Good morning and welcome to another Saturday edition of the Great W.A. Today is August 18th.
Today's numerical date is 8-18-18, which seemed potentially special so I googled:
Significance of 8-18-18
I discovered today is an auspicious day to get married!
The Knot reports, "Nearly 30,000 couples across the United States registered to get married this Saturday, more than any other day this year and nearly five times as many wedding on the average day."
The raison d'être?
I suppose there are worse reasons for picking a wedding date.
BREAKING NEWS - Former UN Secretary-General and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Kofi Annan, passed away today at the age of 80 in Bern,Switzerland.
This piece of sad news caused me to sit upright in my bed this morning, because just yesterday, while researching settings for my current novel, I learned that Annan is a 1961 graduate of Macalester College. In fact, his most recent visit to Minnesota was this year - May 7, 2018 - for the dedication of the Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship.
According to the IGC mission statement, "The Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship fosters global citizenship by advancing scholarship, reflection, and ethical action in our local, national, and international communities." Which pretty much sums up what I aspire to do in my own small way.
Rest in peace and condolences to your family.
Back to the homestead...
Folks, we are coming down the homestretch. Week #12 of Summer Vacation comes to a close today. And just when you thought our little clan couldn't possibly have any more adventures, hubby and the littles hopped a plane to the Czech Republic!
Yes, that's right, ladies and gents!
But first things first. Last Saturday, I reflected on cake. The cliffhanger I left you with was:
Will there be cake?
Dámy a pánové, not only was there cake, there were cookies! The whole sh-bang, peeps!
I'd committed to the cookies, but then The Oldest found this spotlight cake on Pinterest. Dust some powdered sugar and —voilà! It was so easy, how could I not? (Full disclosure: I did a cake cheat. The recipe I used called for oil instead of butter and there were no layers or fancy frosting.) The Oldest, now emotionally committed to the project, traced the "real" Batman from the little one's t-shirt. With this template we cut out one "real" Batman cookie.
As predicted, he gobbled up the cookies and didn't touch the cake. But in a family of seven, that's not a problem.
Back to Czech...
I'm happy to report they all made it safely to hubby's homeland. He's been too busy to email much, but my Czech niece and sister-in-law provide intel replete with photos and happy-heart emojis.
The older kids stayed home with me for cross country practice and another week of Prairie Fire Children's Theater. North of Wannaska, the little village of reeds (aka Roseau) hosted a fine production of Cinderella. This shoo-bop, '50s throwback was a hoot as 73 local kids gave their heart and soul and learned a few tunes of yesteryear. Our kid-writer-in-residence has more about below. If you're looking for a good children's theater option for your community, I give PFCT 6 out of 5 stars.
Kids and I also got to see Small Town Robot at the Roso Theatre, a documentary about FIRST Robotics Team #5172, aka Greenbush Gators. I can't say much more about it because the audience has been sworn to secrecy while the director waits to hear from film festivals.
Here's the trailer.
Here's a Star Tribune article about the documentary.
Here's director, Joe Brandmeier's website.
An interesting film I watched this week: Une Vie (A Women's Life); a film adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's first novel Une Vie, also known as L'Humble Vérité. The interview with director Stéphane Brizé is excellent. He read a piece by Maupassant in which the 19th century French author implores writers - and I believe, artists, in general - to show not tell.
A gardening victory at our house! The first tomato.
2005 - Indonesia suffers a Massive Power Outage
Thought to be one of the biggest power outages in recent history, the Java-Bali outage affected about 100 million people. Electricity was restored to most areas within 6 hours.
1958 - Lolita is First Published in the US
The highly controversial novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabakov detailed an adult man’s obsession over 12-year-old Dolores Haze, who he secretly calls Lolita.
NOTE - Book recommendation of the week: Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.
1920 - The State of Tennessee Passes the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution
This action by the Tennessee legislature brought the number of states passing the 19th amendment to 36 and provided the necessary majority to ratify the amendment, which extended universal suffrage to women.
1877 - Martian Moon Phobos is Discovered
One of the two natural satellites of Mars, Phobos, was discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall. Hall also discovered Deimos, the other Martian Moon. Named after the Greek God of fear, Phobos orbits only 3700 miles from the surface of Mars, making it the Moon to orbit closest to its planet in the Solar System. Because of this, Phobos completes an orbit around Mars in 7 hours and 39 minutes.
1612 - The Pendle Witch Trials Begin
11 people - 9 women and 2 men - are tried for practicing witch craft in one of UK's most well documented and followed witch trials. The trial lasts for two days and 10 of the accused are found guilty and executed on August 20.
NOTE - Book recommendation of the week: The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman.
1962 - Felipe Calderón, Mexican politician, 56th President of Mexico
1933 - Roman Polanski, French/Polish director, producer, writer, actor
1910 - Herman Berlinski, Polish/American composer
1750 - Antonio Salieri, Italian composer
There are only 2 weeks left of summer vacation!
If you're looking for something to do today, Love Warroad is free and happening all day. Next week the Warroad Area Women of Today host Kids Week!
Kim
Today's numerical date is 8-18-18, which seemed potentially special so I googled:
Significance of 8-18-18
I discovered today is an auspicious day to get married!
The Knot reports, "Nearly 30,000 couples across the United States registered to get married this Saturday, more than any other day this year and nearly five times as many wedding on the average day."
The raison d'être?
- People like palindromes.
- It's easy to remember.
- Eight resembles an infinity symbol. Three eights is super lucky.
- Eight and Eighteen are lucky numbers. (In Mandarin, “18” sounds very much like a phrase meaning “certain prosperity.” The number “8” in Mandarin also sounds very much like the word for prosperity, which together, makes 8-18-18 a very lucky date.)
I suppose there are worse reasons for picking a wedding date.
BREAKING NEWS - Former UN Secretary-General and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Kofi Annan, passed away today at the age of 80 in Bern,Switzerland.
This piece of sad news caused me to sit upright in my bed this morning, because just yesterday, while researching settings for my current novel, I learned that Annan is a 1961 graduate of Macalester College. In fact, his most recent visit to Minnesota was this year - May 7, 2018 - for the dedication of the Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship.
According to the IGC mission statement, "The Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship fosters global citizenship by advancing scholarship, reflection, and ethical action in our local, national, and international communities." Which pretty much sums up what I aspire to do in my own small way.
Rest in peace and condolences to your family.
Back to the homestead...
Folks, we are coming down the homestretch. Week #12 of Summer Vacation comes to a close today. And just when you thought our little clan couldn't possibly have any more adventures, hubby and the littles hopped a plane to the Czech Republic!
Yes, that's right, ladies and gents!
But first things first. Last Saturday, I reflected on cake. The cliffhanger I left you with was:
Will there be cake?
Dámy a pánové, not only was there cake, there were cookies! The whole sh-bang, peeps!
I'd committed to the cookies, but then The Oldest found this spotlight cake on Pinterest. Dust some powdered sugar and —voilà! It was so easy, how could I not? (Full disclosure: I did a cake cheat. The recipe I used called for oil instead of butter and there were no layers or fancy frosting.) The Oldest, now emotionally committed to the project, traced the "real" Batman from the little one's t-shirt. With this template we cut out one "real" Batman cookie.
As predicted, he gobbled up the cookies and didn't touch the cake. But in a family of seven, that's not a problem.
 |
| Decorating his own cookie. |
Back to Czech...
 |
| Czech cousins & Radegast |
The older kids stayed home with me for cross country practice and another week of Prairie Fire Children's Theater. North of Wannaska, the little village of reeds (aka Roseau) hosted a fine production of Cinderella. This shoo-bop, '50s throwback was a hoot as 73 local kids gave their heart and soul and learned a few tunes of yesteryear. Our kid-writer-in-residence has more about below. If you're looking for a good children's theater option for your community, I give PFCT 6 out of 5 stars.
Kids and I also got to see Small Town Robot at the Roso Theatre, a documentary about FIRST Robotics Team #5172, aka Greenbush Gators. I can't say much more about it because the audience has been sworn to secrecy while the director waits to hear from film festivals.
Here's the trailer.
Here's a Star Tribune article about the documentary.
Here's director, Joe Brandmeier's website.
An interesting film I watched this week: Une Vie (A Women's Life); a film adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's first novel Une Vie, also known as L'Humble Vérité. The interview with director Stéphane Brizé is excellent. He read a piece by Maupassant in which the 19th century French author implores writers - and I believe, artists, in general - to show not tell.
A gardening victory at our house! The first tomato.
Fun Facts from the Kids
Latest experiment: Collecting sweat in a jar.
Latest challenge: To run 85 miles in 9 days.
Favorite food of the week: Clif bars
Cinderella
It’s set in the 1950’s though…
Greetings again from the writer (David)!!! Today, you will
experience, or try to experience my experience, in the play: Cinderella!!! If
you saw the play, then you have already experienced the show. So, sit back,
relax and enjoy me trying to make you experience: CINDERELLA!!!!!!
It all started out with auditions. There were a ton of people. And yes, everybody got a
role. So, don’t be worried. Auditions were fun. Everybody got a role they liked
(especially me, because I was the lead mouse) because the directors were soooo
good at their job. Then we started practice. Well, some of us. You see, we had
a schedule (I’m going to ask you to say it the British way, please?) and some
of us left, and some of us stayed for more practice. But since I was a mouse, I
had to stay for more. I was very happy.
The next day. I started first. Well I was in practice first.
I practiced a dance that I had, and then it was my brother’s turn. I don’t know
what he did, but I got to read my book. (yes, I read books) I also got to see
basically the whole show. Not in order, but I got a pretty good idea of what it
was going to look like. What I needed to worry about now, was my lines. Since I
was Jimmy, the lead mouse, I had at least some lines. So, I tried to memorize
them.
The next day. Do The-whole-show-in-four-hours day!!!!! It’s
fun to see the whole play when everybody is trying to remember their lines. I
liked it. I had trouble on only a couple (yeah right, a lot more than just a
couple) lines but that wasn’t a worry to me. The next day would be soooo much
better. Well, at least I thought it would.
Thursday!!! I had my lines memorized and everyone else did
too, so we did the show (which was way quicker
than before) and then the cast did the Double-time-over-do-it-run-through. If
you don’t know what it is, like I didn’t, I’ll tell you. We do the show, twice
as fast, overdoing every scene, action, and dance, trying to get the show done
in less than fifty-one minutes. The show is about eighty minutes. Guess what.
We did it in fifty minutes!!!
Enough party time. It’s show day. We practiced some scenes
and then people did our makeup, and then it was show time. The show was great.
I danced to one of the songs backstage, and basically the cast killed the show.
My favorite part was listening backstage to My
Boyfriend’s Back.
Then it was over. I thought I was a good mouse. I said
goodbye to my lovely friends, I did group pictures and…yeah. That was basically
my week at Cinderella!!! I hope you liked it, because next week I’ll be writing
again.
Goodbye,
David
 |
| "Jimmy" Mouse and the Macho Mice |
 |
| Mikey & the Mistakes |
On This Day
Historic Highlights (credits)2005 - Indonesia suffers a Massive Power Outage
Thought to be one of the biggest power outages in recent history, the Java-Bali outage affected about 100 million people. Electricity was restored to most areas within 6 hours.
1958 - Lolita is First Published in the US
The highly controversial novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabakov detailed an adult man’s obsession over 12-year-old Dolores Haze, who he secretly calls Lolita.
NOTE - Book recommendation of the week: Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.
1920 - The State of Tennessee Passes the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution
This action by the Tennessee legislature brought the number of states passing the 19th amendment to 36 and provided the necessary majority to ratify the amendment, which extended universal suffrage to women.
1877 - Martian Moon Phobos is Discovered
One of the two natural satellites of Mars, Phobos, was discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall. Hall also discovered Deimos, the other Martian Moon. Named after the Greek God of fear, Phobos orbits only 3700 miles from the surface of Mars, making it the Moon to orbit closest to its planet in the Solar System. Because of this, Phobos completes an orbit around Mars in 7 hours and 39 minutes.
1612 - The Pendle Witch Trials Begin
11 people - 9 women and 2 men - are tried for practicing witch craft in one of UK's most well documented and followed witch trials. The trial lasts for two days and 10 of the accused are found guilty and executed on August 20.
NOTE - Book recommendation of the week: The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman.
Happy Birthday to You!🎶
1983 - Cameron White, Australian cricketer1962 - Felipe Calderón, Mexican politician, 56th President of Mexico
1933 - Roman Polanski, French/Polish director, producer, writer, actor
1910 - Herman Berlinski, Polish/American composer
1750 - Antonio Salieri, Italian composer
There are only 2 weeks left of summer vacation!
If you're looking for something to do today, Love Warroad is free and happening all day. Next week the Warroad Area Women of Today host Kids Week!
Make it a great Saturday!
Kim
Sounds like a jumpin' week at the Hruba/Hruby house.
ReplyDeleteTravel safe this coming week and good luck with your meeting! JP Savage