Cardinal McCloskey!

On April 27th, 1875, John McCloskey, archbishop of the archdiocese of New York, was elevated to the rank of cardinal by his Holyness, Pope Pius IX. McCloskey was the first priest from the United States to have achieved this elevation.

Some other famous “firsts” that occurred on April 27th throughout history include:

• the first American flag flown over conquered hostile territory (Tripolitan forces at Derma, North Africa 1805)
• the first tariff passed by Congress for protection (act to regulate the duties on imports and tonnage, 1816)
• the first patent on an electrical hearing aid (Miller Reese Hutchinson, Acousticon, 1880)
• the first tuberculosis hospital established by Congress (Fort Stanton, NM, 1899)
• the first woman to appear on television (Edna Mae Horner, telephone operator, 1927)
• the first woman of American ancestry to become a queen (Countess Geraldine Apponyi of Hungary, 1938)
• the first bank to be automated (Civic Center branch of the Surety National Bank, Los Angeles, CA, 1970)
• the first criminal convicted on the evidence of DNA matching (Timothy W. Spencer, Greensville, VA, 1994)
• the first popular vote on a national emblem (National Tree Election, National Arbor Day Foundation, 2001)

Source: Famous First Facts, by Joseph Nathan Kane, Steven Anzovin, and Janet Podell.

Fun Fact Friday, Number 383!

The category for today’s trivial imponderable is “literature.”  Do you know . . . in L. Frank Baum’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, what were Dorothy’s shoes made of?

In the book, Dorothy’s shoes were made of silver, not rubies (they were changed to rubies for the film, The Wizard of Oz).

Source: Sorry, Wrong Answer: Trivia Questions That Even Know-It-Alls Get Wrong, by Dr. Rod L. Evans.

A Thrifty Young Fellow of Shoreham!

Here is a cute little limerick by an anonymous author. Enjoy!

A thrifty young fellow of Shoreham
Made brown paper trousers and woreham;
He looked nice and neat
Till he bent in the street
To pick up a pin; then he toreham.

Source: A Bundle of Birdbrains…Lots of Limericks (selected by Myra Cohn Livingston)

Vision!

Happy Birthday to Robert Penn Warren, the very first U.S. Poet Laureate. Here is his poem entitle “Vision.” Enjoy!

I shall build me a house where the larkspur blooms
        In a narrow glade in an alder wood,
Where the sunset shadows make violet glooms,
        And a whip-poor-will calls in eerie mood.

I shall lie on a bed of river sedge,
        And listen to the glassy dark,
With a guttered light on my window ledge,
        While an owl stares in at me white and stark.

I shall burn my house with the rising dawn,
        And leave but the ashes and smoke behind,
And again give the glade to the owl and the fawn,
        When the grey wood smoke drifts away with the wind.

Source: this poem is in the public domain.

Amazing Adjectives, Number 130!

From the name of Sir John Fallstaff, the fat, self-indulgent, and jovial braggart of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2. As exemplified in The Highly Selective Dictionary of Golden Adjectives for the Extraordinarily Literate:

“By the time Barry reached adulthood, he had eaten and drunk his way into becoming a Falstaffian figure and was scarcely regarded seriously by his contemporaries.”

Fallstaffian

\ fawl-staf, -stahf–ee-uhn \, adjective;

1. having the qualities of Fallstaff; bawdy-humored, rascally, and bragging.

Source: The Highly Selective Dictionary of Golden Adjectives for the Extraordinarily Literate by Eugene Ehrlich and http://www.dictionary.com

Very Interesting Stuff, Number Six!

Did you know that . . .

• it was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink? Mead is a honey beer and because of their calendar was lunar, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.
  
• in English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts? So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them “mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.” This is where we get the phrase to “mind your P’s and Q’s.”
  
• many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups? When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. This practice inspired the phrase “wet your whistle.”

Anecdotally, Number One!

I have found a wonderful reference source from which to draw material for occasional posts. Here is an anecdote re: Ansel Adams (1902-1984), a U.S. landscape photographer and conservationist.

During his early years Adams studied the piano and showed marked talent. At one party (he recalls it as “very liquid”) he played Chopin’s F Major Nocturne. “In some strange way my right hand started off in F-sharp major while my left hand behaved well in F major. I could not bring them together. I went through the entire nocturne with the hands separated by a half-step.” The next day a fellow guest complimented him on his performance. “You never missed a wrong note!”

Source: Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes, p. 3.

Creamy Bacon Cheese Dip

For all of you bacon-lovers out there, here is a wonderful (and quick) recipe for a dip that is sure to be a hit at your next family gathering or party.

Creamy Bacon Cheese Dip

Ingredients
6 ounces of cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon of dried mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
10 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 cups of cheddar cheese, shredded
2-3 Tablespoons of fresh parsley, minced
6 green onions, sliced
1/2 cup almonds, sliced and chopped (optional)

Directions
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients and mix well.

2. Cover and refrigerate for several hours prior to serving.

Note: you can add a packet of ranch seasoning to the dip to give it a slightly different taste.

Fun Fact Friday, Number 382!

Today’s real facts (courtesy of http://www.snapple.com) are about hair.   Did you know that . . .

• a rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair? (Real Facts, #759)
• curly hair follicles are oval, while straight hair follicles are round? (Real Facts, #942)

Source: http://www.snapple.com/real-facts

Tolerance!

In a world clamoring for tolerance, here is another demotivator (courtesy of http://www.despair.com) that reinforces the point that more work is needed in this area.

“It’s an universal law– intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.” — Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Source: https://despair.com/collections/demotivators/products/tolerance