daily humor

16
Oct
2023

maybe…MONDAY

Today is Mothers’ Day in Malawi, a public holiday. Mothers Day in Malawi is not just a day for cards and flowers but is a national holiday aligned with World Rural Women’s Day.

Rural women comprise more than 25% of the total world population yet suffer disproportionately from poverty. While extreme poverty has declined globally, the world’s 1 billion people who continue to live in unacceptable conditions of poverty are heavily concentrated in rural areas. Poverty rates in rural areas across most regions are higher than those in urban areas. Women farmers may be as productive and enterprising as their male counterparts but are less able to access land, credit, agricultural inputs, markets and high-value agrifood chains and obtain lower prices for their crops.

Malawi’s economy is heavily based in agriculture, with a largely rural population so the disparity faced by rural women is keenly felt in this sub-Saharan African nation. This makes the joining of World Rural Women’s Day and Mother’s Day in Malawi an important and appropriate way of highlighting the issues that rural women face while still taking time to celebrate and honor the role of mothers in society.

Cartoon by Jon Adams.

Today is the birthday, in 1947, of American musician and songwriter Bob Weir, best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. The group released more than 140 albums during their career, the majority of them recorded live in concert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48eW3VL-95g

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Posted by Tom in Humor, Music, sixties and seventies
13
Oct
2023

And……it’s FRIDAY (the 13th)!!!

Today is Prince Louis Rwagasore Day, a public holiday in Burundi. This holiday commemorates the life of one of Burundi’s national heroes, who was assassinated on this day in 1961.

Prince Louis Rwagasore was the son of King Mwambutsa IV. He was active in nationalist movements and campaigned for independence from Belgium. The Belgians had maintained a strong colonial rule by skillfully avoiding a unified Burundi nationalist movement by pitting the different ethnic groups against each other. Rwagasore diffused these tensions by organizing cooperatives and political parties that included members from all ethnic groups and my marrying outside his own ethnic group.

He antagonized the Belgian colonial administrators by creating power centers outside their control and because of his popularity among the people of Burundi. In the September 1961 elections before independence, he won 80% of the vote and became the first Prime Minister-elect.

He was gunned down in a hotel restaurant a few weeks later on October 13th 1961. Though his assassin was Greek, strong suspicions remain that his murder was sponsored by a pro-Belgian group.

Today is the birthday, in 1941, of Paul Simon, singer, songwriter, (1970 UK & US No.1 single with Simon and Garfunkel, ‘Bridge Over Trouble Water.’ The duo’s 1970 album ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ spent 307 weeks on the UK chart). Solo, (1986 UK No.4 single ‘You Can Call Me Al’, 1986 UK No.1 album Graceland spent 115 weeks on the UK chart). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmf9ZJ_Yn0A

Posted by Tom in eighties music, Humor, Music
12
Oct
2023

just like any other THURSDAY

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Aperecida, a public holiday in Brazil. Known as ‘Nossa Senhora de Aparecida’, it honors Brazil’s patron saint, the Virgin Mary Aparecida. Mary is honored with a ten-day festival in the city near São Paulo that bears her name.

Legend has it that in October 1717, after a day’s fishing without any luck, fishermen cast their nets into the Paraiba River and pulled up a small brown statue of the Virgin Mary. Then they cast their nets again and this time they came up full of fish. This was the first miracle attributed to the statue.

The area where the miracle happened grew into a city called Aparecida (meaning “she who has appeared”) and a church was built to house the statue which has now become the destination of many pilgrimages. The statue is made of clay and is about 40cm in height. The statue was a lighter shade of brown when found, but is now much darker due to years of exposure to candles and lamps around the altar.

Because of its color and because the miracle happened to a young slave boy, devotion to the statue grew rapidly, particularly among Afro-Brazilians. Our Lady of Aparecida was declared the patron saint of Brazil by Pope Pius XI in 1929. The feast day of Our Lady of Aparecida has been a National Holiday in Brazil since 1980.

Bada BING!!!

A man buried his ex-wife on a golf course so he could still continue to cheat on her.

Hockey is more enjoyable if you pretend they’re fighting over the world’s last Oreo.

People say I act like I don’t care. It’s not an act.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell introduces the new “MyCardboardBox”.

Fox News is news in the same way that cow pies are pies.

I went to the store to get Halloween decorations…Aaaand there were Christmas trees.

You know that feeling of insecurity when Microsoft Word asks if you want to save any changes when you’re sure you didn’t make any.

You never know what I have up my sleeve. Today it was a dryer sheet.

That feeling you get after you wake up from what was supposed to be a 20-minute nap and aren’t sure what day it is.

Today is the birthday, in 1935, of Luciano Pavarotti, one of the most acclaimed operatic tenors of all time, (1990 UK No.2 single ‘Nessun Dorma’, 1990 UK No.1 album ‘The Essential Pavorotti’, spent 72 weeks on the UK chart). He died on 6 September 2007 of pancreatic cancer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWc7vYjgnTs

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Posted by Tom in Humor, Music, opera
11
Oct
2023

WED-NES-DAY or something…

Today is Revolution Day, a public holiday in North Macedonia. Also known as Uprising against Fascism Day, this holiday commemorates the start of the anti-fascist war on this day in 1941.

At the time of the second world war, North Macedonia was part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. On April 6th 1941, German armed forces launched the invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia quickly subjugating the nation. The area of modern-day North Macedonia was known as Vardar Banovina and axis control was divided between Bulgaria, German-occupied Serbia, and Italian-controlled Albania.

Initially, the communists in Yugoslavia had decided to remain neutral in the war and were happy enough to sit and watch the ‘imperials’ fight each other. That changed when Nazi Germany declared war on the Soviet Union. It then became the duty of every communist to resist the Axis powers, wherever and whenever they could.

The Macedonian resistance played a key part in the victory over fascism in the region. After the war, the resistance had created a renewed sense of Macedonian nationalism. The Communists, having taken a lead in the resistance would go on to overthrow the Yugoslav monarchy in November 1945 and proclaim the People’s Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Signz

I totally missed the birthday of Giuseppe Verdi, amazing opera composer, two days ago in 1813. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZvgmpiQCcI

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Posted by Tom in Humor, Music, opera
10
Oct
2023

the morning of TUESDAY!

Today is Maroons Day, a public holiday in Suriname. This holiday celebrates the heritage and contribution to Suriname by the Maroon people.

Maroons were Africans and their descendants in the Americas who formed settlements away from slavery. Some had escaped from plantations, but others were born free within these communities. Maroon communities grew up in several places in the Americas and even in other colonized parts of the world, such as Madagascar.

Suriname was seized by the Dutch in 1667. The Dutch then established about 200 plantations producing sugar, coffee, cocoa and cotton, most of which was exported back to Holland. Over 13,000 African slaves were brought to Suriname to man these plantations. The local Maroon community grew from slaves who managed to escape from the plantations into the jungle. It is a reflection on the horrific conditions within the plantations, that living in a wild, inhospitable South American jungle was preferable to most slaves. The Maroons grew in number and would attack the plantations to acquire supplies and to free female slaves.

On October 10th 1760, the Maroons signed a peace treaty with the Dutch colonial authorities whereby they were recognized as free people and received a yearly tribute that provided them with the goods they used to take from the plantations.

Today is the birthday, in 1955, of American rock vocalist, songwriter David Lee Roth who with Van Halen had the 1984 US No.1 & UK No.7 single ‘Jump’ and the solo, 1988 hit single ‘Just Like Paradise’. Van Halen’s 1978 debut album has sold more than twelve million copies. This video gets to a slow start so skip to about 1:30 to start. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN-4lX0QyZc

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Posted by Tom in eighties music, Humor, Music