Ann Reeves Jarvis, born in 1832, was a West Virginia Sunday School teacher who started "Mother's Day Work Clubs" in several cities to teach mothers how to care for their children and keep them safe and healthy. She was also a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers during the Civil War. After Ann died in 1905, her daughter Anna sought to continue her mother's work by campaigning for the establishment of an annual Mother's Day holiday. By 1911, all US states observed Mother's Day. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother's Day as a national holiday to be held on the second Sunday in May.
Anna Jarvis became resentful of the commercialization of the holiday. She wanted people to honor their mothers in their own personal way and not by buying "Mother's Day flowers" and "Mother's Day candy" and "Mother's Day cards." I wonder she would have thought about a "Mother's Day crossword puzzle." Bruce Haight's crossword today is titled "For Mom" and the theme answers are M-O-M phrases:
Euterpe: MUSEOFMUSIC
Tycoon, e.g.: MANOFMEANS
Willpower: MINDOVERMATTER
Antacid name since 1872: MILKOFMAGNESIA
Takes action: MAKESONESMOVE
Encounter stiff competition: MEETONESMATCH
Rich, and then some: MADEOFMONEY
Apt time to recognize this puzzle's honoree: MONTHOFMAY
"Familia girl" is NINA, which is wrong. The word is "niña" and it is not used in English. "Venezia casino winner" is SETTE, which means "seven" in Italian and is not used in English. "One digging hard rock" is a cute clue for MINER.
"____ Biscuit, product debut of 1912" is OREO. How many thousands of times has "Oreo" appeared in a crossword? I lost count many years ago. The Manhattan-based National Biscuit Company (now Nabisco) introduced the Oreo cookie in 1912. It was advertised as "Two beautifully embossed chocolate-flavored wafers with a rich cream filling" -- and it was just a clone of the Hydrox cookie introduced by Sunshine Bakeries four years earlier. Nobody is certain what the word "Oreo" means. It may derive from the French word for "gold" or the Greek word for "mountain." It may represent the O shape of the wafers and the c
ream filling. And it may be completely made up and mean nothing at all. Here is a history of the Oreo:
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/01/mysteries-oreo/Now I'm going to go watch a 1941 movie starring Betty Grable and Don Ameche:
Moon Over Miami. Happy Mother's Day!
