From: someone@anywheret.net   
      
   "Jim D"  wrote in message news:2018112210412761716-Not@ThisAddresscom...   
      
   > It's turkey day as I type this, Thanksgiving.  We're going to a family   
   > fest this afternoon. Turkey and lots of noisy braggart relatives.   
      
   I was driving that day so naturally, it didn't seem at all like   
   Thanksgiving. As for the noisy braggarts, you can have those anytime ;)   
      
   > Monday, about four days from now, I have a solo gig where I'll need a few   
   > light hearted holiday tunes.  Shouldn't be a problem. I have them from   
   > years past, just need to brush up a little, make sure the keys are still   
   > good for my singing.   
      
   For those kinds of tunes, I also like the more recent stuff, like from the   
   '60s Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer soundtrack ;)   
      
   > One of my cousins ( older than me ) told me this past week that Christmas   
   > wasn't about Christ. Said that he was born in April or something, and bla   
   > bla bla.  Of course I knew all this. History books can be your friend.   
   > Christs birth doesn't coincide with the winter solstice at all, as far I I   
   > know.   
      
   I'm not about to believe naysayers whose primary Motive for their claims as   
   to when Jesus was born, is to in any they way they can, Disparage CHRISTmas.   
      
   Besides, we're not so much celebrating *when* Jesus was born as rather   
   *THAT* He was born!!!   
      
   > But this is an important point in the yearly cycle. Roman Saturnalia,   
   > which was apparently their take on the even earlier Greek Kronia.... seems   
   > the origin of our winter festival. It's the day the sun is as low in the   
   > sky as it goes ?   
      
   That's another description of the winter solstice, which is about December   
   21, only four days before Christmas Day.   
      
   > Important to people who watch the skys.  I'm one of those. The sun will   
   > hang low for a while then gradually start climping back up. Called   
   > Midwinter in some old songs. At my latitude, the sun changes noticably   
   > during the year. At the height of spring, it just barely lights the noth   
   > facing side of my house for a few days.  Now it just rises over the tree   
   > line to the south   
      
   So depressing after June 21 when slowly but surely, the days get shorter - I   
   wouldn't mind  living at the  equator so all that can go on overhead and   
   only change by 22.5 degrees rather than the  full force 45 degree horror   
   centered on that most miserable of seasons, winter :(   
      
   > Saturn is quite stunning when viewed thru my humble telescope, btw.  It's   
   > actually up there, actually has rings.  Yeah, that seems silly to say, but   
   > hey, pretty much everything else I've been told and taught by governement   
   > schools have been lies, so it's kind of refreshing to find one thing that   
   > doesn't seem to be :-)   
      
   Saturn's  rings are almost totally displayed and only about a year and a   
   half past it's opposition last June.   
      
   > more later .... gotta run .....   
      
   JimD   
      
   I hope there really is such a thing as 'global warming' and that it finally   
   starts happening for real so I can actually feel it - I don't want it to get   
   any colder!!!   
      
   Ouisie   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)