~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
July 12, 2013

★~  Today’s Quote:  Be not simply good – be good for something. Henry David Thoreau

★~ Different Colored Eyes Day:

Heterochromia, in case you didn’t know, is just a fancy word for different-colored eyes. It comes in several forms – different colored eyes entirely, eyes that are part one color and part another, or even eyes that are a different color around the pupil than at the outer edges. It’s quite rare, but a surprising number of famous people seem to have been afflicted (blessed?) with it. Here are a few of them.

Kate Bosworth: The actress arguably best known for Blue Crush has one blue eye and one eye that’s blue and hazel.

Christopher Walken: As if he needed another reason to be distinctive, Walken shares Bosworth’s blue-and-hazel combo.

Kiefer Sutherland: Back when Julia Roberts was dating him, she referenced her then-fiancee’s blue-and-green eyes in an acceptance speech.

Jane Seymour: Dr. Quinn would have been able to diagnose this heterchromia right away, even though Seymour’s case is a bit more subtle with one brown and one hazel eye.

Dan Aykroyd: has the same colors as Jane Seymour. What, you never noticed?

Simon Pegg : His are blue-grey with brown areas, which he once explained by saying, “I am slightly mutanty.”

Gallery of celebrities who have different colored eyes: 

★~ Simplicity Day:

We celebrate simplicity day on the birthday of Henry David Thoreau, who wrote of simple living in his book Walden, the memoir of his time spent living at one with nature at Walden Pond. The best reason to keep life simple is so we can focus our time and energy on the things that are near and dear to us.

★~ Pecan Pie Day:

If pies are considered to be a national offering of comfort, pecan pies are the grand dames of Southern hospitality.

Made with simple ingredients, these perfect pies combine an ooey-gooey bliss-inducing base of melted butter, eggs, corn syrup and sugar with the woodsy crunch of pecans. You can also pour some chocolate chips an bourbon into the batter to sass it up even more.We’d like to think this simply divine dessert has been around since before the days of white-columned wraparound porches, but recipes for the pie didn’t surface until 1925. However, New Orleans is happy to take the credit for its creation after Native Americans introduced them to the home-grown nut.

Classic Pecan Pie 

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1873 –  It rained frogs in Kansas City. Really. The logical explanation for the odd occurrences is that a tornado or strong whirlwind picked up the frogs from a shallow body of water and carried them – sometimes for hundreds of miles – before dropping them on a Kansas city.

♥~ 1958 – Yakety Yak, by The Coasters, became the number one song in the U.S.A., according to Billboard magazine. It was the first stereo record to reach the top of the chart.

♥~ 1960 – The first Etch-A-Sketch went on sale. Over 50 million units were sold during the next 25 years. It was the favorite toy of many moms because it was self-contained and so-o-o quiet.

♥~ 1962– Fifty-one years ago, a band called The Rollin’ Stones played their first gig. Just a couple of months before, guitarist Brian Jones had placed an ad in Jazz News, a local nightclub newsletter, announcing auditions for a rhythm-and-blues band. Two London flatmates named Mick Jagger and Keith Richards joined the band. Jagger and Richards had gone to primary school together in Kent, and had lost touch, but then they ran into each other on a train in 1960 and renewed their friendship. They both loved blues, and had formed a band of their own: Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. They had run into Jones a few times at the Ealing Jazz Club, and they’d occasionally jammed together. Jones was the one who came up with the new band’s name. He was on the phone with the Jazz News, who asked him what his band was called. He glanced over at a Muddy Waters album that was lying on the floor. One track was “Rollin’ Stone Blues,” and the band was christened The Rollin’ Stones, then and there.

♥~ 1982 – E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial broke all box-office records by surpassing the $100-million mark of ticket sales in the first 31 days of its opening.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1817 – Henry David Thoreau philosopher, writer: On Walden Pond; died May 6, 1862

♥~ 1854 – George Eastman inventor: Kodak camera; flexible roll film; died Mar 14, 1932 An interesting fact about Eastman-he hated to have his picture taken.

♥~ 1908 – Milton Berle (Berlinger) comedian: Uncle Miltie, Mr. Television: The Milton Berle Show, Texaco Star Theatre; actor: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Oscar, Side by Side; died Mar 27, 2002

♥~ 1937 – Bill Cosby Emmy Award-winning comedian, actor: I Spy, The Bill Cosby Special [1968-1969]; The Cosby Show, Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids, Leonard VI, California Suite

♥~ 1948 – Richard Simmons weight loss expert, entertainer: Sweatin’ to the Oldies

♥~ 1951 – Cheryl Ladd (Cheryl Jean Stoppelmoor) actress: Dancing with Danger, Changes, The Grace Kelly Story, One West Waikiki, Charlie’s Angels, Poison Ivy

★~ Good to Know:  Simple FUN Friday ways to waste time on-line. Tip: To open link in a new window–Cursor on link-Command-Click

♥~ Sort Your Socks:  Dutch artist Jogchem Niemandsverdriet, who brought us the classic game of tweezing nose hairs, also has a  sock sorting game.  Just drag the socks out of the pile and drag pairs together.  Link: Sort your socks 

♥~ Incredibox: Design your own songs without knowing a thing about music with Incredibox. Whats fun about this game is after you assign music parts to each singer, you can drop them, add more, and make it sound completely different. Link: Incredibox

♥~ The Singing Horses: These horses may look they have been sniffing glue but there talent is undeniable. Just click to turn them on and off one by one. And HEY watch your timing! Link: Singing horses 

♥~ The Whitney Music Box: A  demonstration of motion graphics to accompany John Whitney ‘s book Digital Harmony. The dots are arranged to trigger notes on a chromatic scale when they pass the line. The dots are each timed to a different speed, but they synchronize themselves at constant intervals. The best way to “get it” is to click over and view the 20 music box variations. Link: Whitney Music Box

♥~ Boohbah Zone:  Boobah is a British TV series for children. It was cancelled in 2005, but the interactive website accompanying it lives on, and has become a go-to spot for adult web surfers wasting time. The Boobah Zone has a number of games, interactive art, and silliness you access by clicking different parts of the page. MANY different parts of the page! I didn’t really get it but that didn’t keep me from playing with it for about 20 minutes.Link: Boohbah Zone

♥~ Snowing Catflakes: This is so silly, you must give it a click. Use the panel to the right of the screen to control the cat flakes, and be sure to answer the  question at the bottom of the panel. Link: Catflakes

♥~ Apples For the Fat Lady: This one is very odd. There’s a fat lady who loves apples, but you need to help her eat them.  I feed her about 8 apples. Apple cores? I just fed them to her.   Link: Fat Lady who Loves Apples. 

♥~ iDaft:  A sound board on which you can recreate the Daft Punk song “Harder Better Faster Stronger” in your own way, using whatever lines you like in any order. Link: iDaft

♥~ Desktop Blues: If your taste run a little more to the traditional, try playing the blues with Desk Top Blues. Press all the buttons to familiarize yourself with the sounds before you turn the radio on, and then go crazy making your own blues! There are more soundboard toys linked in icons across the top of the page, like singing in the shower and Guitar Machine. Link: Desk Top Blues 

My Favorite? Singing Horses, Of-course.

#

Last night, I received a phone call asking for my father-in-law. I asked what the call was regarding, and the caller identified herself and her company, Archway Construction. She was calling with a home improvement estimate for my father-in-law. I wouldn’t put it past my father-in-law to make heavenly improvements to his home and was curious about what he had in mind. I asked the caller what the estimate was for, and she told me that it was for remodeling the kitchen. Wow, this was getting better and better. I asked when my father-in-law had requested the estimate, and she said 1997. I’ll do the math . . . sixteen years ago. She was calling because “good service and following up with customers is very important to [her] company.” At this point, I started to howl with laughter and blurted out, “And, you appreciate our patience too, right?” After we hung up, I redialed the number to see if I’d been the victim of a prank call, but my call was answered by Archway Construction, and reverse dialing showed that the number was registered to Archway Construction. Ya think a database update may be in order?

Wishing you a Fabulous Friday.

♥~