~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
December 31

★~ Today’s Quote: An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in.  A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.  ~Bill Vaughan

★~ New Year’s Eve:

If you’d like to get yourself some good juju for 2014, here are eight ways to eat for luck on New Year’s Day.

♥~ Eat twelve grapes at midnight. The Spanish and Portuguese eat twelve grapes as the clock chimes twelve times for midnight, to symbolize the twelve months of the new year. Incidentally, eating grapes this quickly is not as easy as it may sound.

♥~ Seek out ring-shaped food for breakfast. Consider bagels or doughnuts for breakfast representing the year coming full circle.

♥~ Eat pork. Lots of people consider pork to be the luckiest of all foods to eat on New Year’s Day. Why? Pigs are rotund, which represents prosperity. They also “root forward” with their noses, which is supposed to symbolize progress.

♥~ Smash a pomegranate on the floor. In Greece, when the new year turns, a pomegranate is smashed on the floor in front of the door to break it open and reveal seeds symbolizing prosperity and good fortune. The more seeds, the more luck.

♥~ Roast whole fish for lunch.  Fish are lucky in three ways: their scales resemble coins, they travel in schools, which represents prosperity, and they swim forward, symbolizing progress.

♥~ Whip up a batch of Hoppin’ John. This dish of black-eyed peas and rice is customary for New Year’s Day in the American south, where black-eyed peas are considered auspicious based on their resemblance to coins.

♥~ Cook some lentils. Coin-shaped legumes are lucky in Brazil and Italy, and are said to have been eaten for luck since the Roman times.

♥~ In Greece, New Year’s day is also the Festival of St. Basil, one of the founders of the Greek Orthodox Church. One of the traditional foods served is Vassilopitta, or St Basil’s cake. A silver or gold coin is baked inside the cake. Whoever finds the coin in their piece of cake will be especially lucky during the coming year.

♥~ A few minutes before midnight open all the windows and say so long to 2013, and welcome 2014.

★~ Champaign Day: 

Let’s have a toast to all our Champaign wishes and caviar dreams coming true in 2014.

May you never lie, cheat, or drink.
But if you must lie, lie in each other’s arms.
If you must cheat, cheat death.
And if you must drink, drink with all of us
because we love you.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1904 – Fireworks were set off in celebration of the official opening of the new Times Building in New York City’s Times Square. And, since the timing coincided with the beginning of a new year, the party was doubly effective. The celebration was repeated yearly, and by 1907 included the dropping of a lighted ball. The tradition in Times Square has continued every New Year’s Eve since, except during the blackout years of World War II.

♥~ 1929 – Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played Auld Lang Syne as a New Year’s Eve song for the first time. Auld Lang Syne had been the band’s theme song long before 1929. However, this night was the start of a New Year’s Eve tradition as Lombardo’s famed orchestra played at the Hotel Roosevelt Grill in New York City to usher in the new year. Where did it Auld begin? Scottish poet Robert Burns said he heard an old man singing the words, and wrote them down; but Burns is considered the original author. The literal translation means “old long since”; less literal: “days gone by”.

♥~ 1967 – Playing in a wind chill of 40 degrees below zero, the Green Bay Packers won the National Football League championship game by defeating Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys, 21-17. The game, played at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin was called the Ice Bowl

♥~ 1997 – In an attempt to nudge its Microsoft Network into a more competitive position (vs. America Online), Microsoft announced the purchase of Hotmail, the free Web-based e-mail service.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1937 – Sir Anthony Hopkins Academy Award-winning actor: Silence of the Lambs [1991]; Emmy for Best Actor: The Bunker [1981] and The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case[1976]; Howards End, The Remains of the Day, Amistad, The Mask of Zorro, Meet Joe Black, Mission: Impossible II, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Hannibal

♥~ 1943 – John Denver (Deutschendorf) songwriter: Leavin’ on a Jet Plane; singer: Take Me Home Country Roads, Sunshine on my Shoulders, Annie’s Song, Rocky Mountain High, Fly Away, Calypso, Thank God I’m a Country Boy; actor: Oh, God!

♥~ 1943 – Ben Kingsley (Krishna Bhanji) Academy Award-winning actor: Gandhi [1982]; Schindler’s List, Sneakers, Joseph, Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Moses, Rules of Engagement

♥~ 1945 – Diane von Fürstenberg fashion designer: built multi-million-dollar empire around 1970s wrap dress

♥~ 1948 – Donna Summer (LaDonna Gaines) Grammy Award-winning singer: Last Dance [1978], Hot Stuff [1979], He’s a Rebel [1983], Forgive Me [1984]; Love to Love You Baby, I Feel Love,Bad Girls, She Works Hard for the Money, On the Radio; No More Tears (Enough is Enough) [w/Barbra Streisand]

♥~ 1958 – Bebe Neuwirth actress: Cheers, Frasier

★~ Good to Know: 

Let’s take a  look at some of the odd items dropped in recognition of the new year.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/7Jdbr_0Bywk[/youtube]

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And what will be the first words you speak in 2014?? I will give you a hint….

RABBIT! RABBIT!

Make Rabbit, rabbit the first words you say in 2014 for good fortune all month long!

Happy New Years Eve! I am looking forward to greeting you tomorrow (at some point) with the first El Morno of 2014….

But before the year ends….What was one of your favorite moments in 2013?

Odd Loves Company! Cheers!