January

Well tomorrow it will be January. The new year will be starting.  But of course you probably know that. Did you know there was no January until sometime in the area of 713 BC? The previous calendars only had ten months and in the winter there were no months. There was no January or February. The Romans added to two months to make the calendar and the lunar year match.
January first is naturally New Years Day and is celebrated world wide but it is also know as The Feast of the Circumcision among many Christians. Makes the mind reel doesn't it!

Happy Birthday Sister Morphine

Marianne Faithful is now eligible to be a pensioner. Sister Morphine is 65 today and it is some what amazing she is alive. She was the embodiment of swinging 60's London and barely made it out alive. Name a drug she did it, name a rock star she did him is the reputation, deserved of not, that swallowed her. Cocaine in the 60's and heroin in the 70's those were her most public addictions. Her career was never really much of anything but a train wreck until she cleaned herself up in the 80's. The once lilting high voice now smoked a raspy baritone her career is better now at 65 than it has ever been. Happy Birthday Mariane Faithful, glad you did what you did!

The Girl With Three Names

Mary Tyler Moore turned 76 today. That's right Laura Petrie aka Mary Richards is 76 years old! America's career girl and favorite wife is Mary Tyler Moore and has been since 1961 when Carl Reiner cast her in The Dick Van Dyke Show. Ms Moore had played some small roles and "Happy Hotpoint" a dancing elf before the role of Laura Petrie. She had auditioned for the role of Danny Thomas' daughter on the Danny Thomas show but was turned down as Thomas thought no one believe that a girl with such a small nose could be his daughter. Thomas did remember her and when he was producing the Dick Van Dyke Show he suggested the girl with three names to Carl Reiner. Mary Tyler Moore went on to play the role of Laura for five years.

In 1970 Mary Tyler Moore and her then husband Grant Tinker formed MTM Enterprises and they pitched the idea of The Mary Tyler Moore Show to CBS. The character of Mary Richards was the first single career woman to be an independent and happy woman. The Mary Tyler Moore Show was one of the most successful sitcoms of the 1970's. MTM Enterprises also produced the spin-off series Rhoda and Phyllis along with The Bob Newhart Show, Hill Street Blues, WKRP in Cincinnati and Newhart.
Married three times Mary Tyler Moore had only one child during her first marriage,a son named Richard. Her son died at the age of 24 from an accidental gun shot wound. Her second husband Grant Tinker was her partner in MTM Enterprises and eventually became Chairman of NBC. They divorced in 1981. Moore met her third husband a doctor when he treated her mother and made a house call.
She will always be Laura and Mary in the eyes of the television watching public even though she did play one of the coldest mothers ever in the film "Ordinary People". One of her other film roles more fitting to the perception of her persona was that of a nun in the Elvis movie "Change of Habit".

S & H Green Stamps

There was a time when the grocery stores, dry cleaners and gas stations of America would do all kinds of things to get your money and one of the most popular gimmick was "Green Stamps". The stamps were given out at the cash register and the more money one spent the more stamps one got. These stamps were then put into books that could be redeemed for premiums. These premiums were usually housewares and appliances and could be gotten at the S&H Green Stamp Redemption Center.

The S&H in the company name stands for Sperry and Hutchinson. The company was founded in 1896 by Thomas Sperry and Shelly Byron Hutchinson in Michigan. They grew to be the largest trading stamp company in the country and during their heyday 1960's the issues more stamps the the US Postal Service.
Their small green stamps came in denominations of one, ten and fifty points and were stuck into books that when filled counted 1200 points. When a customer had enough points accumulated the books were then brought to the Redemption center and exchanged for items. One could also redeem them through a catalog. The popularity of Green Stamps slowly started to decline in the 1970's and eventually was discontinued in the 1990's.

Annoying Words

The Marist Poll of 2012's most annoying words has come out. They claim "whatever" to be the most annoying. That may well be. There are many more annoying words than whatever in my opinion. The word I find most annoying is "chillax". I haven't any idea why but when I hear it is just cringe. I also have an extreme repulsion by the word "belly". I would much rather hear the word "whatever" any day but "chillax" is like nails on a black board and "belly" just creeps me out. Marist also listed the word "twitterverse" as an annoying word and on that I do have to agree. The thing is I don't think I have ever actually heard anyone say it so it doesn't bother me as much as it might.

Boxing Day

Today is the day after Christmas and in British Isles and Canada it is Boxing Day. American's haven't got a clue as to what it is. The name is kind of a mystery. It is generally believed that tradesmen would receive "Christmas" boxes from the wealthy households that they served and servants who had spent Christmas working would visit their families and take boxes of leftover food. Now it is mainly a shopping day. It is the British equivalent to "Black Friday".

Easy Baking Boys

Baking with a light bulb used to be something made especially for girls but now thanks to McKenna Pope boys can now proudly own an Easy Bake Oven. The Hasbro toy company has bowed to the pressure from Miss Pope a thirteen year old sister of a boy would wanted an Easy Bake Oven. McKenna wanted gender neutral advertising and design. The oven toy has traditionally been made in pinks and purples; colors that are considered "girl colors". Miss Pope was not alone in her desire for gender neutral ovens. She has a face book following of 40,000 and male chefs like Bobby Flay behind her. Hasbro invited her and her parents to their office in Pawtucket, RI to listen to her ideas. The shirts at Hasbro could see the dollar signs in their gender neutral future and jumped on the "boys like ovens too" boat. Boys can now proudly bake with a light bulb too and not have to do it in secret. They can do it for only $39.99 retail.

McKenna Pope