Good morning, and welcome once again to Jolly Monday where our whole raison d’etre is to help you start the week off with a smile!  So, how was your weekend?  Mine?  Meh … weekend, weekday, they’re all pretty much the same for me these days, but I’ve got no complaints.  I caught the little kids from down the street eating the unsalted, unshelled peanuts – shell and all – that I put out for the squirrels yesterday and had to tell them not to take the squirrels’ peanuts, for they would make them sick.  Which is probably true, considering the squirrels and birds walk all over the peanuts all day long, and the birds are not particular about where they poop!

Well, let’s go see what Joyful has cooked up for us this morning, and then we’ll go find some fun stuff to get this week rolling on the right foot … er wheel?

Sometimes I like to just play around with the Amazing Fact Generator over on the Mental Floss website.  I always learn something useless but interesting and fun!  A few samples from this week …

• Floccinaucinihilipilification—one of the longest words in the English language—is the act of estimating that something is worthless.
• Honey hunters in Mozambique use special calls to recruit the services of birds known as honeyguides. The birds lead the humans to bees’ nests and in return, they get the leftover beeswax.
• In 1998, a Georgia student was suspended for wearing a Pepsi shirt to “Coke in Education Day.”
• In her will, author Dorothy Parker left her estate to Martin Luther King Jr. and the NAACP following his death. The organization still owns the rights to her work today.
• Opossums don’t “play dead.” When frightened, they become overexcited and pass out.

I found a few jokes that actually made me chuckle yesterday.

• When my local barista handed me my change, one coin stood out. “Look at that. You rarely get one of these old wheat pennies nowadays,” I said, tapping the sheaf of-wheat design. I handed her the penny. Turning it over and over in her hand, she said, “You know, I always thought they were made of copper.” —Linda Neukrug
  

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• I tried having my mother’s phone disconnected, but the customer-service rep told me that since the account was in my dad’s name, he’d have to be the one to put in the request. The fact that he’d been dead for 40 years didn’t sway her. Then a solution hit me: “If I stop paying the bill, you can turn off the service, right?” “Well, yes,” she said reluctantly. “But that would ruin his credit.” —Jeannie Gibbs
  

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• To resolve conflicts between management and staff, I brought both sides together and asked employees to jot down key words on a flip chart. One participant complained about management’s tendency to interfere and wrote the word nitpicking. A manager leaped to his feet to ask, “Shouldn’t there be a hyphen between nit and picking?” —E. Howson
  

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• It was my first night caring for an elderly patient. When he grew sleepy, I wheeled his chair as close to the bed as possible and, using the techniques I’d learned in school, grasped him in a bear hug to lift him onto the bed. But I couldn’t clear the top of the mattress. So I grabbed him again, summoned all my might, and hoisted him onto the bed. When the night shift nurse arrived, I recounted what had happened. “Funny,” she said, looking puzzled. “Usually I just ask him to get in bed, and he does.” —Erin Dockery

And now, it’s … the moment you’ve all been waiting for … drumroll please 🥁 … ‘TOON TIME!!!!

And last, but never least, if it’s Jolly Monday, we must have an adorable critter video!  I think you’ll fall in love with this one — I did!

And for our good friend Hugh … feel better soon, dear friend!

Well, folks, that’s a wrap for this Monday morning.  I hope you’ll share those beautiful smiles this week as you see people who seem to be lacking one of their own.  A smile is one of those things that multiplies when shared!  Have a wonderful week ahead!  Love ‘n hugs from Filosofa, Jolly & Joyful!