doo-wop

07
Aug
2023

First MONDAY in August

Today is Kadooment Day in Barbados. It marks the finale of the six-week Crop Over festival and is one of the most colorful and energetic of the Caribbean carnivals.

The Crop Over Festival is the traditional end of the Sugar cane season and has been celebrated for over 200 years. Sugar cane was first introduced to Barbados at the end of the seventeenth century. It made Barbados home to one of the world’s biggest sugar industries. This meant a large workforce was needed and slaves and indentured servants were brought from Africa. It was these workers who also brought the traditional harvest festival of Crop Over from Africa.

On Grand Kadooment, a parade of Masquerade Bands with about 1,500 revelers takes place on the streets cheered on by the throngs of onlookers trying to make themselves heard over beat of the the calypso music. At the end of the parade the bands are judged and while there is a keenly contested Designer of the Year prize, for most the focus is on having fun.

Today is the birthday, in 1928, of Herb Reed, bass singer from American vocal group The Platters who had the 1959 UK & US No.1 single ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’. The Platters were one of the first African-American groups to be accepted as a major chart group and were, for a period of time, the most successful vocal group in the world. Reed died aged 83 on June 4th 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAUJSc6unAg

Posted by Tom in doo-wop, Humor, Music
22
May
2023

and MONDAY rears its ugly head…

Today is St. Helena’s Day – a public holiday on St. Helena Island. It commemorates the discovery of the island by the Portuguese explorer João da Nova, said to be on May 21st, 1502. St. Helena is a British Overseas Territory and is one of the most remote islands in the world. It is about 1200 miles west of the coast of Africa and about 2500 miles east of South America. The island has a population of about 4400 and is about 47 square miles.

Flag of St. Helena

Today is the birthday, in 1941, of Jackie Landry Jackson, singer, from girl group, The Chantels, who had the 1958 top 20 hit ‘Maybe’ and the 1961 hit ‘Look In My Eyes’. She died on December 23, 1997. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IePTH1PWzAs

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Posted by Tom in doo-wop, Humor, Music
05
May
2023

It is indeed FRIDAY

Today is Great Prayer Day in Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Store Bededag, also known as Great Prayer Day or General Prayer Day, is a special Danish festival celebrated on the fourth Friday after Easter Sunday. People in Denmark will no longer get a public holiday for “Great Prayer Day” from 2024 after lawmakers passed a bill on scrapping it as a public holiday.

Unusually for a holiday, the source for Great Prayer can be traced to one man, Hans Bagger, who was a bishop in Roskilde in the late seventeenth century. Bagger had introduced some new praying and fasting days, but given the number of holy days in the calendar already, it became clear that all the days of praying and fasting were having an impact on daily life, so it was decided that several of the lesser holy days should be combined into one of Bagger’s days, which became Great Prayer Day.

The Great Prayer Day was put on the Statute book by King Christian V in 1686.

Under the law, all trade, work, etc were forbidden from 6pm on the day before Great Prayer Day, to ensure that nobody would be late or drunk when they had to attend the next day’s obligatory church service.

The bakers came up with the idea of baking some extra ‘hvede’ – cardamom-infused wheat buns with a generous spreading of butter on the Thursday which could then be heated up and eaten the following day. It gradually became common throughout the country to eat the hot buns, but nowadays on the evening before Great Prayer Day.

Today is the birthday, in 1942, of American soul singer and actress Barbara Randolph who recorded for Motown Records in the 1960s. In 1964, she joined The Platters. She died on 15 July 2002 age 60. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEzfhclKO8Q

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Posted by Tom in doo-wop, Humor, Music
13
Mar
2023

MONDAY – two days before the Ides of March

Today is Commonwealth Day in Tuvalu and 55 other countries. Commonwealth Day 2023 marks the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Commonwealth Charter, which was signed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 11 March 2013.

Commonwealth Flag

Seems reasonable…

Monday morning…

SIGNZ

Today is the birthday, in 1939, of Neil Sedaka, American singer and songwriter who had the 1959 UK No.3 single ‘Oh Carol’ plus over 30 US & 14 UK other Top 40 singles including the 1962 US No.1 & UK No.7 single ‘Breaking Up Is Hard To Do’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbad22CKlB4

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Posted by Tom in doo-wop, Humor, Music, sixties and seventies
09
May
2022

Muuuuuuuunnnday…

Today is Liberation Day in Guernsey and Jersey. On 9 May 1945, HMS Bulldog arrived in St Peter Port, Guernsey, and the German forces surrendered unconditionally aboard the vessel at dawn. The same day, HMS Beagle, which had set out from Plymouth, arrived in Jersey to accept the surrender of the occupying forces there. Sark was liberated on 10 May 1945, and the German troops in Alderney surrendered on 16 May 1945.

Deep End
irritatingwhine

Motherhood

Jonah’s mother: “That’s a nice story. Now tell me where you’ve really been for the last three days.”

Mrs. Columbus: “I don’t care what you discovered — you still could have written!”

Mrs. Angelo: “Michael, why can’t you paint on walls, like other children? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get that stuff off the ceiling?”

Mona Lisa’s mother: “After all the money your father and I spent on braces, that’s the biggest smile you can give us?”

Mrs. Bonaparte: “All right, if you aren’t hiding your report card inside your jacket, take your hand out of there and show me.”

Mrs. Revere: “I don’t care where you think you have to go, young man. Midnight is past your curfew!”

Mrs. Washington: “The next time I catch you throwing money across the Potomac, you can kiss your allowance goodbye!”

Mrs. Lincoln: “Again with the stovepipe hat? Why can’t you just wear a baseball cap like the other kids?”

Mrs. Edison: “Of course I’m proud that you invented the electric light bulb, Tommy. Now turn it off and go to bed!”

Mrs. Einstein: “But it’s your senior picture, Albert. Can’t you do something about your hair? Styling gel, mousse, something?”

Mrs. Locks: “I just got a bill for a broken chair from the Bear family. You know anything about this, Goldie?”

Mrs. Muffet: “Well, if you don’t get off your tuffet and start cleaning your room, there’ll be a lot more spiders around here!”

Mrs. Kent: “Clark, your father and I have decided to get you your own telephone. Now will you quit spending so much time in phone booths?”

Getting close to wedding season…

Today is the birthday, in 1941, of Danny Rapp, frontman for the doo-wop group Danny and the Juniors.

Posted by Tom in doo-wop, Humor, Music