Monday Musings - January 6, 2025

 

Percy and Lily Napping
Odenton, MD
January 5, 2025

1. Welcome to the first Monday of 2025. I still have trouble typing the new year. There are 51 Mondays remaining on the new calendar to enjoy.

2. Family NFL Report. The teams we cheer for have finished the regular season. Four teams are in the playoffs, while others failed to make the post-season.  

 Chiefs (15-2) are the #1 Seed in the AFC. They have a BYE. 

Cowboys (7-10) are out of the playoffs. Finished with a loss to the Commanders.

Commanders, (12-5) are the #6 Seed in the NCC and travel to Tampa for a playoff game against the Buccaneers

Ravens (12-5) are the #3 Seed in the AFC. They host the #6 seed Steelers (10-7) next Saturday

Dolphins (8-9) finished with a loss to the Jets and are out of the playoffs. 

3. Who says cats and dogs don't get along. Yesterday Percy and Lily were caught napping together. They seemed very happy.

4. The biggest Winter storm in a few years has descended upon the region. Most everything is shuttered and the snow is falling at a rate of 1-3 inches per hour. This could continue all day. We estimate 6 inches on the ground already.

5. I remember January 6, 2021. I am appalled at how the events of that day have been recounted to fit competing narratives. Police were attacked and, despite statements to the contrary, people died both on that day and later as a result of injuries sustained on that day. In a sanctuary of democracy, the Capitol, Americans attacked Americans with the intent to do harm.

6. Today in History. On January 6, 1838, Samuel Morse’s telegraph system is demonstrated for the first time at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey. The telegraph, a device which used electric impulses to transmit encoded messages over a wire, would eventually revolutionize long-distance communication, reaching the height of its popularity in the 1920s and 1930s.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He attended Yale University, where he was interested in art, as well as electricity, still in its infancy at the time. After college, Morse became a painter. In 1832, while sailing home from Europe, he heard about the newly discovered electromagnet and came up with an idea for an electric telegraph. He had no idea that other inventors were already at work on the concept.

Congress convenes today to certify Trump’s 2024 election win, clearing his way to be America’s 47th president - CNN

Blinken warns Russia is close to sharing satellite technology with North Korea - CNN

Pope appoints Trump critic to be archbishop of Washington, DC - CNN

Canada PM Trudeau is likely to announce resignation, source says - Reuters

European shares, euro surge after report of more targeted US tariffs - Reuters

U.S. Steel, Nippon allege Biden violated constitution in lawsuit over blocked deal - Reuters

Winter storm hits central US, barrels toward Washington - Reuters

Warren Upton, oldest survivor of Pearl Harbor attack, dies at 105 - The Washington Post

-- Bob Doan, Odenton, MD