Tag: Christmas

Christmas Eve–2017

It is the day before Christmas and all through the house….the presents are wrapped and under the tree…..family members are starting to arrive for the big day…..food has been bought and waiting for the stove…..now what to do?  Gather the family…….Pop some popcorn and settle back and watch a Christmas classic….”It’s A Wonderful Life”.

Did you know that in 1946 the FBI was thinking that the movie offered up some hidden “Communist” ideals?

As the Smithsonian Magazine points out, an unnamed FBI agent in 1946 filed a report after watching the film, in which he called the movie “entertaining,” but warned of that it contained themes and tropes that could be used to promote communism.

According to scholar John A. Noakes, the agent identified “a malignant undercurrent in the film” that he alleged “employed two common tricks used by Communists to inject propaganda into the film.”

It’s A Wonderful Life bombed at the box office before becoming a Christmas classic. Along the way, it also caught the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The movie’s preview showing at New York’s Globe Theater took place on this day in 1946, a day before the movie opened to the public. “Though it has become a quintessential American classic, It’s a Wonderful Life was not an immediate hit with audiences,” writes Jennifer M. Wood for Mental Floss. The film’s producer and director, Frank Capra, ended up $25,000 in debt. In spite of this, Capra said he thought the tale of a suicidal man and his guardian angel was “the greatest film I ever made.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/weird-story-fbi-and-its-wonderful-life-180967587/

That is my gift to my readers a little history and nostalgia….

Have a great day my friends…..chuq

Closing Thought–23Dec17

It is Saturday and I will post just a closing thought…..It is a couple of days before the Big Day which is just around the corner…….

As Christmas approaches keep in mind that there are some that have neither home nor food on this season of joy…..and it is getting worse…….

The nation’s homeless population increased this year for the first time since 2010, driven by a surge in the number of people living on the streets in Los Angeles and other West Coast cities. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development released its annual Point-in-Time count Wednesday, a report that showed nearly 554,000 homeless people across the country during local tallies conducted in January, per the AP. That figure is up nearly 1% from 2016. Of that total, 193,000 people had no access to nightly shelter and instead were staying in vehicles, tents, the streets, and other places considered uninhabitable. The unsheltered figure is up by more than 9% compared with two years ago.

Increases are higher in several West Coast cities, where the explosion in homelessness has prompted at least 10 city and county governments to declare states of emergency since 2015. City officials, homeless advocates, and those living on the streets point to a main culprit: the region’s booming economy. Rents have soared beyond affordability for many lower-wage workers who until just a few years ago could typically find a place to stay. While the overall homeless population in California, Oregon, and Washington grew by 14% over the past two years, the part of that population considered unsheltered climbed 23%, to 108,000. That’s in part due a shortage of affordable housing. The AP has more.

This thieving bastard that some Americans helped elect has given homeless vets a Christmas present early…..

Donald Trump, from the outset, cast himself as a champion of veterans, and promised that he would improve veterans care as president.

But the toxic right-wing ideology of Trump and his administration has nonetheless seeped into the way they take care of and prioritize veterans.

According to Politico, a popular program to house homeless veterans is on the chopping block — and at the worst possible moment:

Four days after Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin held a big Washington event to tout the Trump administration’s promise to house all homeless vets, the agency did an about-face, telling advocates it was pulling resources from a major housing program.

The VA said it was essentially ending a special $460 million program that has dramatically reduced homelessness among chronically sick and vulnerable veterans. Instead, the money would go to local VA hospitals that can use it as they like, as long as they show evidence of dealing with homelessness.

Anger exploded on a Dec. 1 call that was arranged by Shulkin’s Advisory Committee on Homeless Veterans to explain the move. Advocates for veterans, state officials and even officials from HUD, which co-sponsors the program, attacked the decision, according to five people who were on the call.

Donate your time or to a food bank or homeless shelter…..anything that can help make this season a little better for those that have nothing.

Remember what the spirit of the holiday is all about…..and try to help when you can.

Peace and joy

Closing Thought–22Dec17

Happy Holidays!  Or do you prefer Merry Christmas?  Why?

It is that time of the year when there will be that silly notion that there is a war on Christmas…..a story that flows around the net because Right wings are just plain moronic.

Seriously…..what does it matter if people say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?  As long as people truly mean it then it matters not….that is unless you watch FOX News then you probably are foaming at the mouth about now……

How about a little history to go with your day…..(of course you knew that history lesson was lurking in my words, right?)…..

It’s the most wonderful fight of the year: the annual tussle between Christians who bravely defend “Merry Christmas” and the godless liberals who want to impose “Happy Holidays” on all of us. Or so the story goes on talk radio. But while President Trump promises to restore “Merry Christmas” to American life, those who insist on using the phrase as a sort of flag for conservative Christian culture misunderstand its history. Rather than religious, its origins are secular and commercial, even profane.

For most of its history, the Christian church regarded Christmas as a small event on its calendar not requiring much observation. Puritans in England and later the American colonies went one step further, banning the holiday altogether since they could find no biblical support for celebrating the day. As the historian Stephen Nissenbaum has explained, the Puritans imposed fines on anyone caught celebrating and designated Christmas as a working day. These strict rules were necessary since so many men and women engaged in the drunken carousing that accompanied winter solstice festivities, an ancient tradition that the church had failed to stamp out when it appropriated Dec. 25 as a Christian holiday.

Read on…….

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-young-merry-christmas-origins-20171222-story.html

Hope everyone has a evening and a great weekend….see ya later…..chuq

Christmas–2016

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays whichever they prefer…..

It is a time for joy and family….the only draw back is that people are so busy this time of year that the readership slips a bit…but it is to be expected….so many things to do and so little time….

I am still considering the possibility of a podcast for IST and I would like to hear from my followers what they think of the idea.

This will be my only post today….nothing major to be said or written……

I hope everyone has a great day….don’t eat too much and do not let crazy uncle Bob get under your skin….hide the booze…he will eventually fall asleep and then he will be rendered harmless.

I also want to thank all those who have participated in IST….your participation is a great gift from you to me and I appreciate you loyalty and your comments.

Thank you…..something I cannot say enough or too often.

Have fun…….enjoy family….I will return tomorrow.

Peace and love….my friends.  Hoping you have a great Christmas……

Christmas Eve Post–2016

It is Christmas Eve and I would like to share the historic and archaeologic finds of this past year…..gifts to extend our knowledge of our ancestors.

We’ve learned quite a bit about the past in the past 12 months. Heritage Daily rounds up the top archaeological discoveries of 2016, from an ancient Greek city to a shrine dedicated to a Viking king:

  1. A well-preserved Bronze Age settlement of wooden homes on stilts in England
  2. The ancient Greek city of Vlochós, which hit its peak around 2,400 years ago
  3. A 1,600-year-old shipwreck in Caesarea, Israel
  4. A lost city first established 5,000 years ago in Iraq
  5. An Iron Age monument built 2,500 years ago in Britain
  6. A shrine to a Viking saint-king in Norway
  7. Structures in a French cave likely made by Neanderthals 176,500 years ago

Click for the full list, which includes the mummy of an Egyptian queen.

Some great finds but it does not include some far more reaching discoveries….after years of speculation it is now confirmed….some dinosaurs had feathers.

Researchers were perusing an amber market in Myanmar when they stumbled across a truly extraordinary specimen, National Geographic reports. Trapped inside a golden piece of amber—already partially shaped to be sold as jewelry—was a fully feathered section of a dinosaur’s tail. According to the Los Angeles Times, the person selling the amber thought it was some kind of plant. While scientists have found evidence of feathered dinosaurs, not to mention feathered prehistoric birds, this piece of amber is the first time feathers have been found perfectly preserved and attached to what is unmistakably a dinosaur. The find was published Thursday in Current Biology.

The tail section is believed to belong to a young, sparrow-sized coelurosaur that lived 99 million years ago. Researchers know the tail belongs to a dinosaur because of its articulated vertebrae; birds have vertebrae that are fused together. And because of the way the features are structured, researchers believe they were useless for flight. It remains unclear exactly what purpose the feathers served, though researchers theorize dinosaurs may have used them for camouflage, regulating their body heat, or signaling to other animals. Now that researchers can see how feathers actually appeared on a dinosaur’s body, they hope to learn how they evolved for flight in modern-day birds. They also believe that, given access to Myanmar’s amber mines, they may one day find a whole preserved dinosaur.

Finally another find of our first ancestors…..Lucy and the bunch…..

Famous footprints of nearly 3.7-million-year-old hominids, found in 1976 at Tanzania’s Laetoli site, now have sizable new neighbors.

While excavating small pits in 2015 to evaluate the impact of a proposed field museum at Laetoli, researchers uncovered comparably ancient hominid footprints about 150 meters from the original discoveries. The new finds reveal a vast range of body sizes for ancient members of the human evolutionary family, reports an international team led by archaeologists Fidelis Masao and Elgidius Ichumbaki, both of the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

Source: New footprint finds suggest range of body sizes for Lucy’s species | Science News

Some great finds to extend our knowledge of our ancestors……

Go now and start enjoying your Christmas break from school or work or just life…..

I thank everyone for their loyalty and their comments it has been a good year…..so….Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays (whichever you prefer)…..

Peace!  Out!

Closing Thought–23Dec16

Repent!  The End Is Near!

There have been many horrible situations this past year but as we draw closer to the celebration of Christmas the absolute worst situation is evolving….could possibly bring the end of civilization as we know it……

Your favorite whipped desserts might be a little less whipped this holiday. A deadly explosion back in August at a nitrous oxide plant home to North America’s largest producer means the gas used in aerosol toppings is in short supply, reports the Chicago Tribune. Reddi-wip—with $278 million in annual sales—is just one of the products affected, with maker Conagra Brands claiming it won’t be producing its usual supply of the whipped topping until February, per the Boston Globe. “It’s in stores now, but we’re encouraging people to buy it early,” a rep says. “There will be a shortage if people buy at the typical levels during the holidays.”

It isn’t clear what caused two gas tankers and a nitrous oxide holding tank to explode at Airgas’ plant in Contonment, Fla., killing a worker. Production is back to normal while an investigation continues, but Airgas is focused on getting nitrous oxide—also a general anesthetic—to medical customers before food manufacturers, reports the Los Angeles Times. That doesn’t mean your holiday pies and frothy drinks must go without whipped cream. Popular Science notes it’s possible to survive “the Great Whipped Cream Shortage of 2016” simply by making your own using heavy whipping cream and elbow grease.

This has made the national news…so we know this must be a life changing occurrence….can we survive as a civilization with this apocalypse hanging over our heads?

Damn!  This is becoming a pathetic society!

May all my friends have a safe holiday and a wealth of love and enjoyment.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good day!

Merry Christmas–2015

merry christmas 4

Or if you prefer…….which I never understood the silliness wrapped around this…….

The day of days that every kid alive has waited on all year…..is finally here and their wishes and hopes can be a miracle…..

candles and nuts at christmas

This will be my only post today for the most obvious of reasons….I want to spend the day with my granddaughter and my lady love, daughter and son-in-law…..we will be dining on turkey, my fabulous dressing, peas, yams, green bean casserole (my daughter’s fave) cranberry sauce and french bread and a lovely Spanish Rose wine…..and my daughter’s creme brule, it is to die for……

I would like to thank everyone for their continuing support of IST and I sincerely wish that everyone has a joyous day and all your wishes come true….you guys have helped make this a great year for this little blog…..I truly appreciate it.

I will return tomorrow and we can start up again…..until then….have a day, my friends.

A little humor before I go……this is the dumbest argument since paper or plastic……..

Embedded image permalink

Merry Christmas to all and to all a great day!

Merry Christmas–2014

Well it is that time of year……for me it is a season that I would prefer to live without…..but it is a time of happiness and joy for most….as it should be.

This will be my only post of the day….I much prefer spending time with my granddaughter….she is my joy and my confidant…..

I want to wish all my followers and commenters a very special day filled with fun, food, family and for most football.  Me?  I will eat and most likely argue anthropology with my daughter…..good times and wonderful family……

May you all have all the joy and happiness this season can bring……we will be back to work tomorrow…..and I will return to my normally cynical self….that we all know and love, right?  LOL

Merry Christmas to all….and to all a very special THANK YOU!

Merry Christmas: A Message

Today is the big day….a day of joy and family and friends….a time when we look back at our year and see the things we accomplished and the things that we may have left undone or unsaid….a day of food, fun and family…..I want to take a moment to write a brief note to all my followers……I read this op-ed an thought it would make a great closing message……

Christmas has become the most wonderful time of year … for heated political debate, especially of the “War on Christmas” or First Amendment variety. It’s “when all the ideologues get a little extra outrage or victimization in their stockings,” writes Michael Gerson in the Washington Post. This year “is all the more poignant in the light of a fallen reality-television star who manufactures duck calls and culture war imbroglios.” Such controversies are really centered on power, Gerson says. “Who has the ability to define and enforce the boundaries of the acceptable?” But the story of Jesus’ birth and life turns traditional ideas of power upside down. “If the deity was born as an outcast, it is impossible to view or treat outcasts in quite the same way,” Gerson notes. “A God who fled as a refugee, preferred the company of fishermen and died as an accused criminal will influence our disposition toward refugees, the poor and those in prison.” When we look to score political victories around Christmas, let’s remember that Christianity is about “identifying with the vulnerable and dependent. Living for others,” Gerson notes. “The author of this creed sought a different victory than politics brings—the kind that ends all selfish victories.” Click for his full column.

Thank you all for your support and your patronage…..it is the one thing that has made my year a success and a joy…….today will be a day of rest and relaxation for the old professor….but never fear…the old opinionated SOB will return tomorrow just as fired up as always…………

Enjoy your day ….fun, food, football and family…it gets NO better than that…..Merry Christmas everyone…….