A family holiday party in Tores, Brazil on December 23, 2024, turned fatal, resulting in the deaths of three members, and the hospitalization of three others, from arsenic poisoning. Dead are sisters Maida da Silva, 58, and Neuza Silva Dos Anjos, 65; and Neuza’s daughter Tatiana, 43; a third sister, Zeli Silva, 60, Maida’s husband Jefferson, and Tatiana’s son Matheus, 10, were hospitalized with severe injuries but survived.
On Sunday, 29 December 2024, former US president Jimmy Carter passed away peacefully at his home in Plains, Georgia; at age 100, he was the longest-lived chief executive in US history. Carter had been in hospice care for nearly two years, since February of 2023, and had lost his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, that November. He also enjoyed the longest post-presidency, which was viewed, rightly or wrongly, as considerably more successful than his administration, with the Carter Center promoting democracy, advancing human rights and assisting disease eradication globally. Jimmy and Rosalynn also partnered with Habitat for Humanity in an annual home-building blitz, which the Carters joined personally.
It’s that time of year again; the holidays are upon us, and amidst the lights and tinsel, trees and presents, one enduring emblem of the season remains almost inescapable. It’s well-nigh impossible to make it through December without at least a glimpse of “A Christmas Carol,” Charles Dickens’ classic 1843 novella that introduced the world to Ebeneezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim, and almost single-handedly created the modern concept of Christmas. Filmed over 100 times, and adapted into endless variations on TV, radio, the stage, animation, even a ballet, “A Christmas Carol” is surely one of the pillars that upholds yuletide.
2024 is rapidly drawing to close, and the holidays are upon us! Here, my TLS (short for Tchotchke Lust Syndrome, an incurable disease common to inveterate collectors) has kicked-in fulltime over the past few years, leading to a circumstance whereby the breadth and depth of the Yule/Winter/Christmas collection has swollen to such a size that it can no longer be displayed all at once. There simply isn’t room, and the collection has had to be divided into three themes, displayed on a rotational basis.
After the recent political developments in the US, couldn’t we all use a nice, feel-good story? Such is the tale of Rayne Beau (pronounced “rainbow”), a savvy tabby who, against all odds, was reunited with his family in Salinas, California two months after becoming lost in Yellowstone National Park, some 1100 miles away. Rayne Beau made the vast majority of the return trip, almost 900 miles, under his own steam, though no one knows how, being found and then trapped in Roseville, California, about 200 miles from home.
It was half a century ago, on 31 October 1974, that eight-year-old Timothy O’Bryan died in agony after eating a Halloween treat laced with cyanide. The family and friends had been trick-or-treating in Pasadena, Texas, when they came across a house which did not respond to their knocks. Thinking no one was home, the group proceeded down the street, but Timothy’s father Ronald hung back awhile. In a couple minutes he rejoined the group, offering five 21” Pixy Stix to his son, daughter, and three other children, claiming that his repeated knocking had finally elicited an answer, and these were the treats he was given.
