– ALMANAC SAYS –
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday (observed)

– NEWS OF THE WEEK –
New York Times: U.S. and Iraqis Are Wranging Over War Plans.

– QUESTION OF THE DAY –
How do you celebrate Martin Luther King day?

Tomorrow is the last day of Christmas, and Sunday marks the beginning of Winter Ordinary Time, or as our better halves ought to call it “Carnival.”

During the last couple weeks I have neglected to write about Christmas, the Epiphany, the birth of John the Baptist anyway.

To tell the truth, I don’t know how I feel about a troop increase.

If called out, to make up my mind and set aside the (many) reservations I have about my own opinion and the limitations of my knowledge, I would say I support a troop increase, but only as one aspect of an extensive overhaul of our relationship to the Middle East.

– ALMANAC SAYS –
America’s first public museum, Charleston Museum in Charleston, S.C., organized, 1773.

– COUNTRY OF THE WEEK –
The Cayman Islands (U.K. territory)

– QUESTION OF THE DAY –
I’m going to reiterate yesterday’s question… since only three people responded (and only one person actually answered the question).

– IN THE ALMANAC –
On joy scatters a hundred griefs.

– LINK OF THE WEEK –
The Old Farmer’s Almanac.

– QUESTION OF THE DAY –
What is your opinion of the proposed additional troop deployment in Iraq?

So I stumbled across this chump list of the “10 best cities for music in the USA,” and while thejourneyer gets props for Nashville and pleasant surprise for Clarksdale, I noticed with horror that Chicago didn’t make the cut. Instead, LA, Cleveland, Athens GA?!

– ALMANAC SAYS –
Showman “Buffalo Bill” Cody died, 1917.
Note: Diana Vreeland grieved.

– PICTURE OF THE WEEK –
The man himself.

– QUESTION OF THE DAY –
What is the most worthwhile museum you’ve ever been to?

Such a strange year. Eventful in big spashy ways, not deep down dark ways. I think that was the year when Chicago had its worst blizzard in 35 years and I have to miss the first two days of classes because the U of C refused to close (bless ’em).

– ALMANAC SAYS –
5.9 earthquake rattled eastern Canada and new England, 1982.

– QUOTE OF THE WEEK –
“A life of peace, purity, and refinement leads to a calm and untroubled old age.”
– Cicero
(Of course, he was beheaded while in flight from Mark Antony, even though he hadn’t anything to do with the death of Julius Caesar.

The Gothic Funk Cruise.

Seriously, it’s nice.

END OF POST.