Today is the First Day of Summer in Iceland. Known in Icelandic as ‘Sumardagurinn fyrsti’, this holiday is an Icelandic flag day and marks the arrival of the first day of summer.
Given the climate in Iceland, it might seem strange that summer comes so early to Iceland. However, in Iceland, the old Norse calendar was in use by the first settlers to Iceland in the 9th century and it divided the year into only two seasons, vetur (winter) and (sumar) summer.
On Sumardagurinn Fyrsti, children in Iceland receive summer gifts (“sumargjafir.”) A tradition of gift-giving to children on the first day of summer predating the similar Christmas practice by hundreds of years.
Traditionally children were given food as a gift. They might receive bread or other treats as the need to ration food over the winter was ending. The gift was seen as a way of rewarding the children for having had to endure the long winter.
How to get there:
Today is the birthday, in 1945, of Doug Clifford, drummer with Creedence Clearwater Revival who scored the 1969 US No.2 & UK No.1 single ‘Bad Moon Rising’, and the 1970 US & UK No.1 album Cosmo’s Factory. The band has sold 26 million albums in the United States alone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWijx_AgPiA
St. George’s Day is celebrated annually on 23rd April, as this is the generally accepted date of St. George’s death. St. George, who famously slew the dragon and saved the maiden, is patron of archers, armorers, Boy Scouts, butchers, cavalry, chivalry, Crusaders, equestrians, farmers, field hands, field workers, horsemen, horses, husbandmen, knights, lepers, Order of the Garter, Palestinian Christians, riders, Romanian Army, saddle makers, saddlers, sheep, shepherds, soldiers, Teutonic Knights; Canada; England; Ethiopia; Georgia; Germany; Greece; Lithuania; Malta; Portugal; Cappadocia; Catalonia; Palestine; over 20 cities and diocese around the world.
St. George was a cavalryman in the Roman army at Lydda, now in modern-day Israel. He was a Christian at a time when Rome was ruled by the emperor Diocletian, who was anti-Christian. He refused to make sacrifices to the Roman gods. As a result, he was tortured over several years and eventually suffered a martyr’s death, when he was beheaded in 303 AD.
Not everyone believes the story about the dragon:
To save a Maid, St. George the Dragon slew
A pretty tale if all is told be true
Most say there are no Dragons, and ’tis said
There was no George; pray God there was a Maid.
— John Aubrey, Remains of Gentilism (1688)
St. George and the Dragon – Raphael (National Gallery of Art)
me too…
Bargain!
SIGNZ
and no paddle
Today is the birthday, in 1940, of Dale Houston, American singer who, along with his performing partner, Grace Broussard, hit the Billboard chart as Dale & Grace with two rock and roll singles. The first was the No. 1 gold record ‘I’m Leaving It Up to You’ in 1963. ‘Stop and Think It Over’ reached No. 8 in 1964. Their recordings are highly regarded examples of the Louisiana-Texas style known as “Swamp Pop”. Houston died on 27 September 2007. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5L5i7ARdAY
Today is Earth Day. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally through earthday.org (formerly Earth Day Network)[1] including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. Earth Day is a day to demonstrate support for our environment through our actions, advocacy, and education.
Earth Day’s 2025 theme is Our Power, Our Planet, calling for everyone to unite around renewable energy. Remember, this is the only planet we have.
BADA BING!!!
When Tesla vandalism gets you a 20-year sentence and storming the Capitol earns you a pardon, you have officially reached sh*t-hole country status.
Manager: I don’t think you could be any more sarcastic even if you tried. Me: I really don’t think you want me to test that theory.
Marriage is when one person is always right and the other person is the husband.
Rich people have fancy labels on their clothes. Happy people have dog hair on them.
I misspelled “I’m unstoppable,” and my phone autocorrected to “I’m unstable,” and honestly, that’s fair.
One day you’re young and careless, and the next you have a favorite pharmacy.
“You’re acting weird”. “Okay, well, first, I’m not acting.”
The kid bagging my groceries asked if I wanted paper or plastic. I said you choose. He said baggers can’t be choosers.
Today is the birthday, in 1956, of American singer, songwriter, Cynthia Johnson best known as the lead singer of the band Lipps Inc who had the 1980 worldwide smash hit ‘Funkytown’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhzy7JaU2Zc
Today is Tiradentes Day, a public holiday in Brazil. Tiradentes Day in Brazil commemorates the execution of Brazilian national hero Joaquim Jose da Silva Xavier (August 16th 1746 – April 21st 1792).
Xavier (Tiradentes) was a Brazilian revolutionary who, as a founder of the Inconfidência Mineira movement, fought for Brazilian independence and freedom from Portuguese colonial power. At the time, Portugal was imposing onerous tax burdens on the Brazilians, as they tried to maintain income from the colony despite declining levels of gold being mined.
Tiradentes hatched a plan to take to the streets and declare independence on a day when taxes were due. The plan was betrayed and the rebels were arrested in February 1789. During the subsequent trial, Tiradentes took full responsibility for the insurrection plot and executed by hanging on April 21st 1792. His body was quartered and his head displayed as a warning to other revolutionaries.
Xavier was a dentist by trade. This holiday gets its name from “tiradentes” meaning “tooth-puller”, which was a nickname adopted during his trial.
On this day in 1990, Paul McCartney played in front of 184,000 fans at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, creating a new world record for the largest crowd attending a rock concert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OuYLGHkrBk
At 05:12 AM Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). Devastating fires soon broke out in San Francisco and lasted for several days. More than 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city was destroyed. The event is remembered as the deadliest earthquake in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California’s history and high on the list of worst American disasters.
Between 227,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of about 410,000. As damaging as the earthquake and its aftershocks were, the fires that burned out of control afterward were far more destructive. It has been estimated that at least 80%, and at most over 95%, of the total destruction was the result of the subsequent fires. Within three days, over 30 fires, caused by ruptured gas mains, destroyed approximately 25,000 buildings on 490 city blocks. The fires cost an estimated $350 million at the time (equivalent to $8.9 billion in 2023).
Gotta love Utah…
Katy…
BADA BING!!!!
My life is a constant battle between wanting to correct grammar and wanting to have friends.
Sometimes I meet people and feel bad for their dog.
You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you.
Steal this chant for your next rally: Small Hands Small Feet – All He Does is Golf and Tweet.
So, it’s okay for a cat to run away and hide under the bed when visitors come, but, when I do it, it’s “rude” and “antisocial.”
My 401k has been converted to a 404k.
I miss the old sleepy guy who never bankrupted a casino or our economy or turned our country into a global pariah.
I miss the calm old guy who rescued the economy without turning every single headline into a circus act.
God: I should have made more AOCs.
I will never understand how folks let a man who bankrupted 6 companies convince them he’d be better for the economy than the prosecutor with an economics degree.
If you serve your kids frozen pizza or chicken nuggets for dinner, you are a terrible parent. I don’t care how busy you are, find the time to microwave them.
I went to the grocery store today and the cashier said my total was $208.47. I wanted a second opinion so I went to self-checkout and my new total was 43.20.
If you honestly think stealing food stamps is easy, you’ve clearly never tried qualifying for them.
Boobytrap spelled backward is partyboob.
Dr. Oz was confirmed to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is great news for the snake oil industry.
Getting older is wild. I thought I blacked out for 20 minutes this morning. Turns out, I just put my hoodie on backward.
Sign of the year at protest…Hey trump, nobody paid us to be here! We all hate you for free!
I’ll never be okay with donut shops cutting a hole in my donut, and then charging me separately for the same hole they robbed me of.
When someone tells me I look familiar, I just tell them “I do porn”.
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