I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS
We had another great warm day here in Flagstaff. So glad I am not in the parts of the country that are dealing with blizzards. I’m hoping that it is not going to be bad in Chicago in less than two weeks. It’s hard to want a white Christmas without it snowing as I travel to Chicago. Several friends had asked why I don’t drive to Chicago. Well, look at the weather map. Having grown up in Colorado and spending a winter in SD, I realize that it can be great weather one day, and a blizzard the next. One winter on the way to Denver, I the highway I was on was closed just outside a small town. It was about 9pm when I found out. I turned around went back to the town. Back then a motel room ran about $25/night. The 1950’s motel, run by a nice retired couple, had a room. said there rooms were $75/night. I didn’t want to backtrack some 50+ miles, so I took it. I had to park quite a distance from the room door, because of the snow. I was cold and wet when I got to the room. It had a wall heater that hadn’t been on since the hotel was built. I turned it on high, got into the shower, which thankfully had hot water. As soon as I had dried off, I jumped into the bed. I woke up about 2a and the room was warm, but not hot. I turned down the furnace and returned to the bed. The next morning the sun was shining and the highway was open by 8am. The hotel was full and I’m sure that sweet old couple prayed for snow every night so they could stay open. This was a last ditch hotel and I’m sure that in good weather, no one stayed there. When I went to turn in my key, they didn’t even have coffee in the lobby. That was fine in my 20’s. I’m not up for that kind of adventure now.
Things are falling into place for Christmas. A couple of friends have invited me to their Christmas Open Houses, lunch with friends are almost set, gifts are ready to be wrapped. This is very strange for me, as I’m usually still doing major shopping just before I leave.
HOLY MACKEREL: 1937 The Federal Communications Commission was a bit upset with NBC radio. The FCC scolded the radio network for a skit that starred Mae West. The satirical routine was based on the biblical tale of Adam and Eve and, well, it got a bit out of hand. So, following its scolding by the FCC, NBC banned Miss West from its airwaves for 15 years.
∞ JEOPARDY PUZZLE—(SuperJeopardy Answers) FOREIGN WORDS & PHRASES
►Ubermensch, as both Nietzsche & Clark Kent could tell you
►RSVP is an abbreviation of this French expression
►Greek word also used in English which means purging from guilt or defilement
►We associate "auto da fe" with the Spanish Inquisition, but the expression, which means this, is Portuguese
►Russian for "comrade", it came into greater use after the Bolshevik Revolution
SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION—
→Protein is rare in some parts of Kenya, so natives drink cow's blood for nourishment instead.
→In the fifth century, it was believed that castration cured the plague.
UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM: NEW YORK
A New York greeting card designer said she has found success with her business model, which includes in-store pole dances. Jill-Anne, owner of Jill-Anne's on the Lower East Side, said she has been performing in the store for the past two months and any customers who spend at least $50 on her hand-made greeting cards get a personal pole dance, the New York Daily News reported Thursday. "I always swore to myself I would always have fun at work. I have a wonderful time with my company, but I also need mini breaks and since I don't have a water cooler or the Starbucks around the corner, I have my pole," she said.
"Seventy-five percent of the people, when I'm poling, in my store who walk by are women who smile and clap, so it's not a male lust thing. It's empowering women thing as well," Jill-Anne said.
A LITTLE LAUGH
An attorney I know once drafted wills for an elderly husband and wife who had been somewhat apprehensive about discussing death. When they arrived to sign the documents, he ushered the couple into his office.
"Now," he said to them, "which one of you wants to go first?"
FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’
DAYBOOK INFORMATION
♦ THIS WEEK ♦
6-12: National Hand Washing Awareness Week
10-17: Human Rights Week
♦ TODAY IS… ♦
National Ding-A-Ling Day
Worldwide Candle Lighting Day
Poinsettia Day
Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe
El Salvador: Day of the Indians
Kenya: Independence Day/Jamhuri Day (1963)
Russia: Constitution Day
Turkmenistan: Neutrality Day (since 1995)
US Pennsylvania : Ratification Day (1787)
♫ Academy Awards Best Original Song ♫
Click on Song Title to see and hear
1948 "Buttons and Bows" — The Paleface with Jane Russell, Bob Hope and Roy Rogers
♦Today’s Births♦
ARTS
Bob Barker, 87, television personality, game show host
1821 Gustave Flaubert author: Madame Bovary
…singers
Sheila E (Sheila Escovedo), 51, singer, percussion musician
Connie Francis, 72, singer
1915 Frank (Francis Albert) Sinatra singer, Chairman of the Board Day
Dionne Warwick, 69, singer
…actors
1893 Edward G. Robinson (Emmanuel Goldenberg) actor: Soylent Green, MacKenna’s Gold, Key Largo, Double Indemnity, Kid Galahad, Barbary Coast, Little Caesar…
Honor Blackman, 83, actress: Goldfinger
ATHLETICS
Tracy Ann Austin, 48, former tennis player
Rey Mysterio, Jr, 36, professional wrestler, born Óscar Gutiérrez Rubio
1913 Jesse Owens US, track star (4 golds 1936), spoiled Hitler's Olympics
Cathy Rigby, 58, former Olympic gymnast
BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1859 Edward Bradley horse owner (1st to own 4 Kentucky Derby winners)
1906 William C Pahlmann interior decorator (4 Season restaurant, New York NY)
POLITICS
Edward Irwin Koch, 86, former mayor of New York City
1806 Stand Watie Indian Chief: Cherokee; signer of the Treaty of Echota; brigadier general: 1st Cherokee regiment for the Confederate Army during the U.S. Civil War
SCIENCE & RELIGION
1838 Sherburne W Burnham US, astronomer (binary stars)
1866 Alfred Werner Swiss chemist (Nobel 1913)
♦Today’s Obituaries♦
Tallulah Bankhead actress (All Star Revue), pneumonia @ 65 in 1968
Peter Boyle, American actor @ 71 in 2006
Robert Browning English poet (Ring & Book...), @ 77 in 1889
2002 – Dee Brown (Dorris Alexander "Dee" Brown), American author (Bury My Heart @ Wounded Knee and 15 other books) @ 94 in 2002
Jack [John Joseph Edward] Cassidy actor (Oscar-He & She, Eiger Sanction), fire @ 49 in 1976
Michel Chasles French mathematician (geometry), @ 83 in 1880
Van Johnson, American actor @ 92 in 2008
Ike Turner, American singer, former husband of Tina Turner cocaine overdose @ 76 in 2007
♦Today’s Events♦
ARTS
1792 In Vienna, Ludwig van Beethoven (21) receives 1st lesson in music composition from Franz Joseph Haydn
1913 "Mona Lisa", recovered after being stolen from the Louvre Museum in 1911
1937 NBC & RCA sends 1st mobile-TV vans onto the streets of New York
1961 Former big band singer (with Kay Kyser) Mike Douglas began a variety TV show from Cleveland.
1969 "Hello Dolly" with Barbra Streisand premieres
ATHLETICS
1968 Arthur Ashe becomes 1st black to be ranked #1 in tennis
1969 Bill Toomey (track and field) achieves world record-score (8417 points)
1976 QB Joe Namath's last game as a New York Jet
BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1858 1st Canadian coins circulated (1¢, 5¢, 10¢ & 20¢)
1878 Joseph Pulitzer begins publishing "St Louis Dispatch"
1900 Charles M. Schwab formed the United States Steel Corporation; bringing together John Pierpont Morgan and Andrew Carnegie
1917 Reverend Edward Flanagan founds Boys Town outside Omaha NE
1946 Tide detergent introduced
1980 US's copyright law amended to include computer programs
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1729 The Yazpp Indians will attack French Fort St. Pierre in southern Louisiana. The Yazoo have joined the Natchez in their fight against the French. They will kill all 17 of the soldiers at the fort. They give the women and children to the Chickasaws as slaves.
POLITICS (US)
1787 Pennsylvania ratifed Constitution as the second of the United States of America.
1870 Joseph Rainey (South Carolina) became 1st black sworn into House of Representatives
POLITICS (International)
1822 México officially recognized as an independent nation by US
1913 Hebrew language officially used to teach in Palestinian schools
1997 Carlos the Jackal, "professional revolutionary" goes on trial in Paris
SCIENCE & RELIGION
1777 Reverend Benjamin Russen executed at Tyburn, England for rape
1871 Jules Janssen discovers dark lines in solar corona spectrum
1899 George F Grant of Boston )first black graduate of Harvard College, and a dentist) patents the wooden golf tee
ANSWERS
∞ JEOPARDY
►Ubermensch, as both Nietzsche & Clark Kent could tell you
Who is ‘superman’?
►RSVP is an abbreviation of this French expression
What is ‘respondez s’il vous plaît’?
►Greek word also used in English which means purging from guilt or defilement
What is ‘catharsis’?
►We associate "auto da fe" with the Spanish Inquisition, but the expression, which means this, is
Portuguese
What is ‘act of faith’?
►Russian for "comrade", it came into greater use after the Bolshevik Revolution
What is ‘tovarich’?
