The Friday Post ~ 5th January 2018

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Gosh, I haven’t seen you since last year!  Time flies.

It’s my first day back posting on my blog here since a couple of days before Christmas, and Christmas only seems like it was last week!  I cannot believe how quickly the time has flown past.  I knew I was going to give myself a little holiday from actually posting on my blog – but I only thought it would be ….  “aw, around a week or so” …  well I was obviously enjoying Christmas and the New Year so much that I just lost track of time!

I’ve  been visiting blogs in an effort to keep up with the reading and commenting – but I’m behind.  So … if I’ve missed something on your blog that you really wanted me to see, then pleeeeeeeease – leave a link to it in a comment and I’ll pop along and have a read.

I haven’t been crafting.  Nope, not even one bit – but I have been trying to clear up the unimaginable mess I made before Christmas.  I was crafting right up till lunch time on the 24th December.   I did think about take a photograph of my craft room .. but I was so ashamed of the mess that I just couldn’t.  So I’ll leave it to your imagination to build the scene.  Eeeeek!

But anyhoo . . .   You’re here now to take a gander over what happened on this day in times gone by … so in an endeavour to take up the chalk and educationamalise you a little more, I shall begin where I usually do, by saying:

On This Day In History

1759 – George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.

1846 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
1854 – The San Francisco steamer sinks, killing 300 people.

1895 – Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island. The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal which divided France from the 1890s to the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Jewish background who was in advanced training with the Army’s General Staff. Alfred Dreyfus was sentenced to life imprisonment, which he began to serve in solitary confinement on Devil’s Island in French Guiana.

Two years later, in 1896, the real culprit was brought to light and identified:  a French Army major named Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy.  However, French high-level military officials dismissed or ignored this new evidence which exonerated Alfred Dreyfus.  Thus, in January 1898, military judges unanimously acquitted Esterhazy on the second day of his trial.  Worse, French military counter-intelligence officers fabricated false documents designed to secure Dreyfus’s conviction as a spy for Germany.  They were all eventually exposed, in large part due to a resounding public intervention by writer Emile Zola in January 1898.  The case had to be re-opened, and Dreyfus was brought back from Guiana in 1899 to be tried again.  The intense political and judicial scandal that ensued divided French society between those who supported Dreyfus (the Dreyfusards) and those who condemned him (the anti-Dreyfusards, such as Edouard Drumont, director of La Libre Parole, and Hubert-Joseph Henry).

Eventually, all the accusations against Alfred Dreyfus were demonstrated to be baseless. Dreyfus was exonerated and reinstated as a major in the French Army in 1906. He later served during the whole of World War I, ending his service with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

1896 – An Austrian newspaper reported that Wilhelm Roentgen has discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.

1914 – The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day’s labor.
1918 – The Free Committee for a German Workers Peace, which would become the Nazi party, is founded.

1925 – Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States.

1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.

1944 – The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.  The Daily Mail is a British newspaper, currently published in a tabloid format.  First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom’s second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun.  Its sister paper, The Mail on Sunday, was launched in 1982.  An Irish edition of the paper was launched in 2006.  The Daily Mail was Britain’s first daily newspaper aimed at what is now considered the middle-market and the first to sell 1 million copies a day.

1962 – A replica of the miraculous statue, the Holy Infant of Good Health, is presented to Blessed Pope John XXIII.  The Holy Infant of Good Health (Santo Niño de la salud) is a statue of the Christ Child regarded by many to be miraculous, which was found in 1939, in Morelia (Michoacán State), Mexico.  The statue is eleven inches tall and has apparently been responsible for many healings.

The veneration of the statue was approved by Luis M Altamirano y Bulnes, Archbishop of Morelia, in 1944. That same year, the image was solemnly crowned by pontifical command.  On January 5, 1959, a replica of the Infant was presented to Blessed Pope John XXIII.  And on November 12, 1970, an Order of Religious sisters, the Missionaries of the Holy Infant of Good Health, were founded in Morelia.

The little statue is dressed “with symbols of the power of Christ, wearing a royal mantle, trimmed in ermine, a golden scepter in the left hand while the right is raised in blessing, and on the head an imperial crown of precious stones.”   The Holy Infant of Good Health’s Feast Day is celebrated on April 21st.

1972 – U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
1975 – The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.

1993 – The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.  Fortunately for Shetland, the Gulfaks crude the Braer was carrying is not a typical North Sea oil.  It is lighter and more easily biodegradable than other North Sea crude oils, and this, in combination with some of the worst storms seen in Shetland (naturally dispersing the oil by wave action and evaporation), prevented the event becoming an even bigger disaster.  However, the destruction to wildlife was still massive.  The total number of bird corpses recovered from beaches, due to this oil spill, during January was 1538.

1993 – Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).  Westley Allan Dodd (July 3, 1961 – January 5, 1993) was a convicted serial killer and child molester from Richland, Washington.

Dodd began sexually abusing children when he was 13 years old; his first victims were his own cousins. All his victims (over 50 in all) were children below the age of 12, some of them as young as two. Dodd’s fantasies became increasingly violent over the years. He eventually progressed from molesting his victims to torturing, raping and then murdering them. 

After he was arrested for trying to abduct a boy from a movie theater, the police found a homemade torture rack in his home, as yet unused.  He was arrested by local police in Camas, Washington and interviewed by task force detectives.  Portland Police Bureau Detective C. W. Jensen and Clark County Detective Sergeant Dave Trimble obtained Dodd’s confession and served the search warrant on his home.

Dodd was sentenced to death in 1990 for molesting and then stabbing to death Cole Neer (age 11) and his brother William (10) near a Vancouver, Washington, park in 1989, as well as for the separate rape and murder of Lee Iseli (aged 4).

Less than four years elapsed between the murders and Dodd’s execution. He refused to appeal his case or the capital sentence, stating “I must be executed before I have an opportunity to escape or kill someone within the prison. If I do escape, I promise you I will kill prison guards if I have to and rape and enjoy every minute of it.” While in court he said that, if he escaped from jail, he would immediately go back to “killing kids.”.

Dodd was executed by hanging at 12:05 a.m. on January 5, 1993 at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.  By Washington state law, Dodd had to choose the method of his execution, and state law gave Dodd two options: lethal injection or hanging. Dodd chose hanging.  He also requested that his hanging be televised, but that request was denied.

His execution was witnessed by 12 members of local and regional media, prison officials, and representatives of the families of the three victims.  He ate salmon and potatoes for his last meal.  His last words, spoken from the second floor of the indoor gallows, were recorded by the media witnesses as: “I was once asked by somebody, I don’t remember who, if there was any way sex offenders could be stopped. I said, `No.’ I was wrong. I was wrong when I said there was no hope, no peace. There is hope. There is peace. I found both in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Look to the Lord, and you will find peace.”.

Dodd was pronounced dead by the prison doctor and his body transported to Seattle for autopsy. The King County Medical Examiner, Dr. Donald Reay, found that Dodd had died quickly and probably with little pain.  He was cremated following the autopsy, and his ashes turned over to his family.

2005 – Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.

Eris was first spotted in 2003 by a Palomar Observatory-based team led by Mike Brown but not identified until 2005.  Eris has one moon, Dysnomia;  and recent observations have found no evidence of further satellites.  The current distance from the Sun is 96.7 AU, roughly three times that of Pluto.  With the exception of some comets the pair are the most distant known natural objects in the Solar System.

Because Eris is larger than Pluto, its discoverers and NASA called it the Solar system’s tenth planet.  This, along with the prospect of other similarly sized objects being discovered in the future, motivated the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to define the term planet for the first time.  Under a new definition approved on August 24, 2006, Eris is a “dwarf planet” along with Pluto, Ceres, Haumea and Makemake.

  ❤️ 💛 💚 💙 💜

Born On This Day

1829 – Sir Roger Tichborne, missing U.K. heir who was the subject of the longest criminal trial in British history (d. c. 1854)

1834 – William John Wills, English explorer of Australia, member of the Burke and Wills expedition (d. 1861)

1903 – Harold Gatty, Australian aviator, navigator with Wiley Post (d. 1957)

1906 – Kathleen Kenyon, English archaeologist (d. 1978)

1917 – Jane Wyman, American actress (d. 2007)

1931 – Robert Duvall, American actor

1940 – Michael O’Donoghue, American writer (d. 1994)

1940 – Athol Guy, Australian singer, member of The Seekers

1942 – Jan Leeming, English television presenter and newsreader

1946 – Diane Keaton, American actress

1949 – George Brown, American drummer (Kool & The Gang)

1950 – Chris Stein, American guitarist (Blondie)

1965 – Vinnie Jones, English-born Welsh footballer and actor

1969 – Marilyn Manson, American singer

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Died on this day and Remembered here:

1939 – Amelia Earhart, American aviator declared dead after disappearance in 1937. (b. 1897)

1941 – Amy Johnson, English aviator (b. 1903)

1998 – Sonny Bono, American entertainer and politician (b. 1935)

2003 – Roy Jenkins, British politician (b. 1920)

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Thought for the Day

If you could make a wish, right now, right at this very moment,  what would you wish for?  Be quick!  You only have a tiny window of opportunity to answer this question so make your wish NOW!

What did you wish for?  Money?  New house?  New Car?  Love?  Great Job?  Jewellery?

I wonder what you’d have got if your next door neighbour had to make the wish for you?  Would they have wished for what you might have wanted?

What about if this question was asked of me….  What if the Genie in the Bottle had popped up and said that I had to make your wish for you.  Do you think I might have made the right wish?   Would I have wished a wish that would have given you what your heart longed for? 

Would you still be talking to me, I wonder,  if I told you that the thing I would have wished for you to be in receipt of was . . . . . . contentment?

A little while ago I was chatting with someone I know, and we were talking about writing Christmas and New Year Cards, and what to write on them.  I said that when I was wishing anyone a Happy New Year, or writing a card for a wedding;  for the birth of a new baby;  Engagement;  Anniversary . . .   or anything that required me to wish that person(s) something tangible,  I ALWAYS wished contentment for them.

You see, I believe that if a person has contentment then everything else just falls into place.  There is nothing to really wish for that they didn’t already have, for they are content!  Nothing of any import missing.  Nothing for them to feel ‘disgruntled’ about.

Contentment, for me, is the ultimate goal every single day.  If I can go to bed at night-time and think back over my day, and feel contented,  then I know I’ve had a really great day.  

Think about it for a moment . . .  and while you’re thinking,  …  I’ll make my wish for you,  ~  for contentment.

May you have oodles of contentment.  May each day fill you with sleepy contentment at the end of it,  and may you wake up each morning knowing that the only goal you have to reach that day is contentment.

And … when you go to bed tonight …. may you think about what I’ve said and look back over your day, to find that you actually are content.   Oh … and don’t forget to thank your God, the universe, or whoever you personally thank for the wonderful things in your life.

❤️ 💛 💚 💙 💜

[Play Time Bell Rings . . . .]

These are the Jokes Folks!

Crime in multi-storey car parks.  That is wrong on so many different levels.

I have downloaded this new app. Its great, it tells you what to wear, what to eat and what you shouldnt be eating, if you’ve put on weight.  Its called the Daily Mail newspaper.

I was playing chess with my friend and she said, ‘Let’s make this interesting’.   So we stopped playing chess.

My friend Richard told me:  “I usually meet my girlfriend at 12:59 because I like that one-to-one time.”

My husband surprised me the other day when he said:  “When I was younger I felt like a man trapped inside a woman’s body. Then I was born.”

My grandad has a chair in his shower which makes him feel old, so in order to feel young he sits on it backwards like a cool teacher giving an assembly about drugs.

Is it possible to mistake schizophrenia for telepathy?  I hear you ask.

You can’t lose a homing pigeon. If your homing pigeon doesn’t come back,  then what you’ve lost is a pigeon.

My husband told me: ‘Sex is better on holiday.’  . . .   That really wasn’t a nice postcard to receive.

As a child I was made to walk the plank.  We couldn’t afford a dog.

Oh my goodness!!!, mega drama the other day: My dishwasher stopped working! Yup, his visa expired.

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Hopefully, your chuckle muscle has received a good workout now and may even be aching a little bit! 😀   You’ll now be able to tell people that you’ve already had your workout today.

It’s lovely to be back in the saddle and here, chatting with you. I’ve missed you.   😊

May your day today be a truly great one for you, and may your weekend be filled with contentment.   Take very good care of yourself, and, whatever you’re doing or wherever you’re going, may your God go with you.

Sending squidges,  and love, in a rainbow of colours.   ❤️ 💛 💚 💙 💜