Hi, and welcome to fasab’s fascinating festive facts.
Everything on my blog this week is in Christmas mode including these tidbits of information that you may be able to work into the conversation if you are at a party or two this week.
Enjoy and have a very Merry Christmas.
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The traditional three colors of Christmas
are green, red, and gold.
Green has long been a symbol of life and rebirth;
red symbolizes the blood of Christ,
and gold represents light as well as wealth and royalty.
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The first printed reference to a
Christmas tree was in 1531 in Germany.
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Apparently seven out of ten British dogs
get Christmas gifts from their doting owners.
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A lot of people don’t like it,
but the abbreviation of ‘Xmas’ for
Christmas is not irreligious.
The first letter of the word Christ in Greek is chi,
which is identical to our X.
Xmas was originally an ecclesiastical abbreviation
that was used in tables and charts.
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Electric Christmas lights
were first used in 1854.
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Some people who were born on December 25
feel hard done by because they have to
make do with one present instead of two
and share their big day celebrations with everybody else.
Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island,
recognized the problem. When he died on December 4, 1894,
he willed his November 13 birthday to a friend
who disliked her own Christmas birthday
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Franklin Pierce was the first president to
decorate an official White House Christmas tree.
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Silent Night was written in 1818,
by Austrian priest Joseph Mohr.
He was told the day before Christmas
that the church organ was broken
and would not be repaired in time for Christmas Eve.
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Artificial Christmas trees
have outsold real ones since 1991.
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In the British armed forces it is traditional
that officers wait on the other ranks
and serve them their Christmas dinner.
This dates back to a custom from the Middle Ages.
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Long before mistletoe became a saucy ‘kiss encourager’,
it was considered to have magic powers.
It was said to have the ability to heal
wounds and increase fertility.
Celts hung mistletoe in their homes
in order to bring themselves good luck
and ward off evil spirits.
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Each year there are approximately 20,000
“rent-a-Santas” across the United States.
“Rent-a-Santas” usually undergo seasonal training
on how to maintain a jolly attitude
under pressure from the public.
They also receive practical advice,
such as not accepting money from parents
while children are looking and
avoiding garlic, onions, or beans for lunch.
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In Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea,
your age is measured not in years
but in how many Christmases you’ve lived through;
you’re not 20, you’re twenti krismas.
Rather less charmingly,
the Japanese expression to describe
single women over 25 years old is
kurisumasu keiki – left-over Christmas cake.
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Most of Santa’s reindeer have male-sounding names,
such as Blitzen, Comet, and Cupid.
However, male reindeers shed their antlers around Christmas,
so the reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh
are likely not male, but female – or castrati.
(I wonder if that is the origin of hanging balls
on a Christmas tree comes from?)
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The popular Christmas song “Jingle Bells”
was actually written for Thanksgiving.
The song was composed in 1857 by James Pierpont,
and was originally called “One Horse Open Sleigh”.
Middle of the month, start of the week – call it what you like….
It’s a quiz!
A few difficult ones this week and one of two easy as well.
And if you get stuck the answers can be found waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below, but please NO cheating!
Enjoy and good luck.
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Q. 1: What is the sum of the numbers on a roulette wheel? (And don’t forget the double zero!)
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Q. 2: What is the only borough of New York City that is not an island (or part of an island)?
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Q. 3: From famous movies like ‘Goldfinger’ it is well known that the United States government keeps its supply of gold at Fort Knox, but where does it keep its supply of silver?
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Q. 4: What does the ‘D’ in ‘D-Day’ stand for?
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Q. 5: Which state of the United States of America is bordered by more states than any other?
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Q. 6: What is the white part of your fingernail is called?
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Q. 7: What is the oldest still active Parliament in the world?
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Q. 8: On a standard traffic light, what color is on the bottom?
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Q. 9: In the epic movie ‘Gone With The Wind’, what is the name of the genteel family that owns the ‘Twelve Oaks’ plantation?
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Q. 10: What is the name of the highest waterfall in the world and in which country can it be found. (A point for each correct answer.)
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Q. 11: In which hand is the Statue of Liberty’s torch?
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Q. 12: What is the only European capital city not situated on a river?
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Q. 13: Which Disney movie released in 1942 was about a little fawn?
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Q. 14: With a recorded temperature of about 134 degrees Fahrenheit or nearly 57 degrees Celsius what part of the United States holds the title of ‘the hottest place on Earth’? (A point for the name of the place and the state in which it is located.)
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Q. 15: Without looking at your phone, what two numbers on the dial don’t have letters by them?
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Q. 16: Which 2007 movie, the third in a series, was the most expensive Hollywood film ever made? (A bonus point if you know the approximate cost.)
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Q. 17: Which country in the world generates the most electricity from hydroelectric power? (A point for the name of the country and a bonus point for the approximate percentage of electricity generated in this way.)
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Q. 18: In what 1999 movie did Sean Connery star alongside Mrs Douglas?
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Q. 19: How many holes does a Chinese checkerboard have?
a) 64 b) 81 c) 121 d) 144
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Q. 20: About whom did Roberta Flack write the well known song “Killing Me Softly”?
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ANSWERS
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Q. 1: What is the sum of the numbers on a roulette wheel? (And don’t forget the double zero!)
A. 1: The sum of the numbers on a roulette wheel is 666 and of course the double zero makes no difference at all to the total.
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Q. 2: What is the only borough of New York City that is not an island (or part of an island)?
A. 2: The only borough of New York City that isn’t an island (or part of an island) is the Bronx.
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Q. 3: From famous movies like ‘Goldfinger’ it is well known that the United States government keeps its supply of gold at Fort Knox, but where does it keep its supply of silver?
A. 3: The United States government keeps its supply of silver at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY.
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Q. 4: What does the ‘D’ in ‘D-Day’ stand for?
A. 4: The ‘D’ in ‘D-Day’ stands for ‘Day’, in other words, “Day-Day”
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Q. 5: Which state of the United States of America is bordered by more states than any other?
A. 5: Tennessee is bordered by more states than any other, by eight states, which are Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
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Q. 6: What is the white part of your fingernail is called?
A. 6: The white part of your fingernail is called the ‘lunula’.
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Q. 7: What is the oldest still active Parliament in the world?
A. 7: The Parliament of Iceland is the oldest still active parliament in the world. It was established in 930.
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Q. 8: On a standard traffic light, what color is on the bottom?
A. 8: Green.
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Q. 9: In the epic movie ‘Gone With The Wind’, what is the name of the genteel family that owns the ‘Twelve Oaks’ plantation?
A. 9: They are the Wilkes family, Leslie Howard starring as ‘Ashley Wilkes’.
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Q. 10: What is the name of the highest waterfall in the world and in which country can it be found. (A point for each correct answer.)
A. 10: The highest waterfall in the world is Angel Falls in Venezuela. It is so high that water will sometimes evaporate before hitting the ground.
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Q. 11: In which hand is the Statue of Liberty’s torch?
A. 11: In her right hand.
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Q. 12: What is the only European capital city not situated on a river?
A. 12: The Spanish capital Madrid is the only European capital city not situated on a river.
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Q. 13: Which Disney movie released in 1942 was about a little fawn?
A. 13: Bambi.
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Q. 14: With a recorded temperature of about 134 degrees Fahrenheit or nearly 57 degrees Celsius what part of the United States holds the title of ‘the hottest place on Earth’? (A point for the name of the place and the state in which it is located.)
A. 14: Death Valley in California holds the title of ‘the hottest place on Earth’.
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Q. 15: Without looking at your phone, what two numbers on the dial don’t have letters by them?
A. 15: 1 and 0. (Did you look?)
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Q. 16: Which 2007 movie, the third in a series, was the most expensive Hollywood film ever made? (A bonus point if you know the approximate cost.)
A. 16: Costing an estimated $300 million, it was ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean, At The World’s End’.
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Q. 17: Which country in the world generates the most electricity from hydroelectric power? (A point for the name of the country and a bonus point for the approximate percentage of electricity generated in this way.)
A. 17: Norway gets 98-99% of its electricity from hydroelectric power, more than any other country.
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Q. 18: In what 1999 movie did Sean Connery star alongside Mrs Douglas?
A. 18: The movie was ‘Entrapment’, Mrs Douglas is better known as Catherina Zeta-Jones.
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Q. 19: How many holes does a Chinese checkerboard have?
a) 64 b) 81 c) 121 d) 144
A. 19: Answer c), a Chinese checkerboard has 121 holes.
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Q. 20: About whom did Roberta Flack write the well known song “Killing Me Softly”?
A. 20: Roberta Flack wrote “Killing Me Softly” about singer Don McLean.
Can’t let the month end without another Sunday Sermon.
This time a little bit of an update on the political and financial scene as I see it.
So far the Obama administration is doing great! (That was a little sarcasm in case anyone didn’t get it.)
Troops are being sent to Syria and soon we’ll get bogged down in another mess that’s none of our business and will probably take many years and many lives to get us disentangled from – leaving behind chaos and confusion and a worse situation than the one we tried to fix.
Meanwhile the economic crisis continues. Not that you’d notice. The sham recovery has meant that stocks have been on an upward trend, bonds have been doing well, and confidence is high.
And all because….
….well all because the Fed continues to print money and pour it into these markets.
Or at least it has been.
Then Bernanke made a statement a few days ago to “clarify” the government’s position.
Oh dear me!
He said that the government would… he thought… he hoped anyway…. assuming nothing unforeseen happened…. at least nothing major that they didn’t see coming… that they would ease off their money printing and bond buying… or at least they might… soon or maybe later… but sometime at least… well, it was being discussed…
Needless to say with that dithering statement confidence immediately melted away from the market and the DOW headed down by more than 500 points. In fact investors and brokers seemed to be selling everything, not just stocks and bonds but gold and other commodities too. Not quite panic but definite unease was clear to be seen.
The only reason it didn’t all collapse is that while the underlying message is clear, the Fed’s delay in implementing their tap turn off gives investors a little more time to make a little more money – they hope.
The problem with that is knowing when to sell. And that is the trick that has eluded investors from individuals to hedge fund managers since the markets began.
What Obama and Bernanke want is crystal clear. They see the folly in printing money and buying bonds at near $100 billion a month and they know they have to stop it eventually otherwise an even bigger financial catastrophe will result.
Their problem is they want to stop it without causing a massive market correction.
And that, as Samuel Goldwin used to say, can be summed up in two words – im possible!
It will be interesting and perhaps a bit painful to watch what happens next.
You couldn’t exactly call yesterday “Black Friday” the way financial pundits like to do, but that traditional “safe haven”, gold, certainly lost a lot of its shine.
In fact the price of gold went into freefall, plunging the best part of $100 an ounce in a massive selling spree and ending up below the magic $1500 mark for the first time in a while.
I don’t think anyone is sure yet just what triggered the almost panic sell off on the Comex, but my gut feeling is that, once started, the computer generated trading gizmos used by the big hedge funds etc., kicked in big time and made matters go from bad to worse.
These automatic trading monsters trigger sales when a pre-chosen stop loss figure is reached, one stop loss sell off triggers the next and so on until there is a massive market plunge, as happened yesterday. The same could just as easily happen on the stock market.
What most ordinary folks don’t realize is that the majority of traders in the financial markets are idiots. They just hang around looking at their screens and then follow whatever they see happening. It’s the herd mentality syndrome. When the big boys start to sell then the little boys follow suit and the whole thing goes from bad to worse, often without anyone really knowing who started it or why it is happening.
That seems to have been the case yesterday as there were no catastrophic economic indicators, like major inflation fears, currency collapses, etc., to trigger a significant movement one way or the other.
Whatever caused it, it is a warning to investors to be cautious. It could be a blip or the harbinger of turbulent times ahead.
Although there are many doom-and-gloom merchants with their “the end is nigh” web sites urging their followers to dump paper money, fiat currencies they call them, and stock up on gold, the truth is that gold has not been a good investment in recent months and years.
By definition the very worst a good investment should do is hold its value in line with inflation – if it doesn’t you are losing value.
For almost two years now gold has been steadily falling in value. Anyone who bought, for example, in August or September 2011 has seen their investment fall significantly in value – down by more than twenty percent in fact. You put $10,000 in, you get less than $7,900 out, and the dealers take their cut both ways.
So will the bear market for gold continue or was Friday just a glitch? Well, if you could answer that one for certain you would be able to make a lot of money.
My feeling, for what it’s worth is that the price will probably fall further. Maybe not so dramatically as yesterday, but it could easily trickle downwards to the $1200 region.
That assumes no dramatic sell offs by bankrupt governments and banks, because that is definitely a last resort measure that they would be most reluctant to take. If or when it does happen it means BIG financial trouble for everyone.
So will gold ever be a good investment again?
Warren Buffet never thought so, but it could be. Possibly a very good investment. But probably not a long term hold. Many western economies are just hanging together at the moment. The amount of debt and insolvency has to mean that at some stage the normal investment vehicles like currencies, stocks, bonds etc., will start to suffer and people will turn back to “safe havens” like gold.
IF you buy at the right time, and remember that you need to get rid of it and fast when the cycle turns again, you could do very well. But I wouldn’t jump in and buy it just yet.
