~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
December 15, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote:  Dogs have masters. Cats have staff. ~ Anonymous

★~ Cat Herders Day:

Taken from the idiom ‘like herding cats,’ which is used to describe doing something impossible A day for those of us who feel like we’re tasked with the impossible, Cat Herders Day recognizes the frustration of trying to manage the unmanageable. Whether it’s work, home, school or other areas of life, if it feels like herding cats, today’s your day.

★~ Halcyon Days ( 15-29):

In the midst of holiday hustle and bustle, there is a multi day observation that often falls through the cracks: Halcyon Days, which begins a week before the winter solstice and ends a week after the solstice.

Greek mythology recounts the story of the goddess Alcyone (or Halcyone), daughter of Aeolus, god of the winds. Alcyone married a mortal king named Ceyx, who drowned at sea in a storm. Such was Alcyone’s love for her husband that she threw herself into the ocean after him. Seeing this, the gods transformed Alcyone and Ceyx into birds. Thereafter, Aeolus kept the winds calm on the sea for a week before and a week after the solstice, enabling the birds to build nests on the water and lay their eggs there.

The Greek words from which the name Halcyon is apparently derived mean, roughly, ‘sea’ and ‘conceive.’ Over the centuries, the term came to refer both to the kingfisher (an actual bird) and to the mythical bird that nested on the sea and mysteriously calmed the winds around the time of the winter solstice.

Nowadays, when we use the expression ‘halcyon days,’ it’s almost always a way of saying ‘the good old days’ or ‘when life was easy.’ More often than not, the expression refers sentimentally to a bygone time that we remember as being much more tranquil and prosperous than it really was, so the mythological origin of the term is rather apt. I’ve never heard anyone speak of looking forward to halcyon days, nor have I ever received a ‘Happy Halcyon Days’ card on December 14. But a few weeks from now, when we are putting away decorations, repairing broken toys, and looking at unpleasant credit card bills, we can look back at these two frenzied weeks of late December and reminisce, ‘Those were the halcyon days.”

★~ Cupcake Day:

Fun fact: the world’s largest cupcake was on display in July 2009 at the Covent Garden Real Food Market in London. This cupcake was about 4 feet in diameter and weighed over 330 pounds! It also contained 200 eggs and took over 50 hours to make. Yikes!

Celebrate National Cupcake Day with your favorite cupcake recipe, head to a local cupcake shop, or gather your friends and go for a new cupcake record!

10 Festive Cupcakes to Bring You Christmas Cheer 

★~ Today in History:

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♥~ 1939  – Gone With The WInd premiere: One of the 20th century’s biggest film blockbusters premiered on this date in Atlanta, GA. Based on Margaret Mitchell’s bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, the film starred Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable and was produced by David O. Selznick. It won an unprecedented eight Academy Awards, including best picture. Hattie McDaniel won a best supporting actress Oscar—the first time an African-American actor had won or been nominated. No film would touch its Oscar achievement or monetary grosses for decades. At the chilly Atlanta premiere, more than 300,000 people lined the streets to catch sight of the film’s stars arriving at the Loew’s Grand Theater.

♥~ 1939 – Nylon yarn was sold to hosiery mills to make women’s stockings, marking the first use of commercial yarn for apparel. The DuPont product enabled a record number of ladies’ hose to go on sale for the first time in May 1940. And it all started in nylon’s hometown: Wilmington, Delaware.

♥~ 1973 – Sandy Hawley became the first jockey in history to win 500 races in a single year. With this victory in the third race at Laurel racetrack on Charlie Jr., he broke the legendary Bill Shoemaker’s 20-year-old record. Hawley recorded his 6,000th career victory in 1992 aboard Summer Commander at Greenwood racetrack.

♥~ 1973 – Charlie Rich’s hit, The Most Beautiful Girl, hit #1 (for two weeks) in the U.S. “Hey, if you happen to see the most beautiful girl that walked out on me … Tell her, “I’m sorry.” Tell her, “I need my baby.” Won’t you tell her that I love her.”

♥~ 1996 – Tyco Toys’ Tickle Me Elmo stuffed animal that giggled and said, “that tickles”, when squeezed, retailed for $30 was selling out across the U.S.

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1832 – Gustave Alexandre Eiffel , born in Dijon, France (1832). He was an early pioneer in using metal to construct bridges, and he went on to build the Eiffel Tower for the World’s Fair in Paris in 1889. It was the tallest structure in the world at the time, at 1.000 feet, and Eiffel decided to leave the metal scaffolding exposed because he thought the tower would be more stable if the wind could blow through it. Many people at the time thought it was ugly, but it still holds up to the wind. In 1999, Paris was hit by a windstorm that knocked down more than 100,000 trees. The Eiffel Tower only swayed nine centimeters

♥~ 1928 – Jimmy Nelson ventriloquist: Danny O’Day, Farfel the Dog; LP: Jimmy Nelson’s Instant Ventriloquism

♥~ 1933 – Tim Conway actor, comedian: McHale’s Navy, The Tim Conway Show, The Carol Burnett Show, various Dorf videos

♥~ 1949 – Don Johnson (Donnie Wayne Johnson) actor: Nash Bridges, Miami Vice, Harrad Experiment, A Boy and His Dog, The Long, Hot Summer, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man,Revenge of the Stepford Wives

♥~ 1979 – Adam Brody actor: Missing Brendan, The Ring, American Pie 2, Growing Up Brady, Never Land, Judging Amy, Family Law, Smallville, The O.C.

★~ Good to Know: Perfect for a Sunday Morno 

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NPR’s “Snap Judgment.” Noah Silverman St. John

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I need to dash off and get ready to shoot our annual Christmas Card. At 9am sharp, team holiday picture, will be arriving…. The talented Barb, our photographer and friend, Vickie (our friend, and camp helper) and Cole.  I’m sure that I will have plenty of stories to share of our adventure…

The June Bug is tucked in our garage after bringing her home from school yesterday — Bless her heart :-D. FYI The June Bug has a Facebook page and Cole will be updating his blog about once a week as he moves into phase 2 of restoring the June Bug in preparation for the March 7, Senior Project Presentations.

Wishing you a wonderful Sunday!

Odd Loves Company!