Category: Holidays

Stories concerning holidays and seasons

Bad Deal Black Friday

Bad Deal Black Friday
Relax, stay home, digest your meal.

Black Friday is for suckers. If you are reading this you are probably not one of them. It should be called Bad Deal Black Friday or maybe just Bad Deal Friday.

CNN Money reported that in 2014 93 percent of stores surveyed are offering customers year-old products for the same “discount” that was offered last year. Oh, that’s smart. Pay the same price for old tech as you would when it’s new.

Paul Joseph Watson writing for the inimitable InfoWars.com spells it out here: “Stores enjoy higher profit margins during the holiday period because retailers artificially inflate prices of goods in the months before Black Friday in order to make the subsequent discounts look good in comparison,” he says. “. . .The scam also relies on shoppers impulse buying another product that has a 98 per cent mark up value. So even if the first item represents a genuine discount, the vastly inflated price of the impulse purchase more than makes up for it.”

So, don’t fight the crowds, obnoxious people and traffic. Stay in, digest yesterday’s meal and relax. Maybe, check out one of many NFL minor league football games being broadcast. Mull which teams the Philadelphia Eagles could beat. Life is too short to subject oneself to commercial corporate scams.

And while Christmas shopping for loved ones, concentrate on gifts that are fun, meaningful, inexpensive, locally made and long-lasting. You can buy tech anytime and it will be cheaper on Dec. 26.

Bad Deal Black Friday

Chef Chris Thanksgiving Meal

Chef Chris Thanksgiving Meal

Today’s Thanksgiving meal featured a delicious smoked turkey by Chef Chris that took him 18 hours to do; a salad by chefs Cynthia and Anthony and a delicious pumpkin pie by Chef Miranda for dessert  along with chocolate roll and cream puffs by Mrs. Chef Bill Sr.

Chef Bill Sr had the day off.

Chef Chris Thanksgiving Meal

WKRP Turkey Episode — Happy Thanksgiving

WKRP Turkey Episode

Thanksgiving How-To

Thanksgiving How-To Thanksgiving How-to Courtesy of the Delaware County Patriots

HOW TO OBSERVE THANKSGIVING
~~ Author Unknown ~~

Count your blessings instead of your crosses;
Count your gains instead of your losses.
Count your joys instead of your woes;
Count your friends instead of your foes.
Count your smiles instead of your tears;
Count your courage instead of your fears.
Count your full years instead of your lean;
Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.
Count your health instead of your wealth;
Count on God instead of yourself.

Thanksgiving How-To

Philly Veterans Day Parade

Philadelphia held its first Veterans Day Parade, yesterday, Nov. 8, and among the participants on the Delaware County Veterans Memorial float were Margaret Lozinak Lawrence and noted actor and director Peter de Feo. Mrs. Lawrence, a Korean War veteran, will be among the recipients of this year's Freedom Medal bestowed by the Memorial and Delaware County Council. Way to go Mom. The float was supplied by Guy Fizzano of Fizzano Brothers and the arrangements were made by Barbara Ann Zippi of Artemis Productions. Philly Veterans Day ParadePhiladelphia held its first Veterans Day Parade, yesterday, Nov. 8, and among those on the Delaware County Veterans Memorial float were Margaret Lozinak Lawrence and noted actor and director Peter de Feo.

Mrs. Lawrence, a Korean War veteran, will be among the recipients of this year’s Freedom Medal bestowed by the Memorial and Delaware County Council.

Way to go Mom.

The float was supplied by Guy Fizzano of Fizzano Brothers and the arrangements were made by Barbara Ann Zippi of Artemis Productions.

The Delaware County Veterans Day Parade is 11 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 11 — the right date for it — on State Street in Media. It starts on Edgmont Street and ends on Veterans Square in front of the Courthouse.

Philly Veterans Day Parade

Standard Time 2015 Starts

Standard Time 2015 Starts Standard time 2015 starts 2 o'clock tomorrow morning, Nov. 1. Remember to turn your clocks back one hour before going to sleep. Standard time 2015 starts 2 o’clock tomorrow morning, Nov. 1. Remember to turn your clocks back one hour before going to sleep.

Standard Time 2015 Starts

 

 

Autumn 2015 Starts Now

The 2015 autumnal equinox is right now 4:21 a.m., Sept. 23. Autumn 2015 Starts Now.The 2015 autumnal equinox is right now 4:21 a.m., Sept. 23 according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac as the sun crosses the celestial equator. Fall has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere, and the days are now shorter than the nights and will continue to be so until the spring equinox.

The celestial equator is a circle concentric with the actual equator that extends infinitely to space. As the Earth has a 23 degree tilt the the northern half tilts towards the Sun during half its orbit and away the other half. The equinoxes occur when tilt switches.

Autumn 2015

Tisha B’AV 5775

Tisha B'AV 5775
A depiction of the First Temple of Jerusalem

Tisha B’AV which means the 9th of Av as per the Hebrew calendar  started last night, July 25, at sundown and ends at nightfall today.

It commemorates numerous disasters that befell the Jewish people, which in a rather strange coincidence all have happened on the 9th of Av. They include the destruction of the First Temple which occurred at 587 BCE, the destruction of the Second Temple which occurred in the Year 70; the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 and the formal approval of the Nazi Final Solution in 1941.

Observance of this day by the devout include a 25-hour fast and the singing of lamentations and dirges.

Hat tip Tom Conigliaro

 

Tisha B’AV 5775

 

Happy Independence Day 2015

A few July 4 facts courtesy of the Delaware County Patriots. AmericanFlag

  • There were 56 signers to the Declaration of Independence.
  • Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston comprised the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration. Jefferson, regarded as the strongest and most eloquent writer, wrote most of the document.
  • John Hancock, President of the Second Continental Congress, was the first signer to the Declaration of Independence. He did so in an entirely blank space making it the largest and most famous signature — hence the term John Hancock, which is still used today as a synonym for signature.
  • Benjamin Franklin (age 70), who represented Pennsylvania, was the oldest of the signers. Edward Rutledge (age 26), of South Carolina, was the youngest.
  • Two future presidents signed, John Adams (second President) and Thomas Jefferson (third President). Both died on the 50th anniversary of signing the Declaration (July 4, 1826).
  • Robert Livingston, who represented New York, was on the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence but was recalled by his state before he could sign it.
  • Charles Carroll, who represented Maryland, was the last surviving signer of the Declaration. He died in 1832 at the age of 95.
Happy Independence Day 2015

Summer 2015 Starts Now

Summer 2015 starts at 12:38 p.m., EDT, June 21, which is right now if our internet service provider’s clock is accurate. Summer 2015 starts at 12:38 p.m., EDT, June 21, which is right now if our internet service provider’s clock is accurate.

This means that tilt of Earth’s semi-axis is most inclined to the sun in the Northern Hemisphere which is a solstice.

The axis will in a few moments slowly start reversing itself until it is the Southern Hemisphere that is most inclined to the sun.

This would be the start of our winter (and Argentina’s summer).

Today is the longest day of the year.

 Summer 2015 Starts Now