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History of Mother's Day

History of Mother’s Day

 

Contrary to popular belief, Mother’s Day was not conceived and fine-tuned in the boardroom of Hallmark. The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.

Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.

In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, “I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers.”

Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker, and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of the first services organized to celebrate Anna’s mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother’s favorite flower, the white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on Mother’s Day. In 1914 Anna’s hard work paid off when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother’s Day as a national holiday.

Entry #4,565

91-Year-Old Crimefighter Told To Stay Home

Former soldier, 91, told to stop street patrols

 

MARTY SHARPE

The Dominion Post 

05:00 07/05/2011
 
READY FOR ACTION: John Bray is keen to find a new patrol partner and get out on Waipawa's streets again.
 
READY FOR ACTION: John Bray is keen to find a new patrol partner and get out on Waipawa's streets again.
 
WELL QUALIFIED: His World War II experience stands him in good stead for street patrols, Mr Bray says.
 
WELL QUALIFIED: His World War II experience stands him in good stead for street patrols, Mr Bray says.
 
A 91-year-old special forces veteran has been told he has to stop carrying out solo night patrols on the streets of Waipawa.

John Bray used to drive around on volunteer community patrols with a companion, but decided to go solo after finding his sidekick, in his late 80s, kept falling asleep on duty.

Now he's been told by the head of the local patrol that the national Community Patrol organisation does not want volunteers working alone, and Mr Bray can stay on the roster only if he finds a partner.

He feels he's more than qualified to deal with Waipawa's graffiti vandals and other miscreants, having served with the Long Range Desert Group, a reconnaissance and raiding unit of the British Army, in north Africa in World War II.

For more than 10 years he has spent at least one night a month driving Waipawa's streets, armed with a spotlight, fluorescent vest and a mobile phone, looking for suspicious behaviour.

He has no qualms about approaching people to ask them about their motives.

But he says he can understand the national body's concerns for his safety. "I'm not getting my hackles up about it. I know their thinking. I mean, I know 70-year-olds who shouldn't be driving a wheelbarrow, let alone a car."

He's been a bit crook lately after a fall and is also getting over an operation to remove a blood clot from his leg, but says once he's well he might look at finding a new partner.

"I'd like to do it again. I've just never bothered finding a partner since my last one pulled out."

He keeps busy working from home doing saddlery and stitching work, and is also the caretaker of a block of retirement flats – whose residents are all his junior.

His wife, June, died in 1988. He has six children, 14 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. Both his parents lived to 99, so he reckons the patrol should get a few years out of him yet.

Waipawa patrol head John Carter says he hated having to break the news to Mr Bray. "We love him dearly and we're desperately trying to find a partner for him."

Entry #4,564

Man Spends $50 and Wins $1.1 Million in Penny Slot Machine

Player Wins Million Dollar Jackpot Off Indio Penny Slot Machine

George Hayes Of Hemet Spent $50 To Win $1.1 Million

 
Erik Sandoval
iReporter and Digital Content Director

POSTED: 1:47 pm PDT May 6, 2011

 
UPDATED: 2:41 pm PDT May 6, 2011
 
INDIO, Calif. -- A man's night of casino hopping with a friend ended in a way many only dream of on Thursday night.
 
George Hayes, of Hemet, came to Fantasy Springs Resort Casino on Cinco de Mayo with his friend as their last stop of the night.

"George simply walked up to a one-cent Super Spin Wheel Of Fortune machine and put in $40 or $50," said casino spokeswoman Ciara Green. "Not long after that, he watched five Wheel of Fortune symbols line up across the center line and knew it had to mean something big." 

 
That "something big" turned out to be $1,127,123.88. 
 
"Today is my wife's birthday," Hayes said. "She passed away a number of years ago. In 1985, she won a jackpot at a Las Vegas casino for $250,000, which happened to be on my birthday. Seems like it's happened again, only the other way around." 
 
Hayes said he and his friend make casino-hopping trips every few weeks. On this trip, it was their turn to hit the casinos in the Palm Springs area. 
 
He said there was nothing special that stood out about the Wheel of Fortune game, but he just walked right up and started playing it.
 
He didn't say what he was considering using the money for.
 
 
LINK TO PHOTO:
Entry #4,559

Sex and coffee may cause brain hemorrahage

Sex and coffee may raise risk of brain hemorrhage in some people

 

Marissa Cevallos

LA Times

HealthKey

4:00 PM PDT, May 5, 2011

 

 

The rupture of a brain aneurysm is a relatively rare event but, as it causes bleeding in the brain, that event is a potentially devastating one. Now researchers have attempted to identify possible triggers for such ruptures, also known as hemorrhagic strokes, finding that sex, coffee and losing one’s temper -- among other things -- may raise the risk.

Such ruptures begin with aneurysms, which are weak spots in blood vessels in the brain. Under stress, those weak spots can rupture and lead to hemorrhaging, or bleeding. But it wasn’t clear what activities put people at the most risk of a resulting hemorrhagic stroke.

In surveying 250 people who’d recently had a subarachnoid hemorrhage resulting from an aneurysm, researchers in the Netherlands asked how often in the past year, and just before the hemorrhage, they were exposed to 30 potential triggers, such as smoking, drinking alcohol and having sex.

By assessing the frequency and intensity of their exposure to such triggers, researchers found that eight activities appeared to make a rupture more likely:

-Drinking coffee

-Drinking soda

-Blowing your nose

-Straining on the toilet

-Being startled

-Getting angry

-Having sex

-Exercising

The common factor? All produced sudden, short increases in blood pressure.

That doesn’t mean people with aneurysms should try to cut out all those activities—though it couldn’t hurt to get rid of, for example, anger issues. The researchers wrote:

“Reducing caffeine consumption or treating constipated patients with unruptured [intracranial aneurysms] with laxatives may lower the risk of [subarachnoid hemorrhage]. Although physical exercise has a triggering potential, we do not advise refraining from physical exercise because it is also an important factor in lowering the risk of other cardiovascular diseases.”

The results were published online Thursday in Stroke.

About 2% of people have aneurysms, the authors point out, but most never rupture. In the U.S., there are 25,000 to 27,000 ruptures per year; about 40% are fatal, according to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation.

 

Coffee may raise the risk of a brain aneurysm rupturing

Coffee, sex and physical exercise may raise the risk of a brain aneurysm rupturing and bleeding into the brain, a study suggests. (Wikimedia Commons)

Entry #4,558

Man tells police he had alligator in his home because...

Cops: Man said he had alligator because 'chicks dig it'

 

Dewayne Yarbrough

 

 Dewayne Yarbrough

Staff report

3:05 p.m. CDT, May 6, 2011

A Ford Heights man kept an alligator in his home because “chicks dig it,” he told police who arrested him.

Dewayne Yarbrough, 43, was arrested Thursday at his home in the 800 block of East 11th Place after the Cook County Sheriff’s animal crimes unit received a tip about Yarbrough keeping the American alligator at his home, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.

He faces a misdemeanor charge of possession of a dangerous animal.

Officers obtained a search warrant for Yarbrough’s home and found the alligator in the kitchen there on Thursday, police said.

The alligator is about 4 feet long -- alligators often are as long as 14 feet -- and Yarbrough told investigators he only fed the animal 10 live mice once a month and kept it in a small fish tank to keep down its size, according to the news release.

Yarbough told police he kept the animal because “chicks dig it,” according to police. Yarbrough bought the animal for $200 in Indiana five years ago, according to the release.
 
The alligator was taken by officers and Cook County animal control to the Chicago Ridge Animal Welfare League. The Chicago Herpetological Society will take the animal at a later date, police said.

Yarbrough was free after posting $100 bond and scheduled to appear in Markham Court on July 5, according to the sheriff’s office.

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/videobeta/98d3d162-1872-4b29-9750-6787ce6ae679/News/Alligator-removed-from-home-

Entry #4,557

Man robs pharmacy dies of drug overdose

Alleged Walgreens robber dies from suspected drug overdose

Lawrence Raley

Lawrence Raley, suspected of robbing a Walgreens for pill, died from a suspected drug overdose after his arrest Thursday, Palm Bay officials said. (Brevard County Jail)

 

 

Orlando Sentinel

12:18 p.m. EDT, May 6, 2011

A man suspected of robbing a Walgreens pharmacy and committing other crimes in Brevard County was arrested Thursday but later died from a suspected drug overdose, Palm Bay police just announced.

Lawrence Raley, 31, faced felony charges for an armed robbery Sunday at the Walgreens pharmacy at 175 Malabar Road NW.

He demanded pills from Walgreens workers while showing them a handgun before getting away on foot. Later, tipsters said Raley was involved.

Agents got a warrant to search his home in the 3400 block of Airia Street in Melbourne.

Officers with the Melbourne Police Department and the Brevard County Sheriff's Office took him into custody.

"At the time of his arrest the suspect appeared to be under the influence and severely incoherent," said Sgt. Tim Zander of the Special Investigations Unit said in a statement "He was taken to the hospital where he later died."

Authorities found the gun, hat and gloves used during the robbery at his house. Police think he was responsible for other similar crimes, including an armed robbery in Melbourne.

No other details were released.
Entry #4,556

Woman admits encouraging 13 years olds to have sex

Bethlehem woman admits encouraging teens to have sex

Vazquez (May 5, 2011)
Riley Yates
THE MORNING CALL

10:57 p.m. EDT, May 5, 2011

 

A Bethlehem woman who pressured two sets of 13-year-olds to have sex in her home will serve nine years of probation.

Sheila M. Vazquez, 37, admitted Thursday in Northampton County Court to three counts of corrupting minors, a plea agreement before Judge Leonard Zito in which prosecutors withdrew dozens of other counts.

Over five months in 2009, Vazquez encouraged two boys and two girls, all 13, to have sex, police said. She would insult the boys if they declined, and she showed one of them how to use a condom, police said.

Vazquez would also serve as lookout, stomping on the floor or sending text messages to warn the teens if her husband returned to their Phillips Street home, police said.

Vazquez was charged last year after a complaint was made to the county's Children, Youth and Families Division and investigators

Entry #4,554
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