Lurking in the murky depths of many people’s wardrobes is a colorful, brash and (in most cases) highly embarrassing novelty Christmas jumper which, were it not for Ugly Christmas Sweater Day, would probably never see the light of day. Launched in 2011, this annual celebration, which is growing in popularity every year among adults and children, is not simply an excuse to parade humiliatingly-unfashionable seasonal knitwear featuring Rudolph, Christmas puddings and Frosty the Snowman; it is a light-hearted and enjoyable fundraising event with a serious aim in aid of Save the Children.
In schools, colleges and offices Christmas jumpers are donned to raise money for the global charity that works to combat premature death among children from easily preventable diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia, and whose mission is clinically summed-up in the slogan ‘No Child Born to Die’.
Word of the Day
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| Definition: | (adjective) Preferred above all others and treated with partiality. | ||
| Synonyms: | best-loved, pet, preferred, favorite | ||
| Usage: | My sister is clearly the favored child-she has a later curfew and gets away with things I never could! | ||
History
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 | Sinatra was a giant of American entertainment. He began his career in the 1930s as a singer whose romantic renditions of songs like "I'll Never Smile Again" caused teenage girls, called "bobby soxers," to shriek and swoon. Later, as an actor, he starred in films such as The Manchurian Candidate, From Here to Eternity, and the original Ocean's Eleven. He became popular in Las Vegas as the leader of the Rat Pack. | ||
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 | Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico, and on December 12, thousands of pilgrims flock to her shrine at the famous Church of Guadalupeoutside Mexico City. On the evening of December 11, crowds gather for singing and special ceremonies at midnight, which are carried on national television. This great religious festival commemorates the appearance of the Virgin Mary on Tepeyac Hill, north of present-day Mexico City. The story is reenacted in a puppet show each year, and relics of Our Lady of Guadalupe are sold in the streets. | ||
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 | The waiting time for kidney transplants from deceased donors could be reduced for some of the more than 100,000 people in need in the US thanks to new guidelines. The rules for the process were recently revised by the United Network for Organ Sharing, under the direction of the US government. Patients will now be credited with time on the wait list as soon as they start dialysis, and young patients will receive healthy kidneys from young donors—a preventative measure intended to keep them from returning to the wait list for a re-transplant later in life. | ||
1792 - In Vienna, 22-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven received one of his first lessons in music composition from Franz Joseph Haydn.
1901 - The first radio signal to cross the Atlantic was picked up near St. John's Newfoundland, by inventor Guglielmo Marconi.
1997 - The U.S. Justice Department ordered Microsoft to sell its Internet browser separately from its Windows operating system to prevent it from building a monopoly of Web access programs.
2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court found that the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court in the 2000 U.S. Presidential election was unconstitutional. U.S. Vice President Al Gore conceded the election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush the next day.
A young military cadet releases a pigeon after an oath-taking ceremony at the Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery in Kiev. About 100 new young military cadets took part in an oath-taking ceremony, according to officials.
knit
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Gina pattern by Norah Gaughan
This textural masterpiece sports a unique cable motif with a fit and flare bodice that hugs the body in just the right places.
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Free SmoothFox's Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friends Knit...
I just love the look of this hat. Some of the testers who made the hats, made them for boys who love them so I’ll assume Diamonds are a GUYS best friends ...
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Preview by Yahoo
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Star Tidy pattern by Eva Marie Niles
The original pattern uses size 14 thread and needles to match to make a doily, however you can also use this pattern to make a bedspread or cushion using ...
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Preview by Yahoo
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crochet
crochet
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Sleeping Buddies-Lavender stuffed dolls pattern by Vanja...
Gauge 9 stitches and 8 rows = 1 inch in single crochet
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crochet, infant
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Three Hour Baby Sweater pattern by Crochet Kitten
Using thick yarn and a large hook, this pattern really does work up in 3 hours, and has nice drape, too.
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crochet
craft
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I Dig Pinterest: DIY Peppermint JOY Letters Christmas Cr...
These Peppermint JOY Letters are a fun DIY holiday craft project that will also look gorgeous on display in your home! They're so bright and pretty! Just ...
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recipe
Noodle Kugle (aka Lukshon/Luchen Pudding)
1 lb. broad egg noodles 1 tsp salt 1 Tbls oil [we use canola or light olive oil now] Cook the noodles to al dente in the water, salt and butter/oil. Drain well in a colander. Rinse the pot with hot water and return to the stove. Add: 4 Tbls butter [we use canola or light olive oil sometimes]. Return the noodles to the hot pot and stir gently. Add: 3 eggs 1.5 cups cottage cheese 1 c. sour cream [we use light or fat-free] 1/3 c sugar 3/4 tsp cinnamon 1/2 c raisins (yellow or brown) Mix all ingredients gently. Spread in a greased shallow casserole ( 9x13"). Bake at preheated 350 oven until golden brown on top, about 45 minutes.
'thank you' in YIDDISH – a dank
“firsts” in television broadcasting.
1926: the first American television picture is broadcast from Arlington, Virginia to Washington, D.C. It is a picture of a weather map.
1938: The NBC New York station carries the first live unscheduled news story when their mobile unit spots a fire raging on Ward’s Island.
1939: Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first incumbent President to appear on television when he gives the opening address at the New York World’s Fair. Also at the Fair, the first television sets for sale to the American public are exhibited by RCA.
1941: CBS and NBC are granted the first commercial television licenses for their New York stations on the same day so neither network can claim to be the “first.”
By 1945, fewer than 7,000 TV sets are in American homes and there are only nine broadcasting stations. They are in New York City (3 stations), Chicago (2), Los Angeles (2), Philadelphia (1), and Schenectady, NY (1).
1946: Regular programming begins.
Faraway Hill is the first soap opera to appear on television on the short-lived Dumont network (1946-1956).
NBC broadcasts the first sports special extravaganza. It is the heavyweight-boxing match between Joe Louis and Billy Conn at Yankee Stadium. Louis would win by a knockout in the 13th round.
1947: Baseball’s World Series is televised for the first time. The New York Yankees defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers four games to three. The series features Dodger Jackie Robinson, the first black major league player.
Kukla, Fran & Ollie premieres on a local Chicago station as Junior Jamboree (it is picked up by the NBC network in 1948 and its name changed to KF&O). It is the first show to telecast from ship-to-shore and the first color television broadcast of a network program.
Mary Kay and Johnny is the first series to show a married couple sharing the same bed. It would be two decades before married couples were again shown sleeping in the same bed. (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Brady Bunch, The Munsters, and The Flintstones will all lay claim to breaking the separate beds doctrine.) May Kay and Johnny is also the first series to feature an on-screen pregnancy.
1949: Captain Video and His Video Rangers is the first science-fiction series on television. The children’s show has a props budget of $25 per episode.
1950: The Faye Emerson Show has the first live-television wardrobe malfunction occur when the talk show hostess’s unencumbered breasts pop free of her low-cut dress.
1951: I Love Lucy premieres. Its stars — Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley — will become TV legends. It will be the first series to end its run (in 1957) as the #1 rated show on the air, the first to be filmed on 35mm cameras in front of a live studio audience, and Arnaz as the “I” in I Love becomes the first Hispanic TV star on network television.
1952: The Oscar ceremony is broadcast on television for the first time.
1954: Captain Kangaroo, with Bob Keeshan as the Captain, premieres. It is the first network-produced children’s show.
1956: CBS Cartoon Theater, hosted by Dick Van Dyke, is the first prime-time program to show cartoons.
1957: Leave It to Beaver, with Hugh Beaumont, Barbara Billingsley, Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers as the Beav, is the first series to show a bathroom toilet. (Only the tank was actually seen. The brothers are hiding a baby alligator inside.)
1960: The Flintstones, the first animated series made for prime-time network television, premieres. It is also the first animated series to have a story arc involving infertility when, following the birth of Pebbles, Fred and Wilma’s neighbors Barney and Betty Rubble become depressed because they cannot have children.
1963: The networks cancel all regular programming and go to live 24-hour news coverage for the first time when President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Also, the first home video recorder goes on sale at Neiman-Marcus for $30,000.
1964: See How They Run, the first made-for-TV movie starring John Forsythe, Senta Berger, and Jane Wyatt is broadcast. (The Killers with Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, and Ronald Reagan was supposed to be the first but it was deemed too violent for television.)
1967: Star Trek is the first series in which the word “hell” is uttered. (Captain Kirk (William Shatner) says, “Let’s get the hell out of here” at the conclusion of the “City on the Edge of Forever” episode.)
1968: On Star Trek, Captain Kirk (Shatner) and Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) share television’s first interracial kiss.
1971: All in the Family — starring Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers, and Rob Reiner — has several firsts. The first series to be videotaped in front of a live studio audience. The first time a toilet is heard being flushed on series television. The first time the word “goddammit.” are used in series television. The first time a gay character is shown on network television.
1973: M*A*S*H, starring Alan Alda, is the first series to show male nudity when Private Radar O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff) is seen naked (from behind) when he drops his towel and dashes back to the showers when an enemy sniper opens fire on the field hospital. It is also the first series where the phrase “son-of-a-bitch” is uttered.
1981: Saturday Night Live is the first show where the word “f**k” is said on network television. The comedian Charles Rocket, who said it, is fired.
1990: The first TV commercial broadcast in which an actor says he has diarrhea.
1991: L.A. Law, with its ensemble cast, is the first prime-time series is show a passionate female-to-female kiss between series regulars Abby Perkins (Michelle Greene) and C.J. Lamb (Amanda Donohoe).
1997: The first DVDs are sold to the public.
What will be next? Some possibilities:
- Television screens small enough to fit on a wristwatch.
- 3-D programming.
- Vast movie and TV series libraries.
- Viewers being able to edit out all personally offensive language and scenes from broadcast.
- New network series being able for on-demand viewing.
- New movie premieres available for immediate at-home viewing.
- Viewers able to re-cast films or series with other actors or with family and friends or both.
- Viewers literally stepping into the world they are watching and interacting with the characters.
Whatever it is, it will make interesting viewing.
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