It’s the last day of 2022. The 31st Day of December. One more year of our lives are about to slide into history. Was it a good year? It had it’s ups and downs for me. All I can say is that I did my best to make each day of it a good one and for the most part I was successful. I’m ready to start 2023. Today, aside from being New Year’s Eve is Make Yup Your Mind Day, National champagne Day, One Voice Day, Universal Hour of Peace Day, and Unlucky Day. Now some history: On this day in 192 Roman Emperor Commodus survived a poisoning attempt by his mistress only to be strangled in the bath in an assassination plot. On this day in 1492 100,000 Jews were expelled from Sicily. On this day in 1695 a window tax became law in England causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid paying the tax. On this day in 1776 Rhode Island established wage and price controls to curb inflation. 70 cents a day for carpenters and 42 cents for tailors. For some context, the inflation rate was 12.99% and a 1776 dollar would be worth $34.25 today. On this day in 1907 the ball dropped in Times Square for the first time. ON this day in 1924 Italian Fascist Mussolini ordered the suppression of opposition newspapers. On this day in 1946 President Harry Truman officially proclaimed the end of WWII. In 1967 on this day Evel Knievel failed to jump Caesar’s Palace Fountain in Las Vegas and breaks his pelvis, femur, wrist, hip and both ankles. The first quotable person who died on the last day of a year is Betty White who said, “I don’t know how people get so anti-something. Just mind your own business, take care of your own affairs, and don’t worry about other people so much.” Excellent advice. She also said, “Get at least 8 hours of beauty sleep. 9 if you’re ugly.” Next is the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan who said, “There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.” The last person I’m going to quote in 2022 is the Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno who said, “We should try to be the parents of our future rather than the offspring of our past” and “Fascism is cured by reading, and racism is cured by traveling.” Lots of deep meaning in today’s quotes. Enough for 2022. I’ll write you another next year. Abide.
