We Can Only Hope It's True

 There is some evidence that chocolate, especially if it's dark chocolate, is somewhat good for you.

Now someone has shown a correlation between the amount of chocolate eaten per capita in certain countries and the number of Nobel laureates those countries produce.

So, is chocolate the secret to mental success, high test scores, low probability of dementia, lots of Nobel level thinkers, and just plain all around smarts?

Well, like all such claims, the darling of science news this week may be the dragon we have to slay next week.  New research every few weeks seems to discredit what previous research proved, and we are expected to change what we do to match the latest and greatest news.

Or, like me, we can pick and choose what we want to believe.

In this case, i'm going to err on the side of chocolate, which i like best as raw cacao nibs.

This is one i hope proves true over time.


Today is:

Alascattalo Day -- Anchorage, Alaska (A salute to Alaskan humor, a parade in honor of the "alascattalo", a cross between a moose and a walrus; the longest running, shortest parade in the world, held in the alley behind Club Paris from 12:03 to 12:07 pm.  A prize is given to the smallest and ugliest float -- yes, it must be both small and ugly.  An anonymous queen will be crowned, if she has the bad sense to show up.)

Calvin and Hobbes Day -- comic strip launched in 1985, with Calvin catching Hobbes in a home made tiger trap baited with a tuna fish sandwich

Day of Ardvi Sura (Aredvi Sura Anahita), Mother of the Stars -- Ancient Persian Calendar (date approximate)

Feast of the Virgen de Chiquinquirá -- Maracaibo, Venezuela

Hap-Dancing and Tiger-Tuning -- Fairy Calendar

Independence Day -- Morocco; Western Sahara

Jnan Panchami -- Jain (celebration of knowledge and education)

Married to a Scorpio Support Day -- remembering those married to Scorpios (like me!) and suffering because of it, and encouraging them too hide the flow charts and assert themselves today; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Mother Goose Parade Day -- El Cajon, CA, US

National Day -- Oman (trad.; will be observed Nov. 27)

National French Vichyssoise Day

Ned Ludd Memorial Machine-Smashing Day -- internet generated, but enjoy!  i know i will

Proclamation of the Republic -- Latvia

Push-Button Phone Day -- launched this day in 1963

St. Odo of Cluny's Day (Patron of needed rain)

Total Disregard for Taste Day -- marking the debut of Howard Stern's radio show on this day in 1985

Vertieres Day -- Haiti (Army Day)

Volkstrauertag -- Germany (National Day of Mourning for all victims of National Socialism and the dead of both world wars)

William Tell Day -- the famed apple-off-his-son's-head-shot was today in 1307

World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims -- UN



Birthdays Today:

Elizabeth Perkins, 1960
Sinbad, 1956
Wilma Mankiller, 1945
Linda Evans, 1942
Brenda Vaccaro, 1939
Mickey Mouse, 1928
Alan Shepard, Jr., 1923
Imogene Coca, 1908
George Gallup, 1901
Eugene Ormandy, 1899
Clarence Shepard Day, 1874
Dorothy Dix (Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer), 1861
Ignacy Jan Paderewski, 1860
William Gilbert, 1836
Louis-Jacques Daguerre, 1787
Sojourner Truth, 1787


Today in History:

Old St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated, 326
The Japanese Emperor Kammy relocates the residence of Nara to Kioto, 794
William Tell shoots the apple off his son's head, 1307
The Holland/Zealand dikes break during a storm, resulting in thousands of deaths, 1421
The first English printed book, "Dictes & Sayengis of the Phylosophers", is published, 1477
Christopher Columbus first sights the island now known as Puerto Rico, 1493
Vasco da Gama reaches the Cape of Good Hope, 1497
The worst earthquake in Massachusetts Bay/Boston area, 1755
The first Unitarian Minister in the US is ordained in Boston, 1787
30 women meet at Mrs Silas Lee's home in Wiscasset Maine, to organize the Female Charitable Society, first woman's club in America, 1805
Mark Twain's story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is published in the New York Saturday Press, 1865
National Woman's Christian Temperance Union organizes in Cleveland, 1874
Standard time zones are formed by railroads in the US and Canada, 1883
The first newspaper Sunday color comic strip is printed, in the NY World, 1894
Britain flies its first sea plane, 1911
Lincoln Deachey performs the first airplane loop-the-loop, over San Diego, 1913
Sigma Alpha Rho, a Jewish high school fraternity, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1917
Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the third appearances of cartoon characters Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, 1928
Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake, centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula, 1929
New York City's Mad Bomber places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison, 1940
In the United States, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is ratified, 1993