We may be getting too big for our britches (British, breeches)

...in the world at large, but at least in the U.S. we are slowing down.

In a news flash headlined "Census Bureau: World grew by 74 million over past year" the Associated Press reported yesterday that the world’s population is projected to be 7.8 billion people on New Year’s Day 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

There were other interesting facts in the article as well:

"That represents an increase of 74 million people, or a 0.9% growth rate from New Year’s Day 2021. Starting in the new year, 4.3 births and two deaths are expected worldwide every second, the Census Bureau estimated.

"Meanwhile, the U.S. grew by almost 707,000 people over the past year, and the nation's population is expected to be 332.4 million residents on New Year's Day 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

"The Census Bureau estimate represents a 0.2% growth rate from New Year's Day 2021 to New Year's Day 2022.

"Starting in the new year, the U.S. is expected to grow by one person every 40 seconds from births, minus deaths, as well as net international migration. The U.S. is expected to experience a birth every nine seconds and a death every 11 seconds, as well as an additional person from international migration every 130 seconds."

(end of AP article)

The new data, according to KARE-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul (those cities are in Minnesota), show U.S. population growing at the slowest rate ever.

Coincidentally, yesterday Matt Drudge also published in his DRUDGE REPORT the following:

COVID CASES USA
582,044 DEC 30 2021
228,949 DEC 30 2020

DEATHS
1,411 DEC 30 2021
3,808 DEC 30 2020

One conclusion I draw is that Matt Drudge likes capital letters. Another conclusion is that in the U.S., while the number of COVID cases is up, the deaths from COVID are down. Beyond that, I'm not sure what to conclude.

But just to end this post on a more pleasant note, Happy New Year! (and, Yorkshire Pudding's point of view notwithstanding, God bless us, every one!)....

God willing, I shall continue entertaining/irritating you with similar fascinating stuff in 2022.

If you're going to read just one thing today

...you ought to read this article:

The Light Shines in the Darkness

It's from National Review, the conservative magazine started many years ago by William F. Buckley. The article is in the current issue, and is by Kevin D. Williamson. Apparently one's middle initial is very important at National Review.

In case the article doesn't display properly, just go to www.nartionalreview.com and you should be able to find it there.

A Happy Christmas to one and all. Peace on earth, and good will to all mankind from:

Robert H. Brague
Eleanor C. Brague
Abby the Dog
God

not necessarily in that order.

I won't be home for Christmas but Great-Grandma's tablecloth will

Mrs. RWP's mother -- in the family we refer to her as Great-Grandma -- had very little formal education, but she was very talented at knitting and crocheting and passed along many of her things to her daughter (Mrs. RWP). There was an Albanian word she used to refer to her lacy handiwork: b'danna (not spelled right, I'm sure, I'm being phonetic here). A doily was b'danna. A dresser scarf was b'danna. If a table was small enough, the thing that covered it was b'danna too. Her home was filled with it.

We didn't put up a tree this Christmas (again) because we're going to our children's houses (again) rather than vice versa, but we didn't want the house to be completely lacking in pretties for the season. So Mrs. RWP broke out one of her mother's tablecloths for the dining room. Here's the table on a dreary, rainy, overcast day with insufficient light, but you get an idea of how her mother's tablecloth looks:

The piano, which sits along one wall of the dining room, has a matching b'dana or bedanna or bidënë or whatever the word is. The sunlight was better the next day and the true color -- white -- is plain to see:

And Mrs. RWP put together a centerpiece of pillar candles we have had in a drawer from another Christmas season. I like the look very much, and Great-Grandma's handiwork is gorgeous:

The few cards we have received are displayed on the raised counter between the kitchen and the family room:

The nativity set is on the credenza in the foyer:

And the front door is sporting a Christmas-y wreath:

But with all the grandchildren now grown up and having significant others of their own, our small house just can't accommodate the whole family any more. I'm more than happy to get together with the gang elsewhere -- what choice do I have, really? I'm no longer calling the shots. I'm looking forward to the food and the fun and all the family fellowship -- and the gift exchange, of course. We mustn't forget the gift exchange.

I think our house looks very nice for a place that will probably have no (or very few) visitors this Christmas. Mrs. RWP and I will enjoy it anyway, especially Great-Grandma's tablecloth and piano accompaniment.

I do miss the days when everybody came to our house, but time marches on and we make adjustments.

I'm Dreaming Of A White Lie Christmas

As we all know (how's that for a generalization?), truth is often stranger than fiction.

And this particular truth started with a white lie. Read How A White Lie Gave Japan KFC For Christmas to discover what I'm talking about.

Speaking of Christmas and truth, Santa Claus does not have a ninth reindeer named Rudolph, I don't want a hippopotamus for Christmas, and Grandma didn't get run over by a reindeer. I only wanted my two front teeth for Christmas when I was six. The names Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen were all made up by Clement Clark Moore in 1823. Did you know that Donner and Blitzen mean thunder and lightning in German?

Next we'll probably find out that Santa cannot stand milk and cookies.

Rudolph, by the way, was created in 1939 as an advertising gimmick by the Montgomery Ward Company (remember their catalogues?) in Chicago.

Tradition is a tricky thing. And even though Tevye the milkman sang about it in Fiddler On the Roof and it is one-fourth of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral (the other three parts being Scripture, Reason, and Experience), we could probably dispense with most Christmas traditions and be a lot better off.

The three wise men or Magi or kings or whatever they were were not named Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. It's just another tradition (translation: white lie) somebody started.

If people in Japan want to order "party barrels" from Kentucky Fried Chicken that also contain shrimp and tiramisu, they have every right to do so. God bless them, every one. But just like Rudolph and hippopotami and front teeth and Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, let us just remember that it has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas.

And that's the truth.

The ghost of Christmas Past, Demographics Division

The first American census was conducted 231 years ago in 1790. It told the world that the new nation had 3,929,214 inhabitants. Using the definition that a place must have 2,500 persons to be considered urban, there were 24 urban places in the United States of America in 1790. It is interesting to peruse the list:

1. New York city, New York (33,131)
2. Philadelphia city, Pennsylvania (28,522)
3. Boston town, Massachusetts (18,320)
4. Charleston city, South Carolina (16,359)
5. Baltimore town, Maryland (13,503)
6. Northern Liberties township, Pennsylvania (9,913)
7. Salem town, Massachusetts (7,921)
8. Newport town,Rhode Island (6,716)
9. Providence town, Rhode Island (6,380)
10.(tie) Marblehead town, Massachusetts (5,661)
10.(tie) Southwark district, Pennsylvania (5,661)
12. Gloucester town, Massachusetts (5,317)
13. Newburyport town, Massachusetts (4,837)
14. Portsmouth town, New Hampshire (4,720)
15. Sherburne town (Nantucket), Massachusetts (4,620)
16. Middleborough town, Massachusetts (4,526)
17. New Haven city, Connecticut (4,487)
18. Richmond city, Virginia (3,761)
19. Albany city, New York (3,498)
20. Norfolk borough, Virginia (2,959)
21. Petersburg town, Virginia (2,828)
22. Alexandria town, Virginia (2,748)
23. Hartford city, Connecticut (2,683)
24. Hudson city, New York (2,584)

The state of Georgia, where I live, was one of the 13 original states, but according to the 1790 census it did not have a single "urban place" even though the towns of Darien and Savannah had existed for decades.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, the first modern census of England took place in 1801. The total population was 8,287,907 and the most populous places were:

1. London (959,000)
2. Manchester (90,000)
3. Liverpool (80,000)
4. Birmingham (74,000)
5. Bristol (64,000)
6. Leeds (53,000)
7. Plymouth (45,000)
8. Bath (40,000)
9. Norwich (35,633)
10. Portsmouth (32,160)
11. Sheffield (31,000)

In the history of the world, in the overall scheme of things, 1801 and even 1790 are not that long ago. But looked at another way, it is so long ago that it is an era we cannot fathom. They did have Christmas, of course, but since Charles Dickens would not even be born until 1812, there was no A Christmas Carol. No Ebenezer Scrooge; no Marley's ghost; no ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, or Christmas Yet To Come; no Bob Cratchit; no Tiny Tim saying, "God bless us, every one!". There was no Santa Claus as we know him with eight tiny reindeer because Clement Clark Moore didn't write "A Visit From St. Nicholas" until 1823. And Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was a creation of the 20th century, appearing for the first time in 1939.

Speaking of Christmas Yet To Come, those very nice people of 1790 in America amd 1801 in England couldn't possibly have imagined in their wildest dreams what living in the year 2021 would be like either.

Whoever said "the more things change the more they remain the same" couldn't have been more wrong.

I know I am out of touch but this is ridiculous

Every time I sign on to my desktop computer, my browser (which happens to be Firefox) gives me an array of articles someone thinks I might be interested in reading. It changes almost daily and If I took time to read all of them I wouldn't have time to do anything else. More and more lately, however, I find that I am interested in reading fewer and fewer of them (not less and less, no matter what you might think). Today's list made my head want to explode as I didn't want to read any of them. Perhaps one's tastes change as one gets older. Perhaps the dreaded millennial generation have finally taken over. Perhaps I am in the world, but not of the world.

Whatever the case, here is one day's list of suggested reading from Firefox:

1. Sunday Night Scaries: How to Alleviate the "Sunday Scaries," According to an Expert
2. How to Adopt the Japanese Approach to Accepting Life's Challenges, "Ukeireru"
3. How To Make Sure Your Home Is Truly Protected
4. The Best Hard-Boiled Egg Method
5. This Meal Kit is Cheaper Than a Local Grocery Store. You Should Check This Out
6. The Year in Vibes
7. The Dangerous Pattern One Sees in New Fathers
8. Why Are We Still So Obsessed With Princess Diana?
9. The Best Performances of 2021
10. Jennifer Aniston Has No Regrets
11. This Cajun Jambalaya Recipe Changed My Mind About Jambalaya
12. New Card Hits The Market With Unlimited 2% Cash Back
13. We Know a Lot More About Omicron Now
14. Bacon BBQ Baked Beans
15. Cauliflower Parmesan Is Vegetarian Comfort Food At Its Finest
16. China Unleashed Its Propaganda Machine On Peng Shuai's #MeToo Accusation. Her Story Still Got...
17. What a Newfound Kingdom Means for the Tree of Life
18. Essential Bike Maintenance Tips Everyone Should Know
19. Workers Are Using 'Mouse Movers' So They Can Use the Bathroom in Peace
20. 50 Fictional Writers, Ranked
21. High Paying Cards For Americans With Good Credit

My theory is that all the people who used to contribute their writing to what were called "women's magazines" (Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, McCall's and the like) have morphed into "social media influencers" who strew their stuff all over the internet. That is the only explanation that makes sense to me for most of the drivel in rhat list. It is further evidence of the general dumbing-down of the American mind.

I don't mean to be insulting, but if you actually were interested in any of those articles, you have resonance where your brains ought to be. That thought is not original with me; I heard British comedian Anna Russell say it many years ago, only she was referring to coloratura sopranos.

The comments section is available for you to agree with me wholeheartedly or castigate my boorishness. As always, the choice is yours.

From the archives (December 16, 2009): Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Ludwig!

(Charles Schulz, Peanuts, March 20, 1969)

(First page of music of the Pathetique Sonata in C Minor, reprint of the first edition of 1799, The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San Jose State University, San Jose, California, USA)

*Happy birthday, Ludwig!

P.S. - Here is something that wasn't in my 2009 post: András Schiff lecturing on and playing Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata in C Minor with the original manuscript displayed and from which, if you read music, you can follow along (25:49).

Enjoy, if you are of a mind! And if you are not of a mind, there is always another post to look forward to.

Thanks a lot, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

...for writing the following poem in 1841:

The Rainy Day

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Longfellow was born in 1807 and died in 1882, and in-between he wrote many poems that generations of American schoolchildren used to have to read and memorize portions of, including "The Village Blacksmith", "The Song Of Hiawatha", "Paul Revere's Ride", "Evangeline: A Tale Of Acadie".and the like. As I said, thanks a lot, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

It just so happens that today IS cold, and dark, and dreary, and if you cannot tell that this post is dripping with sarcasm. it is.

I liked Longfellow when I was younger ("Under a spreading chestnut tree the village smithy stands; the smith, a mighty man is he with large and sinewy hands...", "Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ridof Paul Revere; on the eighteenth of April in seventy-five, hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous day and year...", "This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks...", "By the shores of Gitchee Gumee, by the Shining Big-Sea-Water, stood the wigwam of Nokomis, daughter of the moon Nokomis...", and so on, and so on). Nowadays I just find him irritating. Be thankful if you never had to commit his lines to memory because they would still be rolling around in the nether regions of your neo-cortex or your hippocampus or wherever it is that such things roll around.

Or maybe it's just that today is cold, and dark, and dreary; it rains, and the wind is never weary..."

Tomorrow is St. Lucy's Day, however, and I'm sure we'll all feel better after we walk around wearing long, flowing white dresses and lighted candles on top of our heads and singing "Santa Lucia." I mean, that's what I do every December 13th.

Don't you?

And a good time was had by all

This month's event for the old fogies group (real name: Prime Timers) at our church turned out to be a Christmas brunch last Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the lovely home of Ed and Wynona. Mrs. RWP made a triple-recipe of her delicious corn casserole. The recipe is very, very simple:

1 15-oz. can whole corn, drained
l 14-oz. can creamed corn
1 cup sour cream
1 stick melted butter
1 8-oz. pkg Jiffy corn muffin mix

Mix all ingredients together, pour the mixture into a greased baking dish, and bake at 350°F for 45 to 60 minutes or until golden brown.

Mrs. RWP made a triple recipe, so she poured the mixture into two baking dishes.

I never heard of a "brunch" running from 2 to 4 p.m. but we had one.

Since Mrs. RWP and I get out so seldom nowadays, I wanted to share the occasion with you. All photographs are courtesy of our coordinator, Tammi, who appears in none of them.

After we ate, we sang some Christmas-y songs, including at one point two songs at the same time. Tammi divided the group into two groups and had one group sing "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer" while the other group sang "Away In A Manger." The confusion and cacophany that ensued seemed fitting for this possibly strangest of all possible years, which included the winding down of a pandemic, the gearing up of several vaccines, the shenanigans of Joseph Biden, Kamala Harris, Boris Johnson, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, capped off with Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise making his first actual trip into space.

Tammi then led us in a game of Nativity Trivia. Here are some of the questions:

How did Mary make the trip with Joseph to Bethlehem? (a) on a donkey, (b) on a camel, (c) on foot, or (d) the Bible doesn't say. The correct answer is (d) the Bible doesn't say.

What kind of animals were in the stable? (a) donkeys and sheep, (b) donkeys, cows, and sheep, (c) cows and sheep, or (d) the Bible doesn't say. The correct answer is (d) the Bible doesn't say.

What did the angels sing to the shepherds? (a) Peace on earth, good will to men, (b) Alleluia, (c) Glory to God in the highest, or (d) Gloria in excelsis Deo. The correct answer is NONE OF THE ABOVE. According to the Bible, "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and SAYING, not singing. This was a sort of trick question.

How many wise men came from the east? (a) 4, (b) 3, (c) 5, or (d) the Bible doesn't say. The correct answer is (d) the Bible doesn't say. Tradition (not the Bible) says there were three, probably because three gifts were mentioned specifically--gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Somewhere along the way,Tradition has given their names as Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, but those are not in the Bible either.

Where did the wise men see Jesus? (a) in a manger, (b) in a stable, (c) in a house, or (d) the Bible doesn't say. The correct answer is--surprise!--(c) in a house.

In all the merriment and singing and feeding of our faces, I managed to miss the punch bowl altogether. I didn't even know there was a punch bowl until I saw Tammi's pictures. I missed what was reportedly some muy delicioso peppermint punch.

You have just spent another Saturday with the Rhymeswithplagues.

This is a red-letter day

...and I will explain why later. Before we get to that, however, I found a couple of articles I thought you might find interesting

From Joe Schaeffer at the World Tribune, Meet the elites openly celebrating infanticide as they demand you jab up for *the common good*

From Kevin Williamson at the National Review, It's Okay To Wonder About Biden's Mental State

Both of the articles are thought-provoking. You may agree or disagree with what the writers are putting out there, that's not the point. The point is these are things that people in a free society can (and often do) say but there are many people who would like to shut them up permanently, to 'cancel' them because they disagree with them.

So whether you agree or disagree with the things the writers of the articles had to say, I hope you recognize their right to say them, to express themselves in public.

Now the reason for the red letters today. I began this blog on September 28, 2007. By my count that was 5,184 days ago. Today, with 28 days still left in this Year Of Our Lord 2021, this is my 2,021st post! As my mother often used to say, "What a cosinsaquance!"

Such apparently random conjunctions can have cosmic significance. I'm not saying mine does, but there was one once around 2,021 years ago that resulted in wise men bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

My math also tells me that 2,021 posts in 5,184 days works out to a post every 2.56 days, on average.

Pretty good for an old geezer.

I hesitate to ask you to celebrate my 2,021st post with me so soon after we celebrated Palindromic Date Day yesterday, but some things just can't be helped.

Another palindromic date

...but only for some of you.

If people where you are write the date in dd/mm/yyyy format, then today--December 2, 2021-- is just another day, 02/12/2021.

But if people where you are write the date in mm/dd/yyyy format, then December 2, 2021 is not just another day. It is a palindrome: 12/02/2021.

A palindrome, if you don't know, reads the same backward as it does forward, like "Able was I ere I saw Elba" and "A man, a plan, a canal -- Panama."

I trust you will celebrate or refrain from celebrating accordingly. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200USD, and do not cast aspersions, none whatsoever, at those who write the date differently from the way you do. They are, after all, human beings. They have feelings. If you prick them, do they not bleed? If you tickle them, do they not laugh? If you poison them, do they not die?

Of course they do.