The January 6th celebration of touring the People’s House from behind velvet ropes has passed, and it’s…
Christmas Again
Orthodox Christians use the Julian calendar, so their Christmas Day is January 7. The world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians wish each other a happy Christmas today, almost two weeks after the rest of the world celebrated on December 25. This is because they use the Julian, not the Gregorian calendar.
Yes, it’s Orthodox Christmas, where you watch your friends open presents on December 25th, but you must wait for January 7th…
Decorating the Christmas tree (Badnjak) includes burning it in on Christmas Eve and baking it into bread. Baked pine bread holds no appeal for me, but I’m not an Orthodox Christian.
Is Santa Clause St. Nicholas of Myra? Is he St. Basil? And when are you going to exchange gifts? Greek Orthodox Christians in Greece traditionally exchange presents on New Year’s Day, the feast day of St. Basil the Great.
Traditionally, Orthodox Christians fast for up to 40 days leading up to Christmas, preparing for the birth of Christ by abstaining from meat, dairy, fish, wine, and olive oil. After a vigil on Christmas Eve, Christmas itself is celebrated as one of the Church’s 12 Great Feasts, with churchgoing and celebration at home. If you celebrate this way, I hope your slice of Christmas cake contains the coin.
I haven’t seen any Second Christmas gifts, but maybe that’s because the tree is down. Drat. I’ll walk out to the coal bunker and see if Santa Claus or St. Basil might have added to it. I’ll also accept diesel and unleaded (premium and regular).
A Brief Return to Kwanzaa
Joe Biden spent a good deal of his boyhood hanging out in a Kwanzaa Church
Pedo Joe was practically raised by Kwanzaanians in Scranton donchaknow, no joke. Corn Pop (or is it Popcorn?) was an apostate Kwansaanian, which is one reason they had it out.
It does perhaps beg the question, however, as to why the Kwanzaa “holiday” can be explicitly noted by the White House but “Merry Christmas” must be spayed into “Happy Holidays.”
Ok, the Season has passed, moving on…
******
Rooms in a Lighthouse
Although the buildings of lighthouses differ depending on their location and purpose, they generally have common components. However, a distinction must also be made between a lighthouse station consisting of the lighthouse and all the outbuildings, such as the lighthouse keeper’s house, the fuel house, the boathouse, and the building for fog signaling, i.e., a land station, and an inhabited lighthouse as it was found at sea.
Sections of Bell Rock and Skerryvore Lighthouses, date 1884
Skerryvore is a remote reef that lies off the west coast of Scotland, 12 miles (19 kilometers) south-west of the island of Tiree. Skerryvore is best known as the name given to the lighthouse on the skerry, built with some difficulty between 1838 and 1844 by Alan Stevenson.
The Bell Rock Lighthouse, off the coast of Angus, Scotland, is the world’s oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse. It was built between 1807 and 1810 by Robert Stevenson on the Bell Rock (also known as Inchcape) in the North Sea, 11 miles (18 km) east of the Firth of Tay. Standing 35 meters (115 ft) tall, its light is visible from 35 statute miles (56 km) inland.
Inhabited towers usually have the following rooms. Please note that there is no standardized scheme apart from the lantern room, and the rooms are often arranged differently.
The lantern room is the glazed housing at the top of the lighthouse that contains the lamp and the lens. The glass panes are held in place by vertical or diagonal metal rungs. A lightning conductor and an earthing system connected to the dome’s metal roof ensure that any lightning strikes are safely discharged.
Sections of the Eddystone Lighthouse of 1759 and 1884
Immediately below the lantern room is usually a guard room where fuel and other supplies are stored and where the keeper prepares the lanterns for the night and often keeps watch. The clockwork (for turning the lenses) was also located there. On a lighthouse, there is often an open platform, the gallery, outside the watch room (main gallery), or the lantern room (lantern gallery). It was mainly used to clean the outside of the lantern room windows. Below this was a living room, bedroom, and possibly a separate kitchen. If not, a cooking area was accommodated in the living room. In addition, there were often several storage rooms, an oil room (where the oil for the lantern was stored), and a coal room. And if you’re wondering where the bathroom was – well, there wasn’t one, there was a wash bowl, possibly a wooden tub for an occasional bath, but rarely, and chamber pots in the bedroom.
Life in a lighthouse at sea was not easy, and he brought many an old sea dog to his knees. The lighthouse keepers on land had it much easier.
Because Tomorrow is “Clown World” on VM
Spear Points:
** My wife said that I’m obsessed with geology. I asked her, “What planet are you on?”
** My kids bought an alarm clock for me that swears at you instead of beeping. It was a rude awakening.
** I don’t trust stairs. They’re always up to something.
** What’s the difference between a tuna and a piano? You can tun-a piano. But you can’t tun-a fish.
** To the guy who invented zero – thanks for nothin’.
** I told my family that I wanted to be cremated. They made an appointment for Tuesday.
** When I worked for the circus, I was a human cannonball until they fired me.
** My kids asked if I’d seen the dog bowl. I replied that I didn’t think he did.
** I’m writing a book on reverse psychology. Please don’t buy it.
** I’m also writing a book on teaching short people math. It’s titled Making the Little Things Count.
** I told a joke at a Zoom meeting, and nobody laughed. It turns out that I’m not remotely funny.
** Fun with police work:
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
ID the Track
3
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Finnish Fokker D.XXI fitted with P&W R-1535 engines
2. North American F-100 Super Sabre
Identify the Track:
T37E1 .50 Caliber Multiple Gun Motor Carriage
Yes, it’s a T-37E1. Yes on the aircraft
IDA-
1. Finnish Fokker D.XXI fitted with P&W R-1535 engines
2. North American F-100 Super Sabre.
IDT-
Carriage, Motor, 40mm Gun, T59
Well done!
Always amazing to me, and could be just me as I have my own savant stuff…but how many in the world could line out “ Finnish Fokker D.XXI fitted with P&W R-1535 engines”?
Serious genius.
In related news, the last flying Super Sabre in the world is looking for a new owner, and might never fly again.
https://vintageaviationnews.com/warbirds-news/swan-song-for-a-hun.html
I was always amazed that it was still in the air.
– Kle.
The Hun was my favorite of that series. You had to fly the airplane, it had heavy guns and it was very adaptable (the first Wild Weasels).
Fast FAC’s too over The Trail under the Misty call sign. Burry Us Upside Down by Dick Newman and Don Shepperd tells the story very well.
But then again, I’d be surprised if you didn’t know the book already.
That will be a shame, but the lack of qualified people to maintain it ‘may’ be the end of the string.
The BBC did a tv series in 2003 “Seven Wonders of the Industrial World”. Episode 3 is how they built Bell Rock lighthouse. Well worth viewing. Impressive now let alone back then.
The cynical part of me says they wouldn’t let you build it now because there would be some endangered species or other problem.
X2 – I’m sure that there would be a threatened barnacle or minnow.
X3, not impossible when men put their minds to something, just hard work coupled to skills and knowledge. Thing is the human race as a whole had a much better understanding of the natural world back then than now so “environmental” concerns were less important than progressing society with safety measures needed for prominent industries and activities. Tech has numbed a lot of that knowledge (just YouTube any subject now).
The shadow would upset the environmental balance???
Spear points – I see you didn’t mention the gal who said she wanted you to be the sun in her life…and stay 93,000,000 miles away from her.
I can always use more spearpoints…
You have the ability to know what’s inside a wrapped present. It’s a gift.
RIMSHOT! — You’ll be here all week.
Muscling in on John Wilder’s turf, are you boys?
😳
HiLarryity ensued.
#tishboom.
Nice reference to REO Speedwagon
Merry Christmas!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qfqC-c7fs4
A good sermon in that.
Spear Points- Need some groaner humor this morning. That county song by The Bellamy Brothers came to mind, “If I Said You Have a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me”.
J6 Tour Day – Unfortunately hasn’t passed for those languishing in some hellhole jail without being charged with much of anything simply for taking the CapPo guided tour. Despicable comes to mind…so does the cartoon panel, only the criminals are wearing Hugo Boss or Armani, altho some are wearing Men’s Wearhouse off the rack with sunglasses.
There is more groaner humor tomorrow! Just when you thought it was over – no, not by half! Meanwhile, it’s cold atop the Mogollon Rim, with snow falling today. I shovel about every two hours to stay ahead of it. Global Warming is keeping me from being snowed in completely. Thanks Greta!
Look at all that exercise you’re getting in the meantime, burning off those epic VM recipes.
https://tuckercarlson.com/the-tucker-carlson-encounter-clay-higgins/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=na&utm_campaign=20240106_jan6dailybrief&utm_content=292332&fbclid=IwAR3SMWsml9001sqwDeXHD6Gwy7C4irY-5E5zflFD6xkJVB1eX9TA_ZaVxiI
Queued up for a watch later. Truth is worse than the fiction.
Damning Ed. I like him, and former police officer. Seems confident this will get fleshed out.
PaulM – did you hear that they’re not making 12″ rulers any longer!
What will Catholic Nuns use for discipline? And do kids even use them anymore, likely replaced by an App. I have all mine safely stored in case someone needs one, various types and vintages…eBay will be my retirement fund savior. In the meantime the FatMax will suffice.
Watched a pattern-maker on YT last night (remaking a capstan casting for Sampson Boat/Tally Ho). Old school. Cast iron shrinkage is 1/8” per foot, pattern scales/rulers are “stretched” which is cool, just have to grab the right one. Then someone texted the guy and asked why he didn’t just “print” the pattern. Hehe…kids these days. But he apparently does that in his day job, but said bigger castings need the strength for compacting the sand mold. Makes sense.
I’ll be taking bids on a 6” machinists scale in both metric and SAE…not a Starret tho.
It’s a joke – not longer than 12″ —
The lengths you’ll go to for a joke!
I admit it, completely missed the joke. Doh! Wrong frame of mind. Better now after some tractor therapy, clears the mind.
MrsPaulM is better at these than me, said that if everybody drove a pink car we’d be a pink car nation.
Paul, I had a Starret SP100 for years that finally disappeared.
MM, fractional and decimal on one scale.
GM had them made special.
Have my dads drafting kit, including his Starret scale, and his slide rule, which I used to know how to use fairly well…but then I got a TI-1250….which the boys could spell H, E, Dbl hockey sticks on.
I still have my drafting instruments from high-school and college. I enjoyed drafting class tremendously. Always a nice break from regular classes.
12” ruler modern teachers are wimps! They carried and used yard sticks (36” for the challenged) on grade 1 students back in the 60’s.
I still have inch marks tattooed on my knuckles.