24 hours.....................

Yuki-onna (is a spirit or yokai in Japanese folklore that is often depicted in Japanese literature, films, or animation. She may also go by such names as yuki-musume ("snow daughter"), yuki-onago ("snow girl"), yukijoro (???, "snow woman"), yuki anesa ("snow sis"), yuki-onba ("snow granny" or "snow nanny"), yukinba ("snow hag") in Ehime, yukifuri-baba ("snowfall witch" or "snowfall hag") in Nagano. They are also called several names that are related to icicles, such as tsurara-onna, kanekori-musume, and shigama-nyobo. Yuki-onna appears on snowy nights as a tall, beautiful woman with long black hair and blue lips. Her inhumanly pale or even transparent skin makes her blend into the snowy landscape (as famously described in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things). She often wears a white kimono, but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face and hair standing out against the snow. Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet, a feature of many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if threatened)

Yuki-onna (???) from the Hyakkai-Zukan by Sawaki Suushi from the 1700s.....................

Off to work........................

Zinnia - is a perennial plant belonging to the family Asteraceae. The flower is a great attractor of pollinators like butterflies and birds, and it's usually cultivated in butterfly gardens. The flowers come in various colors, hues, shapes, and sizes. The Zinnia is a low-maintenance plant that blooms typically around autumn and spring. The flower requires full sun and thrives on moist, fertile, and well-drained soil, with a pH level between 5.5 and 7.5. They are native to scrub and dry grassland in an area stretching from the Southwestern United States to South America, with a center of diversity in Mexico. Members of the genus are notable for their solitary long-stemmed 12 petal flowers that come in a variety of bright colors. The genus name honors German master botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn (1727–59).

Round 9..............................

American Gothic (is a 1930 painting by Grant Wood in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood was inspired to paint what is now known as the American Gothic House in Eldon, Iowa, along with "the kind of people [he] fancied should live in that house". It depicts a farmer standing beside his daughter – often mistakenly assumed to be his wife. The painting's name is a word play on the house's architectural style, Carpenter Gothic. The figures were modeled by Wood's sister Nan Wood Graham and their dentist Dr. Byron McKeeby. The woman is dressed in a colonial print apron evoking 20th-century rural Americana while the man is adorned in overalls covered by a suit jacket and carries a pitchfork. The plants on the porch of the house are mother-in-law's tongue and beefsteak begonia, which also appear in Wood's 1929 portrait of his mother, Woman with Plants. American Gothic is one of the most familiar images of 20th-century American art and has been widely parodied in American popular culture. From 2016 to 2017, the painting was displayed in Paris at the Musée de l'Orangerie and in London at the Royal Academy of Arts in its first showings outside the United States)

Nan Wood Graham (the artist's sister) and Dr. Byron McKeeby (the Woods' family dentist) in the Gallery at the Cedar Rapids Public Library, September 1942................................

also, a TV show that featured former Hardy Boy Shaun Cassidy (my sister was named after him, Mom was a fan) and it lasted one season.........

Calling it a night.....................

Bob Baffert - (born January 13, 1953) is an American racehorse trainer who trained the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify. Baffert's horses have won a record six Kentucky Derbies, seven Preakness Stakes, three Belmont Stakes, and three Kentucky Oaks. According to his supporters, Baffert's style and personality, combined with his success, have made him a target for controversy. Over 30 horses Baffert trained have failed drug tests. Baffert has paid out over $20,000 in fines, but compared against over $321 million in career earnings. He routinely challenges most sanctions, usually agreeing to accept fines but vigorously fighting suspensions. Horse owner and racing reform advocate Barry Irwin has stated, "He's Mr. Teflon." In raw numbers, most of Baffert's medication violations were for exceeding allowed amounts of authorized medications such as phenylbutazone, a pain medication commonly administered to horses. However, his violations for use of prohibited medications has sparked controversy.

In 2021, the post-race test of Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit showed 21pg/mL of betamethasone. In Kentucky, any amount of betamethasone detected in post-race testing is a violation and could result in a disqualification. It was Baffert's fifth violation in 13 months. At a news conference on May 9, Baffert initially said that Medina Spirit was never administered betamethasone. He told reporters that he would fight the issue "...tooth and nail." Nonetheless, Churchill Downs suspended Baffert from entering any horses at their racetrack pending the outcome of an investigation. Baffert responded by saying the situation "was like a cancel culture kind of a thing," a remark which earned him noticeable criticism from the press. On May 11, Baffert stated Medina Spirit had dermatitis, for which an ointment containing betamethasone was used. Sports Illustrated suggested that the positive drug test was a sign that Baffert's "leaking credibility" had reached "the saturation point." On June 2, 2021, Medina Spirit's split sample also tested positive and Churchill Downs suspended Baffert through the end of the 2023 Spring Meet.

Baffert with 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify

YouTube

Medina Spirit disqualified from Kentucky Derby, Mandaloun named winner

For the second time in the 147-year history of the Kentucky Derby, a winner was disqualified for a drug infraction.Bob Baffert's Medina Spirit, who crossed t...

Crossword (is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases that cross each other, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages that are written left-to-right, the answer words and phrases are placed in the grid from left to right ("across") and from top to bottom ("down"). The shaded squares are used to separate the words or phrases. The phrase "cross word puzzle" was first written in 1862 by Our Young Folks in the United States. Crossword-like puzzles, for example Double Diamond Puzzles, appeared in the magazine St. Nicholas, published since 1873. Another crossword puzzle appeared on September 14, 1890, in the Italian magazine Il Secolo Illustrato della Domenica. It was designed by Giuseppe Airoldi and titled "Per passare il tempo" ("To pass the time"). Airoldi's puzzle was a four-by-four grid with no shaded squares; it included horizontal and vertical clues. Crosswords in England during the 19th century were of an elementary kind, apparently derived from the word square, a group of words arranged so the letters read alike vertically and horizontally, and printed in children's puzzle books and various periodicals. On December 21, 1913, Arthur Wynne, a journalist born in Liverpool, England, published a "word-cross" puzzle in the New York World that embodied most of the features of the modern genre. This puzzle is frequently cited as the first crossword puzzle, and Wynne as the inventor. An illustrator later reversed the "word-cross" name to "cross-word". Crossword puzzles became a regular weekly feature in the New York World, and spread to other newspapers; the Pittsburgh Press, for example, was publishing them at least as early as 1916 and The Boston Globe by 1917)

I used to specifically buy a local Sunday paper for the New York Times crossword (would give the rest of the paper to my parents), then I stopped many years ago. However, at work I can still get one sometimes and I have them in a folder to do when I feel like it.

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Calling it a night…………

I used to work crossword puzzles a lot years ago. Not so much now.

Dominoes or Domino's

Dominoes - is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ends. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called pips or dots) or is blank. The backs of the tiles in a set are indistinguishable, either blank or having some common design. The gaming pieces make up a domino set, sometimes called a deck or pack. The traditional European domino set consists of 28 tiles, also known as pieces, bones, rocks, stones, men, cards or just dominoes, featuring all combinations of spot counts between zero and six. A domino set is a generic gaming device, similar to playing cards or dice, in that a variety of games can be played with a set. Another form of entertainment using domino pieces is the practice of domino toppling. The earliest mention of dominoes is from Song dynasty China found in the text Former Events in Wulin by Zhou Mi (1232–1298). Modern dominoes first appeared in Italy during the 18th century, but they differ from Chinese dominoes in a number of respects, and there is no confirmed link between the two. European dominoes may have developed independently, or Italian missionaries in China may have brought the game to Europe. The name "domino" is probably derived from the resemblance to a kind of carnival costume worn during the Venetian Carnival, often consisting of a black-hooded robe and a white mask. Despite the coinage of the word "polyomino" as a generalization, there is no connection between the word "domino" and the number 2 in any language. The most commonly played domino games are Domino Whist, Matador, and Muggins (All Fives). Other popular forms include Texas 42, Chicken Foot, Concentration, Double Fives, and Mexican Train. In Britain, the most popular league and pub game is Fives and Threes.

Comment: The only dominoes I've ever played is online.

Domino's - Domino's Pizza, Inc., trading as Domino's, is a Michigan-based multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware-domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor Township, near Ann Arbor, Michigan. As of 2018, Domino's had approximately 15,000 stores, with 5,649 in the United States, 1,500 in India, and 1,249 in the United Kingdom. Domino's has stores in over 83 countries and 5,701 cities worldwide.

Comment: I know they have good prices on their pizzas, but I can't stand their crust. And for me the curst is very, very important. I'd rather go to Pizza Hut or our local Hometown Pizza and spend a little more money or make my own. I make a pretty good pizza.

Their Hawaiian Pizza is one of my favorites, still haven't tried their Tots yet......

Extreme Ironing ((also called EI) is an extreme sport in which people take ironing boards to remote locations and iron items of clothing. According to the Extreme Ironing Bureau, extreme ironing is "the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt." Part of the attraction and interest the media has shown towards extreme ironing seems to center on the issue of whether it is really a sport or not. It is widely considered to be tongue-in-cheek. Some locations where such performances have taken place include a mountainside of a difficult climb; a forest; in a canoe; while skiing or snowboarding; on top of large bronze statues; in the middle of a street; underwater; in the middle of the M1 motorway; in a keirin cycle race; while parachuting; and under the ice sheet of a frozen lake. The performances have been conducted solo or by groups)

FYI: From my Fun Facts topic folder.

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Off to work......................

"Extreme ironing" sounds like something my grandmother would do when she was angry. She'd get that ironing board and iron out and go to town. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald - in full Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, (born September 24, 1896, St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.—died December 21, 1940, Hollywood, California), American short-story writer and novelist famous for his depictions of the Jazz Age (the 1920s), his most brilliant novel being The Great Gatsby (1925). His private life, with his wife, Zelda, in both America and France, became almost as celebrated as his novels. Fitzgerald was the only son of an unsuccessful, aristocratic father and an energetic, provincial mother. Half the time he thought of himself as the heir of his father’s tradition, which included the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Francis Scott Key, after whom he was named, and half the time as “straight 1850 potato-famine Irish.” As a result, he had typically ambivalent American feelings about American life, which seemed to him at once vulgar and dazzlingly promising.

Fitzgerald with wife Zelda (1923)

Good Luck Charm (is an amulet or other item that is believed to bring good luck. Almost any object can be used as a charm. Coins and buttons are examples, as are small objects given as gifts, due to the favorable associations they make. Many souvenir shops have a range of tiny items that may be used as good luck charms. Good luck charms are often worn on the body, but not necessarily. The Mojo is a charm originating in African culture. It is used in voodoo ceremonies to carry several lucky objects or spells and intended to cause a specific effect. The concept is that particular objects placed in the bag and charged will create a supernatural effect for the bearer. Even today, mojo bags are still used. Europe also contributed to the concept of lucky charms. Adherents of St. Patrick (the patron saint of Ireland), adopted the four-leaf clover as a symbol of Irish luck because clovers are abundant in the hills of Ireland)

Off to work..................

Hampton Lillibridge House - is a historic home in Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located at 507 East St. Julian Street, in the southwestern civic/trust lot of Washington Square and was built around 1797 by Hampton Lillibridge. It is one of Savannah's few clapboard houses to have survived the fire of 1820. Lillibridge died at Shandy Hall, near Savannah, on February 14, 1801, after contracting yellow fever. His widowed second wife, Anna Orford, sold the house, at which point it became a boarding house and that’s where it’s unsafe repast began. It is said the first death to take place in the house was a sailor who hung himself. After several mysterious deaths the house was sold again and sat empty for many years. In 1969 Jim Williams from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil fame, purchased the home and had it moved from Bryan Street to St Julian where it stands today. He actually bought the adjoining home also, unfortunately it never made it to its new location, it crumbled and fell into a pit before the workers could move it. Three deaths occurred along with that. Jim placed the Lillibridge house on St. Julian Street and started to reconstruct the home bringing it back to its former glory. That’s when all the mischief began. Often you would hear laughter, disembodied voices, tools coming up missing and the workmen would often find bones inside of the walls. One of the most notorious stories of the Lillibridge house is when Jim was out of the country for a buying trip. One of the neighbors called him and said there seems to be a party happening at your house. When he called one of his friends to go investigate the door was wide open. He and two other gentlemen walked in and they heard footsteps above them. They ran to the top floor and one was grabbed by the ankles and pulled towards the fireplace which was just an open pit in the middle of the floor at the time. You can still see the scratch marks on the floor where he was trying to save himself. One of the other two men pulled him to safety, then they ran down the stairs across the street refusing to enter the home ever again. When Jim returned, he decided to make that his permanent residence while waiting for the Mercer House to be finished. Jim became very good friends with the Metro Police Department, often calling for hearing people in his home. Police finally told him that if he kept calling 911 for no reason, they would have to start fining him. After one police officer came and heard footsteps upstairs he ran to follow the sound. It let him to a locked closet door that never opened. When he pulled and tugged for several moments they decided to walk away. Then the door started to slowly open up on its own. Jim actually had the house exercised at one point and it did lessen the activity for about 2 weeks, only for it to return, full force in about a month. Jim could take no more and moved from the property immediately. The house has had several paranormal investigation teams come investigate. They will often find a demonic presence and spirits roaming the building. The house is occupied at the moment but most likely it won't stay occupied for very long. The house is often sold within a year of its new tenants moving in.

Comment: Needless to say, I heard of this house when reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. 

The building in the mid-20th century at its original location at 310 East Bryan Street

As it stands now at its current location at East St. Julian Street. The widow's walk at the top of the house was in the original house but can't be seen in the picture above because of the trees.

The video below is more an audio. It only has the cover picture and nothing else. However, the woman tells a good story.

YouTube

Hampton Lillibridge House

Provided to YouTube by CDBabyHampton Lillibridge House · Bess T. ChappasSavannah Ghosts and Other Stories? 2005 Bess T. ChappasReleased on: 2005-01-01Auto-ge...