hUggy ePistle

 Famous First Words: Cats sleep fat and walk thin. --Rosalie Moore Catalogue

Happy Hug Your Cat Day! My cat: Wanna a hug? Too bad. / Cats always get their way because of purr-suation. / One cat leads to another. --Ernest Hemingway

..........Yeah, I've made up my mind..........Jimi Hendrix …..Foxy Lady

We affirm the philosophical or religious ideal of nonviolence as the foundation of our purpose, the presupposition of our belief, and the manner of our action. --Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Founding Statement

It is mid morning on a cloudy Friday. The wind is making the willow branches dance a lively tarantella while birds fly about finding food and making nests. A slate gray sky without texture fills my window. Only the local quarrel of sparrows is sitting on tree limbs and passing the time of day. I am on my second cup of chocolate decaf, creamy and good. Lighted cones of sandalwood incense brighten the room. A robin lands on the peak of the storage shed roof and struts along it surveying the backyard until she sees something and flies away. Ah, it is late and I too will fly to my task and send this ePistle. Thanks for your attention.

Hope your weekend purrs like a kitten, ePistliers

First Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: For Mother's Day my mom would like the activism of her youth to not be for nothing. --The New Yorker

My cat: Hug Your Cat Day? What's wrong with you? / Meow means woof in cat. --George Carlin

..........Really ain't no use in my hanging around..........Jimi Hendrix …..Manic Depression

Trivia Questions: Have an enjoyable Limerick Day!

• ^ Where is Limerick City anyway?
• ^^ What river flows through Limerick?
• ^^^ What is the highest mountain in County Limerick?
• ^^^^ Ireland's tallest cathedral spire is on what cathedral in Limerick?
• ^^^^^ Which US president's ancestors came from Limerick?

Big Hello: Assalām 'alaikum – Kashmiri https://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/hello.htm

Second Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: God gave us all those blood types so that mosquitoes would have flavors.

Image of the Week:

Fake Library Statistics of the Week: How librarians shelve books: 45% - Library of Congress 52% Dewey Decimal 16% MESH 3% That cart over there. https://www.facebook.com/FakeLibStats/?fref=ts

My cat: Hug Your Cat Day? Go hug a cactus. / A happy arrangement that many people prefer cats to other people and many cats prefer people to other cats. --Mason Cooley

..........way back yonder 'cross the hill..........Jimi Hendrix …..Red House

Moonbeam: Places that are empty of you are empty of life. --Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Question of the Week: What's the first thing you remember?

Puzzle of the Week: A tough one from Joe Becker: The "zh" sound can be spelled in many different ways in English — like the "s" in MEASURE; like the "g" in BEIGE; like the "z" in AZURE; like the "j" in MAHARAJAH; and like the "x" in LUXURY as some people pronounce it. The "zh" sound can also be spelled as a "t" in one instance. We know of only one common word this is true of, not counting its derivatives. What word is it?

Next Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: It's fun that some folks think a secret group of rich people control everything instead of the widely known group of rich people that control everything. --Solomon Georgio --Anti-Capitalist Education

My cat: Hug Your Cat Day? A robin just tried to hug me. I ate him. You're welcome. / If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you. If a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer. --Alfred North Whitehead

..........You can hear a freight train coming from a thousand miles..........Jimi Hendrix …..Can You See Me

^ Limerick is a city in County Limerick in southwestern Ireland.

Almanac: It is Friday, May 12, 2023. The moon moved into the last quarter today and is in Aquarius. It is Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Day, Hug Your Cat Day, International Awareness Day for Chronic Immunological and Neurological Diseases, International Nurses Day, Limerick Day, National Hospital Day, One Day Without Shoes, and Odometer Day. Because it is the Friday before Mother's Day it is Military Spouse Appreciation Day and Child Care Provider Day.

Among those born on this day were Jan F van Bloom (1662), August II (1670), Giovanni Antonio Ricieri (1679), Justus Freiherr von Liebig (1803), Edward Lear (1812), Florence Nightingale (1820), Gabriel Dante Rossetti (1828), Halsey William Wilson (1868), Lincoln Ellsworth (1880), Heinrich Kirchner (1902), Katharine Hepburn (1907), Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin (1910), Howard K. Smith (1914), Yogi Berra (1925), Burt Bacharach (1929), Millie Perkins (1938), Ronald Ziegler (1939), Anthony Newman (1941), Barry B Longyear (1942), Ian McLagen (1946), Steve Winwood (1948), Billy Squier (1950), Gabriel Byrne (1950), Billy Duffy (The Cult, 1961), Emilio Estevez (1962), Vanessa Williams (1963), and Stephen Baldwin (1966).

On May twelfth England and Netherlands formed the League of Augsburg (1689), Maria Theresa was crowned queen of Bohemia (1733), ice cream was first advertised (1777), Manitoba became a Canadian province (1870), street cars in Louisville, KY integrated (1871), the second NAACP conference was held (NYC, 1910), Mussolini ended woman's rights in Italy (1928), Elizabeth Taylor (fourth) married Eddie Fisher (second) (1960), H Rap Brown replaced Stokely Carmichael as chairman of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, 1967), Jimi Hendrix released Are You Experienced (1957), the "March of Poor" led by Rev. Abernathy reached DC (1968), Harry A Blackmun was confirmed onto the Supreme Court (1970), James C Fletcher was appointed head of NASA (1986), Comic Relief 90 raised $4.7 million (4th, 1990), and Cheers closed up (1993).

Night Sky, 5/12: Last-quarter Moon (exact at 10:28 am, May 12th EDT). The Moon rises tonight as late as 3 am daylight saving time Saturday the 13th, with Saturn glowing a few degrees to its upper left. As dawn begins on Saturday they're higher and easier to see http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/sky-at-a-glance/

Fraternal Picture of the Week: Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat. --Jean-Paul Sartre

This Week: Saturday, May 13 – Indigenous Arts Day & International Migratory Bird Day & World Belly Dancing Day

Sunday, May 14 – Mother's Day & National Decency Day

Night Sky, 5/14: With the Moon gone from the evening sky, use binoculars or a telescope to see if you can spot the globular cluster M5, the Serpent's Gem, in Serpens Caput high in the southeast as evening grows late. At magnitude 5.6, it's pretty easy in binoculars on a moderately dark sky

Monday, May 15 – International Kangaroo Care Awareness Day & Straw Hat Day & Nylon Stockings Day

Tuesday, May 16 – Honor Our LGBT Elders' Day & National BBQ Day

Wednesday, May 17 – Graduation Tassel Day & World Hypertension Day

Night Sky, 5/17: Jupiter hides very low in the sunrise. It'll soon be on its way up for its 2023-24 apparition. Saturn (magnitude +1.0, in dim Aquarius) is low in the southeast before and during early dawn.

Thursday, May 18 – Buy A Musical Instrument Day & Visit Your Relatives Day

My cat: Hug Your Cat Day? I'm a fur-midable hugger. / Dogs own space and cats own time. --Nicola Griffith

..........Must there be all these colors without names, without sound..........Jimi Hendrix …..Love Or Confusion

^^ The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland and flows through Limerick. The river rises in County Cavan and flows for approximately 240 miles before reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

Preantepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: My favorite thing about humans may just be our ability to drench potatoes in mayonnaise and call it a salad with a straight face. --Troy Johnson

Moonbeam: To understand God's thoughts, one must study statistics, for these are the measure of His purpose. --Florence Nightingale

Video of the Week: 20 second commercial for Comic Relief 90 (Robin Williams, Whoopie Goldberg, Billy Crystal) Really Long Address

Not So Late Night Snacks of the Week: What do you say to someone who just became, like, king congratulations seems weird when his only achievement is outliving his mother and he almost didn't pull it off. --Peter Sagal Wait Wait Don't Tell Me 5/6/23

Through nonviolence, courage displaces fear. Love transcends hate. Acceptance dissipates prejudice; hope ends despair. Faith reconciles doubt. Peace dominates war. Mutual regards cancel enmity. Justice for all overthrows injustice. The redemptive community supersedes immoral social systems. --SNCC Founding Document

My cat: Hug Your Cat Day? That's hiss-erical. / I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance – a sharp, vindictive glance. --James Thurber

..........No sun comin' through my windows..........Jimi Hendrix …..I Don't Live Today

^^^ The Galtymore Mountain is approximately 919m high and is situated on the border with County Tipperary. It is Ireland's 14th highest peak.

Antepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Only a biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car. (credited to Ralph Waldo Emerson) https://www.facebook.com/treasurecoasthd

Weird Word of the Week: Agastopia: the fetishistic admiration of a specific body part. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/agastopia

Dragon of the Week: Cat Dragon

Wacky Uses for Common Products: Dehydrate fresh vegetables for use in soups and stews. Wash the vegetables and cut them into thin slices or dice them. Place a sheet of Bounty Paper Towels on a cookie sheet, spread the sliced or diced vegetables across the paper towel, and place in the oven set on low heat, occasionally using a wooden spoon or spatula to gently stir the vegetables. When the moisture dries from the vegetables and they attain the thinness of paper, remove from the oven, and store in covered jars or airtight containers in the pantry. https://www.wackyuses.com/wacky/bounty.html

My cat: Hug Your Cat Day? Purr-haps later. / My cat is not insane, she's just a really good actress. --P C Cast

...........I can see my rainbow calling me..........Jimi Hendrix …..May This Be Love

^^^^ St. John's Cathedral is a Catholic church and, at 308 feet, is the tallest building in Limerick. The tower rises to a height of 163 feet.

Penultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Kentucky Derby – Amish NASCAR

Science Fiction Convention of the Week: Watch City Steampunk Festival (13^th, Waltham, MA) The mystery begins...(It's elementary...) https://www.watchcityfestival.com/

Actual Science Conference of the Week: Women in Tech (12^th, Barcelona, Spain) ...to empower communities of talented and motivated women in tech through leadership development, professional growth, mentorship, and networking https://www.bizzabo.com/blog/technology-events

Answer to Puzzle of the Week: Equation

My cat: Hug Your Cat Day? Price for a hug – a furr-ari. / Cats have no guilt and very little shame. --Ursula LeGuin

..........Starfleet to scoutship, please give your position...........Jimi Hendrix …..Third Rock From The Sun

^^^^^ Rose Fitzgerald's descendants came from County Limerick. Rose was John F. Kennedy's mother.

My Own Writing of the Week: I promise, dear reader, that I only wrote on days when I have had an orgasm; other days I edited or read or was grumpy doing something else. This is really a promise to myself. I'm much pleasanter company after an orgasm – most people are; and I want this read to be pleasant, really, really pleasant.

I am in my 70s now. I've been having orgasms for 60+ years. My first was when I was 12, alone in my bedroom with a makeshift dildo and a rickety fantasy. I remember neither. I remember the sensation, however, the rapid climb, the slow descent, the sense of calm and oneness with the world. It was my first personal contact with the goddess and with God-ness.

I had never heard of orgasm, not in my reading nor in any conversation I had. It came upon my body as the most wonderful surprise I ever got... better than birthdays... beat Santa Claus all to hell. It was free; it didn't require transportation; other folks didn't figure in at all. The perfect hobby for a young teenager living in a semi-rural part of eastern Kansas.

In my 30s and 40s I could achieve orgasms watching someone from across the room, someone delicious and graceful, someone sexy. I didn't even need much fantasy at all. I once climaxed while giving head.

I did not stop having orgasms when I was pregnant. At climax the uterus spasms, in pregnancy the uterus swells from the size of a fist to the size of a pregnant woman's belly; so it is the spasm writ really large. Sensation swells with it and, I told myself, it prepares the baby for birth (a series of more organized spasms of the uterus) and gives both the baby and me a sense of calm and oneness with our environment. I was also less self-conscious about my pregnant stomach knowing what it could do.

From Always Surrender by Christine Smith

Final Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: I had my sh*t together once. I think I was 7. --Submitted by RHOZ

Today's Peace of History: May 12, 1968: The Poor People's Campaign, organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) began when contingents of the poor, mainly from the south, began pitching tents in a "Resurrection City" near the Lincoln Memorial.

My cat: Hug Your Cat Day? Hug one, get one fur-ry. / “Cats can work out mathematically the exact place to sit that will cause the most inconvenience.” –-Pam Brown

..........They used to sing for the sunshine.........Jimi Hendrix …..Remember

Mother of Today's Peace of History, May 12, 1968: A 12-block Mother’s Day march of “welfare mothers” was held in Washington, DC.,led by Coretta Scott King accompanied by Ethel Kennedy.

Masthead of the Week: Friday ePistle May 12, 2023, hUggy ePistle. Online at: http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/ Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. Lawrence, KS.

Moonbeam: It ain't over 'til it's over. --Yogi Berra

Cost of War:

• As of 05/11/23 State Department War Costs since 2001: $206,679,367,513.
• As of 05/04/23 State Department War Costs since 2001: $206,128,355,218.
• As of 05/11/23 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $1,136,380,395,167.
• As of 05/04/23 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $1,134,841,355,506.
• As of 05/11/23 Homeland Security since 2001: $1,136,203,516,561.
• As of 05/04/23 Homeland Security since 2001: $1,135,604,999,050.
• As of 05/11/23 Veterans Care since 2001: $3,039,316,785,493.
• As of 05/04/23 Veterans Care since 2001: $3,027,650,298,461.
• As of 05/11/23 Military Costs since 2001: $3,022,492,714,863.
• As of 05/04/23 Military Costs since 2001: $3,021,324,140,084.
• As of 05/11/23 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $8,541,074,632,744.
• As of 05/04/23 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $8,525,550,507,492

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/

By appealing to conscience and standing on the moral nature of human existence, nonviolence nurtures the atmosphere in which reconciliation and justice become actual possibilities. --SNCC Founding Document

Famous Last Words: Hand in hand on the edge of the sand they danced by the light of the moon. --Edward Lear The Owl & The Pussycat

..........I think they are calling our names...........Jimi Hendrix …..Are You Experienced

My cat: Hug Your Cat Day? That gives me paws. / As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat. --Ellen Perry Berkeley

May Peace nestle your mind

And Joy cuddle your soul

prairie mama

christine

Last Laugh: Fintastic Friday: Giving Sharks A Voice