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.