This day is named December 16, 2020. Despite the continued chaos, I woke up this morning being thankful and feeling lucky. I am at that part of my life when aging is taking a toll on this body which is a biological machine. A hundred years ago I would have to live with whatever happened. Today, I take this little pill and we’re good to go. That, my friends, is something to be thankful for and feel lucky about. I like science and smart people. Moving on, it’s National Chocolate Covered Anything Day, Stupid Toy Day and Boston Tea Party Day. I eat pretty much anything that’s covered in chocolate. But, we should spend a little time on the Boston Tea Party. Most of you think the the people of Boston dressed up as dressed up like Indians and threw the British tea in the harbor to protest taxation without representation. You’ve got it backwards. The East Indian Tea Company persuaded the English government to remove all taxes from their tea being sent to America. They could undercut the price of tea from other sources and monopolize the American market. The Tea Party was about New England merchants stopping a royal monopoly. Now you know. Now to history. In 1907, as a gesture of the US’s new presence as a world power, President Theodore Roosevelt sends the ‘Great White Fleet’ on a round-the-world cruise, visiting ports internationally. In 1913 Charlie Chaplin begins his film career at Keystone for $150 a week. He said, “A day without laughter is wasted”. On this day in 1953, President Eisenhower holds the first White House Press Conference. It was Ike and a 161 reporters. In 1969 the British House of Commons votes 343-185 to abolish the death penalty. As a side note, the death penalty has been abolished in 105 countries. This date in 1901 is the day that the anthropologist Margret Mead was born. I think I’ll end this post with two of her quotes: “What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.” “We won’t have a society if we destroy the environment.” Margret stopped living in 1978. That’s enough for this day’s post. Stay safe. Abide.
