~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
October 29, 2011

★~ Today’s Quote: “A cat is more intelligent than people believe, and can be taught any crime.” -Mark Twain Notebook, 1895

★~ 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. Today, cats can be found in 34% of American households, making them the most popular house pet in the United States.

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 spending some time alone with your cat and a good book. Throw  a blanket over the dining room table and climb inside your cave- don’t forget snacks, phone and laptop- Lets not be foolish.

★~ Oatmeal Day:

I knew this day would come and I would have to raise to the occasion and give Oatmeal it’s due, even if I don’t want too. Oatmeal cookies are tasty.  Oatmeal smells deceivingly 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. The character purposely embodies the values of the Quaker faith—honesty, integrity, and purity.  “Yes honey that dress makes you look fat. In fact, it looks better much better on Sally. Why don’t you have a nice pure bowl of Oatmeal.”   Hope everyone enjoy’s their oatmeal.  I will celebrate Oatmeal because it is the food of the day…but I will do it MY WAY.

★~ 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.

♥~ 1970 – Neil Diamond received a gold record for the hit, Cracklin’ Rosie.

♥~ 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.

★~Born Today:

♥~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

★~ Did You Know: 

♥~ On average, cats spend 2/3 of every day sleeping. That means a nine-year-old cat has been awake for only three years of its life

♥~ When a cat chases its prey, it keeps its head level. Dogs and humans bob their heads up and down

♥~ A cat can’t climb head first down a tree because every claw on a cat’s paw points the same way. To get down from a tree, a cat must back down

♥~ According to Hebrew legend, Noah prayed to God for help protecting all the food he stored on the ark from being eaten by rats. In reply, God made the lion sneeze, and out popped a cat

♥~ Some cats have survived falls of over 65 feet (20 meters), due largely to their “righting reflex.” The eyes and balance organs in the inner ear tell it where it is in space so the cat can land on its feet. Even cats without a tail have this ability.

♥~ When a family cat died in ancient Egypt, family members would mourn by shaving off their eyebrows. They also held elaborate funerals during which they drank wine and beat their breasts. The cat was embalmed with a sculpted wooden mask and the tiny mummy was placed in the family tomb or in a pet cemetery with tiny mummies of mice

♥~ While many parts of Europe and North America consider the black cat a sign of bad luck, in Britain and Australia, black cats are considered lucky

♥~ A cat usually has about 12 whiskers on each side of its face.

♥~ A cat almost never meows at another cat, mostly just humans. Cats typically will spit, purr, and hiss at other cats

♥~ Approximately 1/3 of cat owners think their pets are able to read their minds.

Hope you have a purrfect Saturday.

If you have an El Morno moment, let us know, if you are owned by  a cat! Odd Loves Company.

♥

Katybeth