John Irving - (born John Wallace Blunt Jr.; March 2, 1942) is an American-Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978. Many of Irving's novels, including The Hotel New Hampshire (1981), The Cider House Rules (1985), A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), and A Widow for One Year (1998), have been bestsellers. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in the 72nd Academy Awards (1999) for his script of The Cider House Rules. Five of his novels have been adapted into films (Garp, Hotel, Meany, Cider, Widow). Several of Irving's books (Garp, Meany, Widow) and short stories have been set in and around Phillips Exeter Academy in the town of Exeter, New Hampshire. Irving writes by longhand and uses both sides of the paper. As for his creative process he reveals that by the time he was writing The Cider House Rules, he realized that he writes best when he starts with the ending of the story. He writes the last sentence of each story, then "writes toward that sentence." He says that approach never lets him down.

Comment: I'm currently reading A Prayer for Owen Meany.

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John Irving: A writer's life

Author John Irving has mined his personal history and obsessions as the starting point for such acclaimed works of fiction as "The World According to Garp" a...

Jostens (is an American manufacturer of memorabilia. The company is primarily known for its production of yearbooks and class rings for various high schools and colleges as well as championship rings for sports. Jostens also produced photobook products for Disney's PhotoPass photography service offered at Disney theme parks and resorts. As well as its headquarters near Minneapolis and operational offices in Owatonna, Minn., Jostens has facilities in Clarksville, Tenn.; Denton, Texas; Eagan, Minn.; Laurens, S.C.; Sedalia, Mo.; Shelbyville, Tenn.; the Dominican Republic; and Mexico. Otto Josten founded the company as a watch-repair business in Owatonna in 1897. Jostens (then called "Josten's" — the apostrophe was later dropped) began manufacturing emblems and awards for nearby schools and in 1906, the year of incorporation, Josten added class rings to his product line, to be sold to schools throughout the Midwest. Jostens created the American Yearbook Company in 1950, later merging it under the Jostens brand. On October 14, 2015, Jarden acquired Jostens from Visant Corporation, stating that it planned to take advantage of synergies with its other properties (particularly Rawlings and Yankee Candle), and "turn it into a true consumer-product business, as opposed to it historically being run like a printing asset". Jarden merged with Newell Rubbermaid in 2016 to form Newell Brands. In 2018, Newell Brands sold Jostens to Platinum Equity for $1.3 billion. Jostens is the primary supplier of Super Bowl rings, and has made 31 champion rings in the Super Bowl's 50-year history through 2017. In April 2015, Jostens launched the world's first Adobe InDesign streaming partnership with Adobe Inc., called "Monarch," at the Journalism Education Association spring convention in Denver)

1906, company was above an opera house in Owatonna, MN..........................

Today in Minneapolis...............

The ring Jostens made for the 1987 World Series Champions Minnesota Twins.......................

FYI: From my Where We Live topic folder

Kentucky Derby - "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports" ... need I say more?

This Saturday - May 6, 2023 - will be the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby. Dubbed "The Run for the Roses" the horse race is held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of one and a quarter miles (2.0 km) at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds (57 kilograms) and fillies 121 pounds (55 kilograms). It is the first leg of the American Triple Crown. Of the three Triple Crown races, the Kentucky Derby has the distinction of having been run uninterrupted since its inaugural race in 1875. The race was rescheduled to September 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Preakness and Belmont Stakes races had taken hiatuses in 1891–1893 and 1911–1912, respectively. Even with the Olympics and major professional sports leagues canceled at those points, the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont took place during the Great Depression and both World Wars. The 2015 derby drew the largest crowd in the event's history with 170,500 spectators in attendance. 

The race often draws celebrities. HM Queen Elizabeth II, on a visit to the United States, joined the racegoers at Churchill Downs in 2007.

This year we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the win by Secretariat in 1973 which was the fastest time for any Derby race - 1:59.4. No horse since has beaten his record.

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Secretariat's record-breaking 1973 Kentucky Derby run (FULL RACE) | NBC Sports

Take a look back at Secretariat earning the first jewel of his Triple Crown run with a still-standing track record time on the 50th anniversary of his histor...

Coverage of the Derby by our local NBC affiliate - WAVE-3 - starts around 7 AM and continues until NBC starts its broadcast at 2:30. NBC continues until 7:30 and WAVE-3 does the wrap-up from 7:30 until 8:00 PM. 

The Garland of Roses being assembled at the florist of a local Kroger grocery store. This has been done at the store in Middletown - suburb of Louisville - which is where I few up about 15 miles from where I live now. You can visit the store and watch.  The garland is made up of more than 400 red roses sewn into a green satin backing with the seal of the Commonwealth on one end and the Twin Spires and number of the race's current renewal on the other. Each garland is also adorned with a "crown" of roses, green fern and ribbon. The "crown," a single rose pointing upward in the center of the garland, symbolizes the struggle and heart necessary to reach the Derby Winner's Circle.

The 2018 event set the record for the wettest Kentucky Derby in history, with 3.15 inches of rainfall according to the National Weather Service. See picture below and how muddy the track was.

Lunar Eclipse (is an astronomical event that occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the moon to be darkened. Such alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, when the Moon's orbital plane is closest to the plane of the Earth's orbit. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are exactly or very closely aligned (in syzygy) with Earth between the other two, which can happen only on the night of a full moon when the Moon is near either lunar node. The type and length of a lunar eclipse depend on the Moon's proximity to the lunar node. When the moon is totally eclipsed by the Earth, it takes on a reddish color that is caused by the planet when it completely blocks direct sunlight from reaching the Moon surface, as only the light reflected from the lunar surface has been refracted by Earth's atmosphere. This light appears reddish due to the Rayleigh scattering of blue light, the same reason sunrise and sunsets are more orange than during the day. Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. A total lunar eclipse can last up to nearly 2 hours, while a total solar eclipse lasts only up to a few minutes at any given place, because the Moon's shadow is smaller. Also unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are safe to view without any eye protection or special precautions. The symbol for a lunar eclipse (or indeed any body in the shadow of another) is ).

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Margaret Jane "Dee Dee" Myers - is an American political analyst who served as the 19th White House Press Secretary during the first two years of the Clinton administration. She was the first woman and the second-youngest person to hold that position. Myers later co-hosted the news program Equal Time on CNBC, and was a consultant on The West Wing. She was the inspiration for fictional White House Press Secretary C. J. Cregg. She is also the author of the 2008 New York Times best-selling book, Why Women Should Rule the World. In 2020, she joined the Gavin Newsom administration as Senior Advisor to the Governor and Director of the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development.

Her book was published in 2008. I read it about three years ago.

New York Fashion Week ((NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning seven to nine days when international fashion collections are shown to buyers, the press, and the general public. It is one of four major fashion weeks in the world, collectively known as the "Big Four", along with those in Paris, London, and Milan. The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) created the modern notion of a centralized "New York Fashion Week" in 1993, although cities like London were already using their city's name in conjunction with the words fashion week in the 1980s. NYFW is based on a much older series of events called "Press Week", founded in 1943. On a global scale, most business and sales-oriented shows and some couture shows take place in New York City. A centralized calendar of citywide events (including those affiliated with WME/IMG) is kept by the CFDA, and was acquired from calendar founder Ruth Finley. The annual economic impact of New York Fashion Week upon New York City was estimated at US$887 million in 2016.

The first New York Fashion Week was created in 1943 by Eleanor Lambert, press director of the American fashion industry's first promotional organization, the New York Dress Institute. The event, the world's first organized fashion week, was called "Press Week", and was created to attract attention away from French fashion during World War II, when fashion industry insiders were unable to travel to Paris to see French fashion shows. It was also meant to showcase American designers for fashion journalists, who had neglected U.S. fashion innovations. Press Week in New York was a success, and fashion magazines like Vogue, which were normally filled with French designs, increasingly featured American fashion. By the mid-1950s, the event was known as "Press Week of New York". Spring 1951 (held February 1951) was the 16th Annual Press Week of New York.................................

Eleanor Lambert.....

FYI: From my Fashion topic folder

_______________________

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

The Outer Banks - (frequently abbreviated OBX) are a 200 mi (320 km) string of barrier islands and spits off the coast of North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, on the east coast of the United States. They line most of the North Carolina coastline, separating Currituck Sound, Albemarle Sound, and Pamlico Sound from the Atlantic Ocean. A major tourist destination, the Outer Banks are known for their wide expanse of open beachfront and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The seashore and surrounding ecosystem are important biodiversity zones, including beach grasses and shrubland that help maintain the form of the land. The Outer Banks stretch southward from Sandbridge in Virginia Beach down the North Carolina coastline. Sources differ regarding the southern terminus of the Outer Banks. The most extensive definition includes the state's three prominent capes: Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout, and Cape Fear. Other sources limit the definition to two capes (Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout) and coastal areas in four counties (Currituck County, Dare County, Hyde County, and Carteret County).[9] Some authors exclude Carteret's Bogue Banks; others exclude the county entirely.

The Outer Banks were sites of early European settlement in the United States and remain important economic and cultural sites. Most notably the English Roanoke Colony vanished from Roanoke Island in 1587 and was the first location where an English person, Virginia Dare, was born in the Americas. The hundreds of shipwrecks along the Outer Banks have given the surrounding seas the nickname Graveyard of the Atlantic. The Outer Banks were also home to the Wright brothers' first flight in a controlled, powered, heavier-than-air vehicle on December 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills. During the 20th century the region became increasingly important for coastal tourism.

Pinky Promise (To make a pinky promise, or pinky swear, is a traditional gesture most commonly practiced amongst children involving the locking of the pinkies of two people to signify that a promise has been made. The gesture is taken to signify that the person can break the finger of the one who broke the promise. The tradition appears to be a relatively modern invention, possibly as a continuation of older finger traditions)

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

The American Quarter Horse - or Quarter Horse, is an American breed of horse that excels at sprinting short distances. Its name is derived from its ability to outrun other horse breeds in races of a quarter mile or less; some have been clocked at speeds up to 44 mph (70.8 km/h). The development of the Quarter Horse traces to the 1600s. The American Quarter Horse is the most popular breed in the United States, and the American Quarter Horse Association is the largest breed registry in the world, with almost three million living American Quarter Horses registered in 2014. The American Quarter Horse is well known both as a racehorse and for its performance in rodeos, horse shows, and as a working ranch horse. The compact body of the American Quarter Horse is well suited for the intricate and quick maneuvers required in reining, cutting, working cow horse, barrel racing, calf roping, and other western riding events, especially those involving live cattle. The American Quarter Horse is also used in English disciplines, driving, show jumping, dressage, hunting, and many other equestrian activities.

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Why The Quarter Horse is Built For Speed

The American Quarter Horse has been clocked at 55 mph.Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed it! **More info & videos below**"American Horses" premieres F...

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8 Facts You Didn't Know About the American Quarter Horse

The American Quarter Horse is one of America's most popular breeds. Today, the breed is used for almost every discipline - from barrel racing to dressage, an...

Random Acts of Kindness (is a nonpremeditated, inconsistent action designed to offer kindness towards the outside world. The phrase "random kindness and senseless acts of beauty" was written by Anne Herbert on a placemat in Sausalito, California in 1982. It was based on the phrase "random acts of violence and senseless acts of cruelty". Herbert's book Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty was published in February 1993 speaking about true stories of acts of kindness. The phrase is commonly expressed as the suggestion to "Practice random acts of kindness." There are groups around the world who are sharing acts of spontaneous kindness)

and there's a national day for Random Acts of Kindness..............

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