By any other non-prescription name...

Every few years, my youngest brother, the kids' Uncle J, ends up with his birthday being on the same day as Thanksgiving.

It happened this year, so we had an extra reason to celebrate.

He had already celebrated, though.  The night before, his friends had taken him out for the evening.  As he described it later, it started as table service at one place, which means a whole bottle for the table and at that point just him and one friend, and ended up being several friends and shots with the band, and anyway, for these people, there's no such thing as enough.

Despite his pleas to his friends that he couldn't show up at Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving hung over, we could certainly tell he wasn't at his best.

A few minutes after arriving, he said, "I wish Ms. Sheryl was here!  When I'd get like this, she'd give me Anaprox and it always helped.  It was fast, too!"

"Anaprox?" Grandpa had overheard.  "That's nothing but naproxen, and I have some."

 

"Anaprox is naproxen?" Uncle J said incredulously.

"It's the same medicine, just prescription strength," Grandpa said.

"So a prescription dose would be four?" Uncle J asked.

"Yes, but you take two first, and if it doesn't help, a bit later you take two more," the always cautious Grandpa noted, at which Uncle J flashed the rest of us a look that said he would down four of the suckers faster than you could say "I drank too much last night!"

"Oh, Anaprox!  This is wonderful!  Just give me ten minutes and I'll be a new man!" Uncle J said after Grandpa left the room.

Indeed he was, and i think he had a happy birthday.  Although i still think of him as our turkey born on Turkey Day, especially for going out with those friends.  He's known them since they were all young teens, and they are now nearer 50 than 40, and they may have families and jobs and responsibilities, but they really haven't changed much.

Happy Birthday, Uncle J.  Remember your friends don't mean any harm, but they might do some anyway.

Today is:

Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Baha -- Baha'i

Banquet for Monkeys / Monkey Buffet Festival -- Khmer Ruins of Lop Buri, Thailand (about 3,000 monkeys are served lunch while humans get to watch; some describe it as a riot but without the police) 

ClauWau: Santa Claus World Championship -- Samnaun, Switzerland (Santa Claus aspirants compete in in such things as the chimney climb with toys, a geography bee, and the sledge race with timed gift giving to be crowned the world champion Santa)

Decorate Your Dog Day -- supposedly to get him/her into the holiday spirit; but please, don't

Feast of the Holy Sovereigns -- Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii (in honor of King Kamehama IV and Queen Emma, the founders of the Anglican Church of Hawaii

Flag Day -- Kosovo

Guadalajara International Book Fair -- Guadalajara, Mexico (through Dec. 6)

Holodomor Remembrance Day -- international commemoration of the Death By Hunger Genocide in Ukraine

Independence Day -- Albania(1912); East Timor(1975); Mauritania(1960)

Independencia de Panama de Espana -- Panama(Independence from Spain Day, 1821)

International Aura Awareness Day -- to increase the awareness of the human energy body, or aura 
 
Lantern Light Tours begin -- Mystic Seaport, CT, US (walking tour of performances showing Christmas past, on various dates through the month)

Light of the World Christmas Pageant -- Minden, DE, US (pageant and lighting up the downtown square; also tomorrow and next Sunday)

Make Your Own Head Day -- meaning an art project model or drawing, in any medium; have fun with this one!

Mungabareena Ngan-Girra Festival -- Albury area, NSW, Australia (formerly called the Bogong Moth Festival, now an indigenous cultural showcase)

National French Toast Day

Red Planet Day -- on the anniversary of the 1964 liftoff of Mariner 4, the first successful mission to Mars

Republic Day -- Chad; Republic of the Congo

Royal Society Day -- one of the world's oldest scientific academies, established this day in 1660

Runic Half Month of Is begins (stasis)

Small Business Saturday -- encouraging everyone to patronize local businesses for your holiday shopping

St. Catherine Laboure's Day -- promulgator of the Miraculous Medal

St. Stephen the Younger's Day` (Patron of coin collectors, numismatists, smelters)

Swine Time Festival --  Climax, Georgia, US (Come on out and join the fun, the first Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Contests & Events include best dressed pig, corn shucking, hog calling, eating chitterlings, pig racing, syrup making, baby crawling and the greased pig chase!)

Territorial Christmas Celebrations -- Guthrie, OK, US (old time fun this weekend and through Dec. 19)



Birthdays Today:

Ryan Kwanten, 1976
Anna Nicole Smith, 1967
Jon Stewart, 1962
Judd Nelson, 1959
S. Epatha Merkerson, 1952
Ed Harris, 1950
Alexander Godunov, 1949
Paul Shaffer, 1949
Joe Dante, 1946
Randy Newman, 1943
Berry Gordy, Jr., 1929
Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1908
Charles H. Alston, 1907
Brooks Atkinson, 1894
William Blake, 1757
Jean Baptiste Lully, 1632
John Bunyan, 1628


Debuting/Prem'iering Today:
 
"Look Homeward, Angel"(Play), 1957
"The Grand Ole Opry"(Radio), 1925
Skywriting(as an advertising medium), 1922*



Today in History:

Skanderbeg and his forces liberate Kruja in Middle Albania and raise the Albanian flag, 1443
Ferdinand Magellan and his men become the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean, 1520
The Times in London is for the first time printed by automatic, steam powered presses built by the German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, signaling the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience, 1814
Ka Lahui: Hawaiian Independence Day - The Kingdom of Hawaii is officially recognized by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation, 1843
Women vote in a national election for the first time in the New Zealand general election, 1893
US-born Lady Astor becomes the first female member of British Parliament, 1919
Capt Cyril Turner of the RAF gives 1st skywriting exhibition in NYC; Turner spelled out "Hello USA. Call Vanderbilt 7200." 47,000 called, 1922 
The first Polaroid Camera is sold, 1948
Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French Community, 1958
The first pulsar star is discovered by Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish, 1968
Norway votes against joining the European Union, 1994
Wikileaks releases 250,000 classified documents and sensitive national security information sent by U.S. embassies, 2010


*The ad men said it wouldn't work, but John Savage demonstrated it by skywriting "Hello USA call Vanderbilt 7200" over New York City and generating over 47,000 calls to that number!