Why, i asked Ol' Bessy, are you telling me that you are 'acquiring network address,; when, in fact, you know you are not 'acquiring network address' and i know that you are not 'acquiring network address'?  Why such pretense?

"Are you talking to your machine?"  Sweetie had walked in for breakfast, and headed for the cabinet to get a glass for some water.

Yes, of course i do.

"Does it ever answer back?" he grinned.

Of course not.  That's how i know i'm still only generally nuts, and not clinically nuts.

"Why don't you have a discussion with it that includes using an axe?"

Because i like having some things in my life that i can talk to and that don't talk back i told him, looking at him pointedly.

His eyebrows went up, and then we both laughed as Bigger Girl, hair still touselled and looking sleepy, slid in on slipper-clad feet.

"Dad!  You have to go see the movie we went to last night,  Rise of the Guardians.  Best Santa ever!  A Russian accent and tattoos!"

"And mom, guess what?  They referenced the Tooth Rat!  When one of the hummingbird-like fairies was in Europe, there was a mouse going after a tooth, and it had a coin strapped on its back, and the fairy in training tried to go after it and was told to leave it alone, 'It's with our European division!'"

Well, at least that means someone did some research, i noted drily.

"Tooth Rat!  What kind of nonsense is that?" Sweetie asked.

When i was a child, my father used to joke with us about the Tooth Rat instead of the Tooth Fairy, and i always thought he had made it up.

Turns out, old European custom said that when a child lost a tooth, the new one would grow in with the hardness and strength of the teeth of whatever animal carried it away.  So parents would purposefully put their children's teeth near rat holes, since rats have strong teeth.  They wanted the tooth to be found by a rat so their children would have teeth as strong as the rat's teeth.  Eventually, it became the Tooth Rat taking the tooth and leaving the child a small gift.  That's the story still in parts of Europe and Central America, too.  That's what my father's mom told him when he lost teeth as a child.

"Yes, well, they have a Tooth Rat in the movie, part of the European Division of the Tooth Fairy's workers.  Oh, and the Elves are for decoration at Santa's workshop.  Turns out the Yeti actually do all the toy making."  Bigger Girl loves such movies, and so does Sweetie.

Now we know what movie they will go see on Christmas Day, which they do after we get back from Grandma and Grandpa's house so i can put away the leftovers in peace.


Today is:

Adoration Parade -- Branson, MO, US (celebration of traditional values of faith, family, and friendliness)

Chichibu Yomatsuri -- Chichibu shrine, Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan (one of Japan's most impressive night parties; through tomorrow)

Christmas to Remember -- Laurel, MT, US (Santa and a live Nativity, parade, fireworks, bazaar, and more)

Clerc-Gallaudet Week begins -- celebrating the pioneers in education for the deaf

Festival of the Finger Stalls -- Fairy Calendar

First Sunday of Advent -- Christian (start of the Liturgical Year in the Western Church) related observances
     Lighting the Candle of Hope
     Midwinter Horn Blowing -- rural Netherlands (folkloric custom announcing the birth of Jesus, celebrated through Epiphany)

Good Neighborliness Day -- Turkmenistan

International Day for the Abolition of Slavery -- UN

National Day -- Laos; United Arab Emirates (trad.)

National Fritters Day

Oshiroi Matsuri -- Fukuoka, Japan (Face Paint Festival, to ask for good harvest next year)

Safety Razor Day -- the first disposable razor blades were patented by King Gillette this day in 1901

Special Education Day -- US (anniversary of the first US special education law in 1975)

St. Bibiana's Day (Patron of epileptics, mentally ill people, single laywomen, torture victims; against epilepsy, hangovers, headaches, insanity, mental illness; and, appropriately considering the aforementioned list, Los Angeles, CA)

Walter Plinge Day -- UK (the British equivalent to George Spelvin, a name used to disguise the fact that an actor is playing more than one part in a production, but Walter was based on a real pub ownder who was generous to actors)

XTERRA Trail Run Series World Championship -- Kualoa Ranch, Oahu, HI, US (the crown jewel of the XTERRA Trail Run series of 60 rigorous, off road races, the world championship run)


Birthdays Today:

Monica Seles, 1973
Lucy Liu, 1968
Cathy Lee Crosby, 1948
Gianni Versace, 1946
Maria Callas, 1923
Randolph Hearst, 1915
Charles Ringling, 1863
Georges Seurat, 1859


Today in History:

The University of Leipzig opens, 1409
Dedication of the Touro Synagogue, in Newport, Rhode Island, the first synagogue in what became the United States, 1763
Napoleon defeats the Russians and Austrians at Austerlitz, 1805
The first Savings bank in the US opens, the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, 1816
US President James Monroe declares his "Monroe Doctrine", 1823
US President James K. Polk declares it is the "Manifest Destiny" of the US to expand into the West, 1845
Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the US, in NYC, 1867
King Camp Gillette patents the safety razor, 1901
Pu Yi (Hsuan-T'ung) became China's Last Emperor at age 2, 1908
Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A, 1927
A team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, 1942
Riots break out in Jerusalem in response to the approval of the 1947 UN Partition Plan, 1947
The Granma yacht reaches the shores of Cuba's Oriente province and Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution, 1956
Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm Al Quwain form the United Arab Emirates, 1971
Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state, 1988
A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins the first free all-German elections since 1932, 1990
The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive, 1999
NASA announces finding an arsenic based life form on Earth, 2010