~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
December 2, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote:  “The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one.”  ― Erma Bombeck

★~ Cyber Monday

Bye-bye Black Friday. So long Small Business Saturday. Now, it’s Cyber Monday’s turn.

Cyber Monday, coined in 2005 by a shopping trade group that noticed online sales spiked on the Monday following Thanksgiving, is the next in a series of days that stores are counting on to jumpstart the holiday shopping season.

Americans are expected to spend $1.5 billion, up 20% from last year on Cyber Monday, as retailers have ramped up their deals to get shoppers to click on their websites.

Amazon promises some great deals. 

★~ Apple Fritter Day:

Fritters are delicious fried cakes filled with fruit or meat. They can be served as a snack, side dish, dessert, or even the main course!

There’s actually not much difference between pancake and fritter batter. They are both made with the same ingredients. It is only once fruit or meat is dipped into the raw batter and then fried that it actually becomes a fritter.

The first historical record of the fritter dates back to 1665. Samuel Pepys, an Englishman who served as a Member of Parliament during the English Restoration period, noted in his diary that he would be enjoying some fritters before Lent!

Enjoy eating a fritter today, or perhaps you would rather celebrate by frittering the day away.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1901 – American King Camp Gillette designed the first razor with disposable blades. Up until this time, men shaved with a straight-edge razor that they sharpened on a leather strap.

♥~ 1923 – Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Critics praised her bel canto technique, wide-ranging voice and dramatic gifts. Google honors her today with a doodle.

♥~ 1952 – George Jorgensen, a former G.I. who had gone to Denmark in 1950, prepared to return to the U.S. this day — as Christine Jorgensen. She, er, he, had undergone 2,000 hormone injections and six operations performed by sex change surgeons.

♥~ 1959 – Behind the Great Wall, a truly stinking motion picture, was seen at the Mayfair Theatre in New York City. A somewhat noxious scent was piped through the ceiling vents during certain portions of the show. The effect was called AromaRama. It didn’t catch on…

♥~ 1964 – Student activist Mario Savio made a speech on behalf of the Free Speech Movement that inspired hundreds of students to take over Sproul Hall at U.C.-Berkeley. Savio said, “There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies on the gears, and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve go to make it stop.” (Police moved in the next day and arrested 780 people, which in turn, prompted a general student strike.

♥~ 1978 – Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond’s You Don’t Bring Me Flowers hit #1 in the U.S.

♥~ 2007 – A 3.3-pound truffle discovered by a dog in Italy brought a record-breaking $330,000 at auction.  Luciano Savini said his truffle dog, Rocco, discovered the highly prized fungus near Pisa. Billionaire Stanley Ho, a Chinese casino tycoon from Macau, outbid British artist Damien Hirst and Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi to win the fungal delicacy, the BBC reported. Savini who donated the proceeds to charity.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1925 – Julie Harris, Emmy Award-winning actress: Hallmark Hall of Fame: Little Moon of Alban [1958-1959], Victoria Regina [1961-1962]; Knots Landing, The Family Hovak, Backstairs at the White House, Carried Away, Scarlett, The Dark Half, Gorillas in the Mist, The Bell Jar, Voyage of the Damned,Harper, A Doll’s House, I Am a Camera, East of Eden, Member of the Wedding

♥~ 1963 –  Ann Patchett, novelist published her first short story in The Paris Review when she was still an undergraduate at Sarah Lawrence College. Critics raved, and the story appeared in lots of anthologies.  After college you faced her first rejection notices and writer’s block. During this time she moved back in with her mom and waited tables at T.G.I. Friday’s in Nashville. To keep herself awake while rolling silverware at two in the morning, she made up a story in her head that became her first published novel, The Patron Saint of Liars (1992).

♥~ 1968 – Lucy Liu actress: Ally McBeal, Bang, Jerry Maguire, Charlie’s Angels, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle

♥~ 1981 – Britney Spears dance-pop singer: albums: Baby… One More Time, Oops!… I Did It Again; TV performer: The Mickey Mouse Club, Time Out with Britney Spears, Britney in Hawaii.

★~ Good to Know:

You’ll never be at a loss for words with these odd facts on the tip of your tongue; use them during dinner conversation lulls, holiday cocktail parties and when you are waiting in a long and tedious line!

♥~ Deipnophobia is the fear of dinner party conversations.

♥~  If you’re hungry, your stomach is technically not growling. It’s wambling.

♥~  Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving feast consists of buttered toast, pretzel sticks, jelly beans, and popcorn.

♥~  The most shoplifted food item in the U.S. is candy. In Europe, it’s cheese.

♥~ The light emitted by 200,000 galaxies makes our universe a shade of beige. Scientists call the color “cosmic latte.”

♥~ Mary Todd Lincoln was once asked if Abe had any hobbies. Her reply: “Cats.”

♥~ In 1726, Mary Toft convinced a number of prominent British doctors that she was giving birth to rabbits.

♥~  If you visit a waterfall at dusk, you may see moonbows—nighttime rainbows.

♥~  Yawning is so contagious that it can spread to dogs and monkeys.

♥~ In Japan, letting a sumo wrestler make your baby cry is considered good luck.

♥~ The gym on the Titanic had a mechanical camel.

♥~ At spas in Europe, you can bathe in beer as a physical and mental therapeutic treatment.

♥~ If you open your eyes in a pitch-black room, the color you’ll see is called ‘eigengrau.’

♥~ In 1965, a Senate subcommittee predicted that by 2000, Americans would only be working 20 hours a week with seven weeks vacation. (perhaps they were predicting their own future?)

♥~  The Clintons put a Twinkie in the Millennium Time Capsule, which is scheduled to be opened in 2100.

♥~ There are roughly 70 ingredients in the McRib.

♥~  The American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-V handbook classifies caffeine withdrawal as a mental disorder.

♥~ When asked why he chose the name Piggly Wiggly, founder Clarence Saunders said, “So people will ask that very question.”

♥~ The G-spot was nearly named the Whipple Tickle, after professor Beverly Whipple.

♥~  The national animal of Scotland is the unicorn.

♥~ In 1916–four years before the Constitution recognized her right to vote–Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to Congress.

♥~ In the 1870s, a Belgian village tried to train a fleet of 37 mail cats to deliver letters.

♥~ It didn’t work.

♥~ The first sales pitch for the Nerf ball was: “Nerf: You can’t hurt babies or old people!”

♥~  In Nevada, “none of the above” is an option on ballots.

♥~ President Nixon was speaking at Disney World when he famously declared, “I am not a crook.” (and his nose started to grow)

♥~ In 1958, Larry King smashed into John F. Kennedy’s car. JFK said he’d forget the whole thing if King promised to vote for him when he ran for president.

♥~ Before she wrote The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins was a writer for Clarissa Explains it All.

♥~ Sea otters hold hands when they sleep so they don’t drift apart.

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Merry Monday!

This deer antler picture is making the rounds. I’m sure someone will wanted to order a Star Of David Deer Antler- Monogrammed, of-course.

Off and running. Have a Merry Monday and if you become anxious or out of sorts focus on your left toe.

Odd Loves Company!