until I was in high school.). Winter in Canada meant taking frozen laundry off the clothesline and cracking it to get it into the laundry basket. Then bringing indoors to drape over every hot water radiator in the house to thaw and drip dry. My mother believed that helped to humidify the house in winter. I think she was right. THEN break out the iron. She believed EVERYTHING should be ironed, including underwear and socks. And when things line dried in winter, if you didn’t iron them they would be pretty rough. We didn’t have a maid, but my Mom had five daughters so we all had to learn. She rotated our weekly chores and I loved it when it was ironing week for me. Cause we got to set up the board in front of the TV and, wait for it, the ironer got to SELECT THE CHANNEL. To this day I love setting up the ironing board, in front of the TV of course, with a big pile of laundry (I don’t do socks or undies tho). It’s guilt free TV watching.
And lest you mistake me for a Suzy homemaker, for me the chore to get rid of is vacuuming. I would sooner move to a new house than vacuum!
Happy El Weeko! I like it.
I wondered where you were….Glad you are back.
What a great ironing story from the old country :-D! Sounds like your mom was pretty smart at managing the family chores. Stuff needed to get done but that didn’t mean it couldn’t have some element of fun. I can only imagine the amount of ironing in a family with 5 girls.
No vacuuming? I guess there isn’t much of a challenge to pushing a noisy vacuum. I like to dust and Windex. Immediate gratification.
I have never had Fettuccine Alfredo. served that way but I would like too!!!!
Good to know an El Morner who can wield and iron with expertise and sew a button on!!
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