Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby DrEvil » Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:38 am

dada » Sat Dec 26, 2020 11:43 pm wrote:But I think my favorite anecdote for this time of year is the story about Ben Franklin almost electrocuting himself while trying to cook a turkey, two hundred and seventy years ago.

(In a letter dated 25 December 1750, Franklin describes his attempt to electrocute a turkey, which didn’t work out as he had intended) “I have lately made an experiment in electricity that I desire never to repeat. Two nights ago, being about to kill a turkey by the shock from two large glass jars, containing as much electrical fire as forty common phials, I inadvertently took the whole through my own arms and body, by receiving the fire from the united top wires with one hand, while the other held a chain connected with the outsides of both jars.”

Onlookers report a bright flash accompanied by a loud crack. Franklin vibrated violently, then was knocked unconscious.


For some reason this reminds me of Tycho Brahe's tame elk.

Tycho often held large social gatherings in his castle. Pierre Gassendi wrote that Tycho also had a tame elk (moose) and that his mentor the Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel (Hesse-Cassel) asked whether there was an animal faster than a deer. Tycho replied that there was none, but he could send his tame elk. When Wilhelm replied he would accept one in exchange for a horse, Tycho replied with the sad news that the elk had just died on a visit to entertain a nobleman at Landskrona. Apparently, during dinner, the elk had drunk a lot of beer, fallen down the stairs, and died.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe
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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby conniption » Mon Dec 28, 2020 2:15 am

Image


Where's Elvis?
Thinking of you....and speaking of Chumps...
Where's Chump?

Miss you both. Merry Merry.
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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby Cordelia » Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:39 pm

conniption » Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:15 am wrote:

Where's Elvis?
Thinking of you....and speaking of Chumps...
Where's Chump?

Miss you both. Merry Merry.


Echo above.

Chump was banned. Go figure. :(
The greatest sin is to be unconscious. ~ Carl Jung

We may not choose the parameters of our destiny. But we give it its content. ~ Dag Hammarskjold 'Waymarks'
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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby DrEvil » Mon Dec 28, 2020 4:26 pm

Echo echo. Hope Elvis is just chilling with a big, fat joint during the holidays and taking some time off from us.

I wouldn't mind seeing chump back either, but his ban wasn't that hard to figure - he was posting some pretty racist stuff from a prominent holocaust denier.
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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby Joe Hillshoist » Tue Dec 29, 2020 7:59 pm

There are a few members missing here who I hope are okay at the moment.
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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby PufPuf93 » Tue Dec 29, 2020 9:40 pm

Best wishes to everyone at RI. Thank you for your posts. :hug1:
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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby Elvis » Mon Jan 04, 2021 7:12 pm

Happy New Year. :eeyaa

I got distracted and took a vacation (and now & then I feel RI might deserve a vacation from me). I was spending too much time online, was away longer than expected but managed to restore some balance in the interval. Thanks for thinking of me. :basicsmile

RI will always be my first stop for analysis!
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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby Elvis » Mon Jan 04, 2021 7:14 pm

DrEvil wrote:I wouldn't mind seeing chump back either, but his ban wasn't that hard to figure - he was posting some pretty racist stuff from a prominent holocaust denier.

The rule about that is a pillar of this board's mission and character. It wasn't a one-time infraction, and our warnings were clear. :shrug:
I'm as unhappy about it as anyone.
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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby Harvey » Sat Dec 24, 2022 6:04 pm

HO HO HO

And while we spoke of many things, fools and kings
This he said to me
"The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return"


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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby Gnomad » Sun Dec 25, 2022 7:27 am

Happy Winter solstice to all the pagans here.
(even though it was a few days ago already...)

May the next year be not very interesting at all.
la nuit de tous approche
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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby kelley » Tue Dec 27, 2022 6:07 pm

seasons greetings and best wishes RI
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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby stickdog99 » Wed Dec 28, 2022 10:50 pm

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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby fruhmenschen » Fri Dec 30, 2022 4:03 pm

Happy New Year
From a never writer to a ever reader
NEWES….


“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby stickdog99 » Mon Jan 02, 2023 4:22 am

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Re: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Postby Gnomad » Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:32 am

Seems pretty apt.
la nuit de tous approche
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