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December 23, 2023
National Laura Day 2023
Auntie Laura    
We lost my dear Auntie Laura on January 15, 2022 due to an illness which brought great suffering to her for which I personally could do nothing — despite my efforts to take her to Baylor Medical Center in Texas where I perceived better medical care was available.

Today is National Laura Day. It happens each December 23 annually.

By and large the name Laura is a female name. I have never met a man named Laura.

The name Laura is a reference to strength and victory.

I only wish my Auntie Laura had been able to declare victory over her illness instead of being forced to succumb to it. We have missed her greatly since her passing.

No one could put on a meal or whip up a bunch of Christmas treats in the same manner as she.

Rest in peace Auntie Laura. Each successive year without you does not get easier.

Tags: people, endings
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December 22, 2023
Barbara Billingsley born this day
    Barbara Billingsley

One of those television shows I watched continuously during my childhood was Leave it to Beaver. The program ran from 1957 through 1963 on two networks.

At that time I didn't know what a 'sitcom' was nor did I have the ability to 'suspend disbelief' and I simply thought I was immersed in show and participating in it.

There was also a sequel called The New Leave It to Beaver which ran from 1983 through 1989 but by then I considered myself somewhat old to be watching the program.

Barbara Billingsley (Barbara Lillian Combes) played June Cleaver, the star's mother. She, Hugh Beaumont, Tony Dow, and Jerry Mathers were the core ensemble and held my attention in my early years.

Ms Billingsley was born on December 22, 1915 and passed on October 16, 2010 after a lengthy spate of cameo roles on various programs over the years. It was always nice to see her portraying some character apart from the wholesome mom she was early on.

Her acting career began as background characters then progressed to recurring roles on television.

So today I mark her birth date as that pillar of my childhood she became and I hope she looks down upon those of us who remember her and smiles.

Happy birthday in Heaven.

See Also:

I remember Leave it to Beaver
Ken Osmond Passes

Tags: people, things, endings
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December 21, 2023
Yule 2023
Yule Stonehenge

The Winter solstice is the moment during the year when the path of the Sun in the sky is farthest south in the Northern Hemisphere. It brings us Yule on this the shortest day of the year. Those pagan beliefs such as the Holly King transferring his power to the Oak King usher us into a new season of light ...

While it's all mystic and steeped in wonder and pagan magick the day is mostly a mechanism for tracking the seasons by our ancestors.

Regardless, enjoy the advent of Winter and have a cool Yule with it's advent of renewal just in time for the celebration of Christmas.

Tags: world, holidays, weather
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December 20, 2023
Go Caroling Day 2023
Christmas Caroling    
With Christmas rapidly approaching the thought of caroling sometimes comes to mind. Going out as a group and singing Christmas carols acapella is something in which people once did much more of during the holidays.

I'm sorry to say that I've never been caroling. This is primarily a function of my childhood bashfulness coupled with a diminished interest in later years. I have always viewed favorably, it's just the opportunity never arose.

So in days gone by Christmas celebrations typically included caroling. Nowadays it may appear in some film fiction but it's not something you see a lot of calls for now.

I suppose we're simply too distracted otherwise to participate in the tradition.

Today is Go Caroling Day and you would ostensibly get dressed in your finest festive attire with accessories and walk among the houses in your midst, knock on the door, and belt out a few carols for those inside.

If you feel so inclined I say go for it !

Tags: people, things, holidays
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December 19, 2023
Look for an Evergreen Day 2023
    evergreen tree
Some of my fondest memories involve my dad going out and cutting a Christmas Tree. Sometimes it was a spruce, sometimes a cedar, usually somewhere adjacent to our house but other times he went to a nearby farm and selected a pine. As pitiful as some of them might look initially Mama would transform them into the picture of yuletide magnificance which glimmered and sparkled in the lights, tinsel, and ornaments with which it became adorned.

Yes, memories of family and friends populate my holidays anymore having lost many of them to various lifestyle diseases and old age all we can do is abide and cherish those memories of family and friends past — and those who remain.

So today is Look for an Evergreen Day. Ostensibly it's a time to seek that perfect Christmas tree for your home. We already decorated around here to a fairthewell and it was a simple matter to remove the high tech fiber optic tree from the box and place it in the base to set it up. I think it took every bit of five minutes.

Still, I have wistful memories of days gone by when life was not so technologically simplistic and the holidays actually involved work. I have always cherished the Christmas season because the example my daddy showed me was a man with Christmas in his heart. I think he got that from his Mama, my dear late Grandma Ida.

My memories would not be so warm and fuzzy over the holidays were it not for Mama and Daddy. There was never a year when we did not celebrate the season.

A joyous Christmas time to you all.

Tags: things, places, people, holidays
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December 18, 2023
Flake Appreciation Day 2023
Scandinavian Stylized Snowflake    
Flake Appreciation Day is an annual December 18th observance here in the US. It celebrates the complex beauty of snowflakes which are admired by the masses for their unique forms which populate the earth each time there is snowfall.

The day orignates from the work of one Wilson Bentley of 1865 Jericho, Vermont. His exhaustive work on the snowflake along with the prolific set of photographs he left are a study in nature which has endured.

The Snowflake Man as he became known passed in 1931.

So if you're lucky enough to get snow every so often you may wish to study up on your snowflake morphology and what makes those designs different in the context of temperature, humidity, and ice crystals.

I enjoy the snow. We hardly ever get any here in South Carolina. The last major snowfall was that 3 foot we received around 1973 but we have had a few lesser snowfalls since then.

Happy Flake Appreciation Day to you.

Tags: things, weather
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December 17, 2023
National Device Appreciation Day 2023
A device is something made or adapted for a particular purpose, typically a piece of mechanical or electronic equipment.

These are utilized in varying combinations in The Internet of Things, which is the interconnection via the internet of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data.

    Sandisk Ultra Luxe Flash Memory Drive
Devices may exist separately from the internet or in conjunction with it.

The internet brings security considerations to the foreground. Device security is the weakest point in devices and therefore in the internet of things.

Today is National Device Appreciation Day. It is dedicated for the appreciation of devices which assist us in our activities of daily living.

This year it is held under the auspices of an insurance company in Texas called Traverse and appears to be a gimmick for their direct benefit.

Anyway in the correct context devices and other things are your friends.

In a distorted or adulterated manifestation they could become your enemy.

When you utilize devices you should be aware of their impact to your network or life otherwise. It is possible to have too much of a good thing and the hackers remain out there ready to pounce on all the devices you have.

Happy National Device Appreciation Day.

Congratulations and savor the moment for you are now an insurance company's bitch.

Tags: technology, things
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December 16, 2023
National Underdog Day 2023
Underdog
    
My dear late maternal grandmother Sallie used to say she always rooted for the underdog because she was always one herself ...

So it would seem this day has been for her.

The thrust of National Underdog Day is showing love for and cheering on the underdogs of the world.

That one usually expected to lose or fail is celebrated for the impetus they show for getting out there and going for it ...

For in them is that unadulterated spirit of winning.

So since 1976 National Underdog Day has been celebrated on each third Friday in December and is the brainchild of one Peter Moeller.

He sought to celebrate those in life, sports, and theater who typically don't come out on top.

So get out there and let your unsung hero know just how you feel.

Happy National Underdog Day !

I love you grandma.

Tags: people, things
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December 15, 2023
Ugly Sweater Day 2023
    Christmas Sweater
Tis the time for displaying those festive sweaters some believe to be ugly. Yes, that elderly virgin aunt has knitted another masterpiece this year and if you don't wear it you'll become yet another target of her wrath.

Each third Friday in December we find Ugly Sweater Day upon us once again.

I've had several of these festive monstrosities over the years. I pretty much have worn them all in stride so as not to hurt any feelings over the Christmas season.

Anyway they are good for a laugh in select company anyway. I recall a year when everyone wanted a picture of me on their cell phone.

It is said that all this started in the 1980s. I don't know how much of a joke it was meant to become but it has been quite a laughing stock periodically in my neck of the woods.

They're great for parties and we even have had competitions to see who was sporting the ugliest garment.

Regardless of whether you love them or hate them happy Ugly Sweater Day to you !

Tags: things
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December 14, 2023
Free Shipping Day 2023
Free Shipping    
Today is said to be "Free Shipping Day".

This is one of those events which happens on different days during the holiday season.

"Free Shipping" is an enticement to get you out there to buy more stuff from the retail establishments ...

I have been known to opt for the "freight paid" shipments where you buy merchandise in sufficient quantity to qualify for free shipping anyway.

I don't recall participating in a "free shipping" day per se.

Regardless, mid December is the timeframe of the official day. It just moves around a bit.

So if you want to buy some items and get a break on the freight charges this is the day for you !

Happy Free Shipping Day you thrift conscious shopper you. You may be able to wrangle a free shipping or "freight paid" shipment on your own if you're a wheeler dealer.

shipping boxes

Tags: ecommerce
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December 13, 2023
National Violin Day 2023
    violin

I have always been a frustrated musican. Whereas I once thought I might play professionally much to my chagrin I never invested the time to acquire those requisite skills to play.

I have spent the bulk of my time acquiring music at a keyboard. I don't really play, but "play at" the thing and have been told repeatedly that I could fool others who would think I have an ability to play.

I remember the violin mostly from my childhood. The school concerts typically featured a violin orchestra of sorts with the Plink Plank Plunk and other selections of favor in the times ...

A violin is a bowed stringed musical instrument which arose from the Renaissance as the result of the evolution of other bowed instruments like the medieval fiddle and other period instruments.

Today is National Violin Day which is observed each December 13 in an effort to mark the cultural impact of this very popular instrument.

So even if you don't play in the likes of Yehudi Menuhin, Viktoria Mullova, Itzhak Perlman, or Isaac Stern it is a noteworthy instrument to engage or simply enjoy.

Happy National Violin Day.
 

Tags: things, people, places
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December 12, 2023
Festival of Unmentionable Thoughts 2023
The Anonymous Curmudgeon    

I have plenty of unmentionable thoughts. In fact on of the most common themes in my life time has been TMI ... too much information. So it goes without saying that I for one am a likely character to share things ranging from "unmentionable" through "too risque" through "too nasty" and not give it a second thought.

The Festival of Unmentionable Thoughts is observed annually each December 12.

My vivid imagination is living proof that that which should not be introduced in polite company sometimes is. I am also one who holds that a few unmentionable thoughts are unlikely to bring you any harm. You might anger a few, cause others to shy away from you, or otherwise but violence is likely not to transpire.

That knowledge, as well as those concepts and theories floating around in my noggin remain protected by the Bill of Rights and it's Freedom of Speech.
 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The First Ammendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

While the left would deprive you of your rights my state remains a constitutional environment so as such I would have you cart yourself away from me should you tell me that I engage in hate speech or any other of the many woke idiocies floating around the left.

Mind your business snapperhead or I'll make you some of my business. You wouldn't like that.

God bless America and go to Hell libtards.
 

Tags: things, politics, world
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December 11, 2023
The Mayflower arrived at Plymouth Massachusetts in 1620
    The Mayflower

I've always been intrigued by the story of the Pilgrms landing at Plymouth Rock and the first Thanksgiving in America. I read the stories throughout my primary education and in the elementary schools I became somewhat of an early American scholar with my love of the topics concerning the early settlements in Massachusetts, and Jamestown as well as Williamsburg, Virginia.

I had a few opportunities to visit my navy buddy, the late Jerry Landry from Barnstable, Massachusetts during my stint at Knight Ridder working the Atex system way back when.

During those visits he would show me the sights, which included Plymouth Rock, that site of the landing of the Mayflower carrying the new world Pilgrims in 1620.

He had warned me that there was not a lot to see. It was a fairly large rock in a brick display area with a very short retaining wall surrounding it.

It looks like all the pictures I've seen subsequently.

I was taken with the history of it all and did not feel the site was under or over stated. I only wish I could return there with Jerry, but alas this will never happen as I had hoped earlier.
 

Plymouth Rock


See Also:

Forefathers Day 2020
Forefather's Day 2019
Forefathers Day
 

Tags: people, places, things
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December 10, 2023
World Wide Candle Lighting Day 2023
Beeswax Candles    
I have always enjoyed basking in the light of candles.

They envelop the room in a warm flickering glow and add ambiance to what may be otherwise a dull and boring surrounding.

Candles are used widely in the church and I recall great displays of them particularly on holidays in those larger cities I've traveled over the years..

Today is World Wide Candle Lighting Day which is observed each second Sunday of December as a part of the holiday festivities.

It is said that the day is meant to mark and bring comfort to those familys greiveing the loss of a child.

The observance is said to have arisen in May, 1968 by a Brit minister named Reverend Simon Stephens.

This was seized upon by The Compassionate Friends of the United States in 1997 whereby Worldwide Candle Lighting Day began.

Regardless, I still like candles.

Though I don't necessarily associate them with grief I do enjoy that aforementioned ambience and I continue to have hope that they bring comfort to any and all who need it.

Happy World wide Candle Lighting Day.

Tags: things
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