Happy Palindrome Day! For 10 consecutive days, from 1-20-21 to 1-29-21, the date is read the same forwards and backwards in the month-day-year format. Today, 1-20-21, is the first palindrome-number Inauguration Day in American history!
Category: Interesting stuff
Dec 31
Hogmanay Fireballs!
Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year (Gregorian calendar) in the Scottish manner. It is normally followed by further celebration on the morning of New Year’s Day (1 January) or, in some cases, 2 January—a Scottish bank holiday. The …
Jun 03
The Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting as an Espionage Tool
DURING WORLD WAR I, A grandmother in Belgium knitted at her window, watching the passing trains. As one train chugged by, she made a bumpy stitch in the fabric with her two needles. Another passed, and she dropped a stitch from the fabric, making an intentional hole. Later, she would risk her life by handing …
May 11
Is This Goose a Father-to-be?
I don’t know why geese fascinate me but they have for years. I love how the father stands watch over the family-to-be and when they’re crossing the street – mom in front, babies, then dad. Lately, I’ve been seeing goose families everywhere. When I went to an appointment pre-COVID, I noticed a goose family had …
Mar 15
Beware! The Ides of March
Everyone knows we’re supposed to beware the Ides of March and may even remember they’re from William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” but what exactly do they mean? The Ides of March marked the day the Julius Caesar was assassinated by members of the Roman Senate in 44 B.C.E. A soothsayer, or psychic, warned Caesar to beware …
Mar 02
Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!
My Little Free Library has a *few* Dr Seuss books in it Meanwhile… Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, where I also grew up and went to High School. The Springfield Library Quadrangle has been home to the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden since 2002.
Mar 01
My Ringtone: Scotland the Brave
“Scotland the Brave” (Scottish Gaelic: Alba an Àigh) is a Scottish patriotic song. It was one of several songs considered an unofficial national anthem of Scotland. My cellphone ringtone is Scotland the Brave. At any rehearsal, everyone knows it’s my phone, if one is ringing 🙂 I posted a bit about that here: http://maryoblog.com/2015/08/ Below, the …
Dec 31
Hogmanay Fireballs…Again!
Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year (Gregorian calendar) in the Scottish manner. It is normally followed by further celebration on the morning of New Year’s Day (1 January) or, in some cases, 2 January—a Scottish bank holiday. The …
Music
- ❌ X-Clacks-OverheadThe GNU Terry Pratchett plugin transmits an “X-Clacks-Overhead” header reading, “GNU Terry Pratchett” so that Terry’s name is whispered forevermore in the Internet’s “overhead”.
- 🪨 Junior Geologists Lab, April 26Rocks and fossils get the spotlight in this STEM program. Bring in an interesting rock to identify and share, and explore the science of geology!
- 🤩 Seven Events happening on April 27- 11th Annual Kite Festival - Cub Run Stream Valley (Flint Lee Road) – Watershed Cleanup 2024 - Fairy Festival - Mosaic Festival - Festival Of Colors 2024 Holi DC - Seedling Tray Planting & Plant Swap - Brookfield Family Movie Night!
- 🌱 Seedling Tray Planting & Plant Swap, April 27Earth Week is a great time to try planting your own herbs or small plants at home. We provide the supplies and instructions, you supply the care at home! Maybe you have a small plant you no longer love, so bring it in and swap with your neighbors to try a new one.
- 🪁 11th Annual Kite Festival, April 27Let’s go fly a kite, up to the highest height! Join us for this FREE event as we launch our kites to dance across Signal Hill Park skies.
- 🎨 Festival Of Colors 2024 Holi DC, April 27Join us at the Festival of Colors 2024. World’s Happiest and Most Entertaining Family Event. Eat, Drink, Dance, Shop and throw colors!!!
- 🏞️ Cub Run Stream Valley (Flint Lee Road) – Watershed Cleanup 2024, April 27The Nature Conservancy is once again partnering with the Fairfax County Park Authority in Northern Virginia for a watershed cleanup. This spring cleaning event will remove tires, plastic bottles, cans and other debris from local waterways, preventing trash from reaching the nation’s largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay.
- 🌈 Mosaic Festival, April 27Mark your calendars for the most vibrant festival of the year! Dive into a day bursting with creativity, music, and a celebration of cultures from every corner of the planet. Explore a world of crafts, catch a live performance, and move to the rhythm of international dances.
- 🍿 Brookfield Family Movie Night!, April 27Come join us for Kung Fu Panda 3! We will be broadcasting this movie outside under the stars!
- 🎤 Live Concert: Oh, The Places You will Go!, April 28It’s a small and beautiful world! If you had the opportunity to travel anywhere you wanted, where would you go? Come fly with us to some of our favorite places!
Little Free Library
- Dying To Date: Love, betrayal, murder—a great first dateBy a good friend of mine! When dying to date Mr. Right leads to finding Mr. Wrong—it’s deadly. Relationship expert Kristina Truly has a proven track record of dating the wrong men. However, her highly publicized romantic failures don’t stop her fans from attending her Finding Mr. Right, Not Mr. Perfect seminars and reading her […]
- The Poisoned PeerThe 99-year-old Earl of Middlemop has had his future cruelly snatched from him. Who could have poisoned the richest man in Wessex? The answer lies within the walls of Gripedown Hall where family secrets and bitter rivalries prevail. Senior sleuths Churchill and Pemberley investigate on the behest of their friend Tryphena Ridley-Balls. However, another friend […]
- Murder in the ManorMURDER IN THE MANOR (A LACEY DOYLE COZY MYSTERY—BOOK 1) is the debut novel in a charming new cozy mystery series by Fiona Grace. Lacey Doyle, 39 years old and freshly divorced, needs a drastic change. She needs to quit her job, leave her horrendous boss and New York City, and walk away from the […]
- Murder on a Midnight ClearA snowbound country mansion, a missing butler, and a Christmas case . . . Olive and Jasper have never been closer—except in one area. Jasper is still reticent about his frequent disappearances from polite society. With the holidays approaching and no paying client on the books, Olive decides to shadow Jasper when he’s unexpectedly called […]
- Discerning GraceAs the first full-length novel in The White Sails Series, DISCERNING GRACE captures the spirit of an independent woman whose feminine lens blows the ordered patriarchal decks of a 19th century tall ship to smithereens. Wilful Grace Baxter, will not marry old Lord Silverton with his salivary incontinence and dead-mouse stink. Discovering she is a […]
- The Thursday Murder Club: A Novel (A Thursday Murder Club Mystery Book 1)A New York Times bestseller | Soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment “Witty, endearing and greatly entertaining.” —Wall Street Journal “Don’t trust anyone, including the four septuagenarian sleuths in Osman’s own laugh-out-loud whodunit.” —Parade Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves A female cop with her […]
- Body on Baker Street (A Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery Book 2)The amateur sleuths at the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop must call upon the powers of deduction in order to rid Baker Street of a ruthless killer Gemma Doyle and Jayne Wilson are busy managing the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium on Baker Street and adjoining Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room in anticipation of the store’s upcoming book […]
- The Devil and the Dark Water (A Locked-Room Historical Mystery)A murder on the high seas. A remarkable detective duo. A demon who may or may not exist. It's 1634, and Samuel Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Traveling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who […]
- Too Many WomenAh, sweet mystery, when Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin plunge into a case of murder brimming with luscious, lethal ladies. Who murdered Waldo Wilmot Moore? Well, there were five hundred female employees at the Wall Street firm where poor Waldo had worked. Any one of them might have done it. And there was also the […]
- Christmas Cupcake MurderAs December turns Lake Eden, Minnesota, into the North Pole, the heat is on in Hannah Swensen’s kitchen to honor two Christmas promises: baking irresistible holiday cupcakes and preventing an attempted murderer from succeeding the second time around! While Hannah speeds through a lengthy holiday checklist, drama in town grows like Santa’s waistline on Christmas […]