The Thinker - Auguste Rodin

It's World Thinking Day  We cannot have enough thinking or do enough thinking, and, as a matter of fact, we don't.  I am sure that somebody will point out that this holiday comes to us courtesy of the Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, which it does, and I, for one thank them?  What, you may ask, not the Boy Scouts too?  Well, no.  That's not their job.  They left that frivolous stuff for the girls to do.  Seriously, at inception they were conceived of as military scouts, junior sized and junior grade.  They were to be ever alert, especially in time of war, keeping an eye out for the unusual and suspicious, tracking and trailing suspicious persons , noting their comings and goings, and informing the appropriate authorities.  Should the country have been occupied, they were to be an arm of the resistance.  And, while awaiting such military endeavors, they were supposed to busy themselves being generally helpful to their communities.  They were really not envisioned as being of a contemplative ilk.  But the girls seemingly evolved a penchant for thinking, and a good thing, too.  So we thank them and celebrate with them.  While I'm at it, I'd like to encourage everybody of all genderts to follow their example, and think a bunch, if only for one day.  :-)

It's also National Cook a Sweet Potato Day  For the sweetest  ever, supersweet potato there is a simple trick derived from a street food and/or snack version popular in certain parts of China.  Scrub some smallish sweet potatoes and then freeze them for about an hour.  (This converts the starches, I'm told.)  Then bake them, skin on, on parchment paper, foil or a silicon mat, for about an hour at 450 degrees F.  The skin will begin to puff out from the trapped steam and crack and the tuber will begin to weep caramelized sugar.  At that point they are ready to serve and eat, no butter or any other additions needed.  You'll be amazed.

And, last but not least, it's Walking the Dog Day - see below for details

Be Humble Day ditto

On this day in history:

1632 – Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, the dedicatee, received the first printed copy of Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

1819 – Spain sold Florida to the US for five million U.S. dollars.

1848 – The French Revolution of 1848,began

1856 – The US Republican Party opened its first national convention

1904 – The UK sold a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina

1909 – The Great White Fleet returned to the US

1915 – The Imperial German Navy instituted unrestricted submarine warfare.

1921 – Russian forces drove the Chinese out of Mongolia  and reinstalled the Bogd Khan as emperor

1943 – Members of the White Rose resistance were executed in Nazi Germany.

1946 – The "Long Telegram", proposing how the US  should deal with the Soviet Union, arrived from the US embassy in Moscow

1958 – Egypt and Syria joined to form the United Arab Republic.

1973 – FollowingNixon's visit to the PRC, the two countries agreed to set up liason offices.

1974 – Samuel Byck attempted to hijack an aircraft and crash into the White House 

1997 – British scientists announced the cloning of an adult sheep named Dolly

Born this day in:

We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.

~~Arthur Schopenhauer

1440 – Ladislaus the Posthumous, subject of a painting by Anonymous in 1457
1631 – Peder Syv, historian
1732 – George Washington, colonist, general and politician,
1788 – Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher and author
1796 – Adolphe Quetelet, Bmathematician, astronomer, and sociologist
1819 – James Russell Lowell, poet and critic
1824 – Pierre Janssen, astronomer and mathematician
1857 – Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, general who co-founded The Scout Association 
1857 – Heinrich Hertz, physicist, philosopher, and academic
1863 – Charles McLean Andrews,  historian, author, and academic
1876 – Zitkala-Sa, author and activist
1879 – Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted, chemist and academic
1880 – Eric Lemming, athlete
1889 – Olave Baden-Powell, scout leader, founded the Girl Guides 
1889 – R. G. Collingwood, historian and philosopher
1892 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet and playwright
1900 – Luis Buñuel, director and producer
1903 – Frank P. Ramsey, economist, mathematician, and philosopher
1914 – Renato Dulbecco, virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1917 – Reed Crandall, illustrator
1922 – Joe Wilder, player, composer, and bandleader
1925 – Edward Gorey, illustrator and poet
1925 – Gerald Stern,  poet and academic
1927 – Guy Mitchell, singer
1928 – Texas Johnny Brown, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1928 – Bruce Forsyth, singer and television host
1930 – Marni Nixon, Asoprano and actress
1932 – Ted Kennedy, soldier, lawyer, and politician
1932 – Zenaida Manfugás, pianist
1933 – Ernie K-Doe, R&B singer
1937 – Joanna Russ, author and activist
1938 – Ishmael Reed, poet, novelist, essayist
1944 – Mick Green, singer and guitarist
1945 – Oliver, pop singer
1947 – Harvey Mason, drummer
1950 – Lenny Kuhr, singer and songwriter
1950 – Genesis P-Orridge, singer and songwriter
1951 – Ellen Greene,  singer and actress
1958 – Dave Spitz, bass player and songwriter
1961 – Akira Takasaki, guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1964 – Diane Charlemagne, singer and songwriter
1968 – Bradley Nowell, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1973 – Scott Phillips, drummer and producer
1974 – James Blunt, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1978 – Jenny Frost, singer and dancer
1980 – Shamari Fears, singer, songwriter, and actress
1980 – Kang Sung-hoon, singer
1980 – Jeanette Biedermann, singer, songwriter, and actress

Died this day in:

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

~~ Andy Warhol

1512 – Amerigo Vespucci, cartographer and explorer
1875 – Charles Lyell, geologist and lawyer
1888 – Anna Kingsford, physician and activist
1903 – Hugo Wolf, composer
1939 – Antonio Machado, poet and author
1942 – Stefan Zweig, journalist, author, and playwright
1943 – Christoph Probst, activist
1943 – Hans Scholl,  activist
1943 – Sophie Scholl, activist
1944 – Kasturba Gandhi, Indian activist
 
1961 – Nick LaRocca, trumpet player and composer
1976 – Florence Ballard, singer
 
1987 – Andy Warhol, painter and photographer
 
1994 – Papa John Creach, violinist
 
2013 – Wolfgang Sawallisch, pianist and conductor (
 
2014 – Trebor Jay Tichenor, pianist and composer
 
2015 – Chris Rainbow, singer, songwriter, and producer
 
2016 – Sonny James, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
 

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Birthday of Scouting and Guiding founder Robert Baden-Powell and Olave Baden-Powell, and its related observance:
Founder's Day or "B.-P. day" (World Organization of the Scout Movement)
World Thinking Day (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts)
Be Humble Day (It's only for one day, man, you can do it, really)
National Cook a Sweet Potato Day
George Washington's Birthday
Recreational Sports and Fitness Day
National Margarita Day
National Wildlife Day (Do hurry and look at some before it's all gone)
Walking the Dog Day

Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies

Walking the Dog Day:

Be Humble Day

Joe Wilder

Guy Mitchell

Texas Johnny Brown

Ernie K-Doe

Mick Green

Oliver

Harvey Mason

Nick La Rocca

Florence Ballard

Papa John Creach

Sonny James

WAR!

  There is one day each year, December 25th, on which many purport to celebrate "Peace on Earth and Goodwill to Men".  Well, this ain't it McGee, this is one of the other 364 (or 5) during which we celebrate, perpetuate, commit and commit ourselves to WAR!, endless and exalted.  The foundation of our economy, the employer of ever so many and the source of our eternal pride, WAR!  So remember, though it may not be good for living things, it is what keeps this country running and keeps its ruling elites happy, so hooray for war!

It's an open thread, so do your thing, got it? Below this point this is a public forum, your forum, nothing is off topic, so go for it