December 30th has arrived. It’s time to think about your New Year’s resolutions. I think they’re useful because when you make one, you recognize you need to be better. You don’t have to wait. You can decide to be the person you want to be anytime you want. I suggest that everyone should resolve to be more empathic, which means to understand and share the feelings of another. It might make you a better person and the world a better place. Onto holidays: It’s Bacon Day!!, Failing Needles Family Fest Day, Festival of Enormous changes at the Last Minute and National Bicarbonate of Soda Day. I’m pretty sure BLTs are on the menu for tonight. Now some history: On this day in 1809 the wearing of masks at balls was forbidden in Boston. Why? Because the masks hid the identities and that promoted unrestricted mingling a.k.a. sexual commerce. They were banned in Philadelphia too. On this day in 1903 an electric arc lamp set fire to the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago, IL killing 602 people making it one of the deadliest single-building blazes in American history. On this day in 1924 astronomer Edwin Hubble announced the existence of other galactic systems. On this day in 1952 the Tuskegee Institute reported that 1952 was the first year in 71 years with no lynchings in the US. This is the day in 1972 that President Nixon halted bombing of North Vietnam and announced peace talks. On this day in 1978 Ohio State fired Woody Hayes as the football coach. On this day in 1947 the English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead died. I’ll use his quotes for today: “The purpose of education is not to fill a vessel but to kindle a flame.” “Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.” “Great people plant trees they’ll never sit under.” “No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others.” “Everyone is a philosopher. Not everyone is good at it.” “When you’re average, you’re just as close to the bottom as you are to the top.” Last one: “What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike.” Makes sense to me. Enough. Abide.
