Dear Kid,

December 12^th was Quite a day in history. And, being the kind of mother I am, I have decided to try to make some sense out of it for you. (I am such a good mom.)

In 1408 The Order of the Dragon was first created. This is important since the Dust Dragons are direct decedents of the Order and believe it is their dust-given right to overtake any place they want to overtake. Since I am a better blogger than a housekeeper, mostly I don’t argue. Mostly.

Fast forward to 1787 when Pennsylvania became 2nd state to ratify US Constitution, paving the way for We The People to become a country.

Speaking of We The People, on December 12, 1800, Washington DC was established as the capital of US so that many, many years later Auntie M could go to college there. Many years.

Then in 1914, many People tried to fly out of windows on Wall Street because of the largest one-day percentage drop in the history of Dow Jones Industrial Average, down 24.39%. Note: They did not master the art of flying before hitting the pavement.

Musically speaking, in 1792, Ludwig Von Beethoven received his 1st lesson in music composition from Franz Joseph Haydn. Ludwig was 22 at the time. You know why this is important, right? How could we have Peanuts and Snoopy without Schroeder playing Beethoven?

A lot of sports things happened on December 12^th (which is odd because I don’t usually think of December 12^th as a big sports day. But it was, so pay attention, because We, The People are big sports fans).

In 1899 George F Bryant of Boston patented the wooden golf tee, paving the way for using golf tees for all sorts of things, even golf.

In 1930, the Baseball Rules Committee greatly revised the rule book. Pretty much no one noticed. On the same day in 1949, the American League voted 7-1 rejecting legalizing the spitball. The lone dissenter spit on the decision.

In 1953, Chuck Yeager reached Mach 2.43. I don’t know if that really counts as sport, but it paved the way for the movie The Right Stuff which is a Most Excellent film.

Speaking of excellent movies, in 1965 Gale Sayers of Chicago Bears scored 6 TDs, tying the NFL record, paving the way (quite indirectly) for the movie Brian’s Song which is not only Most Excellent but is also one of the all-time Tear Jerkers.

In 1968 Arthur Ashe became the 1st black to be ranked #1 in tennis. Yep, he was that good.

And perhaps most importantly, in 1981 Wayne Gretzky scored the quickest 50th goal (game 39).

Here are a bunch of random bits of December 12^th history:

In 1901 Italian physicist and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi succeeded in sending the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean, disproving detractors who told him that the curvature of the earth would limit transmission to 200 miles or less. This historic message was Morse code for the letter “s” rendering the whole event fairly obscure in history. Take a lesson from Alex Bell and be memorable if you’re going to do something historic.

On December 12, 1913 Hebrew was officially introduced as the language for teaching in Palestinian schools. Tov!

In 1925, Mr. Arthur Heinman coined term “motel” and opened the Motel Inn in San Luis Obispo, CA. I think it’s pretty cool to be known almost a century later for having invented a word and a concept. I hope to be known as the mother of the child who invented the word “oversplode” (among other things).

And for a Cincinnati fact, on December 12, 1946 Tide detergent was introduced. Happy Birthday, Tide!

I The Mom hope your day is equally eventful,

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

After Thanksgiving and Black Friday it feels sort of sad that today doesn’t have a name. I was thinking about Grey Saturday, but it is actually gorgeous this morning so that won’t do. Then I thought maybe Recovery Saturday but that sounded depressing too. I know there is a movement to focus people on shopping local today that wants today to be called Small Business Saturday. Not sure how well that’s going to stick–time will tell. I guess I’ll wait until some savvy marketer decides the day after Black Friday should be a day devoted to purchasing veggies and calls it Succotash Saturday or something.

Whatever name we give today, November 30 is an Important Day in the history of entertainment.

In the year Not-Very-Many, Joe the Klutz fell face first into a pie giving birth to slapstick and pratfalls at the same time. Also giving his mother yet another opportunity to roll her eyes and realize she wasn’t likely to get grandchildren from Joe.

In 1886, the Folies Bergère in Paris (don’t forget to use your French accent) introduced its first revue featuring women in, well, not much. (Over the years, the costume budget kept shrinking as did the costumes.)

In 1963, Martin Walser’s Überlebensgross Herr Krott premieres in Stuttgartn (when I figure out what that means, I’ll probably forget to tell you.)

In 1971, the movie Brian’s Song premiered. Sales of Kleenex shot through the roof (serious tear jerker. I get soggy just thinking about it.).

In a much more recent event, Ken Jennings lost. You might need more context. Ken Jennings was a contestant on Jeopardy! and won 74 straight games (that’s a LOT) for a haul of over $2.5 million. He was finally beaten on November 30, 2004. This is Very Important because your Auntie M appeared on Jeopardy! and had the anti-luck of playing against Ken  (she was part of his winning streak). Auntie M came in second. Yay M!

The Grinch. What are we going to see tonight?

Love, Mom