Sherman A1
Sherman A1's JournalDaily Holidays - December 22
National Date Nut Bread Day Date Walnut Bread is a very nice tea bread bursting with the flavor of sweet dates and crunchy walnuts. Jean Anderson tells us in her book 'The American Century Cookbook' that the first recipes for this bread began to appear in the 1920s, and it was so popular in the 1930s that it was used to make tea sandwiches. In fact, these tea sandwiches are so delicious you may want to try them. Take two thin slices of your Date and Walnut Bread and sandwich them together with a layer of cream cheese or butter. Then cut the bread into fingers, squares or triangles.
Read more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/DateWalnutBread.html#ixzz3MbunPTOr
National Haiku Poetry Day This article is about the Japanese poetic form. For haiku poetry written in English, see Haiku in English. For other uses, see Haiku (disambiguation).
Haiku (俳句, About this sound listen (help·info), haikai verse?) (plural: same or haikus) is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:
The essence of haiku is "cutting" (kiru).[1] This is often represented by the juxtaposition of two images or ideas and a kireji ("cutting word"
between them,[2] a kind of verbal punctuation mark which signals the moment of separation and colors the manner in which the juxtaposed elements are related.
Traditional haiku consist of 17 on (also known as morae), in three phrases of 5, 7 and 5 on respectively.[3]
A kigo (seasonal reference), usually drawn from a saijiki, an extensive but defined list of such words.
Modern Japanese haiku (現代俳句 gendai-haiku?) are increasingly unlikely to follow the tradition of 17 on or to take nature as their subject, but the use of juxtaposition continues to be honored in both traditional and modern haiku.[4] There is a common, although relatively recent, perception that the images juxtaposed must be directly observed everyday objects or occurrences.[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku
http://www.famousbirthdays.com/december22.html
USS Missouri Buttermilk Pie
This recipe for this creamy, pecan-custard pie takes its name from the battleship Missouri, where it was said to be served to President Harry Truman. When the president requested the recipe, the chief steward refused, but decided to share it after retiring in 1970.
The recipe was submitted by a Columbia, Missouri, reader for a Midwest Living® pie contest. "I fix it a lot for company," says the reader. "Almost everybody asks for the recipe after they try it."
http://www.midwestliving.com/food/desserts/pie-recipes/?page=4
Missouri Botanical Garden
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The Japanese Garden at MoBot August 2012
Daily Holidays - December 21
Kiwi Fruit Day
here's nothing on earth like kiwifruit. Brown and fuzzy on the outside, green and zesty on the inside — kiwifruit is a festival of flavor for those adventurous enough to try it. One sweet/tart taste of California Kiwifruit, and most first-time tasters become lifetime fans! This is the website for those fans, as well as the people who grow, ship and sell California Kiwifruit. We've put the wild world of kiwifruit at your virtual fingertips. Enjoy your stay and check back often as California Kiwifruit continues winning new converts! http://www.kiwifruit.org
Crossword Puzzle Day
Are you among those who enjoy solving crossword puzzles? If yes, have you ever pondered over the history of this game? If you have not, then it would interest you to know more about December, 21: Crossword puzzle day and why it is being celebrated the globally. This wonderful game is known in history to have been invented by a New York journalist, English-born Arthur Wynne in the year, 1913. This man, if still alive, would have been amazed at the tempo that is being generated by the crossword puzzle not only in New York but the whole world. http://www.feinbergconsulting.com/december-21-crossword-puzzle-day/
Forefathers Day In 1769 a club was formed to honor the settlers of New Plymouth. In Thacher's History of Plymouth, Boston, 1835, he states "...seven respectable individuals, inhabitants of Plymouth, instituted a social club...which they called the Old Colony Club for the purpose of solemnizing the anniversary of the arrival of our forefathers." http://www.pilgrimjohnhowlandsociety.org/john-howland/articles/38-forefathers-day-december-21-our-day
Humbug Day
About This Holiday
December 21st has been designated as "Humbug Day." Everyone preparing for Christmas is allowed to vent his or her frustrations today with up to twelve humbugs.
http://www.imgag.com/product/full/ap/3032656/
International Dalek Remembrance Day https://www.facebook.com/InternationalDalekRemembranceDay
National Homeless Persons' Remembrance Day
The National Coalition for the Homeless, the National Consumer Advisory Board and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council encourage communities to host public events on or near December 21 remembering your neighbors who have died homeless in the past year.
These events are opportunities to come together as a community and show respect for those who have died while experiencing the tragedy of homelessness, but are also opportunities to educate. Please review the resources below for ideas and to find organizations in your community who have been involved in the past. http://www.nhchc.org/resources/consumer/homeless-persons-memorial-day/
Phileas Fogg Win A Wager Day
Winter Solstice
Yule
Yule or Yuletide ("Yule time" is a pagan religious festival observed by the historical Germanic peoples, later undergoing Christianised reformulation resulting in, the now better known, Christmastide. The earliest references to Yule are by way of indigenous Germanic month names Ærra Jéola (Before Yule) or Jiuli and Æftera Jéola (After Yule). Scholars have connected the celebration to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin and the pagan Anglo-Saxon Modranicht. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule
http://www.famousbirthdays.com/december21.html
Daily Holidays - December 20
National Fried Shrimp Day
I will never get tired of fried national food holidays, nor seafood national food holiays! So National Fried Shrimp Day is a real treat. Whether steamed, baked, or scampi-ed, shrimp is a tasty, high-protein, low-fat seafood treat, but frying the shrimp makes the little buggers especially good. There’s an art to great fried shrimp that one’s gotta master in order to really love cooking–and eating–seafood: a special blend of herbs and spices in a breading mixture, the perfect cooking time to get a crispy breaded exterior…but not too much to overcook the delicate shrimp. And when you find some great fried shrimp…you’ve got to share the wealth! http://nycfooddays.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/december-20-national-fried-shrimp-day/
National Sangria Day
A Summer Classic Celebrated in December...
If you’re looking to add a little Olé to your life, why not try that fruity wine punch named for the Spanish word sangre, which means blood. Yes, we’re talking about that deliciously crimson drink everybody loves known as sangria.
This uncomplicated mix of red wine, spirits, simple syrup and a ton of chopped, seasonal fruit has long been considered the perfect summertime tipple, a refreshing concoction to be sipped whiling away a hot afternoon or added as a pick-me-up to your patio party’s line-up of refreshing beverages.
It’s ironic then that National Sangria Day comes on December 20. But if you think about it, quaffing an alcoholic beverage filled with fresh fruit is good any time of year. http://www.nationalsangriaday.com
International Human Solidarity Day
"The world shapes a new sustainable development agenda to succeed the Millennium Development Goals, the largest anti-poverty campaign in history, by 2015. […]
Only through collective action can we address such far reaching issues as poverty and growing inequality, climate change, chronic poverty and major health challenges, such as the Ebola outbreak in West Africa."
Ban Ki-moon
Message for International Human Solidarity Day
20 December 2014
http://www.un.org/en/events/humansolidarityday/
Mudd Day Samuel Alexander Mudd I (December 20, 1833 – January 10, 1883) was an American physician who was imprisoned for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
While working as a doctor in Southern Maryland, Mudd also employed slaves on his tobacco-farm, and declared his belief in slavery as a God-given institution. The Civil War seriously damaged his business, especially when Maryland abolished slavery in 1864. At this time, he first met Booth, who was planning to kidnap Lincoln, and Mudd was seen in company with three of the conspirators. But his part in the plot, if any, remains unclear.
After assassinating Lincoln on April 14, 1865, Booth rode with co-conspirator David Herold to Mudd’s home in the early hours of the 15th for surgery on his fractured leg, before crossing into Virginia. Some time that day, Mudd must have learned of the assassination, but did not report Booth’s visit to the authorities for another 24 hours. This appeared to link him to the crime, as did his various changes of story under interrogation, and on April 26, he was arrested. A military commission found him guilty of aiding and conspiring in a murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment, escaping the death penalty by a single vote. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Mudd
http://www.famousbirthdays.com/december20.html
Daily Holidays - December 19
National Hard Candy Day
While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.
I want candy! - December 19 is National Hard Candy Day!
As if you needed another excuse to indulge in candy this holiday season, forget stuffing your stocking and start chomping on a brightly colored rainbow of hard candy.
This candy with a crunch is made by boiling syrup until it reaches 300 degrees, also known as the brittle "hard crack" stage. Once it hits said temperature, the confectionary genius rips the pan off the stove, whips in some flavoring and then pours it out to set. http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/12/19/breakfast-buffet-national-hard-candy-day/
Underdog Day
National Underdog Day is observed annually on the third Friday in December.
http://www.famousbirthdays.com/december19.html
Monopoly Was Designed to Teach the 99% About Income Inequality
In the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, a down-on-his-luck family man named Charles Darrow invented a game to entertain his friends and loved ones, using an oilcloth as a playing surface. He called the game Monopoly, and when he sold it to Parker Brothers he became fantastically rich—an inspiring Horatio Alger tale of homegrown innovation if ever there was one.
Or is it? I spent five years researching the game’s history for my new book, The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game, and found that Monopoly’s story began decades earlier, with an all-but-forgotten woman named Lizzie Magie, an artist, writer, feminist and inventor.
Magie worked as a stenographer and typist at the Dead Letter Office in Washington, D.C., a repository for the nation’s lost mail. But she also appeared in plays, and wrote poetry and short stories. In 1893, she patented a gadget that fed different-sized papers through a typewriter and allowed more type on a single page. And in 1904, Magie received a patent for an invention she called the Landlord’s Game, a square board with nine rectangular spaces on each side, set between corners labeled “Go to Jail” and “Public Park.” Players circled the board buying up railroads, collecting money and paying rent. She made up two sets of rules, “monopolist” and “anti-monopolist,” but her stated goal was to demonstrate the evils of accruing vast sums of wealth at the expense of others. A firebrand against the railroad, steel and oil monopolists of her time, she told a reporter in 1906, “In a short time, I hope a very short time, men and women will discover that they are poor because Carnegie and Rockefeller, maybe, have more than they know what to do with.”
The Landlord’s Game was sold for a while by a New York-based publisher, but it spread freely in passed-along homemade versions: among intellectuals along the Eastern Seaboard, fraternity brothers at Williams College, Quakers living in Atlantic City, writers and radicals like Upton Sinclair.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/monopoly-was-designed-teach-99-about-income-inequality-180953630/#t5o4DLC6PFLH8K6J.99
Daily Holidays - December 18
National Fruit Cake Month While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.
Love it, or love to loathe it - December is National Fruitcake Month!
So maybe you didn't manage to finish off that fruitcake Aunt Betty is always so kind to bring you for Christmas ... every single year. The good news is, you still have time to enjoy it!
Fruitcake gets its name from the variety of chopped candied fruit and nuts that stud the batter and exterior of the round. The earliest known fruitcake, discovered via an ancient Roman recipe, included pomegranate seeds, raisins and pine nuts. During the Middle Ages, innovative minds tossed preserved fruit, spices and honey into the mix. http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/12/06/national-fruitcake-month/
Answer The Telephone Like Buddy The Elf Day
https://www.facebook.com/pages/December-18th-is-International-Answer-the-Phone-like-Buddy-the-Elf-Day/157622724283075
Free Shipping Day
http://www.freeshippingday.com
National Re-gifting Day National Regifting Day[1] is an annual observance held each year on the Thursday before Christmas. Many office holiday parties are held on this day, and research shows that 40 percent[2] of office party gifts are regifted—that is, something given to someone and then re-given to another person without use. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Regifting_Day
Today's Birthdays: http://www.famousbirthdays.com/december18.html
Stems’ Florists Deck the Halls at the White House
STEMS FLORIST WORK AT THE WHITE HOUSE included the Grand Foyer and the East Hall.
Kim Brennan worked on the East Hall and Colonnade and her daughter Jenny Thomasson was a
member of the team that made the Grand Foyer into a winter wonderland.
If you’re a florist with a patriotic spirit, you might want to consider volunteering to decorate the White House next year. That’s what the mother and daughter team of Kim Brannan and Jenny Thomasson did on Dec. 4. Brannan and Thomasson are co-owners of Stems in Old Town Florissant and they were two of the four florists who represented Missouri. They were selected from more than 1,000 applicants.
Thomasson and Brannan had to keep their selection a secret for months. Finally, they were able to meet with volunteers from all over the U.S. to bring the First Lady’s dreams to life. They were also invited to a White House reception where Thomasson actually got to meet and speak with Michelle Obama.
http://www.flovalleynews.com/stems-florists-deck-the-halls-at-the-white-house
A photo for today
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Thought this might brighten the day a bit.
Sunrise Mackinac City, MI from a vacation in September of 2010.
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