~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
March 26, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote: Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. Robert Frost

★~ Happy Birthday to my Sweet Mother! I’m so glad I have no other. 

★~The Indianapolis 500:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/orN97ds0UjY[/youtube]

The Indy 500 draws thousands of spectators each year to its speedway in Indianapolis to watch the five hundred mile, two hundred lap race. Once called “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” this race has become an American tradition.

The first Indianapolis 500 race drew 80,200 spectators who each paid a $1 admission fee. Since then, capacity at the speedway has increased to 250,000 permanent seats, making the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the world’s largest spectator sporting facility!

The Indy 500 is an event rich in traditions. For example, multi-colored balloons are always released at the start of the race. It’s also become tradition for the winner to kneel and kiss the “Yard of Bricks” to pay tribute to the history of the Speedway. It’s the combination of tradition and excitement that make the Indy 500 one of the most popular single-day sporting events in the world.

★~ Blueberry Cheesecake Day:

Cheesecake recipes can be traced all the way back to Ancient Greece, however the flavored versions are a fairly recent innovation.

The type of cheese used to make cheesecake has a huge impact on the flavor and texture of this delicious dessert. American cheesecakes are made with cream cheese, Italian cheesecakes are made with ricotta, and German and Polish cheesecakes are made with “quark” cheese, which is a type of curd cheese.

Cheesecake topped with blueberries is one of the most popular cheesecake flavors

Philadelphia Blueberry-Crown Cheesecake

Easy Blueberry Cheesecake

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1917 – The Seattle Metropolitans, of the Pacific Coast League of Canada, defeated the Montreal Canadiens to become the first U.S. hockey team to win the Stanley Cup. (Hawks won last night! 2013)

♥~ 1936 – The first telescope with a 200-inch-diameter, reflecting mirror was shipped — very, very carefully — from Corning, New York to Mt. Palomar Observatory in California. The lens of the Hale telescope weighed 20 tons. It was dedicated at Mt. Palomar in 1948.

♥~ 1937 – Joe DiMaggio said he’d take Ty Cobb’s advice and use a 36 or 37-ounce baseball bat instead of a 40-ounce stick during that season. The result? ‘Joltin’ Joe’ hit .346 during the season with 46 home runs — the most he ever hit in a single year. In the words of Yankee broadcaster Mel Allen, “How about that!”

♥~ 1969 – Marcus Welby, M.D. Premiered on ABC.

♥~ 1977 – The Human Fly, George Willig, scaled the World Trade Center in New York City, by attaching himself  to the window washer mechanism and walking straight up until  he reached the top! It took Willig three and a half hours to make the climb, and $1.10 in fines – a penny per floor.

♥~ 1979 – Michigan State and Indiana State met in the all-time highest rated basketball telecast. The NBC coverage earned a 24.1 rating. Indiana State’s unprecedented 33 consecutive-win streak came to an end as the Spartans of Michigan State won 75-64. A pair of future NBA Hall of Famers played against each other that night: Larry Bird, later of the Boston Celtics, scored 19 points while Magic Johnson, even later, of the Los Angeles Lakers, scored 24 points

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1874 –  Robert Frost four-time Pulitzer prize-winning poet: Birches, Mending Wall, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening; read The Gift Outright at inauguration of John F. Kennedy; died Jan 29, 1963

♥~ 1880 – Duncan Hines author, traveler, cake-mix mogul;  Hines is mostly famous as a cake-mix mogul, but the first foodstuff bearing his name to hit markets was an ice cream. The Lehigh Valley Cooperative Farmers dairy of Allentown, PA, started churning out Hines-branded ice cream in the summer of 1950. The treat was an instant success and proved that licensing Hines’ trusted name for snacks could be a viable business strategy. The ice cream’s secret: it was heavier and contained more butterfat than its competitors. (Future Hines-branded snacks would follow the formula of making products that were richer than what was already on the market.) The ice cream was so tasty that it sold briskly even for the relatively expensive price of 43 cents a pint. Nebraska Consolidated Mills introduced the first Duncan Hines cake mixes in the summer of 1951. Duncan Hines bread and pancake mix hit supermarkets in 1952, and blueberry muffin mix followed in 1953.

♥~ 1907 – John Wayne (Marion Morrison) Academy Award-winning actor: True Grit [1969]

♥~1940  –  James Caan actor: The Godfather, Rabbit Run, Brian’s Song, Dick Tracy, Rollerball, Alien Nation, For the Boys, Misery, Las Vegas

♥~1942 – Erica Jong (Mann) writer: Fear of Flying, Becoming Light, How to Save Your

♥~1943 – Bob Woodward investigative reporter: Washington Post: Watergate [w/reporter Carl Bernstein]; author: All the President’s Men [w/Carl Bernstein]

♥~ 1951 – Sally Ride astronaut: American astronaut and physicist who joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman to enter low earth orbit. Growing up, she was a nationally ranked tennis player, and took physics classes at UCLA, Stanford, Swarthmore College, and Harvard-Westlake School for Girls.

♥~1968 – Kenny Chesney singer: Fall in Love, Me and You, She’s Got It All, That’s Why I’m Here, How Forever Feels, You Had Me From Hello, Don’t Happen Twice

★~ Good to Know: 

♥~ Ray Harroun, who started the first Indy 500 in 1911 from 28th position, won and never raced again. It took Ray 6 hours and 42 minutes to complete the 500 miles!

♥~ Churchill Downs, Yankee Stadium, the Rose Bowl, the Roman Colosseum and Vatican City all can fit inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, which covers 253 acres.

♥~ If the speedway itself were a city, on race day, its population would rank as the 45th largest city nationwide. Over 400,000 individuals are estimated to attend the Indianapolis 500 race on race day.

♥~ The track was once paved with 3.2 million bricks giving it the name the “Brickyard.” The original bricks still lay at the Start / Finish line.

♥~ Indy cars accelerate from 0 mph to 100 mph in 4 seconds

♥~ Youngest winner or the race was : Troy Ruttman, 1952, 22 years, 80 days. Al Unser, 1987 was the oldest winner: 47 years, 360 days

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Keep your fingers and tossed crossed–My sweet Mom and Trinket are heading into the show ring today and pass/win is a very nice birthday present.  So far to quote my sweet Mom, “I guess the good news is we won’t be needing a U-haul to bring home our ribbons and trophies. . .”  Today will be  better day!

Wishing everyone a wonderful day. I will be back to muse more later but right now the impatient bark of the wild is calling!

♥~