Monday, December 25, 2017

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Enjoying a Fun and Safe New Year’s Eve

There can be a lot of pressure and hype around what to do on New Year’s Eve. Everyone wants to have a memorable night and alcohol often plays a big part in the activities, as it does throughout the entire holiday season.

Drunk driving is an issue all year round. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), every minute one person is injured from an alcohol-related crash. But because of all of the parties and socializing during the holidays, many people are indulging in drinking and the chances of being in a drunk-driving accident are higher. Here are some tips for celebrating New Year’s Eve while staying safe.

Don’t drink and drive. This is the most important rule of all for having a safe New Year’s Eve. Driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 is illegal across the country. But the amount of alcohol it takes to get to that number depends on a variety of factors such as how fast you drink, weight, and gender. If you’ve had anything to drink, don’t get behind the wheel no matter what.

Designate a sober driver. Plan ahead and pick someone dependable to be the sober designated driver. This means you can relax and indulge without worrying about driving yourself home.

Take a cab. You don’t even have to remember the number to call a taxi. Just dial #TAXI (#8294) to get connected to your local taxi service. The cost is between $1.25 and $2 depending on your wireless carrier. The service works across all of North America. While you may have to wait for an available cab, it’s better than taking a chance with your life or someone else’s life by drinking and driving.

Have a sleepover. Consider making plans to sleep where you’re celebrating New Year’s Eve. This will keep you safely off the roads and allow you to drink as much as you want without worrying about driving.

Don’t drive. If at all possible, avoid getting behind the wheel of a car even if you haven’t been drinking. Even if you are sober, there’s no way to control other drivers. There will probably be lots of impaired drivers on the streets and the best way to stay safe is to avoid driving all together. If you do have to drive, be sure to wear your seat belt and stay alert for people driving under the influence.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore, an Episcopal minister, wrote a long Christmas poem for his three daughters entitled “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas.” Moore’s poem, which he was initially hesitant to publish due to the frivolous nature of its subject, is largely responsible for our modern image of Santa Claus as a “right jolly old elf” with a portly figure and the supernatural ability to ascend a chimney with a mere nod of his head! Although some of Moore’s imagery was probably borrowed from other sources, his poem helped popularize the now-familiar image of a Santa Claus who flew from house to house on Christmas Eve–in “a miniature sleigh” led by eight flying reindeer–leaving presents for deserving children. “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” created a new and immediately popular American icon. In 1881, political cartoonist Thomas Nast drew on Moore’s poem to create the first likeness that matches our modern image of Santa Claus. His cartoon, which appeared in Harper’s Weekly, depicted Santa as a rotund, cheerful man with a full, white beard, holding a sack laden with toys for lucky children. It is Nast who gave Santa his bright red suit trimmed with white fur, North Pole workshop, elves, and his wife, Mrs. Claus.
18th-century America’s Santa Claus was not the only St. Nicholas-inspired gift-giver to make an appearance at Christmastime. Similar figures were popular all over the world. Christkind or Kris Kringle was believed to deliver presents to well-behaved Swiss and German children. Meaning “Christ child,” Christkind is an angel-like figure often accompanied by St. Nicholas on his holiday missions. In Scandinavia, a jolly elf named Jultomten was thought to deliver gifts in a sleigh drawn by goats. English legend explains that Father Christmas visits each home on Christmas Eve to fill children’s stockings with holiday treats. Pere Noel is responsible for filling the shoes of French children. In Russia, it is believed that an elderly woman named Babouschka purposely gave the wise men wrong directions to Bethlehem so that they couldn’t find Jesus. Later, she felt remorseful, but could not find the men to undo the damage. To this day, on January 5, Babouschka visits Russian children leaving gifts at their bedsides in the hope that one of them is the baby Jesus and she will be forgiven. In Italy, a similar story exists about a woman called La Befana, a kindly witch who rides a broomstick down the chimneys of Italian homes to deliver toys into the stockings of lucky children.
Rudolph, “the most famous reindeer of all,” was born over a hundred years after his eight flying counterparts. The red-nosed wonder was the creation of Robert L. May, a copywriter at the Montgomery Ward department store.
In 1939, May wrote a Christmas-themed story-poem to help bring holiday traffic into his store. Using a similar rhyme pattern to Moore’s “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” May told the story of Rudolph, a young reindeer who was teased by the other deer because of his large, glowing, red nose. But, When Christmas Eve turned foggy and Santa worried that he wouldn’t be able to deliver gifts that night, the former outcast saved Christmas by leading the sleigh by the light of his red nose. Rudolph’s message—that given the opportunity, a liability can be turned into an asset—proved popular. Montgomery Ward sold almost two and a half million copies of the story in 1939. When it was reissued in 1946, the book sold over three and half million copies. Several years later, one of May’s friends, Johnny Marks, wrote a short song based on Rudolph’s story (1949). It was recorded by Gene Autry and sold over two million copies. Since then, the story has been translated into 25 languages and been made into a television movie, narrated by Burl Ives, which has charmed audiences every year since 1964.