~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
March 13 2015

★~ Today’s Quote: “If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”  Winnie the Pooh

★~ Jewel Day:

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady ride on a white horse,
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
She shall have music wherever she goes.

Celebrate your gems and jewels today! Spruce up your jewelry box, wear a seldom-worn piece of jewelry, or polish up those gems. My sweet mom makes it a point to take her gems to the jeweler a couple times each year to check the stones and make sure they are nice and secure in their settings. So glad she is taking such good care of my inheritance!

★~ Ear Muff Day:

Big-eared Chester Greenwood is the father of the ear muff. Greenwood patented the “Champion Ear Protector” on March 13, 1877. It later became known as “ear mufflers,” and was eventually shortened to “ear muffs.” Ear Muff Day is celebrated by wearing ear muffs. I don’t know where you all live, but I don’t think many Chicagoans will be wearing ear muffs today…so may I suggest a pretty pair of earrings instead? Back in the day, my sweet mother was everyone’s favorite ear piercer—ice cube to the lobe, a little rubbing alcohol swabbed over a sewing needle, and a stern promise that if you screamed or cried she was only doing one ear. She did not pierce my ears; my aunt the RN pierced my ears with same basic equipment, but my ears got infected. I blamed it on my aunt; my aunt blamed it on the fact that I swapped out my 14k gold balls for cheap hoops much too soon. Two sides to every story, and I’m sticking to mine.

★~ Happy Coconut Torte Day!

Indulge in creamy layers of flavor with the ultimate sugar addict’s dessert, the torte, and enjoy some sweet coconut on top.

Rich and built up of three or more layers of cake, tortes are known for the luscious fillings in between. Rather than flour, ground nuts or even breadcrumbs make up the base, along with sugar, eggs and intense flavorings.
Icing is often the focus and star of a good torte, especially coconut torte. Thick swaths of icing are slathered in between the cakey layers and then heavily garnish the top and sides as well. There is no escaping the fresh taste of flaky coconut in this dish.

Not enough for you? Serve your own coconut crunch torte with a scoop of ice cream to amp up the perfect meld of coconut and vanilla.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1968 – The Byrds received a gold record for the album, Greatest Hits, which featured Turn! Turn! Turn!, written by Pete Seeger.

♥~ 1970 – The cover of LIFE magazine was extremely popular. It showed the extremes of the new hemline hassle that was raging a battle between long versus short skirts.

♥~ 1975 – Chart Topper: Have You Never Been Mellow (facts) – Olivia Newton-John

♥~ 1988 – Yielding to student protests, the board of trustees of Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, a liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired, chose Irving King Jordan to become the school’s first deaf president, replacing Elisabeth Ann Zinser, who could hear.

♥~ 1998 – Candice Bergen and the cast of Murphy Brown filmed the 247th and final episode of the award-winning and sometimes controversial CBS sitcom. The episode, titled Never Can Say Goodbye (Part 2), featured appearances by Julia Roberts, George Clooney, and Mike Wallace, as well as Bergen’s real mother, Frances.

~ Born Today:

♥~ 1939 – Neil Sedaka, songwriter, singer: Oh! Carol, The Diary, Stairway to Heaven, Calendar Girl, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen

♥~ 1941 – Charo (Maria Rosario Pilar Martinez Molina Baeza): ‘The Cuchi Cuchi Girl,’ actress

♥~ 1955 – Glenne Headly, actress: Mr. Holland’s Opus, Grand Isle, Mortal Thoughts, Dick Tracy, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Purple Rose of Cairo

♥~ 1956 – Dana Delany, actress: China Beach, Baby for Sale, A Time to Remember, Sirens, Mother Ghost, Final Jeopardy, Desperate Housewives

♥~1960 – Adam Clayton, musician (group U2): Sunday Bloody Sunday, With You or Without You

★~ Did You Know: 

♥~ Did you know that gold is eternal? The gold in your jewelry was floating around in space before our planet was formed and even before our solar system came into existence!

♥~ We have to mine over 100 tons of the earth’s crust to get one Diamond large enough to cut a fine one carat gem!

♥~ Over one million Diamonds are mined to get that one gemstone!

♥~ The largest Pearl ever found weighs over 14 pounds!

♥~ Hindus believed that a fine Ruby could boil water!

♥~ Fine Emeralds were believed to be good for the eyes and engravers used to use them to stare into when their eyes grew fatigued.

♥~ Opals bring wisdom and good fortune. It was believed that they were pieces of Heaven that got knocked down during violent thunderstorms.

♥~ The Vikings used pieces of Iolite to help them in their navigation.

♥~ The Black Prince’s Ruby in the British Crown Jewels is really a very fine natural Spinel.

♥~ Emerald and Aquamarine are different colors of the same stone: Beryl.

♥~ An Opal will cut glass just like a Diamond.

♥~ Points are a measure of weight. There are one hundred points in a carat just like cents in a dollar, and there are five carats in a gram..

♥~ A Ruby is a red Sapphire.

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My sweet mother has some beautiful jewelry. One ring in particular sparkles boldly. Cole is aware that one day her jewelry will be mine (unless she leaves it all to Trinket, who pleases her 100 percent of the time) and then it will be his eventually. I started warning him early to never give our jewelry to a wannabe partner—and even after they are married to proceed very carefully. Can you tell your children these things too young? I don’t think so. In any case, one afternoon when Cole was younger we were sorting through my jewelry box and he was draping faux pearls around his neck and trying rings on his fingers. He put one ring that sparkled with costume jewelry brilliance on his finger and said to me, “Mom, you know that ring Grandmarcie has? That one that really sparkles? I don’t think I’m going to be able to wear it all the time.” I told him that was a real problem and I may have to consider adopting a daughter. He then reassured me he would never ever take it off. You know what we always say…kids are not worth having if you cannot torture them. At least a little.

If you have a morno moment leave a comment! Odd Loves Company!

♥