Friday

Nov. 29, 1996

55

by Hayden Carruth

FRIDAY 11/29

Today's Reading:"55" by Hayden Carruth from COLLECTED SHORTER POEMS 1946-1991, published by Copper Canyon Press.

Today marks the traditional beginning of the Christmas shopping season, also known as Black Friday, a term coined by retailers to describe the day when the ink on their income statements turns from red to black.

The Fish House Parade takes place today in Aitkin, Minnesota.

The Jule Fest, a Danish Christmas festival, starts today in Elk Horn, Iowa.

An Old German Christmas will be celebrated today in Papillion, Nebraska.

It was on this day in 1989 that Czechoslovakia officially ended communist rule.

American dancer and choreographer Pearl Primus was born on this day in Trinidad, 1919.

It's the birthday of writer Madeleine L'Engle (A WRINKLE IN TIME), born in New York City, 1918.

It's the anniversary of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre in the Colorado Territory. More than 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, including women and children, were rounded up and slaughtered by the U.S. Cavalry after they had surrendered and been disarmed.

Louisa May Alcott, author of LITTLE WOMEN, was born on this day in Philadelphia, 1832. She thought the story boring and wrote, "The publisher thought it flat, and so do I and neither hoped much for or from it. I do not enjoy writing 'moral tales' for the young, I do it because it pays well."

Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who came up with the Doppler Effect which became a major tool in astronomy, was born in Salzburg, 1803.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

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