★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
August 4, 2012

★~ Today’s Quote: “A tale without love is like beef without mustard, an insipid dish.” ~Anatole France, French author

★~ Mustard Day:

Mustard, name is a contraction of the Latin mustum ardens, meaning “burning wine” – presumably because the seeds are spicy and used to be as valuable as the vintage stuff. (The French used to mix mustard seeds with grape juice, which may also have something to do with the name.) Mustard’s tastier qualities, however, weren’t always appreciated the way they are today. It started out as the ancient equivalent of Neosporin: Pythagoras prescribed it for scorpion stings. His successor, Hippocrates, tried to cure toothaches with it (at least he didn’t use something sugary). Later, the stuff had fans among religious types, too: Pope John XXII was reportedly so enamored of mustard that he established a new Vatican position, grand moutardier du pape, which means “mustard-maker to the pope.” Conveniently, he happened to know the perfect candidate; his nephew was a moutardier.

That is my odd story and I am sticking to it. Ms. Scarlett will vouch for me. Spice up your life with a little mustard today! Click for more mustard facts.

★~ Coast Guard Day:

The Coast Guard was founded in 1790 and oversees maritime safety and security, national defense, mobility, and the protection of natural resources. That means they protect the international water borders, prevent smuggling (drug busts!), perform search and rescue, as well as protect the coastal environments. That’s a pretty darn big job. Hats off to the Coast Guard!

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1790 – U.S. Coast Guard had its beginnings this day. Congress authorized the President to build and equip ten boats to collect revenue, and provide for a complement of officers and men to operate them. This early service known as the Revenue Marine (later the Revenue Cutter Service) represented an attempt to counter a serious smuggling problem that had tremendous financial impact on the nation’s ability to enforce its laws at sea.

♥~ 1922 – Every telephone in the U.S. and Canada went dead as the Bell System shut down all its switchboards and switching stations for one minute in memory of Alexander Graham Bell, who had died two days earlier. During this time, none of the 13 million telephones in operation could be used.

♥~ 1983 – New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield threw a baseball during warmups and accidentally killed a seagull! After the game, Toronto police surrounded the slugger and arrested him for “causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.”

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1901 – (Daniel) Louis Armstrong Satchmo: jazz musician: trumpet; Grammy Award-winning singer: Hello, Dolly! [1964], Lifetime Achievement Award [1971]; It’s a Wonderful World, Mack the Knife, Blueberry Hill; appeared in films: The Five Pennies, The Glenn Miller Story, Hello Dolly!, High Society; American ambassador of good will; inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [1990]; died July 6, 1971

♥~ 1961 – Barack Obama 44th U.S. President [2009- ], first African American to be elected U.S. President; U.S. Senator from Illinois [2005-2009]; Illinois State Senator [1997-2004]; president of Harvard Law Review [1990]; married [Jun 1989] to Michelle Robinson; two daughters: Malia Ann and Natasha [‘Sasha’]

♥~ 1961 – Lauren Tom actress: The Joy Luck Club, When a Man Loves a Woman, Grace Under Fire, DAG, Max Steel

♥~ Happy Birthday to Odd Friend Rachel Fiske! We are wishing her the most merriest of days!

★~ Did You Know: Odd happens at the Olympics

♥~Live Pigeon Shooting (1900 Paris Olympics): Live Pigeon Shooting was the only time in Olympic history when animals were deliberately killed in the name of sport. Even at the turn of the 20th century, the outrage was strong enough that they cancelled it after one Olympics: “The idea to use live birds for the pigeon shooting turned out to be a rather unpleasant choice,” American sports historian Andrew Strunk wrote dryly in a 1988 article on the 1900 Paris Olympics. “Maimed birds were writhing on the ground, blood and feathers were swirling in the air and women with parasols were weeping in the chairs set up nearby.”

♥~Swimming in Cold, Deadly Waters 1500-meter swimming, (1896 Athens Olympics):

The organizers of the Athens Olympics held the swimming events in the open waters of the Bay of Zea on a morning in which the waters dropped to a temperature of 55 degrees and the waves reached as high as 12 feet. The winner was 15-year old Hungarian Alfred Hajos, who had felt compelled to learn to swim after witnessing his father drown in the Danube two years prior. Hajos recounted that he was scared for his life, and his will to live completely overcame any desire to win the race.

♥~Running Through Traffic Marathon (1900 Paris Olympics): The 1900 marathon involved a confusing, poorly marked course that went straight through the streets of Paris. Many runners took wrong turns and in some place, the course overlapped with the commutes of automobiles, animals, bicycles, pedestrians, and runners joining in for fun. Amid the course confusion, fifth-place finisher Arthur Newton claimed that he had finished first because he never saw anyone pass him. Even worse, the race was run started at 2:30 in the afternoon and was held in July heat that reached 102 degrees. The local favorite, Georges Touquet-Daunis, ducked into a café to escape the heat, had a couple beers, and decided it was too hot to continue.

♥~Poisonous Fumes Add a Degree of Difficulty Cross-Country Run (1924 Paris Olympics): At the 1924 Paris Olympics, the cross-country course included an unfairly difficult obstacle—an energy plant giving off poisonous fumes. The winner, nine-time gold medalist Paavo Nurmi, got by unscathed, but nearly everyone else staggered onto the track dizzy and disoriented. On the roads, the carnage was significantly worse, as runners were vomiting and overcome by sunstroke. The Red Cross took hours searching for all the runners on the side of the road.

♥~Judges Override Clock Freestyle Swimming (1960 Rome Olympics): The 100-meter freestyle at the Rome games in 1960 remains perhaps the only instance in which a swimmer with a slower time than the first-place finisher was awarded the gold medal. At the time, close calls in the pool were determined by a panel of judges, although electronic timers were available for consultation. When the judges met to discuss the close finish between Australian swimmer John Devitt and American Lance Larson, they ruled 2-1 in favor of Devitt. Unfortunately, the three-judge panel assigned to award the silver also voted 2-1 in favor of Devitt. As a result, the electronic timers were examined more closely. Larson clocked in at 55.1 in comparison to Devitt’s 55.2. The chief judge had already decided to award the medal in favor of Devitt and ordered Larson’s time changed to 55.2. The decision was protested for the next four years to no avail.

♥~Milwaukee Takes Gold Tug of War (1904 St. Louis Olympics): At the beginning of the last century, tug of war was more than just a groan-inducing part of company picnics. From 1900 to 1920, it was an Olympic event. Traditionally, the best teams came from Scandinavia and Great Britain, where the sport still enjoys a strong niche following. But one American squad managed to grab gold in the 1904 St. Louis games—the pullers of the Milwaukee Athletic Club. The triumph of the club’s iron grips and sturdy ankles led to much rejoicing across Milwaukee. There was a slight snag, though. No one on the team was actually from Milwaukee, and they certainly weren’t members of the Milwaukee Athletic Club. Instead, the athletes were ringers that the club’s head, Walter Liginger, supposedly recruited from Chicago. Although the defeated teams filed a grievance, Olympic officials rejected the protests, and the so-called men from Milwaukee got to walk away with both their medals and their honor intact.

 

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We are off to the Renaissance Faire.  I won’t be eating a large turkey leg but I might have some other faire type food. I heard they serve steamed artichokes  served with butter which seems a little Odd to me so I will probably have one.

What are your plans for the day?