Mount Rushmore With a number of friends off writing a novel before the end of St Andrew's Day, discussion lists *could* fall quiet. But not if I have anything to do with it. Each day will feature a piece of history, perhaps a link, and an opportunity for you all to contribute. No word count, no obligation to do it all in thirty days, or to contribute every day. Or even any day.

On this day in 1941, the sculptures on Mount Rushmore were formally opened. The faces were devised by Doane Robinson as a memorial to put South Dakota on the map, and they've certainly succeeded in that endeavour. But they were originally going to be figures such as General Custer, Buffalo Bill, and legendary Sioux.

http://www.americanparknetwork.com/parkinfo/ru/history/carve.html

Question: Which person - or persons - would you choose to immortalise on the side of a mountain. And why.

Railroads in Roanoke Today marks the 150th anniversary celebration of the first train through Roanoke, Vermont. Events include a tour of historic rail sites (by bus), workshops on Morse Code and signals, and a dessert tasting from an 1852 menu.

http://www.vmt.org/November%20Raildays.htm

Question: You get to take a rail trip, anywhere in the world, and we're quite capable of laying down tracks to take you where you want to go. So, where's we headed?

Culture Day In Japan, today is Culture Day. It was the birthday of a previous emperor, and been re-dedicated as a day for people to do cultural things. The emperor dishes out Order of Culture Awards, and the Federal Lord's Parade features people wearing replica clothes from 400 years ago.

Question 1: What inspires you about the culture of the place you're from, or in which you're living? To whom would you give Order of Culture Awards?

Question 2: The world decides to mark your birthday with a special celebration. What sort of day would you want?

Toot 'n' come in Eighty years ago, Howard Carter was having trouble on his archaeological expedition in Egypt. His sponsor, Lord Canarvon, had sent word that he would be ending his financing of the trip at the end of the year. A competitor from the US, Theodore Davis, was working in the same area, and coming within a few inches of a significant find. But it was on this day that Carter hit paydirt. He found King Tutankhamun's tomb.

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/tutt.htm

Question: Who remembers the person who comes close, but doesn't win? We do! 'Tis better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all. What other notable seconds, or people who came that close but never quite succeeded, spring to mind.

Gunpowder, Treason and Plonk On this day in 1605, Robert Catesby's plot to blow the roof on King James I of England came to an unsuccessful halt. Catesby had led a gang of conspirators in an audacious plan to send King and Lords rocketing skyward by blowing the blighters up. With the monarch and heir dead, they would then lead a revolt to return their brand of christianity to the land, overturning another brand.

The original plan, to dig a tunnel under Parliament, was abandoned as the middle class plotters were unaccustomed to hard labour. However, the plotters needed the support of people like Lord Monteagle, whom they told to stay away, who tipped off security, discovered the explosives, and scuppered the plot. Chalk this one up as a loss for internal leaks.

http://www.britannia.com/history/kaboom.html

Question: What other audacious plans and plots have you come across?

Drummers This is International Drum Month, in which people bang drums and make a percussive sound. Well, what did you expect IDM to be about? Traditionally, drummers have been seen as the idiot savants of the music world, even more than viola players. There are many jokes about drummers.

Question: Share or construct a joke about musicians. "Christina Aguilera's new video" does not count.

Hug A Bear Day That's right, trek up into the mountains and go poking around a den. I dare you.

Thanks to the teddy bear, ursine creatures have become a mainstay of children's literature. One only has to think of Winnie The Pooh, a self-proclaimed "bear of little brain" who still managed to bumble through Hundred Acre Wood. Or Paddington Bear, an asylum seeker from Darkest Peru who was given accommodation by the Brown family of Windsor Gardens, and made quite a name for himself in the antiques trade.

Question 1: Bears in literature. What's your take?

Question 2: Do you take a bear (or other stuffed animal) to bed with you?

Try A New Recipe Day

Graham : Good.  All right.  Okay, you're in the zone now.  So, the
          next batch will be great.  You feel like something else,
          honey, you want me to make you something else?

Rayanne : I can't believe I am cooking something, like, not in a
          pouch.  [flips a fritter -- it drops to the floor] 
          [she picks it up] I'll still eat it.
		  

The smell of freshly burned buns wafts through Chateau Weaver, as once again the cakes are not so much a golden brown as a silvery-black. We have some better cooks than me round here. We must do!

Question: Share a recipe that is completely idiot proof. Can Burn Anything will try some of them out and report back.

UK Singles Chart Is 50 It's half a century since someone at the New Musical Express had a remarkable idea. Telegram a few record stores, enquire which 78s had been selling in the greatest numbers, then tabulate the results and use them as a promotional tool for the newspaper. The inaugral chart-topper was "Here In My Heart" by Al Martino, and it's been all downhill since then. "The chart" has helped to cement the four minute single as a central part of popular culture.

http://www.theofficialcharts.com/

Question: The four minutes (or whatever) of music that still moves you after all these years.

Sesame Street Is 34

Ernie   : Oh, I can't sleep, Bert.  I can't fall asleep.
Bert    : Well, count sheep then, Ernie.
Ernie   : Count sheep?  Wh-what do you mean, count sheep?
Bert    : I mean just lie there and count sheep.  Just imagine them
          one at a time til you get so sleepy you just fall asleep.
Ernie   : Okay, I'll try it, Bert.  Alright, let's see, counting sheep.
Sheep   : Baaaaa.
Ernie   : Let's see, that's one.
Ernie   : Th-that's just my first sheep.  Don't worry, Bert.  Just go
          right back to sleep.
		  

Question: For those young enough, your memories of Sesame Street. For those slightly older, or who never saw it, what about pre-school education in general.

Remembrance Day On this day in 1918, the Great War finally came to an end. The defeated German army signed a ceasefire in France, bringing four years of fighting to a conclusion.

http://canada.kos.net/remembrance.html

There is no question today, but your thoughts are welcomed.

Sadie Hawkins Day, in which women invite someone who catches their eye on a date. This celebration originated in "L'il Abner," a comic strip, in 1937. Sadie Hawkins was the perpetual spinster of the strip, but her father was a well-known town figure. He used his position to organise a race where the unmarried girls pursued the unmarried chaps, with an altar and vicar waiting at the end. Since the war, Sadie Hawkins Day has mutated into a more general women's empowerment day.

http://www.sadiehawkinsday.com/sadiehawk.html

Question: Would you care for a dance?

This is World Kindness Day, apparently.

http://www.worldkindness.org.sg/

"The members of the World Kindness Movement:

"Acknowledge the fundamental importance of simple human kindness as a
basic condition of a satisfying and meaningful life, and

"Pledge to join together through the individual networks of each member
country, to build a kinder and more compassionate world."

Question: Random act of kindness, or pre-planned niceness? Or both? And how?

Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day

"He almost danced to the fridge, found the three least hairy things in it,
put them on a plate and watched them intently for two minutes. Since they
made no attempt to move within that time he called them breakfast
and ate them."

http://orion.csuchico.edu/Pages/Vol45issue8/opinion/o.4.refridgerator.html

http://www.emainstay.com/foodsupport/storage.html

Question: What's in your fridge. Right now.

America Recycles This is the day when the United States attempts to forget it is the world leader in disposable things, and tries to put some of its waste to good use...

http://www.americarecyclesday.org/

In Europe, of course, they do things *far* more efficiently. And, as ever, the models of everyday recycling are the Germans.

http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/info/publications/week/092002/economy4.html

Question: Paper? Plastic? Scrap metal? Second-hand baseball club owners? Are some things best consigned to the trash heap of all knowledge?

Sub-question: Spot the Henson production.

BBC Radio News Is 80 It's eighty years since the wireless sets around London first crackled into life, with those first immortal words that time forgot. Since then, the British Broadcarping Corporation has made a name for itself in the provision of impartial, timely, hysterical, and accurate news.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

Question: Memorable pieces of radio, or television commentary, would be welcomed.

Take A Hike Day Ah, the great outdoors. If you weren't rattled by Hug A Bear Day last week, then this will be right up your boulevard. An excuse to put on your walking boots, step out into the wide blue yonder, and inhale that fresh mountain air. Then find that it's tipping it down with rain, and blowing a gale, and it's actually far nicer to sit inside with your feet up.

http://www.greenmountainclub.org/hikes.htm (Useful if you're in Vermont)

Question: Where would you like to spend a day walking about?

William Tell Day In which we remember the greatest feat of archery in history. There's this bloke William, see, who was such a sharp shot that he could put an arrow through an apple perched precariously on his son's head. It would rather spoil the story to find that Tell was allowed to stand six inches away from said apple.

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=2782 Friedrich Schiller translated by Theodore Martin

Question: An apple a day keeps the doctor away, so what's your favoured fruit. Or your best home remedy?

Lunar Eclipse Tonight, the earth will pass between the moon and the sun, cutting off light to a goodly part of the satellite's surface. This can only happen at full moon.

http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/LEprimer.html

Question: What other things do you do once a month or so?

Peanut Butter Lovers Month Apparently so. Crunchy stuff, smooth stuff, with jelly, with marmite, or just left on the shelf where it belongs.

www.peanutbutter.com

Question: What's your flavour?

World Hello Day Because greeting someone at random can make a difference.

www.worldhelloday.org

Challenge: Say hello to 10 people. Preferably people you don't know.

Game & Puzzle Week "They're only easy if you know the answer."

www.mathpuzzle.org

This week is a celebration of all things challenging. From the humble crossword to the complex logic problem, from those bits of wood and string they sell in toy stores to the buttock-clenchingly awful pun, everything is celebrated this week.

Question: Pose something to tax our minds.

Letterman's Anniversary www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow

As the name suggests, it was this date in 1993 that The Food Network was founded. And that CBS reacted by recruiting someone new to front their late-night talk show, the imaginatively titled LATE SHOW. It's become obligatory bedtime viewing for almost a dozen people up and down the country, and an interesting 7pm diversion two nights later for us in the UK. Other people swear off the television after the main evening newscasts, while others think that the day's peak is reached with SESAME STREET (waves at Georgie, the moron from Washington.)

Question: What do you do immediately before going to bed.

Origin Of Species, 1859

http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-origin-of-species/

"Survival of the fittest. And besides, it's fun."

In order to reproduce, genes will seek out fitter versions of themselves, and species will evolve to fill environmental niches.

Serious question: Other than domestic pets, what is (or are) your favoured species?

Deliberately pun-laden Question: What jeans (or other trousers) do you wear?

Bonus Obscure Question: What season is it?

International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women

"I'd have preferred the emblem to mark this month to have been a little tin badge bearing the image of a man's face behind prison bars, crying, with the legend 'You're the bitch now, big man.' But a ribbon will do." - Julie Burchill

"If it were between countries, we'd call it a war. If it were a disease, we'd call it an epidemic. If it were an oil spill, we'd call it a disaster. But it's happening to women, and it's just an everyday affair. It is violence against women. It is sexual harassment at work and sexual abuse of the young. It is the beating or the blow that millions of women suffer each and every day. It is rape at home and on dates. It is murder." - Michael Kaufman

http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/16days00/why.htm

Challenge: Do Something.

CASABLANCA premiered, 1942

http://www.filmsite.org/casa.html

Don't play it again, Sam.

"You played it for her, now play it for me. Play it, Sam."

Question: What misquote annoys the heck out of you.

Pins And Needles Day

So! It's the day dedicated to needlecraft. Sew what, I hear you cry. What is the point of this day? Well, it's a sharp reminder that all clothes have to be stitched together, otherwise we'd all be embroidered in the buff, and that would have us in stitches, and look proper knit-twits.

Question: Do you have any talents with textiles?

Bonus Thanksgiving Observation: My thread of puns has reely run out, just after it would have needled everybody.

Sarah Josepha Hale Is Thanked.

Born in New Hampshire in 1788, and widowed with five children in 1827, Sarah didn't take the cloth or lament her loss. Sarah wrote the true-life "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and dozens of childrens books and hundreds of poems. She helped establish Vassar College. She was the first to suggest public playgrounds. She was the first to advocate girl students and women teachers in public education. She edited Ladies' Magazine, then the hugely influential and proto-feminist Godley's Lady's Book.

And she used her periodical to campaign for the national Thanksgiving holiday.

http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/hale1.html

http://almanac.mpr.org/docs/02_10_21.htm#Thursday

So Obvious You Could Never See It Coming Question: For what are you thankful right now?

Louisa May Alcott born, 1832

In which four young ladies grow up without a strong father figure. A hundred years later, this would have been feminist literature: as it is, we have a piece of period canon.

http://www.alcottweb.com/

Question: For those who have read the book, or seen the movie, spot a favourite scene or passage.

Very Easy Bonus On Question (appreciating most of you have eaten too much and shopped too much): There is an obMSCL connection. Name it.

Britney Spears' Debut

It's four years since "...Baby One More Time" began the recent fetish for ever-expanding punctuation in hit song titles. Britney's ellipsis begat N'Sync's repetition, and Clitring's brackets. At least, I think they're brackets. Anyway, after seeing Britney's dots all in a line, the world was never quite the same again.

Question: What's your favourite punctuation mark?

This marks the end of the International Month of Silly Questions. Those still composing their novels have a matter of hours left to complete their books. And don't forget to put down that last full stop, otherwise Miss Thwakket will think you've not finished and call you in for detention and that would never do.

InMoSiQue may yet return... but don't quote me.