Well if you can't get on of these  or on of these   or even one of these , then you will want to check out my list of good educational christmas gifts:

BOOKS:

1. THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, by Barack Obama   

Courtesy of this website: http://wilstar.com/holidays/hallown.htm

Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.

One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.

Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.

The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.

The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.

The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.

The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.

According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.

The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.

So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.

Let me know who you think will win by commenting

Queen Candidates:

Ashley Brown

Ashley Bruck

Jana Freml

McKenzie Moore

Katie Suntken

Jaurel White

King Candidates:

Brandon Buttry

Tom Early

Neil Gross

John Kohorst

Cory Miller

Mitch Petersen

Dress Up Days:

Monday – PJ’s Day

Tuesday – Cowboy & Indian Day

Wednesday – Movie Day – dress as your favorite movie character

Thursday – Tacky Tourist Day

Friday – Black/Red Day

I love this video by OK Go. I'm sure many of you have seen it. Check it out if you haven't.

I'm a big Survivor fan. I do believe that the show has become quite stale as it seems to do the same thing every year. This controversial move, to split teams by race, is an ideas that some will like and others won't. I myself don't think it's a big deal. On the outside, people will be shocked that they are segregating the show. If you watch it, there is no hostility between the tribes whatsoever(yet at least). It will be interesting to see what happens when the tribes merge into one. Actually, every year Survivor(and most reality shows) has a token African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American, etc. This is the first time that all ethnic groups are represented equally. This should bring in new viewers and expand Survivor for a few more seasons.  Of course, we know why the producers did this: RATINGS!! Controversy brings in the viewers.

This is a link to two mp3 recordings of JRR Tolkien reading his famous Lord of the Rings books.

Read more about it and download them here:

http://recordbrother.typepad.com/imagesilike/2005/05/what_you_been_t.html

Labor Day is a national legal holiday that is over 100 years old. Over the years, it has evolved from a purely labor union celebration into a general "last fling of summer" festival.
It grew out of a celebration and parade in honor of the working class by the Knights of Labor in 1882 in New York. In 1884, the Knights held a large parade in New York City celebrating the working class. The parade was held on the first Monday in September. The Knights passed a resolution to hold all future parades on the same day, designated by them as Labor Day.
The Socialist Party held a similar celebration of the working class on May 1. This date eventually became known as May Day, and was celebrated by Socialists and Communists in commemoration of the working man. In the U.S., the first Monday in September was selected to reject any identification with Communism.
In the late 1880's, labor organizations began to lobby various state legislatures for recognition of Labor Day as an official state holiday. The first states to declare it a state holiday in, 1887, were Oregon, Colorado, New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Then in 1894, Congress passed a law recognizing Labor Day as an official national holiday.
Today, Labor Day is observed not only in the U.S. but also in Canada, and in other industrialized nations. While it is a general holiday in the United States, its roots in the working class remain clearer in European countries.
It has come to be recognized in the U.S. not only as a celebration of the working class, but even more so as the unofficial end of the summer season. In the northern half of the U.S. at least, the summer vacation season begins with Memorial Day and ends with Labor Day.
Many colleges and some secondary and elementary schools begin classes immediately after Labor Day.
State parks, swimming pools, and campgrounds are all quite busy on Labor Day, as vacationers take one last advantage of the waning hot season. September is the month that marks the beginning of autumn. And, because of that, the average daytime maximum temperatures take a plunge during the month in most of the U.S.
Credit for this article goes to Jerry Wilson

In my first field trip since the 6th grade, some Current World Issues students and I attended a town meeting featuring Charles Grassley and Steve King. It was an intersting and educational trip to the Harlan library. It was good for the students to see democracy in action. Here are some pictures:

After much deliberation and sleepless nights, I have decided to make "Star Wars Gangsta Rap" the song of the day for Tuesday. I love the song and the lip sync from last spring that our very own John K. and Tom E. were a part of was absolutely hilarious!! Here are two versions of the video cartoon. The first is the original and the second is a different version:

 

I can't stand cheap people. It makes me real mad when someone says something like, "Hey, when are you going to pay me that $100 you owe me?" or "Do you have that $50 you borrowed?" Man, quit being so cheap!

“I remember that one fateful day when Coach took me aside. I knew what was coming. "You don't have to tell me," I said. "I'm off the team, aren't I?" "Well," said Coach, "you never were really ON the team. You made that uniform you're wearing out of rags and towels, and your helmet is a toy space helmet. You show up at practice and then either steal the ball and make us chase you to get it back, or you try to tackle people at inappropriate times." It was all true what he was saying. And yet, I thought something is brewing inside the head of this Coach. He sees something in me, some kind of raw talent that he can mold. But that's when I felt the handcuffs go on.”

Here is more information on hurricanes:

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2006/hurricanes/

****UPDATE*****

Owner decides to change the name after 5 days! Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14498419/

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MSNBC reports about a new restaurant that opened in Bombay last week. The restaurant is gaining fame not so much because of its food, but because of its name.

Hitler's Cross, a theme based restaurant based on the German leader Adolf Hitler has opened in South Bombay(Mumbai)

"....named after Adolf Hitler and promoted with posters showing the German leader and Nazi swastikas, has infuriated the country's small Jewish community.

Hitler's Cross, which opened last week, serves up a wide range of continental fare and a big helping of controversy, thanks to a name the owners say they chose to stand out among hundreds of Mumbai eateries....." (link)

Now if this isn't one big gimmick then I don't know what is. Besides antagonising the Jewish community in India, it serves little purpose. The owner, one Punit Shablok has been quoted with some of the dumbest verse I have read in a while

"We wanted to be different. This is one name that will stay in people's minds," owner Punit Shablok told Reuters.

"We are not promoting Hitler. But we want to tell people we are different in the way he was different."

“This place is not about wars or crimes, but where people come to relax and enjoy a meal,” said restaurant manager Fatima Kabani. 

Blog taken from http://mumbai.metblogs.com/archives/2006/08/hitlers_cross_bombays_new_rest.phtml

MSNBC story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14121008/

  IMO, this is quite possibly the worst idea ever.

Check out the link for nuclear powers of the world plus a lot more info on nuclear weapons:

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/specials/0009/democracy/nuclear.popups/frameset.exclude.html

 

and this link for the countries that agreed not to develop nuclear weapons under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Non-proliferation_Treaty

If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is "Probably because of something you did."