December 23 is not just Christmas Eve Eve; it’s a holiday in its own right. More than one, in fact. It’s the Night of the Radishes in Oaxaca City, Mexico, Tibb’s Eve in Newfoundland, Tom Bawcock’s Eve in Cornwall, and Festivus everywhere.  Festivus first became widely recognized (in the US, anyway) in 1997 when it… Continue reading

December 22 In case you haven’t noticed, politics and politicians all around the world have recently been pretty obviously making poor decisions, screwing things up, and being generally incompetent. But wait, it’s December 22, which means there’s a long list of similarly idiotic actions taken by politicians, going back a long, long time. Not as… Continue reading

December 20 has for a long time been a day of expansion, especially for nation-states. The United States finalized the Louisiana Purchase from France on this day in 1803. On the one hand, it was quite a bargain at just $15 million for what looks like, on a map, to virtually double the size of… Continue reading

For some reason, December 15 is host to an unusual combination of birthdays. They seem to come in sets, like the engineers Gustave Eiffel, born in 1832, and Charles Duryea, born in 1861. Eiffel, of course, is known for the Eiffel Tower, although really he was just one of the designers. It wasn’t even his… Continue reading

Today, December 14th, is Monkey Day. It’s not an age-old holiday; it only dates from 2000 when it was created, almost accidentally, by two art students. They started with only the term Monkey Day, and possibly as a result, celebrations vary quite a bit among the (at least) 17 nations where it’s observed. In some… Continue reading

The US Army traces its history back to 1775; so does the Navy. The Marines were also formed in 1775, and became part of the Navy in 1834. The Air Force came much later, of course, in 1947. And the “Space Force,” which is the world’s only uniformed service that lacks any means of reaching… Continue reading

Kids in Iceland have been looking forward to December 12; this is the night the first of the Yule Lads arrives. They’re 13 pranksters — the sons of the giants Gryla and Leppaludi, who live in the mountains in a cave. You definitely want to stay away from Gryla and Leppaludi. Each of the 13… Continue reading

In the US, December 11 is “Indiana Day”, but really it’s only celebrated in Indiana itself. It commemorates Indiana becoming a state in 1816, but the date became an official observance only in 1925. Indiana was the 19th state, admitted a year before Mississippi, when it was transformed from the “Indiana Territory” to Indiana.  As… Continue reading

Today is December 10, although if you write it “Dec 10” you might mean the PDP-10 computer from Digital Equipment Corp (“DEC”) back in the 70s. Like most of the computers back then, the DEC 10 was a mainframe that lived in its own (large) room that probably had its own air conditioning system. As… Continue reading

One of the shortcomings of growing up entirely in one culture is that you might never really understand some of the holidays celebrated in other cultures. December 9 might highlight something like that for those of us brought up outside of Sweden, where it’s Anna’s Day today. What that means in Sweden is a celebration… Continue reading