Friday-Monday, December 23-26, 2005

Merry Christmahannukwanzaa...

Try as I might I couldn't squeeze "holiday" into my season's greetings but next year, look out. Somehow we manage to create controversy in a season of peace and goodwill and without sounding like a seasonal Rodney King, I offer my take on the whole mess...

I think a "Christmas" tree is just that. It's not a "holiday" tree. For generations it has been the symbol of, guess what ? Christmas ! If I choose not to celebrate Christmas, I will not buy a "Christmas" tree but I won't consider it a "holiday" tree when looking at one nor do I deny Christians the right to celebrate "Christmas" with a tree...

I think a menorah is a "menorah" but believe me if someone could come up with a substitute name, we would've had one. It is the symbol of Chanukkah for millions of Jews around the globe. If you do not celebrate Chanukkah, don't buy a menorah but please don't call it anything else. It's a menorah. The biggest controversy created by my people is how to spell "Chanukkah". Let's see, does it start with a "c" or an "h" ? Are there 2 "k"s or one ? I'm still not sure...

If you celebrate Kwanzaa, God bless. What's that ? You don't celebrate anything ? That's okay too...

And if you find my seasonal greeting of "Merry Christmahannukwanzaa" offensive, perhaps there's an alternative. How about Festivus, "for the rest of us" ? One thing that can never be deemed controversial is "Happy New Year", which I wish for all of you...

December 23 Memories...

1823) The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ("'Twas the night before Christmas") by Clement C. Moore is published in the Troy (NY) Sentinel...

1834) English architect Joseph Hansom patents his "safety cab", better known as the Hansom cab (still available for hire outside Central Park so gather up the kiddies, tap out your credit card at the closest ATM and enjoy)...

1888) Following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cuts off part of his own earlobe (how come he didn't cut off Gauguin's earlobe ?)...

1942) Bob Hope does his 1st Christmas show to entertain U.S. airmen stationed in Alaska and starts an annual tradition...

1942) Bing Crosby tops the charts with "White Christmas" (his version of the seasonal classic will top the charts again in 1945 and 1947 and will be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974)...

1951) The 1st NFL championship game to be televised features the Rams beating the Browns 24-17 (The DuMont Network pays $75,000 for the rights)...

1959) "Run, run Chuc-Rudolph". Chuck Berry is arrested for "transporting a minor across a state line for an immoral purpose"...

1959) The Drifters record "This Magic Moment"...

1959) Frankie Avalon has the last #1 song of the 50s, "Why" (the shortest title of any chart topping hit)...

1964) The Beatles are #1 with "I Feel Fine" (this is the 30th song by the group to reach the charts in 1964, the most songs in one year by any group)...

1964) The Beach Boys make their 1st appearance on "Shindig!"...

1968) 82 crew members of the U.S. intelligence gathering ship, Pueblo are released by North Korea after being captured 11 months earlier...

1969) Elton John and Bernie Taupin begin their songwriting team...

1972) Pittsburgh beats Oakland 13-7 in an NFL playoff game on a last-second play called the "Immaculate Reception" (made by the Steelers' Franco Harris)...

1972) John Lennon's film "Imagine" premieres on national TV...

1977) Cat Stevens converts to Islam, changing his name to Yusef Islam...

1977) The Bee Gees top the charts with "How Deep Is Your Love" (the 1st song from the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack to become a single. The LP remains at #1 for 24 weeks)...

1978) Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" is released...

1986) The experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, complete the 1st non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling...

1989) Phil Collins has the #1 song of the week and year, "Another Day In Paradise"...

1995) Fans pelt players, coaches and the San Diego equipment manager with snow balls in an ugly outing in the Meadowlands, a 27-17 Giant loss to the Chargers (Sid Brooks, equipment manager is knocked unconscious by a direct hit. This whole mess precipitates a new NFL policy making it mandatory for all snow and ice being removed in the stands before a game starts)...

1997) A jury in Denver convicts Terry Nichols for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing...

1997) Woody Allen, 62, marries the adopted daughter of wife Mia Farrow, 27-year old Soon-Yi Previn (I won't go there)...

To ensure accuracy, mulitple reference sources were used in the timeline...

Happy Birthday To...

1942) Ex-Met pitcher Jerry Koosman...

1943) Harry Shearer...

1946) Susan Lucci...

1964) Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder...

Saturday, December 24, 2005...

December 24 Memories...

1812) The War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain ends with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium...

1818) Franz Gruber of Oberndorf, Germany, composes the music for "Silent Night" to words written by Josef Mohr...

1865) Several veterans of the Confederate Army form a private social club in Pulaski, TN, called the Ku Klux Klan...

1906) Canadian physicist Reginald A. Fessenden becomes the 1st person to broadcast a music program over the radio from Brant Rock, MA (contrary to popular belief, Fessenden, not Cousin Brucie, becomes the 1st disc jockey)...

1920) Enrico Caruso gives his last public performance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (he was available for weddings and bar mitzvahs however)...

1948) A midnight Mass is broadcast on TV for the 1st time, from St. Patrick's Cathedral...

1953) NBC-TVs "Dragnet" becomes the 1st network program to be sponsored (Fatima cigarettes has the honors)...

1954) R&B singer Johnny Ace shoots himself fatally while playing Russian roulette backstage at a concert in Houston. Ace was 25...

1955) ('Thank you uh-Lennon-uh sisters-uh") The Lennon Sisters debut on "The Lawrence Welk Show" on ABC-TV...

1956) The infamous "I Love Lucy" Christmas show airs...

1966) Tommy James records "I Think We're Alone Now"...

1967) Joe Namath becomes the 1st NFL quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards...

1968) The Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve TV broadcast...

1978) Bjorn Ulvaeus & Agnetha Falkstad (both are members of ABBA) announce their separation and filing for divorce (the group changes its name to "BA")...

1981) Guardian Angels Curtis Sliwa and Lisa Evers walk down the aisle in their red berets...

1990) Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman say "I Do" (Cruise celebrates by reading "Dianetics" while jumping on a couch)...

1992) President Bush (#41) pardons former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and 5 others in the Iran-Contra scandal...

1997) Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, a.k.a. Carlos the Jackal, is sentenced to life in prison for the 1975 murders of 2 French investigators and a Lebanese national...

To ensure accuracy, multiple reference sources were used in the timeline...

Happy Birthday To...

1920) Fats Domino cohort Dave Bartholomew...

1944) Recording company executive Mike Curb...

1966) Drew Carey funnyman Diedrich Bader...

1971) Ricky Martin...

1974) (If there's a show on radio or TV, he's hosting it...) Ryan Seacrest...

Sunday, December 25, 2005...

December 25 Memories...

1776) General George Washington and his troops cross the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces in Trenton (they pass the bridge that says "Trenton makes, the world takes")...

1818) "Silent Night", completed the day before, is performed for the 1st time at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Austria...

1896) John Philip Sousa finally titles his melody, "The Stars and Stripes Forever"...

1939) Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is read for the 1st time on CBS Radio...

1946) W.C. Fields dies at 66...

1948) The Perry Como Show debuts...

1950) Dick Tracy marries Tess Truehart (but keeps his fedora on during the honeymoon)...

1958) Alan Freed's "Christmas Rock 'n Roll Spectacular" at the Loew's State Theater stars Frankie Avalon, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, the Everly Brothers, Moonglows, Johnnie Ray & Jackie Wilson...

1959) Richard Starkey, a.k.a. Ringo Starr, 18, gets his 1st drum set for Christmas...

1964) "Goldfinger" premieres...

1967) Paul McCartney & Jane Asher get engaged (but they never marry)...

1971) The longest NFL game to-date ends when Miami kicker Garo Yepremian kicks a field goal in the 2nd quarter of overtime to give the Dolphins a 27-24 win over Kansas City, putting Miami into the NFC championship game the following week (the game lasts 82 minutes and 40 seconds)...

1977) Harlem's famed Apollo Theater re-opens after renovation...

1977) Charlie Chaplin dies at 88...

1984) The Knicks' Bernard King scores 60 points but they still lose to the Nets 120-114...

1989) Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and wife Elena, are executed following a popular uprising (not very popular with Nicolae and Elena however)...

1989) Former (and probably future) Yankee manager Billy Martin dies in a truck crash in Fenton, New York...

1990) "Godfather III" premieres...

1991) Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev goes on TV to announce his resignation...

1995) Singer Dean Martin dies at 78...

1997) For the 1st time in history U.S. movie box office receipts pass $6 billion...

1998) Seven days into their journey, Richard Branson, Steve Fossett and Per Lindstrand give up their attempt to make the 1st nonstop around-the-world baloon flight, ditching near Hawaii...

2002) Katie Hnida becomes the 1st woman to play in a Division I football game when she attempts an extra point for New Mexico against UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl (the attempt failed)...

To ensure accuracy, multiple reference sources were used in the timeline...

Happy Birthday To...

1912) Singer Tony Martin...

1946) Jimmy Buffet...

1946) Football Hall of Famer Larry Csonka...

1949) Sissy Spacek...

1950) Sr. White House Adviser Karl Rove...

1954) Annie Lennox...

1958) Rickey Henderson...

Monday, December 26, 2005...

1620) The Pilgrim Fathers land at New Plymouth, MA to found Plymouth Colony with John Carver as Governor...

1776) The British suffer a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the Revolutionary War...

1799) George Washington is eulogized by Col. Henry Lee as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen"...

1865) James H. Nason of Franklin, MA, receives a patent for a coffee percolator (thank you James H. Nason)...

1908) Jack Johnson knocks out Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, becoming the 1st black heavyweight champion...

1947) A major snowstorm blankets New York City under 25.8" in 16 hours (the severe weather is blamed for 80 deaths in the northeast)...

1954) "The Shadow" airs on radio for the last time...

1956) Fidel Castro attempts a secret landing in Cuba to overthrow the Batista regime (all but 11 of his supporters are killed)...

1961) Jay & the Americans record "She Cried"...

1963) Capitol Records releases the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There" as a single...

1968) Led Zeppelin begins their 1st U.S. tour in Boston, opening for Vanilla Fudge...

1972) Harry S. Truman, 33rd president, dies in Kansas City at 88...

1973) "Exorcist" starring Linda Blair and rated X, premieres...

1974) Jack Benny dies at 80...

1982) The Man of the Year in Time Magazine is a computer (it's the 1st time a non-human receives the honors)...

1986) "Search for Tomorrow" is seen for the last time on CBS-TV after a run of 35 years...

1992) Sports play-by-play man (and voice of the Jets) Marty Glickman retires at 75...

1993) Rodney Dangerfield, 72, marries Joan Child (appropriate name), 41...

1996) Six-year old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado (the murder remains unsolved)...

1999) R&B singer and songwriter Curtis Mayfield dies at 57...

2000) Jason Robards dies at 78...

To ensure accuracy, multiple reference sources were used in the timeline...

Happy Birthday To...

1914) Richard Widmark...

1935) Abdul "Duke" Fakir (The Four Tops)...

1940) Phil Spector...

1945) John Walsh ("America's Most Wanted" host)...

1947) Baseball Hall of Famer and ex-Red Sox great Carlton Fisk...

1954) Baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith...

Make it a safe and happy holiday, Mel...