August, the eighth month of the current Gregorian calendar and the third month of Summer’s rule, derives its name from Augustus (Augustus Caesar).

  The traditional birthstone of August is the peridot.

The gladiolus and the poppy are the month’s traditional flowers.

August is shared by the astrological signs of Leo the Lion and Virgo the Virgin.

"August rushes by like desert rainfall,
A flood of frenzied upheaval,
Expected,
But still catching me unprepared.
Like a matchflame
Bursting on the scene,
Heat and haze of crimson sunsets.
Like a dream
Of moon and dark barely recalled,
A moment,
Shadows caught in a blink.
Like a quick kiss;
One wishes for more
But it suddenly turns to leave,
Dragging summer away."
-  Elizabeth Maua Taylor

Quotes for August 

"What dreadful hot weather we have! 
It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance."
-   Jane Austen  

"If you saw a heat wave, would you wave back?" 
-   Steven Wright 

"Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability."
-   Sam Keen  

"Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."
-   Warren Buffett

August Events

1st - It's the anniversary of the JT68 website!!  TEN years "manely" devoted to Lions!  And we say that with Pride.

1st - On August 1, 1914, four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, two more great European powers—Russia and Germany—declare war on each other; the same day, France orders a general mobilization. The so-called "Great War" that ensued would be one of unprecedented destruction and loss of life, resulting in the deaths of some 20 million soldiers and civilians and the physical devastation of much of the European continent.

US entrance into WW1:

Zimmermann Telegram published in United States
 

On March 1, 1917, the text of the so-called Zimmermann Telegram, a message from the German foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, to the German ambassador to Mexico proposing a Mexican-German alliance in the case of war between the United States and Germany, is published on the front pages of newspapers across America.

In the telegram, intercepted and deciphered by British intelligence in January 1917, Zimmermann instructed the ambassador, Count Johann von Bernstorff, to offer significant financial aid to Mexico if it agreed to enter any future U.S-German conflict as a German ally. If victorious in the conflict, Germany also promised to restore to Mexico the lost territories of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson learned of the telegram's contents on February 26; the next day he proposed to Congress that the U.S. should start arming its ships against possible German attacks. He also authorized the State Department to make public the Zimmermann Telegram. On March 1, the news broke. Germany had already aroused Wilson's ire—and that of the American public—with its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare and its continued attacks against American ships. Some of those in the United States who still held out for neutrality at first claimed the telegram was a fake. This notion was dispelled two days later, when Zimmermann himself confirmed its authenticity.

Public opinion in the United States now swung firmly toward American entrance into World War I. On April 2, Wilson went before Congress to deliver a message of war. The United States formally entered the conflict four days later.

from: www.history.com

1st -  National Mustard Day is celebrated annually at the National Mustard Museum in Downtown Middleton, Wisconsin on the first Saturday in August. It is a fun-filled day for the whole family and has traditionally included FREE hot dogs as well as music, games, other entertainment, FREE mustard sampling, and more. The Mustard Museum has been the official sponsor of this event since 1991. With more than 6,000 enthusiastic mustard lovers in attendance annually, this event has raised thousands of dollars for local charity.

2nd -   Coloring and coloring books have always been popular with children, but over the years adults have gotten more and more involved with coloring.  Adult coloring is now a huge trend and many are finding that it is not only fun but also a great way to reduce stress.  Founded in 1941, Dover Publications led the way, releasing their first coloring book for adults, Antique Automobiles Coloring Book, in 1970. Dover now publishes Creative Haven®, a popular line of coloring books specially designed for adult colorists.
Examples and where to purchase: http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Haven-Owls-Coloring-Books/dp/0486796647/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_y & http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0762458801/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

2nd - Sisters Day - Celebrated the first Sunday in August.
How to celebrate: Sis-tematically.

 Sisterly advice: 

• "Never let an angry sister comb your hair."  
• "More than Santa Claus, your sister knows when you've been bad and good." 
• "Sisters annoy, interfere, criticize. Indulge in monumental sulks, in huffs, in snide remarks. Borrow. Break. Monopolize the bathroom. Are always underfoot. But if catastrophe should strike, sisters are there. Defending you against all comers."

2nd - The first United States census, 1790. Census workers counted about 3.9 million people, but George Washington suspected a good many others ducked the government’s inquires.

 3rd - Have a slice or two to celebrate National Watermelon Day.  Eating a fruit with meat in it may be a test for our Vegan brothers and sisters.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where its English common name, watermelon, comes from. The flesh of this succulent fruit is over 90 percent water.

Native to Africa, it was a valuable and portable source of water for desert situations and when natural water supplies were contaminated. Watermelons were cultivated in Egypt and India as far back as 2500 B.C. as evidenced in ancient hieroglyphics.

5th - How to celebrate Get Ready for Kindergarten Month: Ready, set, nap.   Remind the little whippersnappers that all that nap training will pay off when they reach our age!!

 

8^th – Dollar Day. The US dollar was created in 1786.
 

 Dollar Bill Facts: Almost half of the paper money printed in the US are $1 notes. The average life of a $1 bill is 18 months. This so-called paper money is in fact a cotton and linen blend, with red and blue minute silk fibers running through it. It is actually material.

2nd week in August - Elvis Week in Memphis.  What better place for the King to hide himself than among a brazillion of his impersonators.

http://www.graceland.com/elvisweek/schedule/

11th - How to celebrate National Inventors’ Month: Just make it up.

12^th – The Model T Ford, known as the Tin Lizzie and the first mass-produced car, went on sale in 1908.

13th - Left-Handed Day in a right-handed world.  Did you know that most things in the world are designed by and for right-handers?  The keyboard mouse, gear shifts and gas pedals, non-electric wrist watches, and the boomerang!

16th - National Panini Month presents the itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny yellow polka dot panini: a top, a bottom, and nothing much in the middle.

17th - "THE BUCKSKIN STOPS HERE."
Davy Crockett’s birthday, 1786, on a mountaintop in Tennessee.

18th -  
Happiness Happens Month. The other (**** happens) goes on all year round.

 20^th – Mosquito Day. As Grandpa said, “If it wasn't for the mosquitoes, we wouldn't get any exercise at all.”

Mosquitoes

We hate mosquitoes,
Mosquitoes love us,
They’re a big problem
But they don’t care,
They suck our blood,
Then they die,
That’s the part I like,
So by by.

21st -  Hawaii admission day, 1959. Hawaii admits that “aloha” is a multiple-definition word that means (1) “Hello,” (2) “Goodbye” and (3) “We made the guitars too small, hoahanau [cousin], but no problem. The tourists will buy anything.”

 

25th - How to celebrate What Will Be Your Legacy Month: Build a monument with Legos.

26th - How to celebrate National Dog Day:  Throw the schtick.  "Let's examine the dog mind:  Every time you come home, he thinks it's amazing."  -- Jerry Seinfeld. 

Nice 44 second respite from the August heat!

28th - In 1963, Martin Luther King gave his magnificent speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

 

I Have A Dream

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning: "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. 
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! 
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. 
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California. 
But not only that. 
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. 
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. 
Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

 

28th - Bow Tie Day - In fashion off and on for the last few hundred years, the bow tie still has its' place....with the right outfit, of course. Even women wear bow ties now and then these days. They don't even need a tuxedo to go with it.

Natural Salesman & Shark Tank success story,
Moziah Bridges of Moe's Bows
http://mosbowsmemphis.com/
 

29th -  According to Hoyle Day – On this day in 1769, Edmond Hoyle died. Mr. Hoyle was an Englishman who was the first to publish a book of rules for the game of Whist. He went on to publish other books with rules for other games like chess and backgammon to name just a few. He became known as the authority for game rules of all kinds and the phrase, “according to Hoyle” was used to indicate the right way to play and even eventually the right way to do anything.

30th -

And for the whole month of August:

Over 70 Years of Awareness from Smokey!

The legacy of Smokey Bear is celebrating its 71st anniversary of fire prevention messages this year. 

The campaign's roots date back to 1942, when the U.S. Forest Service’s popular icon of wildfire prevention was conceived during World War II to publicize the need to protect a critical natural resource—wood. The first artist’s rendering of Smokey was created by Albert Staehle in 1944.

The ad campaign got a flesh and blood boost starting in 1950, when firefighters working a blaze in New Mexico's Capitan Mountains came back to camp packing an orphaned six-week-old black bear cub with singed hair and burned feet.



Ray Bell, a state Game and Fish Department ranger and pilot, flew the bear to a veterinarian in Santa Fe for initial treatment and then took the cub home, where his wife and daughter helped him nurse the bear back to health over two months.  Initially, they had to get the cub to suck a mixture of honey, milk and baby food from their fingers.

The cub originally was named “Hot Foot Teddy,” but U.S. Forest Service officials saw the potential for news about the cub to translate into a hot campaign for forest fire prevention.  They renamed the bear Smokey.

The cub was taken to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., later that summer, where he became an instant celebrity as he grew into a 400-pound bear. Smokey lived there for 26 years before his death in 1976.

• National Catfish Month ("Do you want fries, hush puppies and cole slaw with that?!");
• National Sandwich Month (The Working Person's lunch);
• National Romance Awareness Month (Naturally, it's in a month when those who wear less makes you more aware);
• And, finally, it's the only month of the year without a Federal holiday and that certainly is something to celebrate!!?

                                            
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