<> Tomorrow's food holidays(s):
* 'National Bouillabaisse Day'. . A fisherman's stew originally made from
the fish that they could not sell.
- From Wikipedia (Bouillabaisse):
'Bouillabaisse is a traditional Provençal fish stew originating from the
port city of Marseille. The French and English form bouillabaisse comes
from the Provençal Occitan word bolhabaissa, a compound that consists of
the two verbs bolhir (to boil) and abaissar (to reduce heat, i.e., simmer).
Bouillabaisse was originally a stew made by Marseille fishermen using the
bony rockfish which they were unable to sell to restaurants or markets.
There are at least three kinds of fish in a traditional bouillabaisse:
typically red rascasse (Scorpaena scrofa) sea robin (fr: grondin) and
European conger (fr: congre). It can also include gilt-head bream (fr:
dorade) turbot monkfish (fr: lotte or baudroie) mullet or European hake
(fr: merlan). It usually also includes shellfish and other seafood such as
sea urchins (fr: oursins), mussels (fr: moules) velvet crabs (fr: étrilles)
spider crab (fr: araignées de mer) or octopus. More expensive versions may
add langoustine (European lobster), though this was not part of the
traditional dish made by Marseille fishermen. Vegetables such as leeks,
onions, tomatoes, celery, and potatoes are simmered together with the broth
and served with the fish. The broth is traditionally served with a rouille,
a mayonnaise made of olive oil, garlic, saffron, and cayenne pepper on
grilled slices of bread.
What makes a bouillabaisse different from other fish soups is the selection
of Provençal herbs and spices in the broth the use of bony local
Mediterranean fish the way the fish are added one at a time, and brought to
a boil and the method of serving. In Marseille, the broth is served first
in a soup plate with slices of bread and rouille, then the fish is served
separately on a large platter or, more simply, as Julia Child suggests, the
fish and broth are brought to the table separately and served together in
large soup plates'.
[The Hankster says] Sounds interesting. Fish stew by any other name would be as good.
* 'Roast Chestnuts Day'.
- From Wikipedia (Chestnut):
'The chestnut group is a genus (Castanea) of eight or nine species of
deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to
temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.
Chestnuts depart from the norm for culinary nuts in that they have very
little protein or fat, their calories coming chiefly from carbohydrates.
Fresh chestnut fruits have about 180 calories (800 kJ) per 100 grams of
edible parts, which is much lower than walnuts, almonds, other nuts and
dried fruit (about 600 kcal/100 g). Chestnuts contain very little fat,
mostly unsaturated, and no gluten.
Their carbohydrate content compares with that of wheat and rice chestnuts
have twice as much starch as the potato on an as-is basis. In addition,
chestnuts contain about 8% of various sugars, mainly sucrose, glucose,
fructose, and, in a lesser amount, stachyose and raffinose, which are
fermented in the lower gut, producing gas. In some areas, sweet chestnut
trees are called the bread tree When chestnuts are just starting to ripen,
the fruit is mostly starch and is very firm under finger pressure from the
high water content. As the chestnuts ripen, the starch is slowly converted
into sugars, and moisture content also starts decreasing. Upon pressing the
chestnut, a slight 'give' can be felt the hull is not so tense, and space
occurs between it and the flesh of the fruit. They are the only nuts that
contain vitamin C, with about 40 mg per 100 g of raw product, which is
about 65% of the U.S. recommended daily intake. The amount of vitamin C
decreases by about 40% after heating. Fresh chestnuts contain about 52%
water by weight, which evaporates relatively quickly during storage they
can lose as much as 1% of weight in one day at 20 °C (68 °F) and 70%
relative humidity.
Tannin is contained in the bark as well as in the wood, leaves, and seed
husks. The husks contain 10–13% tannin.
The fruit can be peeled and eaten raw, but it can be somewhat astringent,
especially if the pellicle is not removed.
Another method of eating the fruit involves roasting, which does not
require peeling. Roasting requires scoring the fruit beforehand to prevent
explosion of the fruit due to expansion. Once cooked, its texture is
slightly similar to that of a baked potato, with a delicate, sweet, and
nutty flavour. This method of preparation is popular in many countries,
where the scored chestnuts may be cooked mixed with a little sugar'.
[The Hankster says] Only had them once. OK, but prefer the taste of other nuts.
<> Other holidays / celebrations
* 'Christmas Bird Count'.
Dec. 14 -Jan. 5
- From Wikipedia (Christmas Bird Count):
'The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is a census of birds in the Western
Hemisphere, performed annually in the early Northern-hemisphere winter by
volunteer birdwatchers and administered by the National Audubon Society.
The purpose is to provide population data for use in science, especially
conservation biology, though many people participate for recreation.
Up through the 19th century, many North Americans participated in the
tradition of Christmas side hunts, in which they competed at how many birds
they could kill, regardless of whether they had any use for the carcasses
and of whether the birds were beneficial, beautiful, or rare. In December
1900, the U.S. ornithologist Frank Chapman, founder of Bird-Lore (which
became Audubon magazine), proposed counting birds on Christmas instead of
killing them.
That year, 27 observers took part in the first count in 25 places in the
United States and Canada, 15 of them in the northeastern U.S. from
Massachusetts to Philadelphia. Since then the counts have been held every
winter, usually with increasing numbers of observers. For instance, the
101st count, in the winter of 2000–2001, involved 52,471 people in 1,823
places in 17 countries (but mostly in the U.S. and Canada). During the
113th count (winter 2012–2013), 71,531 people participated in 2,369
locations. The National Audubon Society now partners with Bird Studies
Canada, the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory of Texas (responsible for CBCs in
Mexico), and the Red Nacional de Observadores de Aves (RNOA, National
Network of Bird Observers) and the Instituto Alexander von Humboldt of
Colombia.
The greatest number of bird species ever reported by any U.S. location in a
single count is 250, observed on December 19, 2005 in the Matagorda
County-Mad Island Marsh count circle around Matagorda and Palacios, Texas.
The greatest number of bird species ever reported by a CBC circle in the
world is 529, observed on December 21, 2013 in the Cosanga-Narupa count
(previously known as the Yanayacu count) on the eastern slope of the Andes
in Ecuador'.
[The Hankster says] I'll count pies instead. We all know that there are 24 black birds in each of those.
<> Awareness / Observances:
o Animal and Pet:
* 'Monkey / World Monkey Day'.
- From Wikipedia (Monkey Day):
'Monkey Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated internationally on December
14. While the holiday is mainly about monkeys, it also celebrates other
non-human primates such as apes, tarsiers, and lemurs. Monkey Day was
created and popularized by artists Casey Sorrow and Eric Millikin, in order
to spread awareness for the animals, and to show love and care for them. It
is celebrated worldwide and often known as World Monkey D
The holiday was started in 2000 when artist Casey Sorrow, then an art
student at Michigan State University, jokingly scribbled Monkey Day on a
friend's calendar, and then first celebrated the holiday with other MSU art
students. It gained notoriety when Sorrow and fellow MSU art student Eric
Millikin began including Monkey Day in their artwork and Fetus-X comic
strips, and began promoting it online along with other artists. Since then,
Monkey Day has been celebrated internationally, across countries such as
the United States, Canada, Germany, India, Pakistan, Estonia, United
Kingdom, and Colombia. Hallmark Cards describes the holiday as a day when
monkey business is actually encouraged. The Washington Post describes
Monkey Day as a day to learn something about these adorable and highly
intelligent primates. Or you could use this day to act like a monkey.'.
<> Historical events on December 14
* 'In 1819, Alabama is admitted into the U.S. as the 22nd State. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Alabama is a state in the southeastern region of the
United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the
east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the
west. Alabama is the 30th-most extensive and the 24th-most populous of the
U.S. states. At 1,300 miles (2,100 km), Alabama has one of the nation's
longest navigable inland waterways.
From the American Civil War until World War II, Alabama, like many states
in the southern U.S., suffered economic hardship, in part because of
continued dependence on agriculture. Despite the growth of major industries
and urban centers, white rural interests dominated the state legislature
from 1901 to the 1960s, as it did not regularly reapportion the legislature
from 1901 to 1961 urban interests and African Americans were markedly
under-represented. African Americans and poor whites were essentially
disenfranchised altogether by the state constitution of 1901, a status that
continued into the mid-1960s before being alleviated by federal
legislation. Exclusion of minorities continued under at-large voting
systems in most counties some changes were made through a series of omnibus
court cases in the late 1980s to establish different electoral systems.
Following World War II, Alabama experienced growth as the state's economy
changed from one primarily based on agriculture to one with diversified
interests. The power of the Solid South in Congress gained the
establishment or expansion of multiple United States Armed Forces
installations, which helped bridge the gap between an agricultural and
industrial economy during the mid-20th century. The state economy in the
21st century is based on management, automotive, finance, manufacturing,
aerospace, mineral extraction, healthcare, education, retail, and
technology.
Alabama is nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird. Alabama
is also known as the Heart of Dixie and the Cotton State. The state tree is
the longleaf pine, and the state flower is the camellia. Alabama's capital
is Montgomery. The largest city by population is Birmingham, which has long
been the most industrialized city, and largest city by land area is
Huntsville. The oldest city is Mobile, founded by French colonists in 1702
as the capital of French Louisiana'.
* 'In 1900, Concerning Quantum Physics: Max Planck presents a theoretical
derivation of his black-body radiation law. .
- From Wikipedia: 'In 1894 Planck turned his attention to the problem of
black-body radiation. He had been commissioned by electric companies to
create maximum light from lightbulbs with minimum energy. The problem had
been stated by Kirchhoff in 1859: how does the intensity of the
electromagnetic radiation emitted by a black body (a perfect absorber, also
known as a cavity radiator) depend on the frequency of the radiation (i.e.,
the color of the light) and the temperature of the body? The question had
been explored experimentally, but no theoretical treatment agreed with
experimental values. Wilhelm Wien proposed Wien's law, which correctly
predicted the behaviour at high frequencies, but failed at low frequencies.
The Rayleigh–Jeans law, another approach to the problem, created what was
later known as the ultraviolet catastrophe, but contrary to many textbooks
this was not a motivation for Planck.
Planck's first proposed solution to the problem in 1899 followed from what
Planck called the principle of elementary disorder, which allowed him to
derive Wien's law from a number of assumptions about the entropy of an
ideal oscillator, creating what was referred-to as the Wien–Planck law.
Soon it was found that experimental evidence did not confirm the new law at
all, to Planck's frustration. Planck revised his approach, deriving the
first version of the famous Planck black-body radiation law, which
described the experimentally observed black-body spectrum well. It was
first proposed in a meeting of the DPG on 19 October 1900 and published in
1901. This first derivation did not include energy quantisation, and did
not use statistical mechanics, to which he held an aversion. In November
1900, Planck revised this first approach, relying on Boltzmann's
statistical interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics as a way of
gaining a more fundamental understanding of the principles behind his
radiation law. As Planck was deeply suspicious of the philosophical and
physical implications of such an interpretation of Boltzmann's approach,
his recourse to them was, as he later put it, an act of despair ... I was
ready to sacrifice any of my previous convictions about physics.
The central assumption behind his new derivation, presented to the DPG on
14 December 1900, was the supposition, now known as the Planck postulate,
that electromagnetic energy could be emitted only in quantized form, in
other words, the energy could only be a multiple of an elementary unit:'.
* 'In 1907, The Wright Brothers make their first attempt to fly the Wright
Flyer in North Carolina. It fails. The first historic flight will be three
days later. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The Wright Flyer (often retrospectively referred to as
Flyer I or 1903 Flyer) was the first successful heavier-than-air powered
aircraft. It was designed and built by the Wright brothers. They flew it
four times on December 17, 1903, near Kill Devil Hills, about four miles
south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, US. Today, the airplane is exhibited
in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.
The U.S. Smithsonian Institution describes the aircraft as the first
powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight
with a pilot aboard The flight of Flyer I marks the beginning of the
pioneer era of aviation.
Upon returning to Kitty Hawk in 1903, the Wrights completed assembly of the
Flyer while practicing on the 1902 Glider from the previous season. On
December 14, 1903, they felt ready for their first attempt at powered
flight. With the help of men from the nearby government life-saving
station, the Wrights moved the Flyer and its launching rail to the incline
of a nearby sand dune, Big Kill Devil Hill, intending to make a
gravity-assisted takeoff. The brothers tossed a coin to decide who would
get the first chance at piloting, and Wilbur won. The airplane left the
rail, but Wilbur pulled up too sharply, stalled, and came down in about
three seconds with minor damage.
Repairs after the abortive first flight took three days. When they were
ready again on December 17, the wind was averaging more than 20 mph, so the
brothers laid the launching rail on level ground, pointed into the wind,
near their camp. This time the wind, instead of an inclined launch, helped
provide the necessary airspeed for takeoff. Because Wilbur had already had
the first chance, Orville took his turn at the controls. His first flight
lasted 12 seconds for a total distance of 120 ft (36.5 m) – shorter than
the wingspan of a Boeing 747, as noted by observers in the 2003
commemoration of the first flight.
Taking turns, the Wrights made four brief, low-altitude flights that day.
The flight paths were all essentially straight turns were not attempted.
Each flight ended in a bumpy and unintended landing The last flight, by
Wilbur, was 852 feet (260 m) in 59 seconds, much longer than each of the
three previous flights of 120, 175 and 200 feet. The landing broke the
front elevator supports, which the Wrights hoped to repair for a possible
four-mile (6 km) flight to Kitty Hawk village. Soon after, a heavy gust
picked up the Flyer and tumbled it end over end, damaging it beyond any
hope of quick repair. It was never flown again.
In 1904, the Wrights continued refining their designs and piloting
techniques in order to obtain fully controlled flight. Major progress
toward this goal was achieved with a new Flyer in 1904 and even more
decisively in 1905 with a third Flyer, in which Wilbur made a 39-minute,
24-mile (39 km) nonstop circling flight on October 5. While the 1903 Flyer
was clearly a historically important test vehicle, its hallowed status in
the American imagination has obscured the role of its two successors in the
continuing development that led to the Wrights' mastery of controlled
powered flight in 1905'.
* 'In 1911, Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland,
Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to
reach the South Pole. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (Norwegian: 16 July
1872 – c. 18 June 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led
the Antarctic expedition of 1910–12 which was the first to reach the South
Pole, on 14 December 1911. In 1926, he was the first expedition leader for
the air expedition to the North Pole.
Amundsen is recognized as the first person, without dispute, as having
reached both poles. He is also known as having the first expedition to
traverse the Northwest Passage (1903–06) in the Arctic.
In June 1928, while taking part in a rescue mission for the airship Italia,
the plane he was in disappeared. Amundsen was a key expedition leader
during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, in the class of Douglas
Mawson, Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton'.
* 'In 1962, NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
.
- From Wikipedia: 'Mariner 2 (Mariner-Venus 1962), an American space probe
to Venus, was the first robotic space probe to conduct a successful
planetary encounter. The first successful spacecraft in the NASA Mariner
program, it was a simplified version of the Block I spacecraft of the
Ranger program and an exact copy of Mariner 1. The missions of Mariner 1
and 2 spacecraft are together sometimes known as the Mariner R missions.
Original plans called for the probes to be launched on the Atlas-Centaur,
but serious developmental problems with that vehicle forced a switch to the
much smaller Agena B stage. As such, the design of the Mariner R vehicles
was greatly simplified. Far less instrumentation was carried than on the
Soviet Venera probes of this period, including no TV camera as the
Atlas-Agena B had only half as much lift capacity as the Soviet 8K78
booster. The Mariner 2 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral on
August 27, 1962 and passed as close as 34,773 kilometers (21,607 mi) to
Venus on December 14, 1962.
The Mariner probe consisted of a 100 cm (39.4 in) diameter hexagonal bus,
to which solar panels, instrument booms, and antennas were attached. The
scientific instruments on board the Mariner spacecraft were two radiometers
(one each for the microwave and infrared portions of the spectrum), a
micrometeorite sensor, a solar plasma sensor, a charged particle sensor,
and a magnetometer. These instruments were designed to measure the
temperature distribution on the surface of Venus, as well as making basic
measurements of Venus' atmosphere.
The primary mission was to receive communications from the spacecraft in
the vicinity of Venus and to perform radiometric temperature measurements
of the planet. A second objective was to measure the interplanetary
magnetic field and charged particle environment.
En route to Venus, Mariner 2 measured the solar wind, a constant stream of
charged particles flowing outwards from the Sun, confirming the
measurements by Luna 1 in 1959. It also measured interplanetary dust, which
turned out to be scarcer than predicted. In addition, Mariner 2 detected
high-energy charged particles coming from the Sun, including several brief
solar flares, as well as cosmic rays from outside the Solar System. As it
flew by Venus on December 14, 1962, Mariner 2 scanned the planet with its
pair of radiometers, revealing that Venus has cool clouds and an extremely
hot surface'.
* 'In 1972, In the Apollo program, Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk
on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final
extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Eugene Andrew Gene Cernan born March 14, 1934, (CAPT,
USN, Ret.), is a retired American naval officer and Naval Aviator,
electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, fighter pilot, and NASA
astronaut. He traveled into space three times: as Pilot of Gemini 9A in
June 1966, as Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969, and as Commander
of Apollo 17 in December 1972, the final Apollo lunar landing.
On Apollo 17, Cernan became the eleventh person to walk on the Moon and the
most recent man to walk on the Moon since he was the last to re-enter the
Lunar Module Challenger after the mission's third and final extravehicular
activity (EVA). Cernan was also a backup crew member for the Gemini 12,
Apollo 7 and Apollo 14 space missions'.
* 'In 1977, 'Saturday Night Fever' starring John Travolta, premieres in
NYC. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 American drama film
directed by John Badham and starring John Travolta as Tony Manero, a
working-class young man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a
local Brooklyn discothèque Karen Lynn Gorney as Stephanie Mangano, his
dance partner and eventual confidante and Donna Pescow as Annette, Tony's
former dance partner and would-be girlfriend. While in the disco, Tony is
the king. His circle of friends and weekend dancing help him to cope with
the harsh realities of his life: a dead-end job, clashes with his
unsupportive and squabbling parents, racial tensions in the local
community, and his general restlessness.
A huge commercial success, the film significantly helped to popularize
disco music around the world and made Travolta, already well known from his
role on TV's Welcome Back, Kotter, a household name. The Saturday Night
Fever soundtrack, featuring disco songs by the Bee Gees, is one of the
best-selling soundtracks of all time. The film showcased aspects of the
music, the dancing, and the subculture surrounding the disco era:
symphony-orchestrated melodies haute couture styles of clothing pre-AIDS
sexual promiscuity and graceful choreography.
The story is based upon a 1976 New York magazine article by British writer
Nik Cohn, Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night In the mid-1990s, Cohn
acknowledged that he fabricated the article. A newcomer to the United
States and a stranger to the disco lifestyle, Cohn was unable to make any
sense of the subculture he had been assigned to write about instead, the
character who became Tony Manero was based on a Mod acquaintance of Cohn's.
In 2010, the film was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically
significant by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the
National Film Registry.
The sequel Staying Alive (1983) also starred John Travolta and was directed
by Sylvester Stallone'.
* 'In 2004, The Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is
formally inaugurated near Millau, France. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The Millau Viaduct (French: le Viaduc de Millau, IPA: )
is a cable-stayed bridge that spans the valley of the River Tarn near
Millau in southern France.
Designed by the British architect Norman Foster and French structural
engineer Michel Virlogeux, it is the tallest bridge in the world with one
mast's summit at 343.0 metres (1,125 ft) above the base of the structure.
It is the 17th highest bridge deck in the world, being 270 metres (890 ft)
between the road deck and the ground below. The Millau Viaduct is part of
the A75-A71 autoroute axis from Paris to Béziers and Montpellier. The cost
of construction was approximately €400 million. It was formally inaugurated
on 14 December 2004, and opened to traffic on 16 December. The bridge has
been consistently ranked as one of the great engineering achievements of
all time and received the 2006 International Association for Bridge and
Structural Engineering Outstanding Structure Award'.
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