Wordless Wednesday: Father and Daughter Unknowingly Bring Copies of the Same Book to a Campus Visit

 

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A to Z 2024: T is for Table Tennis

  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 23rd is World Table Tennis Day

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.

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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!

A to Z 2024: S is for start of something Major

 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

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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!