,For those of you who have dreaming of a white Christmas, you are getting your wish in Denver.
Snow predicterd for on and off all day Christmas eve day and occasionally on Christmas day. So far on Christmas eve day it has been on and on.
G. Eldon Smith, Author |
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,For those of you who have dreaming of a white Christmas, you are getting your wish in Denver. Snow predicterd for on and off all day Christmas eve day and occasionally on Christmas day. So far on Christmas eve day it has been on and on.
He knows if you've been bad or worse Who automatically gets added to the naughty list? A rebel without a clause. Who’s Santa’s favorite singer? Elfish Presley. What did Mrs. Claus say to Santa as she looked up at the sky? “Looks like rain, dear.” What is Santa’s dog’s name? Santa Paws. Why is the alphabet in the North Pole different than the normal alphabet? The North Pole’s alphabet has noel. Colorado Springs, North Pole Workshop Santa Claus is coming to town Denver City Hall Christmas Lights People from Denver and all over Colorado love to go see the Christmas Lights on the City and County Building in downtown Denver - when it's not too cold!
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! Casa Bonita Two University of Colorado Alumni, Trey Parker and Matt Stone met in a CU film making class in 1992. Their class project Jesus versus Santa found its way to Hollywood as a Christmas card which was a hit which became South Park. As they say in Hollywood, "That was only the beginning of history." South Park became a huge television hit. Parker and Stone, (as reported by Stone to Denver's 5280 magazine) felt they owed it to the State of Colorado to save the bankrupt Casa Bonita restaurant and renovate it. They bought it for $3.1 million and spent $40 million making it the restaurant they remember how it used to be. Known as "Disneyland of Mexico" to many Denver area old timers. The cliff divers still dive off of a 30 foot high cliff and Bart's Cave, and sometimes magicians and a person in a gorilla suit appear. Only the food has changed. An award winning Chef was hired to improve the menu. Dana Rodriguez moved to Denver from Mexico City in 1998 and applied for a job at the old Casa Bonita and did not hear back from the previous management. Now she supervises the staff of the renovated restaurant. The restaurant holds 700 guests and all of the tables are reserved well in advance and have been since the re-opening in the summer of 2023. Another new restaurant What did Luke Skywalker say to the diners at his new restaurant? "May the forks be with you." Protecting Endangered Species In 1973 President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act which mandated steps to protect and restore plants and animals identified as threatened or endangered. In doing so it provided a framework for protecting species and their ecosystems from further decline. In the 50 years since the act was adopted, more than 1,000 fish, mammals, insects, birds, flowers and other species have been listed under the act. One of them is the bald eagle which was delisted in 2007 after the birds numbers recovered. Now the eagle can be spotted in nearly every state. from The Nature Conservancy magazine Quotes “Darwinism by itself did not produce the Holocaust, but without Darwinism... neither Hitler nor his Nazi followers would have had the necessary scientific underpinnings to convince themselves and their collaborators that one of the worlds greatest atrocities was really morally praiseworthy.” ― Richard Weikart “Then there was the war, and I married it because there was nothing else when I reached the age of falling in love." ― Guy Sajer “This is no war of chieftains or of princes, of dynasties or national ambition; it is a war of peoples and of causes. There are vast numbers, not only in this Island but in every land, who will render faithful service in this war, but whose names will never be known, whose deeds will never be recorded. This is a War of the Unknown Warriors” ― WINSTON S CHURCHILL “Alas, all that sound and fury disguised the fact that on Omaha Beach at least, the bombs fell too long, the rockets fell too short, and the naval gunfire was too brief.” ― Craig L. Symonds, World War II The National World War II Museum in the the nation's capital is a memorial to those who served. The mission of the museum is not to tell the story of the war. It is an educational experience where people come to learn about the defining event of the 20th century. The war is called the defining event of the century because many ways we lived were changed by the war. Some were bad but as usual some good things come out of bad events. For example take the Tuskagee Army Field in Alabama. At the beginning of the war the Armed Forces were strictly segregated. Black men were prohibited from flying because it was assumed they lacked the necessary skills. The Army Air Corps started a training program testing if the assumption was correct. The Tuskegee Airmen was the result. A separate unit to be sure but 14,600 black men were accepted into a variety of military air occupations. After the war the U.S. Air Force was created and all air units were desegregated and lumped together. . The war created a shortage of pilots. Woman were not permitted to be pilots because they lacked the skills required. Thanks to some strong women they created the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP.) The WASPs ferried planes from factories to where they could be put to force on the front. WASPs also towed targets for target practice and trained new pilots. Tuskagee Airmen and Women Airforce Service Pilots are examples of how the war changed the roles of race and gender roles in society. While the changes are not perfect at this point, they are changing to levels that were not imagined before World War II. The Battle of Iwo Jima Iwo Jima had three airfields within flying distance to the Japan mainland. It was valuable to the Japanese as a defense position and at the same time to the allies as a base to launch attacks against Japan. Both sides valued the island. Iwo JIma appeared to be an easy target but it proved to be a five-week showdown that was one of the bloodiest and most brutal battles of the war. "Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima,
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G. Eldon Smith author/blogger
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