12/18-21/2008
Thursday (12-18):
Bake Cookies Day
National Roast Suckling Pig Day
Wear A Plunger On Your Head Day
International Migrants Day.
Friday (12-19):
Oatmeal Muffin Day
Look for an Evergreen Day
Underdog Day
Saturday (12-20):
Go Caroling Day
Sacagawea Day (anniversary of her death in 1812)She was the Indian guide /interpreter for the Lewis and Clark expedition and is credited with its success. She’s now on the U-S gold dollar coin.
It’s also Mudd day –when you’re supposed to consider the fate of Dr Samuel Mudd, who was sentenced to life in jail after giving aid to John Wilkes Booth, who was in disguise and fleeing for his life after shooting President Lincoln. He was actually jailed for four years before being pardoned by President Johnson. I wonder if this is where the old saying “Your name is mudd” comes from.
The U-S bought more than a million square miles from France for around $15-million in cash, or $20 bucks a square mile on this date in 1803. We now know it as the Louisiana Purchase, and most people believe it was the greatest real estate deal ever.
Sunday: (12-21):
Hannukah begins at sunset.
Winter officially begins (Winter solstice) at 7:04 am. It’s also the shortest day of the year –nine hours and 28 minutes– and the longest night of the year.
Don’t Be A Scrooge Day
Flashlight Day
Forefathers’ Day anniversary of Plymouth Rock landing, 1620.
Humbug Day
World Peace Day
National Haiku Poetry Day.
On this day in 1999, Neli van der Hoven and Wanderley Costa de Silvaa completed the world’s longest kiss. They puckered up and locked lips in the Netherlands for 34 hours, 11 minutes and 37 seconds. They also won the first place prize of close to $7-thousand. (FYI: the old record was 30 hours, 45 minutes). Wonder if it was under the mistletoe.
On this day in 1882, for the first time, electric lights replaced candles on Christmas trees. It was Tom Edison that strung together the first lights.
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Making holiday cookies and they aren’t coming out like mom or grandma’s did?? The reason could be…..the butter!
“It seems that home bakers don’t always follow instructions precisely,” said Amy Scherber, the owner of Amy’s Bread stores in Manhattan.
The most common mistakes made by home bakers, professionals say, have to do with the care and handling of one ingredient: butter. Creaming butter correctly, keeping butter doughs cold, and starting with fresh, good-tasting butter are vital details that professionals take for granted, and home bakers often miss. Read the full, highly technical but interesting article here.
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Great pictures of kids scard of santa!
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Ever make a gingerbread house? I did, and my friend and I got frosting on the ceiling. And I still really don’t know how. Anyway, check out these interesting houses.
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A Christmas Carol is actually the short title for A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. It has been made into countless theater productions and films.
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An NYU graduate student created a pregnancy belt worn by his wife that notifies him via Twitter whenever their unborn baby kicks inside the womb. The New York Daily News reported that small sensors attached directly to the band transmit small but detectable voltages when they are triggered by movement underneath and a micro-controller wirelessly transmits the signals out to the Internet. Corey Menscher told the paper, “I have a vibrating device in my pocket at all times. Every time the baby kicks, it uploads a message to the server and I get a text message on my phone as well.”
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