Say Something Nice Day June 1, 2017

DIANE'S CORNER ... Celebrate Say Something Nice Day

Say Something Nice Day began in Charleston, South Carolina, when the Mayors of North Charleston and Charleston came together with members of the Charleston-Atlantic Presbytery and the South Carolina Baptist Convention to create a day to be kind to the special people in our lives, like our children. It’s also a day to remember and celebrate people, who provide us with a variety of services, such as bus drivers, healthcare workers and teachers. And, it’s a great opportunity to apologize to people that we might have wronged or hurt through our behavior. The aim of this special day is to fight against unkindness, bullying and the lack of politeness that dominates society today. The creators hope that this one day of pleasantness will grow, until people are nice to each other everyday.

Clara Louise Kellogg (1842 – 1916) was an American opera singer.

Word of the Day

farcical
Definition:	(adjective) Broadly or extravagantly humorous; resembling farce.
Synonyms:	ludicrous, ridiculous
Usage:	The clown, with his farcical exuberance, rainbow striped hair, and poorly timed gags, drew enthusiastic applause and laughter from the audience.

Julij Betetto (1885–1963), Slovene opera singer and composer.

Idiom of the Day

(all) kidding aside  — In all seriousness; being frank for a moment.

Pauline Rita 1842-1920, English Opera Singer.

History

Court Martial of Benedict Arnold Begins (1779)

When Arnold was court-martialed in 1779, it was not for the treason that would later make his name synonymous with betrayal. The charges involved fiscal irregularities and were relatively minor. Though he was largely exonerated, the trial sullied his reputation. Despite having distinguished himself in various American military campaigns—he was wounded more than once—Arnold was subsequently passed over for promotion.

James Hadley Billington (1929)

Billington is a US scholar and the 13th Librarian of Congress. He earned his PhD in 1953 as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, taught at Harvard and Princeton, and published several significant books on Russia. He served as director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars from 1973 to 1987, when he became Librarian of Congress. There, he has fostered cooperation between libraries worldwide and encouraged the use of digital media.

Brigham Young's Birthday

Often referred to as "the American Moses," Brigham Young led thousands of his religious followers across 1,000 miles of wilderness from their Illinois settlement to find refuge in what is now Salt Lake City, Utah. He became the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, whose members are also known as Mormons. The anniversary of Young's birth on June 1, 1801, is observed by Mormon churches worldwide, as is July 24, the date on which he arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.

The Healthiest Way to Improve Your Sleep: Exercise

If you're one of the third of all Americans who suffer from insomnia -- roughly 108 million of us -- put away your sleeping pills. Science has a much safer solution. 
READ MORE:

The healthiest way to improve your sleep: exercise


1792 - Kentucky became the 15th state of the U.S. 


1796 - Tennessee became the 16th state of the U.S. 


1896 - In Paris, France, the first recorded automobile theft occurred. The Peugeot of Baron de Zuylen de Nyevelt was stolen by his mechanic. 


1935 - The Ingersoll-Waterbury Company reported that it had produced 2.5 million Mickey Mouse watches during its 2-year association with Disney. 


1953 - Raymond Burr made his network-TV acting debut. It was in "The Mask of Medusa" on ABC-TV's "Twilight Theater." 


1954 - In the Peanuts comic strip, Linus' security blanket made its debut. 


1961 - Radio listeners in New York, California, and Illinois were introduced to FM multiplex stereo broadcasting. A year later the FCC made this a standard. 


1980 - Cable News Network (CNN) made its debut as the first all-news station. 


2008 - The Phoenix Mars Lander became the first NASA spacecraft to scoop Martian soil. 


2009 - The first event, a George Strait concert, was held at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX. 

DAILY SQU-EEK

If You Were Born Today, June 1

You are a true artist at heart. You see the world around you in a unique way, which endears you to others. You are thoughtful and curious. At times moody and at other times inspired, you can also vacillate between great practicality and idealism. You might find that following the dictates of your head, which is often your choice, gets you into more trouble than following your heart. Trusting your intuition is the challenge. Famous people born today: Marilyn Monroe, Morgan Freeman, Heidi Klum, Andy Griffith, Pat Boone, Ron Wood.

READERS INFO

1.

Top 10 facts about June

1. The Romans called June “Iunius” or Junius, but it is unclear whether this was after Juno, goddess of marriage, or whether May and June were named for the old and young: ‘maiores’ and ‘juniores’.

2. The Anglo-Saxons called June “sera monath” (dry month).

3. June is celebrated as National Smile Month in the UK and National Oceans Month in the USA.

4. In any year, no month begins on the same day of the week as June.

5. George Bush Snr is the only US President to have been born in June. Donald Trump has a June birthday

6. Antony and Cleopatra and Henry IV Part 1 are the only Shakespeare plays that mention June.

7. “There are two seasons in Scotland: June and winter.” (Billy Connolly).

8. The Earl of Liverpool (1770-1828) and Anthony Eden (1897-1977) are the only UK prime ministers to have been born in June.

9. No UK prime minister has ever died in June.

10. June was the 39th most popular name for a baby girl in 1925 in English-speaking countries but it dropped out of the top thousand in 1986. As a boy’s name, it peaked in 697th place in 1922.

birthstone:

flower: Rose

2.

June is Adopt-A-Shelter-Cat Month

But what if you can’t adopt? Here are some easy ways you can still help:

1. Donate your Facebook status. Just paste this message into the “What’s on your mind?” box at the top of your page: “June is Adopt-A-Shelter-Cat Month. Save a life: Adopt a cat! https://www.petfinder.com”
2. Tweet, retweet and repeat the following (or your own brilliant message): “June is Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month. Save a life: Adopt a cat! https://www.petfinder.com”
3. Contact your local shelter or rescue group (you can search for groups near you here) and ask if they have a donation wish list or other flyer they’d like to you to post around your office or neighborhood. They may be holding special events for Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month which you can help promote.
4. Share an adoptable cat, cat-care or adoption article or a cat-adoption Happy Tail through your blog, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter accounts each day of the month.
5. Sign up as a foster parent or shelter volunteer then tell your friends how great it is. Contact your local shelter or rescue group.
6. Add a Petfinder widget or banner to your Web site or blog.
7. Write an op-ed about the importance of pet adoption for your local paper.
8. Contact your local shelter or rescue group and offer to photograph their adoptable pets and upload the pics to Petfinder.
9. Donate to your local shelter or rescue group or to the Petfinder.com Foundation in honor of Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month.
10. Pass on an understanding of the importance of pet adoption to the next generation. Talk to your kids, nieces, nephews, grandchildren and other up-and-comers about animal shelters and why Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month, and pet adoption in general, is important.

3.

Canal Days 2017

Fairport Canal Days has a no pet policy. Thank you.

One of the most popular arts festivals in New York State, Fairport Canal Days sets sail June 3rd and 4th, with an opening chicken BBQ and concert on the evening of June 2nd. Join us and enjoy over 200 artisans, many fine food vendors, and great live music. It's family friendly, fantastic fun.

• Chicken BBQ – Friday June 2, 4:30 to 9:00 pm
• Canal Days Artisans, Vendors, and Entertainment – Saturday June 3, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm and Sunday, June 4, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

further information: Home - Fairport Canal Days

4. 

INTERESTING FACTS

Had the Duke of Edinburgh not changed his surname in order to marry the future Queen Elizabeth II, he and his wife would be known today as Phil and Betty Glucksberg.

The French Kiss isn’t from France; it’s actually a slur against the nation. In the 1920s, the English derided the French as the kind of people who’d go around sticking their tongues where they didn’t belong.

Charles Douglass, inventor of the canned laughter we hear on sitcoms, recorded the guffaws for his original "Laff Box" during broadcasts of The Red Skeleton Show.

Chinese judges in the 15th century used darkened lenses (sunglasses) to hide their facial expressions in court.

In 1956, East Germany decided to honor the death of native composer Robert Schumann by featuring him on a stamp. The design included a commemorative portrait of the artist against the backdrop of one of his musical scores. Unfortunately, the musical manuscript they used was that of fellow composer Franz Schubert.

Gemma Bellincioni ( August 18, 1864 – April 23, 1950) was an Italian soprano and one of the best-known opera singers of the late 19th century.

Pictures of the day

One of two monkey selfies taken by Celebes crested macaques using equipment belonging to the British nature photographer David Slater. In mid-2014, the images' hosting on Wikimedia Commons was at the centre of a dispute over whether copyright could be held on artworks made by non-human animals. Slater argued that, as he had "engineered" the shot, he held copyright, while Wikimedia considered the photographs public domain on the grounds that they were made by an animal rather than a person. In December 2014, the United States Copyright Office stated that works by a non-human are not subject to US copyright, a view reaffirmed by a US federal judge in 2016.

DIVING IN THE SHETLAND ISLANDS, SEABIRD WISE

Northern gannets are the largest seabirds in the North Atlantic. They fish by diving into the sea, they can do it from a height of 30 meters with a speed of 80 km/hour, and pursuing their preys underwater. The island of Noss, in Shetland Islands, is one of the most important nesting point, with over 7000 breeding pairs. 

Helen Lemmens-Sherrington 1834-1906, English Opera Singer.

knit

thanks, Connie

Sense of Summer Seamless Top

knit

Raspberry Knit Afghan

knit

Bella & Basil pattern by Susie Johns

knit
thanks, Marilyn

Christabel and Carla - Kids Patterns

knit

Free Your Hands ... Hold-All for Walker pattern by G. K. Green

Angelica Catalani, an Italian opera singer, whose soprano voice was one of the greatest bravura singers of all times. (1780 - 1849)

crochet

Midzomertuniek pattern by Gea Crea design

crochet
thanks, Rosa

Monarch butterfly pattern by Jazmo Tennant

crochet

Tampontasje/holder lips pattern by Gea Crea design

crochet

thanks, Marge

Poodle Eyeglass Holder pattern by Lisa Ferrel

crochet

C2C Shell Picot Baby Blanket pattern by Kathryn Pless

Adelina Patti 1843-1919, Spanish Opera Singer.

RECIPE
thanks, Vicky

Fried Mozzarella Sticks Recipe

George Perren 1826-1909, English Opera Singer.

CROCKPOT RECIPE

Slow Cooker Ritz Chicken

Hilde Güden (1917-1988) was a Austrian soprano singer.

SWEETS

thanks, Shelley

Double Apple Pie Recipe

Caroline von Gomperz-Bettelheim (June 1, 1845 - December 13, 1925, Vienna) was a Hungarian-Austrian court singer and member of the Royal Opera, Vienna.

ADULT COLORING

Johanna Maria Lind (October 6, 1820 – November 2, 1887), better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale".

CRAFTS - FATHER'S DAY 

How to Make Monkey's Fists or DIY Nautical Rope Orbs

Nani Alapai, a Hawaiian soprano singer. Postcard. September 17, 1910.

CHILDREN'S CORNER ... FATHER'S DAY 

Hand Print Art for Father's Day

Johanna Gadski (1872 - 1932), German opera singer, soprano

PUZZLE

Blue Tit Art Jigsaw Puzzle

Mary Garden (1874 - 1967), Scottish soprano

WORD SEARCH

autumn bills bright cares croon dissipate drink

early funny gore gram hollow ivory

jewel lode partner party piano plain poison potion promises

saint situation solid sound step study stuff swings

tabs train understood video whatever woman young

Folke Jonsson (1904-1981) was a Swedish opera singer. At Skansen, Stockholm, Sweden in 1939.

QUOTE

Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy (December 7, 1801 – May 25, 1862) was an opera singer, actor and, primarily, a playwright.

Bianca Bianchi (Bertha Schwarz, 1855—1947) was a German and Austrian opera singer (soprano).

CLEVER

Maria Callas (1923-1977) was a famous soprano and opera singer. Portrait painted by Oleg Karuvits

EYE OPENER

thanks, Patty

12 Old Words for the Huge, Mammoth, and Gargantuan

mentalfloss

When something—say, a canyon or mistake—is truly enormous, the same old small time words like colossal and massive don’t always get the job done. Fortunately, there are plenty of older, rarer words for the gargantuan and elephantine just waiting to make your vocabulary immensive. Use these words the next time you see something hugy.

1. UNMEET

As far back as Old English, unmeet has been a word for the immense. This played off a sense of meet meaning the Goldilocks size: just right and proper, or at least not freakishly big or small. Unless you’re a basketball player, 7-foot-tall is an unmeet height.

2. HIDEOUS

These days, hideous is only a word for the ugly, defined by the OED with words like “Frightful, dreadful, terrible, horrible.” But hideous has also been a word associated with size since the early 1300s, which makes sense, since nothing is as frightful, dreadful, terrible, and horrible as a giant monster. Poet Edmund Spenser used the term in this sense back in 1596: “Of stature huge and hideous he was, Like to a Giant for his monstrous hight.” The size-centric meaning is even clearer in an example from Jedidiah Morse’s 1796 book The American Universal Geography: “The great precipice below, which hangs over the sea, is so hideous.” With this meaning in play, even the Grand Canyon is hideous.

3. AND 4. HUGY AND HUGEOUS

The -y suffix was surprisingly productive back in days of yore, and it still is today, when you can’t even find yore on the internet. Here and there since the 1400s, the handy -y suffix could be found modifying huge. In 1728’s The Comedy of the Provok'd Husband; Or A Journey to London by Sir John Vanbrugh & C. Cibber, the odd phrase “hugey business” appears. Since the 1500s, another redundancy has been hugeous.

5. BROBDINGNAG

In Gulliver’s Travels, this was the name of a country where King Kong would feel at home, maybe not in terms of being a gorilla, but because everything was gigantic. This literary use led to the noun becoming an adjective, as shown in OED examples mentioning “Brobdingnag beehives” and “Brobdingnag genius.” Presumably, the latter would be smart enough to avoid the former.

6. HONKING

Green’s Dictionary of Slang (GDoS) traces honking back at least to the late 1980s, where it seems to have been part of college slang, turning up in references to “a honking textbook” from 1989 and a “honkin’ amount of homework” from 1992. The OED has an older example, but it feels like more of an intensifier (and euphemism for the f-word) than a size-related word. Here’s the usage from the Salisbury Times in 1943: “Great honking hornets, you creep, why don't you..get hep to the fact there's bloodshed going on!”

7. MASTEROUS

The always terrific Dictionary of Regional English (DARE) records this term for the massive and unwieldy with examples from the early 1900s of “a mastrous large school for this district” and a “masterous price.” Godzilla, you could say, was a masterous lizard.

8. DIMENSIONLESS

This is a contronym. Dimensionless has, at times, referred to stuff so tiny that it’s impossible to measure. But it’s also referred to things so hugy that they’re also impossible to measure. An 1813 use in New Monthly Magazine makes the mega meaning clear: “Here, in these almost dimensionless regions, nature is seen on a large scale.”

9. AND 10. IMMENSIVE AND GIGANTINE

Words usually have siblings, and immensive—a near-identical twin of immense—is quite obscure but means the same: immeasurable. Similarly, gigantine is a variation of gigantic, and a great word to use when describing the pyramids or frost giants.

11. PYTHONIC

This adjective has conveyed many senses of the Python from Greek mythology—a serpent-type monster which was killed by Apollo—as well as the snake with the same name. One quality all pythons (real or mythic) have is size, and so pythonic has sometimes described ginormousness. A 1903 issue of Blackwood’s Edinborough Magazine refers to “Huge wooden sheds and pythonic iron pipes.”

12. FATTENING HOG

Fairly or unfairly, the pig is the patron farm animal of hugeness. So it’s no surprise this doubly bulky term refers to the biggish. DARE records a 1954 example from Tennessee of “Fattening hog post card” referring to “A jumbo-sized post card.” What a useful term. There could be fattening hog meals, fattening hog buildings, fattening hog paperwork, and fattening hog offensive linemen. I hope to one day read about a humanitarian with a heart as big as the fattening hog outdoors.