One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly.
FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS
We had a great day to run errands. Now just if I could find some Christmas presents from my brother and his wife. Their professions require careful dressing and I learned years ago not to buy my brother any clothes. They eat out all the time, so kitchen stuff ain’t gonna work. Jewelry usually works for Laura, but haven’t found anything eye popping yet. Tomorrow I’ll hit Dillards and see if there is something there. My other problem is that when I am in a store, I seem to always find something I need and say that tomorrow I will find something for the relatives. Not the best plan. I’ve always been a Christmas Eve shopper, but the last two years I haven’t been able to do that. It is very hard to break old habits. I also have to pick up some small gifts for the in-laws—as last year they each gave me something and I was present-less for them except for a couple of bottles of wine that were last minute purchases as we headed for several dinners. They are all very nice people, but I don’t really know them, except that they really cook at Christmas time and decorate much more than I do. Getting gifts that travel well in a carry-on is also a challenge. Something will be found, by me, before I leave….I hope.
I was surprised when I did yesterday’s blog and realized it had been thirty years since John Lennon was assassinated. He was barely 40 years old. Listening to some of his last interviews he had really become a visionary. At 61 I still believe that we have to ‘give peace a chance’, that many times we must just ‘let it be’, and so much more. I also like ‘imagine’, even though many Christians find it blasphemy. I don’t get that, as I understand the meaning of the word ‘imagine’. He was such a force in music, he is still greatly missed. He sure was influential in my growth from a teenager to an adult and beyond.
Another thing I learned yesterday…Popeye was created by a guy named Elzie. That is a very unusual first name, and happens to be the name of my maternal grandfather. I remember asking him and asking his older brothers and sisters how he got his name. No one really seemed to know. He was born in the 1880’s on a farm in Iowa. Neither my brother or I had ever known anyone with that name, or even heard of anyone with that name. I did google it today and found out that it wasn’t a totally unique name. It was most popular in the 1900s decade when a whopping 71/1,000,000 had that name on their birth certificate. I tried about a dozen baby name databases. Some just said ‘no results’, others said ‘did you mean Elsie?’. He never said that he was teased with that name, or that he didn’t like the name. So the mystery continues, but now I know that his name was not as unique as I thought it was.
I wonder when the politicians who set the standards for American Education are going to realize that American is falling farther and farther behind in educating the leaders of tomorrow. The latest results show that in READING scores for US teenagers now place us at 15th in the world. Who has better reading scores? Shanghai-China, Republic of Korea, Finland, Hong Kong-China, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, and Estonia. I guess the politicians aren’t concerned because all these countries are currently our friends. As long as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and the other terrorist nations are not testing their students, everything is A-OK. We don’t need to be the best readers in the world. We just need to be sure our enemies are lower on the list. Besides, reading leads a population to think, to question, to draw conclusions based on facts, to recognize propaganda, and a long list of other odd traits that might bring about change.
HOLY MACKEREL: 1788 - George Washington sold his race horse, Magnolia, to Colonel Henry Lee. Washington reportedly got 5,000 acres of Kentucky farmland in the trade.
∞ JEOPARDY PUZZLE—(SuperJeopardy Answers) from 1990 LAKES
☼Fur trappers called this Great Lake the "Upper Lake" in French
☼Located in South America, it's the world's highest large navigable lake
☼The construction of this created Lake Nasser
☼A castle on this French-Swiss lake was made famous by the poem "The Prisoner of Chillon"
☼A part of Minnesota, the northernmost point in the lower 48 states, juts into this U.S.-Canadian lake
SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION—Middle Ages
►During most of the Middle Ages, few people, including kings and emperors, were able to read or write. The clergy were virtually the only ones who possessed these skills.
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►Brothels were under the protection of the community and the prostitutes formed guilds in German cities during the Middle Ages.
UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM
LAS VEGAS,NV — It wasn't blue suede shoes but a pair of sneakers that led a San Francisco doctor dressed as Elvis Presley to a woman who passed out at a Las Vegas restaurant after a marathon.
Claudio Palma tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal he was dressed as the King after Sunday's Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll half-marathon when he performed CPR and resuscitated another runner at the Burger Bar at Mandalay Place.
The 36-year-old was clad in a jumpsuit, sideburns and scarf for the race and may have looked like Presley, but in real life, he's an anesthesiologist.
Palma says paramedics then arrived, and the woman gave him a weird look. He said the patient kind of "freaked out" when she came to and he thinks that is because she didn't know why Elvis was kissing her. "She was giving me a weird look and telling me she was okay," Palma told the paper.
He says the incident wasn't the only heart-stopping one that day: Dr. Palma and his new wifeRhanee wed at a run-through chapel set up at Mile 2 of the race.
A LITTLE LAUGH
One day while out on our fishing boat, we heard a woman calling for help. Pointing frantically toward a sinking row boat, she shouted to us, "My husband can't swim!"
Although the water was up to his chest, the man remained a fisherman through and through: as we reached down to pull him aboard our boat, he lifted a large, still-struggling salmon in his hand, and yelled, "Take the fish!"
FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’
CALENDAR INFORMATION
♦ Weekly Observances ♦
1-9: Chanukah (Hanukkah)
5-10: Clerc-Gallaudet Week
6-12: National Handwashing Awareness Week
♦ Today’s Observances ♦
National Pastry Day
International Anti-corruption Day
Weary Willie Day: honoring Emmett Kelley born in 1898
Antigua and Barbuda: National Heroes Day, formerly V.C. Bird Day
Sweden and Finland: Anna's Day, (a Swedish name day, celebrating all people named Anna and marks the day to start the preparation process of the lutefisk to be consumed on Christmas Eve)
Tanzania: Independence Day/Republic Day (1961 from UK)
♫ University Fight Songs ♫
Click on Song Title to see and hear
♦Today’s Births♦
ARTS
1899 Jean de Brunhoff French children's book author (Babar the Elephant)
1922 Redd Foxx comedian (Sanford & Son, Redd Foxx Show)
1848 Joel Chandler Harris US journalist (created Uncle Remus stories)
1898 Emmett Kelly clown: Ringling Bros.: hobo, Weary Willie
1608 John Milton English poet/puritan (Paradise Lost)
ATHLETICS
Richard Marvin (Dick) Butkus, 68, Hall of Fame football (Bears), sportscaster, actor
Thomas O. Kite, Jr, 61, golfer
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Beau Lloyd Bridges III, 69, actor (“James Brady Story,” The Fabulous Baker Boys)
1911 [William] Broderick Crawford, actor (All the King's Men, Highway Patrol, Hunter, Liar's Moon)
Dame Judi Dench, 76, actress (Mrs Brown, Iris; Oscar for Shakespeare in Love)
Kirk Douglas, 94, actor (Champion, Lust for Life), author, born Issur Danielovitch Demsky
1909 Douglas Fairbanks Jr, actor (Ghost Story)
1902 Margaret Hamilton, actress (Wicked Witch-Wizard of Oz)
Felicity Huffman, 48, actress (Transamerica, “Desperate Housewives,” “Sports Night”)
Joe Lando, 49, actor (“Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”)
Donny Osmond, 53, actor, singer
Dick Van Patten, 82, actor (“Eight Is Enough,” “Mama”)
BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1886 Clarence Birdseye frozen vegatable king (Birdseye)
POLITICS
1594 Gustavus II Adolphus king who made Swedenden a major power (1611-32)
1906 Grace Hopper computer developer: COBOL; U.S. Naval officer: Rear Admiral, oldest naval officer on active duty [retired at age 79]
1912 Thomas P "Tip" O'Neill (Representative-MA 1977-86)/Speaker of the House
SCIENCE & RELIGION
1569 Martinus de Porres Peruvina saint (patron of social justice)
♦Today’s Obituaries♦
Ralph J Bunche UN delegate/Nobel Prize winner, lengthy illness @ 67 in 1971
Leon Jaworski Watergate special prosecutor dies @ 77 in 1982
Mary Douglas Nichol Leakey archaeologist/anthropologist, @ 83 in 1986
Malcom IV king of Scotland (1153-65), Paget’s disease @ 24 in 1165
Kim II Sung President of North Korea (1945-94), @ 82 in 1994
Anthonie "Antoon" van Dyck Flemish painter, @ 42 in 1641
Faron Young country singer, commits suicide @ 64 in 1996
♦Today’s Events♦
ARTS
1854 Lord Tennyson's poem, "Charge of the Light Brigade" published
1965 "A Charlie Brown Christmas" premieres
ATHLETICS
1851 1st Young Men's Christian Association in North America (Montréal)
1902 American League announces purchase of grounds for a stadium in New York
BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1793 Noah Webster establishes New York's 1st daily newspaper, American Minerva
1878 Joseph Pulitzer buys St Louis Dispatch for $2,500
1953 General Electric announces all Communist employees will be fired
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1729 The NATCHEZ send 2 Indians to visit the TUNICAs today. The NATCHEZ want them to join them in a war against the French. The TUNICA will refuse.
POLITICS (US)
1941 1st US WWII bombing mission in the Far East, Luzon, Philippines
1983 Attorney General Edwin Meese says people go to soup kitchens "...because the food is free and that's easier than paying for it"
1994 Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders resigns after masturbation comments
POLITICS (International)
1212 Frederik II crowns himself Roman Catholic king
1941 China declares war on Japan, Germany & Italy
SCIENCE & RELIGION
1640 Settler Hugh Bewitt banished from Massachusetts colony when he declares himself to be free of original sin
1907 1st Christmas Seals sold (Wilmington DE post office)
ANSWERS
∞ JEOPARDY
☼Fur trappers called this Great Lake the "Upper Lake" in French
What is Lake Superior?
☼Located in South America, it's the world's highest large navigable lake
What is Lake Titicaca?
☼The construction of this created Lake Nasser
What is the Aswan Dam?
☼A castle on this French-Swiss lake was made famous by the poem "The Prisoner of Chillon"
What is Lake Geneva?
☼A part of Minnesota, the northernmost point in the lower 48 states, juts into this U.S.-Canadian lake
What is Lake of the Woods?
