~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
October 1, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote:  “Enthusiasm is the element of success in every thing. It is the light that leads, and the strength that lifts men on and up in the great struggles of scientific pursuits and of professional labor. It robs endurance of difficulty, and makes a pleasure of duty.” – Bishop Doane

★~ World Vegetarian Day:

Bacon’s domination of the internet may lead one to believe otherwise, but there are folks in this world who don’t dig on the swine. Or the beef, chicken, turkey, and fish, for that matter. For these non-meat-eaters, World Vegetarian Day, October 1, is the time to shine. The date kicks off the start of Vegetarian Awareness Month. The best way for meat lovers to celebrate is to practice tolerance, learn to cook a meatless dish, and perhaps learn about the advantages of a eating less meat and more veggies. This World Vegetarian Day is sponsored by North American Vegetarian Society   Click here for more vegetarian fascinating facts.

★~ Homemade Cookie Day:

More than likely we can thank the Anniversary of the New York Cocoa Exchange (October 1) for the origin of Homemade Cookie Day. Celebrate today by making your favorite cookies and sending them to me. Ok. You don’t have to send me the cookies if you share your favorite cookie recipe with us. In exchange here is an easy cookie recipe that Cole and I have been loving lately. My favorite cookies, in the whole world, are my sweet mothers homemade chocolate chip cookies. Cole and I love them so much. Especially Cole! And Cousin Carla makes the worlds best Snickerdoodles. Really. The world’s best.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1847 – Maria Mitchell, American astronomer, discovered a comet and was elected this same day to the American Academy of Arts — the first woman to be so honored. Mitchell (1818-1889) was the first person to find a comet by telescope.

♥~ 1908 –  Ford introduced the Model T at a price of $850, but by 1924 the basic model sold for as little as $260. Between 1908 and 1927, Ford sold 15,007,033 Model Ts in the US. Although the first Model Ts were not built on an assembly line, the demand for the cars was so high that Ford developed a system where workers remained at their stations and cars came to them. This enabled Ford to turn out a Model T every 10 seconds. Customers could have the Model T in any color they wanted; as long as they wanted black.

♥~ 1942 – Little Golden Books.  The first 12 titles were released on October 1, 1942, at a price of only a quarter a piece—and they were an instant success. After only five months on the market, 1.5 million copies had been sold and many titles were already in their third printing; by 1945, most were in their seventh printing. One of the keys to sales was the fact they were sold in unusual places like department stores, drug stores and supermarkets. This gave busy moms a great way to keep busy kids occupied while shopping, and it was inexpensive enough to be tacked onto the final bill without much concern.

Well over two billion Little Golden Books have been sold since 1942 in nearly every country across the globe. (Though they were banned for many years in the Soviet Union for being “too capitalist.”) The Poky Little Puppy was and still is the most popular Little Golden Book.

♥~ 1962 – “From New York … heeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!” Ed McMahon introduced the new host of NBC’s Tonight Show for the first time. Johnny Carson entertained late-night America for nearly three decades, give or take 20 years for vacations…

♥~ 1971 – Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida, USA.

♥~ 1994 – Eric Clapton’s album From the Cradle was number one in the U.S.

♥~ 2013 –  Google celebrates Yosemite’s 123rd birthday,  that as of today, ironically, you cannot go see.  Today, marks the first time in 17 years that would-be tourists cannot visit Yosemite because of a shutdown of the U.S. government. Congress couldn’t hit a midnight Monday deadline to keep the government running, so in addition to hundreds of thousands of federal workers being furloughed, the stalemate means that the national parks — like many museums and monuments — will be shut and shuttered beginning Tuesday. Yosemite covers more than 760,000 acres — about 95 percent of which is wilderness — and draws more than 3.7-million visitors a year. Just not, perhaps, this year. What you can and can’t do during the shut down. 

★~Famous Birthdays:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/wO6R4RxnSlw[/youtube]

♥~ 1920 – Walter Matthau Academy Award-winning actor: The Fortune Cookie [1966]; The Odd Couple, Grumpy Old Men, Grumpier Old Men, Dennis the Menace, Kotch,Pete & Tillie, Plaza Suite, The Sunshine Boys, JFK, Fail-Safe, Earthquake; died July 1, 2000

♥~ 1924 – Jimmy Carter  39th U.S. President [1977-1981]; married to Rosalynn Smith [three sons, one daughter]; full name: James Earl Carter

♥~ 1927 – Tom Bosley actor: Happy Days, Father Dowling Mysteries, Murder, She Wrote, The Dean Martin Show, The Debbie Reynolds Show, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home; died Oct 19, 2010

♥~ 1933 – Richard Harris actor: Camelot, The Guns of Navarone, Hawaii, A Man Called Horse, Mutiny on the Bounty, Unforgiven, Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone,Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; singer: MacArthur Park, Didn’t We; LP: A Tramp Shining; died Oct 25, 2002

♥~ 1935 – Julie Andrews (Julia Wells) Academy Award-winning actress: Mary Poppins [1964]; The Sound of Music, Victor/Victoria, 10, Hawaii; Emmy Award-winner: Victoria Regina: Hallmark Hall of Fame [1961-62]; My Fair Lady, The Boyfriend

★~ Good to Know:  Yosemite Park 

♥~ Male deer (bucks) in Yosemite Park shed their antlers every fall after mating season. They grow them back in the spring. (I knew this!)

♥~  Giant Sequoias which grow in Yosemite National Park are the biggest living things on the planet. However, the seed for the Giant Sequoia is only the size of a piece of oatmeal. Grizzly Giant is the name of the oldest Sequoia in Yosemite Park.

♥~ The American Indians who live in Yosemite are called the Ahwahneechee Indians. Their traditional homes look like teepees, but are actually made of incense-cedar bark.

♥~ Yosemite National Park is visited by over 3.5 million people every year. Summer is by far the busiest season at Yosemite.

♥~  Yosemite Park was the first area of land set aside by the US government for preservation and protection.

♥~ Though Half Dome and El Capitan are Yosemite’s most well known summits, Mt. Lyell is actually Yosemite’s highest peak.

♥~  Yosemite National Park covers nearly 1,200 square miles. However, only a tiny fraction of that land is traversed by visitors. The vast majority of the park is largely untouched and uninhabited by humans.

♥~ California has approximately 7,000 known plant species. Yosemite contains twenty percent of those species.

♥~ Galen Clark was the first designated Guardian of Yosemite. He used to hike through the park barefoot and was quoted as saying that shoes are “cruel and silly instruments of torture, at once uncivilized, unhuman and unnecessary.”

♥~ Black bears found in Yosemite weigh between 150 and 500 pounds when full grown, but when they are born, they weigh less than half a pound. The mother black bear is fast asleep during hibernation when her baby is born.

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Cole and I picked up the June Bug last night, he has been working on it off site with a Bug expert. We had planned to drive it home, but Cole’s mentor suggested he fix a few more things before he takes it on the freeway – for an example a fender that could come flying off and would have to be retrieved at night on an expressway. We took Darby’s advice. Dealing with U-haul to rent a truck and auto transport trailer was a nightmare. While Cole writes a blog post updating everyone about the June Bug, count on me to write a rant about U-haul!

Hope you remembered to say Rabbit Rabbit! If not, say it out loud three times right now, and have a Happy October!

Odd Loves Company!