Saturday, November 24, 2012

Sometimes small is better

Today is Small Business Saturday - the day set aside to celebrate the engines of the US economy and support small businesses.


If for no other reason - remember, the combined worth of the 6 Walmart heirs and heiresses ($89.5 billion in 2010) is greater than that of the bottom 41% of American families (48.8 million households).


It's very nice that stars like Neil Patrick Harris can share their affliction with others during this holiday season -



Puppet dream doesn't have to be in the closet any more.


Today in History:
November 24, 1740 -
William Duell was hanged for rape and murder. A few hours later, whilst being prepared for dissection by medical students, he awakens .


The authorities took pity on him and commuted his sentence to one of transportation to Australia.

Wow that must have freaked him out.


November 24, 1835 -
The provisional government of Texas authorized the creation of the Texas Rangers (Corps of Rangers) police force.


While it's nice to think so, there's no truth to the rumor that Chuck Norris was there at the beginning.



November 24, 1859 -


Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species 153 years ago today.



And depending on your point of view, either this is a seminal work in scientific literature and arguably the pivotal work in evolutionary biology or



you're a monkey's uncle.



November 24, 1963 -

Extra-terrestrials used mass-hypnosis to persuade the world that someone resembling Jack Ruby had fatally shot someone resembling the person alleged to have been Lee Harvey Oswald. This also becomes the first actual murder captured on live TV.



The next day, November 25, a coffin containing the purported remains of the man, many Americans believed to have been John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. And on November 29, President Lyndon Baines Johnson appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren the head of a commission to investigate the alleged assassination of the person believed to have been John F. Kennedy.



Be grateful the CIA, the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, extraterrestrials, and the Children's Television Workshop don't give a damn about you.


November 24, 1971 -
On Thanksgiving eve, DB Cooper boarded Flight 305 in Portland, Or., and demanded $200,000 with the threat of a bomb. He parachuted from a Northwest Airlines 727 with the money over the Cascade Mountains near Ariel, Wash., and was never seen again.



A packet containing $5,880 of the ransom money was found in 1980 on the north shore of the Columbia River, just west of the Washington city of Vancouver, but he's still is missing.


30 more shopping days until Christmas, 13 more shopping days until Hanukkah and the world may just be over in 26 days.  If you are so inclined, you may want to stock up on virgins and GPS the location of any active volcanoes in your area.


(It's a travel day for us, so this has been an abbreviated today in history.  I hope to post the Annual Christmas Spectaculars sometime very soon.)



And so it goes

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