Famous First Words: Should the shade of Plato visit us...W H Auden Grub First, Then Ethics
I love Mardi Gras with every bead of my heart. / This is NOT the day to be sober.
..........It takes a cool cat to blow a horn..........Hawketts …..Mardi Gras Mambo
War can't end terrorism. War is terrorism. -Philip Berrigan
It is a gorgeous but chilly (34°F) Mardi Gras morning. The sun is climbing the eastern sky illuminating the colors of the winter Earth. There is very little wind to set the scene in motion and not birds fly by to catch the eye. The only sound I hear is the hum on the furnace and the click of computer keys. All the other people and the dog are still abed and the cat and I have the place to ourselves. As the furnace runs its course and falls quiet, I can hear a quarrel of sparrows chirping away unseen, welcoming the day. When I stop to listen and to sip the hot, sweet decaf, a crow joins the conversation and the sparrows answer the call. It's Mardi Gras; it's time to clean out the fridge and our lives in preparation for spring. Party on – at least until midnight.
Hope your Mardi Gras is better than beignets, ePistliers.
First Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: I've decided to stop being self aware...what I do is none of my business.
Talk about inflation! You used to be able to buy Manhattan for beads. / The real reason birds fly south for the winter is the Mardi Gras in New Orleans or Rio.
..........Gitchay big bass drum led the second line.........Wild Magnolias …..All On A Mardi Gras Day
Trivia Questions: Happy Birthday, Alka-Seltzer
- ^ Where did this silly name, Alka-Seltzer, come from?
- ^^ What inspired the creation of Alka-Seltzer?
- ^^^ What joke did W C Fields make about the fizzing of Alka-Seltzer?
- ^^^^ What was the name of the product mascot of a puppet with a tablet-shaped hat?
- ^^^^^ How speedy is Alka-Seltzer anyway?
Big Hello: 今日は konnichiwa – Japanese https://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/hello.htm
Note To Reader of the Week: There will be NO ePistle this coming Friday (2/24). The next ePistle should arrive on March 3rd.
Second Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Don't tell me how to pagan; if I wanted rules, I'd go to church. ----Submitted by MMS
Image of the Week: Sam Smith, singer, on the red carpet in an inflatable suit at the Brit Awards (2/13/23)
Fake Library Statistics of the Week: For 89% of librarians sexting is sending pictures of book covers. https://www.facebook.com/FakeLibStats/?fref=ts
Mardi Gras is the only time of year that you can take a condescending prude and bead them down to size. / Don't worry; you can confess it all at the Ash Wednesday service.
..........See that guy all dressed in green.........Dixie Cups …..Iko Iko
Moonbeam: When humor goes, there goes civilization. --Erma Bombeck
Meditation of the Week: Which is “more real” the spiritual realm or the material world? Hypatia ~~Hypatia of Alexandria is known as the world's earliest female philosopher
Puzzle of the Week: Name a well-known movie in two words with a total of 13 letters. Each of the two words contains the letter C. Drop both C's. The letters that remain in the second word of the title will be in alphabetical order, and the letters that remain in the first word will be in reverse alphabetical order. What movie is it? NPR Sunday Puzzle 2/24/13
Next Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: I start every song by counting 1-2-3-4 because it reminds me of math, math depresses me, and that helps me sing the blues.
JK Rowling wrote a book about Mardi Gras called “Fantastic Beads and Where to Find Them”. / Mardi Gras – a Christian excuse to have a Pagan party.
..........And there's music in the street both night and day.........Paul Simon …..Take Me To The Mardi Gras
^ Alka-Seltzer is a coined word that suggests alkalinity and the carbonation of seltzer.
Worthless Fact of the Week: “Take me to the Mardi Gras” is one of the most sampled songs in hip-hop history. The track's drum fills and cowbell-eccentric breakbeast have appeared in over 300 songs.
Almanac: It is Tuesday, February 22. The moon was new yesterday (2/20) and is in Pisces. It is Mardi Gras, aka Fat Tuesday, Fastnacht, Fetter Dienstag, Pancake Tuesday, Paczki. UNESCO has declared this International Mother Language Day. It is also Card Reading Day.
Among those born on this day were Peter II (1728), Charles Scribner (1821), Andres Segovia (1893), Anais Nin (1903), W. H. Auden (1904), Murry the K (1922), Erma Bombeck (1927), Nina Simone (1933), David Geffen (1943), Alan Rickman (1946), Tyne Daly (1946), William Petersen (1953), and Mary-Chapin Carpenter (1958).
On February twenty-first Thomas a Becket was canonized (1173), the trial of Joan of Arc began (1431), Boris Godunov became tsar (1584), Michael Romanov received the title tsar (1613), the Presidential Succession Act passed (1792), the first native American newspaper was published (Cherokee Phoenix, 1828), Lucy Hobbs became the first US female dentist (1866), the Washington Monument was dedicated (1885), the National Ski Association formed (1904), New Yorker was first published (1925), Alka Seltzer was introduced (1931), Elizabeth Taylor married Micahel Wilding (1952) and Richard Nixon visited China (1972).
Night Sky, 2/21: As soon as you first see Venus through the fading twilight this evening, look below it for the very thin waxing crescent Moon, just a day and a half old http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/sky-at-a-glance/
Fraternal Picture of the Week: Wild Boys, Max and Ollie
Extra Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: The barking could be boredom, fear, separation anxiety, or just wanting attention. But most likely it's because he's a dog.
This Week: Wednesday, February 22 – World Thinking Day & Ash Wednesday
Thursday, February 23 – Curling Is Cool Day 7 Single Tasking Day & International Toast Day
Night Sky, 2/23: Sirius blazes high in the south on the meridian by about 8 or 9 p.m. now. Using binoculars or a scope at low power, examine the spot 4° south of Sirius (directly below it when on the meridian). Four degrees is somewhat less than the width of a typical binocular's or finderscope's field of view. Can you see a little patch of speckly gray haze? That's the open star cluster M41, about 2,200 light-years away. Its total magnitude adds up to 5.0.
Friday, February 24 – National Dance Day & World Bartender Day & Forget Me Not Day
Saturday, February 25 – International Sword Swallowers Day & Rubber Ducky Day & Open That Bottle Night
Sunday, February 26 – Carpe Diem Day & Letter To An Elder Day & World Pistachio Day
Night Sky, 2/26: First-quarter Moon (exactly first quarter at 3:06 a.m. tonight EST). This evening the Moon shines between Aldebaran and the Pleiades, as shown below. Mars is off to the Moon's left.
Monday, February 27 – International Polar Bear Day & Museum Advocacy Day &
Tuesday, February 28 – Floral Design Day & National Tooth Fairy Day
Wednesday, March 1 – Pig Day & World Compliment Day & Zero Discrimination Day
Thursday, March 2 – Dr Seuss Day & Read Across America Day
Emma Watson made a Mardi Gras movie called “Beauty and the Beads”. / Mardi Gras is always a good idea.
..........It's good for the body and it's good for your soul........The Meters …..Hey Pocky A-Way
^^ In 1928 Hub Beardsley, president of Dr Miles Laboratories, discovered that the editor of the local newspaper in Elkhart, IN, prevented his staff from getting influenza during a severe epidemic by giving them a novel combination of aspirin and baking soda. Beardsley immediately set this chief chemist, Maurice Renee, to work devising a tablet containing the two ingredients.
Preantepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: It was so cold in Mississippi the temperature went down to Tupelo.
Moonbeam: Housework, if you do it right, will kill you. --Erma Bombeck
Video of the Week: Speedy Alka-Seltzer singing Plop Plop Fizz Fizz (:29)
Not So Late Night Snacks of the Week: Not My Job - Signed Curious in Chicago: a) Why should the putting of a man's hand in cold water occasion a sudden emission of urine notwithstanding his being fast asleep? b) Dancing - is it lawful? c) What is the cause of the winds and from whence do they come and whither do they go? Questions submitted to the Athean Mercury's Advice Column in the 1690s. --Alzo Slade Wait Wait Don't Tell Me 2/18/23
Nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself. --Philip Berrigan
Dear New Orleans, your Fat Tuesday is Charlie Sheen's Regular Tuesday. / Pour me a Mardi-rita.
..........There is a house in New Orleans.........The Animals …..House of the Rising Sun
^^^ Alka-Seltzer was used as a hang-over cure prompting W C Fields to say, “Can't anyone do something about that racket?”
Antepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Atheism: All of the Mardi Gras, none of the Lent.
Live Stream of the Week: Live stream street cameras of parades and people can be found at https://neworleanswebsites.com/cat/tr/mg/mgc/mgc.html
Not the Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Jesus would have never spent $14,000,000 on Super Bowl ads. Jesus would have fed, clothed, and housed 14,000,000 people instead. --Submitted by ar of ks
Weird Word of the Week: wadmal – a course usually undyed wool https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadmal
Dragon of the Week: Mardi Gras Dragon
Wacky Uses for Common Products: Remove hairspray from walls, mirrors, floors, or counter tops. Dampen a sheet of Bounce with water and wipe the area affected by the hair spray, then wipe clean with a damp clean cloth. https://www.wackyuses.com/wacky/bounce.html
A hamburger covered in beads is called a French Quarter Sounder. / Beads and Bling – It's a Mardi Gras Thing
...........Smell of the morning in a rainy land.........Dennis Quaid …..Closer To You
^^^^ Speedy Alka-Seltzer, the product mascot, was created in 1951 and has co-starred with Buster Keaton, Martha Tilton, Sammy Davis, Jr, and the Flintstones.
Penultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Earthlings, If you want us to take Marjorie Taylor Greene back, please stop shooting down every intergalactic Uber we send for her. Thank you. Sporkfoot Federation --Submitted by sb of ar
Science Fiction Convention of the Week: Pensacon 2023 (24-26, Pensacola, FL) ...returns to celebrate its 10th anniversary. https://beta.purplepass.com/events/232300-pensacon-2023-feb-24-26-feb-23 rd
Actual Science Conference of the Week: Lab Expo Tunisia 2023 (21-22, Tunis, Tunisia) Laboratory equipment and technologies. https://www.eventseye.com/fairs/f-lab-expo-tunisia-17753-1.html
Answer to Puzzle of the Week: Police Academy → polie aademy
New Orleans – everywhere else it's just Tuesday. / All things are possible with beads and bling.
..........Les Mardi Gras sont d'sus un grand voyage.........Balfa Brothers …..La Danse de Mardi Gras
^^^^^ The buffered aspirin in Alka-Seltzer peaks within 30 minutes, whereas regular aspirin peaks in about 2 hours.
My Own Writing of the Week: For we must seize again our myths; not to rewrite them nor to repaint or repair or restyle them But to relive them. --Christine Leonard
Foreskins, used in rainmaking, 75
Actual entry in the index of The Golden Bough by Frazer.
I did not find female deities in any way better or superior or more compassionate than male deities. There were goddesses who demanded human sacrifice just as some gods did. Kali was the goddess of death as well as birth. The worship seems to have been and is as varied as the cultures that produced them. Yes, there was a tendency for male sects to be a little less open than female sects, but not everywhere and not all of them.
I found a story that I have been unable to find again that said a warrior was expected to slice off his own foreskin and place it on the altar of the great mother. That's devotion. Whew! Apparently, that's how you knew you were ready to move from training to actual war.
What was there was a validation of many of my experiences. Orgasm as communion with god was only one. The cave experience that I mentioned above and wrote about in An Act Surprising was illuminated (or endarkened to borrow a word from Terry Pratchett, it is a cave, after all). Seed's underground growing themselves toward light became a metaphor for uniting the subterranean and subconscious to begat a new person from the current person like a phoenix rising from the flame. You can weather anything by growing a new you.
I learned that women's bodies and fluids were sacred to some cultures at some times; and that there were peoples who revered woman energy simply because it was what it was, not because it could make babies. I learned that lots of societies had a very equal balance of gender energy and responsibility. It did not teach me any great universal truths that I can pass on to you and make your life magically wonderful.
From Always Surrender by Christine Smith
Quote of the Week: Reading is a means of thinking with another person's mind. --Charles Scribner
Final Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Netflix needs to stop asking if I'm still watching and start asking if I've switched the laundry over yet. --
Today's Peace of History, February 21, 1975: Former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were all sentenced to 2 1⁄2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up.
I'm immature, unorganized, irresponsible, and loud. Thank God it's Mardi Gras. / The problem with jogging on Mardi Gras is the ice keeps falling out of your glass.
..........I'm sure you'll see the Zulu Queen.........Prof. Longhair …..Go To The Mardi Gras
Masthead of the Week: Friday ePistle February 21, 2023, ePistle Etouffee 2023 Online at: http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/ Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. Lawrence, KS.
Moonbeam: All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet Is one of them. --Erma Bombeck
Cost of War:
- As of 02/16/23 State Department War Costs since 2001: $200,337,738,391.
- As of 02/20/23 State Department War Costs since 2001: $199,449,155,285.
- As of 02/20/23 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $1,118,667,566,926.
- As of 02/16/23 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $1,117,731,898,759.
- As of 02/20/23 Homeland Security since 2001: $1,129,315,260,166.
- As of 02/16/23 Homeland Security since 2001: $1,128,951,425,811.
- As of 02/20/23 Veterans Care since 2001: $2,905,048,526,031.
- As of 02/16/23 Veterans Care since 2001: $2,897,958,486,988.
- As of 02/20/23 Military Costs since 2001: $3,009,044,140,625.
- As of 02/16/23 Military Costs since 2001: $3,008.333.858,695.
- As of 02/20/23 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $8,362,416,345,151.
- As of 02/16/23 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $8,352,980,020,915.
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/
Herein lies a riddle: How can a people so gifted by God become so seduced by naked power, so greedy for money, so addicted to violence, so slavish before mediocre and treacherous leadership, so paranoid, deluded lunatic? --Philip Berrigan
Famous Last Words: Laissez les bons temps rouler !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
..........And everybody's havin' fun.........Al Johnson …..Carnival Time
All you need is love and some really nice beads. / Who says you have to be at Mardi Gras to drink all day?
May Peace play the brass
And Joy keep the tempo
prairie mama
christine
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