Tom

Finally FRIDAY!

Sinhala and Tamil New Year Eve is today! Called Aluth Avurudda in Sinhala and Puthandu in Tamil, New Year’s Day is a statutory holiday in Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, the public holidays for Tamil New Year also recognise that this is also Sinhalese New Year. Like Tamil New Year, it marks the end of the harvest and the arrival of spring as indicated by the sun moving from Meena Rashiya ( Pisces) to Mesha Rashiya (Aries).

To mark the new year, everyone in the country celebrates by wearing light golden clothes and turning towards the east.

The rituals include milk rice mixed with curd as well as sweetmeats with undu flour at specific propitious times of the morning. In Sri Lanka, the day is the time of the traditional first plowing of the ground to mark the start of the new agricultural season. It is a tradition that the first financial transaction of the year is when elders give gifts of money to the unmarried young, as a sign of good luck.


Today is the birthday, in 1950, of American actor, singer, songwriter, and guitarist David Cassidy, known for his role as Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge (played by his stepmother Shirley Jones), in the 1970s musical-sitcom The Partridge Family, which led to him becoming one of popular culture’s teen idols and pop singers of the 1970s. The Partridge Family had the 1970 US No.1 single ‘I Think I Love You’, and the 1972 UK No.3 single ‘Breaking Up Is Hard To Do’. As a solo artist he scored the 1972 UK No.1 single ‘How Can I Be Sure’. He he died of liver failure on November 21, 2017, aged 67. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW4E0jAeAf8

Posted by Tom in Humor, Music, sixties and seventies

Yup. It’s THURSDAY again.

Today is the Anniversary of the Battle of Rivas, a public holiday in Costa Rica. This day, also known as Juan Santamaria Day, honors this pivotal fight for Costa Rica, as well as the 19-year-old, barefooted hero who fought bravely against Nicaragua’s filibuster army and gave his life. The Battle of Rivas occurred on April 11, 1856, in the Nicaraguan city of Rivas. In Costa Rica, the fight is most known for Juan Santamaria’s destruction of the opposing army’s citadel. It is regarded as the most significant in a series of wars, with profound importance to Costa Rica’s national identity.


Three???

More signs…


I couldn’t find any good birthdays today so here is this amazing performance by Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94h2L9oBOHM

Posted by Tom in folk, Humor, Music

WENNS…the DAY

Today is Eid al Fitr in most countries of the world. It marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan for observant Muslims. Eid al-Fitr begins at sunset on the night of the first sighting of the crescent moon.


In case you were wondering…

SIGNZZZ


Today is the birthday, in 1947, of Jamaican singer songwriter and percussionist Bunny Wailer, who was an original member of reggae group The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he is considered one of the long-time standard-bearers of reggae music. He died on 2 March 2021 age 73. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB8EwEeOZ9U

Posted by Tom

2SDAI

Independence Restoration Day, also known as the Day of National Unity, is a public holiday observed annually on April 9th in the country of Georgia. It commemorates the Tbilisi Massacre—a day when an anti-Soviet demonstration on Rustaveli Avenue was violently dispersed by Soviet troops.

During the 1980s, the anti-Soviet movement in Georgia began to take off, with strikes and worker meetings occurring regularly in Tbilisi. On April 4, 1989, thousands of protesters gathered before the Government House on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi to protest Soviet rule. The Soviet authorities tried to gain control of the protests but were unable to, and so on April 8, 1989, the Soviet Army was mobilized to deal with the situation.

On April 9th at 4 am, the Soviet Army attempted to put down the protests. Sixteen protesters were killed at the scene, and four other protesters would die later from their injuries. Hundreds of other protesters were also injured and required medical care.

It was later proven that the Soviets used toxic chemical agents against the demonstrators, and that was the main cause of the deaths. Two years after this event, on April 9, 1991, the Georgian legislature passed a declaration of independence based on the March 31, 1991, referendum in which most Georgians voted to secede from the Soviet Union.


Bada Bingggggg!

Would everyone here for yodeling lessons please form an orderly orderly orderly line?

Our cat knocked over the laundry basket full of freshly ironed clothes. I watched it all unfold.

I remember the first time I made love to my wife and I asked her: “Am I the first one?” She said: “Why does everyone always ask me that?”

I hate when I wake up in the middle of the night to get a quick drink of water and then accidentally eat a whole pizza.

What was it like before the crowbar was invented? Crows drank at home.

Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the hell happened. (This gets truer and truer as time goes on.)

My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.

April 8th, the Sun is getting Mooned.

I started jogging today. I didn’t want to, but the ice cream truck didn’t stop.

SPOILER ALERT: Rice cakes do not contain any actual cake.

April Fools Day is over! Everything on the internet is true again!


Today is the birthday, in 1999, of American rapper, singer and songwriter Lil Nas X, (born Montero Lamar Hill). He came to international attention for his 2019 country rap single ‘Old Town Road’, which reached No.1 on the US Billboard chart and remained there for nineteen weeks, the only song to do so since the chart started in 1958. In June 2019, Nas X came out as gay, the only artist ever to have done so while having a No.1 record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7qovpFAGrQ

Posted by Tom in Humor, Music

MUN…DAE…hmmm

Today Thailand observes Chakri Memorial Day. Officially known as ‘King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke the Great Day and Chakri Dynasty Memorial Day’, Chakri Day commemorates the establishment of the Chakri Dynasty by Phra Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke ( Rama I) in 1782. One of King Rama’s first acts was to make Krung Thep (modern-day Bangkok) the capital of Siam.

Chakri day commemorates the coronation of Rama I but it is also a day for the people of Thailand to recognise the contributions of all the kings in the dynasty.

The current and tenth King (Rama X) of the dynasty is King Vajiralongkorn, who succeeded his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej who died in October 2016.


Today is the birthday, in 1929, of Jacques Brel, Belgian singer, songwriter. Marc Almond, Alex Harvey, David Bowie, Dusty Springfield, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone, The Kingston Trio, Gavin Friday, Joan Baez, Shirley Bassey, Judy Collins, Beach Boys and many, many others have all covered his songs. Brel has sold over 25 million records worldwide, including over 12 million albums and singles in France and Belgium. He died of cancer 9th October 1978. Here’s a cover of one of his songs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWdQbxNEFEs

Posted by Tom in Humor, Music, World