WEDNESDAY READER | DECEMBER 21
Greetings – I trust you are feeling the magic and uniqueness that this time of year has to offer. Open yourselves and your heart – the magic and uniqueness will find you. It does me.
I’m getting ready to travel to Sacramento to be with family for Christmas. My flight is on Christmas Eve day. Super looking forward to being with my people.
My second Christmas without Peter. But love from and to family and friends and a little time make it better and better.
As always, I thank you for your support in reading Daymaker Readable Art. All blessings.
POP QUIZ
- COUNTING RUDOLPH, HOW MANY SANTA’S REINDEER ARE THERE?
a) 6
b) 10
c) 12
d) 9 - WHAT IS FROSTY THE SNOWMAN’S NOSE MADE FROM?
a) a carrot
b) a piece of coal
c) a button
d) a twig - WHAT’S THE NAME OF THE AUTHOR WHO WROTE THE BOOK, A CHRISTMAS CAROL?
a) John Steinbeck
b) Charles Dickens
c) Walt Whitman - WHAT DOES ALVIN THE CHIPMUNK WANT FOR CHRISTMAS?
a) Hula Hoop
b) Guitar
c) a Game Boy
d) a puppy
QUICK QUESTION
WOULD YOU RATHER LOSE ALL YOUR OLD MEMORIES OR NEVER BE ABLE TO CREATE NEW ONES?
POP QUIZ ANSWERS
- d) 9 reindeer
- c) a button
- b) Charles Dickens
- a) Hula hoop
A GRANDFATHER’S WISDOM
One evening an elderly Cherokee told his grandson about the moral fight between that goes on in every person:
Grandson, the great battle is between the two wolves that dwell inside us all.
One is EVIL.
It is Anger, Envy, Jealousy, Regret, Greed Arrogance, Self-Pity, Guilt, Resentment, Inferiority, Lies, False Pride, Superiority and Ego.
The other is GOOD.
It is Joy, Love, Peace, Serenity, Humility, Kindness, Empathy, Generosity, Truth, Compassion, Benevolence and Faith.
The grandson thought about his grandfather’s message for a minute and then asked, Which wolf wins?
The grandfather simply replied, The one you feed.
~ with permission – poetic expressions.co.uk
YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO TODAY. NOT WHAT YOU SAY YOU’LL DO TOMORROW.
(( Starve the landfills. Recycle. ))
RIDDLE ME THIS
HOW DO YOU SPELL “COW” IN 13 LETTERS?
KARAT BREAD
This wonderful, super simple to make breakfast bread (or snack attack in the middle of the day or middle of the night) is moist and oh-so-delicious.
Yep, it has carrots in it and pineapple, too; absolutely part of the moist deliciousness that is the bread. Don’t fret about the carrot/pineapple thing. It’s greatness.
There are times when we just gotta take a leap of faith in a recipe. This is totally one of those times! Makes 2 loaves and freezes well.
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups finely grated carrots
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup chopped, toasted, pecans (optional)
- 8 ounces crushed, canned, pineapple, drained
In a large mixing bowl:
- beat eggs until foamy
- beat vegetable oil with eggs for just a second or two
- stir in carrots
- stir in sugars
- stir in cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt
- add flour, and stir until well combined
- now stir in pineapple and pecans
Grease and lightly flour 2 loaf pans. Bake in a preheated 350* oven for 1 hour until done (stick a knife in loaves – if it comes out dry – it’s done). Cool and dump pans upside down to remove loaves. Voila!
RIDDLE ANSWER
SEE O DOUBLE YOU
YES VIRGINIA …
This heartfelt query was first printed in the New York Sun in 1897, along with a response from editor, Francis P. Church. It was so popular that it was reprinted every year until the Sun went out of business in 1949.
It’s reprinting continues to find us in 2022.
Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth: is there a Santa Claus? ~ Virginia O’Hanlon
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.
Alas, how dreary would be the world if there was no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills this world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus!
You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus.
The most real things in the world are those that neither men nor children can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they aren’t there.
Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders that are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it real?
Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Fascinating Stuff
FASCINATING STUFF
- Because grazing land is inaccessible, sheep that live on North Ronaldsay, northermost of Scottland’s Orkney Islands, dine almost exclusively on dabberlocks (Alaria esculenta) and dulse (Palmaria palmata). That’s seaweed to you and me. Small, dark and rugged, North Ronaldsay sheep are known to produce superb wool, although some people claim their mutton has a fishy taste.
- The first Russian-language edition of Boris Pasternaqk’s novel “Doctor Zhivago” was published by and American publishing company funded by the CIA. Soviet publishers in the mid-1950’s refused the book because it was critical of communism. The CIA figured anything the Soviets objected to so strongly was bound to be in the interest of democracy, so it arranged for copies to be printed in Russian and smuggled into the Soviet Union.
- The story of Hanukkah centers on a rebellion led by Judah the Maccabee in 166 B.C. to overthrow the Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes and reclaim the Temple for the Jewish people. It’s one of history’s earliest examples of guerrilla warfare. In November 2015, archaeologists unearthed a fortress in Jerusalem where they believe some of the fighting occurred.
- Choosing the perfect gift for the president of the United States has resulted in some well-meant but weird selections. Theodore Roosevelt received a Grevy’s zebra and a caseload of baboons from King Menelik of Abyssinia. (They were given to the National Zoo.) Richard Nixon received a tapestry portrait of himself from the Shah of Iran. Warren G. Harding received no fewer than 150 cornets. (He blew a mean horn, apparently.) And a thoughtful wigmaker gave John Quincy Adams a toupee.
- When Frank Sinatra died, he was buried with a flask of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey. Jackie Gleason reputedly introduced Frank to the drink, but Sinatra made it his signature, famously sipping it onstage between sets. In 2014, Jack Daniel’s introduced a limited-edition 90 proof whiskey named for Sinatra, and in 2015 an even smaller batch of select whiskey in honor of what would have been Sinatra’s 100th birthday, December 12, 2015.
~ from the archives, Trivia Bits by Leslie Elman, copyright
