Holiday Humor

To do list for Thanksgiving week:

1. Get out the meat grinder and learn to finally make that home made sausage for the stuffing.

2. Make special name place cards for the meal, as a festive touch.

3. Have head examined.

*******

A young boy greets the Thanksgiving guests as they come through the door with, "You might not want to expect much.  When we went to church last Sunday, and my dad told the pastor that my mom is a pagan.  He says she serves burnt offerings for dinner!"

*******

As the family gathers at the Thanksgiving table, one young boy barely sits down before he begins shoveling food in with great gusto.

"Son!  Stop!" says his father.  "Don't you know we have to pray first?"

"No, we don't!" the youngster answers.  "Remember, it's not like we're at home.  Grandma knows how to cook!"

Today is:

Banquet for Monkeys / Monkey Buffet Festival -- Khmer Ruins of Lop Buri, Thailand (600 monkeys are served lunch while humans get to watch; some describe it as a riot but without the police)

Brumalia -- Byzantine Empire celebration of Dyonisus and New Wine Festival; until the solstice

Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day -- there used to be a website associated with this day, but it closed; that's no reason for you not to celebrate your uniqueness!

Celebration of Christ The King -- Christian (final Sunday of the Ecclesiastical Year) related observance
     Stir Up Sunday -- the day to get your Christmas plum pudding started

Celtic Tree Month Ruish (Elder) begins

D.B. Cooper Day -- anniversary of the 1971 hijacking

Discovery Day -- Tasmania (by Abel Tasman in 1642)

Evolution Day -- On the Origin of Species published this day in 1859

Feast of the Martyrs of Vietnam -- Roman Catholic Church

Guru Tegh Bahadur Martyrdom - Sikh

Handel's Messiah Sing-Along -- East Room of the Nixon Library, Yorba Linda, CA, US (two seatings available for this beautiful and enjoyable event, singing along with a master choir and orchestra)

John F. Kennedy Day -- MA, US

Lachit Divas -- Assam, India

Mother Goose Parade Day -- El Cajon, CA, US (kicking off the holiday season with good, family fun)

National Farm-City Week -- US (on the week of Thanksgiving, remember that it's the farmers who supply your celebratory foods)

National Sardines Day -- wonder how this would go over next to the turkey today?

Persephone Day (a/k/a Kore -- Ancient Greek Calendar (celebration of her as wheel goddess of the underworld; date approximate, but she is often associated with St. Catherine)

Ragtime Day -- birth anniversary of Scott Joplin

St. Colman of Cloyne's Day (Patron of Cloyne, Ireland)

St. Joachim Ho's Day -- a Martyr of China

St. Mary of Cordoba's Day (Patron of martyrs)

Teacher's Day -- Turkey

Third Bash of the Tree-Toppers -- Fairy Calendar (fairy creatures who don't believe in "one" or "two", so start counting at three)

Totensonntag/Ewigkeitssonntag -- Germany (Sunday of the Dead/Eternity Sunday; a general celebration and memorial of all who have died, decreed to be celebrated in Lutheran Churches by King Frederick William III of Prussia in 1816)

Use Even If Seal is Broken Day -- internet generated; observe at your own risk, always!

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:

Katherine Heigl, 1978
Dwight Schultz, 1947
William F. Buckley, Jr., 1925
Charles "Lucky" Luciano, 1897
Dale Carnegie, 1888
Scott Joplin, 1868
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864
Bat Masterson, 1853
Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1849
Bram Stoker, 1847
Zachary Taylor, 1784
Charles Theodore Pachelbel, 1690


Debuting/Premiering Today:

Softball, as a sport, invented this day as a spur of the moment game at the Farragut Boat Club in Chicago, IL, US, 1887


Today in History:

Theodosius I makes his formal entry into Constantinople, 380
Rabbi Nathan ben Yehiel of Rome completes his Talmudic dictionary, 1105
The Thames River freezes, 1434
First observation of transit of Venus occurred (only 2, record event), 1639
Abel Janzoon Tasman becomes the first European to see Van Damien's Land, later renamed Tasmania, 1642
First Lutheran pastor ordained in America, Justus Falckner at Philadelphia, 1703
Mt. Vesuvius erupts, 1759
Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species", 1859
Luik-Visé-Maastricht railway opens, 1861
Joseph F Glidden patents his improved barbed wire, 1874
The first US absentee voting law enacted by Vermont, 1896
Clyde Coleman of NYC patents automobile electric starter, 1903
Radio Belgium makes its first transmission, 1923
The first woman pilot on a transcontinental air flight, Miss Ruth Nichols (Mineola, NY to Calif), in a Lockheed-Vega, took 7 days, 1930
In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens, 1932
Lee Harvey Oswald is murdered by Jack Ruby, 1963
During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (AKA D. B. Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money, and is never seen again, 1971
A national speed limit is imposed on the Autobahn in Germany due to the 1973 oil crisis; it lasts only four months, 1973
The communist party resigns in Czechoslovakia, 1989
By a margin of only 50.28% t 49.72%, Ireland votes to end the 70 year old ban on divorce, 1995