~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
March 16, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote:  The only way I’d be caught without makeup is if my radio fell in the bathtub while I was taking a bath and electrocuted me and I was in between makeup at home. I hope my husband would slap a little lipstick on me before he took me to the morgue. Dolly Parton

★~ Lips Appreciation Day:

“I Love Your Kiss Forever Forever,” Andy Warhol’s, 1964 lithograph, on two sheets of paper showing five different-colored pairs of Monroe’s lips, attracted 50 bids in the online auction and were sold for  $90,000 — 16 times higher than the pre-sale top estimate of $5,000.

Treat your lips to some lip balm and a juicy kiss.

 I love this lip balm from Nancy Boy. I love all  their products! 

★~ Everything You Do Is Right Today:

I would share this holiday with your partner, family, friends, and employer right away. I would change the word ‘You” to “I” and encourage them to help you celebrate!

★~ Curlew Day:

The long-billed curlew is the largest North American shorebird. The Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon is expecting the curlews to arrive around March 16 to begin their spectacular courtship flight. The refuge is “an important migration and wintering area for waterfowl and other birds in the Columbia River Basin, with up to 150,000 ducks and 30,000 Canada geese resting and feeding on its marshes and ponds in the fall, winter, and spring.”

★~ Artichoke Day:

My family is a big fan of Artichokes! Truthfully, I think we are a big fan of anything you can dip in butter! A few facts about Artichokes….

~ Artichokes are one of the oldest foods known to man. The first mention of artichokes in literature was around 40-70 AD in The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides, a book on the medicinal uses of plants.

~ According to Greek mythology, Zeus turned his mistress Cynara into the first artichoke plant when he caught her sneaking away from Olympia.

~ Although we usually refer to it as a vegetable, the produce we eat is actually the flower bud of the artichoke plant. If you let the flower blossom, it turns a beautiful violet-blue color

~ Almost every artichoke produced in the United States comes from California.

~ The town of Castroville, California crowned its first “Artichoke Queen” in 1947? The winner was a young actress named Norma Jean Mortenson who later changed her name to Marilyn Monroe!

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1850 – The novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was published. Other novels by Mr. Hawthorne included The House of Seven Gables, The Marble Faun, Twice-Told Tales, Tanglewood Tales and The Wonder Book.

♥~ 1926 – Robert H. Goddard  tested his first liquid-fuel rocket. The rocket traveled for 2 1/2 seconds and covered 184 feet at a speed of 60 mph. It attained a maximum height of 41 feet. (*The Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD is name for him.)

♥~ 1955 – The Ballad of Davy Crockett, by Bill Hayes, reached the number one spot on the pop music charts and stayed for five weeks. The smash hit song sold more than 7,000,000 records on more than 20 different labels. Everyone seemed to be singing the song that saluted the frontier hero who was “Born on a mountain top in Tennessee…” Coonskin caps were seen everywhere as the Crockett craze spread like a frontier fire.

♥~ 1957 – Gumby show premiered. This kids’ show was a spin-off from “Howdy Doody,” where the character of Gumby was first introduced in 1956. Gumby and his horse, Pokey, were clay figures whose adventures were filmed using the process of “claymation.” “The Gumby Show,” created by Art Clokey, was first hosted by Bobby Nicholson and later by Pinky Lee

♥~ 1963 – Peter, Paul and Mary released the single, Puff The Magic Dragon. Through the years, controversy continually surrounded the song. It was banned by several radio stations whose management figured that the song was about the illicit joys of smoking marijuana. The group denied this startling assumption. “It’s about a magic dragon named Puff,” they said. So there.

♥~ 1998 – Sweepstakes company American Family Publishers reached an agreement with 32 states to change the way it promotes its contests. It agreed to reserve use of the term ‘winner’ for contestants who have actually won

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1822 – Rosa Bonheur French painter and sculptor: Rosa Bonheur was the first woman awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion d’Honeur, She is  best known for her realistic depictions of animals.

♥~ 1926 – Jerry Lewis (Joseph Levitch) comedian, actor

♥~ 1932 – Betty Johnson singer: I Dreamed, Little White Lies, The Little Blue Man, Dream

♥~ 1949 – Erik Estrada actor: C.H.I.P.S., Twisted Justice, Night of the Wilding, Caged Fury, The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission

♥~ 1967 – 1967 – Lauren Graham actress: Caroline in the City, Good Company, Townies, Gilmore Girls, Chasing Destiny

♥~ 1969 – Judah Friedlander actor: 30 Rock

★~ Did You Know:

♥~ First manmade lipsticks appeared around four to five thousand years ago in Ancient Mesopotamia. Women there used to grind precious gems and decorate lips with their dust.

♥~ The first recorded use of the word lip stick (Lippa Sticka) is from approximately 1000 AD. Because I guess, as Holly Golightly says, there really are some things that a girl just can’t face without her lipstick. Like the dark ages.

♥~ In the 1700s, it was believed that women wore lipstick to bewitch men and trick them into marriage.

♥~ In Kansas in 1915 wearing lipstick could get you arrested for “creating a false impression.”

♥~ “Kiss of Death” is a term that is commonly associated with lipstick. It was coined because of the “femme fatale” phenomenon in fiction, but also because some ancient civilizations unknowingly used poisonous materials for making of lipstick.

♥~ One of the most important factors in the popularization of lipstick among women were early 20th century advances in photography and film.

♥~ The most famous Actresses that popularized lipsticks were Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor.

♥~ Queen Elizabeth II has her own special lipstick which was made to match her coronation robes. It’s called The Balmoral Lipstick.

♥~ During her heydey Elizabeth Taylor was so known for her siren red lipstick that, on certain movie sets, no one else was allowed to wear the color.

♥~ Elizabeth Arden’s obituary read “she treated women like horses and horses like women.” That may have stemmed in part from the fact that she was said to have painted her signature pink lipstick onto all her horses’ mouths.

♥~ Cosmetics giant Max Factor began life as a servant to Czar Nicholas. Unhappy he made his escape from the Royal household, by useing tubes of lipstick to make himself look sickly. He was taken to the infirmary, from which he escaped, and made his way to America.

♥~ Main ingredients of modern lipsticks are waxes (even natural beeswax), oils, pigments and emollients. For protecting lips against elements, lipsticks and lip gloss can also have vitamin E, collagen, amino acids, aloe vera, sunscreen and moisturizers.

♥~ Lipsticks can contain fish scales, and castor oil that provides lips with shiny film that can’t be smeared easily.

♥~ First swivel up lipstick in a tube appeared in 1923.

♥~ Lip Gloss was introduced to the public in 1930 by Max Factor Company.

♥~ 1998 survey of American women showed that 32% of them owned more than 20 lipsticks.
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♥~ 80% of the American women regularly wear lipstick and over 25% won’t leave house without wearing it.

♥~ Studies have shown that lipstick sales tend to rise during gloomy or rainy days.

♥~ Lipsticks have expiration date and can become rancid. Storing them in fridges can prolong their life.

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I went to an engagement party for my niece last night. Fun! And I love the location (Women’s Athletic Club) where the party was held. This is the view outside the window of Michigan Ave.

Oh, and here is a picture of Rascal before the party….Cole was holding her while we waited at the car wash.

I am off to let my pups out and then write and post “Odds and Ends,” my favorite links from this week. The give away this week is the book  Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod. I read it and loved.  The winner from last weekend Odds and Ends will also be announced.

Odd Loves Company!