Hazard of the House

"Mom, where are Kida's asthma pills? She's wheezing horribly," Bigger Girl said with concern as she walked into the kitchen from the library.

In my bedroom, because your dad usually gives her one at night right before bed.

"Oh, okay, I'll go get them."

Two minutes later, i asked if she had gotten the pill into our sometimes cranky Siamese.

"No, I didn't even try. I thought it was her asthma, but it was Alan's snoring! He's sleeping in the library now!"

Hazard of the House -- you never know which kid, whether one of our own or stray we've picked up, is sleeping in some odd corner or other.


Today is:

Awful Tie Day -- internet generated, go to the office and compare who got the worst tie as a gift

Blessing of the Wine -- Luxembourg

Boxing Day -- day on which boxes of goodies are given to the less fortunate or public servants, and sometimes servants and masters traded places for the day

Coffee Percolator Day -- invented by James Mason on this day in 1865

Day of Goodwill -- Namibia; South Africa

Day of Our Theotokos / Synaxis of the Most Holy Mother of God -- Byzantine/Eastern Orthodox Christian

Day of the Wren -- Ireland; Isle of Mann (Celebration of St. Stephen)

Family Day -- Namibia; Vanuatu

Feast of Neith -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Haloa -- Ancient Greek Calendar (Festival of Demeter and Dionysus; date approximate)

Independence and Unity Day -- Slovenia

Junkanoo (Junkanoo Jonkanoo, Jankunu, John Canoe or Johnkankus) -- Carribean Islands, also on New Years Day (A special music and dance, mime and symbol that is an early traditional dance form of African descent.)

Kwanzaa, Day 1, Unity

Mauro Hamza Day -- Houston, TX, US

Mummer's Day -- Padstow, Cornwall

National Candy Cane Day

National Thank-you Note Day

National Whiner's Day -- a day to encourage people to be happy with what they have; the previous year's worst whiners are announced (you don't want to be one!)

Recyclable Packaging Day -- started by someone who wants to remind us to gather up the reusable bags, boxes, etc., left from the holiday, and recycle the rest

Second Day of Christmas

Sports Days -- Falkland Islands (through the 28th, with the Boxing Day race at Stanley being the most famous part of the celebration)

St. James the Just's Day -- Orthodox Christian

St. Stephan's Day (Patron of stonecutters, bricklayers, builders, horses)
Public Holiday in Alsace, Austria, Catalonia, Croatia, Czech Republic; Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, and Slovakia
Celebrated as Father's Day -- Bulgaria

Tehuantepec Festivities -- Oaxaca, Mexico

Thanksgiving -- Solomon Islands

Zarathosht Diso (Death of Prophet Zarathushtra) - Zoroastrian


Birthdays Today:

Jared Leto, 1971
Lars Ulrich, 1963
David Sedaris, 1956
Ozzie Smith, 1954
Carlton Fisk, 1947
John Walsh, 1945
Phil Spector, 1940
Alan King, 1927
Steve Allen, 1921
Richard Widmark, 1914
Mao Tse-tung, 1893
Henry Miller, 1891
Charles Babbage, 1791
Thomas Gray, 1716


Today in History:

Columbus founds the first Spanish settlement in the New World by leaving behind 36 men in what is now Haiti, 1492
The final trial of Louis XVI of France begins, 1792
A theater fire in Richmond, Virginia kills the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable, 1811
The Erie Canal opens, 1825
Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years, 1871
King Mwanga of Uganda signs a contract with the East Africa Company, 1890
Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium, 1898
FM radio is patented, 1933
Time Magazine's Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer, 1982
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the USSR, 1991
A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing over 250,000 people, 2004