Thank you.

Happy Mother’s Day to Mrs. Tbogg and all the other mothers that come here and comment — you’re a pretty cool bunch of broads.

The first North American Mother’s Day was conceptualized with Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870. Despite having penned The Battle Hymn of the Republic 12 years earlier, Howe had become so distraught by the death and carnage of the Civil War that she called on Mother’s to come together and protest what she saw as the futility of their Sons killing the Sons of other Mothers. With the following, she called for an international Mother’s Day celebrating peace and motherhood:

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts,
“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of
charity, mercy and patience.

“We women of one country
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says, “Disarm, Disarm!”
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!
Blood does not wipe out dishonor
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war.

Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions.
The great and general interests of peace.

http://www.mothersdaycentral.com/about-mothersday/history/

I had breakfast in bed today, pancakes my daughter (age 10) made, delivered by my wife. My sacroiliac sort of went out on Friday and hasn’t quite come back yet.

Other than that, I think she’s having a nice Day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dEQTOz9BUU

In honour of my Mum, I washed and waxed all the floors in the house, mowed the lawn, pulled out and discarded the dead plants, finished staining the new woodwork, tended the flower garden, pulled some weeds, hung some pictures and cleaned the windows. Then, I wrote the household bills and made dinner.

A Mother’s work is never done, not even when she is. Happy Mother’s Day, Mummy.

I made a fine breakfast for the Creaturette. I pampered her and kept the Li’l Creaturette from being too annoying (she’s 19 months now, and can be a handful), so she could relax a bit more than usual. She did insist on making a batch of chicken biryani, and I’ll definitely let her do that. Mother’s Day and all that, ya know.

Nice.

Can I adopt you?

Will you assume responsibility for my debts, obligations and similar emoluments, until come the Jubilee? Also, Arthur? (He really likes those Trader Joe’s Puppy Jerky thingies.)

The Dum-Dum Girls?

Is that Sarah Palin & Michele Bachmann’s band?

Why the fuck aren’t the Smiths in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yet?