sixties and seventies

19
Aug
2024

Must be MONDAY

Today is St. Stephen’s Day, a public holiday in Hungary. It is also known as Foundation Day and Constitution Day. This is the official state holiday of Hungary. This is a ‘bridge day’ allowing a four day holiday including the official St. Stephen’s Day on the 20th.

St. Stephen of Hungary (Szent István király) was the first king of Hungary and he laid the foundation of the state by converting the Magyar people to Christianity.

After a serious military loss in 955 AD, Hungarian tribal leaders decided to abandon their nomadic existence. Stephen, the Grand Prince of the Hungarians, realized that conversion to Christianity would be a way of strengthening the idea of Hungarian nationhood.

St. Stephen’s Day may be called “the day of the new bread” as it is a tradition to cut bread on this day to celebrate the arrival of the harvest.

Stephen received the “Sacred Crown” from Pope Sylvester II becoming Hungary’s first king on Christmas Day in 1000 AD, ruling until his death on August 15th 1038. Stephen was buried next to his son, Imre in St. Mary’s Church in Székesfehérvár. His remains were later transferred to Buda. His Holy Crown has survived the centuries since and it is now Hungary’s most precious treasure.

August 20th was first celebrated in 1092, when another saint king, Ladislaus I declared it a sacred day.

Until 1687, August 20th was St. Stephen’s feast day and thus became Hungary’s national day, even after the feast day itself has switched around in the calendar a few times. August 20th has been a national holiday since 1771 when Queen Maria Theresia changed it from a church feast to an official national holiday. 

In 1945 Communist leaders prohibited celebrations due to its religious nature and in 1950 it was changed to Constitution Day. It was reinstated as a celebration of St. Stephen in 1990 by the Hungarian Parliament.

Today is the birthday, in 1940, of American singer-songwriter Johnny Nash, who had the 1972 US No.1 single ‘I Can See Clearly Now’, and the 1975 UK No.1 single ‘Tears On My Pillow’. Nash died of natural causes on 6 October 2020 age 80. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDNKOblg3gs

Posted by Tom in Humor, Music, sixties and seventies
14
Aug
2024

Could be WEDNESDAY, but…

Today is Independence Day, a public holiday in Pakistan. On this day in 1947, Pakistan gained independence from British rule. Pakistan had been part of the colony of India since the 18th century, firstly as part of the East India Company and then as part of the British Indian Empire.

In 1946, Britain, exhausted by World War II, realized that it had neither the mandate at home, the support internationally, nor the reliability of the British Indian Army for continuing to control an increasingly restless British India. plans began to end British rule.

the Indian National Congress, being a secular party, demanded a single state. The All India Muslim League, who disagreed with the idea of single state, stressed the idea of a separate Pakistan as an alternative. On 3 June 1947, the British government announced that the principle of division of British India into two independent states was accepted.

The partition was accompanied by violent riots and mass casualties, and the displacement of nearly 15 million people due to religious violence across the subcontinent; millions of Muslim, Sikh and Hindu refugees trekked the newly drawn borders to Pakistan and India respectively in the months surrounding independence.

On 14 August 1947, the new Dominion of Pakistan became independent and Muhammad Ali Jinnah was sworn in as its first governor general in Karachi.

Sometimes we find irony in the wild

Today is the birthday, in 1941, of American singer-songwriter and guitarist David Crosby, a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash. With CS&N he had the 1969 UK No.17 single ‘Marrakesh Express’, 1970 US No.11 single with Crosby, Stills Nash & Young plus the 1970 US No.1 album ‘Deja Vu’ and the 1975 US No. 6 solo album ‘Wind On The Water’. Crosby died on 18 January 2023 age 81. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuLBhxZUkmU

Posted by Tom in Humor, Music, sixties and seventies
13
Aug
2024

just TUESDAY

Today is Independence Day, a public holiday in the Central African Republic. This is the National Day of the Central African Republic (CAR)CAR is a state in the heart of the African continent with a territory of about 622,400 square km and a population of 4.6 million people.

According to the UN, the republic is among the least developed countries in Africa in socio-economic terms, however, the country has rich deposits of uranium, oil, gold and diamonds. This country’s inland location meant that it didn’t have the first wave of contact with Europeans as they rounded the coast of Africa looking for a passageway to India.

The isolation ended with the arrival of the slave trade with some local tribes becoming suppliers to the Europeans and Arab traders. The slave trade depopulated large parts of the region and shattered the sophisticated societies that had developed. To compound the chaos, at the end of the 19th century, the region couldn’t escape the so-called ‘Scramble for Africa’ as France, Germany, and Belgium all vied for control of the land.

Already controlling large swathes of surrounding Africa, the French won out and in 1894, set up a dependency called Ubangi-Shari. In 1910, Ubangi-Shari became part of the Federation of French Equatorial Africa. The history of Ubangi-Shari then runs along similar lines to the other French colonies with the French imposing and abusing harsh labour laws to exact the cost of maintaining their expensive overseas colonies

After the end of the second world war, Ubangi-Shari reached a nationalist milestone when Barthelemy Boganda, founder of the pro-independence Social Evolution Movement of Black Africa, became the first Central African to be elected to the French parliament.

The French constitutional referendum of September 1958 dissolved the French Equatorial Africa, and on December 1st of the same year the Assembly declared the birth of the autonomous Central African Republic.

Boganda died in 1959, and just one later on August 13th 1960, Ubangi-Shari gained its independence becoming the Central African Republic, with David Dacko, nephew of Boganda, as its president.

Uh oh…

BADA BING!!!!!

Cyclists repeatedly fail Captcha tests after failing to identify images with traffic lights.

I live in constant fear of being asked to share a ‘fun fact about me’.

Chicken lips went to HR and complained. Now we can’t use nicknames at work anymore.

One minute you’re young and having fun, and the next, you’re putting on your glasses to hear better.

My body’s ‘check engine light’ is on, but I’m still driving it around like, ‘nah, it’ll be okay’.

I have a mental illness that makes me think that people will change their minds if I present them with the correct facts and data.

Life is short. Make sure you spend as much time as possible on the internet arguing with strangers.

People at the front door: Have you found Jesus? Resident: WTF, you lost him again?! Next time use bigger nails!

Tim Walz is the guy who mows your lawn when you break your leg. JD Vance is the guy who reports your overgrown lawn to the HOA.

Don’t block all of your haters. Leave one or two so they can report back to headquarters.

Do you think Pavlov thought about feeding his dog every time he heard a bell ring?

I didn’t mean to gain all this weight. It happened by snaccident.

On this day in 1964, The Supremes recorded ‘Baby Love’, written and produced by Motown’s main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, the song went on to be the group’s first UK No.1 and second US chart-topper. It was also the second of five Supremes songs in a row to go to No.1 in the United States. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_y6nFjoVp4

Posted by Tom in Humor, Music, sixties and seventies
06
Aug
2024

2s DAY

Today is Independence Day, a public holiday in Bolivia. Known in Spanish as ‘Dia de la Patria’, this is Bolivia’s National Day and marks the signing of the Declaration of Independence on August 6th 1825.

On May 25th 1809, the Chuquisaca (modern-day Sucre) Revolution was the first popular uprising in Latin America and is known in Bolivia as ‘Primer grito libertario’ (the first shout of freedom). This led to the Bolivian War of Independence which would last for 16 years. Eventually, the Colonial forces were defeated and Bolivian independence was proclaimed on August 6th 1825.

To honor the role of the Venezuelan resistance leader Simón Bolívar in leading the fight for independence, Charcas was renamed Bolivia. Interestingly it is said that when deciding what path Charcas should take after independence from Spain, Bolívar favoured a union with Peru and that naming Bolivia after him was a way to get him to accept creating a newly independent country.

Bolivia’s flag features its coat of arms emblazoned on three horizontal bands of red, yellow, and green, representing the nation’s fight for independence, vast mineral resources, and wealth of agriculture and landscapes, respectively.

The coat of arms further symbolizes Bolivia’s natural landscape with a depiction of the sun rising adjacent to Mount Potosi, the peak that towers over La Paz.

Huanya Potosi

A photo?????

BADA BING!!!

I hate it when people ask me if I did anything exciting over the weekend…like I’m over here skydiving. I’m old. I went to Costco, did some laundry, ate too much food, and took a nap.

A huge part of marriage is asking the other person if they have “any thoughts on dinner?” every day for the rest of your life.

JD Vance’s couch is polling higher than JD Vance right now. Also, JD Vance is probably polling his couch right now.

A friend who has worked in Chicago his entire life tells me it’s not that violent. His job is tail gunner on a school bus.

Barbie: My product was first launched in Japan. Oppenheimer: Mine too.

I was born a male and identify as a male. But according to Stouffer’s lasagna, I’m a family of four.

I prefer Christians who get upset about poverty, racism, war, and injustice rather than art they don’t understand.

Apparently, the wound on his ear healed. I’m still waiting for the hole under his nose to close up.

New book: Everything I don’t like is THE DEVIL! The emotional Bible thumpers guide to the 2024 Olympics opening.

The greatest difference between a man and a woman is the meaning of “What an ass”.

I wish I had enough money to discover that it doesn’t make me happy.

Driving by myself is exhausting because I have to be the lead singer, the backup singers, the dancers, etc.

Elon now says he is punishing people who use the term ‘weird’ to disparage supporters of OrangeMan. BWAHAHAHAHAHA

I showed my blog to my psychiatrist and she wants to talk to all of you.

Never baptize a cat. Apparently, they don’t like it when you try to save their soul. Trust me. 

I did a push-up today. Well, actually I fell down. But I had to use my arms to get up So… you know, close enough.

He was White and then all of a sudden he became Orange. Someone should look into that.

On this day in 1974, ABBA scored their first US top 10 hit when ‘Waterloo’ went to No.6. ‘Waterloo’ was written specifically to be entered into the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, after the group finished third with ‘Ring Ring’ the previous year in the Swedish pre-selection contest. The original title of the song was ‘Honey Pie’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJBNJ2wq0Y

Posted by Tom in Humor, Music, sixties and seventies
02
Aug
2024

First FRIDAY in August!

The Day of Our Lady of the Angels (Virgen de los Angeles) is a public holiday in Costa Rica observed on August 2nd each year. This important religious holiday honors the patron saint of Costa Rica, the Virgin Mary. It is not unusual for a country to venerate Mary, what is different in Costa Rica is that the holiday specifically honors a small statue of Mary.

The ‘La Negrita’ is a small statue of the Virgin Mary carved from dark wood, that was found on August 2nd 1635 by a native woman called Juana Pereira.

When Juana naturally picked up this statue to take it home. It then vanished, only to reappear at the same spot she originally found it. This happened again before the townspeople saw this as a sign of divine intervention and built a shrine around it. 

The Basilica Virgen de Los Angeles in Cartago was built over the shrine in 1639, but this was partially destroyed in an earthquake. A restored structure was completed in 1722.

In 1824, the Virgin was declared Costa Rica’s patron saint.

La Negrita is kept in the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Cartago. Each year, the anniversary of the statue’s discovery is a popular pilgrimage, with thousands making the 22 km journey from San José to the basilica. Some will make the walk barefoot and many will complete the last few hundred meters to see La Negrita on their knees. 

When you skip anatomy class but still go to marketing class…

Today is the birthday, in 1937, of Canadian multi-instrumentalist and a master of the Lowrey organ, Garth Hudson, The The Hawks (Ronnie Hawkins’s backing group), who then became known as The Band and also backed Bob Dylan on his US tour in 1965 and world tour in 1966. The Band had the 1969 US No.25 single ‘Up On Cripple Creek’, 1970 UK No.16 single ‘Rag Mama Rag’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-w9OclUnns

Posted by Tom in Humor, Music, sixties and seventies