<> Tomorrow's food holidays(s):
* 'National Brownie Day'.
- From Wikipedia (Chocolate brownie):
'A brownie is a flat, baked dessert square that was developed in the United
States at the end of the 19th century and popularized in the U.S. and
Canada during the first half of the 20th century. It is a cross between a
cake and a soft cookie in texture and comes in a variety of forms.
Depending on its density, it may be either fudgy or cakey and may include
chocolate chips, nuts, or other ingredients. A variation made with brown
sugar and chocolate bits but without melted chocolate in the batter is
called a blonde brownie or blondie. >br />L Brownies are typically eaten by
hand, often accompanied by milk or coffee. They are sometimes served warm
with ice cream (à la mode), topped with whipped cream, or sprinkled with
powdered sugar and fudge. They are common lunchbox treats, and also popular
in restaurants and coffeehouses.
One legend about the creation of brownies is that of Bertha Palmer, a
prominent Chicago socialite whose husband owned the Palmer House Hotel. In
1893 Palmer asked a pastry chef for a dessert suitable for ladies attending
the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. She requested a cake-like
confection smaller than a piece of cake that could be included in boxed
lunches. The result was the Palmer House Brownie with walnuts and an
apricot glaze. The modern Palmer House Hotel serves a dessert to patrons
made from the same recipe. The name was given to the dessert sometime after
1893, but was not used by cook books or journals at the time. Mixing melted
butter with chocolate to make a chocolate brownie
The first-known printed use of the word brownie to describe a dessert
appeared in the 1896 version of the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by
Fannie Farmer, in reference to molasses cakes baked individually in tin
molds. The earliest-known published recipes for a modern style chocolate
brownie appeared in the Home Cookery (1904, Laconia, NH), Service Club Cook
Book (1904, Chicago, IL), The Boston Globe (April 2, 1905 p. 34), and the
1906 edition of Farmer cookbook. These recipes produced a relatively mild
and cake-like brownie.
By 1907 the brownie was well established in a recognizable form, appearing
in Lowney's Cook Book by Maria Willet Howard (published by Walter M. Lowney
Company, Boston) as an adaptation of the Boston Cooking School recipe for a
Bangor Brownie It added an extra egg and an additional square of chocolate,
creating a richer, fudgier dessert. The name Bangor Brownie appears to have
been derived from the town of Bangor, Maine, which an apocryphal story
states was the hometown of a housewife who created the original brownie
recipe. Maine food educator and columnist Mildred Brown Schrumpf was the
main proponent of the theory that brownies were invented in Bangor. While
The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink (2007) refuted Schrumpf's
premise that Bangor housewives had created the brownie, citing the
publication of a brownie recipe in a 1905 Fannie Farmer cookbook, in its
second edition, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (2013)
said it had discovered evidence to support Schrumpf's claim, in the form of
several 1904 cookbooks that included a recipe for Bangor Brownies'.
[The Hankster says] Yes, eatable Lego's. I'll build me a wall and watch it come tumbling down. A tall glass of cold milk is a must.
<> Other holidays / celebrations
* 'Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day'.
A parody day since 2007. Dress and try to convince someone you are a
traveler in time.
[The Hankster says] This one looks like fun. Can't decide if I want to be a future or past time traveler. Past, I think. A little Wikipedia work and I can fool a lot of people.
<> Awareness / Observances:None.
<> Historical events on December 8
* 'In 1915, John McCrae's poem, In Flanders Fields, appears anonymously in
'Punch' magazine.
- From Wikipedia: 'In Flanders Fields is a war poem in the form of a
rondeau, written during the First World War by Canadian physician
Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915,
after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Lieutenant
Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. According to legend,
fellow soldiers retrieved the poem after McCrae, initially dissatisfied
with his work, discarded it. In Flanders Fields was first published on
December 8 of that year in the London-based magazine Punch.
It is one of the most popular and most quoted poems from the war. As a
result of its immediate popularity, parts of the poem were used in
propaganda efforts and appeals to recruit soldiers and raise money selling
war bonds. Its references to the red poppies that grew over the graves of
fallen soldiers resulted in the remembrance poppy becoming one of the
world's most recognized memorial symbols for soldiers who have died in
conflict. The poem and poppy are prominent Remembrance Day symbols
throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, particularly in Canada, where In
Flanders Fields is one of the nation's best-known literary works. The poem
also has wide exposure in the United States, where it is associated with
Memorial Day'.
* 'In 1941, The United States declares war on Japan the day after the
infamous bombing of Pearl Harbor. .
- From Wikipedia: 'On December 8, 1941, the United States Congress declared
war (Public Law 77-328, 55 STAT 795) on the Empire of Japan in response to
that country's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the prior day. It was
formulated an hour after the Infamy Speech of US President Franklin D.
Roosevelt. Japan had sent a message for the United States to its embassy in
Washington earlier, but because of problems at the embassy in decoding the
very long message – the high security level assigned to the declaration
meant that only personnel with very high clearances could decode it, which
slowed down the process – it was not delivered to the U.S. Secretary of
State until after the Pearl Harbor attack. Following the U.S. declaration,
Japan's allies, Germany and Italy, declared war on the United States,
bringing the United States fully into World War II'.
* 'In 1952, The TV show, I Love Lucy, defeats the censors, has pregnancy on
television. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Just before filming the show, Lucy and Desi learned that
Lucy was once again pregnant (after multiple miscarriages earlier in their
marriage) with their first child, Lucie Arnaz. They filmed the original
pilot while Lucy was showing, but did not include any references to the
pregnancy in the episode. This was because CBS thought that talk of
pregnancy might be in bad taste and because an ad agency told Desi not to
show a pregnant woman.
Later, during the second season, Lucy was pregnant again with second child
Desi Arnaz, Jr., and this time the pregnancy was incorporated into the
series' storyline. (Contrary to popular belief, Lucy's pregnancy was not
television's first on-screen pregnancy, a distinction belonging to Mary Kay
on the late 1940s sitcom Mary Kay and Johnny.)
CBS would not allow I Love Lucy to use the word pregnant, so expecting was
used instead. The episode Lucy Is Enceinte first aired on December 8, 1952
(enceinte being French for expecting or pregnant). One week later, on
December 15, 1952, the episode titled Pregnant Women Are Unpredictable was
aired (although the show never displayed episode titles on the air). The
episode in which Lucy gives birth, Lucy Goes to the Hospital, first aired
on January 19, 1953, which was the day before the inauguration of Dwight
Eisenhower as President of the United States. To increase the publicity of
this episode, the original air date was chosen to coincide with Lucille
Ball's real-life delivery of Desi, Jr. by Caesarean section. Lucy Goes to
the Hospital was watched by more people than any other television program
up to that time, with 71.7% of all American television sets tuned in,
topping the 67.7 rating for the inauguration coverage the following
morning.
Unlike some programs that advance the age of a newborn over a short period
of time, I Love Lucy at first allowed the Little Ricky character to grow up
in real time. America saw Little Ricky as an infant in the 1952–53 season
and a toddler from 1953 to 1956. However, for the 1956-57 season, Little
Ricky suddenly aged by two years, becoming a young school-age boy from 1956
to 1960. Five actors played the role, two sets of twins and later Keith
Thibodeaux, whose stage name when playing Ricky Ricardo, Jr. was Richard
Keith. (In the Superman episode, Little Ricky is mentioned as being five
years old but it had been less than four years since the
birth-of-Little-Ricky episode.)
Jess Oppenheimer stated in his memoir, Laughs, Luck...and Lucy: How I Came
to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time, that the initial plan was to
match the sex of the Ricardo baby with Lucille Ball's real baby, inserting
one of two alternate endings into the broadcast print at the very last
minute. When logistical difficulties convinced Oppenheimer to abandon this
plan, he advised Desi that as head writer, he would have Lucy Ricardo give
birth to a boy. Desi agreed, telling Oppenheimer that Lucy had given him
one girl, and might give him another—this might be his only chance to get a
son. When the baby was born, Desi immediately called Oppenheimer and told
him, Lucy followed your script. Ain't she something?, to which Oppenheimer
replied Terrific! That makes me the greatest writer in the world!'.
* 'In 1953, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his 'Atoms for
Peace' speech, which leads to an American program to supply equipment and
information on nuclear power to schools, hospitals, and research
institutions around the world. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Atoms for Peace was the title of a speech delivered by
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the UN General Assembly in New York
City on December 8, 1953.
I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new – one
which I, who have spent so much of my life in the military profession,
would have preferred never to use.
That new language is the language of atomic warfare.
The United States then launched an Atoms for Peace program that supplied
equipment and information to schools, hospitals, and research institutions
within the U.S. and throughout the world. The first nuclear reactors in
Iran, Israel and Pakistan were built under the program by American Machine
and Foundry (AMF, a company more commonly known as a major manufacturer of
bowling equipment)'.
* 'In 1956, Guy Mitchell's 'Singing the Blues' single goes #1 for 10 weeks.
.
- From Wikipedia: 'Singing the Blues is a popular song written by Melvin
Endsley and published in 1956. The song was first recorded and released by
Marty Robbins in 1956. (It is not related to the 1920 jazz song Singin' the
Blues recorded by Frank Trumbauer and Bix Beiderbecke in 1927.)
The best-known recording was released in October 1956 by Guy Mitchell and
spent ten weeks at number 1 on the U.S. Billboard chart from December 8,
1956, to February 2, 1957. An example of the U.S. recording is on Columbia
#40769, dated 1956, with the Ray Conniff Orchestra. Mitchell's version was
also number 1 in the UK Singles Chart for three (non-consecutive) weeks in
early 1957, one of only four singles to return to number 1 on three
separate occasions, with the other three being I Believe by Frankie Laine,
Happy by Pharrell Williams and What Do You Mean? by Justin Bieber'.
* 'In 1963, Pan Am Flight 214 crashes outside Elkton, Maryland with 81
killed. Only case of lighting causing air crash. This lead to
recommendations for lightning discharge wicks or static dischargers on all
commercial jets flying in U.S. airspace. Recommendations were also made
regarding, volatile fuel vapors. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Pan Am Flight 214 was a scheduled flight of Pan American
World Airways from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Baltimore, Maryland, and
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On December 8, 1963, the Boeing 707 serving the
flight crashed near Elkton, Maryland, while en route from Baltimore to
Philadelphia, after being hit by lightning, killing all 81 on board. The
accident is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records (2005) as the
Worst Lightning Strike Death Toll. It remains the deadliest airplane crash
in Maryland state history.
The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigated the accident and issued the
following Probable Cause statement on March 3, 1965:
Probable Cause: Lightning-induced ignition of the fuel/air mixture in the
no. 1 reserve fuel tank with resultant explosive disintegration of the left
outer wing and loss of control.
In response to the CAB's findings, the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) asked operators to install lightning discharge wicks (or static
dischargers) on all commercial jets flying in US airspace.
On December 17, 1963, nine days after the crash of flight 214, Leon H.
Tanguay, director of the CAB Bureau of Safety, sent a letter to the FAA
recommending several safety modifications as part of future aircraft
design. One modification related specifically to volatile fuel vapors that
can form inside partly empty fuel tanks, which may be ignited by various
potential ignition sources and cause an explosion. Tanguay's letter
suggested reducing the volatility of the fuel/air gas mixture by
introducing an inert gas, or by using air circulation. Thirty-three years
later a similar recommendation was issued by the NTSB (the CAB Bureau of
Safety's successor) after the TWA Flight 800 Boeing 747 crash on July 17,
1996, with 230 fatalities, which was also deemed to have been caused by the
explosion of a volatile mixture inside a fuel tank'.
* 'In 2010, With the second launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 and the first
launch of the SpaceX Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first private company to
successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.
No. 1 song
Top movie
Monthly holiday / awareness days in December
Food
Buckwheat Month
Worldwide Food Service Safety Month
Health
Aids Awareness Month
National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month
National Impaired Driving Prevention Month
Safe Toys and Gifts Month
Animal and Pet
Operation Santa Paws
Other
National Tie Month
National Write A Business Plan Month
Universal Human Rights Month
Youngsters on The Air Month
December is:
December origin (from Wikipedia): '
December gets its name from the Latin word decem (meaning ten) because it was originally the tenth month of the year in the Roman calendar, which began in March. The winter days following December were not included as part of any month. Later, the months of January and February were created out of the monthless period and added to the beginning of the calendar, but December retained its name.
'
'
December is the first month of meteorological winter in the Northern
Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, December is the seasonal equivalent
to June in the Northern hemisphere, which is the first month of summer. D
ecember is the month with the shortest daylight hours of the year in the
Northern Hemisphere and the longest daylight hours of the year in the
Southern Hemisphere.
'
December at Wikipedia: More
If you couldn't afford 90 cents for a movie ticket, 50 years ago,
or your 45 RPM record player was broke, you might watch one of these shows on TV.
From this Wikipedia article: More
Best selling books of 1966 More
Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More