It is the 23rd day of December 2022. Santa is test loading his sleigh and the reindeer have switched from hay to alfalfa and grain. You need to have grown up on a farm with lots of cattle to understand what that means. I can remember mom coming up with plausible answers to my Santa Clause questions. We are in the final count down. Today is Festivus, National Roots Day, and National Pfeffernusse Day. Pfeffernusses are small, hard, round cookies that can be flavored with a variety of spices. We always had a bowl of them at Christmas in my home. Yum. Now some history. On this day in 1690 English astronomer John Flamsteed observed Uranus without realizing it was undiscovered. I find any sentence with ‘Uranus’ in it slightly amusing. On this day in 1751 France began to tax clergymen. On this day in 1776 the Continental Congress received a war loan of $181,500 from France which is $6,214,255 in 2022 dollars. On this day in 1888 Vincent van Gogh cut off his left ear with a razon and sent it to a prostitute for safe keeping. On this day in 1907 the first all-steel passenger railroad coach was completed in Altoona, PA. On this day in 1919 Alice H. Parker patented the gas heating furnace. On this day in 1941 American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese. On this day in 1946 the University of Tennessee refused to play a basketball game against Duquesne University because they might use have use a black player. On this day in 1961 Fidel Castro announced that Cuba would release 1,113 prisoners from the failed Bay of Pigs invasion for $62 million in food and medical supplies. Today’s dead person is Joan Didion who was an author who passed in 2021. Joan said, “To cure jealousy is to see it for what it is, a dissatisfaction with self.” “Anything worth having has its price.” “Memory fades, memory adjusts, memory conforms to what we think we remember.” “Only a dying man can tell how much time he has left.” I’ll wrap this post up with “Why do you always have to be right? Why do you always have to have the last word? For once in your life, just let it go.” That’s a good place to end. Abide.
