~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
February 10,2014

★~ Today’s Quote: Whenever you feel sad just remember that there are billions of cells in your body and all they care about is you. (unknown)

★~ Umbrella Day:

The um-ber-ella-ella-ella,  brolly, gamp, parasol, bumbershoot – whatever you call it, umbrellas are made for one thing – keeping you dry and saving your hair!  Now if only you could remember where you left yours…..which reminds me of a story about the man who left his brolly in the umbrella stand in a London pub with the following note: “This umbrella is owned by the champion boxer of England, and he’s coming back in two minutes.” The man then went to the bar for a drink. When he returned, the umbrella stand was empty, and in place of his brolly, he found a note that read: “This umbrella was taken by the champion runner of England. He’s never coming back.”

There’s the widespread superstition that opening a bumbershoot indoors brings bad luck. Then, of course, there’s the age-old belief that the easiest way to assure a rainy day is to leave your umbrella at home.  Robert Louis Stevenson seemed aware of this peculiar meteor-logical wisdom when he wrote: “There is no act in meteorology better established, than that the carriage of the umbrella produces desiccation of the air; while if it be left at home, aqueous vapor is largely produced, and is soon deposited in the form of rain.” Loosely put I think this means if you leave your um-ber-ella-ella-ella  at home, Sherlock, it’s gonna rain.

★~ Cream Cheese Brownie Day:

The first known recipe for brownies appeared in the 1897 Sears Roebuck Catalogue. What everyone seemed to love about brownies, besides their delicious taste, was how quick and easy they were to make!  This is especially true today if you use Ghirardelli brownie mix and just fold in a little creme cheese!  

Cream Cheese Marbled Chocolate Brownie

★~ Today in History:

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♥~ 1863 – History was made in New York City. Two of the world’s most famous midgets, General Tom Thumb, (three feet, four inches) and his lovely bride, Lavinia Warren, (two feet, eight inches), exchanged “I do’s” before a small gathering of 2,000 of their closest friends.

♥~ 1863 – The fire extinguisher was patented by Alanson Crane. It was a flaming success…

♥~ 1897 – All The News Is Fit To Print anniversary.  This slogan has appeared on page one of the New York Times since Feb 10, 1897.

♥~ 1934 – The first  postage stamps were issued by the U.S. Postal Service in New York City. Talk about inconvenience!  The stamps had to be cut off the sheet and then glued onto the envelope.

♥~ 1949 – The play “Death of a Salesman” made its Broadway debut on, starring Lee J. Cobb as salesman Willy Loman.  It has been revived frequently in New York, with later productions starring George C. Scott, Dustin Hoffman, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.  “Salesman” won a Pulitzer prize for playwright Arthur Miller, who died on this date in 2005, on the 56th anniversary of the play’s premiere.

♥~ 1951 – John and Marsha, by Stan Freberg became a national catch phrase in the U.S. Do you remember, “John … Marsha … John … Marsha … John … Marsha?”  The 1951 album John and Marsha. It was recorded by comedian Stan Freberg to parody soap opera dialog by only using two words — “John” and “Marsha.” Freberg later became an ad man when he introduced satire to advertising. It revolutionized the staid business — and earned himself the unofficial title of “father of comedic advertising.”

♥~ 1964 – Bob Dylan’s album “The Times They Are A-Changin“‘ was released.

♥~ 1963 – A car crash in the desert sets off a wild chase in the 1963 comedy “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”  Jimmy Durante plays the dying driver who tells rescuers about a buried treasure in stolen money.  It was the last feature film appearance for Durante.  Durante is also known to modern audiences for singing during the opening credits of “Sleepless in Seattle” and as the narrator of the animated Christmas special “Frosty the Snowman.”  (Today is also Durante birthday see below)

♥~ 1966 –  Auto safety was the topic on this day  when attorney and consumer advocate Ralph Nader made his first appearance ever before a Congressional committee.  Nader had just published the book “Unsafe at Any Speed,” criticizing a lack of safety features in American-made cars.

♥~ 1996 – An IBM computer called Deep Blue made chess history by beating world champion Garry Kasparov (only 34 moves). It was the first win for a machine under classic tournament rules.

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1890 – Boris Pasternak poet, writer: Doctor Zhivago; died May 30, 1960

♥~ 1893 – Jimmy (James Francis) Durante actor, comedian: “Good night Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.”; Ziegfeld Follies, The Man Who Came to Dinner, It Happened in Brooklyn, The Jimmy Durante Show; died Jan 29, 1980

♥~ 1912 – Edith Houghton. Catcher, Philadelphia Bobbies, 1922-25 New York Bloomer Girls, 1925-31 Hollywood Girls, 1931 Philadelphia Phillies (scout), 1946-52.

♥~ 1930 – Robert Wagner actor: Hart to Hart, The Mountain, The Towering Inferno, Titanic, It Takes a Thief, Pink Panther, Midway

♥~ 1939 – Roberta Flack singer: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Feel Like Making Love, Killing Me Softly With His Song

♥~ 1967 – Laura Dern actress: Jurassic Park, Blue Velvet, Rambling Rose; daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd

♥~ 1950 – Mark Spitz swimmer: U.S. Olympic 9-time gold medal winner.

♥~ 1991 – Emma Roberts actress: Unfabulous, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Valentine’s Day, Hotel for Dogs, Nancy Drew, Spymate, BigLove, The Flight Before Christmas

★~ Good to Know: 

♥~ Two countries in the Top 10 for winter medals no longer exist: At the Winter Olympics, the top 10 medal winners overall includes both the Soviet Union and East Germany. The USSR collected 194 Winter medals, making it third all time, between 1952 and 1991. Meanwhile, East Germany’s participation only lasted from 1968 to 1988, but managed to win 110 total winter medals during that time, placing them 10th overall.

♥~ At around $51 billion, the Sochi games are the most expensive ever, just edging out Beijing’s $43 billion price tag. But past games have also seen a lot of money moving around, and sometimes the host city ends up coming out better than other times. While Salt Lake City turned a $101 million profit for their 2002 games, Albertville went into the red by about $67 million. Calgary made somewhere between $90 and 150 million from their ’88 games, while Lake Placid ran a $8.5 million deficit.

♥~ Only one person in the history of the Olympics has ever won gold medals at both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games. At the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games, American Eddie Eagan won the light-heavyweight boxing gold. Years later, Eagan was a member of America’s gold medal-winning four-man bobsled team at the 1932 Lake Placid Winter Olympics.

♥~ Ski-loving Austria has won more men’s downhills at the Olympics than any other nation, seven of 18, Sunday nights gold medal was won by Mayer who comes from the same southern region of Austria as Franz Klammer, who won the 1976 Innsbruck Games downhill.

♥~ Biathlon is the only sport in which an American athlete has never medaled. The U.S. only has one medal in cross country, ski jumping and curling.

♥~ Norway is a straight-up powerhouse at the Winter Olympics. With 303 total medals and 107 golds (both all-time leaders), Norway has been a perennial favorite — especially in cross-country skiing and speed skating, the country’s two best sports. Not only that, but Norwegian cross-country skier and biathlon participant Bjorn Daehlie has won 12 winter medals (eight golds) in his career, making him the most decorated Winter Olympic athlete ever. Per capita, Norway has won one Winter Olympic medal for every 16,556 residents compared to The United States, that has one medal for every 1,237,154 residents.

♥~ The olympic games are getting bigger. When the first Winter Games were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France, 16 nations sent 258 participants to compete in six different sports. At this year’s Winter Games in Sochi, 88 nations have sent more than 2,800 participants to compete in 98 events in seven sports.

♥~ 18 nations have just one athlete representing them in Sochi.  They are: Zimbabwe*, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste*, Malta*, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Venezuela, U.S. Virgin Islands, Nepal, Luxembourg, Bermuda, Paraguay*, British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Philippines and Tonga*. * Making their Winter Olympics debut this year.

♥~ Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, the Olympic flame has always been a symbol of Olympic competition, dating back to ancient Greece. It was reintroduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, and in 1936 the tradition of the torch relay was first established. The 2014 Winter Olympics torch relay lasted 123 days and included stops in the North Pole (for the first time with the help of a nuclear-powered icebreaker), in outer space via Soyuz rocket, at the bottom of the deepest freshwater lake in the world — Lake Baikal in Siberia — and the top of Europe’s highest mountain, Mount Elbrus.

♥~ The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912. At this year’s games, a gold medal contains 516 grams of silver and six grams of gold.

♥~ After being included in the inaugural 1924 Olympics, curling was taken out of the games until a triumphant return in 1998 in Nagano. In both men’s and women’s curling, Canada leads the all-time medal count and both teams have won spots on the podium in every Olympic games since Nagano.

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Cole and I are participating in our own Winter Olympics this morning as he, goes for the gold, and drives the June Bug to school in 0 degree weather. We don’t have snazzy uniforms but we do have appropriate winter clothing.  Cole will begin the 11 mile course at just before sunrise in order to miss some of the morning traffic. The route will include a Starbucks stop which will give him a chance to thaw out. I will follow along in the van in case the Bug objects along the route to being woken up at 6:30 am and pulled out of her warm garage. I’m not sure what kind of support I can lend but my van has a heater and misery loves company.

Why you ask are we holding this event today? A bunch of people at school want to add their John Hancock to the June Bug and time is getting short with no end to the cold weather in sight this week. School is closed next week for mid-winter break when we might see warmer temps. So wish us luck and I’ll let you know how it goes. It will go. I am certain of it. Kind of.

Odd Loves Company!