Drop Everything

 With a new year just hours away let's take a look at some of the things dropped when the year changes. In New York it's the ball drop, in Eastover, NC it's a 30 lb. ceramic flea, in Bethlehem, PA it's a 400 lb. Peeps chick, in Manhattan, KS it's a giant apple, in Temecula, CA it's a 12 foot tall illuminated bunch of grapes, in St. George's,  Bermuda it's a giant onion, in Flagstaff, AZ it's a 6 foot tall metal pine cone, in Lebanon, PA it's 100 lb. 6 foot long giant chunk of bologna, in Tallapoosa, GA it's a taxidermized opossum named Spencer, in Boise, ID it's a giant resin potato, in Raleigh, NC it's a 10 foot tall,  1,250 lb. copper and steel giant acorn, in Eastport, ME it's two items, a wooden sardine and a giant plywood maple leaf. It is customary to kiss the fish for good luck before the drop. 

Quiet Celebration

 Generally when one thinks of New Year's Eve celebrations it involves considerable noise and otherwise raucous behavior. One of the exceptions is a Balinese New Year called Nyepi which is celebrated in March, it is a day dedicated to silence, fasting and meditation. Most shops don't open and people aren't allowed on the streets and beaches even the airport closes for the day. The only exceptions are emergency services. 

Win-Win

 Congratulations France! The French government has set up a fund to subsidize clothing/shoe repair in an attempt to keep usable items out of landfills and save resources, not to mention giving skilled tailors and cobblers business to keep them going.  They are paying 6-25 euros for the repairs which can be as simple as sewing on a button, to resoling shoes and pretty much everything in between. The rest of the world needs to get onboard with this kind of planning instead of continuing with a disposable life style that is using up our precious resources. People are the only part of the conservation puzzle that can adapt, we don't need more of anything other than learning to protect what we have before we're left empty handed. 

Christmas Past

 In Victorian days before Christmas cards were sent by the billions the cards were a rarity as the first one was a hand painted lithograph depicting a family and children drinking wine but on the sides pictured charitable acts. Needless to say it was controversial and sending cards didn't really catch on until 1870 when a half penny stamp was issued for sending cards. Apparently the people charged with creating the cards either had a macabre sense of humor or would go on to be in the family tree of future horror authors. 

Don't Sweat It

Maybe the golden years is a misnomer since there are various lists to point out the pluses of getting older but as with most things it isn't one size fits all. There is good news for those seniors who used to get migraines, the frequency usually peaks around 40 and continues to lessen as you age until only 1 in 10 experience a migraine about once a year.  Another plus is seniors sweat less which is good as far as hygiene goes but less sweating also makes it harder for seniors to regulate their body temperature plus sweat plays a roll in healing so it's more of a toss up than a plus. Tell me again why they call them the golden years? Oh, right, we're still alive! 

It Ain't Over Til It's Over

 One of the many Yogi Berra immortal sayings also applies to Christmas which is either bad news or good news depending on how you feel about Christmas. Christmas began being celebrated on December 25 officially around 336 CE though the date of the birth of Jesus is never mentioned in the Bible and scholars feel it is more likely he was a spring baby. Now for the "It Ain't Over" part...the time for Christmas is further complicated by the differences between the Julian and Gregorian calendars which is why Armenian Apostolic prefer January 6 to celebrate while most Oriental and Eastern Orthodox churches observe Christmas on January 7. 

In Other Words

 Different words, different languages= same meaning, Merry Christmas! 

 

Japanese: Merii Kurisumasu

Swedish: God Jul

Tagalog (Filipino): Maligayang Pasko

Portuguese: Feliz Natal

Hawaiian: Mele Kalikimaka

Italian: Buon Natale

German: Frohe Weihnachten

French: Joyeux Noël

Spanish: Feliz Navidad

English: Merry Christmas

Say What?

 Time to put some final cheer into the holiday with some Christmas quotes! 

Why is it that when snooty department stores put their Christmas decorations out just after the 4th of July it's "elegant foresight," but when I leave my Christmas lights up until April, my neighbors think I'm just tacky? Alisa Meadows 

Santa Claus has the right idea: Visit people once a year. Victor Borge 

Holiday traditions mean a lot to people, particularly people in retail. Michael Feldman 

Last Christmas, I got no respect. In my stocking I got an Odor-Eater. Rodney Dangerfield 

Christmas is a holiday that persecutes the lonely, the frayed and the rejected. Jimmy Cannon 

Before He Flew

 Santa didn't start out in a sleigh with flying reindeer, it was a much more humble and let's face it likely beginning. Of course he was also St. Nicholas at that time and his gift giving was on his feast day which was December 6. St. Nicholas rode a donkey on his rounds and children left carrots and hay in their shoes by the door hoping for a small gift. Now back to the reindeer...their eyes would have been blue since it was winter but had it been summer their eyes would have been golden as their eyes change color with the seasons to allow them to see 1,000 times better in the darkness of the winter. 

Hornswoggled?

 Hornswoggle means to get the better of someone through cheating or deception. To give (one's) head for washing means yielding without resistance (think brainwashed). To carry fire in one hand and water in the other means to be two faced or deceiving. To make a spoon or spoil a horn means to be so consumed with achieving your objectives that you unwittingly ruin something in the process, or completely fail, though that is a price you are willing to pay. After absorbing these words and expressions does anyone come to mind? If your answer is no then consider yourself hornswoggled, though it isn't to late to bury the hatchet. 

It's the Law

 Switzerland seems to be more on top of things than the non neutral rest of the world, for instance in 2008 they made it illegal to own only one guinea pig as they are social creatures and need to be around their own kind. They didn't stop with just guinea pigs, they made a social law for pets that includes rights for several species. Goldfish must also have companions and cats need to at least have access to a window where they can catch sight of fellow felines and other outside activities. See what can be accomplished without wars to worry over? 

Recycled Words

 As with fads and fashion if you wait long enough old words and phrases make a comeback too. Today's post will highlight a few of those words. Gigglemug originated in the 1920s and means pretty much what it sounds like, a person with an infectious, constant smile. Whooperup is also what it sounds like, an event with noisy enthusiasm and lively commotion. Pang Wangle is a good word for what a lot of people endure, misfortune and hardship while achieving their goals. Then there's gobemouche from the French for gape mouthed meaning ready to swallow and accept any misinformation fed to it. I saved the best for last, respair, the opposite of despair, means renewed hope after a period of distress. 

Furbtrees

Does anyone remember Furbies? Apparently they are making a comeback this year and may even be the hot Christmas gift for the year. In several capital cities in Europe they are displaying Furbtrees instead of the traditional fir or artificial trees.  At around $50 per Furby that seems like a high price to pay for a tree though it is keeping a few growing trees from their certain death, and as far as artificial trees they might actually be a lesser evil than a Furbtree which contain even more components that are bad for the environment. I hope at least they have a plan for what to do with the Furbies when they deconstruct the trees. 

Cheesy

 This sounds kind of awful until you think about it and even then it's hard to put blue cheese together with beer, but an Oregon creamery and brewery teamed up to make blue cheese beer. Coolship Beer No.6 is a lambic-style ale using Rogue River Blue Cheese and aging in oak barrels for around 2 years. Both the creamery and the brewery were skeptical at the beginning of the project but pleased with the final product which they describe as nuanced and complex but balanced and not too cheesy. Beer in cheese soup is yummy though it stretches the imagination a bit to get to blue cheese even when a person is a blue cheese fan.