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I love hearing
the old songs
of Holidays sung
by a choir.

Tales of those
being sung near a fire
where chestnuts roast,
as we hear Jingle Bells,

old refrains of I'm
Dreaming of a White Christmas,
knowing Santa Claus is coming.
God Bless Yee Merry Gentlemen.

He was born upon a Midnight Clear,
as we heard the Angels sing
on high. Oh, Come All
Yee Faithful to Bethlehem.

Frosty the Snowman, rings true,
with All I Want For Christmas,
is You or My Two Front Teeth,
while Mommy was Kissing Santa Claus.

Then Sadly, "Grandmas Got
Run Over by a Reindeer.
Silent Night, Holy Night.
Noel, Noel, Noel.

When words collide,
through action heard,
could we choose
to not flip the bird?

Keep it civil,
please don't shout,
especially when you
don't know what you're talking about.

Meet me tonight in Dreamland,
those words I now hear,
for I miss all those,
who are no longer here.

I was surprised the other day,
when someone said, they liked me.
The remark was much needed,
for I thought I'd lost my personality.

When few becomes many,
in this crazy land, ours,
while sadness runs rampant,
like fallen stars.

So many residents,
here, in this place,
of memory care issues,
a lot or a trace.

Varied reactions, unique
to individuals, of whom we speak.
Everyone is different, what I see,
the way Nature intended
and the way it will be.

Quote from Maggie Tokuda-Hall from her article giving her perspective on Gaza as a Jewish, Japanese American.

Click below to read her essay at Densho or to read a related article by Naomi Ishisaka at The Seattle Times. 

Maggie Tokuda-Hall at Densho ➜      Naomi Ishisaka at The Seattle Times ➜

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

The surface of our Sun is constantly changing. Some years it is quiet, showing relatively few sunspots and active regions. Other years it is churning, showing many sunspots and throwing frequent Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and flares. Reacting to magnetism, our Sun's surface goes through periods of relative calm, called Solar Minimum and relative unrest, called Solar Maximum, every 11 years. The featured video shows on the left a month in late 2019 when the Sun was near Solar Minimum, while on the right a month in 2014 when near Solar Maximum. The video was taken by NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory in far ultraviolet light. Our Sun is progressing again toward Solar Maximum in 2025, but displaying even now a surface with a surprisingly high amount of activity. Night Sky Network webinar: APOD editor to review coolest space images of 2023

Jorge Luis Borges (1899 – 1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist and poet. He was a key figure in Spanish language and universal literature.

Why would I worry,
why should I fret,
when all which I know,
I will soon forget.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

When did you first learn to identify this group of stars? Although they are familiar to many people around the world, different cultures have associated this asterism with different icons and folklore. Known in the USA as the Big Dipper, the stars are part of a constellation designated by the International Astronomical Union in 1922 as the Great Bear (Ursa Major). The recognized star names of these stars are (left to right) Alkaid, Mizar/Alcor, Alioth, Megrez, Phecda, Merak, and Dubhe. Of course, stars in any given constellation are unlikely to be physically related. But surprisingly, most of the Big Dipper stars do seem to be headed in the same direction as they plough through space, a property they share with other stars spread out over an even larger area across the sky. Their measured common motion suggests that they all belong to a loose, nearby star cluster, thought to be on average only about 75 light-years away and up to 30 light-years across. The cluster is more properly known as the Ursa Major Moving Group. The featured image captured the iconic stars in 2017 above Pyramid Mountain in Alberta, Canada. Night Sky Network webinar: APOD editor to review coolest space images of 2023

Photo by Steve Cullen

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 - To Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 - To Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Aleksey Yekimov
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023 - To Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2023 - To Jon FosseThe Nobel Peace Prize 2023 - To Narges Mohammadi
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel - To Claudia Goldin

More at The Nobel Organization ➜