~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
September 29, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote:

Faith be my shield and let Joy be my steed,
‘Gainst the dragons of anger, the ogres of greed.
And let me set free with the sword of my youth,
From the castles of darkness, the power of truth!

★~ Michaelmas:

Michaelmas, the annual festival to face challenges of  courage and work, is celebrated at the end of September.

St. Michael, is known as the protector of humanity, who inspires qualities of courage, initiative, and steadfastness. As we move away from the expansiveness of summer, the weather turns cooler, the days grow shorter, and we stop and honor St Michael, allowing his strength to help strengthen our will and move us into a more reflective and meditative state as we approach winter.

The Celts celebrated Michaelmas as a way to mark the autumnal equinox — the end of harvest time and the turning of the weather and seasons. In the Christian tradition, St. Michael fights and slays a dragon. Simply put, the dragon is a metaphor for the devil and the temptation to sin.

St Michael’s Day traditions include giving visitors bunches of carrots tied with pieces of red string. Carrots were considered lucky, especially if the carrots had forked roots. A well-fattened goose fed on the stubble from the fields after the harvest is eaten to guarantee the diner good fortune in the coming year and that he or she would be at least $1,000 richer by the end of 12 months. Another tradition is predicting the weather for the coming winter by the color of the breast meat of the Michaelmas goose. Also a posy of Michaelmas daisies or purple asters was used to decorate the dinner table.

On Michaelmas, we are invited to consider the resolve we require as we head into winter, the areas that we need to strengthen in ourselves, the fears that we need to face, and the initiatives that will we take.

★~ National Coffee Day:

The El Morn-o-ers are very picky about their coffee. They don’t like flavored coffee, they do like flavored coffee, they want cream not milk, they want cream but not half-half, they want half-half but not cream. Some believe Starbucks is the best coffee, other prefer Pete’s or Intelligentsia Coffee.

However today all coffee fiends can join hands,  rejoice and celebrate their beloved coffee bean with free brew from many national chains.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1916 – John D. Rockefeller’s wealth made him the first American billionaire.

♥~ 1957  – Today was the last day of the regular baseball season in 1957, and two franchises played — and lost — their last games as New York teams before moving to California.  The Giants, headed to San Francisco, lost their last home game at the Polo Grounds to Pittsburgh, and the Brooklyn Dodgers were beaten in Philadelphia in their final game before moving to Los Angeles.

♥~ 1960 –  My Three Sons was welcomed into U.S. homes on ABC-TV. Fred MacMurray, who was a movie actor, had a difficult time making the adjustment to the small screen. But adjust he did, and My Three Sons endured so well that CBS bought the successful hit for somewhere between seven and ten million dollars in 1965.

♥~ 1963 – The sitcom My Favorite Martian premiered on CBS-TV. It starred Bill Bixby as Tim O’Hara and Ray Walston as the Martian, Martin O’Hara. The show ran through Sep 4, 1966

♥~ 1978 – Pope John Paul, formerly Cardinal Albino Luciani, died , only 34 days after being elected.  John Paul was immensely popular during his short reign as pope, prompting his successor, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, to choose the name John Paul II.

♥~ 1987 – Thirty Something the debut of the popular baby boomer TV series  It starred Ken Olin, Mel Harris, Timothy Busfield, Patricia Wettig, and Melanie Mayron.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1547- Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, written four centuries ago and now considered to be the first modern novel.

♥~ 1907 – (Orvon) Gene Autry ‘The Singing Cowboy’: actor: 100+ cowboy westerns; singer: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine, The Death of Mother Jones, You are My Sunshine, Mexicali Rose, Back in the Saddle Again; owner: California Angels, Golden West Broadcasting; CMA Hall of Famer; only person to have 5 Hollywood Walk of Fame stars [film, radio, TV, stage, records]

♥~ 1923 – Stanley Berenstain and his wife, Jan, created the Berenstain Bears, a series that now has more than 200 books. They wrote the first, called The Big Honey Hunt, in 1962.

♥~ 1923 – Bum Phillips football coach: Houston Oilers

♥~ 1935 – Jerry Lee Lewis Rock and Roll Hall of Famer [1986]:singer: Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On, Great Balls of Fire, Breathless; cousin of singer Mickey Gilley, and evangelist Jimmy Swaggart

★~ Good to Know:

♥~ After coffee beans are decaffeinated, coffee manufacturers sell the caffeine to soft drink makers and pharmaceutical companies

♥~ The average U.S. worker spends $1,092 on coffee each year.

♥~ Starbucks is named for Captain Ahab’s first mate. The founders had considered naming it Pequod’s, after Ahab’s ship.

♥~ Chock Full O’Nuts coffee does not contain nuts. It’s named for a chain of nut stores the founder converted into coffee shops.

♥~ According to legend, Honore de Balzac drank 50 cups of coffee a day to fuel his writing.

♥~ In 1932, Brazil couldn’t afford to send its athletes to the Olympics in Los Angeles. So they loaded their ship with coffee and sold it along the way.

♥~ In 1674, the “Women’s Petition Against Coffee” said it was turning British men into “useless corpses” and proposed a ban for those under 60.

♥~ Coffee was banned in Mecca in 1511. It was believed to stimulate radical thinking and hanging out.

♥~ The first webcam watched a coffee pot. It allowed researchers at Cambridge to monitor the coffee situation without leaving their desks.

♥~ In 2008, Annamarie Ausnes received a life-saving kidney from an unlikely source: her Starbucks barista Sandie Andersen.

♥~ Click for Coffee Deals offered on  National Coffee Day

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I’m not sure yet what our day will behold. We might go for a late breakfast and slay some pancakes or waffles. It looks like it will be a rainy, inside day. Tonight, the kids are gathering at our house for the end of television show Breaking Bad. I haven’t watched a single episode of the show, but Cole tells me about it each week and listening to the kids discuss the moral chemistry of the show is fascinating. Funny, I’ve caught the hype of a show I’ve never watched; now that is good television. Will you be watching the finale of Breaking Bad?

Sticking with the Michaelmas theme: Rat Slayer, City of Chicago 

Wishing you a most Happy Michaelmas!

♥~