DAILY CALENDAR CHALLENGE #020 – JANUARY 20

Part II of the Weekend Calendar ChallengeAgain trying to compensate for the lack of a real origami challenge this weekend, I have resorted to a bit of parlor trick origami. I have folded a real 5-dollar bill into the image of Abe Lincoln wearing his traditional stove-pipe hat.

OK … as I mentioned at the start of this challenge series, you have to use your imagination when viewing origami and or any form of paper-folding. While Lincoln in a tall hat can’t possible compare with yesterday’s gold foil goldfish, who just happened to be named Goldie, it is quite appropriate since I had planned on going to see LINCOLN, The Movie later this morning. Notice I said had.  Thursday, I got the first inkling that I was coming down with a cold.

Yesterday, I had planned on going to see the Met’s Live In HD satellite transmission of Maria Stuarda at my local movie house. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get out of bed until a half hour before the opera was supposed to start. Blame it on a slight fever and head congestion and the fact that I had turned the alarm off instead of hitting the snooze button. Or perhaps Mlle. Renee who decided to share my bed with me when she got cold in the middle of the night turned it off. Anyway I’m quite sure Mary Queen of Scotts lost her head to Lizzie I without me.Thankfully the theater box office was closed when I tried to buy my ticket earlier in the week.

Anyway, Renee and I laid around all day yesterday. I did make Tortilla Bean Soup for my dinner in hope that the spices would help clear my head a bit. And I practiced on mastering my somewhat forgotten money folding skills.

Then I heard that Stan Musial had died at 92. While I have never been a Cardinal, I always admired Stan The Man. Without a doubt he was the last of the real baseball stars. And I had the opportunity to meet him several times, but who in Saint Louis didn’t meet him at one time or other? Once, it was because I was setting up a company meeting that was being held in the restaurant he owned, but usually it was because he was sitting at the table next to mine in a restaurant. As soon as he walked into the room and people recognized him, they would shout out, “Hey, Stan, how are you?” And yes, he always carried his harmonica with him and at the first request from any of his fellow dinners, he would pull it out and serenade them. Like Will Rogers, I’m quite sure he never met a man or woman he didn’t like. They don’t make men like Stan a lot, and he will be missed.

Oh, and I did work the weekend puzzle on my third calendar.Without I doubt, I’m quite sure the powers-that-be prepared this puzzle especially for me this weekend. And wouldn’t you know it, I don’t have a drop of pineapple juice in the house. That means I don’t have a thing to mix a shot of bourbon with and treat my cold. Thankfully, I made sure I got my flu shot in October.