Chance favors the prepared mind.

Louis Pasteur

In case you haven’t noticed, let me be the first to point it out for you: This year is winding down with ever-increasing speed. Soon enough, we will all be sucked in to the vortex that will deposit us in 2007. I have no idea what any year holds for us but personally, I would have chosen a year other than 2007, though I can’t quite figure out which one. It is somewhat disappointing that the twenty-first century seems to be barely living up to its potential, and it had such great promise, didn’t it? I’m fairly certain that I would go with something twentieth century, which is one of my favorite centuries, although I must confess a fondness for the seventeenth as well.

Boies Penrose was born on the 1st in 1860. As an adult, he would serve in the United States Senate from 1897 until his death on December 31, 1921. His contribution to Public Service can best be summed up in the following quote, delivered in a speech Penrose gave in 1896: “I believe in the division of labor. You send us to Congress; we pass laws under which you make money…and out of your profits, you further contribute to our campaign funds to send us back again to pass more laws to enable you to make more money.” It is unnecessary to mention that Penrose was a Republican.

Radio station KDKA, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was the first licensed commercial radio station. On the 2nd in 1920, the station began its life by broadcasting the results of that year’s Presidential elections. Warren G. Harding decisively beat Franklin D. Roosevelt with a score of 404 electoral votes for Harding and 127 for FDR.

On the 4th in 1825, the Erie Canal was officially completed. New York Governor DeWitt Clinton officiated at the Wedding of the Waters ceremony during which he poured water from Lake Erie in to the water of New York Harbor. It is unusual that they held a wedding ceremony because the Erie Canal can’t really be said to be straight.

The next item has been a favorite of mine ever since John Lennon asked the question “Do you remember the fifth of November.” On the 5th, in 1605, England’s King James I was scheduled to address both houses of Parliament during the opening session of the 1605 parliament. Guy Fawkes was arrested when he was found in the basement with lots of gunpowder, preparing to assassinate James I and give the British another holiday – Guy Fawkes Day.

The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English newspaper began publication on the 7th in 1665. It began life as the Oxford Gazette because King Charles II had left London and fled to Oxford to escape the ravages of the plaque. The publication date is vouched for by no less an authority than Samuel Pepys in his diary.

In 1869, Sir Henry Morton Stanley was hired by the New York Herald to locate Scottish explorer David Livingston. On the 10th in 1871, he finally found Livingston near Lake Tanganyika and uttered the very famous line “Dr. Livingston, I presume.” Contrary to what the Moody Blues say, there is no evidence to suggest that Livingston responded by saying that I’ve seen butterflies galore, I’ve seen people big and small and I’ve still not found what I’m looking for.

On the 14th in 1889, journalist Nellie Bly, having been inspired by Jules Verne’s book Around the World in 80 Days, left Hoboken, New Jersey and began a trip that she and her sponsors hoped would either meet or beat Verne’s time. She arrived, to great fanfare, back in New York 72 days, 6 hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds later. Not that anyone was watching the clock or anything like that.

I opted out of the entire political process thirty years ago. Why, are you lazy or just irresponsible? That is a very good question. My answer is simple: I choose to not participate in what I see as an empty, futile gesture. I offer the following as one event, which serves as a good illustration of how politics really works. On the 20th in 1407, John, Duke of Berry brokered a truce between John, Duke of Burgundy and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orleans. It seems that John and Louis had been at odds for quite some time, both attempting to fill a power vacuum, which had developed because King Charles VI was clearly out of his mind. The two never learned how pleasant it could be to share and neither was able to simply shake hands and make nice. Three days after entering into this solemn truce, John had Louis assassinated.

On the 21st in 1783, in Paris, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, Marquis d’Arlandes made the first ascent in an untethered hot air balloon. On June 15, 1785, de Rozier and Pierre Romain, his traveling partner, would die when their hot air balloon crashed while attempting to cross the English Channel. I guess he had decided that he had to get out of France even if it killed him, which is a feeling shared by many people who have had to go to there.

The art world is a highly competitive world and an artist must spend a great deal of time pursuing their craft to receive acknowledgment and praise. 30 year-old Sculptor Rachel Whiteread won two awards on the 23rd in 1993. This was truly a stunning feat for one so young. She won not only the Turner Prize for best British modern artist but also the K Foundation Prize for worst artist of the year. Can you guess which prize Ms. Whiteread probably doesn’t note on her resume?

Howard Carter, noted Egyptologist and hack archaeologist, discovered and opened the tomb of Tutankhamen, the Boy King on the 22nd in 1922. It is well known that King Tut put a curse on his tomb that promised certain death for all those who dared to disturb his resting place. It couldn’t have been much of a curse because Carter would not die until March 2, 1939 at the age of 65. So much for the swift and sure death, that Tut warned everyone about.

If you are ever tempted to complain about bad weather, try putting whatever it is you want to complain about in its proper perspective. Is it a bit of rain? Snow? Toads falling from the skies? Although lately the latter doesn’t happen as often as it used to, so that probably won’t come in to play. In any event, before you start frightening small children with your rants about the weather consider the fact that on Thanksgiving Day, the 25th, 1926, there was an outbreak of 27 tornadoes ranging in strength up to F4. So don’t start complaining about a couple of days of rain, o.k.?

On the 27th in 1703, the first Eddystone Light was destroyed by what came to be known as the Great Storm of 1703. Personally, I don’t see what was so darn great about it. I am not going to insert the lyrics to that song here, though I am sorely tempted to do so. Just to keep the record straight however, my father wasn’t the Keeper of the Eddystone Light. In addition, it is strictly rumor that he married a mermaid one fine night. Finally, there is absolutely no proof that from that union there came three, there was no porpoise, no porgy and the other certainly wasn’t me.

On the 28th in 1989, in response to the Velvet Revolution, a non-violent political movement, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia relinquished its monopoly of power in that country. Researchers have thus far been unable to establish a connection between the Velvet Revolution and Slash’s band Velvet Revolver and it appears to be unlikely that the revolution drew its name from the band.

I am adult enough, though just barely so, to recognize that love comes with a price tag attached to it. As Mick Jagger and Keith Richards sagely observed in Hang Fire: “Marrying money is a full-time job, I don’t need the aggravation I’m a lazy slob.” I wonder however what £40 was worth in 1582 because that is what William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway paid for a marriage license on the 28th in that year.

The campaign to make November 29 a federal holiday begins now! On the 29th in 1944, Drs. Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas performed the first surgery on a human to correct a condition known as blue baby syndrome. The patient was Eileen Saxon. Sadly, Eileen only survived for two months after the surgery. While working their way up to performing the surgery on humans, Blalock and Thomas also developed a means of correcting aortic coarctation. I think that was a really cool thing for them to have done. From what I have been told by qualified medical professionals, it appears that the aorta is a somewhat important piece of hardware and finding cardiac spare parts can often prove to be problematic. It’s a bit like having an MG and discovering one afternoon that you need a drive shaft for it. I cannot stress strongly enough how important it is to have a decent parts supplier readily available. Oh, a hospital would be nice, though in a pinch I imagine that a clean table at an International House of Pancakes would probably be an adequate substitute for a sterile operating room, so try not to be too fussy, o.k.? Once you locate a good source for parts (are you listening Dr. Langan? he said in a stage whisper), always keep that person on your Chrismachanakwanzakah card list.

Getting, and staying, ahead of the curve can be a full-time job. Here is one guy who had both the time and the money to do just that. On the 30th in 1786, Peter Leopold Joseph of Habsbourg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, decreed a penal reform abolishing the death penalty. His was the first state to do so.