11155 Advent Calender

[quote=deborahandricky;105267]
Sulfites are used as a preservative by winemakers worldwide and only the United States notes the sulfite warning on the label. [/quote]

Italian wine labels also list "contiene solfiti". Producers have told us that solfiti are naturally occurring in wines, in the US however they add additional sulphite to meet federal regulations...they muck with the wine. I have several friends in the US who can't drink wines available in the US but when we would take them a bottle from Italy they had no problems with headaches.

[quote=Bruno;105287]........ I have several friends in the US who can't drink wines available in the US but when we would take them a bottle from Italy they had no problems with headaches.[/quote]

Are you sure they aren't just getting you to supply them with free wine?

.

Authors
[B]Dante Alighieri[/B]
Renaissance Dante in Print (1472-1629) is a collaborative effort between the University of Notre Dame, University of Chicago, and the Newberry Library making it one of the
[B]Ludovico Ariosto[/B]
A biography of this Italian poet who is best remembered for his epic poem "Orlando Furioso".
[B]Mario Biondi[/B]
His novel Gli occhi di una donna was awarded the Premio Campiello, Venice in 1985. This site lists his novels, poems, and short stories with most of them in full text for you to read.
[B]Giosue Borsi[/B]
This soldier, poet and journalist achieved great literary fame during his brief life. He is most remembered for his writings titled: "Spiritual Soliloquies" and "Soldier's Confidences with God."
[B]Giacomo Casanova[/B]
About the life of the Venetian adventurer and auto biographer of the 18th century.
[B]Umberto Eco[/B]
Author of Foucault's pendulum and numerous other works.
[B]Oriana Fallaci [/B]
Fallaci, who first wrote in 1950 for the newspaper Il Mattino dell'Italia Centrale, was controversial from the start of her career. Never considering herself a journalist, she always infused her opinions into her work. "I am the judge. I am the one who decides," she once said, according to Bloomberg.com. "Listen: if I am a painter and I do your portrait, have I or haven't I the right to paint you as I want?"
[B]Dario Fo[/B]
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997.
[B]Giacomo Leopardi[/B]
This has a nice chronological look at his life and works plus other information on this author.
[B]Niccolò Machiavelli[/B]
Step into the life of this political philosopher, historian, writer, statesman, and diplomat.
[B]Francesco Petrarca[/B]
Born during the 14th century he is regarded as the greatest scholar of his time.

[quote=alan h;105294]Are you sure they aren't just getting you to supply them with free wine?

.[/quote]

Furbo!:laughs:

Wanted this included. Relive and savour again our eleven heros.

[ame=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3B0TCrZo9I0]YouTube - Fifa World Cup 2006 Final France Vs Italy Penalty Shootout[/ame]

12th December

Don't forget Madonna has family connections with Pacentro, Abruzzo

Ecco allora le dodici regole di Madonna:

Figli di Madonna

1) Quando i bambini si trovano in compagnia di Guy Ritchie non potranno guardare la televisione, leggere giornali o riviste, ne tantomeno guardare dei dvd.
2) I bambini devono sempre seguire una dieta vegetariana, macrobiotica, che comprenda solamente alimenti biologici.
3) L’acqua che i bambini bevono ogni giorno deve essere quella prevista dal culto della Kabbalah, quella cioe’ che proviene da sorgenti di montagna e che e’ stata benedetta dai leader della setta alla quale Madonna ha aderito tempo fa.
4) I figli devono indossare solamente abiti scelti e preparati da Madonna.
5) I bambini devono sempre lavarsi le mani con del disinfettante ogni volta che rientrano a casa.
6) I figli devono chiamare tre o quattro volte al giorno Madonna, negli orari previsti dalla cantante.
7) I figli non dovranno mai conoscere gli amici di Guy Ritchie ne tantomeno le amiche.
8) I bambini non devono frequentare troppo i nonni paterni (chissa’ perche’…).
9) La stampa non deve riuscire a scattare fotografie di Rocco e David mentre sono con Guy Ritchie. Per questo dovra’ assumere degli agenti di sicurezza per assicurare questa cosa.
10( Guy Ritchie, ogni sera, deve leggere a David una fiaba dei libri English Rose, che la stessa Madonna ha scritto.
11) I bambini non devono giocare con giocattoli eticamente discutibili (quali sarebbero????).
12) Guy Ritchie non dovra’ mai parlare con i figli della loro separazione.

Adesso abbiamo proprio capito perche’ Guy Ritchie se l’e’ data a gambe levate: anche da divorziata vuole continuare a dettare legge con regole davvero assurde. Ma i suoi figli vivono davvero cosi’? Un incubo!

What's all that about then Sal? :wideeyed:

19th December 2008

19 Reasons to Take a Nap

Need an excuse to sneak in a nap this afternoon? We've got enough to last you weeks Yeah, we know. You didn't sleep well last night. So why not take a nap?

Studies show that not only will you feel better almost immediately, says Sara Mednick, PhD, a sleep medicine researcher at the University of California at San Diego and author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life, but a daily nap of between 20 and 90 minutes before 4:00 pm will also increase your mental performance, reduce your chances of gaining weight, and make you feel a whole lot more like having sex after dinner than you probably do now. What's more, it won't affect your nighttime sleep.

All told, a nap, according to Dr. Mednick, will:

• Increase your on-the-job alertness by 100 percent
• Sharpen your thinking so you make more accurate judgments and better decisions
• Ramp up your productivity
• Regenerate skin cells so you look younger
• Increase your sex drive
• Help you lose weight by altering metabolism and shifting chemicals that affect appetite
• Reduce your risk of heart attack, stroke, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular problems
• Lift your mood by bathing your brain in the neurotransmitter serotonin
• Speed up your ability to perform motor tasks, like typing, operating machinery, even swimming
• Improve your accuracy—in everything
• Improve the way your body processes carbs, which reduces your risk of diabetes
• Sharpen your senses so you take in what's important in your environment—and screen out the 24-hour culture chatter that surrounds us
• Put your brain into its creative gear so you can come up with fresh ideas
• Trigger a naturally occurring hormone that blocks the destructive chemicals produced by stress
• Boost your ability to learn something new—and, better yet, remember it
• Zap the need for drugs like caffeine and alcohol to manipulate your mood and energy level
• Relieve migraines
• Improve your nighttime sleep by eliminating that wired feeling and thus shutting off the brain chatter
• Make you feel good all over

23 is one of the most commonly cited prime numbers - a number that can only be divided by itself and one. Twenty three is the lowest prime that consists of consecutive digits. Primes have been described as the "atoms" of mathematics - the building blocks of the world of numbers. An American businessman has put up a US$1m (£500,000) prize for the first mathematician to find a pattern in primes - a problem known as the Riemann hypothesis.

The number has been the subject of not one but two films: the 1998 German movie, 23, and The Number 23, starring Jim Carrey, released (naturally) today. Each has a main character obsessed with the number.

John Forbes Nash, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who was the subject of the film, A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe, was obsessed with 23. It featured prominently in his battle with mental illness. His breakdown began when he claimed that a photograph of Pope John XXIII on the cover of Life magazine was in fact him, the proof being that 23 was his favourite number. Nash published 23 scientific articles.

More freaky numerical coincidences: Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was published in 1859 - 1+8+5+9 = 23. Two divided by three makes 0.666 recurring (allegedly - actually it makes 0.6666666667). The Hiroshima bomb was dropped at 8.15am - 8+15= 23.

23rdians are a group of people who subscribe to the mystical power of 23 and see it in multiple combinations throughout daily life.

The Ancient Chinese believed numbers conveyed sexuality - evens for feminine and odds for masculine. They considered prime numbers to be the most masculine, conferring special status on 23 which is made up of two consecutive prime numbers and the only even prime number - two.

In the disaster movie, Airport, the bomber has seat 23. The number of crosses on Calvary at the end of the Monty Python film, The Life of Brian, is 23. In Die Hard With A Vengeance, a train derails in subway station 23. The lead characters in the Coen brothers' film The Big Lebowski always used Lane 23 at the bowling alley. In the television series Lost, one of the combination of six numbers that haunt the characters and they have to input to a computer to avoid an unknown fate is 23.

The terrorist attacks on America on 11 September 2001 have been held up as one of the most portentous examples of the disturbing power of 23. The figures in the date (9+11+2+0+0+1) add up to 23. The independent US commission which investigated the attacks found the date had been chosen randomly by the hijackers and had originally been planned for later in the year. Alternative explanations for the date included the taking over of Palestine by Britain in 1922 and the fact that 911 is the US emergency code.

Few hold 23 in more esteem than the followers of Discordianism, a self-declared religion based on the premise that discord and chaos are the building blocks of life. For Discordianists, 23 is the Holy Number and a tribute to the goddess Eris, who surveys a world of chaos. The mantra invoked by Discordianists for the Holy Number is "Invert The Pyramid". If you invert the sentence one letter at a time - eg "dinvert the pyramid", "id invert the pyram" etc - it takes 22 chants, finished by the line "The Pyramid Inverts" to make 23. The last line is called "the final energy releaser". Discordianism is described by some followers as "a joke disguised as a religion disguised as a joke".

Sport stars have developed a particular affinity (and aversion) to 23. Michael Jordan, the American basketball player, wore the number throughout his career and inspired many copy cat fans of wardrobe vigintitriplicity. Best known is former England captain David Beckham, who swapped his number seven Manchester United jersey for number 23 when he joined Real Madrid. But the number is not always a harbinger of sporting good fortune. Manchester City have not assigned the squad number 23 to any player since 2003 after the last incumbent, Marc Vivien Foe, collapsed and died while playing for the Cameroon on 26 June 2003. Marcus Trescothick, the England cricket players, wears number 23 and was Australian bowler Shane Warne's 600th test wicket. Warne also wears 23.

The Bible does not let 23 pass without conferring upon it some significance, at least to students of the Book. Although the Old Testament is unspecific, it is widely held that Adam and Eve had 23 daughters. The 23rd verse of the first chapter of Genesis brings the act of creation to a close while the 23rd chapter of the book of Genesis deals entirely with death, namely that of Abraham's wife, Sarah. The most famous and most quoted of the Psalms is number 23: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters."

Each parent contributes 23 chromosomes to the start of human life. The nuclei of cells in human bodies have 46 chromosomes made out of 23 pairs. Egg and sperm cells in humans have 23 chromosomes which fuse and divide to create an embryo.

The most detailed account of the assassination of Julius Caesar, written by Nicolaus of Damascus, claims numerous enemies stabbed the Roman emperor 23 times. The wounds ranged from superficial to mortal.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford Upon Avon on 23 April 1564. He died 52 years later on his birthday, 23 April 1616. Kurt Cobain, the god of grunge, was born in 1967 and died in 1994 - 1+9+6+7= 23, 1+9+9+4 = 23.

In the science fantasy saga, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Chewbacca sneak into detention block AA23 to rescue Princess Leia. The rescue attempt is botched and Leia escapes only by dodging Stormtroopers' laserfire. A police robot called 23 is included in Star Wars director George Lucas' first film, THX 1138.

The Knights Templar, the order of soldier monks who eventually fell foul of the Vatican and have been the subject of conspiracy theories about the Holy Grail, had 23 Grand Masters.

The first morse code transmission - "What hath God wrought?" - was from the Bible passage Numbers 23:23. In telegraphers code 23 means "break the line".

The Birthday Paradox states that a group of 23 randomly-selected people is the smallest number where there will be a probability higher than 50 per cent that two people will share the same birthday.

The author William Burroughs was obsessed with 23. While living in Tangiers, he met a Captain Clark who ran a ferry between Spain and Morocco. One day, Clark told Burroughs that he had been doing the route for 23 years without incident. Later that day, the ferry sank, killing the captain. While Burroughs was thinking about the incident, a radio bulletin announced the crash of a Flight 23 on the New York-Miami route. The pilot was another Captain Clark. The events prompted an obsession which saw Burroughs record every occurrence of the number 23 for the rest of his life.

The disbanded pop act KLF are one of several musical sources of 23-related lore. The two men behind KLF - Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty - were once known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, which has 23 letters and comes from the novels of Robert Anton Wilson, another 23 obsessive. A police car used for the video of the KLF's number one, "Doctorin' The Tardis", had 23 painted on the roof, their final performance lasted 23 minutes and they incinerated £1m on a remote Scottish island on 23 August 1994. Psychic TV, another cult act, released 23 live albums on the 23rd day of 23 consecutive months.

"W" is the 23rd letter of the Latin alphabet. It has two points down and three points up. White supremacists use 23 to represent "W" as a mark of racial superiority.

"23 skidoo" is an American catchphrase from the early 20th century meaning to make a sharp exit. It was used as the title of a poem by the occultist Aleister Crowley, another 23 aficionado. But some believe its origins lie in Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities, where the old woman counting the daily victims of the guillotine calls "23" as the hero is beheaded in the last chapter.

The average human physical biorhythm is 23 days.

20th December

20 ways to save your money and health
By ANDREA HAMMETT
Published: 16 Oct 2008 (pm me for the source. lol)

THE credit crunch may be hurting more than our pockets – being broke is bad for your health, a new study shows.
Researchers at Leeds University found that people on a tight budget eat an average of just HALF the recommended five servings of fruit and veg a day. And one in three eats NO fruit at all.

Kath Kelly, a Bristol teacher who completed a challenge to live on £1 a day for a year, says: “A lot of cheap food is very unhealthy.

“At first I bought a lot of biscuits and white bread or pastries that were at the end of their shelf life. I had to make a real effort to find cheap fruit and vegetables.”

Kath’s top tips are to eat produce in season and to look out for freebies such as windfall apples and wild blackberries. With food prices up 13 per cent in the past year, such advice has never been so useful.

Here Adrea Hammett lists 20 ways to save cash that could also help save your life.

1. Swap cod for pollock: Atlantic pollock costs £7.99 a kilo, compared with nearly £10 for cod, at Morrisons — but it has TWICE as much omega-3 fat which help thin blood and lower the incidence of heart disease.

A study by industry experts Seafish found the best value sources of omega-3s were mackerel, herring and tinned tuna.

Ban bottles ... drink tap water
2. Water on tap: Britain splashes out £1.5billion a year on bottled mineral water. Tap water is free. For every £12 spent on bottled water you can get 10,000 litres of mains drinking water.

3. Swap red wine for cider: Red wine has been found to protect against cancers and heart disease and help lower cholesterol.

But research from the University of Glasgow reveals the same health-boosting polyphenols are found in cider — cheaper at about £1.90 a pint compared with about £2.50 for a glass of red.

4. Swap fancy fruit for best of British: Fruit such as blueberries and pomegranates are often given superfood status and come with a super-high price tag.

You can reap as many health benefits from basic fruits such as apples, which cost around £1 for a bag of six. The flavonoids in apples reduce the risk of a heart attack by lowering bad LDL cholesterol.

5. Pick your own: Take a tip from Kath Kelly, author of How I Lived A Year On Just £1 A Day (Redcliffe Press, £6.90). She picked wild blackberries to bolster food supplies.

Blackberries, which cost around £2 a punnet in supermarkets, are packed with purple compounds called anthocyanins that reduce inflammation, helping keep blood vessels healthy.

They are also an excellent source of vitamin C, vital for fighting bugs.

6. Choose cheap beans: We already know they’re good for your heart because they are low in fat and high in fibre. But the famous brands aren’t always best.

A tin of Heinz beans costs 53p and contains 0.8g salt per 100g. But Sainsbury’s Basics beans are 20p and have just 0.5g of salt per 100g. High salt intake has been linked to high blood pressure and can lead to heart problems and strokes.

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7. Grow your own veg: The price of fresh vegetables has gone up by more than seven per cent in the past year. Home-grown veggies are fresh and tasty and you get a great workout tending them — half an hour of digging burns 250 calories.

Research shows women aged 50 or over who garden once a week have a higher bone density than those who do similar levels of exercise.

8. Leave your car in the garage: Fuel prices may be falling after soaring earlier this year, but shoe prices are down four per cent — so get walking.

Studies show it cuts the risk of both heart disease and breast cancer. A brisk walk of 30 minutes, five times a week, could help prevent a tumour.

9. Drive more slowly: Driving fast burns more fuel and adds to air pollution. A recent Which? survey found going a few mph slower saves £500 a year. Pollution has been linked to asthma and one in 50 heart attacks treated at London hospitals.

10. Get cracking: An omelette is the fastest food out there and is a fraction of the cost of ready meals laden with fat and salt. A box of six eggs from Sainsbury’s Basics range costs just 88p — one of the cheapest forms of protein.

Eggs contain vitamins A, D and E, energy-boosting iron, a compound called leucine that helps stabilise blood sugar levels, plus the brain-boosting nutrient choline.

And they are low in saturated fat and have only 80 calories each.

11. Bake your own bread: Wheat prices have been at record highs and world stocks at their lowest for 25 years. Make your own bread using 450g of white or wholemeal flour, a sachet of yeast and a pinch of salt.

Bake to stay in the black ... bread
Pour in half-a-pint of water, mix to a dough and knead for ten minutes. Roll into a ball, cover bowl with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for an hour until it has doubled in size.

Shape into loaf, leave for further 30 minutes then bake for 45 minutes at gas mark 6 or 200°C.

And eat the crusts. A German study found they contain more cancer-busting antioxidants than the rest of the loaf.

12. Have sex: Money worries raise levels of stress hormones that damage the immune system. But bonking twice a week could help.

Boffins at the University of Pennsylvania found it bolstered levels of immunoglobulin A, a disease-fighting antigen in saliva and the lining of the nose.

13. Keep a budget diary: Men who suffer sleepless nights caused by money worries are more than twice as likely to get Type 2 diabetes, a study found.

Face up to financial woes — budget carefully and write down EVERYTHING you spend for a month for a reality check to put you back in control.

14. Swap Starbucks for instant: Ditch expensive takeout coffee. A small Starbucks latte costs £2.05 for a 150mg hit of caffeine and up to 200 calories.

But high intakes of caffeine have been linked to fertility problems, still births and higher blood pressure.

A jar of instant supermarket own-label coffee costs about £1.30 for 200g and a typical cup has between 65 and 100mg of caffeine.

15. Go for oats: A 1kg bag of oats costs around 69p, compared with £1.50 for the average box of cereal. Regularly eating a bowl of porridge for breakfast has been shown to lower levels of harmful LDL cholesterol.

16. Check labels: If you choose fruit and veg out of season, not only is it more expensive but it may have travelled thousands of miles, been treated in chemicals and kept in storage.

Save pennies and lose pounds ... credit crunch tips
17. Lose the bad habits: Money worries have driven six per cent of people to START smoking, according to a survey by the Blood Pressure Association.

Crazy, considering a pack of 20 fags costs more than £5 and one in two smokers die prematurely. Calculate how much you could save HERE. For help, see quit.org.uk or call 0800 002200.

The same study found about seven per cent of people are drinking more alcohol.

Half of all cases of cirrhosis of the liver are caused by heavy boozing. Women should drink no more than 14 units a week, and men no more than 21. Calculate your units HERE.

18. Waste not, want not: Don’t throw away the chicken carcass from a roast. Boil it with carrot, celery, onion and some herbs to make a tasty chicken broth.

Chicken soup contains anti-inflammatory properties that can ease pain and swelling associated with arthritis. Studies suggest the soup may relieve cold symptoms by easing sore throats and curbing mucus flow.

19. Start your own hedge fund: Give your heart a boost by picking sloe berries from hedgerows. Bursting with vitamin C and antioxidants, they have been linked to lower heart disease.

20. Go nuts: Hazelnuts, also found in our hedgerows, are rich in vitamin E, an antioxidant, and oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat that together combat bad LDL cholesterol.

[COLOR="Red"]The average human physical biorhythm is 23 days.[/COLOR]

It will take me all of 23 minutes at least to read your reply!!! lol

December 21st

21 Facts About The Internet You Should Know

Not really. But if you have a few minutes to waste, you might find some of these Internet facts mildy amusing.

[url=http://www.bizwaremagic.com/quick_internet_history.htm]Internet History | 21 Facts About The Internet You Should Know![/url]

I'm on strike now. Don't leave it all to me!!!

[quote=Sally Donaldson;106235]

I'm on strike now!!![/quote]

We aint that lucky - or daft enough to believe you. :laughs:

Well okay. Just to complete the thread. A recipe that since it includes marzipan sounds really scrumptious to me.

TRONCO DI NATALE - CHRISTMAS LOG

RECIPE INFORMATION
Serves 10
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cooking Time: 30 minutes

1.5kg fresh marzipan 200g icing sugar For the Sponge: 6 medium eggs 200g flour For the filling: 500g ricotta 100g caster sugar 50g candied orange peel, chopped 50g candied lemon peel, chopped 50g glace cherries, sliced Zest of 1 lemon 400ml double cream, whipped 10 white peach halves in syrup 1/2 glass Strega liqueur

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas 5. To make the sponge beat together the eggs and sugar. Sift the flour and fold into the egg mixture. Butter a large shallow rectangular cake tin approximately 23 x 32.5cm. Pour in the mixture and bake for 30 minutes or until firm to touch. Remove from tin and allow to cool. Dust your work surface and rolling pin with icing sugar. Roll out the marzipan into a large sheet to a 1cm thickness. Lay the marzipan on a large piece of baking parchment. Lay the sponge on top of the marzipan. Dilute the Strega with a glass of water and sprinkle a little on the sponge. Beat together the ricotta, sugar, lemon zest and chopped candied peel. Spread the mixture over the marzipan. Slice the peaches and layer them on top. From the short end of the sponge carefully roll the cake. Leave to set in a cold place for 2 hours before turning out on to a serving plate. Dust with icing sugar and serve sliced with a glass of our Tuscan Vino Santo.

This is from Carluccio's website.

16 Biblical Ways to Get a Wife

Not sure about numbers 2 and 8 though;-

Find an attractive prisoner of war, bring her home, shave her head, trim her nails, and give her new clothes. Then she's yours. --Deuterononmy (Deuteronomy 21:11-13)

Find a prostitute and marry her. -- Hosea (Hosea 1:1-3)

Find a man with seven daughters, and impress him by watering his flock. -- Moses (Exodus 2:16-21)

Purchase a piece of property, and get a woman as part of the deal. -- Boaz (Ruth 4:5-10)

Go to a party and hide. When the women come out to dance, grab one and carry her off to be your wife. -- Benjaminites (Judges 21:19-25)

Have God create a wife for you while you sleep. Note: this will cost you a rib. -- Adam (Genesis 2:19-24)

Agree to work seven years in exchange for a woman's hand in marriage. Get tricked into marrying the wrong woman. Then work another seven years for the woman you wanted to marry in the first place. That's right. Fourteen years of toil for a woman. -- Jacob (Genesis 29:15-30)

Cut off 200 foreskins off of your future father-in-law's enemies and get his daughter for a wife. -- David (I Samuel 18:27)

Even if no one is out there, just wander around a bit and you'll definitely find someone. (It's all relative of course.) -- Cain (Genesis 4:16-17)

Become the emperor of a huge nation and hold a beauty contest. -- Xerxes or Ahasuerus (Esther 2:3-4)

When you see someone you like, go home and tell your parents, "I have seen a ...woman; now get her for me." If your parents question your decision, simply say, "Get her for me. She's the one for me." -- Samson (Judges 14:1-3)

Kill any husband and take HIS wife. (Prepare to lose four sons though). -- David (2 Samuel 11)

Wait for your brother to die. Take his widow. (It's not just a good idea, it's the law). -- Onan and Boaz (Deuteronomy or Leviticus, example in Ruth)

Don't be so picky. Make up for quality with quantity. -- Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-3)

A wife?...NOT!!! -- Paul (1 Corinthians 7:32-35)

Become sinless, and die in atonement for others, and you can marry a whole bunch of people. -- Jesus (Revelation 15?)

./

This proves what a sound source of balanced "advice for life" the bible is.
Ghianda
[url=http://www.olivopiegato.com]Tuscany Bed and Breakfast - L'Olivo Piegato, The Crooked Olive[/url]

[quote=Sally Donaldson;105586]Hey Tutti, come on. It's not fair. I seem to be doing all the work!!! Anyway it's the 14th December."[/quote]

Sorry Sally, it's just way over the top for my simple head this!!! Perhaps a glass of sherry...

What's all that about then Sal? :wideeyed:

[quote=Sally Donaldson;105529]13th December

Events

1937: The Rape of Nanking

During the Sino-Japanese War, Nanking, the capital of China, falls to Japanese forces and the Chinese government flees to Hankow, further inland along the Yangtze River. To break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Much of the city was burned, and Japanese troops launched a campaign of atrocities against civilians. In what became known as the Rape of Nanking, the Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male war prisoners, massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Matsui was found guilty of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and executed.

2003
The Iraq War: The United States capture Saddam Hussein.
2001
12 people are killed as an attack is launched against the Indian parliament in New Delhi. One of the assailants, who had explosives attached to him, blew himself up, whilst the others were killed by police.
1996
The United Nations Security Council recommends Kofi Annan to be the next Secretary General.
1995
In England, riots break out in Brixton, London following the death of a black man in police custody.
1981
The communist government impose martial law in Poland arresting leaders of the workers union, Solidarity.
1974
Malta becomes a republic.
1939
The Second World War: The start of the Battle of the River Plate when British warships attack the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the south Atlantic.
1918
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson arrives in France to head the American delegation the Versailles Conference.
1916
The First World War: A powerful avalanche kills hundreds of Austrian soldiers in a barracks near Italy’s Mount Marmolada.
1862
The American Civil War: Confederate forces, commanded by Robert E Lee, defeat the Union Army at Fredericksburg.
1692
Under the care of Robert Cushman, the first American furs to be exported from the continent leave for England aboard the ship the Fortune.
1643
The English Civil War: A parliamentary force defeats the royalists at the Battle of Alton in Hampshire.
1642
Dutch navigator Abel Tasman becomes the first European explorer to sight the South Pacific island group now known as New Zealand.
1577
Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England on his voyage around the world.
1294
Pope Celestine V abdicates the papacy.[/quote]

[SIZE="5"]OH HAPPY DAYS :laughs::laughs::laughs::laughs:[/SIZE]

Minutes of fame

Excuses eh??? Today is the 15th December and so 15 operas by Verdi that instantly spring to mind. Loads more though!!!

Otello
La Traviata
Macbeth
I Masnadieri
Un Ballo In Maschera
I Lombardi
Stifelio
Luisa Millar
Il Trovatore
Rigoletto
Don Carlo
La Forza Del Destino
Ernani
I Due Foscari
Alzira

[ame=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=G74RZmlo4-g&feature=related]YouTube - Placido Domingo "Quando le sere al placido" Luisa Miller[/ame]

[ame=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgzMb4m_20&feature=related]YouTube - Pavarotti - Quando le sere al placido ... L' ara, o l'avello[/ame]

Interesting to compare.

Talking of excuses - 15 ways to leave your lover

1. Bert McCracken
Never heard of him? A member of rock band The Used, he was better known for being Kelly Osbourne's first serious boyfriend - until he told her in a Valentine's Day phone call that it was all over. He was also unpopular with Sharon and Ozzy (Kelly's parents) before the split.

2. Julia Roberts
Left the United States for Ireland days before her planned marriage to Kiefer Sutherland.

3. Newt Gingrich
Former speaker of US House of Representatives, big on family values, who visited his wife in hospital the day after she underwent surgery for cancer, to discuss the terms of their divorce.

4. Daniel Day Lewis
Informed his then-pregnant partner, Isabelle Adjani, by fax that he was leaving her.

5. Marcus Antonius (Mark Anthony)
Break-up one: returning to Rome from Egypt, where he had left Cleopatra and the couple's unborn children, the Roman general married his rival Augustus's sister, Octavia, to seal a peace deal and she bore his children. Break-up two: he left the imperial capital to pursue campaigns in the east and was reunited with Cleopatra in Syria. Abandoning Octavia, Antonius then returned to Alexandria with his Egyptian lover and warred against Augustus, who along the way became his ex-brother-in-law.

6. Billy Bob Thornton
Ended his co-habiting relationship with fellow actor Laura Dern by marrying Angelina Jolie. "I left our home to work on a movie and, while I was away, my boyfriend got married and I've never heard from him again," she explained. Had less geo-political ramifications than the Cleopatra-Antonius-Octavia triangle, but probably sold more newspapers.

7. James Brown
A "mutual decision was made by both parties", according to a full page advertisement in the entertainment magazine Variety that announced Brown's divorce from Tomi Rea. It was illustrated with a photograph of his family with Goofy at Disneyworld.

8. John Donne
Seventeenth century poet and clergyman who was separated from his 17-year-old beloved after her uncle had him imprisoned for marrying a minor. From jail he wrote the lines: "John Donne, Anne Donne, undone."

9. George IV
Had little interest in his wife, Caroline of Brunswick (also his cousin), from the beginning and the two lived apart after the birth of their daughter in 1796. He persuaded the government to pass a law (defeated in parliament) depriving her of the title Queen when he took the throne. The most public insult came at his coronation when Caroline was turned away from the doors of Westminster Abbey.

10. Lorena Bobbitt
After years in an abusive marriage she took a kitchen knife to her husband's penis and chopped it off. The couple filed for divorce soon after.

11. Lord Lucan
Murdered his children's nanny, Sandra Rivett, and then attempted to kill his wife, Lady Veronica. He was never seen again.

12. Earl Spencer
Princess Diana's brother gained a reputation for arrogance after asking his then wife, Victoria, for a divorce while he was in the bath. More sympathetic versions have him crying over their relationship, the tears splashing into the bath water, and telling her it could not go on.

13. Matt Damon
The US actor dumped Minnie Driver - whom he had met filming Good Will Hunting - live to the American nation on the Oprah Winfrey chat show.

14. Robin Cook
Abandoned his wife of nearly 30 years in favour of his secretary at the prompting of the prime minister's then press secretary, Alastair Campbell. He phoned Cook at an airport and told him to choose between them there and then. Cook is now happily married to Gaynor.

15. Henry VIII
Out of his six wives, he divorced two - ditching Catherine of Aragon necessitated taking England out of the Catholic church. Then, for good measure, he put Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard on the executioner's block.

Call me pickey Al but isnt Robin Cook dead now?.
A

Yup - Robin Cook - 28 February 1946 – 6 August 2005

[quote=Angie and Robert;105710]Call me pickey Al but isnt Robin Cook dead now?.
A[/quote]

Well - so is Henry VII

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Hey Tutti, come on. It's not fair. I seem to be doing all the work!!! Anyway it's the 14th December.

"The village of Borgo Quattordici belongs to the municipality of Celano, in the province of L`Aquila, region Abruzzo. The village of Borgo Quattordici is 4,51 kilometers far from the same town of Celano to whom it belongs."

[quote=alan h;105720]Well - so is Henry VII

.[/quote]

I think that we were talking about Henry VIII :laughs:
Henry VII only had one wife (officially)

[quote=Gala Placidia;105732]I think that we were talking about Henry VIII :[/quote]

fingers slipped - ta

[quote=Gala Placidia;105732] ..Henry VII only had one wife (officially)[/quote]

I was referring to Henry VIII

.

13th December

Events

1937: The Rape of Nanking

During the Sino-Japanese War, Nanking, the capital of China, falls to Japanese forces and the Chinese government flees to Hankow, further inland along the Yangtze River. To break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Much of the city was burned, and Japanese troops launched a campaign of atrocities against civilians. In what became known as the Rape of Nanking, the Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male war prisoners, massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Matsui was found guilty of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and executed.

2003
The Iraq War: The United States capture Saddam Hussein.
2001
12 people are killed as an attack is launched against the Indian parliament in New Delhi. One of the assailants, who had explosives attached to him, blew himself up, whilst the others were killed by police.
1996
The United Nations Security Council recommends Kofi Annan to be the next Secretary General.
1995
In England, riots break out in Brixton, London following the death of a black man in police custody.
1981
The communist government impose martial law in Poland arresting leaders of the workers union, Solidarity.
1974
Malta becomes a republic.
1939
The Second World War: The start of the Battle of the River Plate when British warships attack the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the south Atlantic.
1918
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson arrives in France to head the American delegation the Versailles Conference.
1916
The First World War: A powerful avalanche kills hundreds of Austrian soldiers in a barracks near Italy’s Mount Marmolada.
1862
The American Civil War: Confederate forces, commanded by Robert E Lee, defeat the Union Army at Fredericksburg.
1692
Under the care of Robert Cushman, the first American furs to be exported from the continent leave for England aboard the ship the Fortune.
1643
The English Civil War: A parliamentary force defeats the royalists at the Battle of Alton in Hampshire.
1642
Dutch navigator Abel Tasman becomes the first European explorer to sight the South Pacific island group now known as New Zealand.
1577
Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England on his voyage around the world.
1294
Pope Celestine V abdicates the papacy.

Wednesday, 17th December

Think your Christmas Eve is stressful? Spare a thought for poor old Santa. He has less than one millisecond to deliver his presents to each household in the world - and that's if he does a 30-hour working day, allowing for the various time zones. Naturally he makes a bit of time back by skipping all the people on the naughty list.

Christmas trees have been popular in Germany since the 16th century but only made it over to Britain three hundred years later. Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, originally came from Germany and made a tree part of the official celebrations at Windsor Castle.

The most expensive Christmas card in the world is a hand-drawn card that John Lennon sent to Beatles manager Brian Epstein. It sold at auction for £5,600 in April 2000.

Baubles were probably invented thanks to alcohol. Around 200 years ago, Bohemian glass blowers used to enjoy a cold drink in their hot factories, and when tipsy would start competing to see who could blow the biggest glass bubbles. These then evolved into Christmas decorations.

The USA's official national Christmas tree, in Kings Canyon National Park, California, is almost 280 feet tall and 2,000 years old. A little girl who saw it in 1925 commented what an impressive Christmas tree it would make, and the President agreed, making it the country's official Christmas tree in 1926.

The first fairy lights are said to be have appeared in 1882, when Edward H. Johnson - a friend of inventor Thomas Edison - had 80 tiny lightbulbs made especially for his home Christmas tree. Before this, people would use candles and set fire to their tinsel all the time.

Christmas cards were introduced in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. Before then it was tradition to write long, detailed letters to friends and family at Christmas, but Mr Cole couldn't be bothered with all that effort. He commissioned an artist to design some cards and filled them with a short greeting, saving us all a lot of writing each year.

Traditional Christmas meals in England used to involve pig's heads and mustard. But when Queen Elizabeth I heard the news of the destruction of the Spanish Armada on Christmas Eve 1588, she declared that everybody in England should eat the dish she had enjoyed earlier that day - roast goose. When turkeys were introduced to Britain in the 1700s, they became a popular replacement.

Mulled wine doesn't just make you happy because of the alcohol in it - neurologists have found that traditional Christmas spices like cinnamon, cloves and ginger release feel-good hormones in the body.

Spiders are a big part of Christmas in the Ukraine. Trees are decorated with fake spiders and webs, and a real spider web found on Christmas morning is believed to bring good luck.

'Silent Night' was first performed in Austria in 1818. Legend has it that the church organ in Oberndorf broke on Christmas Eve, leaving the priest - Joseph Mohr - with no music for his Christmas service. He handed the words to a poem he had written to a friend and asked that he write some guitar music to accompany it, and 'Silent Night' was born.

Christmas was banned across England in 1647, when Oliver Cromwell's puritans were in charge. Pro-Christmas riots broke out across the country but the holiday wasn't officially restored until King Charles II took over 13 years later.

The popular abbreviation 'Xmas' isn't merely popular because it's quicker to type on a mobile phone. 'X' is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ - Xristos - so the shortened spelling of Christmas has been around for hundreds of years.

The Beatles and the Spice Girls are the only acts to have ever had three consecutive Christmas number one records - the Beatles from 1963 to 1965 and the Spice Girls from 1996 to 1998. 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen is the only record to have been Christmas number one twice - in 1975 and 1991.

Popular Christmas song 'Good King Wenceslas' is about Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia. He was a 10th century king who legend has it is sleeping inside a mountain in the Czech Republic with a huge army of knights, ready to wake and save the Motherland when he's needed.

In Greece the traditional way is to decorate a minature boat instead of a xmas tree. Most families though chose the decoration of a tree (globalisation....).

The fat jolly character we see wearing the red and white santa suit was invented by the Coca Cola company

Just close your eyes and leave your problems behind.
Just take a long walk.
Just enjoy a glass of wine.
Just think about your life.
Just forgive yourself about the mistakes of the past.
Just tell your kids a nice story.
Just make dinner for your family.
Just forgive someone that hurt you in the past.
Just tell “I am sorry” to anyone you have hurt.
Just give your beloved persons the best present: yourself.
Just host a party in your place and invite everyone you know.
Just call your friends and tell them that you love them.
Just Send Christmas cards to people you haven’t spoke for a long time.
Just give your weird relatives a second chance.
Just smile back at a stranger.
Just give some warm clothes to the homeless.
Just visit a shelter for orphan kids and give them a hug.
Just start believing at Santa Clause.
Just use your talent to change the world.
Just think of the world as a better place.
Just make every moment count.
Just live them.

1. Talk about a huge breast!
2. Tying the legs together keeps the inside moist.
3. It's Whipped Cream time!
4. If I don't undo my pants, I'll burst!
5. That's one terrific spread!
6. I'm in the mood for a little dark meat.
7. Are you ready for seconds yet?
8. Its a little dry, do you still want to eat it?
9. Just wait your turn, you'll get some!
10. Don't play with your meat.
11. Just spread the legs open & stuff it in.
12. Do you think you'll be able to handle all these people at once?
13. I didn't expect everyone to come at once!
14. You still have a little bit on your chin.
15. How long will it take after you stick it in?
16. You'll know it's ready when it pops up.
17. Wow, I didn't think I could handle all of that!
18. That's the biggest one I've ever seen!

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