Step Family Day, Working Parents Day, Play Doh Day, Collect Rocks Day, Guacamole Day

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

Sunset threw the grasses

★~ Step Family Day:

stepfamily

One out of three Americans is now a stepparent, stepchild, stepsibling. Stepfamily Day acknowledges the parents that step up to being a trusted guardians in a child’s life.

★~ Working Parents Day:

Working Parents

Working parents have a full plate and, apparently, a lot of patience. At the end of a long work day and a congested commute, they walk through the door and are welcomed by the ones they love most, needing there undivided attention. Someone get these folks a grown-up beverage and their slippers!

★~ Play Doh Day:

playdough

Back before it was Play-Doh, everyone’s favorite squishy clay was actually a wallpaper cleaner used to clean soot off of walls. But when people switched from using coal burning furnaces to oil fueled ones in the ‘40s and ‘50s, demand for the product evaporated. Kutol, a manufacturing company in Cincinnati, was watching their sales dwindle when the son of the company’s founder, Joe McVicker, started looking for ways to turn the business round.

While most people credit Joseph for saving the company, much of the credit belongs to his sister, a school teacher who, in 1955, asked him if the company could maybe come up with a safe substitute for modeling clay, which is too hard for many youngsters to manipulate. Joseph immediately thought of the company’s non-toxic wallpaper cleaner and sent her a sample. When she told him that her kids loved it, he reached out to all the schools in Cincinnati and offered them a free supply of the clay substitute. When kids all over the town were raving about the product, he presented the new toy, which he and Noah dubbed “Play-Doh,” at a national education convention where it sparked the interest of a number of major department store chains who all started carrying the product.

Wonder what America’s favorite Play-Doh colors are? Well, in 2000, a nationwide poll revealed that we seem to love Rose Red, Purple Paradise, Blue Lagoon and Garden Green above all others. As for what’s in the “Doh,” well, that’s a company secret, but it definitely contains water, salt, flour, boric acid, petroleum, surfactant, preservative, hardener, humectant, fragrance, and color.

★~ Collect Rocks Day:

Rock Day

Collect Rocks Day commemorates the tradition of people collecting rocks of one kind or another at one or another point in their life. Maybe you collected rocks without much regard to specificity when you were a kid. Or maybe you are a serious collector of rocks as an adult. Or may you just hang onto any diamonds that come your way. Whatever the case, Collect Rocks Day is there to honor this tradition.

★~ National Guacamole Day:

guacamole

Most of us know and love guacamole as a party snack, but there’s more to guacamole than meets the eye. Guacamole made from avocados, are packed with more than twenty vitamins, contain “good fats” that reduce cholesterol, can help fight cancer, and can be used as a substitute for butter or shortening in baking in some recipes.

Easy Guacamole 

★~ Today in History:

The-Pilgrims-Landing

♥~ 1620 –  More than 100 “pilgrims” left Plymouth, England, aboard the Mayflower.  They were headed to Virginia, but landed instead at Cape Cod in Massachusetts that November.

♥~ 1630 –  Ten years later, , another Massachusetts settlement named Shawmut was renamed after a town in England. The community’s new name was “Boston.”

♥~ 1810 – Father Miguel Hidalgoy Costilla began an uprising meant to free Mexico from Spanish colonial rule — on what is now considered Mexican Independence Day.

♥~ 1840 – The term “O.K.” was popularized by the O.K. Club, a Democratic political group. The initials stood for the birthplace of president Martin Van Buren: Old Kinderhook, New York.

♥~ 1968 – The Andy Griffith Show was seen for the final time on CBS-TV. Sheriff Andy Taylor (Griffith), Opie (Ron Howard), Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier), Barney Fife (Don Knotts), Goober Pyle (George Lindsey), Floyd Lawson (Howard McNear), and the rest of the gang from Mayberry, NC, are still seen regularly on TV through syndication.

♥~ 1993 – The sitcom “Cheers,” set in Boston, ended in 1993, a spinoff was created for supporting character Frasier Crane, who moved to Seattle and started a radio talk show.  ”Frasier” debuted on this date in ’93, and like “Cheers,” it lasted for 11 years.

★~Born Today:

Rabbit ears antenna

♥~1919 – Marvin Middlemark inventor:na; died in 1989

♥~ 1924 – Lauren Bacall (Betty Perske) actress: Key Largo, Applause, Woman of the Year, How to Marry a Millionaire, To Have and Have Not; married actor Humphrey Bogart

♥~ 1925 – B.B. (Riley B.) King musician, singer: The Thrill Is Gone, I Like to Live the Love, Rock Me Baby; appeared in films: Into the Night, Amazon Women of the Moon; Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

♥~ 1927 – Peter Falk Emmy Award-winning actor: The Price of Tomatoes: The Dick Powell Show [1961-62]; Columbo; Murder by Death, Pocketful of Miracles , The Great Race, The In-Laws, The Princess Bride; died Jun 23, 2011

♥~ 1943 – Joe Butler musician: drums; singer: founding member of The Lovin’ Spoonful: Do You Belive in Magic?, You Didn’t Have to be So Nice, Daydream, You Baby, Wild About My Lovin’, On the Road Again

♥~ 1952 – Mickey Rourke actor: Body Heat, Diner, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Year of the Dragon, Nine Weeks, Barfly, Angel Heart, Johnny Handsome, Wild Orchid, Harley Davidson & The Marlboro Man

♥~ 1956 – David Copperfield (Kotkin) magician, illusionist

♥~ 1964 – Molly Shannon actress: Saturday Night Live, Evan Almighty, Gray Matters, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Scary Movie 4

♥~ 1971- Amy Poehler comedienne, actress: Saturday Night Live [2001-2008]; Wild Girls Gone, Envy, Mean Girls, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Parks and Recreation

★~ Good to Know: 

giant-crystal-cave-naica-mexico

Cave of the Crystals or Giant Crystal Cave (Spanish: Cueva de los Cristales) is a cave connected to the Naica Mine 300 meters (980 ft) below the surface in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico. The main chamber contains giant selenite crystals, and are some of the largest natural crystals ever found. The cave’s largest crystal found to date is 12 m (39 ft) in length, 4 m (13 ft) in diameter and 55 tons in weight.

The cave is extremely hot with air temperatures reaching up to 58 °C (136 °F) with 90 to 99 percent humidity. The cave is relatively unexplored due to these factors. Without proper protection people can only endure approximately ten minutes of exposure at a time. A group of scientists known as the Naica Project have been heavily involved in researching these caverns.

The Giant Crystal cave was discovered in 2000 by miners excavating a new tunnel for the Industrias Peñoles mining company located in Naica, Mexico. The Cave of Crystals is a horseshoe-shaped cavity in limestone. Its floor is covered with perfectly-faceted crystalline blocks. Huge crystal beams jut out from both the blocks and the floor. The caves are accessible today because the mining company’s pumping operations keep them clear of water. If the pumping were stopped, the caves would again be submerged. The crystals deteriorate in air, so the Naica Project is attempting to visually document the crystals before they deteriorate further.

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Beth Ann – It’s Just Life  share the obituary of an exceptional women called Pink. Click over and meet Pink, it will start your week and your Monday off with a smile.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Monday!

Odd Loves Company!

10 thoughts on “Step Family Day, Working Parents Day, Play Doh Day, Collect Rocks Day, Guacamole Day

  1. Morno,
    Lots of catch up at the office this week so I am off and running. Looks like a good day. I’ll pay my respect a little later to “Pink.”
    Have a good one.

  2. I have great memories of PlayDoh! We had all the great little tools to make cool shapes and creations with the boys and I never even minded the occasional blob of red stuff squished into the carpet because it was just such a fun thing to play with. The Cave of the Crystals looks amazing. To think they were just discovered so recently amazes me. What a find. Thanks for the shootout—-it was a really great obit, wasn’t it?

    • PlayDoh–loved all the accessories. We never worried about the carpet because the pups ate it –which lead to some interesting colors of poop.
      The orbit was inspiring and fun. Both were terrific but I really liked Pink.

  3. Quite an obit! Pink sure lived her life to the fullest & urges all to follow her lead.
    Play-Doh….played with it, never ate it!
    I do like stone flooring & tile in houses. That’s my collecting.
    Nice cave find. Would be great to see if…..
    Guacamole! A neighborhood restaurant who catered lunch at work the day before a holiday wiped out (no pun intended) at least half of us with their guacamole! We laugh about it now.
    On that note, good day!

    • At first I read that you didn’t like stone flooring and tile and I was amazed. So much easier for “dog people.” Which we aren’t of-course. Well maybe we are dog people, just not “crazy dog people.”
      Poor Irene, not a fan of spicy food to begin with and then guacamole wipes you out! Not a great way to start the Holidays!

  4. “Pink” sounds like a wonderful woman — best of all, her obituary doesn’t say how old (young??) she was — and really, when you leave advice that good, who cares?!
    I think I’d relish a visit to the Crystal Cave. The heat would be insufferable, of course, but just think of the splendors waiting inside.
    I loved Play-Doh as a kid, and so did Domer. I think I enjoyed it more than he did, though! That was a neat story about its beginnings.

    • We played with a lot of Play Doh around here too. i loved it and it gave me a break from Legos and cars.
      I’m sure you would love Crystal cave with your interest in rocks. Carlsbad Caverns is also a fun rock formation to visit and a little bit cooler.
      Your right about the age, who does care!

  5. Loved Pinks obit. both humorous and wise. I’m a step mom to a wonderful kid and his mother is wonderful too. Step parenting is so much about the adults involved. If everyone is really on the same page that the child comes first it is so much easier to transition in as a stepmom. I love my step kid like he is one of my own and his mother has been so generous to me and my kids.
    The rock cave sounds very cool. We went to Carlsbad caverns a couple of years ago and it was amazing, so I imagine this cave his even more amazing.
    Linguine is on the menu for this week.
    Hope you had a great day.

    • Your step kid is lucky to be surrounded by such caring adults. I grew up not terrible far from Carlsbad Caverns and visiting was always a treat!

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