An epiphany about a holiday

Not really continuing the discussion that poor Victor and I have had, today is Epiphany for some folks, also known as Twelfthtide. The U.S. Catholic liturgical calendar notes that Catholics observed the Epiphany last Sunday.
For many Christians, tt could be Christmas (or it might be tomorrow) or Twelfth Night or maybe not, but it's something.

The day also calls for an anonymous hat tip to friend Bill who's celebrating his 65th birthday.

Why Buzz, indeed?

I'll admit that I just noticed the Buzz up button that appears on the bottom of the Telegram.com stories.
The button let's you send a link to Yahoo!'s Buzz, the venerable web site's link-blathering service.

via What's Buzzing? You Tell Us! Top News and More - Yahoo! Buzz

I had, however, noticed this article from about three weeks ago, wherein Yahoo! is shutting down its Buzz service.

"We continuously evaluate and prioritize our portfolio of products and services, and do plan to shut down some products in the coming months such as Yahoo Buzz, our Traffic APIs, and others. We will communicate specific plans when appropriate," reported Yahoo! in an email.

via Yahoo Shutting Down Delicious, Buzz, Other Services | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Robert Cringley, meanwhile, puts Yahoo! on his death watch - 2011 prediction #6: Yahoo barfs

Methinks that the Telegram has hitched its wagon to a backwards-moving train.

More on the New Year, in the manner of Pogo

Thom Buchanan has been posting a series of Pogo cartoons on this blog, Whirled of Kelly for quite a while. Every few days, a gem from long ago comes back to tickle and enlighten.
For the past few, he's offered up a series about New Year's Day from years gone past.  (Click for full-size images.)

 Special thanks to Thom and, of course, to Walt Kelly.

First Night 2010-2011

So far, so good

There's no real sense for the year to begin in January. Our history of new year designations is jumbled at best, but then so are many of our conventions. I allow myself a just a few grumbles each year regarding the dates for Christmas, New Year's Day, and the start of the World Series. Finally, though, it's stare decisis. Let's get on with it.
As I've mentioned before, I don't make New Year's resolutions. Anything worth changing was worth changing on any other date. You can go to a lot of  A.A. meetings before finding anyone who stopped drinking on January 1st and stayed stopped. We make changes in our lives when the right combination of circumstances comes up.
In the early crime dramas, we learned that a person is guilty of a crime when it can be shown that the person had the means, opportunity, and motive to do the deed. Well, the same is true for positive change.We change not only when we want to stop doing the wrong thing, but know what the right thing is and have the resources available to grasp onto the new behavior. It isn't even necessary to change for a good reason. Change seems as random as any other kind of fortune. Some folks seem to be able to make it happen at will while others have this slipping double-reverse timing chain between effort and results.

When 2010 started, we had some ideas about what was ahead. They were modest plans, I thought. Whatever image we had for the year, it turned out to nothing of what we'd imagined. And yet, we're better than OK.
So, finally, that's why I don't make New Year's resolutions. The best parts of my life have come to me when I didn't get what I'd planned, didn't get what I said I wanted.
We went to First Night and wrote on the Wishing Wall. 

Cassie at the Wishing Wall (click to enbiggen)

People asked for a cure for AIDS, shoes, Love, Peace, and Happiness, Justin Bieber, all the way up to a wish for "Cole to shut up." I read the messages, speculated a bit about each person who'd written a wish, and then went for dinner. I had a combo platter of chicken curry and vegetable korma. Most years I get the curried goat.