Welcome to the Xmas Eve OND. I'm a second-stringer elf, and I volunteered to make sure OND could make its nightly appearance tonight. Normally, one of the seven fabulous editors of the OND would be amazing you with their sterling examples of how this thing appears.
But, it's not a lump of coal, either.
I hope everyone is safe, warm and with the ones that mean a lot to them.
Most everyone I know likes taters. It is one of America's comfort foods, anytime of year, involves potatoes. Last night was truly special with mamabigdog's diary about potato side dishes. A lot of folks added their recipes to the file. Enjoy!
You know things are not good when The Detroit Gran Prix gets cancelled.
The Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix has been canceled because of economic problems in Michigan and the country, the latest setback in the sport rocked by sponsorship woes and a series of cutbacks and layoffs.
Event chairman Bud Denker told the Detroit Free Press on Thursday that the race was canceled after talks with city and state officials, sponsors and the Indy Racing League.
I've been a fan of the Seahawks since the teamed was formed and a guy a few years ahead of me in highschool was picked by them in the expansion draft. This year has not been a very good example of what that team can do. Their head coach, Mike Holmgren is retiring as planned this year.
He plans on helping his wife with what she does:
Mike Holmgren is happily leaving the job he's loved and mastered for the last 17 years in the NFL. The reason is on the second floor of the Pike Market Medical Clinic.
His wife, Kathy, a registered nurse who specializes is treating diabetes, is ending a checkup with a patient, a small, older man with bright eyes for whom English is a second language. For the last two years Kathy has volunteered at the clinic, which welcomes poor people off the streets of downtown Seattle.
She's done foot care, made home visits and seen whoever comes through the door. She's also traveled to Africa and Romania and Mexico while volunteering for a medical outreach team.
"I know who the real star of the family is," said her husband, the exiting coach of the Seattle Seahawks who earns about $7.5 million per year, has led teams to three Super Bowls, and is the league's winningest active coach. "And it's not me."
A French biology institute has a fire
Fire broke out Wednesday in a biology laboratory at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, famed for research on fighting infectious diseases, officials said.
No victims were reported, and no sensitive materials or viruses were affected by the fire, which was extinguished by firefighters, an official at the institute said. The official was not authorized to be publicly named according to company policy.
The cause of the blaze was unclear.
Byzantine gold coins found.
JERUSALEM – Israeli archaeologists said they have unearthed more than 250 gold coins from the seventh century on the edge of Jerusalem's walled Old City. A British tourist volunteering at the dig discovered the trove on Sunday.
Woman succeeds with DIY pardon application
President Bush on Tuesday pardoned Clovis resident Eduviges Duvi Gonzalez-Matsumura for a nonviolent crime committed more than 15 years ago.
The presidential pardon was one of 19 issued Friday, and it was a remarkable turnaround for Gonzalez-Matsumura. She filed her pardon application five years ago, by herself and without the help of an attorney.
"I think it's a great thing," Gonzalez-Matsumura said Tuesday afternoon in a brief telephone interview.
Unemployment rolls expanding faster than expected
New claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, the government said Wednesday, while consumers cut back on their spending for the fifth straight month amid a deepening recession.
The Labor Department reported that initial requests for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 586,000 in the week ending Dec. 20, from an upwardly revised figure of 556,000 the previous week. That's much more than the 560,000 economists had expected
NORAD is keeping track of Santa's travels.
Obama says farewell to Toot.
President-elect Barack Obama paid his last respects on Tuesday to the woman he called the rock of his family, the grandmother who helped to raise him, before scattering her ashes from a Hawaiian shoreline.
Obama's 5 rules of scandal response.
Tuesday's report from the transition, detailing contacts between members of Obama's inner circle and embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and concluding that "nothing at all inappropriate" was discussed, won't be the final word on the subject—but it did provide some telling insight into the way the White House's new occupant will operate.
Here are five rules of Obama scandal-management based on his team's handling of its first post-election crisis.
Literacy: Hot dishes or coffee the key?
Minneapolis and Seattle are the USA's most literate cities, according to an annual study examining the "culture and resources for reading" in the nation's largest metro areas.
For the past six years, the two cities have traded the first and second spots in the rankings, which analyze six key indicators of literacy (newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources) against population rates for cities with populations of 250,000 or more.
Just cuz it's only 11 secs long.
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My secular, non-specific best wishes in here.