By Eunice Charles
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Kristen Angela Johnston (born September 20, 1967) is an American actress. Best known for her work on television sitcoms, she twice won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Sally Solomon in 3rd Rock from the Sun. She starred as divorce attorney Holly Franklin on The Exes, and as recovering addict Tammy Diffendorf on Mom. She has also appeared in the films Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000), Music and Lyrics (2007), and Bride Wars (2009).
Her memoir Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster (2012) was a New York Times best-seller. Through her nonprofit organization SLAM, she works as an advocate for sober high schools.
Johnston is the daughter of former Wisconsin Republican state senator Rod Johnston. She is of English and German descent. She grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and graduated from Whitefish Bay High School in 1985. Johnston earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drama at New York University.
Johnston said she was diagnosed with lupus in November 2013, which caused her to miss filming some episodes of her series The Exes.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Ember Days happen four times a year at the start of each season. Traditionally observed by some Christian denominations, each set of Ember Days is three days, kept on a successive Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
These three days are set apart for fasting, abstinence, and prayer. The first of these four times comes in winter, after the Feast of St. Lucia, December 13; the second set comes with the First Sunday in Lent; the third set comes after Whitsunday/Pentecost Sunday; the four and last set comes after the Feast of the Holy Cross. Their dates can be remembered by this old mnemonic:
“Sant Crux, Lucia, Cineres, Charismata Dia Ut sit in angaria quarta sequens feria.”
Which means:
“Holy Cross, Lucy, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost, are when the quarter holidays follow.”
In Latin, Ember Days are known as the quattuor anni tempora (the “four seasons of the year”). Folklore has it that the weather on each of the three days foretells the weather for three successive months.
As with much folklore, this is grounded in some common sense since the beginning of the four seasons cue the changes in weather as well as a shift in how we keep harmony with the Earth and respect our stewardship of the Earth, our “garden of Eden.”“
Question of the Day
What is the best way to stack firewood?
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Diurnal Tide
Puzzle of the Day
If you a sour fruit transpose, a very sweet one ‘twill disclose. (What word fits the first clue, but when rearranged, fits the second?)
Lemon – melon
Born
- David Ross Locke (journalist) –
- George Bird Grinnell (naturalist) –
- Upton Sinclair (author) –
- Maxwell Perkins (editor) –
- Red Auerbach (basketball coach) –
- Anne Meara (actress) –
- Donald Hall (poet) –
- Sophia Loren (actress) –
- Guy Damien Lafleur (hockey player) –
- Ray Gozalez (poet) –
- Gary Cole (actor) –
- Kristen Johnston (actress) –
- Spencer Locke (actress) –
- Harley (giant anteater, Caldwell Zoo, Texas) –
Died
- Jacob Grimm (folklorist) –
- Jule Styne (songwriter) –
- Benny Baker (comedian) –
- William Rosenberg (founded Dunkin Donuts chain) –
- Polly Bergen (actress) –
Events
- Navigator Ferdinand Magellan left Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, for Spice Islands –
- Slave trading abolished in Washington, D.C. –
- Elisha Otis sold his first elevator –
- Frank Schuman patented wire safety glass –
- Billie King defeated Bobby Riggs in a tennis match in Houston, Texas, billed as the Battle of the Sexes –
- Cal Ripken, Jr. took the day off for the first time in 16 years and ended baseball’s ironman streak at 2,632 games –
Weather
- The Adirondack Tornado traveled 275 miles, starting over Lake Ontario, moving through New York State, and ending as a waterspout on Lake Champlain –
- 4.88 inches of rain drenched Berne, Indiana –
- Frost in Dublin, NH –
- Snow and 28 degrees F in St. Johsbury, Vermont –
- Peoria, Illinois, had its first summer freeze on record –
COURTESY www.almanac.com
