Monthly Archives: May 2022

June 2022 Literary Calendar

Events in the month of June for writers and readers

Audiobook Appreciation Month

GLBT Book Month

  • June 1 – Global Day of Parents; Global Running Day; National Pen Pal Day; National Say Something Nice Day; World Reef Awareness Day
  • June 3 – National Egg Day
  • June 4 – National Cheese Day; National Hug Your Cat Day
  • June 5 – National Cancer Survivor’s Day; National Donut Day; National Gingerbread Day; World Environment Day
  • June 8 – National Best Friend’s Day; World Oceans Day
  • June 10 – Ball Point Pen Day
  • June 11 – Global Wellness Day
  • June 12 – Anne Frank’s Birthday
  • June 14 – Bourbon Day; World Blood Donor Day
  • June 15 – National Photography Day; World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
  • June 16 – Bloomsday (celebration of Irish writer James Joyce’s life); National Fudge Day
  • June 17 –  World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
  • June 19 – Father’s Day (U.S.)
  • June 20 – World Refugee Day
  • June 21 – Summer Solstice (Northern Hemisphere); Winter Solstice (Southern Hemisphere)
  • June 22 – Octavia Butler’s Birthday; World Rainforest Day
  • June 23 – National Hydration Day; Typewriter patent awarded (1868)
  • June 25 – Eric Carle’s Birthday
  • June 27 – Helen Keller’s Birthday; National PTSD Awareness Day
  • June 29 – Hug Holiday; National Camera Day
  • June 30 – National Handshake Day; National Work from Home Day; World Social Media Day

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Memorial Day 2022

“Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Memorial Day

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Retro Quote – Masami Saionji

“What you think about day and night forms your character and personality.”

Masami Saionji

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Word of the Week – May 28, 2022

Habile

[HA-bəl]

Adjective

Latin, 15th century

Deft; skillful.

In Latin, “habilis” means something is easily handled. The French word habile means skillful, and we kept that definition in Middle English as well.  Able is the more common word today, but habile remains a particularly skillful word.  In today’s parlance, you’re more likely to use the word able rather than habile.  The pronunciations are somewhat similar, and the meanings are close.  Able implies you have at least the basic ability to do something.  But to be habile is to be quite talented.

Example: I had to explain my habile approach to composing documentation for software development to the project manager.

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Political Cartoon of the Week – May 28, 2022

RJ Matson

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Videos of the Week – May 28, 2022

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz doesn’t want to contend with the brutal honesty of a Sky News reporter, so he reacts how cowards always do – he walks away.

Steve Kerr is the head coach of the Golden State Warriors professional basketball team.  In this video, he delivers a personal message following the Uvalde school shooting.

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Tweets of the Week – May 28, 2022

Paul Gosar

As noted, Gosar deleted this Tweet.

Tomi Lahren

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Most Hypocritical Quote of the Week – May 28, 2022

“What happened in Uvalde is a horrific tragedy that cannot be tolerated in the state of Texas.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, about the shooting in Uvalde, Texas

In 2019, Abbott signed into law a bill allowing gun purchases without a license.  Two years later he signed another bill into law lowering the age requirement for a firearms purchase from 21 to 18.

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Worst Quotes of the Week – May 28, 2022

In the aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting, there were so many idiotic comments made by conservative politicians and other right-wing dumbasses it was tough to highlight them all.  But here are a few.

“The President of the United States. Frail, confused, bitterly partisan, desecrating the memory of recently murdered children with tired talking points of the Democratic Party. Dividing the country in a moment of deep pain, rather than uniting. His voice rising, amplified only as he repeats the talking points he repeated for over 35 years in the Senate. Partisan politics being the only thing that animates him. Unfit to lead this country.”

Tucker Carlson, responding to President Biden’s comments after the Uvalde school shooting

“I want to be very, very clear tonight.  President Biden appeared on camera tonight for less than eight minutes, not because he believed that his words would comfort the families or the friends of the victims, not because he believed that he would calm what are obviously frayed nerves of a worried nation, parents who are worried.  And he didn’t do it to unite America in this time of grief.  No, he did not.  He spoke tonight because politics is selfish.  Because in today’s twisted world, it’s considered perfectly appropriate to exploit the massacre of innocent little kids in order to try to turn around your own sagging poll members.  Today, Reuters/Ipsos has Biden at the lowest approval of his presidency, 36%. So this attempt at political resuscitation on Biden’s part, it’s despicable.”

Laura Ingraham, about Biden’s comments on the Uvalde massacre

“We need to celebrate our culture.  We need to celebrate Americanism, we need to celebrate the Judeo-Christian principles that went into the founding of this nation.  And if you’re not Jewish, you’re not Christian, there’s no reason to take offense.  You came here, a family member came here because of the nature of the country.  You fled.  You don’t have to be Jewish or Christian but facts are facts. It was founded on a Judeo-Christian belief system which embraces Western civilization and the Renaissance, the Reformation, and all these things.  It’s not so terrible to have a prayer in school, is it?  Even a silent prayer.  To think about a higher authority, learn the Ten Commandments.  The Ten Commandments are common sense.”

Fox News host Mark Levin, discussing the Uvalde shooting on his radio show

“Having one point of entry and making it more difficult for people even to get in that point of entry and having – potentially – teachers and other administrators who have gone through training and who are armed because first responders typically can’t get there in time to prevent a shooting.  This is just not possible unless you have a police officer on every campus, which for a lot of these schools is almost impossible.  You’re going to have to do more at the school because it typically involves very short periods of time and you have to have people trained on campus to react.”

Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General, speaking on Newsmax after the Uvalde shooting

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Best Quotes of the Week – May 28, 2022

“Tonight, I ask the nation to pray for them. Give the parents and siblings the strength in the darkness they feel right now. As a nation, we have to ask — when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?”

President Joe Biden, about the Uvalde massacre

“If our ethics are not consistent with respecting human life, period, no matter color, language, religion, profession, way of life – life is life – then we are not pro-life.”

Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, San Antonio, about the Uvalde massacre

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