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.