A wooden nutcracker carved like a toy soldier that comes to life. This character is featured in the famous two-act ballet The Nutcracker, which was scored by Russian composer Tchaikovsky and premiered in 1892. The libretto is adapted from the 1816 story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” by German author E.T.A. Hoffmann.
The First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, FDR, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband’s death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to serve as a humanitarian and civic leader, working for the welfare of youth, black Americans, the poor, and women, at home and abroad.
A polite immigrant bear (supposedly a spectacled bear) from “deepest, darkest Peru” who wears an old hat and duffle coat, carries a battered suitcase, and loves marmalade sandwiches. He is a classic character in English children’s literature. He first appeared in 1958 and has been featured in numerous books.
The Wheedle is the title character of the 1974 children’s book by Stephen Cosgrove. He is a large, round, furry creature who lives in the Northwest. The character eventually evolved into a popular mascot generally associated with the city of Seattle. From 1978 through 1985, the Wheedle was the official mascot of the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics.
The first Catholic saint of the Americas. Born in Lima, Peru, Rose devoted her life to charity. She created exquisite lace and embroidery and grew beautiful flowers. After 11 years of self-martyrdom with the Third Order of St. Dominic, she died in 1617, at the age of 31, having prophesied the date of her death exactly. She was beatified in 1667 and canonized in 1671.
In the Hawaiian religion, Pele is the goddess of fire, lightning, wind and volcanoes. She is a popular figure in many stories of ancient Hawai’i known as Hawaiian mythology. Legend has it that she is a fickle and dangerous lover who sometimes kills her husbands. She is believed to live in the Halema’uma’u crater of Kīlauea.
A prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. Mozart composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers. He died on this day in 1791.
The falcon-headed Horus is one of the oldest and most significant deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion. He was often the ancient Egyptians’ national patron god and was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through Greco-Roman times. He was born of the goddess Isis and her brother Osiris, the god of the underworld.
Isis is a goddess in the Ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic. Her brother, Osiris, became her husband. After Osiris was murdered, she awoke him from the dead in order to impregnate herself, and later gave birth to Horus.
Note: Cleopatra represented herself as the reincarnation of Isis.
Osiris is a god of the Ancient Egyptian religion, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh’s beard. He is the brother and husband of Isis. After being murdered, he was resurrected in the underworld. Horus is considered his posthumously begotten son.
Tanooki (PETA) – No. 283
On November 14, 2011, coinciding with Nintendo’s launch of Super Mario 3D Land, PETA released a spoof Flash game called Super Tanooki Skin 2D as part of their “Mario Kills Tanooki” publicity campaign. According to PETA, “Tanooki may be just a ‘suit’ in Mario games, but in real life, tanuki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur.” In the PETA game, a skinned tanuki chases a blood-soaked Tanooki Mario to reclaim his fur.
PETA’s incendiary politics (and its inhumane 90+ percent kill rate of stray cats and dogs) aside, I enjoyed their 8-bit Tanooki game. Mario’s Tanooki Suit, which resembles a tanuki and gives him shapeshifting powers, first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3 in 1990. In ancient Japanese folklore and popular culture (see Pom Poko), raccoon dogs are mischievous masters of disguise. My favorite tanuki is my part-Siamese cat Tanuki.