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Issue 370 - 12/1/2008
SNIPPETZ LOOKS AT
THE FAMOUSLY ECCENTRIC
OR THOSE JUST
A WEE BIT "OFF"
by Deborah Stumpf

“The world thinks eccentricity in great things is genius, but in small things, only crazy.”
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Call it quirky, strange, a bit offbeat or eccentric, there are some folks out there who just do things a wee bit differently than most of us. Genius Albert Einstein would pick up cigarette butts off the ground so as not to purchase tobacco for his pipe since his doctor insisted that he stop buying tobacco. A genius lacking ‘street’ smarts?

Who can forget Howard Hughes – billionaire aviator, engineer and businessman – best known for some very quirky behavior as well as being a reclusive later in life? Hughes was so obsessed with cleanliness that he would use Kleenex to pick up objects. He once spent nearly a year in a theater screening room by himself eating only chocolate bars and milk. Hughes was eventually diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Actors and artists are well known for their propensity toward eccentric behavior, but many are found in other career fields such as authors, royalty and business people.

WHO SAYS WRITERS
ARE DIFFERENT?

Nathanial Hawthorne, author of “The Scarlet Letter,” would always wash his hands before picking up and reading a letter from his wife.
Benjamin Disraeli, author and British prime minister in 1868, wore evening dress while writing his books.
You remember “Alice In Wonderland,” curiouser and curiouser, well the author Lewis Carroll was a bit “curious” as well. He would travel with a trunk in which every item had been wrapped in a separate piece of paper.
In order to avoid certain visitors, Dr. Samuel Johnson, English author of the 1755 “Dictionary of the English Language,” would actually climb a tree to hide. On the occasions when he did receive visitors, he would often consume 25 cups of tea at a sitting.
Gilbert and Sullivan, creators of 14 of the most popular comic operas in history, disliked each other so much that they rarely met in person and normally collaborated through correspondence.
Alexandre Dumas, author of “The Three Musketeers,” and “The Count of Monte Cristo,” wrote his magazine articles on pink paper, his poetry on yellow paper and his novels on blue paper.
The famous fairytale writer, Hans Christian Andersen was concerned about his appearance since he felt his chest was a bit concave. To make himself look a little manlier, he would stuff old newspapers beneath his shirt.
Earnest Vincent Wright’s novel, “Gadsby,” contains over 50,000 words – none of which have the letter E.
Jonathan Swift, author of the 1726 “Gulliver's Travels” and dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, hated celebrating his birthday. Swift only wore black on his birthdays and refused to eat.
American poet Walt Whitman would not read anything written in first person by any other author even though he wrote most of his free verse in the same.
Hans Christian Andersen, author of "The Princess and the Pea," "The Emperor's New Clothes" and other fairytales had a fear of being buried alive. He usually carried a note in his pocket instructing anyone who found him unconscious to not assume he was dead and insist that he must be examined again. He would even leave a note on his bedside table stating, "I only seem dead." He really did die in 1875 from cancer. Really, they were sure.

RIDICULOUSLY ROYAL

The 1682 czar of Russia, Peter I, would go to bed wearing his boots.
In 1547, the queen of France, Catherine de Médicis, would allow no woman in her court to have a waistline larger than 13 inches.
George Clemenceau, the prime minister of France in 1906, (and again in 1917,) spent most of his life going to bed fully clothed in a soft shirt, coat, trousers, shoes and sometimes gloves. He would have made a good boy scout – “be prepared!”
King James I of England was once so delighted with a loin of beef served to him at dinner that he knighted it and then said, “Arise, Sir Loin.”
Frederick the Great, king of Prussia between 1740 and 1786, hated water, rarely washed his hands or face, and almost every morning touched up his cheeks with red paint to make himself appear fresh and healthy.
Empress Eugenie, the very fashionable wife of Napoleon III who had ruled France from 1852 to 1870, never wore the same pair of shoes twice.
And speaking of shoes, don’t forget Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine ruler Ferdinand Marcos who once proclaimed that there were no poor people in her native country. She left behind 3,000 pairs of shoes at the palace when she and her husband Ferdinand Marcos were no longer in power.
The first Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley (who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815,) carried six watches on his person. He was very proud of the fact that he had never been late for an appointment in his life.
Prince Charles and Prince William never travel on the same airplane as a precaution in case of a plane crash.
King Otto, the ruler of Bavaria from 1886 to 1913, would start each day by shooting a peasant. Two of his attendants would play a trick on him by filling his rifle with blanks and one would saunter by and fall to the ground playing dead at the sound of the shot.
King Edward VII, son of Victoria and ruler of England in 1901, would allow no one around him to carry loose change because jingling of coins would unnerve him.

AMERICAN ROYALTY

President Ronald Reagan’s very energetic first dog, Lucky, was eventually replaced by Rex, the quieter gentler pooch. Rex had a doghouse lavishly decorated and dedicated by actress Zsa Zsa Gabor.
During the period in history that recipients of mail had to pay the postage, Zachary Taylor refused all letters sent to him because he didn’t want to pay. As a result, he wasn’t aware that he had been nominated for president in 1848. It was a month before he knew about the nomination. His refusal to pay the 10 cent postage was all that stood between Taylor and the presidency.

OTHER
NOTABLE MISFITS

Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his cap to keep him cool during a game. He would change into a fresh leaf every 2 innings. Nothing worse than wearing a wilted cabbage leaf.
Florence Nightingale, founder of professional nursing, carried a pet owl in her pocket when she traveled.
Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch painter cut off part of his left ear and gave it to a prostitute in 1888.
The Hungarian pianist, Franz Liszt, who at age 11 was praised as a pianist by Beethoven, would sometimes play a difficult composition with two glasses of water balanced on the back of his hands - and never spilled a drop!
Cornelius Vanderbilt, the very wealthy American capitalist, used to keep a dish filled with salt under each leg of his bed to scare away evil spirits. It must have worked since Vanderbilt had made $100 million from railroads and shipping by the time he left the world in 1877.
The Chinese painter, Mi Fu, adopted a rock as his brother and would bow to it in respect. Don’t laugh - remember the pet rock?

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Issue 371 - 12/8/2008
SNIPPETZ CELEBRATES
NOBEL PRIZE WEEK
by Deborah Stumpf

Theodore Roosevelt – First to earn The Peace Prize in 1906

Since 1901, 789 individuals and 20 organizations have won the coveted Nobel Prize, awarded annually for excellence in the categories of Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace and the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences. The latter was not part of the original five awards provided for in Alfred Nobel’s last will and testament upon his death in 1896. Prizes are awarded to the Nobel laureates on Dec. 10 of each year, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. The ceremony for the Peace Prize is held in Oslo and for the remaining categories in Stockholm.

SURPRISE PRIZE

Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1833. During his lifetime he was most known for developing nitroglycerine, an explosive compound patented under the name of dynamite in 1867. It was unfortunate that his brother, Emil became a casualty of Alfred and their engineer father’s experimentation with explosives in 1864.

When Nobel’s will was read after his death in 1896, his family contested the document because he had left about 90 percent of his wealth to be used in the establishment of “prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.” Those prizes would be awarded for achievement in the five fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. It then took five years to establish how the prizes would be dealt with. Nobel left instruction that the prizes other than the Peace Prize would be awarded by Swedish committees, but the prize for peace, awarded to the individual who “shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding of peace congresses,” was to be awarded by a Norwegian committee elected by the Storting [Parliament].

Nobel provided no explanation for his bequest.

GETTING ON
THE 'A' LIST

So you want to be a Nobel laureate? It takes a little doing. First, you must be nominated a year in advance and you can’t nominate yourself. The committees responsible for awarding the prize request nominations from previous Nobel laureates, scientists, politicians and academics from each relevant field. These nominators are selected from countries all over the world so as to ensure fair representation. Other than the designated “winners,” the nominations are kept secret for 50 years. The appropriate committees then select the prize winners for the year.

THE PRIZE ITSELF

Winning the Nobel Prize is an honor and being a Nobel laureate is extremely prestigious. At the ceremony each recipient receives a diploma, medal and a financial reward that amounts to about one million American dollars. Many times awards are shared amongst two or no more than three laureates, as well as the prize money. Beginning in 1961, Sweden Post Stamps began issuing stamps to honor the laureates for the year and a postage cancellation is designed for the occasion. For the Peace Prize ceremony held at Oslo City Hall, the honoree(s) is presented the prize by the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the presence of the King of Norway. The remaining recipients attend their ceremony in Stockholm Concert Hall where his Majesty the King of Sweden performs the presentation of the awards.

IT'S ALL IN
THE FAMILY

The Curie family has received multiple rewards with husband and wife teams Marie and Pierre Curie as well as Irene Joliot-Curie and Frederic Joliot; mother/daughter team Marie Curie and Irene Joliot-Curie; and father/daughter Pierre Curie and Irene Joliot-Curie.
Two other married couples, Gerty and Carl Corti as well as Alva and Gunnar Myrdal received the honors.
Father and son teams have also been honored: William and Lawrence Bragg, Niels and Aage Bohr, Hans and Ulf von Euler, Arthur and Roger Kornberg, Manne and Kai Siegbahn and J.J. and George Thomson.

MORE
NOBEL FACTS

The oldest laureate to receive the Nobel prize was 90-year-old Leonid Hurwicz for Economics in 2007.
The youngest laureate was 25-year-old Lawrence Bragg who received his prize in Physics with his father in 1915.
Thirty-five women have won the prize including Marie Curie who won twice – once for Physics in 1903 and once for Chemistry in 1911.
Interestingly enough there is no prize awarded for the field of mathematics.
Awards are never given posthumously. Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Peace prize five times and was expected to win the prize in 1948 until he was assassinated two days before the nomination closing on Jan. 30, 1948.
A Nobel Prize “winner” is referred to as a “laureate,” as the prize is felt to be recognition of outstanding achievement within a broad category that benefits mankind rather than a contest.

SOME NOTABLE
AMERICAN LAUREATES

Over 300 Americans have earned the title of Nobel laureate in all categories, many of whom have had more than their 15 minutes of fame:

Theodore Roosevelt – Peace Prize in 1906
Woodrow Wilson – Peace Prize in 1919
Albert Einstein – Physics in 1921
Sinclair Lewis – Literature in 1930
Jane Adams – Peace Prize in 1931
Pearl Buck – Literature in 1938
William Faulkner – Literature in 1949
George C. Marshall – Peace Prize in 1953
Ernest Hemingway – Literature in 1954
John Steinbeck – Literature in 1962
James Watson – Medicine in 1962
Martin Luther King – Peace Prize in 1964
Henry Kissinger – Peace Prize in 1973
Barbara McClintock – Medicine in 1983
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War – Peace Prize in 1985
James M. Buchanan – Economics in 1986
Harry M. Markowitz, Merton H. Miller and William F. Sharpe – Economics in 1990
Toni Morrison – Literature in 1993
Jimmy Carter – Peace Prize in 2002
Al Gore – Peace Prize in 2007

TURNING DOWN
A GOOD THING

Not everyone has their eyes on the prize. Jean-Paul Sartre who was awarded the 1964 prize in Literature declined because he always declined honors. Le Duc Tho was awarded the Peace Prize in 1973 with Henry Kissinger, the U.S. Secretary of State for their work in negotiating the Vietnam peace accord. Le Duc Tho stated that he was not in a position to accept the award due to the situation in Vietnam.
Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt and Gerhard Domagk were required to turn down their award by Adolf Hitler. They later received their diploma and medal, but not the money.
Boris Pasternak who won the prize in 1958 for Literature eventually was coerced into declining the prize by the Soviet Union government.

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Issue 372 - 12/15/2008
LET'S WAKE UP AND
SMELL THE COFFEE!
by Deborah Stumpf

"The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Thanks to King George’s Tea Tax and that fateful day of the Boston Tea Party in 1773, the Continental Congress declared coffee the official U.S. national beverage. Though many of us can and do enjoy an afternoon cup of tea, it is that cup of Joe that wakes up the nation, making up 75 percent of all caffeine consumed in the U.S. That was some declaration!

The term “Cup of Joe” actually came from the U.S. Navy. The practice of serving alcohol on board Navy ships was abolished by Admiral Josephus “Joe” Daniels who eventually became Chief of Naval Operations. Coffee replaced liquor as the drink of choice and was quickly referred to as a “Cup of Joe” after the Admiral.

About 10,000 pounds of coffee berries can be grown on an acre of land. There are two coffee beans within each berry and there are about seven million tons of these green beans produced worldwide. The coffee berry starts off as green, turns yellow, then red and finally dark crimson when it is ripe. This can be a slow process. In fact, Arabica coffee plants can take up to five years to mature and produce its first crop. Most beans are hand picked at harvest time.

HOW MUCH IS
TOO MUCH?

The U.S. is the leading consumer of coffee in the world at 450 million cups of coffee per day, meaning the average coffee drinker downs 3.4 cups in a day.
Four hundred billion cups are consumed worldwide on a daily basis.
Germans consume 16 pounds per person per year.
Italians consume 14 billion espresso coffees per year.

SO MANY COFFEES,
SO LITTLE TIME

Flavor is lost within about an hour once coffee is ground unless it is vacuum sealed, which keeps it fresh for up to six months. The roasted beans start to lose their flavor after about two weeks. Once brewed, coffee begins to lose flavor within minutes.
Flavored coffees are made by adding flavored oil after the roasting process. The most popular flavors are hazelnut and Irish cream. These now popular flavored coffees were invented in the United States in the 1970’s.
Cappuccino was named after the Cappuicine Monks because the foam on the drink’s peak looks much like the color of robes worn by the monks.
Against popular belief, espresso actually contains less caffeine than lighter roasted beans because the espresso bean is roasted longer, which causes it to lose some of its caffeine content.
Forty-three percent of German coffee drinkers and 27 percent of American coffee drinkers add some type of sweetener to their coffee.

MAKING THE GRADE

Coffee beans are graded and the grading system is different depending on the part of the world from which it comes.

Beans from Colombia are graded Supremo, Excelso, Extra and Pasilla (the lowest grade).
In Kenya, coffee beans are graded A, B and C with AA being the finest.
Costa Rican grades are a bit more complicated starting with Strictly Hard Bean, Good Hard Bean, Hard Bean, Medium Hard Bean, High Grown Atlantic, Medium Grown Atlantic and Low Grown Atlantic.
“Hard Bean” indicates that the bean was grown in altitudes higher than 5,000 feet.
Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is thought to be the best coffee in the world.
Only about 20 percent of all harvested coffee beans are considered to be of the highest quality.
Mexican coffees are now thought to be similar in quality to the world’s largest producers, Brazil and Colombia, due to its delicate body and mellow flavor.

MIXING IT UP

Mexicans like their coffee with cinnamon
Italians prefer espresso with sugar
Swiss and Germans mix coffee with hot chocolate
Belgians add chocolate, of course
Ethiopians add salt
Middle Easterners like cardamom and other spices
Austrians like whipped cream
Moroccans mix their coffee with peppercorns

BIG BUSINESS

The coffee bean came to Hawaii in 1825 and it is the only state in the U.S. that grows coffee beans for commercial use. They are harvested between November and April each year and celebrated with a Kona festival.
Over 50 countries grow coffee commercially around the world and they all mainly lie along the equator between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer.
Coffee shops in the U.S. enjoy a seven percent annual growth rate.
An estimated 110 to 120 million bags of coffee are produced per year in the world. That’s a lot of beans!
Brazil manufactures the majority of coffee beans in the world, employing about five million people to cultivate and harvest the precious commodity. Colombia comes in at a close second, cultivating about two-thirds of the amount that Brazil manufactures.
Coffee passes through four to six hands in buy and sell transactions before reaching the end user.

THE WAY IT WAS

Coffee is not a new drink. It’s been around since about 900 A.D., first used as a wine, medicine and stimulant. Some things never change.

1615 – first sold in European drugstores for medicinal purposes
1625 – first time sugar was used in coffee
1715 – Jesuits began cultivating coffee beans in Haiti
1720’s – first coffee tree came to the island of Martinique from France, the first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere
1721 – the first coffeehouse opened in Berlin
1822 – first espresso machine invented in France
1827 – first percolator invented in France
1840 – first vacuum pot brewer invented by a Scottish engineer
1870’s – batch roasting of coffee beans became more widespread. Prior to this, folks roasted their own beans in a frying pan over a fire.
1900 – coffee is delivered door-to-door by horse-pulled wagon in the U.S.
1906 – first commercial espresso machine invented and manufactured in Italy
1969 – first coffee consumed on the moon by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. They also ate hot dogs, bacon squares, canned peaches and sugar cookies.

DIFFERENT STROKES

“Grounds” for divorce? Once upon a time, during their wedding ceremonies, Turkish grooms promised to provide coffee to their wives…or else.
When coffee was scarce during the Civil War, the people of New Orleans would use chicory as a substitute. Still today, some have chicory mixed with very strong black coffee and milk.
If anyone asks you if you’d like a cup of cowboy coffee, think twice before you say “sure, I’d love a cup.” Cowboys used to put the coffee grounds in their sock and soak it in hot water before drinking the so called coffee.

TOP 10 SIGNS YOU
MAY BE DRINKING
TOO MUCH COFFEE

10. Your birthday is a national holiday in Brazil.
9. Your nervous twitch is measured on the Richter Scale.
8. You grind coffee beans with your teeth.
7. You can jump-start a car without jumper cables.
6. You’ve named all your children “Joe.”
5. Your coffee mug has a picture of your coffee mug on it.
4. People test their batteries in your ears.
3. People get dizzy watching you.
2. You help your dog chase its tail.
1. Starbucks holds the mortgage on your house.

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Issue 373 - 12/22/2008
FROM SNIPPETZ TO
ALL OUR READERS
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
by Michael Wayne

And so, Christmas is upon us once again, bringing memories of our childhood, filled with joy and anticipation. A celebration of the birth of our lord, the baby Jesus. A blessing to share with the entire world! In honor of this holy time for reflection, we have compiled a plethora of fun and interesting facts about this very special holiday for you.

Merry Christmas from Snippetz... Enjoy!

WHAT A CARD!

As early as 1822, the postmaster in Washington, D.C. was worried by the amount of extra mail at Christmas time. His preferred solution to the problem was to limit by law the number of cards a person could send. Even though commercial cards were not available at that time, people were already sending so many home-made cards that sixteen extra postmen had to be hired in the city.
Postmen in Victorian England were popularly called “robins.” This was because their uniforms were red. The British Post Office grew out of the carrying of royal dispatches. Red was considered a royal color, so uniforms and letter-boxes were red. Christmas cards often showed a robin delivering Christmas mail.
An average household, in America, will mail out 28 Christmas cards each year and see 28 eight cards return in their place.
In the United States, Christmas is the peak time to send cards. In fact, Americans will send out a combined 2.6 billion cards at Christmas time.

CHRISTMAS ON
THE BIG SCREEN

“White Christmas” (1954), starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, was the first movie to be made in Vista Vision, a deep-focus process.
In the show, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” the Grinch cuts out a Santa beard, but never wears it.
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer’s father’s name was Donner.

LET US SHOP, LET US SHOP, LET US SHOP

Launched in 1926, retailer Macy’s annual parade was immortalized in the film Miracle on 34th Street, and has become a symbol of the official beginning of the Christmas shopping season.
A Christmas club savings account in which a person deposits a fixed amount of money regularly to be used at Christmas for shopping, came about around 1905.

AND THEN THERE WAS MUSIC

Child singer Jimmy Boyd was 12 years and 11 months old when he sang the Christmas favorite, “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” The song hit the top of the pop charts.
The popular Christmas song “Jingle Bells” was composed in 1857 by James Pierpont, and was originally called “One-Horse Open Sleigh,” and was actually written for Thanksgiving.
The Puritans forbade the singing of Christmas carols.
There are 364 gifts named in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” song.
In 1996, Christmas caroling was banned at two major malls in Pensacola, Florida. Apparently, shoppers and merchants complained the carolers were too loud and took up too much space.
Christmas caroling began as an old English custom called Wassailing — toasting neighbors to a long and healthy life.
The earliest collection of Christmas carols was published in 1521.

A KISS FOR GOOD LUCK

Long before it was used as a “kiss encourager” during the Christmas season, mistletoe had long been considered to have magic powers by Celtic and Teutonic peoples. It was said to have the ability to heal wounds and increase fertility. Celts hung mistletoe in their homes in order to bring themselves good luck and ward off evil spirits.
Mistletoe, a traditional Christmas symbol, was once revered by the early Britons. It was so sacred that it had to be cut with a golden sickle.

IT’S A CRACKER,
IT’S A COOKIE...
NO, IT’S AN ORNAMENT

Animal Crackers are not really crackers, but cookies that were imported to the United States from England in the late 1800s. Barnum’s circus-like boxes were designed with a string handle so that they could be hung on a Christmas tree.

CHRISTMAS AROUND
THE WORLD

In North America, children put stockings out at Christmas time. Their Dutch counterparts, however, use shoes. Dutch children set out shoes to receive gifts any time between mid-November and December 5, St. Nicholas’ birthday.
Christmas Day in the Ukraine can be celebrated on either December 25, in faithful alliance with the Roman Catholic Gregorian calendar, or on January 7, which is the Orthodox or Eastern Rite (Julian calendar), the church holy day.
According to historical accounts, the first Christmas in the Philippines was celebrated 200 years before Ferdinand Magellan discovered the country for the western world, likely between the years 1280 and 1320 AD.
Christmas is not widely celebrated in Scotland. Some historians believe that Christmas is downplayed in Scotland because of the influence of the Presbyterian Church (or Kirk), which considered Christmas a “Papist,” or Catholic event. As a result, Christmas in Scotland tends to be somber.

BE CAREFUL!

It is estimated that 400,000 people become sick each year from eating tainted Christmas leftovers.
Holiday Headaches: Nearly one in four people said they have more headaches during the Christmas season than any other time of the year. Of those surveyed, 75 percent said that not having enough time caused them to have headaches; 73 percent said crowds and traffic created their headaches; and 51 percent said skipping meals gave them headaches.

HISTORICAL FACTS
AND TRADITIONS

“Hot cockles” was a popular game at Christmas in medieval times. It was a game in which the other players took turns striking the blindfolded player, who had to guess the name of the person delivering each blow. “Hot cockles” was still a Christmas pastime until the Victorian era.
A boar’s head is a traditional Christmas dish. According to a popular story, the unlucky boar whose head began the custom in the Middle Ages was killed by choking to death on a book of Greek philosophy. The story claims that a university student saved himself from a charging boar by ramming a book of Aristotle’s writings down its throat. He then cut off the boar’s head and brought it back to his college.
At lavish Christmas feasts in the Middle Ages, swans and peacocks were sometimes served “endored.” This meant the flesh was painted with saffron dissolved in melted butter. In addition to their painted flesh, endored birds were served wrapped in their own skin and feathers, which had been removed and set aside prior to roasting.
In 1647, the English parliament passed a law that made Christmas illegal. Festivities were banned by Puritan leader, Oliver Cromwell, who considered feasting and revelry, on what was supposed to be a holy day, to be immoral. The ban was lifted only when the Puritans lost power in 1660.
Christmas was once a moveable feast celebrated at many different times during the year. The choice of December 25, was made by Pope Julius I, in the 4th century A.D., because this coincided with the pagan rituals of Winter Solstice, or Return of the Sun. The intent was to replace the pagan celebration with the Christian one.
During the ancient 12-day Christmas celebration, the log burned was called the “Yule log.” Sometimes a piece of the Yule log would be kept to kindle the fire the following winter, to ensure that the good luck carried on from year to year. The Yule log custom was handed down from the Druids.

AND THE SURVEY SAYS...

According to a 1995 survey, 7 out of 10 British dogs get Christmas gifts from their doting owners.
According to a 1997 Gallup poll, 29 percent of Americans found the Christmas holidays more stressful than enjoyable. Those with the lowest incomes were most likely to find the season stressful, perhaps reflecting their inability to participate fully in the commercial, gift giving aspects of the holiday.
According to Gale Research, the average American household wraps 30 Christmas gifts each year.

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Issue 374 - 12/29/2008
SNIPPETZ ENTERS THE
NEW YEAR WITH A FRESH
LOOK AT HEALTH!
by Michael Wayne

A SHAVE AND A CURE

Originally, barbers also performed as surgeons. Blood-letting, a remedy of the time believed to cure diseases, was one of their main tasks. The red-and-white striped barber pole originally symbolized a bleeding arm swathed in bandages. Fortunately, the practice of blood-letting has vanished, as well as the barber/doctor. A side note concerning blood-letting, is the fact that the average healthy person can lose as much as one-third of his or her blood without fatal results.

I HAVE A HEADACHE,
OR DO I?

Pain from any injury or illness is always registered by the brain. Yet, curiously, the brain tissue itself is immune to pain; it contains none of the specialized receptor cells that sense pain in other parts of the body. The pain associated with brain tumors does not arise from brain cells but from the pressure created by a growing tumor or tissues outside the brain.

EAT RIGHT AND
LIVE LONGER

Men who eat 10 or more weekly servings of tomato-based foods cut their prostate cancer risk by 45 percent in a Harvard study of 47,000 middle-age male health professionals. Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, an antioxidant. Juice, salad, soup, even pizza, helped. In fact, Ketchup was once used as a medicine in the United States. In the 1830s it was sold as Dr. Miles’s Compound Extract of Tomato.
Healthy eating, soups retain fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and E, which are often lost in other foods when cooking.
Caviar, or fish eggs, contain the same healthful omega-3 fatty acids as salmon.

NATURAL REMEDIES

Twenty percent of China’s plants are used in medicine.
Extracted from a flower, echinacea is the most widely used botanical in the creation of herbal medicines in the United States. Clinical studies have suggested that when it is taken at the onset of a cold, echinacea stimulates the immune system.
Roughly 25 percent of all prescription medicines in the United States are derived from plants, including alkaloids from the rosy periwinkle of Madagascar. This plant has been successful in arresting childhood leukemia and Hodgkin’s disease.
The mints, particularly peppermint, have a history of use in herbal medicine dating back to the ancient Egyptians. The Greeks and Romans also used mint varieties medicinally. British apothecary shops in the late 1600s kept dried mint, mint water, spirit of mints, and syrup of mints on the shelves. Peppermint tea or tincture can be taken for indigestion, intestinal gas build up, nausea, and fevers accompanied by colds.
In France, chocolate was initially met with skepticism and was considered a barbarous, noxious drug. The French court accepted chocolate after the Paris faculty of medicine gave its approval.
Carrots were first grown as a medicine, not a food. The ancient Greeks called carrots karoto.
Pumpkin seeds were used as a traditional diuretic and as a cure for tapeworms and roundworms by American Indian medicine men.
Some cultures call the papaya tree “the medicinal tree” because its seeds and leaves have been used to make medicine.
Soup in Asia is used as an alternative medicine - tom yum in Thailand; bone marrow soup, soybean sprout soup, or seaweed soup in Korea. Sweet dessert soup in China is eaten to balance one’s yin and yang.

THE SCOURGE
OF MANKIND

It is estimated that during the height of the Plague years, between 1344 to 1353, as many as 20 million people in Europe died as a result of the disease.
At the turn of the century, infectious diseases were the leading cause of death in the United States. Tuberculosis, diarrheal disease, and pneumonia accounted for 30 percent of all deaths.
Tuberculosis is one of the world’s oldest diseases. Some ancient mummies found in Egypt and Peru had tuberculosis.
One of the deadliest diseases in the world is Japanese River Fever, with a mortality rate of more than 50 percent. It is found only near rivers in certain areas of Japan, China, Korea, Burma, and India.
In all of history, the most destructive disease is malaria. More than 1.5 million people die from malaria every year.
The Spanish flu, misnamed since it likely originated in the United States, was unlike most flu viruses, as it hit the young and healthy hardest. The pandemic killed 20 million to 40 million people in 1918. Comparatively, about 13 million died in the battles of World War I.

SOMETIMES THE CURE CAN
BE WORSE THAN THE DISEASE

The swine flu vaccine in 1976 caused more death and illness than the disease it was intended to prevent.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 18 million courses of antibiotics are prescribed for the common cold in the United States per year. Research shows that colds are caused by viruses. Fifty million unnecessary antibiotics are prescribed for viral respiratory infections.
Until recent years, people living in remote areas of Afghanistan and Ethiopia were immunized against smallpox by having dried powdered scabs from victims of the disease blown up their noses. This treatment was invented by a Chinese Buddhist nun in the eleventh century. It is the oldest known form of vaccination.

VITAMINS & MINERALS

Everyone knows about vitamins A, B, C, D, and E. Few are aware that there are also vitamins K, T, H, and U. These vitamins are helpful in proper liver function, treating anemia, and the healing of ulcers.
The body’s daily requirement of vitamins and minerals is less than a thimbleful.
The shelf life of vitamins is six or more years if they’re protected from heat, moisture, and light.
The most essential minerals to the human body are: salt for maintaining water levels, iron for red blood cells, and calcium for bones.

ANOTHER MYTH?

Studies conducted at Vanderbilt University and the University of Iowa School of Medicine found no evidence that sugar causes hyperactivity in children.

HERE’S GOOD NEWS!

The death rate from cardiovascular diseases - heart attack, hardening of the arteries, and so on - has decreased in the United States since 1950.
Although the female hormone estrogen is generally prescribed to women to combat the symptoms of menopause, a study suggests that low doses of the hormone also may reduce the risk of heart disease in older men.
Though we seriously advise against putting this to the test, most healthy adults can go without eating anything for a month or longer, but they must drink at least two quarts of water a day.

YOU SMELL FUNNY...
MARRY ME!

A Swiss study found that a majority of women unconsciously choose mates with a body odor that differs from their own natural scents, which, as a result, ensures better immune protection for their children. Longevity magazine reported that the genes that battle disease-provoking substances also influence body odor.

SPEAKING OF SMELL

Sigmund Freud considered repression of the sense of smell a major cause of mental illness.
The human sense of smell is so keen that it can detect the odors of certain substances even when they are diluted to 1 part to 30 billion.
Babies have the strongest sense of smell, enabling them to recognize their mothers by scent.
By the age of 20, most humans have lost up to 20% of their sense of smell. By the age of 60, 60% is gone.
Most of the chemicals humans can smell contain at least 3 atoms of carbon.

THE EYES HAVE IT

Newborn babies are not blind, as previously believed. Studies have shown that newborns have approximately 20/50 vision and can easily discriminate between degrees of brightness.
The daughters of a mother who is colorblind and a father who has normal vision will have normal vision. The sons will be colorblind, however.
The average person’s field of vision encompasses a 200-degree wide angle.
Some totally blind people can somehow sense light, says a New England Journal of Medicine study. This discovery may explain what keeps some blind people’s biological rhythms in sync with that of sighted people’s.

ALLERGY FACTS

Approximately 40 percent of Americans believe they have food allergies, while in reality, fewer than 1 percent have true allergies. Most of the others involve symptoms caused by food intolerances or other disorders. Children often have more food allergies, which most will outgrow.
Allergies cause students in the United States to miss 1.5 million school days a year. Allergy sufferers experience a significantly reduced ability to learn, researchers have found.

LET’S COME TO HEALTH TERMS

“Soldiers disease” is a term for morphine addiction. The Civil War produced over 400,000 morphine addicts.
Zoonoses are animal diseases communicable to man.
The term “allopathy” is used by homeopaths, chiropractors, and other advocates of alternative health practices to refer to traditional medicine.
The word “toast,” meaning a proposal of health, originated in Rome, where an actual bit of spiced, burned bread was dropped into wine to improve the drink’s flavor, absorb its sediment, and thus make it more healthful.
“Wassail” comes from the Old Norse “ves heill”--to be of good health. This evolved into the tradition of visiting neighbors on Christmas Eve and drinking to their health.
Someone who thinks constantly and anxiously about his or her health can be called a “valetudinarian.”
Synesthesia is a rare condition in which the senses are combined. Synesthetes see words, taste colors and shapes, and feel flavors.

FINAL HEALTH SNIPPETZ

According to Chinese folklore, peaches not only kept lungs healthy, but those grown in a mythical garden were the fruit of eternal life.
Germany was the first European country to establish a system for health insurance for its workers in 1888.
According to Greek historian Herodotus, Egyptian men never became bald. The reason for this was that, as children, Egyptian males had their heads shaved, and their scalps were continually exposed to the health-giving rays of the sun.
Milk is generally not healthy for adult Orientals or for adult people of black African origin, because they tend to lack enzymes needed to digest the natural sugar in milk.
The most obese people in the world are in Russia, at 25.4 percent, followed by Mexico, at 25.1 percent. Obesity is defined as 30 pounds or more over a healthy weight.
A study by researcher Frank Hu and the Harvard School of Public Health found that women who snore are at an increased risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
A healthy man who is good physical shape has about 12 to 15 percent body fat. A woman in good shape has between 15 to 18 percent. The models used in most of the advertising for abdominal machines, on the other hand, have less than 10 percent body fat.
Permanent hearing loss can result from prolonged exposure to sounds at 85 decibels (0 decibels is the threshold for hearing). For comparison, a busy street corner is about 80 decibels, a subway train from 20 feet is 100 decibels, a jet plane from 500 feet is 110 decibels and loud thunder is 120 decibels. A rock band amplified at close range is 140 decibels, which is 100 trillion times the hearing threshold and more than 100,000 times as loud as the level necessary to produce permanent hearing loss.
Babies have taste buds all over the insides of their mouths, not just on their tongues. Adults and children have no taste buds on the center of their tongues.
Electrical impulses travel from the skin toward the spinal cord at a rate of up to 425 feet per second.
About one-third of bone in the human body is living tissue. The rest consists of calcium, phosphorus, and other minerals.
Sixty percent of Americans who call in sick at work apparently aren’t sick at all. Many take it off as a personal “mental health” day.

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Issue 375 - 1/5/2009
SNIPPETZ STICKS TO
NEW YEAR'S
RESOLUTIONS
by Deborah Stumpf

"A New Year's resolution is something that
goes in one year and out the other."
-Author Unknown

It’s Jan. 5, 2009. Do you know what happened to your New Year’s resolutions? If you are like half the population, your resolutions have already gone by the wayside and another fourth of us will have completely forgotten those goals in another week. However, we at Snippetz think it’s never too late for a good old fashioned New Year’s resolution.

EVOLUTION OF
THE RESOLUTION

Making New Year’s resolutions goes back many centuries to as early as 2000 B.C. when the Babylonian New Year began with the first new moon after the first day of spring in March. The time of the year signaled the beginning of the planting season and a good time to start the new year. A typical resolution at the time was to return borrowed farm equipment from neighbors.

By 153 B.C., Jan. 1 was declared to be the official New Year by the Romans after years of changing the date on the whim of the emperor of the time. January was eventually selected because the month was named after Janus, the mythical god of beginnings and guardian of entrances. Janus was said to have two faces – one in the front and one in the back in order to see the past and look forward to the future. Even after 153 B.C. the calendar would change somewhat until Julius Caesar finally established the Julian Calendar and declared Jan. 1 to be the official start of the year beginning in 46 B.C. to be synchronized with the sun. Interestingly enough, in order to make this change, 47 B.C. had to be 445 days long.

RESOLUTION NUMBERS

About 45 percent of Americans make resolutions regularly and 38 percent never make resolutions.
A mere 8 to 12 percent are successful in achieving their resolutions.
One in four fail every resolution they set.
Almost half experience some success with their resolutions…on occasion.
The youth in their 20’s tend to achieve their resolutions about 39 percent of the time whereas only about 15 percent of the over 50 crowd sticks with goal setting.
Men are most successful when they set goals in measurable and specific steps.
Women are more successful when they tell their friends and enlist support from others.

POPULAR RESOLUTIONS

Most resolutions involve doing something positive to improve our lives. Others involve not doing something to make life better, e.g. not smoking. Those of us who indulge in resolutions usually make more than one:

Over 45 percent of people make resolutions that relate to self-improvement, such as getting fit, quitting smoking, cutting down on stress and furthering their education.
Thirty-eight percent want to lose weight.
Almost equally, 34 percent make resolutions related to finances, i.e. paying off debts and/or saving money.
And improving relationships has a fairly strong showing of 31 percent.

Other popular resolutions involve volunteering, getting organized and having a successful career.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

Statistics also show that only about a quarter of us actually stick with our resolutions for more than a week or two. Most people get caught up in the New Year's spirit, then lose their momentum after they return to the daily grind post-holidays.

Resolutions involving major changes may fall by the wayside if they are too difficult and too far reaching to accomplish with ease. Keeping the resolution simple and breaking goals into baby steps might be the key to making progress toward improvement.

LOSING WEIGHT, AND
GETTING HEALTHIER

Vow to lose a pound or two a month rather than declaring “I’m going to lose 50 pounds!”
Instead of drinking soda, drink water for one month.
Cut down on fast food visits – if you typically indulge weekly, then cut those visits down to once a month. Same goes for replacing other unhealthy foods with healthy foods.
Start walking the dog again.
Get a physical exam.
Make a list of healthy snacks and try to grab one of those everyday instead of the bag of chips.

GETTING FINANCIALLY
HEALTHIER

Start a log or journal of expenditures to see where the money goes.
Replace two of the weekly visits to your favorite coffee shop and make your own coffee at home.
Replace one lunch out per week with bringing lunch from home.
Pay cash - don’t put anything on a credit card.
Start saving or paying down debt with what you would have spent on the little things.
Request your credit report from all three agencies – this is free.

SELF-IMPROVEMENT

Take a course for fun – photography, foreign language, pottery, cooking.
Take a course to learn a new skill for career enhancement – computer skills, writing.
Join a book club – good for establishing new relationships, too.
Keep a journal.

IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS

Schedule at least two meals per week with the whole family and without the TV or cell phones on.
Visit an elderly neighbor or family friend who you haven’t seen in awhile.
Take a friend out to lunch.
Invite your neighbors over for Sunday breakfast.
Call your mother.
Start a monthly movie night and invite friends or neighbors.
Write a letter to an old friend – not an e-mail but a real handwritten letter.

HELPING OTHERS

Join a community group.
Tutor a child.
Clean out your closet and donate unused items.
Start a recycling program in your own home.
Volunteer for a fundraiser.

GETTING ORGANIZED

Make lists.
Keep a work and family calendar and update it regularly.
Tackle one pile, one drawer or one cabinet each week to clean up and organize for the end goals of eliminating clutter and being able to find everything you need when you need it.

KEEPING A RESOLUTION

Not keeping a resolution is a source of guilt and makes one feel like a failure, so if you stray from the goal of the resolution, just get back to it. People who stick to their resolutions for a two-year period are said to have up to 14 slip-ups or setbacks.

NEIGHBORING RESOLUTIONS
BONUS:

My resolution is to work smarter and be able to spend more time with my family. I would like to cook more meals instead of always eating on the run.
-Elizabeth Bryson

Mine always remain the same: Stop thinking, planning and worrying about what MIGHT be coming or COULD happen and be fully "in the moment." Along the same lines, I try to not let myself get consumed by things I cannot control. Worrying about things gives me lots to do, but it doesn't really get me anywhere. Finally, yell less at my girls, lose 15 pounds, eat more veggies and exercise every day...just the normal!
-Diane Roscoe

To make a difference in my disabled brother's life. I want to find a better living situation for him that is productive and will give him a more positive outlook on life. I'd also like to be able to make a large donation towards the research for a cure for his disease. I would also like to help women who are struggling with difficult decisions and want a better life for themselves and their families.
-Claire Boynton

My New Year's resolution is to "listen more and speak less."
-Terry Holmes

A greener year - be more conscientious about recycling paper, plastic, glass, aluminum and electronics and bring our own bags on shopping trips. This is almost as hard to do as it was to start wearing seat belts years ago! Be a better neighbor - reunite and invite neighbors to house parties they can ‘walk’ to. Carpool with others and drive only when I need to. Combine errands and ask a neighbor if I can run an errand for them.
-Arleen Kinder

To drop five strokes from my "golf" game.
-Ray Kinder

To make all my deadlines in 2009 and reduce both my waste and waist!
-Deborah Stumpf

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Issue 376 - 1/12/2009
SNIPPETZ IS
GETTING FIT
by Deborah Stumpf

Jogging is very beneficial. It's good for your legs and your feet. It's also very good for the ground. If makes it feel needed.
-Charles M. Schultz

Has your treadmill become an indoor clothesline? Does your idea of the six food groups consist of chocolate, pasta, hamburgers, potato chips, pizza and beer? Is your most strenuous exercise lifting more than one remote control at a time? Well, you are not alone. Even though the benefits of a healthy diet and physical activity are no secret – strengthens the heart and lungs, improves sleep, improves mood, fights diseases – many of us have at least some difficulty eating right and following the recommendations for exercise.

WHO'S DOING THAT?

More than 50 percent of people who start an exercise program give it up within the first year.
About 16 percent of people participate in sports or exercise activities on a daily basis. In Colorado, the number is about 18 percent. In the far western states of Washington, Oregon and California, about 20 percent exercise daily.
In the 25 and older age group, those with a college education are more than twice as likely to exercise on most days than those with a high school education or less.
Walking continues to be the most popular form of exercise for 30 percent of daily exercisers. For those who participate in team sports, basketball is the most popular sport for fitness.
Men prefer football, golf, basketball and soccer and women prefer aerobics and yoga. Both genders like swimming, water skiing, surfing and bowling.
Most Americans consume about 33 percent of their daily calories in fats.
About 142 million American adults are considered overweight and 67.3 of those are obese.
More than half of Americans with chronic diseases do NOT follow their physician’s advice on lifestyle changes and medication compliance.
About equal amounts of both genders who exercise on a daily basis are likely to exercise alone as with someone.

WHO SHOULD BE
DOING THAT?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently issued its “2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.” The good news is that some activity is better than none and small bursts of activity of both aerobic and muscle strengthening are also beneficial. The HHS notes optimum physical activity for all ages and physical conditions. Some are:

CHILDREN AND
ADOLESCENTS

Sixty minutes or more of activity each day, most of which should be of moderate or vigorous intensity level at least three days per week, as well as muscle and bone strengthening exercise at least three days per week.

ADULTS

Two hours and 30 minutes each week of moderate intensity aerobic exercise or one hour and 15 minutes each week of vigorous intensity aerobics or a combination of both. Aerobics can be in 10-minute spurts and still be beneficial. Two or more days per week should be devoted to some muscle strengthening activities.

Specific recommendations for older adults, pregnant women, persons with disabilities and those with chronic medical conditions are provided by the HHS at www.health.gov/PAGuidelines. It is also very important to check with your physician before beginning any exercise or fitness program.

EASY WAYS TO ADD
ACTIVITY TO THE DAY

The most common exercise duration in a day for those who exercise regularly is between 30 and 59 minutes. The amount of time spent on an activity varies greatly depending on the activity. Those who use equipment, jog, lift weights, walk, do yoga or aerobics tend to spend less time exercising; whereas those who play a sport such as baseball, softball, football or golf as well as participate in dancing spend the most time exercising.

Use stairs instead of the elevator.
Walk the dog every day.
Park farther away from the building you intend to enter and walk the rest of the way.
Add some weights to arms or legs while cleaning the house.
Take a ballroom dancing class.
Walk while you talk on the phone.
Last but not least, move the candy dish farther away from the TV so you have to get up and walk to it.

PYRAMIDS ARE NOT
JUST FOR EGYPT

The latest food pyramid suggests six basic food groups and how much of these food groups should be eaten each day. For a personalized pyramid or a printout of the pyramid as well as serving size equivalents, go to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website or www.mypramid.gov.

Bread, Cereal, Rice and Pasta
Six to 11 servings per day

Vegetables
Three to five servings per day

Fruits
Two to four servings per day

Dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt)
Two to three servings per day

Protein (meat, poultry, eggs, fish, nuts, beans and tofu)
Two to three servings per day

Fats, Oils, Sweets
Use sparingly – 55-75 grams of fat and 6-12 teaspoons of sugar daily.

EASY WAYS TO ADD
HEALTHY FOODS
EACH DAY

Eat a variety of vegetables and choose fresh as much as possible. Chop up vegetables and add to a favorite pasta dish.
Eat fresh fruit as much as possible and avoid fruit juices as they may contain added sugars. Avoid fruit “drinks,” which are not 100 percent juice.
Instead of whole milk, try two percent and gradually decrease to skim over time. Try light versions of cheese, yogurt and ice cream.
Remove skin from chicken and trim the fat from other meats; skip the butter in the frying pan and try broiling, roasting, braising or grilling.
Switch from vegetable oil to olive oil when possible for cooking and making homemade salad dressings.
Start with a small amount of salad dressing to start and only add more if absolutely necessary. Dressing is loaded with calories.
Choose low fat options when available, e.g. English muffin instead of a donut or a baked potato instead of fries (but tone down on the butter and sour cream topping).
Add more fiber – it moderates cholesterol and makes you feel full!
Try a handful of almonds for a snack instead of a candy bar.

SOME FAMOUS
HEALTH NUTS

John Basedow is a bodybuilder and fitness guru best known for exercise tapes as well as an internationally syndicated TV magazine show called “Images.” He’s the author of Fitness Made Simple: The Power to Change Your Body & Life” and the video “FMS Awesome Arms.” He is also an American Heart Association Spokesperson and has received the American Diabetes Association’s award for his work in educating people about leading a healthful lifestyle.
Joseph H. Pilates was born in Germany in 1880 from a gymnast father and naturopath mother. As a teenager he was physically fit enough to pose for anatomical charts and believed that lifestyle, bad posture and poor breathing was the root of poor health. Before he migrated to the U.S. in 1925, Pilates began to teach his exercise methods in England as a boxer and self-defense trainer. While interned during World War I on the Isle of Man, he trained other inmates in fitness. In the U.S., he and his wife refined his training methods, calling it “Contrology,” which used the mind to control the body. Because the Pilates Method focused on postural muscles, body balance, spinal support and awareness of breath, many student dancers were sent to the Pilates’ studio for training. Joseph Pilates wrote several books and died in 1967 at the age of 87. His teachings still remain popular.
Susan Powter is a dietitian, personal trainer, motivational speaker and author of several books. Powter condemned fad diets with her catch phrase “Stop the Insanity.” She promoted eating organic and low-fat foods along with a regular cardiovascular and strength training exercise program in order to maintain optimum health.
Jack LaLanne, a fitness and nutritional expert and motivational speaker is still alive at the age of 94. LaLanne admits to an addiction to sugar and junk food as a teen but after hearing a talk by Paul Bragg on health and nutrition, he was hooked on good diet and exercise habits, eventually leading to his concentration on bodybuilding and weightlifting. He continues to workout daily by spending 90 minutes in his weight room and 30 minutes walking or swimming. LaLanne was inducted in the California Hall of Fame just last year at the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in a ceremony presided over by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, another famous bodybuilder, and his wife Maria Shriver.

LIFE'S A TREADMILL

You say you’re not getting enough exercise because you’re at work all day? Well, Dr. James Levine from the Mayo Clinic developed a treadmill desk because he felt that people were too sedentary at the workplace. Salo Oberon Numberworks, a staffing firm out of Minneapolis was one of the first to try it on their employees with great success. Treadmill desks are not exactly mainstream…yet…but can be easily found on the Internet. The maximum speed is 2 MPH and the device is equipped with a place for a phone and computer.

New Yorker James Buster is using his treadmill desk to “walk across America,” a virtual trip that is being tracked by Google Earth. His goal starting in 2007 was to get to Chicago the first year and Boulder, Colorado the second year and Santa Monica beach in 2009. Buster has made it through Colorado and is well on his way to California on his employer-paid trip. Beats airport security.

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Issue 377 - 1/19/2009
SNIPPETZ CELEBRATES
THE BIZARRE AND
UNUSUAL HOLIDAYS
by Deborah Stumpf

"Reality, however utopian, is something from which people feel the need of taking pretty frequent holidays."
-Aldous Huxley in “Brave New World”

New Years and Martin Luther King Day are the only January holidays, right? Wrong!! Did you remember to celebrate National Hot Tea Month and Oatmeal Month in January? How about Someday We’ll Laugh About This Week, National Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice Week or National No Tillage Week? That’s only a small sampling of the “holidays” to celebrate in January. There’s always Dimpled Chad Day, World Hypnotism Day, I’m Not Going To Take It Anymore Day, National Joy Germ Day, Do Dah Parade Day and Answer Your Cat’s Questions Day. Really, these are holidays and we hope you didn’t miss them!

There is still an opportunity to celebrate in January with:

Jan. 23 – Measure Your Feet Day (there’s a day for this?)
Jan. 24 – Beer Can Appreciation Day - Beer can collectors unite! This is your day to celebrate the day beer was first sold in cans in 1935.
Jan. 27 – Chocolate Cake Day - No explanation needed – just head for the nearest bakery or make one yourself!
Jan. 30 – Inane Answering Message Day
A holiday designed to change or delete those awful answering machine recordings that everyone does not enjoy.

How Do These Holidays Happen…Or Who Thought Up This Stuff?

In order to designate a true “national” holiday, it literally takes an Act of Congress. First of all, anyone who wants to create a national day has to contact their local congressional leader and then create an actual proposal to get onto the congressional agenda, an amazing feat in itself.

If your idea for a holiday doesn’t have to be national, then all you need to do is declare it is so. Most of these holidays are made up for one occasion, but some actually live a long life year after year. These are created mainly by card companies, special interest groups and other companies in order to promote their interests. And some have created holidays meant to be humorous, copyrighted them and wrote a book about them, mostly in the name of money, but at least entertaining.

February is not only the home of President’s Day, Groundhog Day and Mardi Gras, but also National Bake for Family Fun Month, National Laugh-Friendly Month, National Mend a Broken Heart Month and Spunky Old Broads Month. Daily observances include:

Feb. 1 – Hula in the Coola Day - This is a day for everyone who is sick of winter. It’s time to behave as if you live in Hawaii. Shed the thermal underwear, sweaters and parkas and host a luau complete with Mai Tai’s, grass skirts, leis. Why not roast a pig?
Feb. 11 – Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk Day - A day for all those pessimists who need a specific day to be optimistic.
Feb. 16 – Do A Grouch a Favor Day - This is the day to find someone who is grouchy and do them a favor in hopes of putting a smile on their face.
Feb. 20 – Northern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day - Folks in the northern hemisphere go outside at noon, wave their hands in the air and chant “hoodie hoo” in an effort to chase away winter and bring in spring.

March is International Ideas Month, International Mirth Month and National Craft Month along with:

Mar. 3 – What If Cats and Dogs Had Opposable Thumbs Day - A holiday for people who have too much time on their hands (pun intended).
Mar. 6 – Middle Name Pride Day - A holiday designed to simply flaunt our middle names. After all, our parents put a great deal of thought into it. Some people like their middle names more than their first. Think Dorothy F. Dunaway (Faye), Robert T. Turner (Ted) and John E. Hoover (J. Edgar).
Mar. 14 – Pi Day - Mathematicians the world over celebrate this day and Pi, the symbol for the ratio of a circumference of a circle to its diameter. Remember, Pi=3.14159265…to infinity.
Mar. 22 – International Goof-off Day - No explanation necessary. The Snippetz staff is really looking forward to this one.

April kicks off with April Fools Day and goes on to celebrate National Knuckles Down Month, Straw Hat Month, Fresh Florida Tomatoes Month and Egg Salad Week.

April 7 – No Housework Day (a personal favorite)
April 11 – International “Louie Louie” day - A day to honor the party song “Louie Louie” and Richard Barry, its composer. The holiday was designated by the Louie Louie Advocacy and Music Appreciation Society. Washington State and Seattle have also named its own Louie Louie Day on April 12 and April 14 respectively. Although Washington refused to declare “Louie Louie” its state song, it agreed to designate a day to honor the famous tune.
April 17 – Blah-Blah-Blah Day - This is a day set aside to do all the boring tasks on your to-do list.
April 26 – Hug an Australian Day - And why not? It’s all in the name of fostering friendly international relations.

May is not just for moms and Memorial Day. It’s also National Salad Month, National Vinegar Month (goes with the salad, of course), and is the home of Bread Pudding Recipe Exchange Week, Work at Home Moms Week and National Hug Holiday Week. And you won’t want to miss:

May 3 – Lumpy Rug Day - A day set aside to get rid of an old lumpy rug and replace it with a nice, smooth rug.
May 8 – No Socks Day (don’t forget to wash your feet)
May 13 – Root Canal Appreciation Day - Proclaimed Dr. Chris Kammer, a dentist from Madison, Wisc., anyone who has suffered from an abscessed tooth can truly appreciate this holiday. Dr. Kammer kicked off the holiday by performing the procedure outdoors at the local baseball stadium.
May 25 – Nerd/Geek Pride Day - Originating in Spain, this day was selected because it is the anniversary of the premier of the first “Star Wars” movie in 1977. The holiday first appeared in the U.S. in 2008.

June is the month of graduations and also National Accordion Month and National Steakhouse Month. June is also the proud owner of International Clothesline Week and National Old-time Fiddler’s Week.

June 2 – Leave the Office Early Day (another Snippetz staff favorite)
June 18 –Splurge Day - This is a day that anyone on a diet or a budget can look forward to. It’s the official day to eat that banana split or buy a sports car.
June 20 – National Hollerin’ Contest Day - Since 1969 folks have flocked by the thousands to Spivey’s Corner in North Carolina, population about 49, for this event. It is what it is – a lot of yelling.
June 22 – Stupid Guy Thing Day - A day to celebrate stupid things that guys do. For some reason, we could not find any evidence of a Stupid Gal Thing Day.

July - Independence Day doesn’t get all the glory. There’s also:

July 15 – Saint Swithins Day - If it rains on July 15, then the day will be followed by 40 days and nights of rain; if it is dry on July 15, the next 40 will also be dry. Swithins was a bishop from England who died in 862 and was buried outdoors in humble surroundings, as he wished, where he could be rained upon. On July 15, 971, his remains were moved to an indoor cathedral. Severe and violent storms pounded the town that day and for the remaining 40 days. Legend has it that Swithins sent the storms in protest of his being moved.
July 20 – National Get Out of the Doghouse Day
July 23 – Hot Enough For Ya’ Day
July 27 – Take Your Pants for a Walk Day - This means take a walk, but do not wear a skirt, dress or kilt. Why? We don’t know.

August is National Panini Month and is the home of Hobo Week and Waffle Week, as well as:

Aug. 7 – Particularly Preposterous Packaging Day - A day to take note of all the packaging that you need to find a child to open for you.
Aug. 22 – Southern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day - Just like the northern folks who celebrate Feb. 20.
Aug. 28 – Race Your Mouse Around the Icons Day (makes you wonder, doesn’t it?)

September is the proud home of Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month…and Labor Day, of course. There are a few other important days as well:

Sept. 5 – Be Late For Something Day - This is a special holiday for those perpetual late arrivers. Now there is a good excuse!
Sept 11 – No News Is Good News Day
Sept. 19 – International Talk Like a Pirate Day and Big Whopper Liar Day - It’s best to combine this by telling likes while you talk like a pirate - aarrgh matey!
Sept. 28 – Ask a Stupid Question Day (remember – ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer)

October is Month of Free Thought and National Sarcastic Awareness Month (commenting here is just too easy).

Oct. 9 – Moldy Cheese Day - This is for all you cheese lovers who cut the mold from around the edges of the cheese and eat the middle.
Oct. 14 – Be Bald and Be Free Day (beware – you may be arrested for telling bald jokes today.)
Oct .17 – Wear Something Gaudy Day
Oct. 30 – Haunted Refrigerator Night - Time to look deep into the corners of the refrigerator and clean out the really frightening things you find.

November is not only the month for veterans and Thanksgiving Day, but also National Peanut Butter Lovers Month, not to mention:

Nov. 4 – National Chicken Lady Day - It’s not what you think. This day has nothing to do with chicken. Rather, it is a day to honor Dr. Marthenia “Tina” Dupree who trains people all over the world for public speaking. She once worked as a Director of Community Relations/Spokesperson and Training for a major chicken franchise where she earned her nickname, “The Chicken Lady.”
Nov. 19 – World Toilet Day - This is one deserving holiday - where would we be without the toilet?
Nov. 27 – Sinkie Day - A special day for eating Thanksgiving Day leftovers over the sink.

December is not just for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. It’s also Bingo’s Birthday Month and National Tie Month. There is also:

Dec. 1 – Bifocals at the Monitor (computer) Liberation Day - Take off your bifocals and move your monitor 6 feet from your face.
Dec. 16 – National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day (who needs a day for this?)
Dec. 26 – National Whiner’s Day - Although no one likes a whiner, this is the day that all whiners are free to whine…within reason. How about a whine and cheese party?

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Issue 378 - 1/26/2009
SNIPPETZ LOOKS
AT THOSE WHO
RISE ABOVE
DISABILITIES
by Deborah Stumpf

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."
-Helen Keller

Disability, or a lack of ability relative to the normal population is not always thought of as a disability by those that are considered as such. There are many well-known disabled persons throughout history that have not only risen above their disabilities, but have gone on to use their disabilities to enhance their lives and the lives of others.

HELEN KELLER

One of the most well-known disabled persons was Helen Keller (1880-1968) who contracted a disease when just over 18 months old that may have been meningitis or scarlet fever. The disease rendered her blind and deaf. After a visit to Alexander Graham Bell, who referred her to the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, Keller’s parents hired Anne Sullivan to work with Keller. Sullivan was a 20-year-old former student of the Institute and sight impaired. She taught Keller how to communicate through sign language used in the palms of her hands. She eventually became Keller’s governess and companion for the remainder of Sullivan’s life. Some highlights of Keller’s life:

The first blind person to ever earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She graduated from Radcliffe College magna cum laude.
Activist for disabled persons
Radical socialist and supporter of the working class
A suffragist
Co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920
Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin and Alexander Graham Bell were her friends
Met every U.S. President from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson
Authored 12 books
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964

Helen Keller will not soon be forgotten as her life has been chronicled in written form, on stage and in the movies. She was also placed on the Alabama state quarter in 2003, has a hospital dedicated to her (Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield, Alabama) and has a street named after her in Spain.

OTHER HEARING IMPAIRED

Thomas Edison, inventor of the phonograph and the light bulb, was hearing impaired due to scarlet fever and untreated childhood middle ear infections. Edison was a poor student and had difficulty with mathematics, speech and focus. He only made it through three months of formal education.
Ludwig Van Beethoven composed and performed music even when completely deaf.
Marlee Matlin, a deaf woman, won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in “Children of a Lesser God.”
Johnnie Ray (1927-1990), singer, pianist and songwriter, was partially deaf starting at the age of 13 due to an injury. He eventually became completely deaf after a surgery when he was about 30 years old. He continued to perform music with the help of hearing aids.

LOU GEHRIG'S DISEASE,
OR AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL
SCLEROSIS (ALS)

This neurodegenerative disease that is progressive and typically fatal is named after the famous American baseball player who was diagnosed in 1938. Gehrig only lived thee years past his diagnosis, but others have lived longer and have made great contributions in spite of this paralyzing disease.

Stephen Hawking has lived more than 40 years with the terminal diagnosis given him while pursuing his college education. He went on to become a world renowned physicist working on notable projects such as Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. He married, became a father and continued his life’s work while being confined to a wheelchair. Hawking eventually lost use of his hands and uses a speech synthesizer to dictate his work into his computer where it is transcribed.
Charles Mingus (1922-1979) was diagnosed with the disease in his mid 50’s. He had to give up bass and piano, but continued to compose jazz music until his death.
A teacher, Chris Pendergast raised awareness of the disease by riding in his electric wheelchair from Yankee Stadium (Lou Gehrig’s team) to Washington, D.C., a 350-mile trek taking 15 days. He called the trip a “Ride for Life,” which continues annually in order to raise money for ALS research.

AMAZING AMPUTEES

Peter Gray (1915-2002) dreamed of being a major league baseball player even after he lost his right arm in an accident at the age of six. In 1945, he played for a short time with the Browns where he was taunted and abused because of his disability. He went back to the minors and continued to play until his retirement in 1949. Gray was an active mentor of children in his community after his retirement. His custom-made baseball glove can be seen in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Aimee Mullins competed in track and field while in college and set records in the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics in the 100-meter dash and long jump. These accomplishments, along with an acting and modeling career, came after losing both of her legs at the age of one.
Glenn Malmskog, a below knee amputee, was a stuntman in Hollywood for over 20 years before becoming a firefighter, the first amputee firefighter in the state of California.
Tom Whittaker founded the Cooperative Wilderness Handicapped Outdoor Group in Pocatello Idaho in 1981. He was the first disabled person to make it to the summit of Mount Everest. He continues to climb without his right foot.

IN OR OUT OF REALITY?

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that causes impairment in a person’s perception of reality. It is characterized by hallucinations, delusions and paranoid thinking. Many schizophrenics have made substantial contributions to society in spite of their disabilities.

John Nash, the subject of the movie “A Beautiful Mind,” is a brilliant mathematician who published 23 scientific studies between 1945 and 1996. He was awarded the John von Neumann Theory Prize for inventing non-cooperative equilibria, now referred to as Nash equilibria.
Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882), wife of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, suffered from schizophrenia.
Lionel Aldridge (1941-1998), a defensive end for the Green Bay Packers in the 1960’s and sports analyst suffered from paranoid schizophrenia beginning in the 1970’s. He went untreated and became homeless. Eventually, friends helped him find treatment options.