~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
January 17, 2014

★~ Today’s Quote:“Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.” – Dave Barry

★~ Kid Inventors Day:

Kid Inventors Day, celebrates the youthful spirit of invention, on Benjamin Franklin birthday, he invented the first swim flippers at age 12. Other awesome stuff invented by kids: the trampoline, the snowmobile and popsicles. Conversely, things invented by adults include the treadmill, the filing cabinet, and paying taxes.

★~ Ditch New Years Resolutions Day:

If there’s a day to celebrate New Years and to make resolutions for the upcoming year, then there should be a day to ditch those resolutions. That’s the reason for today. For many of us, New Years resolutions are hanging heavily over our heads. They have become a burden, and perhaps were not such a good idea after all.  And besides everyone knows you are perfect just as you are.

★~  Hot Buttered Rum Day:

Hot-buttered rum is a warm alcoholic beverage flavored with butter, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves. These ingredients form a batter that is then mixed with rich, dark rum. Mulled wines and other “toddies” originated in Europe, but hot-buttered rum is an American innovation. During the colonial period, merchants began importing molasses (the basis for rum) from Jamaica. The first rum distillery opened in the 1660s and it wasn’t long before the colonists began mixing the alcohol with spices to create a warm winter refreshment. Hot Buttered Rum.

★~ Today In History:

♥~ 1795 –  The Duddingston Curling Society, the oldest club of its kind, was organized in Edinburgh, Scotland. Curling is an olympic ice sport that began in Scotland and is played wearing Curling shoes which consist of a slider (the sole is coated with a Teflon-like material) and a gripper (usually a crepe rubber), stones and brooms. More about curling.

♥~ 1876 – The saxophone was played by Etta Morgan at New York City’s Olympic Theatre. The instrument was little known at the time in the United States.

♥~ 1945 –  The American record holder for the indoor one mile run, Gilbert Dodds, announced his retirement from competition to devote his time to running for a higher source. Dodds became a gospel preacher. He came out of retirement briefly, in hopes of competing in the 1948 Olympics. While training for the Olympics, he broke his own record by winning the Wanamaker Mile in 4:05.3. How’d Gilbert do in the Olympics? He didn’t. The mumps caught up to him before the trials and he permanently retired from running. (This one is for El Morno friend Irene!)

♥~ 2011 – Japanese researchers said they were launching a project to attempt to resurrect the long-extinct woolly mammoth. By using cloning technology, the scientists hoped to bring the ancient pachyderm back to life.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1706 – Benjamin Franklin statesman: oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution; printer, author, publisher [Richard Saunders]: Poor Richard’s Almanack; scientist, inventor: Franklin stove, bifocals, lightning rods; established University of Pennsylvania; died Apr 17, 1790

♥~ 1899 – Al Capone ‘Scarface’: gangster, head of crime empire during Prohibition; died Jan 25, 1947

♥~ 1922 – Betty White Emmy Award-winning actress: The Mary Tyler Moore Show [1974-1975, 1975-1976], The Golden Girls [1985-1986]; The Betty White Show, Ladies Man; singer

♥~ 1962 – Jim Carrey actor, comedian: The Mask, Ace Ventura series, Dumb & Dumber, Batman Forever, The Cable Guy, The Truman Show, Me, Myself & Irene, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Majestic

★~ Good to Know:

Benjamin Franklin was a bit soft around the middle in his later years, but in his youth he was a strapping, broad-shouldered specimen of a man. Well, at least that’s what he claims in his autobiography.
Either way, Franklin credited his physique to being a vigorous swimmer. When he was posted to London in the 1750s, he was known to take daily dips in the Thames. When he was an 11-year-old in Boston, Franklin’s first invention was a pair of oval planks with holes through their centres. Grasping the two planks with his hands, Franklin used the “fins” to give him a bit of extra thrust underwater.

Going forward he also invented….

♥~ 1742: Observing the wasteful use of firewood in inefficient colonial fireplaces, he designed the Franklin Stove, which used its iron body to diffuse a much larger proportion of the heat. The stove enabled poor families to save money and be warmer in the winter.

♥~ 1749: Noticing that lightning was attracted to metal and tall objects, Franklin hit on the idea of attaching vertical metal rods to the tops of tall buildings to attract the lightning, thus sparing the roof a direct hit.

♥~ 1752: To prove that lightning was static electricity, Franklin carried out his famous kite experiment with the help of his young son William (nobody ever said he was a responsible parent). He conducted an electrical charge from a key along a wire into a primitive battery. Franklin and son were lucky to survive; in following years, a number of scientists who tried to replicate Franklin’s experiment were killed by lightning.

♥~ 1752: To allow his brother to urinate while suffering from kidney stones, Franklin invented the first flexible urinary catheter used in North America.

♥~ 1763: Franklin, who had been appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737, came up with the odometer. The complicated device composed of three interlocking gears was attached to the wheel of postal carriages in order to figure out the distances traveled by postal officers.

♥~ 1770: He named and described the “Gulf Stream”— the giant Atlantic current circulating between the Gulf of Mexico and the west coast of Ireland— and correctly identified it as the reason the voyage from Britain to America took longer along certain routes. British admirals ignored his findings and then came up with the same answer several de cades later.

♥~ 1784: Troubled by being both near- and far- sighted at the age of 78, Franklin improved spectacles by inventing the “bifocal.”

♥~ 1786: To reach merchandise on high shelves, he invented a pole with a claw at one end operated by handles at the other— a device still used at corner bodegas everywhere.

♥~ 1787: Although he never actually built them, during one of his eight Atlantic crossings, Franklin came up with a design for watertight bulkheads that would help limit flooding below deck if a ship’s hull was breached.

Along the way, he also helped develop America’s first fire department, the first library, and the concept of daylight saving time. But perhaps the most remarkable thing about Ben Franklin the inventor was his refusal to patent any of his ideas, so that the widest possible number of people could benefit from them.

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My teen is off to New Orleans for a family wedding. I dropped him off at the airport at 7am and since he was flying standby (we are lucky enough to have friends in the airline biz) I’m waiting to hear if he made it on the almost full flight. The plane should have boarded 15 minutes ago and I still haven’t heard from him, here is what I think happened: He made the flight but was boarded moments before they were ready to close the doors,  he was a little frantic, and forgot to text his Mom. It happens. If there was a problem, I would have heard from him.

It’s a huge wedding, in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Eleven bridesmaids, and eleven groomsmen, along with a flower girl and ring bearer. I can’t wait to hear all about it! He has promised to send pictures, and updates—if he doesn’t forget. It happens.

Thanks to everyone who made Fig Newton Day so special for my Dear Dad! He was thrilled with all the well wishes and several boxes of Fig Newtons. He is certain the Fig Newton God was appeased this year and fig trees around the world will flourish.

Have a Fabulous Friday!

Odd Loves Company!