December 22 - Nuts

 An interesting story here during World War II and the Battle of the Bulge, one Commander Anthony McAuliffe of the 101st Airborne was defending the village of Bastogne in Belgium.

During the battle the German sent a message suggesting they surrender.  McAuliffe replied with one word:  Nuts!

It's pretty good: 

To the German Commander.

NUTS!

The American Commander.

The German major was confused and asked the American colonel Harper who delivered it what it meant and Harper replied:  "In plain English?  Go to hell."

Speaking of nuts, it's also the National Date Nut Bread Day in the US.

Whether this has anything to do with it, or that a date nut bread is kinda like a fruitcake, or they wanted to memorialize McAuliffe's spunk... up to you.

On a special note, December 22 is also the birthday of my piping mentor, Alister Macdonald.  RIP 'Uncle' Al.

December 20 - the Wolf of the Law stands solid for life

 One of the memories that will just stay with me from teaching is when I would play Law & Order episodes for the class (hey, what else are you going go to do to teach law?) and I had this kid that would narrate only one name on the credits.

DICK WOLF

It was his thing, and everybody knew to quiet down to let him do it.

Richard Anthony Wolf is a real producer and he's turning 75 today.

Law & Order was a good show, I liked it before I used it as a school prop.

The series of events the teams go through to bring about justice.  Would be a good set up for working together and the fact that today is International Human Solidarity Day.

We should be acting as one!

Working to build a better life for all... and not just one George Bailey (although it affected a bunch of other people in his life too).

Today was the day the movie It's a Wonderful Life was first premiered in 1946.

(though it actually was released later in January... what is it about Christmas movies coming out after Christmas)

Way to go Clarence!

December 17th - Festival to celebrate a Hawk

 Way back in 497 the Romans had decided to ensure they stayed in good favour with (one of) their god, Saturn - so held a festival of Saturnalia.

Sounds like it was a heck of a party.

And a party was probably needed as 2 bike shop owners decided to build something that could fly, and in 1903 at Kittyhawk got their Wright Flyer to actually fly for a few moments for the first time.

Technology that changed the world, made us all a little closer.

December 16 - Tea flavoured chicken is a classic

 No taxation without representation!  That was the cry of the patriots as they fought back against the British Empire and led to the "Boston Tea Party" where they threw a bunch of tea into the harbour.

That happened this day in 1773.

The harbour wasn't frozen in December?

British love their tea, but the yanks love their.. chicken?  Colonel Sanders is a well known image of the south and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

He died on this day in 1980.

I still held on to the idea that he wasn't actually a real person, rather just some persona.  Guess I can be wrong some days.

Another famous image that shares an important day today is the child prodigy and a name synonymous with classical music - Ludwig van Beethoven.

He was born today in 1770.

The famous 'hard of hearing' composer started to learn at age 5, but with his hearing issues stopped performing at age 41 - yet he still went on to produce some music up until his death at age 56.

His Moonlight Sonata is still a very moving piece for me... maybe it's because it was used in Resident Evil.

December 15 - Nero's class trip to Disneyland

 I remember getting my CD burner.  It was such a cool invention, and the software we used to make these discs was called Nero... apparently a take on the fact that "Nero fiddled while Rome burned" ... Nero, as I found out was a real person who was an emperor of Rom and was there when Rom suffered the great fire.  It was said that while the city burned for a total of 10 days he 'fiddled'.  But it's kinda thought now that maybe instead of a violin type instrument, it was more likely a type of bagpipe.

Nero was born this day in 37AD.

It would have been quite the site, and I'm sure it was hard to corral people to evacuate.  Reminds me of one of my favourite sayings "like trying to herd cats".

Apparently there's a day for that too...

Who knew.

I'll bet taking the kids to a place like Disneyland would just be like that.

Walt Disney passed away this day in 1966.

And no, he wasn't cryogenically frozen - he actually was cremated.

December 14 - peeyuuu, Monkey, should have seen that coming

UPDATED - I had missed that today was the anniversary of one of my piping heroes, the truly legendary, Gordon Duncan.  He passed away on this day in 2005 at the age of 41

Going to have to go find my shirt of his xray again.

 Apparently, Monkey Day is a thing.  Created back in 2000 by a couple of art students to celebrate "all things simian".

How do you celebrate Monkey Day?  I'm guessing eating a banana.  Which, did you know that bananas are slightly radioactive?  True fact.

Something definitely radioactive to a higher degree is Plutonium.  Today was the day, in 1940, that Pu-238 was able to be isolated at the lab in Berkeley.

I love chemistry, how early chemists especially were able to look at the elements they had discovered thus far, come up with a periodic table of the elements and predict what ones should come next.

Predictions was an area that Nostradamus was famous for, and today would have been his birthday, born back in 1503.

December 13 - A Swift Chimney Sweep

 At almost 100 years of age, DIck Van Dyke is a name that's pretty well known for a wide breadth of work.

I think most of us my age would remember him as Bert the chimney sweep in Mary Poppins.

He's 96 years old today.

Also a pop star of her own era is the now 32 year old Taylor Swift.

December 9 - Schulz coulda used some Techno to not be so corrupt

 It's the holiday season, and there isn't any part of it when people are sharing their photos of their Christmas trees that are up that someone doesn't draw comparison to a "Charlie Brown tree"... a pull from one of the true items of the zeitgeist - the scraggly tree from A Charlie Brown Christmas with it's telltale tunes from Vince Guaraldi.

It came out on this day in 1965.

Classic... yet, I can't remember the last time I watched it.

The Peanuts was such a wholesome bunch, lots of religious overtones, I bet they were the furthest thing from corrupt.  Which is good as today is International Anti-Corruption Day.

A day created in 2003 by the UN to help raise awareness of those that jeopardize the rule of law.

To help celebrate some un-corruptedness, why not party out with some banging techno as it's also World Techno Day.

Get your Roxbury moves on!

December 8th - Brownies for Antarctica

 Okay, so usually I try to find some interesting 'national day' or birthday... but this one was just too good to pass up.

On this day... in Antarctica ... in 2013 a band played there, making it the first one to ever play a concert on all 7 continents.

That band was...

Metallica.

How bizarre.

Not bizarre are brownies, they are a weakness and the US is celebrating them with National Brownie Day.

December 7 - Try to Trick a Fly

 It's World Trick Shot Day!  

Show off some of those skills.  I'm sure it'd make a good TikTok (or that's how I think that platform works).

Those Harlem Globe Trotters who really popularized the concept, sure could do some cool stuff and would do some real high flying shots.

Speaking of high flying, it's International Civil Aviation Day.

Set up in 1996 by the UN to recognize the importance of aviation in our daily lives.  Getting to a conference, shipping  a product... it's really made our world a smaller place.

December 6 - St. Nick opposes violence against women

 No, not that St. Nick, Saint Nicholas, who died on this day in 343AD.

Apparently he did some miracles.

Wholly the opposite of miracles was the terrible massacre at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989.

In honour of the 10 women killed that day, Canada instituted the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.  Bit of a mouthful, but oh so important.

December 2 - Britney's 40, Thrilling

 The King of Pop released the infamous video THRILLER.

I think everyone of my age can probably do that dance, or a close approximation of it.

The Queen of Pop from another era was Britney Spears - and she turns 40 today.

Feel old yet?

December 1 - Ford has aides

 In 1988 today was the first observance of World AIDS Day.

Scary when you think about how bad it was, and it's still around.

Aid also has other meaning, which South Park poked at in an episodes about how Jarrett has 'aides'.

The idea of something helping out each other is probably what inspired Ford to develop the moving assembly line - the first of its kind was developed for the Ford Model T on this day in 1913.

November 30th - Andrew sits on a stone

 Today is a very interesting day for Scots.

First up, most well known is the fact that today is "St. Andrew's Day".

A day for feasting and celebrating the patron saint of Scotland, making it the de facto National Day for Scotland.

Fly the saltire (the cross of St. Andrew), and it's a nice prelude to the upcoming Hogmanay, then Burn's Night.

Another peculiar quirk for today as it relates to Scotland is that today was the day in 1996 that the Stone of Scone was returned to Scotland.

The Stone of Destiny, a bunch of neat history there.  Apparently, it was the 'pillow' of some saint or other who had a vision, or the first king of the Scots was the crowned while sitting on it.  

Kenneth MacAlpin (who's somewhere away back in my own family tree) had brought the stone to Scone.

Now, the Brits had stolen the stone during Edward I's invasions in Scotland in 1296 and brought it to eventually incorporate it into the Coronation Chair.

There it sat until about 1950 when 4 plucky Scots stole it and tried to bring it home... but didn't last.  Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953 had the stone under the chair.  That is if you believe that it was recovered at all... I think there was a Hamish MacBeth episode that covered this.

But this day in 1996 it was announced that the stone would officially return home.  Started it's resting place at Edinburgh castle, but is now available for viewing in the Perth City Hall.

November 29 - Listening to Pong Championships on Phonograph

 The very first game I can remember was my dad's sister bringing over a ColecoVision and playing pong.

Obviously, it was many years after the game was introduced as it was first released on November 29th, 1972 by Atari.

Another invention that shares this date is the phonograph, was first demonstrated on this day in 1877.

The patent was granted to Edison in February of the following year.

November 26 - Snoopy Plays Hockey

 On this day in 1917 the National Hockey League was formed.

4 Canadian teams battling it out.  Taking 7 years before we let a yankee team in!

In 1922 the creator of Peanuts was born - Charles M. Schulz.

I have a lot of memories as a kid reading Peanuts, and even had the Snoopy that had the different outfits!

November 25 - Hit Homers, not Women

 November 25th is known as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.  I won't say any more about that as it's as serious as it can be.

Just don't hit women.

Be like Joe DiMaggio and hit home runs instead.  He would have been 107 years old today.

November 24 - Freddie goes over the wire

 On this day in 1874 the first patent on barbed wire was granted to Joseph Farwell Glidden (he had submitted it October 27 of the previous year).

Now, his was essentially the patent on the manufacture, as there were patents back in 1867.

Someone who could really belt it out, as if they had fallen on barbed wire, was Freddie Mercury.  His wire was unfortunately cut short on this day in 1991.

November 23 - Doctor Who Censored Willie's Espresso

 Ooooo-weee-ooooh.  Woosh woosh...

If you're a geek, you know that sound and start running to find a Police Box.  The first time it got to appear was on this day in 1963 with William Hartnell as the first Doctor in the episode "An Unearthly Child".

Man, what a ride that show has been over the years.

Another wild ride, in a similarly shaped device was when Charlie won the Chocolate Factory and the elevator shot around in Willie Wonka's factory.

The book was written by Roald Dahl, who also wrote other kids books like James and the Giant Peach.  He passed away today in 1990 (aged 74).

Some interesting stories for sure, and with all the requests lately to remove books, that would be against John Milton's wishes of no censorship.  His Aeropagitica was released on this day in 1644.

We should all just chill and relax with a nice cuppa... personally, I like a good espresso.

In the US it's National Espresso Day.