Today is Thursday, February 15, 2024 and..
T-minus 24 days until Daylight Savings Time (DST) begins \ 313 days until Christmas \ 320 days until 2025
and..
Singles Awareness Day
and..
Susan B. Anthony’s Birthday / National (U.S.) Gumdrop Day (every 15th of February)
Today’s random factoid(s):
- Singles Awareness Day occurs the day after Valentine’s Day on purpose. It is a way of expressing care for those who do not get to revel in a holiday specifically catered towards couples and other similar relationships. Valentine’s Day can often be a melancholy affair for singles, and this day is aimed at bringing them good tidings and cheer. Let’s not forget that single folks are more likely to volunteer in civic organizations and help subsidize the tax breaks that married folks get.
- Susan B. Anthony’s birthday continues to be celebrated as a testament to this remarkable woman’s courage. She was raised by a Quaker family with a strong sense of moral obligations that often engaged in activist traditions. By the time she was 17, she was collecting anti-slavery petitions because of her sense of justice and moral convictions. I watched a show about Greta Thornburg last night, and can’t help but see the similarities here. Many have chosen to mock her, just like those who did the same to Ms. Anthony, but in the end, who does history remember?
- National Gumdrop Day celebrates the humble edible candy that continue to be made today and now have an offshoot that we call gummies. Gumdrops have likely been around since the late 17th or early 18th Century, but would’ve been a bit more similar to gummies as far as the texture goes, and perhaps even more like barely solidified jelly. Their earliest written mention is by a candy shop in Decatur, Illinois back in 1859. The more chewy, modern gumdrop is believed to have origins right here in Ohio (The Heart Of It All) thanks to candy manufacturer Percy Truesdell.
Consecutive weather-tracking days so far: 775
–One of several foyers inside Stan Hywet.
TODAY’S THEMED TRACKS TRILOGY:
“Alone Again” by Dokken (track 09 on Tooth and Nail -1984) –this song was actually written back in the mid-70s by a young Don Dokken. He had forgotten about it and only rediscovered it after rummaging through some old stuff while searching for material for a ballad that the record company wanted,
“Blood Red Skies” by Judas Priest (track 06 on Ram It Down -1988) –this song is all about not giving in –just like some remarkable women who have changed the world! The lyrics for the bridge say it all, “As the end is drawing near, Standing proud, I won’t give in to fear, As I die a legend will be born, I will stand, I will fight, You’ll never take me alive!”
“Candy Store Rock” by Led Zeppelin (track 05 on Presence -1976) –this song was inspired by the 1950s rock songs that the band members listened to growing up. They did not spend a lot of time on it as Mr. Plant actually sang it from a wheelchair while still recovering from a rather serious car accident from the previous fall that ended up canceling part of the band’s tour that year.
TODAY’S BONUS TRACKS TRILOGY:
“Solitude” by M83 (track 07 on Junk -2016) –I really like the piano in this modern slow-burner, and the keyboard that kicks in is fire!
-and-
“Gimme Back My Bullets” by Lynyrd Skynyrd (title/track 01 on Gimme Back My Bullets -1976) –this song is about finding renewed tenacity after being down for a bit.
–and-
“The Candy Man” by Sammy Davis, Jr. (track 05 on That Old Black Magic -1995) –this song wound up as Mr. Davis’ only number one hit.
You can peruse today’s and the previous days’ tracks here:
Today’s Starting Playlist: Randomly Accessed Musing Tracks for FEB24 on Spotify
Today’s random weather chart (Akron-Canton region of NE Ohio near Cleveland; NEO-land):
More crazy Pivot Charts below!
My Daily Prayer: Dear Lord, if it is within your will, please bless this home and all those who dwell in and around it, as well as the abodes and areas where my family and friends live, whom I think of daily. Indeed, even unto the whole world. Help all of them see your splendor. For yours is the glory and kingdom of heaven forever and ever. Amen!
Remember, Fear is the Mind-Killer, Don’t Panic, Keep Your Head Right with Ball, and May God be gracious to you and bless you and make His face shine upon you.
Borrowed from Spaceweather.com because I stand with them:
This is an AI (Text) Free Zone! Text created by ChatGPT and other Large Language Models is spreading rapidly across the Internet. It’s well-written, artificial, and frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on any JiMiG2pt0 sites, rest assured it was made by a real human being! The occasional image may be AI-generated, though (and will be presented as such).
I also don’t collect data. I prefer growing my sites the old-fashioned way: try my best to put out quality work that folks find interesting and tell their family and friends about. None of that SEO ‘numbers’ crap* here!
* -at least not on my end, I can’t speak for the entities that host my sites
Today’s updates include the following:
Today’s CLE-DAL Sports Schedule Highlights (hit your browser’s ‘Back’ button to return here)
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Yesterday’s CLE-DAL Sports Schedule Highlights (hit your browser’s ‘Back’ button to return here)
WEATHER UPDATES CURRENTLY on HOLD, but still being worked on -hope to get caught up over the holidays:
Today’s (actually, this week’s) Weather Charts (hit your browser’s ‘Back’ button to return here)
Today’s Charts
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Last Week’s Weather Charts (hit your browser’s ‘Back’ button to return here)
Last Week’s Weather Charts
And, of course, ye ol’ website
Sources include, but are not limited to: NOAA at weather.gov, timeanddate.com, The Sky This Week on Astronomy.com, holidayscalendar.com, onthisday.com, Yahoo! Sports, spaceweather.com, Wikipedia, songmeanings.com, SoundCloud.com, UPI.com, various news sites (I prefer to hear both sides of the argument*), and notes I’ve been keeping since I bought my first ledger in the mid-1980s.
* -In most cases, there is a little bad and good on both, and I feel that we, as a species, far too often close our minds. We take the quick and easy side that we find most to our liking and vilify everything else, when we should instead, be pushing ourselves and our race at every turn to a better understanding of one and all if we truly want to evolve into what we are capable of. Can you imagine what kind of world it would be if we all just stopped looking out for number one, or choosing violence as an answer? Instead of looking out, we need to look in and make sure we like what we see, then keep working to improve upon it, which will spread the positive. What if all the money and energy spent daily on war-related and hate-based things was focused on helping not just our fellow humans, but our fellow Earth creatures? You want a paradise? Right there is the blueprint -if every single person made the concious effort to do better every moment of every day (“Fight the Good Fight” -Triumph). The question is, how bad do we want it and how far are we willing to go in order to get it? Bob Marley and Curtis Mayfield had it right. One Love/People Get Ready.