For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 26th is Hug an Australian Day.
Australia is the lone continent that is also one entire country. Australia Day is celebrated each year on January 26th marking the 1788 landing of the first fleet into Sydney Harbor and the subsequent raising of the Union Flag of Great Britain. 3 months to the day later you can celebrate Australians all over again by hugging them.
Originated in 1996 in Melbourne, Hug an Australian day promotes warmth and wellness.
Wallaby,Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage, Buddhist Monastery, Brisbane, Australia www.dhammagiri.org.au
Not everyone can visit Australia. However everyone can promote good will to Australians everywhere by wishing all Auissies you meet well wishes and perhaps even a warm embrace. Here's a cute video of someone hugging a koala bear.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 25th: Multiple Holidays Abound
Everyday of the year there are a plethora of holidays, My job for the challenge was to scour through those holidays and find one that somehow relates to the letter of the day. Since todays letter is V, I thought I might give you a variety pack of holidays, events, and occurrences to celebrate today.
Holidays
National Hairstylist Appreciation Day Held on the 25th April since 2012. Prior to that it was celebrated on April 30th, but alas, that wasn't it's "permanent" day.
International Delegates Day - United Nations The current U.S. Ambassador for the U.N. is Linda Thomas Greenfield. The last former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. that I voted for for President of the U.S. was Nikki Haley.
World Penguin Day Statred in 1972, April 25th coincides with he day that Adelie penguins begin their northern migration. It is a little confusing because I thought it was March of the Penguins, not April.
License Plate Day On April 25th 1901 the state of New York made the first law requiring automobiles to have license plates. Speaking of license plates click here to see the I holiday Indicted Illinois Governors Day.
Born On April 25th
Al Pacino - American Actor 1940- present
Edward R Murrow - Radio and Television Journalist - 1908-1965
Edward R Murrow Public Domain,
David Strathairn As Murrow in Good Night and Good Luck
Guglielmo Marconi - Inventor and Physicist 1874-1937
Died on April 25th
Ginger Rogers - American Actress and Dancer. Died in 1995 at the age of 83
John Havlicek - Boston Celtics Basketball Star died at the age of 79 in 2014
Bea Arthur- Actress best know for her roles on t.v. shows Maude, and Golden Girls- died at the age of 86 in 2009
Happened on April 25th ...
2021 - Chloe Zhao win's Best Director Oscar for the film Nomadland. Frances McDormand won the Academy award for Actress in a Leading Role for Nomadland, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture.
1990- Hubble Space Telescope Sent Into Orbit.This hour video show the Space Shuttle bringing the telecope into space and then releasing it into orbit.
This poster shows many of the great pictures taken with the telescope.
There is an entire house concert from 2019 on this video, if I have set this up correctly, the intro to the song should start as you open the video. There are 22 songs on the A to Z Spotify playlist now. Just like today it houses a lot of variety.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
A Very Special Installment Today
Dave Out Loud Presents Undecided, Undeclared & Uncertain Day
21 letters 21 songs assembled in a playlist. 5 more remain. Here is what we have so far.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
I'm gonna be honest. Most of these holidays I am highlighting for the challenge. I am going to forget about for next year. Some I've probably already forgotten. World Table Tennis Day is one holiday I don't want to forget. In fact, I am kind of bummed that I probably won't ping some pong today. Ping some pong is what I call playing ping pong or table tennis.
When I think of table tennis the first thing that pops into my head is this commercial from when I was a kid.
Gnip Gnop not only sparked a passion for ping pong but also a passion for gnikaeaps sdrawkcab (speaking backwards) which turned into my love for all things palindromic.
When other people think of ping pong this scene from Forrest Gump may pop in their head ...
I love playing table tennis. I may lack the Gumpian endurance or skill but what I lack in endurance and talent I make up in zeal. In college I played a lot of table tennis, it is a great way to spend time between classes or as a study break. It is both social and athletic. I even had an album that I thought was the best accompaniment for playing ping pong. It was Jacob's Trouble's debut album, Door Into Summer. When I hear other people incorrectly say that this group has better albums, my initial thought is not to play ping pong with. You listen and you tell me if the beat doesn't want to make you ping some pong.
One fun thing to on World Table Tennis Day would be to play a variation called round robin. It is basically a cross between table tennis and musical chairs. You play with 2 paddles and as many people as can fit around a ping pong table. Instead of describing it, here is play in action ...
To get a full ping pong experience play the round robin clip without volume while listening to the Jacob's Trouble and you'll see what I'm talking about. So, ping some pong today if you get a chance and if you can't that's just how the ball bounces.
The song of the day today is Tell It Again by J.J. Heller
20 songs now comprise the A to Z playlist.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 22nd 2024 is the 148th anniversary of the first National League baseball game
April 22nd 1876 is a significant date in the history of American sports. The first game in the newly formed National League took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event took place 2 1/2 months before the 100th anniversary of another significant American beginning that also took place in Philadelphia.
The inaugural game took place between the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Stockings. With Boston winning 6-5 in a game that took 2 hours to play.
The National League started with 8 teams: Boston Braves(1876-Present) , Philadelphia Athletics (1876-1876), Hartford Blues (1876-1877), St. Louis Brown Stockings (1876-1877) Chicago Cubs (1876- Present) New York Mutuals (1876-1876) Louisville Grays (1876-1877), and Cincinnati Reds (1876-1879). Only the Cubs who were known in their first 25 years in the league as the Chicago White Stockings, Chicago Colts and Chicago Orphans and the Braves who were first known in Boston as the Red Stockings, the Red Caps, Beaneaters, the Nationals, The Bees and The Doves before settling on the Braves and then moving to Milwaukee and then Atlanta have survived to the present. The other 6 teams didn't even make it to the 1880s. The American Leauge began in 1901 and the AL and the NL started facing each other in the World Series in 1902. But April 22nd 1876 is when Major League baseball games started being played, something worth being clelebrated.
Photo caption: Delegates to the Schedule Meeting of the National League and American Association of Base Ball Clubs, Held At The Hotel Rennert, Baltimore, February 25th - 27th, 1897
Today's Song of the Day is Say Goodbye to Little Jo by Steve Forbert
I usually don't spend any time introducing the artists of the song of the day. Many of them are lesser know than Steve Forbert, but I'm going to make an exception with him in anyway. My Freshman year in high school (1979-1980) was in the height of my Pop music mastery. I read Billboard magazine every week, focusing on the Hot 100 singles which Casey Kasem culled his American Top 40 radio show from. I would generally listed to AT 40 every week and would listen to WLS AM in Chicago which was at the time a top 40 radio station. As a result to this day I can generally tell you the name of the album that a song from the late mid 70's to the early mid 80's came from. Steve Forbert's only top 40 hit Romeo's Tune for ,example, came from the album Jackrabbit Slim. It barely missed the top 10 reaching 11 in 3/1/1980. Say Goodbye to Little Joe , the 2nd single from Jackrabbit Slim. spent 3 weeks in the top 100 climbing as high as 85 on April 19,1990.
Steve Forbert and Dan Fogelberg were contemporaries and they both scored their most popular hit in March of 80 (Romeo's Tune, and Longer respectively). Fogelberg had the much bigger career until his death in 2007. Forbert still tours and I came this close to seeing him over Spring Break when he was in Madison, Wisconsin.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 20th is National Lima Bean Respect Day.
Lima beans the well deserved Rodney Dangerfield of vegetables
I do not need an entire day to respect lima beans. For me a minute would be too much time. To misquote Snoopy in Your A Good man Charlie Brown: I am a Lima Bean hater, a Lima Bean despiser and a Lima Bean loather. Or to misquote Greg Brady in the Brady Bunch episode," My sister Benedict Arnold": Lima beans are on the top of my bad vegetable list, the bottom of my bad vegetable list and every bad vegetable in-between.
I grew up in the 70's and we were all members of the clear your plate club. If my parents served it we ate it, or we hid it, or we fed it to the dog. I've always been a big fan of food, and there's hardly a food I don't enjoy. Growing up, I was not really big on most vegetables, I could eat corn or carrots but anything else was a stretch for me. But the worse of the worst was the lima bean.
I absolutely hate lima beans. I would not eat it on a bet. As I've got older I've learned to enjoy most vegetables and tolerate the ones I don't enjoy. I am actually a big fan of most beans black, pinto, kidney, garbanzo. Generally I lead the league in legumes. But I can not bring myself to eat a single lima bean. It is probably the only food I won't eat. I have strong preferences against some food like olives, but in a pinch I can eat one. Luckily my wife loves olives, so it never comes to that.
My hate for lima beans is legendary in my family. Just like my kids grew up knowing that I love The White Sox, Randy Stonehill, Libraries, and diving off the high dive, they also discovered I hate lima beans. So each Christmas for several years I could always count on that they would wrap up a can of lima beans for me.
I'm not sure why April 20th is National Lima Bean Respect Day. If it were up to me I'd ban the Holiday all together. If I can't do that I would just make it 19 day earlier. Because a day honoring lima beans has to be some sort of April Fools Joke.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
The last time I posted at Poetry Friday I did an introduction to the A to Z challenge and an invitation to participate there-in. Today, I will give those visiting from the round-up a glimpse of what a regular a to z post looks like and at the same time show the A to Z folks what A Poetry Friday submission is all about.
Today Q is for Quatrains and other poetry related stuff as the holiday du jour is Poetry & The Creative Mind day. I'm not sure why it's on the 19th or how it originated, But right near the middle of poetry month here is a nifty little holiday to celebrate poetry. So let's celebrate it, but first a dumb joke:
Q: What's a quatrain?
A: Not much. what's a quatrain with you?
According to Merriam Webster, A quatrain is a unit or group of four lines of verse. I have decided to write the heart of my A to Z post in quatrains today. I am following an ABCB rhyme scheme
If you are joining from Poetry Friday, I want to mention two blogs participating in the A to Z challenge that are including poetry in all their posts. The first is Sue's Trifles where her most recent post was a poem using pararhymes. The other blog is the Versesmith, where the most recent post was about prompts and preludes.
If you are joining from A to Z blogging, I want to tell you about another April challenge and that is the 2024 Kiddy Lit Progressive Poem. On April 1st one poet started it off with a couplet and each subsequent poet has posted the earlier couplets and then added their own, For April 19th it is Reading to the Core's turn. Her submission is right here. I will be adding a couplet on the 28th of April.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. To enjoy more of Poetry Friday click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Poetry Friday. Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 18th is National Pinata Day in Mexico
P is for Piñata. It is also for Picture. Here are a number of pictures of piñatas from Wikimedia Commons.
Today's Song of the day is Play Game from Tik Tik Boom
16 songs and what do you get?
An incomplete playlist that's not over yet
I still have to finish from Q to Z
I owe 10 songs for this menagerie.
I just published letter O about 15 hours later than I usually do. To make up for it I am publishing this now rather than wait until tomorrow.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
The third Wednesday of April is One More Time and you Get a Parade Day.
As today's letter is a vowel, it is another opportunity for me to make up a new holiday. Many holidays come with traditions, games, or events that go along with them. Easter egg hunts, for example are believed to have originated in Germany in the 16th century. The first Turkey Trot (a race taking place the morning of Thanksgiving) took place in Buffalo New York in the late 19th century. One More Time and you Get a Parade Day may be the first holiday that was started to celebrate a tradition rather than the other way around .
My wife and I have been playing a game I invented around the time we got engaged called "What A Thing to Say". It started as a game to play when we were in a social setting that required a lot of mingling. I believe the original occurrence was at my Grandfather's wake. I gave my fiancé a thing to say, I believe it may have been The Almighty Dollar. Over the course of the event she had to work in the phrase into ordinary conversation 3 different times with 3 different groups of people.
Some of the original "what a things to say" besides the almighty dollar were, The Stevenson Expressway (A Chicago road), People don't floss like they used, to, and one of my favorites, I don't like blank (whatever person , place or thing just mentioned) they supported the war movement.
It's a totally random game that when played well is oblivious to all but the player, and when played poorly is a staple of group conversation for a very long time.
"What does this have to do with parades?" you might ask. A few weeks ago I was subbing in one of my favorite classes. It was the class in fact, that I had been a long term sub in for the 1st semester of the 2022/2023 school year. I have a great deal of familiarity with these students and they have a great deal of familiarity with me. The class is comprised of 6th graders and 7th graders and one of the 6th graders tends to sneeze 5 or 6 times in a row on a frequent basis. On this particular day, after the 3rd or 4th sneeze I responded with the quip, one more time and you get a parade.
I'm not sure how that phrase came to me. True, I just made it up, but, I was definitely thinking something along the line of when you do something multiple times you get a prize. I don't think I was remembering the below scene from A Few Good men, it is in my collective unconscious .
One way to celebrate One More Time and You get a parade day is by playing a version of What a Thing to say with your friends, family, classmates or co-workers. This could be done virtually or in person. Each person writes one phrase down and then they are distributed. Then each person has to use that phrase in a conversatToday'ion throughout the day. Another way is to try to make up your own expression and use it in the course of the day.
April is a month that starts with foolishness, but One More Time and You get a Parade say insures that foolishness doesn't end on the first.
Today's Song is Off Again On Again Love By Allen Levi
I generally put a video on of the song, but as far as I know there are no videos of this song, so here is a link to it on Spotify.
With this song, my playlist is now up to 15 songs.
It is already 9:15 P.M. in Chicago and this is the latest that I've posted in the challenge so far this year. I now must go, and work on tomorrow's. When I finish this one, I might not get a parade, but I will be caught up. That is certainly something to turn a phrase about.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 16th is National Wear Your Pajamas To Work
National Wear Your Pajamas To Work Day was started 10 years ago by PajamaGram. It is held on April 16th each year to coincide with Tax Day being April 15th. The idea was to make April 16th a more casual relaxing day for those who may have been up late the night before finishing their taxes.
Pajama days are very popular at schools. When there is a spirit week at one of our schools or the alphabet countdown that happens at the end of the year. There is usually a pajama day. Before I was a building sub and would go to different schools each day, I would often sub when there was a pajama day, but I wouldn't usually be aware of it until I got to school day. When I started doing long term subbing, I would get a little more heads up about the coming events. Maybe for Christmas this year I will ask for Captain America pajamas and then the next pajama day I can bring my Captain America Build-A-Bear AKA Captain Abearica AKA Steve Pawgers to school as well.
Song of the Day is Nothing But The Wind by Pierce Pettis
I would like to clarify that when I say that the song is by a certain artist, all I mean is that that artist performs that song on the Spotify playlist. In the above video, Pettis correctly attrributes the song to the late great Mark Heard. Speaking of the Spotify mix tape, here it is so far...
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
I think the best way to talk about this day is to use FAQ format. I used to do this quite a bit in the early days of my blog. The last time I did so was here back in 2012 when I was blogging about the A t0 Z challenge. .
The FAQS of Life: Micro-volunteering in Frequently Asked Question Format
Q: Do you know what today is?
A: Yes.
Q: Are you going to tell me?
A. Perhaps if you asked me, rather than asked me if I knew.
Q: What is today?
A: It's International Micro-volunteering Day.
Q: Is Micro-volunteering a thing?
A:It must be, if it wasn't, it wouldn't have a holiday.
Q: When did it become a thing?
A: it's been a thing for almost 20 years. The term was first used in the U.K. In 2006 and had migrated to Spain by 2008.
Q: What is Micro-volunteering?
A:This answer is from ot's Days of The Year Page, The idea of micro-volunteering is simple: individuals take convenient, bite-sized actions in support of a good cause and often perform their activities or service from home.
Q: How did the day start?
A: Well the day started a minute after 11:59 p.m. Some people were fast asleep, some were well on their way, others were working 3rd shift jobs, still others, ...
Q: When did International Micro-volunteering Day start.
A: 10 years ago it began when the day was created and promoted by the Help from Home Foundation.
Q: Como se dice International Micro Volunteering Day en Espanol?
A: Día Internacional del Microvoluntariado.
Q: Do you have any suggestions for micro-volunteering?
A: Yes
Q: Are we back to that joke again?
A: Yes
Q: What suggestions do you have for micro-volunteering?
A: I thought you'd never ask. One suggestion is to volunteer doing task that you already know how to do, so there is little to no training involved. Another is to keep your activities to things that can be done in thirty minute to 2 hour chunks. One examples are to volunteer to read at a school, or day care center, or nursing home. When my daughter was homeschooled, she would volunteer on a weekly basis for about an hour and a half a week, working at the P.B.I.S (Personal Behavior Incentive System) store at my wife's school. Children would earn a kind of currency for following the code of the school and then would be able to trade that currency in for prizes. As a full time substitute teacher, I would imagine there are boundless opportunities for micro-volunteering?
Q: What are some suggestions that could be done from home?
A: My daughters both crochet. One is in a crochet club. Some members of her club crochet hats at home for premature babies or people having chemo. People can have baking parties on the holidays and find organizations to donate their creations to.
Q: Do you know why IMVD (International Micro-Volunteering Day) is on April 15th.
A: No, but it is the same day as Tax day here in the U.S. and if I were choosing the day, I would choose April 15th because micro-volunteering is not meant to be taxing.
Q: Did you think of that yourself?
A: Yes, Yes I did. And before you ask yes, that is a Phineas and Ferb referemce.
Today was a lot of fun, no question about it. Micro-volunteering can be fun as well. In the comments tell me some things that you already know how to do, that might be great as a micro-volunteering opportunity.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
Lucy, Amy & Kermit Smithsonian Museum 2010
April 13th 2024 is the last Saturday of the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C.
The past few days at school there has been growing excitement for the 8th grade field trip to Washington D.C. which is coming up soon. My Nephew was over yesterday and he is also is super excited about his 8th grade field trip to Washington D.C. So, when trying to decide between all the April 13th holidays and events I chose an event and a birthday related to D.C.
The Nationals Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates the gift of Japanese Cherry Trees in 1912 from the Mayor of Tokyo City to the city of Washington D.C.
Washington Monument with Cherry blossoms in the foreground.
Thomas Jefferson was born April 13,1743
The Jefferson Memorial 2010
Charlie and C3P0 at the Smithsonian
L is also for Lincoln
These pictures were take on our family trip to Washington D.C. 2010
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 12th Yuri Gagarian is the first man in space
63 years ago today the Russians beat the U.S into space again. This time, Yuri Gagarian became the first person in space. This You Tube video shows some footage from the event.
Just in case you don't read Russian, the text below the video translates into English as:
On April 12, 1961, the Vostok spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome for the first time in the world, with pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin on board. For this feat, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and starting from April 12, 1962, the day of Gagarin's flight into space was declared a holiday - Cosmonautics Day.
On September 27, 2010, by decision of the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, April 12 was proclaimed the International Day of Human Space Flight, which will be celebrated annually at the international level.
I decided to copy a couple of the you-tube comments and show them in Russian , and then in Russian printed phonetically in English and then finally translated by google translate into English.
The first comment is from @elenadushyna8975 from 1 year ago
Все молодцы!! И Королев! И Гагарин! И все остальные неизвестные, кто причастны к этому великому событию!!!
Vse molodtsy!! I Korolev! I Gagarin! I vse ostal'nyye neizvestnyye, kto prichastny k etomu velikomu sobytiyu!!!
Well done everyone!! And Korolev! And Gagarin! And all the other unknowns who are involved in this great event!!!
The second comment is from LarussaShudrova from 8 years ago
Спасибо за воспоминания! Спасибо! Помню, какую испытала гордость за страну, когда передавали по радио сообщение о полёте человека в космос. В душе всё пело.
Spasibo za vospominaniya! Spasibo! Pomnyu, kakuyu ispytala gordost' za stranu, kogda peredavali po radio soobshcheniye o polote cheloveka v kosmos. V dushe vso pelo.
Thank you for the memories! Thank you! I remember how proud I felt for the country when they broadcast a message on the radio about man’s flight into space. Everything was singing in my soul.
What strikes me about the coverage and the comments is the great sense of accomplishment. I lived in Russia for 2 years from 1992 to 1994 right after the Soviet Union was dissolved. It became clear to me fairly quickly is that people are very similar regardless of what country they are from and being proud of your country is certainly not something the U.S. has a monopoly on.
The song of the day is Keep Me Running performed by Ashley Cleveland
Randy Stonehill wrote and performed the song on his 1976 album Welcome to Paradise. The below video features a young Stonehill performing the song.
Stonehill turned 72 earlier this year and I made this post to celebrate.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 11th is Dave and Amy Roller's wedding anniversary.
I was trying to justify not pulling a random holiday from the April 11th list and just writing about my wedding anniversary when I realized there is no justification needed. The 3rd sentence in the above paragraph says it all, " Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day." My anniversary is an event taking place today and my titling the post Just Married (26 years ago), I have, in the words of Paul Hollywood, ticked all the boxes.
Yesterday morning my daughter was getting ready for her writing class at the same time I was getting ready for school. She went towards the door and then came back saying, she had forgotten her glasses. Before I could stop myself I blurted out the line, "He can't see without his glasses".
This is a line from the 1991 movie "My Girl". My son recites this line quite a bit. A, because he like's to make fun of it and B, because it annoys his sisters. If you've ever been a brother or a sister you don't need me to say, not necessarily in that order.
As I was driving to work, while ruminating on that film, a memory popped in my head from almost 33 years ago when that film was in theatres. At the time I was in a long distance relationship, and because it was the winter Holidays we were both in the Chicago area where our families both lived .
We went to the Woodfield Mall to see the aforementioned film. After the film I remember telling her on an escalator talking about the film and in that context said something about wanting to grow old with her, (my girlfriend). I don't know which direction we were on in the escalator, but things started going downhill after that. Because, shortly after I made that comment to her we were broken up, and I'm not sure but I don't think I even saw her again after that.
I remember going back to my parents house and calling up my best friend and spilling all the sordid details. You ever have a friend you could tell anything, do anything with, share your secrets and keep theirs? That's what I had with my best friend back in January of 1992. 26 years ago today I married her.
Lots has changed since I saw My Girl with someone who out turned out not to be my girl at all. Woodfield Mall no longer has movie theatres, My parents no longer live at my boyhood home, I no longer need to use a landline to call my best friend, cause quite often we are together and when were not I just tell my phone to call her.
But Amy and I are growing old together. As Rowlf the Dog sang so eloquently in 1979, "The urge was righteous but the face was wrong." But in my case something better didn't come along, she had been there all along.
Amy and I love movies. We watch them, re watch them, quote them, and watch them again. One movie we enjoy is The Wedding Singer, a movie about friends who fell in love, like us. In the final scene he confesses his love in a song he wrote called "Grow Old With You."
Songs also play a part of our friendship. When I was living in Russia, I once wrote her a song about our friendship which is really a love song, we just didn't know it yet. I wrote her another song and sang it for her as I proposed. I wrote another song and a choir from our church sang it as we walked down the aisle after we had just been declared man and wife.
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Our marriage is not perfect. A few years ago we read a book together, called "When Sinner's say I do". The basic premise imperfect people cannot have a perfect relationship. I certainly am not perfect. She tells me she's not perfect, so I believe her. She is certainly the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. This August we will celebrate 34 years of friendship. Each day I grow older with my dear friend Amy is worthy of a celebration. Not just a celebration, but each day with Amy is a Holiday in itself.
Today's song of the day is Jack and Jill Part II by the Gray Havens
I chose the songs for the A to Z playlist this February and March, and just decided today that I was going to write about Amy and Myself for J. So I didn't really plan a connection between the holiday and the song of the day. It turns out there is one, but it's very slight. After Amy and I were married for a couple years, we moved into our first house and preceded to have our 2nd and third child. During that time we were attending a church that met at Crystal Lake South High School. I don't know if you've ever attended a church at a school before. I have on several occasions. One thing that happens is all the accoutrements of the school for the most part stay right where they are even on Sunday. So over the years we saw many homecoming posters and other things on the wall of our "church building". One such poster was celebrating the fact that one of their seniors had just made it into the top 20 of Season 5 of American Idol.
This young man, David Radford, would later become part of the folk duo, The Gray Havens along with his wife Licia. Like I said it's a slight connection. The Spotify playlist is big enough now to have a top 10.
Yes as far as Holidays are concerned, the anniversary of the day I married my best friend is a pretty big one. Feel free to comment and tell me about your love story if you care to.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
There was an eclipse earlier this week, maybe you heard of it. My school was able to watch it and we hit 94% totality in Algonquin, Illinois. My Son Charlie went to Sycamore, Ohio which was in 100% totality for a cubing event. They provided glasses for all their participants and took a break from the competition to experience the eclipse.
He just came home yesterday from the event and we haven't had a lot of time to talk about it yet. I was able to find some footage on You Tube, maybe you've heard of it (I know I just made that joke in paragraph one), of the Eclipse as it appeared in Sycamore on Monday.
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 10th is Indicted Illinois Governors Day
In U.S. history there have been 25 state governors who have been convicted of federal crimes. 4 of these have come from the state of Illinois. . That's righr 4 of the last 10 Illinois governors have served in federal prisons.
As a non public official of the state of Illinois with all the power invested in me by this great state, I proclaim April 10th as Indicted Illinois Governors Day.
There have actually been 5 Illinois governors to be indicted.
Joel Aldrich Matteson, the 10th governor of Illinois (1853-1857) was charged in 1859 in the Canal Scrip Fraud Scandal. Matteson redeemed Scrip for the Canal for himself. He was indicted but then acquitted and returned the majority of the funds to the state.
Otto Kerner Jr, was governor of Illinois from 1961-1968. In 1972 He was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals when he was indicted on multiple charges including mail fraud, & income tax evasions. Charges he was eventually convicted og. Kerner served six months on a three year sentence. His crimes went back to 1962 when as a governor he colluded with race track owners.
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Dan Walker was governor of Illinois from 1973-1977. Unlike Kerner, Walkers convictions came from crimes committed after his time as governor. As CEO of a savings and loan siphoned bank money for his own use, Walker was indicted, convicted and served 17 months of a seven year sentence.
George Ryan was governor of Illinois from 1999-2003 and was the Il Secretary of State prior to that, As Secretary of State he presided over a huge bribes for licenses scheme. This scheme was exposed after a truck killed 6 children in the same family and it was revealed that the trucker had paid bribes for his license. Ryan was sentenced to 6 1/2 years of prison and was released in 2013.
Rod Blagojevich was governor of Illinois form 2002 - 2009 when he was impeached by the Illinois General Assembly. When Blagojevich (Blago) rand in 2002 his mantra was no more business as usual. This was in the wake of the Ryan scandals. The problem is Blago missed his own memo, and went back to business as usual, and business was booming. Blago was caught on tape trying to sell the senate seat of President Elect Obama, and was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and solicitation of bribery. He was convicted and sentenced to 14 years and was in prison from 2012 to 2020 when hw was pardoned by Donald Trump.
While it's true that our last 3 governors have not gone to jail. We could use the growth mindset, and say they have not gone to jail yet. Why do so many of the governors of my state go to jail. It may just be a matter of linguistical expectations. What do governors and convicts have in common. They both serve terms. So in a way their first career sets up their second.
While I made up this holiday, I unfortunately did not make up the history.
That's it for me . Feel free to add a comment before moving on with your day.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
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![National Hairstylist Appreciation Day](<p><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Top-Hat-Rogers-Astaire.jpg#/media/File:Top-Hat-Rogers-Astaire.jpg"><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Top-Hat-Rogers-Astaire.jpg" alt="Top-Hat-Rogers-Astaire.jpg" height="2960" width="2350"></a><br>By RKO Radio Pictures - <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/stream/moviescomefrom00seld#page/n193/mode/1up">The Movies Come from America</a>, photo preceding page 101, Public Domain, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65503629">Link</a></p>){kind=link}