Then there are the weird ones. Eating black-eyed peas on Jan. 1 will bring good luck throughout the year. (I cannot stand black-eyed peas myself, but I do try to choke down exactly one pea each year.)

They say that on News Year’s Day, nothing should exit your house. Nothing at all, not even the trash. I suppose if you had guests over for a New Year’s Eve party, they should be allowed to leave, but they may not take any of your possessions with them. (This may be a good rule for houseguests on other days as well.)

And death. If you do laundry on News Year’s Day, someone in your household will die this year. So, you know, don’t. And if the wind on Jan. 1 is blowing from the west, a very important person will die, but not necessarily anyone you know.

A demonstration is a conclusive proof of an hypothesis. You can demonstrate that an assertion is true, by explaining how other known truths (axioms) logically result in its deduction. Or, you can perform an experiment, the result of which is evidence of your position.

If you claim to have invented a machine that turns green olives into strawberry milkshakes, you can prove your claim by putting in olives and decanting a milkshake. This would be a demonstration. But standing in the street screaming about it would not be a demonstration, because it would not present any evidence for your claim. No, not even if you held a big sign and wore an Uncle Sam costume.

Do a news search on Google or Yahoo for the word ‘demonstration,’ and what do you see? Mostly sentences of this sort:

“Saddam Hussein’s execution on Saturday morning has triggered a wave of demonstrations against the U.S. Government…”

“The year 2006 turned out to be one of unexpected developments for Lebanon: a devastating war, international forces from all over the world and the Lebanese Army taking control of the South, and demonstration after demonstration by rival camps.”

“Police fired on a protest demonstration at Navapachi in Marwah area of Kishtwar…”

Also, you see a lot of photographs of angry folks in the street, and of things being set on fire. But the events being described are not, in fact, demonstrations. They are protests, or riots, or marches, or scuffles. If they are protesting, or registering disapproval — as most of them seem to be doing — they could be called ‘remonstrations.’ But since the protesters are not even attempting to prove their assertions (unless they are asserting that effigies of world leaders burn more rapidly with accelerants, or some such), they cannot be demonstrations.

Since I have every confidence that my demonstration will be heeded, and this misuse will cease, I am finished remonstrating.

The scrolling headline as they broadcast the news was: “Saddam’s execution marks the end of a dark period of Iraq’s history.” I sure hope that’s right.

While I am glad he is dead, and I believe his hanging was absolutely the right sentence for his crimes, I do have one kind wish for the late criminal. I sincerely hope that before the end came, he atoned for his sins, and I pray that the Lord grants His mercy to Saddam Hussein.

On the other hand, if I get to Heaven and don’t see Saddam there, I probably won’t complain.

The Nativity of the Lord, woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, part of the Life of the Virgin series.

I was shopping much of the day, and will be wrapping much of the night. And with Christmas a whole two days away! I should remember to start this early every year.

COLUMBIA:
Mr. Lincoln, give me back my 500,000 sons!!!
LINCOLN:
Well the fact is — by the way that reminds me of a story!!!
(From an 1864 cartoon.)

Abraham Lincoln is remembered as the greatest president in history. But as Michael Novak in National Review observes, Lincoln’s greatness was not widely evident to the mainstream media of his own day.

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was received by many as a sign of Puritan moral arrogance and clumsy overreach — bound to make the South fight harder, while not really inspiring the Union forces. On all sides, journalists regarded Lincoln as a failure, a country bumpkin, an unsophisticated jokester, a homespun weaver of fantasies, outside his depth… Not often in human history had any army taken as many dead and wounded, suffered so many bitter defeats, failed so notably to capitalize on the few victories its hapless generals had managed to win. During some 48 months of war, both sides together lost 620,000 dead — some 13,000 every month. To grasp the scale, compare that to an average of about 85 dead per month in Iraq.

Usually being the man with the vision to see the correct path, and the courage to take it, earns you a chorus of denunciations. Lincoln’s detractors weren’t all evil, and they weren’t all stupid; but they all lacked understanding.

As we pulled our coach into the promenade of his manse at Surlywood, the man himself met us on the veranda, and posed with the girls for this photograph.

As beautiful as these persons are, the most eye-catching subject of this snapshot is that, that glowing… thing there, between Abaigeal and Charles. The sphere is actually an ingenious homespun ornament, made from an ordinary string of Christmas lights, and a few dozen clear plastic 9-ounce old-fashioned tumblers.

I don’t know if he has a name for this invention.

Afterward, Charles e-mailed this testimonial to Phoebe’s cooking skills:

Let me thank you once again for the Big Dish O’ Cookies, which definitely live up to the enviable Gleeson Standard™.

You’re welcome, of course. Merry Christmas to you.

For now, I’ll just introduce you to the Three General Principles:

1. Anything that can be climbed upon must be bolted to the walls, or to the floor. Both is best.

2. Doors and gates should be installed to contain potentially dangerous areas, like the kitchen, the stairs, the halls… pretty much everywhere, like hatches in a submarine.

3. Latches and bolts must be placed at a height where admissible family members can reach them, but inadmissible members cannot. Of course, the latches have to be raised periodically as certain family members gain height.