Thursday 12/21/23
Celebrate:
Crossword Puzzle Day
Don't Make Your Bed Day
Forefathers' Day
Humbug Day
International Dalek Remembrance Day - the first appearance of the Daleks in Doctor Who.
National Coquito Day - which means "little coconut" in Spanish—it is basically eggnog using coconut instead.
National Flashlight Day
National French Fried Shrimp Day
National Hamburger Day
National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day
National Kiwi Fruit Day
National Look at the Bright Side Day
National Regifting Day
National Short Story Day
Phileas Fogg Win a Wager Day
Ribbon Candy Day
Short Girl Appreciation Day
Yule and the First Day of Winter.
Yule originated with the Norse people. They started it as a festival called jol or jul. It was a time of feasting, drinking, and merrymaking, where they displayed their faith that the new year would be fruitful, even though the harvest was over and they were living through short and cold times. Sacrifices of cattle—to gods or other supernatural beings, like elves—are thought to have been an important part of the multi-day festival, which may have lasted around 12 days. A Yule log burned throughout it. (hmmm sounds strangely familiar)
Ancient Yule festivals had themes of fire, light, and feasting. Light was particularly important since Yule was a Sun festival; it started on the shortest day of the year and marked the moment when the days would lengthen, with the Sun increasing its presence.
In Sweden, large goats known as Yule goats are made out of straw during the Christmas season and appear alongside Santa Claus. The tradition of Yule goats goes back thousands of years, perhaps as a tribute to the god Thor, who was pulled in a chariot by goats.
The First Day of Winter is at 10:27 PM Thursday. Today is when we experience the least amount of daylight all year.
(it's Summer in the Southern Hemisphere..say Australia)
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Here's an odd musical fact that ties in with winter. The "Frosty the Snowman" holiday song recorded by Gene Autry in 1950 is the third most covered country song at 436 times.
#1 by the way is 1947's "Tennessee Waltz" by Lloyd Copas. 458 times.
#2 is "You Are My Sunshine" by The Pine Ridge Boys in 1939 at 436 times.
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New at the Movies
Anyone But You - Rom Com with Sidney Sweeney, Glen Powell, Dermot Mulroney, and Michelle Hurd
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom - Comic book movie with Jason Momoa bacl as Aquaman. Also starring Patrick Wilson, Ben Affleck, Willem Dafoe, Nicole Kidman, , Amber Heard, Randall Park, and Dolph Lundgren
Migration - Animated film from the folks behind Minions with the vocal talent Elizabeth Banks, Keegan-Michael Key, Danny DeVito, Kumail Nanjiani, Carol Kane, Awkwafina , David Mitchell, Caspar Jennings, and Tresi Gazal
The Iron Claw - True story drama about wrestling with Lily James, Zac Efron, and Maura Tierney
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An orange tabby cat named Taters stars in the first video transmitted by laser from deep space, stealing the show as he chases a red laser light.
The 15-second video was beamed to Earth from NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, 19 million miles (30 million kilometers) away. It took less than two minutes for the ultra-high-definition video to reach Caltech’s Palomar Observatory, sent at the test system's maximum rate of 267 megabits per second.
NASA wants to improve communications from deep space, especially as astronauts gear up to return to the moon with an eye toward Mars. The laser demo is meant to transmit data at rates up to 100 times greater than the radio systems currently used by spacecraft far from Earth.
the test relayed the video faster than most broadband internet connections here on Earth.
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A 103-year-old artificial Christmas tree, one of the first to be mass-produced, was auctioned for more than $4,000 in Britain.
Hansons Auctioneers said the 2.5-foot-tall tree, described as the "humblest Christmas tree in the world," sold for a total $4,296.13.
The tree is 31 inches tall and has 25 branches, 12 berries, and six mini candle holders,
It's like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree in real life.
The auction house wrote, "The tree was the stuff of dreams when it came into Dorothy Grant's life when she was eight years old in 1920, so much so she kept it for her entire life – and she lived to be 101."
Baubles were considered a luxury at the time when Grant got the tree, the auction house said. So she instead decorated the tree with cotton wool to mimic snow.
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PNC Bank does an annual study on how much it would cost to buy everything from the song, "The 12 Days of Christmas".
The answer this year is $46,730, up 2.7%. Or if you bought the items over and over each day like the song suggests, that's 364 total gifts, and over $201,000.
The most expensive thing are the Ten Lords-a-leaping. $14,539 to hire them from the Philadelphia ballet.
The cheapest is the Eight Maids-a-milking. $58 that's if they are paid the minimum wage for an hour (and you don't get to keep the milk - weird)
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If Taylor Swift is Time’s Person of the Year, is her rag doll blue-eyed beauty, Benjamin Button, Cat of the Year? She has a cover photo with the cat on her shoulders.
Their magazine cover photo has inspired pet owners to heave their animals onto their shoulders and post their best “blue steel” photo to social media.
“I focus on making pop moments relatable,” said Ryan Sichelstiel, 31, a content creator and comedian. “A lot of my content ideas come to me in the shower or on the treadmill or in the car. I have a list of ideas on my phone.”
One company, Dogtopia, is capitalizing on the trend by holding an “In My Dog Era” photo contest.
“Taylor should have a dog around her neck and not a cat,” Neil Gill, the CEO of Dogtopia, joked. “It launched the concept, let’s do a contest out of this.”
Dog owners can submit a photo to the company's website from Dec. 8-21, and the winner gets unlimited doggie day care at one of its 250 locations.
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Céline Dion has reportedly lost control of some of her mobility amid her stiff-person syndrome diagnosis.
Celine was diagnosed last year, symptoms were severe muscle spasms in the past. The disease causes "progressive muscle stiffness and painful spasms" that are triggered by environmental factors such as "sudden movement, cold temperature or unexpected loud noises,"
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Let's talk regifting..but take it a bit further and talk second-hand gifts.
82% of people are open to receiving secondhand holiday gifts, which is up 11% from last year.
And 76% of people wouldn't have a problem giving a used gift.
67% of people say the "stigma" around giving previously owned gifts has lessened . . . mostly due to affordability, but also practicality and sustainability. Some people also want things that are no longer available "new."
So what used items are people gifting?
Electronics is the most common, followed by sporting goods, and home improvement items.
People are also giving secondhand books . . . media, like Blu-rays and vinyl records . . . toys and games . . . jewelry . . . ceramics and ornaments . . . video games . . . arts and crafts . . . and bags and purses.
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A 26-year-old woman in New York named Emoni Thompson stole about $800 worth of Barbie toys from a Walmart recently and then drove off.
The police tracked her down, but she refused to pull over . . . and then led them on a high-speed chase, which exceeded 100 miles per hour.
The cops let her go . . . citing safety concerns . . . but they had her information, so they went to her home the next day and arrested her for larceny, fleeing an officer, and multiple traffic offenses.
It is unclear whether the Barbie stuff was recovered, or whether it included a Dreamhouse. But you can guarantee that is not where she is. Wonder if jail has Max so she can watch the movie?
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Today’s Useless Fact of the Day - According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the tallest Christmas tree ever cut was a 221-foot Douglas fir displayed in Seattle, Washington in 1950. 221 feet is more than 20 stories tall.
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