Monday, July 22, 2013

July 22 - Spooners (Spoonerism) Day

Happy July 22 everybody, and congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their son!

Today is Spoonerism Day, not sure what a Spoonerism is? Chances are you are guilty of committing this mostly-hilarious vocabulary slip-up at least once in the past week. Spoonerisms are phrases, sentences or words where the sounds of the words have been swapped. For example when we are speaking quickly we might say "slow and sneet" when what we really mean to say is "snow and sleet". The idea of Spoonerisms came from Reverend William Archibald Spooner who was reputed to be particularly prone at making these language slips, today is known as Spooners day because he was born on this day in 1844. Check out the link bellow for some Spooner inspired stories.
Pinderella and the Cince
Beeping Sleauty
Ali Theeva and the Forty Babs
The Pea Little Thrigs
Goldybear and the Three Locks

Now for "Today in History".

-1035 Robert II/I, Duke of Normandy, dies.
-1099 First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem.
-1210 Joan of England, Queen consort of Scotland, wife of Alexander II of Scotland is born.
-1298 English defeat Scots at Battle of Falkirk.
-1461 Charles VII, King of France (1422-61), dies at 58. 


-1731 Spain signs Treaty of Vienna.
-1775 George Washington takes command of US troops.
-1793 Two days after becoming the first explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean by land Alexander Mackenzie wrote an inscription on a rock at Bella Coola, "Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada by land, 22nd July, 1793."
-1934 Louise Fletcher, Birmingham AL, actress (One Flew over Cuckoo's Nest) is born.
-1940 Jacqueline Kennedy's parents divorce.
-1941 Ron Turcotte, Canadian jockey born.


-1948 S. E. Hinton, American author is born.


-1949 Alan Menken, New York, Disney composer (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast - 8 Oscars) born.
-1950 King Leopold, after 6 years in exile, returns to Belgium.
-1964 David Spade, comedian is born.

-1973  Rufus Wainwright, Canadian singer born.
-1982 Biggest mass wedding, Rev Sun Myung Moon weds 2,200 couples in NYC.


-1992 Selena Gomez, American actress/singer born.


-1994 OJ Simpson pleads "Absolutely 100% Not Guilty" of murder.
-2008 Estelle Getty, American actress, dies of Lewy body disease at 84.


A new segment that might make its appearance on some of our future blogs, Books and Movies: The Goods.

If your looking for some good reads, the New York Times Best Sellers list for this coming week can be found here publishers weekly also has a best sellers list found here

Check out the Kirkus book review for My Beautiful Hippie by Janet Nichols Lynch here


Joke of the Day

A librarian is working away at her desk when she notices that a chicken has come into the library and is patiently waiting in front of the desk. When the chicken sees that it has the librarian's attention, it squawks, "Book, book, book, BOOK!"

The librarian complies, putting a couple of books down in front of the chicken. The chicken quickly grabs them and disappears.

The next day, the librarian is again disturbed by the same chicken, who puts the previous day's pile of books down on the desk and again squawks, "Book, book, book, BOOK!"

The librarian shakes her head, wondering what the chicken is doing with these books, but eventually finds some more books for the chicken. The chicken disappears.

The next day, the librarian is once again disturbed by the chicken, who squawks (in a rather irritated fashion, it seems), "Book, book, book, BOOK!" By now, the librarian's curiosity has gotten the better of her, so she gets a pile of books for the chicken, and follows the bird when it leaves the library. She follows it through the parking lot, down the street for several blocks, and finally into a large park. The chicken disappears into a small grove of trees, and the librarian follows. On the other side of the trees is a small marsh. The chicken has stopped on the side of the marsh. The librarian, now really curious, hurries over and sees that there is a small frog next to the chicken, examining each book, one at a time. The librarian comes within earshot just in time to hear the frog saying, "Read it, read it, read it..."

Stay tuned for our next, "On This Day in History"!  

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