INCORPORATED SINCE 1837.

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You ever wonder how much alcohol your beer has in it or how many carbs are you adding to your diet?  Yes?  Well, I have something for you:
http://destinationbeer.com/beer_hunter/

Destination Beer's Beer Hunter is an attractive web site that helps you find a beer you will like.  You can hunt for beer by alcohol content, bitterness, color, calories, carbs, beer type and national origin (nat'l origin does not work well because they have a limited number of internat'l beers).  They currently have 194 beers, in their data base, and are adding on a regular basis.  They have much most of the main stream common products and some of the higher end produces covered.
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Pabst Brewing is for sale.  The asking price is $300,000,000 USD and two Advertising Agencies are trying to put together the financing $5 dollars at a time.  If they reach their goal of 300 mil. they will send each contributor a certificate of ownership and beer.  One bottle for a $5 pledge, a 6 pack for $25 and a case for $100.  What (if anything the certificate of ownership legally mean, I don't know).

These are the brands that Pabst owns.  I have tried 15 of the 25 and tended to think they were second string, but I have run into total (should be committed) fans of several of these beers.

Schaefer Beer
Carling’s Black Label Beer
Blatz Beer
Champale Malt Beverage
Colt 45 Malt Liquor
Coqui 900 Premium Malt Lquor
Kingsbury Beer
National Bohemian Beer
Old Style Beer
Schmidt Beer
Special Export Beer
Stag Beer
Old Milwaukee Beer
Schlitz Beer
Lone Star Beer
McSorley's Ale
Haffenreffer Private Stock Malt Liquor
Jacob's Best Beer
Olympia Genuine Draft Style Beer
Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer
Ballantine Beer
Country Club Malt Liquor
Falstaff Beer
Pearl Beer
Piels Light Beer
Primo Island Lager Beer
Rainier Beer
Southampton Ales and Lagers
Ice Man Malt Liquor
St. Ides High Gravity Malt Liquor
Schlitz Malt Liquor
Silver Thunder Malt Liquor
Stroh's Beer

To pledge money to buy a brewery goto:
http://www.buyabeercompany.com/
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December is:
National Closed Caption TV Month - So the hearing impaired can enjoy TV.  It works but not as well as we think.  Due to inadequacies in our educational system a significant number of deaf children have very poor reading skills.  They may be very fluent in their language (American Sign Language) and be able to communicate with their fellows, just not to well with those that can hear.
 
National Stress-Free Family Holidays Month - Only if you run off to the hills for a month.

Read A New Book Month - Even if it is the first one of the year.

Bingo's Birthday Month - Keep Grandma off the streets, support Bingo.

The second week of December is:
Civil Rights Week

Human Rights Week

National Drunk Drivers Awareness Week
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Now to the reasons to be happy this week
(or at least civil).
Here goes:
The NoButtonButtons are just a little serious this week.  They are quotations on the subject of kindness.

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monday 7 december
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** When a deep injury is done us,
***
*** we can never recover until we forgive.
*** - Alan Paton
*******************************************
birthdays:
1916 – Yekaterina Budanova, WWII Soviet fighter pilot.  There are exactly two female pilots who have enough victories in aerial combat to qualify as an ACE.  Yekaterina is one with 6 solo kills and 5 assists.  To see her picture and pictures of other female Soviet pilots goto:
http://wio.ru/aces/gal-f.htm

1920 - Major Walter "Nowi" Nowotny was an Austrian-born German fighter ace of World War II. He is credited with 258 aerial victories in 442 combat missions. Nowotny achieved 255 of these victories on the Eastern Front and three while flying one of the first jet fighters, the Messerschmitt Me 262. 

It is good to remember that victory over Germany was not assured (keep us a little humble).  It depended on tons of bravery and just as much luck.  The Germans were damn good.  Over 100 of their pilots had over 100 victories.  13 of those were over 200 and 2 were over 300.  The best any US pilot did was Richard I. Bong taking out 40 enemy aircraft.  Even the Croatians and Romanians did better.  But if you look at the bottom of the list of aces you will see over 800 of the bottom 1000 were US pilots.  We had the numbers.

Of course a major reason the Germans did so well is they made most of their kills on the Eastern Front.  The Russians produced planes at an unbelievable rate but until the end of the war they tended to not be as good as the German planes.  Russia built over a quarter million aircraft during WWII.  Also pilot training was minimal.  If you could get it into the air you were a pilot.  Russia threw anything it could against the Germans and a lot of people earned posthumous medals, as a result. 
To see a list of WWII Aces goto:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_air_aces
If you want to see someone other than the Germans, skip the first 100 names.

events:
1787 – Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the US Constitution.  That is why the Delaware Quarter came out first.

1930 – W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts broadcasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The broadcast also includes the first television commercial in the United States, an advertisement for I.J. Fox Furriers, who sponsored the radio show.

1940 – The first prototype Fairey Barracuda flew.  This was the first all metal British carrier-borne torpedo/dive bomber.

1963 – Instant replay is used for the first time in a Army-Navy game.

1972 – Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as "The Blue Marble" as they leave the Earth.

1994 – Norfolk Southern ends its steam excursion program. This is the last time that Norfolk and Western 611 was under steam.  I have had the pleasure and honor to ride behind the mighty Steam Engine No. 611 on four occasions.  It was always a joyous occasion.  611 was a celebrity.  At every place where a road crossed the tracks there would be people gathered to see and film 611.  They waved and we waved back.  Since these were privately chartered trains the normal rules did not apply.  You could (and I did) stick your head out the window and truly enjoy the ride.  Of course goggles and a bandanna over the mouth and nose were highly recommended (burnt coal cinders come out of the smoke stack at an amazing rate).  Not the cleanest way to travel, but definitely one of the coolest.  To see a picture of this wonderful engine goto:
http://www.trainnet.org/Libraries/Lib014/611-MELR.GIF
or:
http://www.carrtracks.com/nw611a.htm-eLIMjk8QbR4MyRBA
or:
http://www.carrtracks.com/nw611b.htm

holidays:
National Cotton Candy Day - Random rot your teeth food day.

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tuesday 8 december
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** Kind words can be short and easy to speak,
***
*** but their echoes are truly endless.
*** - Mother Teresa of Calcutta
*******************************************
birthdays:
1860 - Amanda McKittrick Ros was an Irish novelist and poet . She published her first novel at her own expense in 1897.  Her poetry and novels were not read widely, and some critics put her in the running for writing the worst prose and poetry ever.

An example of her poetry may serve to illustrate this.

"Visiting Westminster Abbey"

Holy Moses! Have a look!
Flesh decayed in every nook!
Some rare bits of brain lie here,
Mortal loads of beef and beer,
Some of whom are turned to dust,
Every one bids lost to lust;
Royal flesh so tinged with 'blue'
Undergoes the same as you.

- Amanda McKittrick Ros

1864 – Camille Claudel, French graphic artist and sculptor.  Student, Muse and lover of the famous Auguste Rodin (The Thinker).  She grew and blossomed into a very good artist.  as with so many creative people, devils came to her.  She destroyed much of her work and eventually her mother and sister had her 'voluntarily' committed.  She spent 30 years in an asylum without a single visit from her mother or sister.  The doctors continually advised them that Camille was not sick and did not belong in the asylum, but they were ignored.  Today her work sometimes commands higher prices than her teacher/lover Rodin's work.

1899 - John Qualen was a Canadian character actor.  He was born in Vancouver, BC, the son of Norwegian immigrants.  The family moved to the US and Qualen grew up in Elgin, Illinois.  He made it to Broadway and then joined Director John Ford's stock company.  He appeared in many famous pictures including:

    * His Girl Friday (1940)
    * The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
    * Knute Rockne All American (1940)
    * The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)
    * Tortilla Flat (1942)
    * Casablanca (1942)
    * The High and the Mighty (1954)
    * Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
    * Elmer Gantry (1960)
    * North to Alaska (1960)
    * The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
    * A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)

and many more.

events:
1609 – The Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room, the second public library in Europe.  When it opened it had 15,000 manuscripts and 30,000 books.  They did not lend books but you read them there in the reading room (hence the name).  the oldest public library in Europe was the Bodleian, founded in Oxford, in 1602.  Today they are the second largest library in Britain with over 11,000,000 volumes.  While it is open to the public, even today they do not lend books.  You can do research there, there where the books stay.

1659 – The Mexican border town Ciudad Juárez is founded by Fray García de San Francisco.
It has an area of 72.6 square miles, a population of 1,400,000 yielding a density of 19,290 inhabitants per square mile.  By comparison Columbus' area is 212.6 square miles with a population of 755,000 (16th largest city in the US) giving it a density of 3,556 inhabitants per square mile.  Juárez has twice as much population in one third the space.  I was stationed across the Rio Grande at Fort Bliss.  I had my first shot of Tequila, first Brandy, first non-US beer, first wine, first raw Oyster, first bacon wrapped Fillet Minigon, first visit to a French Restaurant, first trip to a Wax Museum, and a Glass Blowing factory.

1941 – The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the US Pacific Fleet and its defending Army Air Forces and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor. No I did not get this wrong.  It was the Eighth of December, in Hawaii, when the Japanese struck.  It was the Seventh of December in the Continental US.  That International Date can make things tricky.

holidays:
National Brownie Day - Random yummy food day.

Take It In the Ear Day - And we all know that once you have had it in the ear you have to have it each and everyday.  Before you ask - I have no idea what that means.

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wednesday 9 december
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** Kindness consists in loving people,
***
*** more than they deserve.
*** - Joseph Joubert
*******************************************
birthdays:
1508 - Gemma Frisius, was a mathematician, cartographer and instrument maker. He created important globes (of the Earth), improved the mathematical instruments of his day and applied mathematics in new ways to surveying and navigation.  Frisius created or improved many instruments, including the cross-staff (determines latitude), the mariner's astrolabe (which also determines latitude and replaced the cross-staff) and the astronomical rings (astronomical instrument).  Gemma also figured out a way to calculate longitude using a precise clock.  The problem was their were no precise clocks they tended to be driven by gravity (weights) and taking such a clock to sea just totally screwed it up.
In 1714 the British government offered £20,000 to the first person to invent a clock that could keep good time, at sea.  It took 47 year before the prise was awarded.  In 1761 John Harrison submitted a design using a fast-beating balance, controlled by a temperature-compensated spiral spring. This basic design (with improvements) was used until the electronic watch movement entered the market 40 years ago.  This clock was a military weapon.  It allowed British ships to accurately navigate where their French, Portuguese and Dutch rivals could not.  Some historians credit the Chronometer as one of the main reasons the British Empire came to be.  Now ships use GPS.  Incidentally £20,000 in 1761 would be well over $4,000,000 USD today.  Can you say WOOHOO in English?  I believe it translates as 'brilliant'.

1806 – Jean-Olivier Chénier, French Canadian physician and Patriote.  The Patriote movement led to the Patriote Rebellion of 1837 (AKA the Lower Canadian [Quebec] Rebellion).  Inspired by the American Revolution the French Canadians rebelled to win their freedom from Britain.  Jean-Olivier Chénier was one of the leaders.  Simultaneously Upper Canada (Upper Canadian Rebellion) rebelled as well.  Jean-Olivier was killed commanding 200 rebels defending against a 1200 man British unit.  The Patriote lost 70 killed and 120 captured.  It was the last battle of the rebellion. 

1897 - Hermione Gingold was an English actress known for her sharp-tongued, eccentric persona, an image enhanced by her sharp nose and chin, as well as her deep voice.  She starred on stage, on radio, in films, on TV, and in recordings.  She won a Gloden Globe and a Grammy and I think the title of her autobiography tells it all: "How to Grow Old Disgracefully".

events:
1793 – New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.  Noah Webster wrote the Webster Dictionary.  After his death in 1843, George and Charles Merriam secured publishing and revision rights to the dictionary. They published a modest revision in 1847, and a second update with illustrations in 1859. Eventually it became the  "Merriam-Webster" Dictionary.  Minerva is the Roman Goddess of wisdom and is the analog of the Greek Athena.

1905 – In France, the law separating church and state is passed.  Render unto Ceaser, what is Ceaser's.  Countries run by religion some become religious dictatorships.  Persecution for the infidel, non-believers and heretics.  Since the potential stakes are so high each religion seems to ramp up its punishment accordingly.  Burning at the stakes is not the worst thing they have done to people who defy both religion and the government.

1958 – The John Birch Society was founded in the United States.  The second President of the Society was killed by the Soviets.  He was on flight KAL 007 that was shot down, over the Sea of Japan.  Dr. Lawrence Patton McDonald was a Medical Doctor, a conservative Democrat and a US Congressman from Georgia.  He was a cousin of General George S. Patton.  He has the unpleasant distinction of being the only member of Congress to be killed by the Communists during the Cold War.  Given his position with the John Birch Society the irony is off the scale.

1960 – The first episode of Britain's longest running television soap opera 'Coronation Street' is broadcast.  So how are their ratings after 49 years.  Well, for their first 29 years they were on twice a week then in 1989 they went to three times a week.  Just this last July they went to five days a week.  While their ratings have declined significantly (as have all British soaps), they still are the most watched British soap.  They get an average 9.5 million viewers versus their chief competitor 'EastEnders' with 8.2 million.  In its Golden Years Corrie (nickname) had 20 million viewers.  Coronation Street is a short street (one block) and the stories are about the inhabitants.  The street was actually built in Manchester.  Just a big set built in the town and has nothing to distinguish it from the buildings around it. 

holidays:
National Brownie Day - Random sweet food day.

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thursday 10 december
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** The heart is the toughest part of the body.
***
*** Tenderness is in the hands.
*** - Carolyn Forché
*******************************************
birthdays:
1787 - Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, LL.D., was a US pioneer in the education of the deaf. He helped found and, for many years, was the principal of the first successful institution for the education of the deaf in North America (one other school opened in 1780's but failed after couple of years).  The school, opened 1817,  is now known as the American School for the Deaf.  American Sign Language (AKA Ameslan or ASL) was developed there.  Sign Language is not English.  It has its own syntax and grammar.  The core of the language comes from Old French Sign Language and Martha's Vineyard Sign Language.  In fact persons signing British Sign Language would no more understand Ameslan than a Mongolian speaker would recognize German. 

People who do sign Ameslan will be understood in Canada and parts of Mexico.  Also (with varying degrees of difficulty) can converse with the deaf in the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Dominican Republic, Barbados, El Salvador, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Chad, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Mauritania, Kenya, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe.  There are 2,000,000 'speakers' in the US alone.

Some times we laugh at how many languages there are in other countries but here in the US there is basically just English and some Mexcan.... Wrong. 

There are 180 living individual languages listed for United States, almost 200 more are the original languages spoken by immigrants and there are 65 that no longer have known speakers.  English is the first language for only 215,000,000 or our 300,000,000.  So any time you complain about all the non English speakers, to another person, there a 28% chance that other person is not an English speaker or English is their second language.

1827 - Eugene O'Keefe was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He founded the O'Keefe Brewery Company in 1891, which was gobble up (along with thiry other breweries) by Brewing Corporation of Ontario.  They changed their name to Brewing Corporation of Canada which was the first brewing conglomerate in Canada.  Another name change to Canadian Breweries which became part of Argus Corporation when that company was founded  in 1945. Canadian Breweries was renamed for its two largest subsidiaries and became Carling O'Keefe.  Later, the company was controlled by Elders IXL, then merged with Molson to become part of Molson Coors Brewing Company.  182 years if business in one paragraph.  Their current brands include.

    * Singha (UK)
    * Coors, "The Banquet Beer"
    * Coors Light
    * Blue Moon
    * Killian's Irish Red
    * Keystone - Original - Premium - Light - Ice
    * Carling - Original - C2 - Premier
    * Caffrey’s
    * Worthington's
    * Sol (UK) (a Mexican beer co-packed in Britain)
    * Grolsch (UK) - Original - Weizen - Blond
    * Magners Draught
    * Stones
    * Zatec
    * Kasteel Cru
    * Worthington's White Shield
    * Dos Equis (UK) (a Mexican beer co-packed in Britain)
    * Molson Canadian - Export - Golden - Ice - Dry
    * Rickard's
    * Creemore Springs

Carling Black Label is no longer available in the US.

events:
1868 – The first traffic lights are installed outside the British Houses of Parliament in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.  The gas lantern's color was switched by a lever that a Policeman operated.  Like so many new things, this one had a bug and the gas lamps  exploded three weeks later, the operator was badly injured.

Leave it to us to electrify stop lights.  In 1912 in Salt Lake City, Utah, the first red-green electric traffic lights. On 5 August 1914, the Cleveland installed a traffic signal system on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue. It had two colors, red and green, and a buzzer, to provide a warning of color changes.  The first four-way, three-color traffic light was created in Detroit, in 1920.  In 1923, a traffic signal device is patented.  Ashville, Ohio claims the oldest working traffic light in the United States, used at an intersection of public roads for 50 years until 1982 when it was moved to a local museum.  It was replaced at the request of ODOT - they wanted a standard light put in so color blind people could understand the signals.  It is pretty cool how it operates.  To see it in operation goto:
http://ohiosmalltownmuseum.org/images/MVC-174V.MPG 

Speaking of Ashville, they claim John Holmes (the porn star) as an ex-resident.  I can not find anything to support that but I found out that he did live in Columbus, as a very young child, and moved to Pataskala, where he had all his primary and secondary schooling.  He dropped out at 16 and joined the Army.  Three years later he was Honorablely Discharged. he got an ordinary job and got married.  Then somebody with ties to the porn biz saw his 'talent' in a men's room and encouraged him to make porn films.  He got in, in a big way ;) and made 2500 adult loops, stag films, and pornographic feature movies.  Of course he has been arrested, hooked on drugs, involved in theft and murder, been a police informer (he would get his completion arrested) and died from AIDS.  Before you ask: 13.5 inches.

1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.  He shook his Big Stick at them.

1927 – WSM Barn Dance changes its name to 'The Grand Ole Opry'.  The Barn dance started on October 5, 1925.  84 years later it is still going but the total countryness of the show is changing.  If you want to hear it live and can't go to Nashville or get WSM-am radio station then you are going to have to get your signal from space.  The Opry can be heard live on Nashville! (XM Satellite Radio channel 11).

holidays:
National Lager Day - Finally something to celebrate. 

Lux Mundi - Supposedly this translates as 'Light of the World' and she is the Roman Goddess off Liberty.  My research shows that Lux Mundi probably means 'World Light' or perhaps 'Cleansing Light' , which does not pop like 'Light of the World'.  The English word 'world' returns the Latin words: universitas, orbis, mundus, but they all have alternative meanings and mundus could mean cleaning.  The two word saying definitively does not contain 'of the'.

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friday 11 december
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** Write injuries in sand,
***
*** kindnesses in marble.
*** - French Proverb
*******************************************
birthdays:
1475 – Pope Leo X.  So you have to be a priest and then a Bishop then a Cardinal to be Pope.  Now you do but before Pope Leo X the sitting Pope could appoint anyone they thought was worthy to be a Cardinal.  This is what happened to Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici.  Religion was a major part of his entire life but he never joined the Priesthood.  His father was a relative of Pope Innocent VIII and convinced him his son deserved to be Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria in Domnica.  Among other things, he was the Papal Legate and the leader of the Papal Army against rebellious Papal States.  He did the work to earn his spot but he was the last non-priest to be Pope.

1863 - Annie Jump Cannon was an American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of modern stellar classification.  With Edward C. Pickering, she is credited with the creation of the Harvard Classification Scheme, which was the first serious attempt to organize and classify stars based on their temperatures.

1882 - Max Born was a German born physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics.  Quantum mechanics is to Physics what LSD is to medicine.  They both introduce incredible things that can't possibly true, the only real difference is the unbelievable things in quantum mechanics look like they are real.  The idea that nothing exists until it is observed is mind boggling.  Oh course any strange science eventually ends up in popular culture and quantum mechanics is no different.  The British Alternative band 'Sisters of Mercy' sing a weird love song with the line "I don't exist when you can't see me.  I disappear when you're not here."

events:
1931 – The British Parliament enacts the 1931 Statute of Westminster, establishing legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Irish Free State, Dominion of Newfoundland, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa.  The Statute is of historical importance because it marked the effective legislative independence of these countries, either immediately or upon ratification.  Thereby avoiding further rebellion such as in the US (succeeded), Canada (failed), Ireland (succeeded), India (succeeded) and Australia (failed).

1941 – Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.  I hear that did not go so well.

1946 – The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established.

1972 – Apollo 17 becomes the sixth (and last) Apollo mission to land on the Moon.  We had another Apollo Capsule and another Saturn Launch Vehicle to send a planned Apollo 18 to the Moon, but NASA wanted more attention and resource directed at the Space Shuttle.  They de-rated the Saturn Launch Vehicle, by cutting critical structural members, making sure the bird would never fly.  Damn them.

2008 – Three inches of snow fell in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Right on top of all those FEMA trailers.

holidays:
National Noodle Ring Day - Food? Or is this something more sinister.

Most Boring Celebrities of the Year Convention - Nobody cares who is going and the Red Carpet is grey.

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****joe722****