This year, my first Hanukkah gift to you is to remind you that there is no pressure to buy Hanukkah Seals.
Spectacularly uselessly Christmas trivia - uselessly Christmas trivia - Snapdragons is apparently the best game ever to play on Christmas Eve. Make sure you have the fire department on speed dial though. Very popular from the 16th to the 19th centuries, Snapdragons (or Flapdragons) has explicably declined in popularity.
Gather everyone around the dining room table, place a large flat dish in the centre. In the dish scatter a good handful of raisins then pour on top a layer of brandy or cognac. Set fire to the brandy and dim the lights. Players take it in turns to pluck a raisin out of the burning liquid and eat it quickly down. For a more competitive edge to the game use larger dried fruit such as apricots, one of which has a lucky sixpence stuffed inside.
Equipment needed: plate, matches, raisins, brandy, address of nearest accident and emergency department
A Special Word of the Day - Halcyon
According to legend, this two-week period is associated with unusually calm seas; hence the common meanings of halcyon as 'quiet' or 'peaceful' and by extension, 'prosperous.'
(Unless you are tight with the Thursday afternoon St. John's Rosary Altar Society, as I am - you may not know this;) today is the third Sunday of Advent. It is known as Gaudete Sunday.
Gaudete is Latin for Rejoice, as in Gaudete in Domino semper (rejoice in the Lord always,) because the birth of Jesus is coming.
December 14, 1919 -
Felix the Cat first appeared in film, Feline Follies (under the name 'Master Tom',) on this date. This was a full nine years before Mickey Mouse’s debut in Disney’s Steamboat Willie.
The legendary cartoon character created in the silent film era by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer in Australia was a whimsical black cat that walked on two legs and often had the moves and childlike nature of Charlie Chaplin (who was an inspiration for Sullivan).
December 14, 1967 -
Richard Brooks' adaptation of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, starring Robert Blake, Scott Wilson and John Forsythe, premiered in New York City on this date.
To get the authenticity he wanted, Richard Brooks filmed in all the actual locations including the Clutter house (where the murders took place) and the actual courtroom (six of the actual jurors were used). Even Nancy Clutter's horse Babe was used in a few scenes. The actual Kansas State Penitentiary facilities and gallows were not used the film.
December 14, 1968 -
Three Motown acts held the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, on this date:
1) I Heard It Through The Grapevine by Marvin Gaye
2) Love Child by The Supremes
3) For Once In My Life by Stevie Wonder
The chart stays the same the next week, and a week later Stevie and The Supremes trade positions.
December 14, 1969 -
Michael Jackson and the rest of The Jackson 5 made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on this date.
The Jackson Five performed Sly and the Family Stone's Stand, Smokey Robinson's Who's Loving You, and their first hit single I Want You Back.
December 14, 1972 -
A very obscure (and not particularly good) Ringo Starr directed concert film, Born To Boogie starring Marc Bolan and T. Rex, Ringo Starr, and Elton John was released on The Beatles Apple Films label in the UK, on this date.
Much of the 8mm footage used in the closing credits was shot by Marc Bolan while on tour.
December 14, 1979 -
The Clash released their third studio album, London Calling, an album mix of punk, reggae, rockabilly, ska, New Orleans R&B, pop, lounge jazz, and hard rock, on this date.
London Calling was produced by Guy Stevens, best known at that point for his work with Mott the Hoople and the Faces. The album was ranked #8 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
December 14, 1984 -
The David Lynch version of Frank Herbert's Science Fiction classic, thought to be unfilmable; Dune, starring Kyle MacLachlan, Jose Ferrer, Francesca Annis and Sting, premiered on this date.
David Lynch has said he considers this film the only real failure of his career. To this day, he refuses to talk about the production in great detail, and has refused numerous offers to work on a special edition DVD.
Remember, according to the FBI, there is no Mafia!
Today in History:
December 14, 1503 -
Nostradamus, famous french huckster (forerunner of Miss Cleo, for those of you who remember Miss Cleo) was born on this date.
If you write vague enough prophecies, they will fool almost anyone.
December 14, 1656 -
Artificial pearls were first manufactured by M. Jacquin in Paris on this date.
December 14, 1702 -
A major part of Japanese history - the 47 Ronin were samurai until their master was ordered to commit suicide after killing an arrogant official. In revenge, the Ronin killed the official, and were then were ordered to commit suicide themselves.
The story of the 47 Ronin remains a popular Japanese legend, and the 47 Ronin are seen as examples of loyalty and faithfulness.
Try getting your staff to turn in reports on time.
December 14, 1807 -
A 'shooting star' fell in Weston, Connecticut at 6:30am on this date, making a hole five feet long and 4.5 feet wide. A young Yale professor, Benjamin Silliman, who rushed to the scene of the phenomenon pronounced it a meteorite.
December 14, 1861 -
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, of tobacco can fame and husband of Queen Victoria, died at Windsor Castle from typhoid fever on this date.
The death of the Prince Consort sent Queen Victoria into a deep depression, which effected the entire Empire and even after her recovery she would remain in mourning for the rest of her life.
December 14, 1900 -
On this date, Max Planck published his theory of quantum mechanics, which is often considered one of the most radical scientific discoveries of the 20th century. It is even more radical than the belief in the collection of Turkish union dues or statements made by the current president.
In 1900, Planck was working in a laboratory, heating various substances and examining the color of light they emitted when they reached certain temperatures. He also accidentally invented crack cocaine, but that’s another story. He wanted to describe his results in mathematical terms, but no matter how hard he tried, his calculations didn’t make sense. The only way he could make them work was to assume that light travels in little packets—like bullets, or balloon condoms filled with cocaine and lodged in the colon of drug mules—even though this idea seemed impossible.
Five years later, Albert Einstein took Planck’s theory of light seriously and wrote his first major paper exploring the idea of light traveling in packets, which he called photons. Although Einstein became better known for his theory of relativity, it was his work expanding on Planck’s original ideas about light that won him a Nobel Prize. Einstein later said, “I use up more brain grease on quantum theory than on relativity.”
With the discovery of quantum mechanics, physicists found that subatomic particles are, by nature, unpredictable. If you shot one across the room, you could guess where it might end up, but you could never be sure. This idea made Einstein miserable. He famously said, “I am at all events convinced God does not play dice.”
Today, quantum mechanics remains one of the most mysterious and difficult scientific theories ever developed. The Danish physicist Niels Bohr once said that anyone who was not shocked by quantum theory did not understand it, and physicist Richard Feynman once remarked that while only a modest number of people truly understand the theory of relativity, no one understands quantum mechanics.
Max Planck died in 1947 and never fully accepted the theory he discovered. But even if few people truly understand it, quantum mechanics led to the development of modern electronics, including the transistor, the laser, and the computer.
December 14, 1911 -
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his expedition successfully reached the South Pole on this date, beating out the rival expedition of British Robert Falcon Scott by almost a month.
Amundsen would later become the first explorer to ever fly over the North Pole in 1926.
December 14, 1934 -
The first streamlined locomotive, nicknamed the Commodore Vanderbilt, was introduced by the New York Central Railroad on this date.
Despite its elite status and opulent accommodations, the Commodore saw a short life in the postwar years. Following a series of cutbacks the Commodore was removed from the timetable in 1960.
December 14, 1944 -
Lupe Velez, Hollywood's Mexican Spitfire of the 1940s, committed suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills on this date.
Contrary to her plans of being found laid out on the bed in a silk nightgown, she is instead discovered in the bathroom with her head in the toilet. (OK bunkies, this is just an urban legend but let it get in back of the list of others, like the death of Cass Elliot or Judy Garland. Don't even get me started about the death of Albert Dekker.)
What a way to go!!!
December 14, 1955 -
The Tappan Zee Bridge (formerly known as Governor Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee toll bridge, now the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge) in New York opened to traffic on this date.
The bridge was decommissioned in 2016 and the first section of the new bridge opened in 2017. The entire bridge was completion in 2018.
December 14, 1963 -
Dinah Washington (nee Ruth Lee Jones,) the "Queen of the Blues", juggled numerous prescription medications, primarily for dieting and insomnia, most of her life.
Harbor Lights -
What A Diff'rence A Day Makes -
Mad About The Boy -
An unintentional but lethal combination of alcohol and pills forever stilled her magnificent voice on this date. She was only 39 and was thankfully found in bed.
December 14, 2013 -
Chang'e 3 became the first spacecraft to land on the Moon since 1976 on this date.
Chang'e 3 was an unmanned lunar exploration mission operated by the China National Space Administration, incorporating a robotic lander and China's first lunar rover, the Yutu rover.
On this anniversary of the terrible act at Sandy Hook,
Before you go - Most Christmas songs are likely to feature one of two people: Jesus or Santa. And while people have been singing Christmas hymns and carols about Jesus since the Fourth Century, songs about Santa Claus arrived a little later.
It’s believed that the tune, Up On the Housetop, written in 1864 by Benjamin Hanby, a church pastor, has the first mention of Santa in song. The concept of the song is probably inspired by the 1822 poem by Clement C. Moore, A Visit from St. Nicholas, more popularly known as The Night Before Christmas. Gene Autry is perhaps most famous for covering the song in 1953 .
And so it goes
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