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December 26, 2024
National Thank You Note Day 2024
    Thank you note
The humble thank you note. Displayer of appreciation. Creator of consensus.

I have opted for thank you notes occasionally in business to universal benefit. Those who mark an event with a brief appreciatory token are bound to endear themselves to others at some level.

Sometimes, decision on the edge are pushed to one side or the other by the thoughtfulness of a thank you note.

Today is December 26. This makes it the Feast of Stephen and National Thank You Note Day. Sometimes the written word is more effective than a phone call.

We don't know how or why this day was created. We can only recognize the efficacy of giving thanks in general ... plus the fact that a lot of gifts get received on December 25th !

Regardless, happy National Thank You Note Day and get out there and display your grattitude.

See Also:

The First Day of June

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December 25, 2024
Christmas Day 2024
Christmas Day 2024


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December 24, 2024
Christmas Eve 2024
Christmas Eve


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December 23, 2024
Festivus 2024
Happy Festivus    
Another Festivus is upon us. This secular holiday is celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the perceived pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season.

It is the brainchild of one Daniel O'Keefe who is an author. Festivus became mainstream upon being featured in the 1997 Seinfeld episode entitled "The Strike" in which O'Keefe's son, Dan O'Keefe, co-wrote.

The non-commercial holiday's celebration, as depicted on Seinfeld, occurs on December 23 and includes a Festivus dinner, an unadorned aluminum Festivus pole, practices such as the "airing of grievances" and "feats of strength", and the labeling of easily explainable events as "Festivus miracles". The episode refers to it as "a Festivus for the rest of us".

It is described as a parody and form of playful consumer resistance.

It is also said to be the perfect all inclusive holiday gathering.

Regardless of whether you have love or scorn for Festivus, the efforts of the late Frank Costanza has assured it will be around for quite a while.

Happy Festivus and let the airing of grievances and feats of strength begin ! A little Festivus miracle or two is appropriate as well after the Festivus dinner.

Tags: holidays, people
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December 22, 2024
National Short Person Day 2024
    short and tall
Today is National Short Person Day. It is a time to celebrate our more diminuative fellows and try to have a little fun in the process. The short people in your life have an advantage from a standpoint of general accessibility and even get carded much more frequently. I remember when I used to get carded at bars. It used to infuriate me. Nowadays it's an honor and a distinct pleasure that some one would even think I need to present identification for any manner of age verification.

"Short People" is song by Randy Newman from his 1977 album, Little Criminals. It was vastly overplayed during it's run because people try to be as stupid, "trendy", and faddish as possible at times. I had a former friend who was both redhead and had about the most bodacious set of ta ta's imaginable who was all about pop culture who thought this song was "the best" — and I hope I never see her again. Though it is said to present satire regarding prejudice all I can say is I hate the song and Randy Newman ... I don't know; he just never impressed me in my entire life.

Being short is relative to your culture. There are entire nations with short people. If you are 5 foot 7 and most everyone else in your environment is 5 foot 2 then you are not "really" short at all. I am about average. I am 6 foot or so and exist as this raging bald maniac with a white beard. I have been mistaken for Santa Claus in recent history.

So if you're short this day is for you. Now get out there and flaunt your stuff shorty !

Happy National Short Person Day.

Tags: people
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December 21, 2024
The discriminating gift
Aberlour 16    

The holiday season has me wanting to bestow some of the various tastes of the world on certain individuals in my midst.

Should you be a gourmet, I would likely choose for you a rare or particularly tasty food item from some premium specialty house I trust.

If your tastes include fine spirits you might get a nice bottle of Aberlour 16 year old single malt Scotch whiskey.

It's one of those superior personal items from which you get to partake for a while until it's gone.

Then you sit back and wait for my next inspirational holiday to come your way.

Bear in mind that you must first attain that pinnacle of my esteem — and that is an adventure in and of itself ...

But once you arrive, you are there for life. I am said by many to be fiercely loyal to my familiars.

So in this joyous Christmas season I hope you'll consider your gift to another and attempt to make a statement.

I am known for what I do and how I gift at the holidays. It is simply part and parcel of who I am.

A very merry Christmas to you and I hope you get everything you desire.
 

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December 20, 2024
5 days til Christmas 2024
5 days til Christmas

 

Tags: holidays
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December 19, 2024
Look for an Evergreen Day 2024
    evergreen tree
My fondest memories of Christmas surround my Daddy going out into the woods and returning with a fine dense bushy evergreen for us to decorate and with which we got all festive.

Sometimes it would be a spruce, other times a pine, and occasionally even a fir.

Regardless, it added to the happy times each successive year of those memories added to my existence.

Now daddy is gone and we have a high falutin fiber optic tree in place of the natural ones he used to bring to us and oh how I yearn for yet another Christmas with him but alas, it can never happen.

Today is Look for an Evergreen Day.

Time to go out and fetch that magnificent tree like Daddy used to do to begin our Christmas season on Hollow Creek.

The literature states that the first evergreen tree ever decorated was in 1510 in Riga, Latvia.

It appears that the notion took in the mindsets of the populace because the practice continued from the 18th century onwards with all the jingle bells, tinsel, ornaments, fairy lights, and garlands which became seasonal decorations.

Still I remember the past and those memories are warm and vivid — and I yearn for it all again from time to time ...


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December 18, 2024
Flake Appreciation Day 2024
choose your bomb    
Another Flake Appreciation Day is upon us. Each 18th of December we get to express appreciation for snowflakes. I am simply one of many who like them, their form, their uniqueness, their symmetry.

They occur with some 35 categories of shape. No two are exactly alike.

Snowflakes form when water vapor in clouds freezes around dust particles due to humidity. Their shapes are impacted by elements like dust, temperature, humidity, and currents. Typically hexagonal, snowflakes can sometimes take the form of flat, needle-shaped particles.

This day was primarily the influence of one Wilson Bentley of Jericho, Vermont. He authored articles and books about his microphotographic findings and donated some of his photographs to the Smithsonian Institution. He was the world’s leading snowflake expert called "The Snowflake Man" until he died in 1931.

See Also:

Flake Appreciation Day 2023
Yes, it snows
Wintery Weather

Tags: things, weather
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December 17, 2024
National Device Appreciation Day 2024
    appreciate your devices
I feel as though I've had my fair share of gadgets.

Yes, consumer electronics have held a certain affinity for me personally from my childhood until now. I'm afraid that lately that interest has indeed wained in favor of certain elements, for example I am much more at home at the keyboard of a strong desktop workstation configuration than a notebook as I was in the past.

Today is National Device Appreciation Day time to cultivate that appreication for those devices which aid and abet your lifestyle as it were ...

Those that hold personal importance to your existence.

This year, the Day is sponsored by the a company called Traverse which is a fully mobile insurance platform for Texans that provides customizable coverage in under a minute for your new or old mobile phones, laptops, bicycles, and so forth.

Traverse is affiliated by the Travelers insurance company which has been around for some 165 years.

I have never been one to subscribe to this notion that anyone "needs" insurance. I think it's just another confidence game employed by the governement in an effort to control us. So the day is about the gadgets not the insurance and I hope you'll engage those devices which you enjoy and add functionality and meaningfulness to your existence.

Personally, I just want my own sentient robot. I'm not too keen on those robotic love dolls either. I think they speak volumes for failure to grow as a person. Happy National Device Appreciation Day.

See Also:

delusions of grandeur
Oh our carnal whims
You make me feel like a natural ...

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December 16, 2024
National Wreaths Across America Day 2024
National Wreaths Across America Day 2024

Today is National Wreaths Across America Day.

“Remember fallen U.S. veterans; honor those who serve; and teach your children the value of freedom.”
The day goes far beyond the mission. Each third Saturday in December at Arlington National Cemetery and other cemeteries at home and abroad we lay wreaths and remember both those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom as well as those who currently serve in the armed forces.

Freedom isn't free.

Tags: holidays
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December 15, 2024
10 days til Christmas 2024
10 days til Christmas

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December 14, 2024
Aunt Bee Birthday 2024
Aunt Bea portrayed by Frances Bavier    
Dear hearts, today is the birthday of yet another entertainment icon from my youth.

Frances Elizabeth Bavier was born this day in 1902 in Manhattan, New York City. She was a widely known and loved stage and television actress and indeed, I considered her a part of my family from a very young age. She passed in Siler City North Carolina December 6, 1989. This was the general area in which those programs of Andy Griffith and Mayberry originated.

She portrayed Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry RFD — which I viewed much less during my television watching — and she is noted for her career in theater prior to making the migration to film and television in the 1950s ...

When I was just a sprout.

She won an Emmy Award for outstanding performance as Aunt Bee in 1967.

There were other noteworthy roles and I have taken note of these which pop up on the television of late. Her end was tragic to the point of tear jerking in my memory. She will always be my Aunt Bee ...

I am fortunate to have been one of those in her audience.

Happy Birthday in Heaven Aunt Bee.

Andy Aunt Bee Opie

Tags: people, places, things
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December 13, 2024
Friday the 13th 2024
    Friday the 13th

Yeah, we have another Friday the 13th.

Congruent with the popular movie franchise you may wish to enact precautions on this day.

Toward this end you may wish to avoid:

     Breaking a mirror
     Walking under a ladder
     Spilling salt
     Crossing paths with a black cat
     Stepping on Cracks

You may wish to include:

     Carrying a lucky charm
     Knocking on wood

Happy Friday the 13th and good luck you superstitious rascal. !
 

Tags: things
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