Today is Sunday, May 27 and there are only 212 days until Christmas.  Just thought you would like to know.  Today we remember the birthdays of Cornelius Vanderbilt, “Wild Bill” Hickok and Kenny Price.  On this day in 1844 Samuel FB Morse completed the first telegraph line., in 1895 British inventor Birt Acres patented the film camera/projector and in 1997 the first all female (20 British women) team reached the North Pole.  In Nigeria it is Children’s Day, in Turkey it is Freedom & Constitution Day and in the US it is National Cellophane Tape Day and National Grape Popsicle Day.  Tomorrow is Memorial Day.

Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the US military.  Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971.  The holiday, which is currently observed every year on the last Monday of May, will be held on May 28, 2018. The holiday was held on May 30 from 1868 to 1970.  The practice of decorating soldiers' graves with flowers is an ancient custom.  Soldiers' graves were decorated in the U.S. before and during the American Civil War.  For years after the civil war, “decoration days” were held to honor those lost during the fighting.

The preferred name for the holiday gradually changed from "Decoration Day" to "Memorial Day," which was first used in 1882.  Memorial Day did not become the more common name until after World War II and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967.  On June 28, 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend.  The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971.  I hope this satisfies your need for Memorial Day trivia.

I have to be honest, I really don’t have much to talk about this week.  The hubbub over the royal wedding has finally subsided.  The daily sexual harassment charges against famous people continues unabated.  It has gotten to the point where it is more surprising if someone is not accused.  What I find interesting is that women are coming forward and claiming incidents that occurred 10 to 15 years ago.  The person they are accusing is then automatically presumed guilty.  No proof has to be offered other than the woman’s word.  The accused can say whatever he wants, but he is automatically assumed to be lying. 

 As soon as one person comes forward, others suddenly come forward.  I am not saying these things did not happen.  What I am saying is that there should be more proof than someone suddenly remembering something that happened in 2004 with such great detail.  If you have proof, show it and give the accused the opportunity to defend himself.  It was my understanding that a person was innocent “until proven guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt” not guilty simply because someone said so.  I am sorry.  Give me a minute to get down off my soapbox.

I continue to rail against the many inane commercials that show up on a regular basis.  I am lucky that Barbara is so tolerant.  A commercial will come on, I will start to rant and complain, asking why they would think that was a good idea and Barbara will calmly respond, “I don’t know babe,” and go back to whatever she was doing.  It just bothers me that they come up with the awful commercials and get paid buckets of money for it, the company pays more money to air it and we, the consumers, pay more for the product as a result.  Hang on, let me climb down off the soapbox again.

The only other thing I want to address is the need to put back the moon rocks! We have been having such weird weather around here.  Barbara and I went down the shore a couple weeks ago, thinking, because it was around 78 here, that it would be a nice day on the beach.  NOPE!  It was around 58 there and we ended up sitting on the beach with jackets on and, at one point, Barbara put gloves on.  One day it is cold and rainy, the next day it is a nice day, in the upper 70’s, the next day it is cooler, cloudy and windy and then the cycle starts again.  I realize that there will be days in the near future when we will be happy to have a cool day, but right now I would like some warm weather so that we can go and enjoy the show on the beach.

This week our fact tells us that, according to the American Society for Microbiology, 90 % of women and 75% of men wash their hands after using a public restroom.  All I can say is that if you go out to eat, hope that your food prep people and servers are women.  Also hope that they are not part of the 10% who don’t believe in good hygiene.

Today is Sunday, May 20 and there are only 219 days until Christmas.  Make sure your family members are doing spectacular things so you can brag about them in the annual letter.  Today we remember the birthdays of William Thornton, William George Fargo and William Cullen Bryant.  On this day in 1310 shoes were first made for both the right and left feet, in 1639 Dorchester, MA, formed the first school funded by local taxes and in 1874 Levi Strauss marketed blue jeans with copper rivets at a price of $13.50 a dozen.  In Bulgaria it is Botev Day, in Cameroon it is Constitution Day and in the US it is National Pick Strawberries Day, National Quiche Lorraine Day and National Take Your Parents to the Playground Day.

I have noticed, lately, that it is becoming easier to annoy me.  I am not sure if this is because I am becoming less tolerant, people, in general, are becoming more annoying or a combination of both.  I know I have talked about this group of people before, but they are still around.  I like to think that it is coincidental and not a conspiracy to make me crazy, but they are there.  I am talking about the people who wait until I am working on a tight time frame and then decide to get in front of me and drive like they are having a grand mal seizure.  Just the other morning I was taking Barbara to a doctor’s appointment and a car pulled in front of us and drove as if he was practicing to pull a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

What made it worse was that he did not seem to have any idea where he actually wanted to go.  We finally came to a traffic light.  I was turning left and he was going right.  When the light turned green I went and was a fair distance down the road when I looked in the rear view mirror and saw that he had finally made the turn.  I can only guess that he was not aware that I was no longer behind him.  It is really very simple, people.  Know where you are going before you leave the house, at least do the speed limit and try to stay out of my way.  Thank you!

I am one of the first people to admit that I am not very tech savvy.  Fortunately, my son works in IT.  I am sure I give him a fair amount of amusement when I call and ask questions that my 12 year old grandson could answer.  I am still in awe of how the Polaroid camera works, so the current stuff can befuddle me.  What really grinds me is just as I am getting used to how an app works on my phone, they decide to update it and now, suddenly, it does not do things the way it did before, the screens all look different and I have to spend another two weeks figuring it out.   There should be some kind of method that allows older people to keep the app the way it was to avoid confusion.

I am going to express an opinion that I am sure is not held by many people, but here goes.  Frankly, I would have preferred it if Meghan and Harry eloped and got married in a drunken party in Las Vegas.  I got tired of hearing about the upcoming nuptials back in February.  As we got closer, things got worse.  There was Meghan’s father not going to the wedding, then going to the wedding and finally not going.  We had people wondering if Harry’s ex-girlfriends were going to the wedding.  Unless we knew for a fact that one of them was going to stand up and announce her pregnancy when the priest asks if anyone knows just cause, etc., who cares if they go or not!

One of our local channels was running a special on Meghan’s beauty secrets so that everyone could do them.  Frankly, I think I look good the way I am and don’t need to use her methods.  I kept waiting for commercials telling me about what underwear Harry uses so that I could have that royal feeling and comfort for the family jewels.  As things got closer I kept waiting to hear news reports like, “We have a report that Harry and Meghan had breakfast this morning and then Harry walked off with a newspaper and did not come back for 10 minutes.”  Or, “It has been reported that Harry does, indeed, put his pants on one leg at a time.”
We have heard about Meghan’s mother Doris, too.  We found out that she had arrived in London.  What a surprise!  That is, after all, where the wedding is being held.  We hear that Meghan’s celebrity friends will be there.  Again, who cares?  This should be about the bride and groom, not the celebrities that may attend.  You want to impress me?  Open the place up to the “common folk” and keep the others in a gymnasium and let them hear the ceremony over loud speakers.  One final tirade within this rant and then I am done.  There are people who flew to England from the US and started camping out on the road the wedding cortège will follow so that they can catch a glimpse of the couple.  People, get a grip on yourselves!  You are Americans!  You only do stuff like that on Thanksgiving so you can go shopping at five in the morning.  Thank you. I feel much better having gotten that out of my system.  I just can’t wait until they start having kids.

This week our fact tells us that in Holyoke, Massachusetts it is unlawful to water your lawn when it is raining.  Frankly, it is dumb, too.  Of course, I do not see what difference it makes, but I am sure that Holyoke has an explanation for it.  I hope some day I can discover what that reason is.

Today is Sunday, May 13 and there are only 113 days until Labor Day, so start watching for the Back to School sales.  Today we remember the birthdays of Henry William Stiegel, Daphne du Maurier and Ritchie Valens.  On this day in 1607 English colonists landed near the James River in Virginia, in 1830 the Republic of Ecuador was founded, with Juan Jose Flores as president and in 1970 the Beatles movie “Let It Be” premiered.  In the US it is Mother’s Day, National Crouton Day, National Fruit Cocktail Day and National Apple Pie Day.

I would be remiss if I did not address this important day.  Croutons have become an important part of salads and deserve to be recognized.  No, seriously, Mother’s Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May.  In the US, celebration of Mother's Day began in the early 20th century. It is not related to the many celebrations of mothers and motherhood that have occurred throughout the world over thousands of years.

The modern holiday of Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia.  Her campaign to make Mother's Day a recognized holiday in the United States began in 1905, the year her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died. Ann Jarvis had been a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War, and created Mother's Day Work Clubs to address public health issues. Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her mother by continuing the work she started and to set aside a day to honor all mothers because she believed a mother is "the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world".  Owing to the efforts of Anna Jarvis, by 1911 all U.S. states observed the holiday.  That should take care of your holiday trivia folder.

I have been trying to work on getting rid of my winter weight, but am having some difficulties.  One of the problems I have is that the weather has not exactly been cooperating.  Another issue is that it is far too easy to talk myself out of doing it and coming up with some minor chore as a reason.  My biggest problem is that when I get back from my two-mile walk, I am usually hungry.  I eat breakfast before I walk and have my second cup of coffee when I get back.  While I sit and drink my coffee, my mind keeps saying that I should have a snack because walking worked up my appetite.  I usually finish the walk early enough that I cannot say that I will have lunch, so I am still trying to shed those pounds.  I need to get going on this or it will be winter and I will be adding more weight.

The other day, I had an opportunity to see Karma in action.  I was sitting at a red light.  Sitting a couple cars behind me was a police car.  Parked on the other side of the road was an 18-wheeler, sitting there, big as life, with its flashers on.  Even though it infringed on the traffic lane, there was sufficient room to pass it.  As I sat there, I looked up to see a pickup making a left turn.  The driver was on his cell phone having an animated conversation and not really paying attention.  To make a long story short – have you ever noticed that when people say “to make a long story short” they don’t.  Sometimes they make it longer … but I digress.

Anyway, to make a long story short, as the truck came around the corner, the policeman saw the driver on the phone and turned on his lights.  A couple seconds later, the driver ran into the back end of the 18-wheeler, which he probably would have seen if he had not been on his phone.  As much as I wanted to, I did not hang around to enjoy the aftermath.  However, I did chuckle about it for some time afterward.

The other night, as I was driving home, I watched a small group of deer run across the road, causing the car in front of me to brake quickly.  One of the deer seemed to stop and look back at the car and then run off.  I began to wonder what deer do when they get back to wherever they go at the end of an evening.  I can see them hanging around an area, eating grass, drinking water and talking about their day.  “What a good time Joan and I had last night.  We went to this one neighborhood, with Bob and Harriet, and ate just about every arborvitae we could find.  We left some very interestingly shaped bushes behind.”

“I know what you mean.  Several of us were out last night running in front of cars and scaring the doo-doo out of drivers.  They always seem so surprised, even though there are signs warning them that we are in the area.  The other night, Charlie went down on the side of the road.  When the driver got out to check on him, Charlie jumped up and ran off.  We laughed so hard, we had to stop and use some backyard as a bathroom.”  

This week our fact tells us that most toilets flush in the key of E flat.  I have listened to my toilet on a number of occasions and can honestly say that, to my ear, there is nothing musical about it.  I would love to have watched the person doing the research on this.  Part of that person had to be wondering why they were doing it and who really cared.  For anyone who is interested, as long as it flushes, I don’t care what key it is in.

Today is Sunday, May 6 and there are only 179 days until National Calzone Day.  Today we remember the birthdays of Ferdinand III, Robert Edwin Peary and Willie Mays.  On this day in 1536 King Henry VIII ordered a bible to be placed in every church, in 1787 the first Black Masonic Lodge was formed at Prince Hall, Boston and in 1960 President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.  In Bulgaria it is Shepherd’s and Herdsman’s Day, in Denmark it is Prayer Day and in the US it is National Beverage Day, National Crepe Suzette Day and National Lemonade Day.

Because it is a new month let me give you some information on May.  May is the fifth month of the year in the Gregorian and its predecessor, the Julian calendar.  Named after the Greek goddess, Maia who is also identified Bona Dea (the Roman goddess of fertility), May is the time of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.  Originally the third month of the year, May later moved to the fifth month when January and February were added to the calendar.  Some Nаtіvе Amеrісаn tribes called the Mау full moon The Full Flower Mооn, The Corn Planting Mооn or the Milk Mооn.  It is believed that pеорlе who are born in May are more lіkеlу to асhіеvе higher success and more love in their life.  The bіrthѕtоnе for May is Emerald.  That should cover May for you.

The other night I was driving home from choir practice and discovered that I had missed the announcement that it was Drive 10 MPH Under the Speed Limit Night.  It was bad enough driving on the local roads.  There is one section that is two lanes in each direction.  The right lane is a mess and there are a lot of ruts and potholes.  The car in front of me did not like that lane, but apparently did not want to be in the left lane, either.  He decided to straddle the two lanes and go 10 MPH under the limit.  I am not sure why everyone decided to go slower that night.  The weather was nice.  It was not snowing or raining.  There was not a lot of traffic, but no one wanted to do the speed limit.

I was sure that once I got on the highway things would pick up, but NOOOO!  What made it more interesting was that cars in each of the three lanes were going slow, making it necessary to keep switching from lane to lane.  For a time I was wondering if I was going too fast and kept checking my speed.  I was doing the speed limit.  I felt like I was driving an obstacle course on a video game.  I kept waiting for a target to pop up so I could hit it and win coins.

Earlier this past week, the weather was perfect to go out and do something.  It had finally stopped snowing and the temperature was up in the 90’s.  Barbara and I decided to take a ride down the shore.  I wanted to show her a beach that is much bigger than other beaches we have been to.  We drove there and enjoyed walking the beach and watching the waves.  Barbara was appropriately impressed.  After a while we continued on the journey I had planned.  We went on down to Cape May to stroll a shopping area that is a favorite place of mine.  We walked, shopped, had ice cream and bought fudge.  A great day!

Little did I know that the fun was just beginning.  I had heard about a distillery that was down in that area and we decided to go check it out.  When we got there we took a short self-guided tour that was informative.  Then we went into the bar area.  A sign warned us that we would need ID, but the young girl smiled and said that would not be necessary.  I wasn’t sure if I should be insulted or not.  I’m still mulling that over.  We sat at the bar and talked to a very nice young lady about sampling the liquors. For $5 per person we got a shot of rum, a shot of gin and a shot of vodka.  If we were smart, we would have stopped there.  We were not.  They offered an array of cocktails that featured the various liquors and we felt that it was important to taste them in a mixed drink.  We did and they were quite good.    Normally, we are not adversely affected by drinking; however, all we had to eat prior to this was some cereal at breakfast, pretzels in the car, a sample of fudge and ice cream.  This is not a diet I would recommend if you are planning to do a tasting at a distillery.  They did put a bowl of pretzel nuggets out for us, but I think that was after they saw us slumping over the bar and laughing a lot.  To show our appreciation, we also purchased a bottle of rum and a bottle of vodka.  

Fortunately, I was fairly well under control.  Barbara gets quite happy when she drinks, so we spent a lot of time laughing.  We went to another area and did a little more shopping, but decided we really should go have dinner.  We finished the evening with a delicious meal at a great restaurant and headed home full and very happy.  

This week our fact tells us that a turkey will explode if you do not thaw it completely before deep frying it.  Just one more reason to start the thawing process by the end of September, to be on the safe side.  And be sure to take the bag with the guts out.  If that explodes it will just cause more of a mess.