A great miracle happened there -

As we are at the halfway mark of Hanukkah, being the fourth night of Hanukkah -

May this holiday be filled with light. And a little more restful than Lewis'.


December is the twelfth and last month of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. This is used in almost all the world today. It was the tenth month in the early Roman calendar. It became the twelfth month in a later Roman calendar. Until 46 B.C., December only had 29 days.



But the Roman statesman Julius Caesar added two days to December, which made it 31 days. You get to do that if you are dictator to the known World.



In Finnish, since about the 18th century, December has been called Joulukuu, meaning "month of Christmas." Before that it was called Talvikuu, meaning "month of winter." In Irish, December is known as Mí na Nollaig, also meaning "month of Christmas". In the northern half of the world, Winter begins in December. Winter does not begin until December 21 or 22, and most of December is usually warmer than other winter months.

The latter part of December has long been a holiday season. Christians celebrate Christmas Day, as the birthday of Jesus Christ and not my nephew Frankie, as it is mistakenly believed in my sister's home.



In the Northern Hemisphere, most birds and elderly folks have gone to warmer climates. But many animals are active. Mink, ermine, beavers, and foxes grow beautiful coats of fur. Nature finishes preparing for the long winter ahead. Many people make feeding places for birds and squirrels.



December is International Calendar Awareness Month, Safe Toys and Gifts Month, and Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month . The first week in December is both Christmas Tree Week and Cookie Cutter Week.


Avoid Midtown Manhattan today -

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree will be lit for the first time this holiday season tonight. Remember to wear a mask and bring a polo mallet with you if you, unfortunately, find yourself in midtown.



Thousands of poor souls will gather for the 90th annual Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting. Remember to bring a tube sock filled with pennies with you, if you unfortunately, find yourself in midtown



Do you really want to be stuck in the middle of potential Darwin Award winners and their children who should be forced to play in traffic? So once again, I'm giving native New Yorkers a gentle reminder - watch last year's lighting here.



This year, Carrie Underwood, Mickey Guyton, Brad Paisley, Pentatonix, Gwen Stefani, Harry Connick Jr., Alessia Cara, Norah Jones and Rob Thomas, as well as, the refugees from overbooked ancient hotels in the holy land are involved this year.

Exert extreme caution!


On December First each year, we celebrate World Aids Day, the day is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. In the United States, during 2019, there were an estimated 34,800 new diagnoses of HIV infection and worldwide, there were about 1.5 million new cases of HIV.

CDC estimates that 1.2 million people in the United States are living with HIV and nearly one in seven of those are not aware that they are infected. In addition to recognized risk behaviors, a range of social and economic factors places some Americans at increased risk for HIV infection. Prevention efforts have helped keep the rate of new infections stable in recent years, but continued growth in the number of people living with HIV ultimately may lead to more new infections if prevention, care, and treatment efforts are not targeted to those at greatest risk.


December 1, 1903 -
The first Western film, directed by Edwin S. Porter, The Great Train Robbery, was released on this date.



The film uses simple editing techniques (each scene is a single shot), and the story is mostly linear (with only a few "meanwhile" moments), but it represents a significant step in movie making, being one of the first "narrative" movies.


December 1, 1956 -
The Frank Tashlin musical comedy film, The Girl Can't Help It, starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, Edmond O'Brien, Henry Jones, and Julie London, premiered in the US on this date.



In this film, Eddie Cochran performs Twenty Flight Rock. That song's influence was so great across the Atlantic in Liverpool, England, that Paul McCartney's ability to memorize the words and perform the song impressed John Lennon enough to ask him to join his group, then known as The Quarrymen, which later became The Beatles.


December 1, 1957 -
It's a big night on Ed Sullivan Show:



Buddy Holly and the Crickets,



Sam Cooke,



and The Rays all perform for the first time on national TV.


December 1, 1983 -
Brian De Palma’s remake of the 1932 Howard Hawks' classic Scarface, starring Al Pacino, premiered in NYC on this date.



Though there has long been a myth that Pacino snorted real cocaine on camera, the "cocaine" used in the film was supposedly powdered milk (even if De Palma has never officially stated what the crew used as a drug stand-in). But whatever it was, it created problems for Pacino's nasal passages. "For years after, I have had things up in there," Pacino said in 2015. "I don't know what happened to my nose, but it's changed."


December 1, 1984 -
The Eddie Murphy mega-hit, Beverly Hills Cop, co-starring, Judge Reinhold, and John Ashton, premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



Eddie Murphy became very tired while filming the police station sequences. The crew offered him coffee, but he refused to drink it because he refuses to take drugs of any kind. Eventually he relented and took small sips of coffee to stay awake. He became very energized and ad-libbed the "super-cops" monologue.


December 1, 1989 -
The very silly National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki, premiered on this date.



After failing to get the Christmas lights to work one last time, Clark Griswold takes his frustration out on the plastic decorations in the front yard. Chevy Chase actually broke his pinky finger while punching Santa Claus. He resorts to kicking and clubbing the decorations after that. The film kept rolling, and the take was used.


Another failed product


Today in History:
December 1, 1135 -
King Henry I of England was both the first English King who could actually read (which was no small bragging right) and was famed for holding the record for the largest number of acknowledged illegitimate children born to any English king, with the number being around 20 or 25. How he found time to read is anybody's guest? But that is not why we discuss him today: Henry died on this date after eating a plate of spoiled eels while visiting his grandchildren in Normandy.

His remains were sewn into the hide of a bull to preserve them on the journey back to England. Not the most dignified way for the remains of a king to travel but that's how things were in the Middle Ages.


December 1, 1887 -
The first adventure in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, A Study in Scarlet, introducing the reader to the brilliant detective and his faithful companion, Doctor Watson, first appeared in print on this date. Doyle received £25 for its publication in Beeton's Christmas Annual.



Holmes' deductive genius was modeled on Doyle's medical school mentor Dr. Joseph Bell.

December 1, 1929 -
Little old people and Catholic priest rejoice!!!



Bingo was invented by Edwin S. Lowe, on this date.


December 1, 1934 -
Politburo member Sergei Kirov was killed by Leonid Nikolayev on orders of Josef Stalin on this date.



The assassination is used as an excuse to commence the Great Terror in the years 1935 to 1939, in which 800,000 were executed and over 8.5 million arrested.

Uncle Joe sure knew how to hold a grudge.


December 1, 1935 -
If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.



Allen Stewart Konigsberg, writer and film director was born on this date, and immediately regretted the entire incident, complaining that he didn't know his mother well enough to be involved in such an 'intimate experience' as birth.


December 1, 1940 -
The way I see it, the earth is going to be here after we're dead and gone. Even if it's a polluted planet, and they messed it up. Where do they go from here - to another planet so they can mess that up too?



Richard Pryor, comedian, actor and genius, was born on this date.


December 1, 1945 -
Group conformity scares the pants off me because it's so often a prelude to cruelty towards anyone who doesn't want to - or can't - join the Big Parade.



Bette Midler, singer, actress, comedian was born on this date.


December 1, 1947 -
Aleister Crowley, British occultist, writer, mountaineer, poet, yogi, skilled sodomite and the wickedest man in the world, died in Hastings England at age 74. Crowley also appears on the cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper.



It's nice to have a hobby.

(Keep looking, you can find him.)


On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to sit on the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in violation of the democratic and egalitarian laws that so many Americans had fought so hard to preserve.



This resulted in a period of national reflection upon the meaning of the phrase "all men are created equal," which no longer appeared so self-evident. After considerable debate, the U.S. judicial system eventually made the novel decision that "all men" might be interpreted to mean "all men," and America has been a paragon of peaceful coexistence ever since.

And so it goes