CUL NEWSLETTER

Date of Show: Wednesday, November 17

Time of Show: 11:30am-1pm

Location of Show: Hughes-Trigg Ballroom and Prefunction Area

CUL participants: Theresa Van Goethem Meyers and Janet Allmon

The Meadows Choral Union, under the direction of Dr. Alfred Calabrese, will be performing old favorites from 40 years of SMU choir tours.  CUL participants: Theresa Van Goethem Meyers.  Cost: $12 adult, $9 senior, $6 student/SMU

THIS SPACE FOR RENT!

This is a new section in which a CUL staff member will be featured each month.  The purpose is to get to know each other a little better.  Please feel free to send me the profiles of your newest staff members (tvangoet@mail.smu.edu) so that we can introduce them to the rest of CUL. If you have a staff member in your area that you would like to nominate (new or old) please contact me.  (You can even volunteer yourself :) )

Fall Exhibits:

First Part of Fall: ARCHAEOLOGY AND IDENTITY AT CHAVES/HUMMINGBIRD PUEBLO, NEW MEXICO.

[A seminar will be held in association with this exhibit.]

Second Part of Fall: MARSH TERRY: A Man for All Seasons.

Homecoming Exhibit

Spring Exhibits:

First Part of Spring: PERIODICALS: An SMU Treasure--Old and New

Second Part of Spring: SCHOLARS OF SCIENCE: Claude Albritton and Harold Jeskey

Late April: Faculty Recognition Exhibit

2 Peter the Great becomes Emperor of Russia (1721)

3 First Opium War between China and Britain begins. (1839)

3 Clarence Birdseye marketed frozen peas (1952)

4. Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd (1842)

6 Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States (1860)

7 Cartoonist Thomas Nast depicts Republican party as an elephant in a cartoon in Harper's Weekly. (1874)

8 Montana became the 41st State (1889)

8 President Franklin D. Roosevelt forms the Civil Works Administration to help create jobs for millions of workers unemployed during the Great Depression. (1933)

9 Giant Pandas are discovered in China (1927)

10 Direct dial telephone service is first available coast to coast. (1951)

10 Sesame Street premiered on PBS television (1969)

10 The Edmund Fitzgerald and it's entire crew is lost during a storm on Lake Superior. (1975)

11 Forty one Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sign a compact calling for a "body Politick" just off the Massachusetts coast. (1620)

12 The space shuttle Columbia was launched for the 2nd time. This was the first time a space vehicle was used more than once. (1981)

13 The Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River opens to the public, connecting New York City and New Jersey. (1927)

13 The minimum draft age was lowered from 21 to 18 (1942)

14 The first streetcar went into operation (1832)

14 Yale University goes Co-ed. (1968)

15 The Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation. (1777)

19 Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. (1863)

20 Ford quit making the unpopular Edsel (1959)

22 President John F. Kennedy, the youngest person to become a U.S. president, is assassinated in Dallas, Texas as his motorcade traveled through the city. (1963)

23 A patent is issued for the horseshoe manufacturing machine. (1835)

24 Charles Darwin publishes his theory on evolution "On the Origin of the Species", sparking great controversy. (1859)

26 The first lion was exhibited in America (1716)

28 The "Grande Ole Opry "debuts on radio. (1925)

30 The United Stated and Great Britain sign a peace treaty in Paris, formally ending the Revolutionary War. (1782)

• Adoption Awareness Month (National)
• Alzheimer's Disease Month (National, US)
• Child Safety and Protection Month
• Diabetes Month (National, US)
• Drum Month (International)
• Epilepsy Month (National, US)
• Hospice Month (National, US)
• Native-American Heritage Month (American Indian Heritage Month)

The first Thanksgiving was celebrated between the Pilgrims and the Indians in 1621.That first feast was a three day affair. Life for the early settlers was difficult. The fall harvest was time for celebration.  It was also a time of prayer, thanking God for a good crop. The Pilgrims and the Indians created a huge feast including a wide variety of animals and fowl, as well as fruits and vegetables from the fall harvest. This early celebration was the start of today's holiday celebration. Like then, we celebrate with a huge feast.

Today, most of us enjoy Turkey with "all the trimming". The "trimming" include a wide variety of foods that are a tradition for your family. Those traditional foods often replicate the foods at the first Thanksgiving feast. While others, are traditional ethnic or religious groups recipe, or a special food item that your family always serves at Thanksgiving dinner. Then, to top it off, pumpkin pies, apple pies, an even mince meat pies are bountiful around the table.

The American traditions of Thanksgiving revolve around a huge and lavish meal, usually with Turkey as the centerpiece. For those who do not like Turkey, a Roast or Prime Rib is common. As tradition has it in most families, a special prayer of thanks precedes the meal. In many homes, family members will each mention something they are very thankful for.

Did you know? Potatoes were not part of the first Thanksgiving. Irish immigrants had not yet brought them to North America.

After the first Thanksgiving, the observance was sporadic and almost forgotten until the early 1800's. It was usually celebrated in late September or October. In 1941, Congress made it a national holiday and set the date as the fourth Thursday in November.

The First Thanksgiving Proclamation
June 29, 1676

On June 20, 1676, the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, held a meeting to determine how best to express thanks for the good fortune that had seen their community securely established. By unanimous vote they instructed Edward Rawson, the clerk, to proclaim June 29 as a day of thanksgiving, our first. That proclamation is reproduced here in the same language and spelling as the original:

"The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his Afflictive dispensations in and by the present War with the Heathen Natives of this land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst of his judgments he hath remembered mercy, having remembered his Footstool in the day of his sore displeasure against us for our sins, with many singular Intimations of his Fatherly Compassion, and regard; reserving many of our Towns from Desolation Threatened, and attempted by the Enemy, and giving us especially of late with many of our Confederates many signal Advantages against them, without such Disadvantage to ourselves as formerly we have been sensible of, if it be the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, It certainly bespeaks our positive Thankfulness, when our Enemies are in any measure disappointed or destroyed; and fearing the Lord should take notice under so many Intimations of his returning mercy, we should be found an Insensible people, as not standing before Him with Thanksgiving, as well as lading him with our Complaints in the time of pressing Afflictions:

The Council has thought meet to appoint and set apart the 29th day of this instant June, as a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his Goodness and Favour, many Particulars of which mercy might be Instanced, but we doubt not those who are sensible of God's Afflictions, have been as diligent to espy him returning to us; and that the Lord may behold us as a People offering Praise and thereby glorifying Him; the Council doth commend it to the Respective Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly and seriously to keep the same Beseeching that being persuaded by the mercies of God we may all, even this whole people offer up our bodies and souls as a living and acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ."

Did You Know?

Thanksgiving is not just a US holiday.
Canada declared their Thanksgiving holiday in 1879.
They observe it on the second Monday in October.

The average American eats 18 lbs. of turkey a year.

The average person consumes 4500 calories on Thanksgiving Day.

THANKSGIVING POEM

'Twas the night of Thanksgiving, 
But I just couldn't sleep 
I tried counting backwards, 
I tried counting sheep.

The leftovers beckoned - 
The dark meat and white
But I fought the temptation
With all of my might.

Tossing and turning
With anticipation
The thought of a snack
Became infatuation.

So, I raced to the kitchen,
Flung open the door
And gazed at the fridge,
Full of goodies galore.

I gobbled up turkey
And buttered potatoes,
Pickles and carrots,
Beans and tomatoes.

I felt myself swelling
So plump and so round,
'Til all of a sudden,
I rose off the ground.

I crashed through the ceiling,
Floating into the sky
With a mouthful of pudding
And a handful of pie.

But, I managed to yell
As I soared past the trees....
Happy eating to all - 
Pass the cranberries, please.

May your stuffing be tasty,
May your turkey be plump.
May your potatoes 'n gravy
Have nary a lump,
May your yams be delicious
May your pies take the prize,
May your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off of your thighs. 

May your Thanksgiving be blessed!!

Turkey Roasting Guide:
Estimate the roasting time of your thawed, unstuffed turkey

oh my....

Check out this made-for-TV movie from TNT, scheduled to air this December.

Popcorn, anyone?

http://www.tnt.tv/Movies/Librarian/0,19443,,00.html

(Thanks to Toni Nolen for this submission)

This is a new section where staff can list things that they are selling or giving away.  Send items to ( well, not the actual item just a picture or brief description) tvangoet@mail.smu.edu