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June 19, 2023
National Martini Day 2013
    martini with twist
I haven't had too many martinis over the years. I was quite the gin and tonic imbiber for a period of time. I suppose a martini may have become an interest in those days of bar hopping long ago. It's just that the social drinking did not correspond to the watering hole mentality I developed in and after the Navy. It's not a bad thing.

I did most of my drinking at home after my enlistment and settling into the technical instruction thing I did for 20 years. It was typically small amounts of very potent liquor to which I would add an ice cube or dash of water to tone it all down. Then I would ususally drink a shot quick — for effect more so than taste. I wasn't one to enjoy the taste of whisky like my daddy did.

The martini in pop culture also was somewhat of a repellant as well. Something about "shaken, not stirred" turned me right off. I always favored the dry drinks to those sweet monstrosities. I think it was due to a Southern Comfort whiskey overdose in Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico — or perhaps it was scullery duty the following day.

So no wine, gin, and olive for me. "The Martinez" evolving to "The Martini" just didn't do it for me. However, I could sit around and drink others under the table when it was on the social agenda. Must have gotten that from dear old dad.

Today is National Martini Day. It happens each June 19th. I think it's a fine day to tie one on if you're so inclined. I believe I will continue to sit those hard knocking bar sessions out anymore.

My "need" to drink never existed. My "wish" to drink naturally waned with maturity.

Happy National Martini Day anyway !

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June 18, 2023
Father's Day 2023
The third Sunday in June is set aside for us to honor our fathers. Typically, this involves traveling to them and gift and card giving.

It's yet another Father's day since the passing of both my biological father and my stepfather.

They were both career military men. My biological father was an E-9 Navy Nuke Machinist Mate. My stepfather was an E-7 Air Force Master Sergeant.

Both of these men had distinguished careers in their own right and took me as their own. They both tried to set me straight on various matters over the ensuing years.

Neither of them were wimpy men and when their ends came they both went down hard.

I have benefited from both their life experiences and I still miss them to this day.

USA Flag folded for burial

My beloved Daddy
Jim Williamson, Jr
January 29, 1932 - December 4, 2001
MMCM
USN
Steam Propulsion
Nuclear Propulsion
                                         My beloved Stepfather
Johnny Henderson Pruett
May 30, 1933 - January 27, 2016
MSGT
USAF
Bronze Star
Meritorius Service Medal


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June 17, 2023
Happy Birthday Mama 2023
Happy Birthday Mama


A mother’s love is something that you can’t put into words. I hope you always know how much you mean to me.

Happy birthday, my dear mother. I’m the luckiest person to have a mom like you.

I love you !
 

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June 16, 2023
World Sea Turtle Day 2023
One of those things I've never seen is a sea turtle hatchling in the wild. It is one of those experience I would wish for had it been possible. My good wishes for all of nature simply did not accumulate the encounter and I feel that I am less for the lack of the experience.

Today is World Sea Turtle Day. It happens annually on June 16 which is the birthday of one Dr Archie Carr aka the “father of sea turtle biology". The day is an effort to raise awareness about those problems sea turtles have thriving in the pollution of so much of the ocean with plastics and chemicals.

Many of the species are facing extinction in the near future mostly because mankind appears to think they are the only things on the planet that matter.

  Nesting beaches are being invaded by tourists,
  artificial lighting confuses nesting female turtles attempting to lay eggs and
  hatchlings in particular attempting to get to the water after their two month incubation, natural predation,
  fishing gear entangles them with fatal results,
  there is a booming business in 'turtle meat' and again
  the pollution all stands in their way for survival.

Some times the turtles encounter trash and think it is food with disasterous consequence.

We should attempt to save these creatures from the sad endings for which their species are heading.

Think about the turtles on this World Sea Turtle Day and help if you can.

Sea Turtle hatchlings


Tags: things, world
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June 15, 2023
Nature Photography Day 2023
Ansel Adams    
When I think of nature photography my mind travels back to thoughts of Ansel Adams.

Ansel Adams was a photographer and environmentalist who originally hailed from San Francisco, California long before it became the woke tragedy of democrat government mismanagement everyone seeks to escape nowadays.

He was born February 20 1902 and passed April 22, 1984. He was from a wealthy family who lost it all and he was marked for life by an aftershock of the great earthquake and subsequent fire of 1906 ... when he was four years old.

He predated my general disdain for tree huggers and their deleterious effects on the economy by a long shot. During the course of his life he took many black and white photographs of nature and the American West. I am particularly fond of some of his work in Yellowstone and the Rocky Mountains as well as the Pueblo construction ruins around Colorado.

He even took a portrait of the snapperhead and second worse president of the United States EVER, one Jimmy Carter. Boo ! He was also an accomplished pianist who played a grand piano. Truly a man of multiple talents.


After a lifetime of photography and environmentalist work he succumbed to cardiovascular disease in Monterey California at the age of 82.

And still his landscapes of the American West stand in his stead as those national treasures he himself was as well.

Today is Nature Photography Day. It is celebrated each June 15 in an effort to promote both nature and photography.

I hope you can get out and take a few photographs. Do it for you. Do it for posterity. Do it for Ansel Adams.

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June 14, 2023
Flag Day in the USA 2023
As a former member of the Armed Services of the United States, I treat the national ensign with respect and decorum at all times. I also decline to accept those behaviors of others who would descrate the flag simply because the law may allow it.

The consequences may become deadly.

Flag Day 2023

It's Flag Day in the United States.

The day commemorates the Second Continental Congress’s adoption of the first US national flag on June 14, 1777.

Just in time for Independence Day some 20 days from now it is a fitting prodrome for those celebrations which accompany the Fourth of July.

Happy Flag Day to you.


The Star-Spangled Banner

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
’Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Francis Scott Key
See Also:

Flag Day 2021
Flag Day 2020
Flag Day 2019
Flag Day 2018

Tags: people, places, politics, world
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June 13, 2023
World Softball Day 2023
    softball equipment
My experience in sports has been rather limited. There is time for massive reading in the life of a systems analyst. There is time for practicing hardware repair and writing code segments effectively.

However, over the years this left little in the way of playing sports like softball, baseball, or any other ball or stick games as well.

This left me rather lacking in those skills and without the desire to sit and watch endless hours of ball and other gaming on television like so many of my peers.

Plus, I think I copped a 'tude early on when my father's primary interests were various ball games when he was around me as a child.

I rather think that the ball games were a hinderance in that relationship with my father I always hoped for yet never attained. Softball in particular was subject to my wrath because I thought of it as "pussified" baseball.

So today is World Softball Day. It happens each June 13 since 2005 in the US.

It is said that the day is about physical activity and I can certainly both understand and appreciate that. I was never empowered by the physical activity available through the playing of softball or other sports. Just because I wasn't big on those mainstream sports pursuits and such I think it's a wonderful idea to get out there and play them if you're so inclined.

Happy World Softball Day.

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June 12, 2023
Raggedy Ann and Andy Day 2023
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy    
When I was a kid I was familiar with Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy, but never owned these dolls because the interest simply was not there.

I was a boychild and as such became preoccupied with riding bikes, playing army, and making super 8mm films with my friend Chris.

In actuality, I don't recall there ever having been a Raggedy Ann or Raggedy Andy present in the domicile during my childhood. Go figure. Plenty of others had them.

Today is Raggedy Ann and Andy Day.

It goes down each June 12 in tribute to the two cartoon and book characters that became a phenomenon with most other children in the US.

They were created by one Johnny Gruelle who was a newspaper cartoonist. He entered and won first prize in a comic drawing contest by the New York Herald in 1910.

The cartoon entry evolved from Raggedy Ann to include her brother, Raggedy Andy and they proceed to become the topics of books, cartoons, and such over time. The rest is attributed to both fame and history.

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June 11, 2023
National Children's Day 2023
I interact with a lot of children in my old age. All of the children of my siblings are grown with children of their own and it's amazing to see those similarities and contrasts in both their appearance and behaviors.

Today is National Children’s Day. It is held on the second Sunday of June in the US, making this year's celebration June 11.

The day is about the importance of children in society and those challenges faced daily during their raising.

children

With the advent of that abomination known as woke indoctrination by the stupid school systems we have our jobs cut out for us in the presence of steering the children down the correct path.

Woke ideology is not the correct path. The stupid should not be attempting to educate others. Woke ideology leads to children ignoring science and sociology for some nonexistent point in the collective imagination of fools like transsexuality and as such woke individuals need to be excluded absolutely for a superior, reality oriented world.

National Children’s Day has been observed here since the 1857 when it was established by one Rev Charles Leonard. The date has subsequently been subject to those inevitable changes people feel are necessary to impart on anything and everything.

The pinheaded United Nations may have "accepted" the day but they have always been a part of the problem with people in general and they are not to be trusted with anyone's children. Their healtcare arm is just as corrupt, incorrigible, and utterly faulty as the so-called "governance" body. They think they rule the planet but they do not.

So regardless of where you are on the evolutionary scale — be it some woke tard like all too many democrats and UN representatives to the more reserved conservatives who aren't out to take over the planet with unfeasible dullard fantasy orientations to the world ...

Happy National Children’s Day to you.
Get the US out of the UN

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June 10, 2023
National Herbs and Spices Day 2023
    herbs and spices

My spicerack is much more sophisticated lately; having evolve from good ole salt and pepper and scant few other items in the more recent past.

My penchant for cooking has grown and increased with the advent of my new gas range with all the modern features ... as well as that hefty price tag.

Today is National Herbs and Spices Day.

It happens each June 10th annually. It's all about those flavoring agents typically used in those dishes we make out of the utility of hunger ... or culinary creativity.

Some of the spices are delicate. Others not so much. Regardless I like a good selection of herbs and spices from which to choose. These I use either sparingly or lavishly depending on both the taste and my mood.

There are several spice stores nearby with proprietors who are Asian Indian and of course they are excellent resources for advice on spices and cooking in general.

It is said that this holiday has been observed since about 2015 and they didn't do much in the way of keeping tabs on it prior to then. In 1999 it was referred to as Herb Day.

So if your going to cook anyway you might as well learn a smidge about herbs and spices and flavor things up more than they might be otherwise.
 

Tags: food, life, health
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June 9, 2023
National Meal Prep Day 2023
stainless steel pots and pans    

Meal preparation has become more important to me in my old age. Once upon a time I was content to go out and forage in the various eateries local to my area.

However, their heyday is long since past and I dare say the employees of some of those establishments all too often appear less than hygienically trustworthy by and large. I don't want to mention any names ...

McDonalds.

So I have invested in a really good dishwasher and a modern feature rich gas range with air frying and convection oven and am presently pursuing a good set of stainless steel pans in the name of nourishment and not having to eat out all the time. It's amazing how many people think it's okay to cook in aluminum cookware. They apparently do not follow the Alzheimer's dementia clinical data as closely as I have since the 1980s.

Today is National Meal Prep Day. It is observed on June 9th annually. Meal preparation is a much maligned yet essential activity of daily living. If you are to eat meals must be prepared.

I fondly recall the "lunch ladies" of Irving School in Blackfoot, Idaho and George R Fishburne Elementary in Hanahan, South Carolina to this day. They were ALWAYS some of my most favorite people.

As it was then I remain someone who appreciates proper nutrition and enjoys good food. I likewise hold those who prepare food in the highest esteem.

That gourmand which was me early on has evolved to gourmet status so to speak inasmuch as I like good healthy food and pursue it vigorously. Food preparation is essential toward that end if you aim to also diminish that need for restaurants in your existence. Not that a good restaurant experience is to be shunned at all.

Happy National Meal Prep Day.

See Also:

Fast Food Day 2021
 

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June 8, 2023
Viva l'Italia
    Viva l'Italia !

I simply love it when a good plan is set into motion. Something counter to the insanity which the democrats have wrought upon the populace of the United States in all their subversive arrogance and lack of culture and decorum.

In that reality which is based on science it seems that some nations recognize the folly of allowing abnormal behaviors to become mainstream.

The right-wing government of Italy's Lazio region around Rome said on Monday it was withdrawing its backing from the capital's annual LGBT parade. Of course, this drew angry responses from their leftist libtard activists.

Thusly the degeneracy of Pride month as the abomination of America was thwarted in Italy where they launched Family Pride Month.

Georgia Meloni the Prime Minister of Italy made that decision to counter ‘Pride Month’ by launching ‘Family Pride Month’ in the name of the traditional family.

It is officially named “Family Pride 2023 We defend our Children".

It's good to note that there are pockets of sanity and morality in the world.

The utter brazen stupidity of those who think they can change their gender is truly astounding. Failing to recognize a falsehood in biology such as gender is not hate. It's reality.

Viva l'Italia !
 

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June 7, 2023
Daniel Boone Day 2023
When I was a kid Fess Parker as Daniel Boone was a staple in my entertainment choices.

At that age I was unable to discern the fictionalization of the plot line nor the characters and it was an enjoyable interlude for me personally.

Daniel Boone    
The real Daniel Boone was an American frontiersman and pioneer who was born on November 2, 1734 and passed September 26, 1820.

He became the stuff of legend with his various exploits and that folk hero he became remains with those who understand our history.

A number of historians deny the "coonskin cap" references to him in popular culture — insisting that he never wore one.

As for those who would rewrite our history in their own graven false images his memory will survive that onslaught because he is much larger than they.

He was famous primarily for leading the way in settling Kentucky which was then well beyond the existing thirteen colonies and his exploration was a key aspect of the birth of our nation.

Today is Daniel Boone Day.

It happens each June 7 under the auspices of the Kentucky Historical Society where it began it more than 140 years ago.

It coincides with the day in 1769 Daniel Boone became the first American to lay eyes upon the forests, mountains, and valleys of Kentucky.

He founded the village of Boonesborough, Kentucky, which was one of the first American settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Daniel Boone discovered and developed an important American gateway for early settlement west of the Appalachian chain.

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June 6, 2023
National Eyewear Day 2023
    glasses for the masses
I wear glasses. This is the result of presbyopia which is farsightedness due to loss of elasticity in the lens of the eye as the result of age. Of late I have read about late breaking remedies in the threads but have not pursued any of these.

I once wore presecription lenses. With the last of these being what I considered a gross overcharge of $600 I now simply get readers of sufficient magnification and call it a day. Lately I have been trying blue blocking lenses for that life before a computer screen I seem to have cultivated. The optician wonders why she doesn't get adequate business yet preys on those customers who were TRYING to cut her a break.

There was never a time when I did not need glasses as far as I can remember. Beginning with the first grade I wore them. Then I skipped a few years for reasons unknown to me — only to resume later in my school years.

Eye glasses. Sun glasses. Rose colored glasses. They're all the same to me anymore. Simply a focus aid for the eyes. I hate the name eyewear for glasses as much as the name neckwear for ties. I think they are pretentious names for something dull and commonplace. A total lack of spectacles in the correction of vision is the true sign of technological progress.

I'm not too big on those large garish loud colored frames some prefer to wear either. Instead of some oversized distored glitter besmurched faggy looking frames I prefer a more conservative configuration and color scheme to hang on this mug. Save that bling mess for the LBTQ losers and other immature.

Today is National Eyewear Day. It is a day to take note of the need for spectacles and ostensibly to "show them off" as fashion accessories and marvel at the studious they project to your visage.

Try not to look at it as simply being 'blind as a bat' in your old age. You can opt for the various surgical interventions offered such as lasik and other radial keratotomy type procedures. These were never in the cards for me because of the crappy insurance my employers always provided.

So in addition to the bifocal and trifocal lenses of yesteryear we now have access to "smart" liquid crystal sensor lenses which can automatically switch focus from near to far.

I have never worn glasses as a fashion statement. I know some others who do. To each their own and regardless I hope you'll take a moment and consider how well you feel your eyes do the job.

Personally, I have to see to write. I don't really care how I look anymore.

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