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

★~ Today’s Quote: “Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this.” – Anonymous

★~ National Cat Day:

“What greater gift than the love of a cat?” Charles Dickens once mused. Cats are one of the most beloved human companions of all time. They were first domesticated in the Middle East’s Fertile Crescent 12,000 years ago. When humans relied on hunting as their main source of food, dogs were most useful, but when the first agricultural societies emerged, cats became invaluable. Domesticated cats became responsible for keeping grain stores free of mice and other rodents. Cats outnumber dogs as the pet of choice. According to the Humane Society, Americans own 83.3 million dogs — but 95.6 million cats.

Adopt a cat, pat a cat (ask first), buy a cat some cat nip, or just enjoy how purrfectly content they look stretched out under a sunbeam.

★~ Hermit Day:

Celebrate Hermit Day by throwing  a blanket over the dining room table and climb inside your cave- don’t forget your pup, cat, book, snacks, phone and laptop- Lets not be foolish.

★~ Oatmeal Day:

Oatmeal high a high-fiber goodness, it’s just about as versatile a food as you’ll find. It can be sweet, savory, used as a nutritious filler or even a natural remedy for itchy skin! And it smells so good. The Quaker Man is one of the oldest advertising mascots in America. The Quaker Oats company registered him as the first trademark for a breakfast cereal in 1877.  And of-course most of us know, I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot spoon.

If you enjoy oatmeal here are 5 favorite Hot Oatmeal recipes.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1891 – Fanny Brice (Borach) actress: Ziegfeld Follies; comedienne: Baby Snooks; subject of film: Funny Girl; died May 29, 1951

♥~ 1945 – The first commercially-made ballpoint pens went on sale — at Gimbels Department Store in New York City. The pens sold for $12.50 and racked up a tidy profit of $500,000 in the first month!

♥~ 1964 – The largest star sapphire in the world, the Star of India, was stolen from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Fortunately, the gem was later found, unharmed.

♥~1969 –  The first connection on what would become the Internet was made today when bits of data flowed between computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute. This was the beginning of ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet developed by the Department of Defense.

♥~ 1983 – Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon became the longest-charting album of all time when it logged its 491st week on the Billboard Top 200 album chart.

★~Famous Birthdays:

♥~1933 –  Valerie Worth – author,  She’s most famous for her “small poems,” poems for children about everyday objects. She said “As a child, I preferred reading and writing to everything else, and I still feel much the same way. I was also greatly attracted to ‘smallness,’ perhaps because throughout grade school I myself was the smallest in my class.  Books include: (1972), Small Poems Again (1986), and Curlicues: The Fortunes of Two Pug Dogs (1980).

♥~ 1938 – Ralph Bakshi writer, director, animator: Hey Good Lookin’, Heavy Traffic, Fritz the Cat, Wizards, Streetfight; director, animator: The Lord of the Rings; writer, director: Fire and Ice; director: Cool World

♥~ 1947 – Richard Dreyfuss Academy Award-winning actor: The Goodbye Girl [1977]; Valley of the Dolls, Jaws, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Lost in Yonkers, Nuts, American Graffiti, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, The Graduate, Postcards from the Edge, In Mama’s House, Karen, The Education of Max Bickford; TV narrator: American Chronicles

♥~ 1948 – Kate Jackson actress: Charlie’s Angels, The Rookies, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Baby Boom, Killer Bees, Satan’s School for Girls, Loverboy

♥~ 1971 – Winona Ryder (Winona Laura Horowitz) actress: Little Women, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Age of Innocence, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Lucas

★~Good to Know:

As you put the finishing touches on your costume and stock up on candy for the neighborhood kids, let’s review Halloween 101.

♥~The Pagans believe that on October 31st that the veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest.  Samhain is the Celtic New Year. On Samhain, a big bonfire would be built and sacrifices made to the dead, while the common folk would dress up in animal skins and try to tell their own fortunes. The costumes, Halloween’s most enduring tradition, were donned either to calm the spirits or to blend in with them, as to not incur their wrath.

♥~ In A.D. 43 the Roman war machine rolled through Britain and conquered a large chunk of the Celtic population. But the Romans, always the master conquerors, cleverly blended two of their own holidays with the Celtic Samhain to make the transition to Roman rule more seamless. One holiday was a celebration of the dead  easy enough to mix with Samhain  and the other was a celebration of the Pomona, goddess of fruit and tress, where, apparently, the tradition of bobbing for apples takes root.

♥~ When the Romans became Christians, the hodgepodge holiday again was forced to change. Like the previous blending, the Christians incorporated their own holidays into the Samhain tradition. November 1st became All-hallow’s, a day to celebrate the saints and martyrs and October 31st became All-hallow’s Even (“Even” being short for “evening,” but providing the “n” in “Halloween”). Through the magic of etymology, All-hallow’s Even became Halloween.

♥~ But it didn’t happen right away. Puritans in New England suppressed the superstitious holiday. In the South, however, where religious piety was less important, Halloween was celebrated in much the same way it was in Europe. But a great tide of immigration in the late 1800s brought a new life to the holiday and no amount of piety could contain it. Through the years, the “spookiness” of Halloween was replaced with a more wholesome community feel, out of which grew trick-or-treating and, as towns celebrated together, stripped any religious significance away. Finally, after many thousands of years and many cultural modifications, we arrived at a holiday involving witches, costumes, candy, mischief, the deceased and pumpkins.

We will continue tomorrow with Pumpkins, trick or treat, and candy corn. Pop Quiz on Thursday.

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I  ran into the grocery store and added pork chops and potpies to my cart. While standing in line, a little girl peered into my cart, looked at me, and said, “I’m four years old and a vegan.” I replied, “How nice!” and asked her if she wanted a bag of M&M’s. I love to buy kids candy in the checkout lane. I have never understood why a parent would say no, and even worse are the parents who say yes and then insist that the candy be eaten later . . . Is this supposed to build character? I forgive you if you were one of these parents, tho. Rest easy.  In any case, I’ve never had a parent snarl at me. My pint-size vegan’s mom laughed, as Little Vegan tore into her M&M’s. The mom explained that her daughter was a pretend vegan; no one in their family was even vegetarian. Kind of scary, isn’t it? Little children running around pretending to be vegans . . .

Off for day two of Project Estate Sale setup. Is there anything special you’re looking for? I could be your personal shopper! Do you collect anything special? Maybe I’ll post a few pictures tomorrow. Maybe even host a weekend giveaway. We’ll see. My friend was a little sad yesterday (even happy sales have sad moments), but I picked up my magic wand (a rolling pin) and told her we would be laughing like fools by the weekend and that by Monday, she would be rolling in dough. I’ve done these sales a time or two or three . . . getting started is the hardest part, but we are well on our way.

Odd Loves Company!