(If you have any comments or questions, please contact the editor)
Stories
BULLETIN FOR THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 26th, 2016
"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. and we'll change the world."
We had a tremendous Roundtable last Thursday, December 22. Those present were: Doug Balkman, Chester Banks, Del Brown, Lon Shell, Kelli Whigham, Rh8onda White, Beverly Crumley, Tracy Herman, John Polk, Glen Rydl. We also had 4 folks from the Lockhart Club; Fred Bell, Ken Sneed, Joe Kelly, and Josh Avant, (Lockhart President next year).
Don't forget that we will be having another Roundtable this coming Thursday, same time, same place.
"Boxing Day - the Day after Christmas!"
Boxing Day takes place on December 26th and is only celebrated in a few countries, mainly ones historically connected to the UK (such as Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand) and in many European countries. In Germany it is known as "Zweite Feiertag" (which means 'second celebration')
It was started in the UK about 800 years ago, during the Middle Ages. It was the day when the alms box, collection boxes for the poor often kept in churches, were traditionally opened so that the contents could be distributed to poor people.
It might have been the Romans that first brought this type of collecting box to the UK, but they used them to collect money for the betting games which they played during their winter celebrations!
In Holland, some collection boxes were made out of a rough pottery called 'earthenware', and were shaped like pigs. Perhaps this is where we get the term 'Piggy Bank'.
The Christmas Carol, Good King Wenceslas, is set on Boxing Day and is about a King in the Middle ages who brings food sto a poor family.
It was also traditional that servants got the day off to celebrate Christmas with their families on Boxing Day. Before World War II, it was common for working people (such as milkmen and butchers) to travel round their delivery places and collect their Christmas box or tip. This tradition has now mostly stopped and any Christmas tips, given to people such as postal workers and newspaper delivery children, are not normally given or collected on Boxing Day,
The 26th of December is also St. Stephen's Day, just to confuse things, there are two St. Stephens in history! The first St. Stephens was a very early follower of Jesus and was the first Christian Martyr. He was stoned to death by Jews who didn't believe in Jesus.
The second St. Stephen was a Missionary in Sweden in the 800's. He loved all animals, but particularly horses (perhaps why there is traditionally horse racing on boxing day. He was also a martyr and was killed by pagans in Sweden. In Germany there was a tradition that horses would be ridden around the inside of the church during the St. Stephen's Day service!
St. Stephen's Day (or the feast of Stephen) is when the Carol 'Good King Wenceslas' is set. It's about helping the poor - so it has a strong connection to Boxing Day.
"Kiwanis Is A Verb"...No.23
Here are ten ways to Damage your Club.
* Accept a Board or Committee assignment you don't have the time to perform.
* Join a clique.
* Say, "Been there....Done That" as often as possible.
* Emphasize the negative.
* Wait until next year to sponsor a new member.
* Arrive late.
* Criticize a lot.
* Wait for someone else to volunteer.
* Decline leadership opportunities out of false modesty.
* Assert that it's "tacky" to strive for achievement awards (such as perfect attendance recognition).
December 23, 1987....Dick Rutan & Jeanna Yeager set a new world of 216 hours of continuous flight around the world without refueling. Their aircraft Voyager traveled 24,986 miles at a speed of about 115 miles per hour.
December 24, 1942.......The first surface to surface guided missile known as the V-I Flying Bomb was launched by German rocket engineer Wernher von Braun. Called 'Buzz Bombs' for the loud buzzing sound of their motor, they were used by Nazi Germany against Britain beginning in September, 1944.
December 25, 1776......During the American Revolution, George Washington took 2,400 of his men across the Delaware River. Washington then conducted a surprise raid on 1,500 British Hessians (German mercenaries at Trenton, New Jersey. The Hessians surrendered after an hour with nearly 1,000 taken prisoners by Washington who suffered six wounded (including future president, Lt James Monroe). The victory provided a much needed boost to American morale,
December 26, 2004........An estimated 230,000 persons were killed and 1.5 million left homeless when a magnitude 9.3 earthquake on the seafloor of the Indian Ocean set off a series of giant tsunami waves that smashed into the shorelines of a dozen countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and Somalia.
December 27, 1996.......A genocide trial began concerning the killing of an estimated 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda. In 1994, a bloody civil war had broken out between the two main ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi. After the Hutu army seized power it had waged a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against the Tutsi population.
December 28, 1832.......John C. Calhoun became the first American ever to resign the office of vice president. He served under Presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson and resigned after a series of political disagreements with President Jackson. He went on to become a U.S. Senator from South Carolina.
December 29 1965.......During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh rejected unconditional peace talks offered by the U.S.
"What is So Amazing about the Number 56? (Sorry No #55).
1...........'56' is the sum of the first six triangular numbers (making it a tetrahedral number.
2...........'56' is the atomic number for barium.
3...........'56 is the number associated with David Woodard's 2007 composition for piano, violin, cello and electronics, '56 minutes".
4............'56' the car number of Ray Peyton, Jr in Herbie: Fully Loaded..
5............'56' in baseball, the number of consecutive games in which New York Yankees' Joe DiMaggio had a base hit in 1941, still a record.
6............'56' Hack Wilson hit 56 home runs in 1930, a National League record until the time of Mark McGwire.
7............'56' people died in a fire at Valley Parade on May 11 in the Bradford City stadium fire.
8...........'56' the number of curls, Shirley Temple, as a child wire. The curls were set by her mother who thus made sure of the exact number.
9...........'56' the number of counties in the state of Montana.
10.........'56' is the number of ethnic groups in China.
11.........'56' is the name of the town Fifty-Six, Arkansas.
"Some Lines to make You Smile"
1..........My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn't!
2..........I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
3..........I Work Hard Because Millions On Welfare Depend on Me!
4..........I used to have a handle on life, but it broke!
5...........You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me!
6...........I'm not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing!
7...........Nyquil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning medicine!
8...........Out of my mind. Back in five minutes!
9...........Consciousness: That annoying time between naps!
10.........Wrinkled Was Not One of the Things I Wanted to Be When I Grew Up!
1............Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.
2............James Doohan, who played Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott on Star Trek, was missing the entire middle finger of his right hand..
3............Every person has a unique tongue print.
4............The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
5............The youngest Pope was 11 years old.
6............Einstein couldn't speak fluently when he was nine. His parents thought he might be retarded.
7............Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson."
8............In "Casablanca", Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam".
9............A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time: 1/100th of a second.
10..........The mask used by Michael Myers in the original film "Halloween" was actually a Captain Kirk ( William Shatner) mask painted white.
"America the Beautiful"
Of the nearly 2,500 wooden carousels carved in America between 1885 and the 1930's, fewer than 150 are still in existence. One of the finest survivors, however, can be found on the county fairgrounds in Burlington, Colorado.
The sixth of 74 carousels manufactured by the Philadelphia Toboggn Company between 1904 and 1933, the Kit Carson County Carousel is a three row, stationary (the animals do not move up and down) machine housed in a 12 sided frame building. It is the only antique carousel in America still having original paint on both the scenery panels and on the animals. It also is the only surviving menagerie (having other animals in addition to horses) carousel made by PTC. And it's fully operational.
1...........Texas is the second most populous state in the U.S. after California. New York is the third most populous. In 2010, the U.S. Census reported the population of Texas as 25,146,561. In 1990, it was 16,986,510. The population density in 2010 was 96.3 people per square mile.
2............Texas still owns all of its public lands. If the federal government wants to create a park or cut a stand of timber, it must first ask the state's permission.
3............The city of Slaughter, Texas has never had a homicide.
4............Texas experiences the most tornadoes in the United States, with an average of 139 per year. Tornadoes occur most often in North Texas and the Panhandle.
5............Sam Houston (1793-1863) was the first president and first governor of Texas. The Cherokee, with whom he lived in Tennessee called him 'the Raven'. Though one of the most famous Texans he was actually born in Virginia and served as governor of Tennessee. A statue of Sam Houston called a 'Tribute to Courage' is the world's largest freestanding statute of an American.
6...............The famous battle cry "Remember the Alamo!" is often attributed to Sam Houston but was actually coined by Texas general Sidney Sherman (1805-1873)
7...............Camels were imported into Texas twice in the 1850's by the U.S. War Department in the belief that they would be handy animals to use during the Indian Wars. They could be seen roaming Texas hills and deserts well into the 1920's
8...............Each year Amarillo hosts the World's Largest Calf Fry Cook Off. "Calf Fries" are bull testicles.
9...............John Wayne and Chuck Norris are honorary Texas Rangers. The Texas Rangers are the oldest law enforcement agency in North America with statewide jurisdiction.
10..............The highest temperature ever recorded in Texas was 120 degree F. in Seymour on August 12, 1936. The lowest temperature ever recorded was -23 degrees F at Tulia in 1899 and at Seminole on February 8, 1933.
""A critical spirit is like poison ivy - - it only takes a little contact to spread its poison."
, 2016
December 23, 1987....Dick Rutan & Jeanna Yeager set a new world of 216 hours of continuous flight around the world without refueling. Their aircraft Voyager traveled 24,986 miles at a speed of about 115 miles per hour.
(Sorry No #55).
1............Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.
