I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Events and Celebrations

 Holy Wednesday or SPY WEDNESDAY observes the traitorous scheme of Judas Iscariot to betray Christ.  “Then one of the twelve – the one called Judas Iscariot – went to the chief priest and asked, ‘What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?’  So, they counted out thirty pieces of silver.  From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.” Matthew 26:14-16.  While the crowds loved Jesus, the leading religious folks did not and were always looking for a way to trip him up or even outright kill him.  When Judas made his offer, they jumped at the chance.

This birthday is so important it is proclaimed yearly by the President.  NATIONAL THOMAS JEFFERSON DAY salutes a very accomplished gentleman.  Besides being the 3^rd President of the United States, he was the co-author and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  He served as the Minister to France and was President Washington’s Secretary of State.  When he didn’t have a hand in running the country, he was a lawyer, scientist, the founder of the University of Virginia and lover of ice cream.  The oldest recipe we have for ice cream belongs to him.  Happy Birthday President Jefferson!

It may not be the most important meal of the day, but NATIONAL MAKE LUNCH COUNT DAY reminds us to eat our lunch.  A lot of people don’t make time for at least a midday snack or think they don’t need it.  That extra fuel can keep you going until the end of the day, however, if you go to the other extreme and eat too big of a lunch, you may be fighting the sleepies the rest of the day.

NATIONAL SCRABBLE DAY just happens to fall on the birthday of its creator – Alfred Mosher Butts.  Originally, he called it Lexico and then Criss-Cross Words, but then settled on Scrabble by 1949.  It is estimated that every hour, 30,000 games of Scrabble are started all over the world and the Scrabble dictionary keeps up with the latest lingo, with words like “hashtag”, “selfie” and “chillax”.  Today is a good day to get a game going.

Our dessert of the day is a real peach – literally – NATIONAL PEACH COBBLER DAY.  Get a pan or Dutch oven, dump a large can of peach pie filling in the bottom, dump a box of white cake mix on top of that and finish it off by pouring a can white soda over the whole she-bang.  Follow the baking instructions on the box of cake mix, or if using the Dutch oven – put about 10 coals on top and 15 underneath until the smell brings the neighbors over and voila! Oh yeah, give me a call too, please. 

On this day…

1742 – Handel’s Messiah premiers

1870 – the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York

1964 – Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American to win an Oscar – it was for “Lilies in the Field”

1970 – “Houston, we’ve had a problem here” were the words of Astronaut James Lovell when oxygen tank #2 on Apollo 13 exploded on the way to the moon.  The mission was scrubbed and through untested maneuvers and a lot of anxious moments the astronauts and spacecraft made it back home safely.

1978 – The Yankee opener is delayed when fans toss thousands of REGGIE! candy bars (given away as a promotion) onto the field when Reggie Jackson hits a 3-run homer at his first at-bat.

1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest and first African American player to win the Masters

 Happy Birthday to…

Frank Woolworth – 1852 – gave us the discount department store

Samuel Becket – 1906 – Nobel Prize winning author known for “Waiting for Godot” and “Endgame”

John Biggers – 1924 – Mural painter whose works can be seen around Houston

Garry Kasparov – 1963 – Grandmaster of Chess who dominated for nearly 3o years

Enjoy the day and make it your own

 Dear Heavenly Father, your ways are not our ways and your thoughts are higher than ours.  Thank you for who you are and for you love and blessings.  Watch over all these wonderful people and please keep them safe from harm. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Thank you to National Day Calendar; National Today; History.com; Britannica.com;