Monday

04 shopping days remain until Christmas
355 days so far this year…10 days remain in 2009
►Provocative Quote
"There`s so much to say but your eyes keep interrupting me."
~Unknown
►Free Ramblings
Finished…done…weird. I usually don’t finish my holiday shopping until Christmas Eve Day. This year I finished early, at least for me. It sure feels strange. I’ll still wait until the 24th to start wrapping presents for my brother and his wife. Actually, wrapping isn’t the correct term. I have moved to nuttin’ but bags. Small bags, big bags, whatever. Stuff it in, stick some tissue in there, and like magic, it’s done. I never could cut the paper very well, or tear the tape the right length, or get the corners right, or get the ribbon right. I’ve used bags for hard to wrap presents for several years, but this year, it’s all gonna be bags. So much easier.

So the Senate will vote at 1am on Health Care. Then they will join the holiday rush to get back ‘home’. Sure looks like a photo op and press hype rather than a real mandate to change Health Care in our country. Guess that’s what politics has become. I sure hope that 2010 changes that. I won’t be holding my breath, but it sure would be nice to have some real leaders in DC who want to build a better country.

We had a good winter day. We made it up to 48° which is good. I woke up to a very cool 6° this morning, but the temp quickly climbed. There was very little breeze, snow melted even more. Things were nice. My brother did not fare so well in NYC. He woke up to over a foot of snow and sent some great pics of the view from his third story apt. It looked very Christmas-y. We have been debating the decision to go to Chicago on the 23rd. Should we have gone earlier? Well it’s good we didn’t. He would have been stuck in NY for sure. I would have been stuck in a Chicago hotel until they got there. The 23rd is not the best day to travel, but weather should not be our enemy. I’m getting anxious to be there.
╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣
± Quotes from Values.com—HOPE
“Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.” ~Vaclav Havel (Poet, Playwright, 1st President Of Czech Republic)
± Unusual News
The Shopping Criminal
It was Christmas and the judge was in a merry mood as he
asked the prisoner, "What are you charged with?"
"Doing my Christmas shopping early", replied the defendant.
"That's no offense", said the judge. "How early were you doing this shopping?"
"Before the store opened."
± Random Fact
Sing a song of sixpence dates back to at least the eighteenth century. The four and twenty blackbirds are most likely a reference to a common practice in the sixteenth-century in which large pies were baked then filled with live birds which would escape when the pie was cut.
╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣
§ December Month Long Observances
Birthstone: Blue Topaz…Flower of the Month: Narcissus
Colorectal Cancer Education and Awareness Month + Hi Neighbor Month + National Write A Business Plan Month + National Tie Month + Rising Star Month + Safe Toys and Gifts Month + Spiritual Literacy Month + Stress Free Family Holiday Month + Universal Human Rights Month + Read A New Book Month+ World Aids Month
§ Observance Weeks in December
Saturnalia: Roman Festival of Tomfoolery (Dec 17th-23rd)
Halcyon Days (Dec 14th-28th)
§ 21 December Observances
Humbug Day—tired of the holidays?
Look At The Bright Side Day
Massachusetts: Forefathers Day—Landing @ Plymouth Rock (since 1769)
National Flashlight Day
National French Fried Shrimp Day
National Haiku Poetry Day
National Hamburger Day
Phileas Fogg Win A Wager Day
Winter Solstice in Northern Hemisphere [10:47p MST]
World Peace Day
-Iran: Yalda—celebrates the birth of Mithra, Persian God of Light (born of Virgin Mother)
- Nepál : Independence Day/Unity Day (1923 from UK)
-Northern Europe: Yule—Pagan Germanic Winter Festival—now secular ╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣
§ Holy Mackerel: On this day in 1985…Bruce Springsteen’s album, “Born in the USA”, passed Michael Jackson’s Thriller to become the second longest-lasting LP in the top 10. It stayed there for 79 weeks. Only The Sound of Music, with Julie Andrews, lasted longer: 109 weeks.
§ Births On This Day 
     ~ The Arts
Phil Donahue in 1935 talk show host
Jane Fonda in 1937 politically active actress
Samuel L Jackson in 1948 actor
Jane Kaczmarek in 1955 TV actress (Malcolm in the Middle)
Ray Romano in 1957 TV actor, comedian
Kiefer Sutherland in 1966 - actor
Paul Winchell in 1922 ventriloquist
Frank Zappa in 1940 composer/musician/satirist
     ~Athletics
Chris Evert in 1954 tennis champion
Josh Gibson in 1911 pro baseball "Negro Babe Ruth" (800+ HR’s)
Walter Hagen in 1892 golf champion
Florence Griffith Joyner in 1959 runner (3 Olympics-gold-1988)
Joe Paterno in 1926 football coach: Penn State
     ~Business, Education, Politics
Benjamin Disraeli in 1804 (Tory) British PM
Joseph Stalin [Dzoegashvili] in 1879 Russian dictator; murdered 11 million
Kurt Waldheim 1918 U.N. Secretary-General
     ~Science/Religion
Thomas Becket in 1117 archbishop of Canterbury
Lewis H Morgan in 1818 US, ethnologist Systems of Consanguinity (blood lines)
Henrietta Szold in 1860 founder Hadassah (Women’s Zionist of America)
§ In Remembrance
F[rancis] Scott [Key] Fitzgerald author (Great Gatsby, Zelda) heart attack @ 44
George S Patton US general car accident @ 60
Margaret E Rey author Curious George series, @ 90
§ Historical Events On This Day
1620…103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock
1784…John Jay becomes 1st US Secretary of State
1898…Scientists Pierre & Marie Curie discover radium
1913…1st crossword puzzle (with 32 clues) printed in New York World
1929…1st US group hospital insurance plan instituted, Dallas TX
1937…1st feature-length color & sound cartoon premieres (Disney's Snow White)
1944…Horse racing was banned in the United States until after World War II.
1946…Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" premieres
1948…State of Eire (formerly Irish Free State) declares its independence
1959…Tom Landry accepts coaching job with Dallas Cowboys (stays until 1988)
1968…David Crosby, Stephen Stills & Graham Nash premiere together in California
1976…UN General Assembly passes a resolution declaring 1979-Year of Child
1979…Zimbabwe adopts constitution
1988…Pan Am Flight 103 the third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London's Heathrow International Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport was destroyed by a terrorist bomb, and the remains landed in and around the town of Lockerbie, Scotland
1989…Vice-President Quayle sends out 30,000 Xmas cards with word beacon spelled ‘beakon’
1991…Soviet Union formally dissolves 11 of 12 republics sign treaty forming Commonwealth of Independent States [Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.]
╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣╣
§ Rhyme & Reason
Answer the following clue in two rhyming words (e.g. an obese feline is a fat cat) If only one number is given, the answer is a word featuring internal rhyme (e.g. voodoo)

1. having two problems (6,7):
2. Phys.Ed. type's timepiece (4,5):
3. newspaper review of trial proceedings (5,6):
4. how accurate should we be? (9,8):
5. see a South American country (4,4):
^
^
^
^
^
Scroll down for answers
^
^
^
^
^
^
^
^
^
^
ANSWERS
1. having two problems (6,7): double trouble
2. Phys.Ed. type's timepiece (4,5): jock clock
3. newspaper review of trial proceedings (5,6): court report
4. how accurate should we be? (9,8): precision decision
5. see a South American country (4,4): view Peru