Dr. Seuss and Read Across America Day

On March 2nd schools across the United States celebrate Read Across America Day, and the birthday of Dr. Seuss, one of the world's most well-known and beloved children's authors. Almost any child, or parent for that matter, can quote from the wonderful books of Dr. Seuss.



Before he became known for cats in hats, Dr. Seuss was once a struggling author eager to sell his first picture book. Learn about Dr. Seuss and his path to success.

Source: mamiverse.com via Jane on Pinterest

Groundhog Day 2012

Groundhog Day prediction 2012: Did Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow?

Published: Thursday, February 02, 2012, 7:26 AM     Updated: Thursday, February 02, 2012, 7:36 AM

 By Erik Gallant, MassLive.com 

Punxsutawney Phil, the weather predicting groundhog, is seen on his stump during the annual Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, Pa. in this file photo from Feb. 2, 2011.

It's an annual tradition in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania: when the groundhog speaks, we humans listen. His weather-predicting skills may only be accurate 39 percent of the time, but that hardly matters.

The rules of Groundhog Day are simple: if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, we can expect another 6 weeks of winter. If he doesn't see his shadow, it indicates that spring is "just around the corner."

What makes this small town in central Pennsylvania so special? As the vice president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club explained to the crowd Thursday, "Our president is the only person in the world who is gifted to understand the language of Groundhogese."

On Thursday morning, Phil did see his shadow. Six more weeks of winter!

Phil immediately updated his Twitter account confirming the prognostication:

A terrifying shadow = 6 more weeks of winter! No complaining. We haven’t even had winter yet.

For many in the Northeast, another 6 weeks of winter may seem an unlikely prediction, considering the fact that winter has barely even arrived.

Indeed, one member of the crowd Thursday was heard shouting, "It's already warm enough to be spring!"

In recent years, Phil has embraced technology as a way of getting the word out, with the aforementioned Twitter account full of humorous observations like:

"All eyes are on me right now, and I'm mad with power!"

Fans and media organizations have also increasingly tried to read more into the groundhog's predictions. The Patriot-News recently ran a "scientific statistical analysis" to see if the predictions held any indicators for the 2012 presidential election.

Despite the modern flourishes, Phil's bread-and-butter remains emerging from his hole and whispering into the ear of a top-hatted man. We'll all have to wait and see if the groundhog's words of wisdom hold true.

The first day of spring is March 20, according to the calendar.

Martin Luther King Day

Martin Luther King Day is a federal holiday held on the third Monday of January. It celebrates the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr., an influential American civil rights leader. He is most well-known for his campaigns to end racial segregation on public transport and for racial equality in the United States.

Martin Luther King Day is a relatively new federal holiday and there are few long standing traditions. It is seen as a day to promote equal rights for all Americans, regardless of their background. Some educational establishments mark the day by teaching their pupils or students about the work of Martin Luther King and the struggle against racial segregation and racism. In recent years, federal legislation has encouraged Americans to give some of their time on this day as volunteers in citizen action groups. Martin Luther King Day, also known as Martin Luther King’s birthday and Martin Luther King Jr Day, is combined with other days in different states. For example, it is combined with Civil Rights Day in Arizona and New Hampshire, while it is observed together with Human Rights Day in Idaho. It is also a day that is combined with Robert E. Lee’s birthday in some states.

Read more...

Christmas Comes But Once a Year

[Infographic provided by Grammar.net]

Visit Friends and Family
Christmas is a time for appreciating those we care for. Take some flowers to your mom, or spend quality time with someone you haven’t seen for a while.
Send Christmas Cards
A pretty card brightens the darkest day, and sitting down to fill out a small box of them warms the spirit. Even a few Christmas postcards to one or two special people will spread “good cheer.”
Eat Turkey
By 4 p.m. on Christmas Day, seventy-five percent of America will be passed out on the couch, bellies stuffed, watching television in a “turkey coma.” Rise up and join them! Or rather, lie down and join them. Turkey is comparatively low in calories–perfect for gleeful gorging.
Give Presents
Again, Christmas is about showing friends and family that they are loved. Even the hardest heart melts to see the happiness on a loved one’s face when opening a Christmas gift.
Make a Wish
Christmas is a magical time of year. The next time you see a lighted tree twinkling in the darkness of your neighborhood, make a wish!
Pull a Cracker
Fireworks are not just for summer–there are Christmas “crackers” that look like big, jolly-colored Tootsie rolls, popular across the pond. Grasp it at both ends and yank. Bang! Inside is a small gift.
Light a Candle
People often light candles at Christmas in remembrance of departed or absent loved ones. If your spouse or kids are elsewhere, if you’re missing a parent, light a candle and spend some time with your happiest memories of that person.
Kiss Under the Mistletoe
It an old tradition to kiss to anyone standing under a sprig of mistletoe. Some not only follow this tradition, they cheerfully linger under it. Hang a piece in a doorway of yourhome for the holidays, and include some when decorating for holiday parties.
Sing a Carol
A rousing Christmas song can fire up the spirit, especially if sung in the shower, but if you’re asked to go caroling with friends, it can be great fun.
Hug Santa
An icon of love and giving, wrap that big man in the red suit in a hug the next time you see him, and it will probably make his day as well as yours.

  Vocabulary for Christmas
  Carol: a Christmas song.
  Chimney: a brick column that vents fireplace smoke through the roof. Santa is said to climb down the chimney to deliver toys to the children.
  Christmas Eve: the day before Christmas.
  Egg Nog: a traditional holiday drink made with eggs, often containing rum.
  Mistletoe: a leafy plant with white berries.
  Reindeer: a cold-climate relative of the caribou. Nine are said to pull Santa’s sleigh: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph.
  Sleigh: an open-topped vehicle pulled by livestock, having runners instead of wheels. Santa loads his with a bag of toys for the children.
  White Christmas: a Christmas where snow has fallen.
  Xmas: abbreviation for Christmas.

A Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving

from BigThink, Bob Duggan, Nov. 22, 2011

You can have your Martha Stewart Thanksgiving(tm) with theAleppo pepper-rubbed roast turkey if you wish, but give me the good, old-fashioned, Norman Rockwell version any day. Rockwell’s classic painting (detail above, full picture here) of Grandma lugging in the gigantic bird on a platter as the patriarch awaits his carving duties and the surrounding adults and kids drool in anticipation will always be the quintessential image of Thanksgiving to me. And, yet, when Rockwell painted that iconic scene, it was March 1943—months away from Thanksgiving. The painting, titled Freedom from Want belongs to a series of works Rockwell titled the Four Freedoms after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address in which FDR outlined what he saw as the four essential freedoms that all people in the world should enjoy. When you look for the roots of the Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving, you won’t find it in the stuffing or the cranberries (and certainly not in an Aleppo pepper rub)—they’re in the simple idea of human, not just American, freedom.

In that State of the Union address FDR gave seventy years ago, he announced the following:

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called “new order” of tyranny....READ MORE

Happy Birthday, Mickey!

Walt Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901. Mickey Mouse made his screen debut on November 18, 1928 in Steamboat Willie , a short black-and-white animated musical. So began a partnership that charmed generations and has had an amazing influence on American culture and the way the US is seen around the world. 

When TIME magazine named Walt Disney as one of the most important people of the twentieth century, they wrote, "He created Mickey Mouse and produced the first full-length animated movie. He invented the theme park and originated the modern multimedia corporation. For better or worse, his innovations have shaped our world and the way we experience it. But the most significant thing Walt Disney made was a good name for himself." 

To parents around the world Disney means clean, decent entertainment for their children. And it all started with a mouse. Happy Birthday, Mickey!!

A Brief History of Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse - Wikipedia

An unofficial Mickey site

Where Did Halloween Come From?

   

"Trick or treat" evolved from a notion that when hungry ghosts are trying to eat you, a person only survives with protection from the saints.

Big Think presents a video of Sharon Gannon explaining the beginnings of Halloween traditions.

Watch her explaination and read along with the transcript.

Then listen, and repeat along with the Halloween conversation on LEC.

... and have a safe and Happy Halloween !!

Why Is It Called America and not Columbusia?

from dictionary.com

Amerian place names can sound pretty confusing even to native English speakers. From Philadelphia (Greek for “loving brother”) to Chicago (Algonquian Fox for “place of the wild onion”), the map of America is an etymological hodge-podge. For a clear example, take three adjacent states in New England. Vermont is an inverted, rough translation of the French for “green mountain,” mont vert. Massachusetts is derived from the name of the Native American people who lived in the area, the Algonquian Massachusett. The word meant “at the large hill.” New Hampshire comes from a county in southern England. 

But what about America itself? Why aren’t the continents of North and South America called “Columbusia” after Christopher Columbus? The word America comes from a lesser-known navigator and explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. Who made the decision? A cartographer.

Like Columbus, Vespucci traveled to the New World (first in 1499 and again in 1502). Unlike Columbus, Vespucci wrote about it. Vespucci’s accounts of his travels were published in 1502 and 1504 and were very widely read in Europe. Columbus was also hindered because he thought he had discovered another route to Asia; he didn’t realize America was a whole new continent. Vespucci, however, realized that America was not contiguous with Asia. He was also the first to call it the New World, or Novus Mundus in Latin, in his books.

With the discovery of this “New World”, maps were being redrawn all the time. No one really knew what land was where or how big it was. Because of this confusion, maps from the 1500s are incredibly inaccurate and contradictory. (They also often feature drawings of mythical sea creatures.) In 1507, a German cartographer named Martin Waldseemüller was drawing a map of the world–a very serious map. He called it the Universalis Cosmographia, or Universal Cosmography. Comprised of 12 wooden panels, it was eight feet wide and four-and-a-half feet tall. He based his drawings of the New World on Vespucci’s published travelogues. All countries were seen as feminine (like her lady Liberty today), so Waldseemüller used a feminine Latinized of Amerigo to name the new continents, “America.” Cartographers tended to copy one another’s choices, so Columbus was left off the map. The rest is history.

Today, an original of Waldseemüller’s map is permanently on display at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.