Skyline Happenings

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

from Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

Thanks to Mary M.

The PNC Christmas Price Index^® is an annual tradition which shows the current cost for one set of each of the gifts given in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

It is similar to the U.S. Consumer Price Index, which measures the changing prices of goods and services like housing, food, clothing, transportation and more that reflect the spending habits of the average American.

The goods and services in the PNC Christmas Price Index® are far more whimsical, of course. And most years, the price changes closely mirror those in the U.S. Consumer Price Index.

It’s a fun way to measure consumer spending and trends in the economy. So, even if Pipers Piping or Geese-a-Laying didn’t make your gift list this year, you can still learn a lot by checking out why their prices have increased or decreased over the years.

Click here to see the cost of each of the 12 items!

DAN RATHER AND ELLIOT KIRSCHNER

Another circle around the sun…

A time to take stock, and fill stockings. 
To mark abundant candlelight, and dwindling sunlight. 
To look backward, and forward, and backward once again.

We remember those who have passed.
And the headlines that captured our attention.
People and moments now rooted in history.

There are lists, so many lists. Of what to buy, and for whom. 
Of the best movies, best books, and best music. 
There are resolutions for the future, even though we know most will not be kept. 
Regardless, we have hope. 

But perhaps most important of all, the end of the year should be a time for gratitude. 

For if we are true to ourselves, we know that much of what we were able to accomplish in the year that is ending could not have occurred without the love and support of others. 

We humans are social creatures, and most of us would not last very long on our own. Science has shown that social support improves both our health and life expectancy. 

We rely on each other for the basic necessities — like sustenance and shelter. Unlike other animals, who emerge from the womb able to walk or swim, we are largely helpless for many years, depending on others to nurture us. 

That is one definition of what it means to be human. 

The very bonds of our common humanity — our intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and moral lives — are forged in relation to others. 

We thank our teachers, formal and otherwise, who guide our learning through life. 
We thank those whose jobs it is to keep us safe, even at danger to themselves. 
We thank the helpers, in every nook and cranny of this great nation and broader world, who lighten the burdens of others. 
We thank the artists who inspire us. And make us laugh and cry. 
We thank those who work in the shadows, without whom there would be no light. 
We thank coworkers who urge us forward. 
We thank friends and family who provide support on days of struggle and heartbreak.

And we thank you, the Steady community. In a world of great need, it is a gift to have a place for empathy and understanding. 

When we think of A Reason To Smile, with December quickly receding along with 2023, we think of all the reasons to say thank you and all the people worth thanking. 

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

Thanks to Mike C. and Bob P.

From the Washington Post By Catherine Rampell

Hide your children, hide your wives. A radical force is sweeping the nation, threatening to destroy everything that God-fearing Americans hold dear.

That threat, according to Fox News? Tap-dancing, one of the most quintessentially American art forms there is.

Need something to talk about? Text us for thought-provoking opinions that can break any awkward silence.

Last week, first lady Jill Biden shared a festive holiday video of tap troupe Dorrance Dance performing their swingin’ spin on “The Nutcracker,” set to a jazz arrangement by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.

Festooned with wide smiles, whimsical headpieces and a healthy helping of sequins, the dancers percuss their way around the White House. Familiar characters from the “Nutcracker” — such as a rodent king and the young heroine Clara— sprinkle kinetic joy through the East Wing’s Christmas trees. The video opens and closes with saucy flourishes from “Sugar Rum Cherry” (performed by co-choreographer Josette Wiggan). (continued)

Thanks to Pam P.

Thanks to Ed M.

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

The bridge, across Olympia Way near Civic Center circle, has attracted international attention and is now a local landmark. The Nutty Narrows Bridge was built in 1963 by a local builder, the late Amos Peters, to give squirrels a way to cross the busy thoroughfare without getting flattened by passing cars.

Thanks to Mike C.

Thanks to Pam P.

Thanks to Mike C. Ed Note: This one is for Wordle geeks. Interesting start to improve your game in 2024 with a clean “slate.”

By James Poniewozik in the NYT

Ed note: Today Dec 17th is the last day this 30 minute classic will be available for free on your apple device. Just go to the Apple TV+ web site and find the link there.

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” was a one-of-a-kind wonder when it premiered in 1965 and remains so almost 60 years later. Unlike the other jingle-belled baubles that TV throws down the chimney each year, it is melancholy and meditative. The animation is minimalist and subdued, full of grays and wafting snowflakes. I could wrap myself in the Vince Guaraldi jazz score like a quilt.

And then there’s the speech.

Charlie Brown, having Charlie-Browned his way through a disastrous attempt to direct a school pageant and the adoption of the most anemic specimen on a Christmas-tree lot, despairs over the crass materialism of the holiday and pleads for someone to tell him “what Christmas is all about.”

His friend Linus volunteers: He stands on a spotlighted stage and, as the soundtrack goes dead silent, recites a passage from the Gospel of Luke in which a band of angels proclaim the coming of Christ the Lord.

I have known people for whom the speech is a deal breaker. It’s too much Christianity for them, too directly preached. (This is not a “those were different times” thing, either; in 1965, Charles Schulz’s producers were convinced that putting the Bible on TV would be a disaster.) Some objectors are nonbelievers, some are Christian but not devout, some are, like me, Jewish.

I can understand. I do not personally believe that the physical embodiment of God was born in a Bethlehem stable, announced by a choir of the heavenly host, any more than I believe in Santa Claus.

Yet this year, just in time for Hanukkah, I went to Apple TV+ and fired up “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” which is one of my favorite programs ever made — in part precisely because of how frank it is about being Christian. And in part because it’s more Jewish in spirit than you may think.

A little bit about me: My mother was a Jewish immigrant from Morocco. My father was an American Catholic — not very religious, but he took me to church with him. (It was important to my mother, I think, that her children fit in within our very Christian, not-un-Peanuts-like Midwestern town.) At Christmas, we had a tree and a terrifying bobblehead Santa figurine. (continued).

Ed note: Today December 17th is the last day that Apple T V+ is making this classic available for free (see below). Sad that it will no longer be shown on the usual TV networks.

(WHTM)– For the fourth year in a row, this holiday season won’t be the same without a Charlie Brown Christmas on network TV. But you do have some chances to see it, and you don’t have to pay.

Viewers looking for “A Charlie Brown Christmas” won’t find it on ABC or CBS stations once again in 2023. Apple snapped it up, and it will be streaming only on Apple TV+.

In 2020 and 2021, Apple let PBS stations air the show, but no longer.

Don’t want to pay to subscribe to Apple TV? Not wanting to be the Grinch, Apple announced anyone with an iPhone or Apple ID will be able to stream a Charlie Brown Christmas free on Saturday, Dec. 16 and Sunday, Dec. 17. Just go to Apple TV’s website and there will be a link to see the show free.

But from the doesn’t that stink file, the fact Apple’s freebie offer doesn’t help grandma or grandpa who don’t stream, and just watch cable or antenna TV. But you can also buy grandma a DVD of the show: Walmart, Target, and Amazon still offer a Charlie Brown Christmas on DVD for about $10.

And speaking of the Grinch, you can watch the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas cartoon on Christmas Day free.

Streaming is the future but some shows are still nice to see the old-fashioned way, on TV.

As always don’t waste your money.

Medical journals and research have not dealt much with death and dying. The interest has mainly been in literature, art and poetry–and more recently in laws that deal with medical aid in dying. In the last several years there has been a list-serve of medical people (doctors, nurses, lawyers and others) exchanging views, stories and developing best practices both to conform to laws, ethics and human kindness. Finally, there is a medical journal dealing with medical aid in dying. The first issue can be viewed here.

Thanks to Jan H. for finding this YouTube link so we can listen to the poet

Thanks to Mary M and Pam P

Arab-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye recalls a transformative, unexpected occasion of generous acceptance:

Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal … I heard an announcement: “If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.”

Well—one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there.

An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. “Help,” said the flight service person. “Talk to her.… We told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.”

I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke to her haltingly. “Shu-dow-a, Shu-bid-uck Habibti? Stani schway, Min fadlick, Shu-bit-se-wee?” The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly used, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment.… I said, “No, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just later, who is picking you up? Let’s call him.”

We called her son and I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother … and would ride next to her.… She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought … why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her? This all took up about two hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life, patting my knee, answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies—little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts—out of her bag—and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie.

And then the airline broke out free beverages … and two little girls from our flight ran around serving us all apple juice and they were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands—had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, this is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate—once the crying of confusion stopped—seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too. This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.

Thanks to Pam P.

Thanks to Ed M.

Thanks to Mike C.