Saturday, November 17, 2018


Today is Sunday, November 18 and there are only 37 days until Christmas. Time to start searching for those gifts that you bought early and then put away and now do not know where they are. Today we remember the birthdays of William Gilbert, Alan Shepard, Jr and Jeffrey Siegel. On this day in 1307 William Tell shot an apple off his son’s head, in 1865 Mark Twain published “Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and in 1960 the US Copyright office issued its 10 millionth registration. In Albania it is Independence Day, in Haiti it is Army Day, in Oman it is National Day and in the US it is Mickey Mouse’s Birthday and National Princess Day.

Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse! Mickey Mouse – the cartoon character and mascot of the Walt Disney Company was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at the Walt Disney Studios in 1928. He debuted publicly in “Steamboat Willie” on November 18, 1928. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Mickey Mouse was created as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Here is an interesting fact for you. Each of Mickey's hands has only three fingers and a thumb. Disney said that this was both an artistic and financial decision, explaining "Artistically five digits are too many for a mouse. His hand would look like a bunch of bananas. Financially, not having an extra finger in each of 45,000 drawings that make up a six and one-half minute short has saved the Studio millions." That should give you some good filler for your Mickey Mouse trivia folder.

This past week, we had our first snow storm, much earlier than usual. A few years ago there was one on Halloween which messed up that day, but generally we get them in late December and into the new year. What got me was that the storm wreaked havoc on the highways and for commuters. I am not really sure why. They had been predicting this snow since Monday. The forecasters kept saying that, depending on what model you believed, we would see up to six inches in my area and more the further north you went.

The snow started to fall in the early afternoon and by the time people were on their way home it was chaos. The news kept showing accidents with cars driving into trucks, buses getting stuck and traffic moving at a very slow pace. The public transportation terminals were so jammed with people that they were standing outside waiting to get in. All of this was because the people responsible for clearing the snow so traffic could move had not done their job. Of course, after the fact there was a lot of finger pointing and everyone was blaming someone else, but the bottom line was that the job did not get done. One person being interviewed said, “I am not sure why they weren’t ready. I watched TV and knew this was coming. I have on boots, a warm coat and I have my umbrella. I was ready. Why weren’t they?”

I have always found it interesting that doing a bad job is okay as long as you have someone to blame for it. Imagine this scene in a bakery. “Frank, a customer just returned a cake that was not completely baked. The inside was still raw batter.” Frank shakes his head and says, “That will be a problem for some of the cakes we made this morning because the oven is not working right. I told the manager that it needed to be fixed, but I guess he didn’t get it done.” “But if you knew the oven wasn’t working right, why did you use it?” “Because I had to get those cakes done.” “But they weren’t done, they were raw in the middle!” “That was because the manager didn’t get the oven fixed.” … but I digress.

Back to the snow issue, it would seem to me that if you know a storm is coming, you should be prepared to deal with it. I would think it would be better to be geared up for the worst and then deal with what you get than to be unprepared and have to play catch up the rest of the day. But that’s just me. To paraphrase a statement I make all the time – it is better to be ready and not need to be than to not be ready and need to be. I will now let this subject rest and move on. I am sure that most of you were not responsible for the foolishness that went on the other day, anyway. If any of you were, shame on you.

This week our fact tells us that in Bexley, Ohio ordinance number 223 prohibits the installation and usage of slot machines in outhouses. Is this because the machine takes up valuable space? I would think that common sense would tell you not to use a slot machine in there. If you were to win and the money started coming out would you have the hands free to catch it? Would you really want whatever fell on the floor? Another time that I would love to know the story behind the law.

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