Los Angeles New Year

With another New Year’s celebration days away, Los Angeles law enforcement officials are renewing their annual plea: don’t blast in the New Year with a firearm.

The police call it indiscriminate or celebratory gun fire. While the problem has declined since the late 1990s, there’s still something about the first few minutes of a New Year that makes some people want to fire shots into the air.

"What goes up will come down. And we have no idea where those rounds will land," says Sandy Jo MacArthur, assistant chief the Los Angeles Police Department.

"Fortunately for us in Los Angeles, we haven’t had a death as a result of indiscriminate gun fire on New Year’s Eve since 1997," says MacArthur. "We wanna keep that record going."

MacArthur says more people have reported such shots to the police. New sonar technology helps officers locate the shooters. She warned anyone considering such a celebration that if they’re aught and convicted, they could spend time in prison.

Holiday Sales Return to Level Before Recession

Shoppers spent more money this holiday season than at any time since before the recession, according to preliminary retail data released on Monday.

After a 6 percent free fall in 2008 and a 4 percent uptick last year, retail spending rose 5.5 percent in the 50 days before Christmas, exceeding even the most optimistic forecasts, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, which tracks retail spending.

The rise was seen in just about every retail category. Apparel led the way, with an increase of 11.2 percent. Jewelry was up 8.4 percent, and luxury goods like handbags increased 6.7 percent. There was even a slight increase in purchases of home furniture, which had four consecutive years of declining sales. The figures include both in-store and online sales.

“For the past year or two, when I’ve seen growth in one area, it seems to come at the expense of another,” said Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at SpendingPulse. “Here, things are actually all moving in the right direction.”

Of course, the broad increase was driven in part by higher spending on necessities like gas and food. And even with the across-the-board gains, some categories like furniture and electronics have still not climbed back to their pre-recession levels.

It is also possible that blizzard conditions on the east coast might be keeping some shoppers away from stores during the vital post-holiday period, when stores typically try to capitalize on store traffic for exchanges, returns of gift-card redemptions.

Even so, the MasterCard data suggests that the pre-Christmas sales increase was the biggest in five years. Spending reached about $584.3 billion, higher than the $566.3 billion spent in that period in 2007. (Several major retailers will report December sales in the first week of January.)

The 5.5 percent rise beat even the retail industry’s projections. The National Retail Federation was expecting a 3.3 percent improvement (excluding automobiles, gas and restaurants), while the ShopperTrak research service anticipated a 4 percent increase.

“In the face of 10 percent unemployment and persistent housing woes, the American consumer has, single-handed, picked himself off the mat, brushed his troubles off, and strapped the U.S. economy on his back,” Craig R. Johnson, the president of the consulting firm Customer Growth Partners, wrote in an e-mail.

Analysts offered several theories for why spending has rebounded despite an unemployment rate that has remained stubbornly high.

Stocks have soared to their highest levels in more than two years, giving those with higher incomes greater freedom to spend. Luxury stores like Tiffany and Saks Fifth Avenue, for example, have been posting big sales increases.

Pent-up demand is also showing up among middle-income shoppers: In government surveys, consumers have been expressing rising confidence for the last five months.

The luxury segment started heating up in late summer, said Joel Bines, a director in the global retail practice at AlixPartners.

“That trickled down to the upper- to mid-tier consumer, and then the mid-tier consumer,” he said. Once the luxury market stabilized, confidence seems to have spread, “in the media, at work, with your friends,” he said.

The sales figures were bolstered by improved inventory controls among many retailers. After two years of heavy discounting, retailers cut down the number of products they held in stock rooms, in an attempt to train shoppers to buy items at full price rather than wait for sales, and the gambit seems to have worked.

Shoppers browsing through after-Christmas sales said in interviews that they were still hunting for deals, but they were also feeling the economy was stabilizing after three years of merciless uncertainty.

In Schaumburg, Ill., Gwen Hilsabeck rose at 4 a.m. Sunday for a 90-minute drive from her house in downstate Pontiac, Ill., through early-morning snow flurries to Woodfield Mall., northwest of Chicago.

“I bought two dresses on sale at Ann Taylor, and I bought four dresses on the clearance rack at Nordstrom,” said Ms. Hilsabeck, a hospice-company manager who said she had spent between $800 and $900 so far.

“I’m spending more on myself because I’m starting to feel a little more at ease,” she said, “and my 401(k) has stopped going down.”

Where the snowstorms were not a factor, stores prepared for a wave of shoppers using gift cards. At J.C. Penney, Dec. 26 is usually the second-biggest day of the year in terms transactions volume, including returns, exchanges and new purchases, said Myron E. Ullman III, chairman and chief executive of J.C. Penney.

J.C. Penney goes after teenagers, who are frequent gift-card recipients, on Dec. 26 by bringing in new merchandise. People “have got money in their hand if they’ve got a gift card,” Mr. Ullman said.

Indeed, gift cards continued to be popular this year, and some shoppers said they were trying to maximize their value by using them during after-Christmas sales.

“It lets you shop the day after Christmas, so you can save a lot of money,” said Shelly Lara, 42, an in-home nurse from Ashtabula, Ohio.

She said that even though her family was doing fine financially, the Cleveland Clinic, which owned her company, had announced some layoffs, and her husband’s company stopped contributing to his 401(k) for six months.

“There were some scares,” Ms. Lara said. “We wanted to make sure we got the most for our money.”

Stores seemed to have planned for the holiday season appropriately, with few resorting to the huge price slashing of the past couple of years.

“There was a good match between inventory and demand,” Mr. McNamara of SpendingPulse said. “I didn’t see any evidence of unusual discounting.”

For shoppers, that meant that the hunt for deals was a bit harder after Christmas this year.

“I remember a few years ago when you could double your money if you went shopping the day after Christmas,” said Kim Rayburn, 40, a hairdresser who was looking at costume jewelry at Forever 21 at Polaris Fashion Place in Columbus, Ohio, with her daughter Samantha, 12. “It’s not like that anymore. Now it seems just like a regular shopping day.”

(source:nytimes.com)

Holiday travelers benefit from spread-out season

As travelers take to the road, air and rail in the last days before Christmas, they should keep one thing in mind: It could be worse.

Steve Kent scoffed at lines Thursday morning at New York's LaGuardia Airport as he got ready to fly to Denver on a family ski trip.

"I don't find it that difficult," he said. "I think Thanksgiving is harder."

The spread-out nature of the end-of-year holidays means travel facilities aren't quite so cramped now as they are on the day before Thanksgiving, when practically everyone who's going somewhere is on the move.

"Unlike the other holiday periods, the year-end holiday travel period is extended," said Troy Green, a spokesman for AAA. "We have a lot of folks who already may have taken off of work. ... They may have arrived at their destination before today."

Green said travel is expected to be up about 3 percent this year, with more than 92 million people planning to go more than 50 miles sometime between now and Jan. 2.

The most densely populated parts of the country are getting a break from the weather.

The rain that pounded California has stopped. And while a snowstorm is making its way across the country, it's not expected to hit the crowded East Coast until the weekend.

That could make for some more treacherous return trips -- but it makes getting there easier.

After last year's record-breaking snow falls in the East, the way weather can mess up travel seems to be on plenty of minds.

At LaGuardia, Mike and Martha Lee Mellis were waiting to fly from New York to Aspen, Colo., with their three young sons.

They were dreading a repeat of last winter's ski trip, when a snowstorm hit while they were transferring in Chicago on their way home.

"We had to return via Philadelphia and I had to rent a car and drive everybody home at 11 at night," Mike Mellis recalled.

His wife had been trying to forget. "I've blocked it all out," she said.

(source:businessweek.com)

A day to offer holiday wishes buoyed by gratitude

Merry  Christmas and happy holidays to all! It has been a wonderful year for the Santa Claus Fund. We are very thankful for all the support we received this year. It has been a pleasant journey, and I look forward to the holidays. They will provide a little down time for me and my volunteers.

There was a lot to do in so short a time. But I have to thank all the volunteers at the North Pole Annex who did a marvelous job.

I want to wish all of the men and women who made those wonderful wooden toys and knitted all those hats, scarves, blankets and mittens, a very Merry  Christmas. Your talent, time and money are a key part of our program. Thank you so much.

I have to thank those Christmas shoppers who bring the toys and drop them off at the Elks lodges. I wish you a merry Christmas too!

Those extra toys often plug the holes in our inventory when we really need them. To those of you who take the time to make these generous donations, I wish you a very Merry Christmas too. Your donations this year are nothing short of a miracle. Thank you so much.

I also wish to send a special thank you and a merry Christmas to our friends at The Times Record. Their support cannot be understated. They allow us to communicate with all of you every day from Thanksgiving to Dec. 31. Their partnership is so important to us, and I appreciate all they do for us.

I am going to keep this short today to meet holiday deadlines. Here are the latest donations: L. Valerie Campbell and Stephen H. Campbell sent $25. Richard and Pauline Harris mailed us $70. Thank you.

We also received a $75 donation from Lief, Kim, Kelsea, Moriah, and Micailah Albertson. They wish to recognize the fantastic teachers and staff at the Bath Middle School and the Phippsburg Elementary School. Thank you, Albertson family.

Today’s total is $170. Our new grand total is $41,773.05. That money will provide lots of toys for local families in need.

To donate to the 2010 campaign, mail checks to: The Santa Claus Fund Inc., P.O. Box 278, Brunswick, ME, 04011.

Thank you everybody. I will be back on Monday.

Norad Santa and Christmas Greetings

With December 24th already here users on the popular social media site twitter.com are sending Christmas Greetings to their fellow tweeters and also searching for Santa with the Norad Santa tracking. The terms “norad santa tracker 2010,” “norad,” “santa tracker 2010,” “santa tracker,” “norad santa tracker 2010 official site,” “where is santa claus right now,” “where is santa,” “santa tracker,” “track santa claus,” “tracking santa claus” “christmas quotes,” “christmas greetings,” “christmas wishes,” “christmas cards,” “christmas message” are all over the major cities and worldwide trending topics list on twitter.com. Here are what so fellow Clevelanders have to say about these trending topics.

“I’ve been using the Norad Santa tracker,” says Bonnie of Cleveland. “Since my kids woke up this morning I’ve been getting the constant question, can you take santa? Where is santna?”

“I ended up waiting until the last minute to get my Christmas cards out so I just sent my Christmas message through email,” says Kevin of Cleveland.

“I’m broke this year, so I ended up sending my Christmas message through email,” says Patrick of Cleveland.

Kristieackert Got an internet video Christmas greetings from the Jets. It was very nice, but I was hesitant to open it in front of mom.

Christmas wishes messages

There are good signs for the retail industry in the US. It all started with the holiday seasons when the retail industry witnessed a huge turnout of buyers. And then came Christmas. Reports have surfaced that the sales have been bumper this year.

This only shows that with the economy on the road of recovery people are more interested in spending money on buying gifts. According to experts, since the recession crippled the US economy retailers have been having a difficult time. But now it appears that things are changing for good.

The last-minute gift buying was a huge success with hundreds of thousands of people flocking the shops to purchase gifts for their family members, friends and beloved ones. Going by the shopping on this Christmas it can be said with surety that the economy is for sure on road to recovery.

According to industry insiders, this has been the best Christmas sales in the last 2 years. It is understood that more shopping to take place with last-minute gift buyers yet to overcrowd malls and market areas. With most stores open, chances are that the sales would reach its peak. It has turned out to the busiest sales season in at least three years.

General Manager Mark Whiting said: “We’ve had a very, very good holiday shopping season. We’re substantially ahead of last year, and that really started on Black Friday, when many of our retailers had last year’s (sales) numbers starting at 2 or 3 p.m.”

There were many last-minute shoppers. Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, was one among many who visited the shop. He said: “There are some real steep reductions. I thought that inventories are such they wouldn’t have to discount that much in the end. But I guess they’re taking advantage of the last-minute shoppers and getting them through the door.”

Some great quotes

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. Roy L. Smith

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. Norman Vincent Peale

Christmas is the gentlest, loveliest festival of the revolving year – and yet, for all that, when it speaks, its voice has strong authority. W.J. Cameron

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. Burton Hillis

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time. Laura Ingalls Wilder

May peace be your gift for this Christmas and the blessing of the Almighty be with you and the world to help us all make this world a better place. To make it a Christmas day everyday of the year. Kurt Avish

Christmas is forever, not for just one day, for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf. The good you do for others is good you do yourself. Norman Wesley Brooks

A Christmas candle is a lovely thing. It makes no noise at all. But softly gives itself away. Eva Logue

(source:khabrein.info)

Specific Area Message Encoding

Specific Area Message Encoding,

Specific Area Message Encoding or SAME is the protocol used to encode the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and NOAA Weather Radio's Public Warning System in the U.S. and Weatheradio Canada in Canada.

History

From the 1960s to the 1980s, a special feature of the NOAA Weather Radio system was the transmission of a single tone at 1050 Hz prior to the broadcast of any message alerting the general public of significant weather events. This became known as the Warning Alarm Tone (WAT). Although it has served NOAA Weather Radio well, there were many drawbacks: without staff at media facilities to manually evaluate the need to rebroadcast a Weather Radio message using the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), automatic rebroadcasting of all messages preceded by just the WAT was unacceptable and impractical. Even if stations and others with that type of need were willing to allow for this type of automatic capture, assuming the events for activation were critical, there was no way for automated equipment at the station to know when the message was complete and restore it back to normal operation.

In 1985, the National Weather Service forecast offices began experimenting with putting special digital codes at the beginning and end of every message concerning life- or property-threatening weather conditions targeting a specific area. The intent of what became SAME was to ultimately transmit a code with the initial broadcast of all Weather Radio messages. The NWS started implementing SAME on the full NOAA Weather Radio system in 1988. The SAME technique was later adopted by the FCC for regular broadcasters on radio, television, and cable, as well as by Environment Canada for its Weatheradio Canada service. Much like the original EBS alert tone, this produces a distinct sound which is easily recognized by most Americans due to its use in weekly and monthly broadcast tests, and in weather emergencies. During the said events, viewers and/or listeners will hear these digital codes in the form of buzzes, chirps, & clicking sounds (or what broadcast engineers affectionately call "duck farts")just before the attention signal is sent out and at the conclusion of the voice message.

Functionality

A sample SAME transmission

An example of SAME, with the header decoded as follows:

"A Required Weekly Test has been issued for the following counties/areas: Hillsborough FL, Manatee FL, Pasco FL, Pinellas FL, and Sarasota FL at 12:15 am EDT on October 5 effective until 12:45 am EDT. Message from WTSP/TV."

Problems listening to this file? See media help.

In the SAME system, messages are constructed in four parts, the first and last of which are digital. The first part is a header message, which is transmitted three times, so that decoders can pick "best two out of three" for each byte, thereby eliminating most errors which can cause an activation to fail.

The header is an AFSK data burst, with each individual bit lasting 1920 μs (1.92 ms) each, giving a bit rate of 5205⁄6 bits per second. A mark bit is four complete cycles of a sine wave, translating to a mark frequency of 20831⁄3 Hz, and a space bit is three complete sine wave cycles, making the space frequency 1562.5 Hz.

The data is encoded in 7-bit ASCII but uses all 8 bits, with no parity bit and no stop bit ("8-N-0"). The least-significant bit of each byte is transmitted first, including the preamble.

The text of the header code is a fixed format of Preamble-ZCZC-org-eee(up to 32 of -pssccc)+tttt-jjjhhmm-llllllll:

A preamble of binary 10101011 (0xAB in hex) repeated sixteen times, used for "receiver calibration" (i.e., clock synchronization), then the letters ZCZC as an attention to the decoder

org: Originator code; programmed per unit when put into operation

EAN - Emergency Action Notification Network (President or other authorized national officials. No longer officially used)

PEP - Primary Entry Point Station (President or other authorized national officials)

CIV - Civil authorities (i.e. Governor, state/local emergency management, local police/fire officials)

WXR - National Weather Service (or Environment Canada. Any weather-related alert)

EAS - Broadcast station or cable system (Broadcasters. Generally only used with test messages)

eee: Event code; programmed at time of event

pssccc: Location codes (up to 31 locations); programmed at time of event

In the United States, designated by FIPS state code and indicating the county (parish in Louisiana, borough or census area in Alaska), but which may be designated for the whole state by using county number 000

In Canada, designated by Canadian Location Code, which corresponds to a specific forecast region as used by the Meteorological Service of Canada

tttt: Duration of alert in the format hhmm, normally in increments of 15 minutes from time of issue

jjjhhmm: Exact time of issue, in UTC, without time zone adjustments

jjj is the Ordinal date day of the year, with leading zeros

hhmm is 24-hour hours and minutes, in UTC, with leading zeros

Eight-character station callsign identification, with / used instead of - (such as the first eight letters of a cable headend's location, WABC/FM for WABC-FM, or KLOX/NWS for a weather radio station programmed from Los Angeles).

Each field of the header code is terminated by a dash character.

Full message breakdown

An EAS message contains these elements, in this transmitted sequence:

Header

Attention signal: Sent if any message is included (normally sent with all messages except RWT on commercial radio/TV); must be at least eight seconds long

Single 1050 Hz (help·info) audio tone for Weatheradio

Combined 853 and 960 Hz (help·info) tones for commercial radio/TV

Message - audio, video image or video text

Tail: (Preamble) NNNN (EOM)

There is one second of blank audio between each section, and before and after each message.

Event codes

There are about 80 different event codes currently used in EAS. Originally, all but the first six of these were optional and could be programmed into encoder/decoder units at the request of the broadcaster. However, a July 12, 2007 memo by the FCC now requires mandatory participation in state and local level EAS.

Key for event code type field:

M mandatory code

O1 original optional code

O2 optional code added in 2002

Type Code Description

M EAN Emergency Action Notification (Begins a nationwide EAS activation)

M EAT Emergency Action Termination (Ends a national activation)

M NIC National Information Center statement (Used to follow up an EAN)

M RMT Required Monthly Test

M RWT Required Weekly Test

M NPT National Periodic Test

O1 BZW Blizzard Warning

O1 CEM Civil emergency Message

O1 CFA Coastal flood watch

O1 CFW Coastal flood warning

O1 DMO Demonstration message

O1 EVI Evacuation immediate

O1 FFA Flash flood watch

O1 FFS Flash flood statement

O1 FFW Flash flood warning

O1 FLA Flood watch

O1 FLS Flood statement

O1 FLW Flood warning

O1 HUA Hurricane watch

O1 HUW Hurricane warning

O1 HWA High wind watch

O1 HWW High wind warning

O1 SPS Special weather statement

O1 SVA Severe thunderstorm watch

O1 SVR Severe thunderstorm warning

O1 SVS Severe weather statement

O1 TOA Tornado watch

O1 TOR Tornado warning

O1 TRA Tropical storm watch

O1 TRW Tropical storm warning

O2 ADR Administrative message

O2 AVA Avalanche watch

O2 AVW Avalanche warning

O2 BHW Biological hazard warning

O2 BWW Boil water warning

O2 CAE Child abduction emergency

O2 CDW Civil danger warning

O2 CHW Chemical hazard warning

O2 CWW Contaminated water warning

O2 DBA Dam break watch

O2 DBW Dam break warning

O2 DEW Contagious disease warning

O2 DSW Dust storm warning

O2 EQW Earthquake warning

O2 EVA Evacuation watch

O2 FCW Food contamination warning

O2 FRW Fire warning

O2 FSW Flash freeze warning

O2 FZW Freeze warning

O2 HLS Hurricane local statement

O2 HMW Hazardous materials warning

O2 IBW Iceberg warning

O2 IFW Industrial fire warning

O2 LAE Local area emergency

O2 LEW Law enforcement warning

O2 LSW Landslide warning

O2 NAT National audible test

O2 NMN Network message motif

O2 NST National silent test

O2 NUW Nuclear plant warning

O2 POS Power outage statement

O2 RHW Radiological hazard warning

O2 SMW Special marine warning

O2 SPW Shelter in place warning

O2 TOE 911 telephone outage emergency

O2 TSA Tsunami watch

O2 TSW Tsunami warning

O2 TXB Transmitter backup on

O2 TXF Transmitter carrier off

O2 TXO Transmitter carrier on

O2 TXP Transmitter primary on

O2 VOW Volcano warning

O2 WFA Wildfire watch

O2 WFW Wildfire warning

O2 WSA Winter storm watch

O2 WSW Winter storm warning

O2 ??A Unrecognized watch

O2 ??E Unrecognized emergency

O2 ??S Unrecognized statement

O2 ??W Unrecognized warning

SAME on weather radio receivers

An example of a SAME alert weather radio receiver.

There are many weather/all-hazards radio receivers that are equipped with the SAME alert feature. It allows users to program SAME/FIPS/CLC codes for their designated area or areas of their interest and/or concern rather than the entire broadcast area (Examples given: If a person were to live in Irving, Texas, he or she would program a FIPS code for Dallas County. However, if he or she needs to be in the know of severe weather from the west and northwest ahead of time, the user would program additional FIPS codes for Denton and Tarrant Counties. On a more specialized receiver, a user has the option to eliminate any SAME alert codes that may not apply to their area such as a "Special Marine Warning" or a "Coastal Flood Warning"). Once the SAME header is sent by NOAA/NWS and if it matches the desired code(s), the receivers then decode the event, scroll it on their display screens, and sound an alarm.

Receivers receive on one of the following National Weather Service network frequencies (in MHz): 162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525, and 162.550. The signals are typically receivable up to 40 miles from the transmitters. 

SAME in popular culture

The SAME EOM (end of message) tone was heard in the movie trailer for Knowing, where its familiar emergency use and its increasing cadence create a sense of foreboding.

(source:wikipedia)

Weather predicted for Christmas Day

Weather predicted for Christmas,.

Profile Facts-Australia-IT promises to be great weather for a Christmas barbecue and game of backyard cricket tomorrow.

Weather Bureau forecaster Peter Blake said Melbourne looked to be heading for a fine day with a maximum of 28C.

“It should be pretty good and not too warm as well,” Mr Blake said.

He said the day would generally be “quite comfortable”, compared to past Christmases.

From 2007 to 2009 maximum temperatures of 20C, 23C and 21C were recorded respectively, with the mercury dipping to a frigid maximum of 14.5C on the 2006 festive day.

Melbourne has not recorded a maximum Christmas temperature higher than 25C since 2003, Mr Blake said.

High cloud is expected to increase through the day with a chance of thunderstorms in the north-eastern suburbs.

But Mr Blake said the storms could miss Melbourne entirely.

Northwesterly winds are predicted, averaging up to 20km/h and tending south to southwesterly by early evening.

Christmas Travel Outlook

Christmas Travel Outlook,

WSIL--White Christmases bring many joy, but to those traveling on the roadways, holiday snowfall can cause headaches. The region's last white Christmas was in 2004, and another may be on the way.

Just days before the holiday on December 22nd, 2004, 18 to 24 inches of snow fell on Evansville and southwestern Indiana, and 10 to 20 inches blanketed southern Illinois, western Kentucky and southeastern Missouri. Despite some melting, there was still nearly a foot of powder on the ground Christmas morning.

According to the National Weather Service, to be an official white Christmas, at least one inch of snow must be on the ground at 6 AM Christmas morning. On average only 15% of Christmases are officially white in southern Illinois.

If you're one of the thousands visiting friends and family this holiday season, here's a look at what you can expect traveling Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.

Christmas morning,expected to be windy, chilly

Christmas Morning,

North Texans are in for a windy and chilly - but not white - Christmas morning, according to the latest weather forecast.

Christmas Day calls for a wind chill as low as 17 degrees with northerly winds up to 15 miles an hour, National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Mosier said. But don't start thinking snow.

A possible half-inch of rain that could fall in the northern and central parts of the state Friday will provide relief from drought.

But temperatures won't be low enough to turn the rain into ice or snow and it should clear up by Christmas Day, Mosier said.

The low Christmas morning should be about 30 but the wind chill - based on wind speed - will make it feel like 17, according to the weather service forecast. The wind chill should hit at around sunrise, Mosier said.

"I would advise anyone who's going to be out in this weather to wear a jacket, obviously," Mosier said. "I wouldn't say it's [wind chill] extraordinary though."

Christmas Day is expected to be mostly sunny with highs in the mid-40s and lows at night in the mid-20s, according to the forecast for Tarrant County.

Christmas Morning (short story)

Christmas Morning (short story),

Christmas Morning is a comic but poignant short story by Ireland's Frank O'Connor.

The narrator of the story is Larry Delaney, an Irish boy who appears regularly in O'Connor's stories, and serves as O'Connor's alter ego. Larry is a typical mischievous Irish boy who likes to skip school and runs with a rough crowd. Larry fears that, because of his misbehavior, Santa Claus won't be leaving him any presents for Christmas. His fears are stoked by his mother, who scolds him constantly and compares him unfavorably to his smarter, better-behaved younger brother Sonny. Larry resents his mother, who constantly pushes him to excel at school and frets aloud that he will amount to nothing, like his drunken father.

On Christmas morning, Larry wakes up early and finds that Santa Claus has left only a book in his stocking, while there's nothing but a toy gun in Sonny's. Since Larry has no interest in books, he switches the presents, taking the gun for himself and leaving the book to the more studious Sonny. He imagines that no one but Santa Claus will ever know the difference.

To his horror, his mother sees the difference instantly, and weeps that her son is a thief. In that instant, Larry realizes for the first time that there is no Santa Claus, only an impoverished mother who's been striving vainly to raise a decent son under miserable circumstances. By giving Larry a book, his Mother had been trying to steer him to success and a better life. By shunning the book and stealing the toy gun, Larry has broken his mother's heart, and convinced her that he will become a rotter like his father.

Alternative Christmas message

The Alternative Christmas message is a message broadcast by Channel 4 since 1993, lampooning the Royal Christmas Message of Queen Elizabeth II.

Background

Since 1993, Channel 4 has broadcast an "Alternative Christmas message" featuring a contemporary, often controversial celebrity, delivering a message in the manner of Her Majesty. This tradition started by accident when, running a series of programmes on 'Christmas in New York', the channel invited Quentin Crisp to give an Alternative message - playing on the pejorative term 'Queen' meaning a male homosexual. In contrast to the Queen's message, the alternative lasts only 3 to 5 minutes. The concept seems to date back to a sketch in a Christmas special of The Two Ronnies, where Ronnie Barker delivered a Christmas message from "Your Local Milkman". Examples of recent variations to the Alternative Christmas message proliferate on YouTube.

List of Alternative message presenters

1993 - Quentin Crisp

1994 - Rev Jesse Jackson

1995 - Brigitte Bardot

1996 - Rory Bremner (as Diana, Princess of Wales)

1997 - Margaret Gibney, a Belfast schoolgirl broadcast a plea for peace in Northern Ireland

1998 - Doreen Lawrence and Neville Lawrence, parents of Stephen Lawrence

1999 - Ali G

2000 - Helen Jeffries, mother of a CJD victim

2001 - Genelle Guzman, World Trade Center terrorist attacks survivor

2002 - Sharon Osbourne

2003 - Barry and Michelle Seabourn, a Merseyside couple who appeared on Channel 4 reality show Wife Swap.

2004 - Marge Simpson

2005 - Jamie Oliver

2006 - Khadijah Ravat 

2007 - Major Andrew Stockton, a British soldier who lost his arm fighting in Afghanistan.

2008 - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran 

2009 - Katie Piper, television presenter who underwent surgery after Sulphuric acid was thrown in her face.

2004 Alternative message

Marge Simpson was chosen to give the message due to Channel 4's recent acquisition of rights to broadcast The Simpsons.

In it she commented on David and Victoria Beckham's marriage in a negative comparison with hers and Homer's, and compared the special relationship between the UK and the US to that of Mini Me and Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers films ("Helping out in all our zany schemes to take over the world"). Lisa Simpson also held a banner supporting Cornwall's secession: "UK OUT OF CORNWALL", while chanting Rydhsys rag Kernow lemmyn (Cornish for "freedom for Cornwall now").

2005 Alternative message

The majority of Jamie Oliver's message was in the form of a comedy sketch, where he was a school cook preparing junk food, including "Turkey Twangers", for children. This turned out to be a nightmare, and he awoke to give a message about his wish for the new year being for British children to be fed better. He was chosen to deliver the message following his successful Jamie's School Dinners series. The broadcast also featured actress Jessica Stevenson as a dinnerlady.

For the first time, sister channel E4 broadcast an "alternative to the alternative message", delivered by Avid Merrion, the creation of comedian Leigh Francis from the series Bo' Selecta!.

2006 Alternative message

This message was due to be presented by Khadija Ravat (b. 1973 in Zimbabwe: a British Muslim teacher of Islamic studies who has worn a niqab for ten years.The decision of Channel 4 to have a veiled woman giving the speech is a particularly controversial one due to the media attention that the niqab has received in the UK in 2006.

With regards to the decision, Channel 4 have said that it was fitting that the "alternative Christmas message should be given by a Muslim woman in a year when issues of religious and racial identity and freedom of expression have dominated the news agenda."

The address went out at 3pm, the same time as the Queen's speech on BBC1 and ITV1. Ravat had stated that she would not be watching her own broadcast in favour of watching the one given by the Queen. Her place was taken by another veiled woman, with the first name Khadijah. She was a convert to Islam in 1996 and took up wearing the niqab two years after she converted. She stated during her speech that her great-grandmother was a suffragette.

The alternative Christmas message on E4 was Fonejacker's Christmas Message in which actor Kayvan Novak prank called members of the public. This five-minute broadcast was also a preview of his new series which aired in mid-2007.

2008 Alternative message

The 2008 Christmas message was given by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of The Islamic Republic of Iran. The message was given in Persian with English subtitles. In this message Ahmedinejad said that "if Christ were on earth today, undoubtedly he would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers".The message was considered controversial and received much criticism both before and after its broadcast. Much of the criticism was centred on Ahmadinejad's allegedly anti-semitic and homophobic views. However, the message itself was not regarded as inflammatory and did not make any reference to these two issues. Human Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell called Ahmadinejad a "criminal despot, who ranks with Robert Mugabe, Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and the Burmese military junta as one of the world's most bloody tyrants".

2009 Alternative message

The 2009 Message was delivered by Katie Piper, a former model and television presenter who had featured in an edition of Channel 4's Cutting Edge documentary strand in October 2009. The hour-long documentary, which traced Piper's recovery from an acid attack in March 2008, had received significant viewer attention; it had received the highest viewing figures of any entry in the Cutting Edge strand during 2009, and received the most viewer responses of any Channel 4 show in October 2009. The documentary has since been made available for international broadcast.

The huge response to the Cutting Edge programme led Channel 4 to invite Katie Piper to give 2009's Alternative Christmas Message, which focused on the theme of 'appreciating the beauty in life' and also allowed Piper to reflect on the huge public support she had received following the earlier film. The Message also featured new footage of Piper and her family at home. The Message was produced by Mentorn Media, the production company which had made the earlier programme. Piper's Message was aired at 3pm and repeated at 8.50pm on Christmas Day 2009, the later showing being broadcast following on from a re-airing of Katie: My Beautiful Face. The 3pm screening attracted 500,000 viewers and the 8.50pm broadcast drew 400,000.

2010 Alternative message

The 2010 message will be broadcast as part of One Born At Christmas, a festive special based around Channel 4's hit documentary series One Born Every Minute. One Born At Christmas will be broadcast live in various slots on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and will follow the work of nursing and medical staff and chronicle the experience of parents giving birth over the Christmas period. It is believed that a member of nursing staff will be reading the Alternative Christmas Message as part of the Christmas Day afternoon broadcast, which incorporates the traditional 3pm message slot. It had earlier been erroneously reported that Dino "Dappy" Contostavlos of N-Dubz would be giving the 2010 Message; Channel 4 later clarified that he would be featured in a segment on T4, not giving the main message itself.

(source:wikipedia)