Shortening

So, what do you do on the shortest day of the year?

In my case, I am held hostage today to the schedules of 3 other people, each of whom is waiting on someone else to do something or make a phone call, so they can call me to do something for each of them. Is that complicated enough for you?

Clear as mud to me. When #1 Son was very young, he got shortening, like vegetable shortening, mixed up with the idea of an electrical cord having a short in it, and he used to say, "I think the cord has a shortening in it." Well, I think all of this waiting on this person who is waiting on that person has caused a "shortening" in my brain.


Today is:

Alban Arthuan -- Druid Festival, 4th Station

First Day of Winter / Winter Solstice / Solar New Year (Shortest daylight hours of the year)

Forefather's Day, New England (Sometimes called Pilgrim's Day or Pilgrim Landing Anniversary)

Humbug Day

Look At the Bright Side Day (And why not? After all, each day after this will have more sun!)

Mumping Day a/k/a Gooding Day (Traditional day on which beggars beg for, or "mump", good things for Christmas, always on St. Thomas' Day)

National French Fried Shrimp Day

National Flashlight Day

National Haiku Poetry Day

National Tree Planting Day, Malawi

Phileas Fogg Wins A Wager Day

St. Peter Canisius' Day (patron of Germany)

St. Thomas' Day, the Doubting Thomas

Yalda, Iran (To celebrate the longest night of the year, many stay up for the fight against dark and evil.)

Yule Festivals begin -- various calendars, religions, countries and observances (If I tried to list them all here, I know my brain would explode!)


Birthdays Today:

Jack Noseworthy, 1969
Kiefer Sutherland, 1966
Andy Dick, 1965
Florence Griffith Joyner, 1959
Ray Romano, 1957
Jane Kaczmarek, 1955
Chris Evert, 1954
Samuel L. Jackson, 1948
Frank Zappa, 1940
Jane Fonda, 1937
Phil Donahue, 1935
Joe Paterno, 1926
Paul Winchell, 1922
Joseph Stalin, 1879


Today in History:

A hurricane hits Holland/Friesland, destroying villages with widespread flooding, 1163
The Battle of Curalaba: The revolting Mapuche Native Americans, led by cacique Pelentaru, inflict a major defeat on Spanish troops in southern Chile; all Spanish cities south of the Biobio river are eventually taken by the Mapuches, and all conquest of Mapuche territories by Europeans practically ceases, until the 1870s "Pacification of Araucania", 1598
Hue Tay Son becomes emperor Quang Trung of Vietnam, 1788
The Rochdale Pioneers commence business at their cooperative in Rochdale, England, starting the Cooperative movement, 1844
The first Word-Cross puzzle, which the printer mislabeled as a Cross-Word (the name that stuck), is published in the New York World, 1913
The first feature length color and sound cartoon, Disney's Snow White, premiers, 1937