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December 19

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
In the winter season, for seven days of calm, Alcyone broods over her nest on the surface of the waters while the sea-waves are quiet. Through this time Aeolus keeps his winds at home, and ocean is smooth for his descendants’ sake. ~ Ovid
2005
The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn against him, they crush those beneath them. ~ Emily Brontë (died 19 December 1848)
2006
It is wrong to expect a reward for your struggles. The reward is the act of struggle itself, not what you win. Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life. ~ Phil Ochs (born 19 December 1940)
2007
In such an ugly time the true protest is beauty. ~ Phil Ochs
2008
After the final no there comes a yes
And on that yes the future world depends.
~ Wallace Stevens ~
2009
"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" ~ Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol (first published on this date in 1843)
2010

And I won't be laughing at the lies when I'm gone
And I can't question how or when or why when I'm gone
Can't live proud enough to die when I'm gone
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here.

~ Phil Ochs ~

2011

And the evil is done in hopes that evil surrenders
but the deeds of the devil are burned too deep in the embers
and a world of hunger in vengeance will always remember
So please be reassured, we seek no wider war,
we seek no wider war.

~ Phil Ochs ~

2012
I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me.
~ Charles Dickens ~
in
~ A Christmas Carol ~
2013
"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead", said Scrooge. "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!"
The Spirit was immovable as ever.
~ Charles Dickens ~
in
~ A Christmas Carol ~
2014
Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.
~ Charles Dickens ~
in
~ A Christmas Carol ~
2015
Are these the shadows of the things that will be, or are they shadows of things that may be, only?
~ Charles Dickens ~
in
~ A Christmas Carol ~
2016
Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child. Oh God! to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust.
~ Charles Dickens ~
in
~ A Christmas Carol ~
2017
When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.
~ Carter G. Woodson ~
2018
"… I am here — the shadows of the things that would have been, may be dispelled. They will be. I know they will!"
His hands were busy with his garments all this time; turning them inside out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making them parties to every kind of extravagance.
"I don’t know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world. …"
~ Charles Dickens ~
in
~ A Christmas Carol ~
  • proposed by Kalki, for the 175th anniversary of the publication of the story in 1843.
2019
One good song with a message can bring a point more deeply to more people than a thousand rallies.
~ Phil Ochs ~
2020
Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion! But of the loved, revered, and honoured head, thou canst not turn one hair to thy dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It is not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released; it is not that the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand was open, generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and the pulse a man’s. Strike, Shadow, strike! And see his good deeds springing from the wound, to sow the world with life immortal!
~ Charles Dickens ~
in
~ A Christmas Carol ~
2021
Show me a prison, show me a jail
Show me a pris'ner whose face has grown pale
And I'll show you a young man
With many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or I.
~ Phil Ochs ~
2022
I never set out to be the best player in history. I think I'm just another footballer. On the pitch we are all the same and when the game starts I always try to improve myself. My intention is that when I retire, I will be remembered for being a good person.
~ Lionel Messi ~
2023
Show me a country where the bombs had to fall
Show me the ruins of buildings so tall
And I'll show you a young land
With many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or I.
~ Phil Ochs ~
2024
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A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone. ~ Emily Brontë (Date of death)

I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. ~ Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, published that day.

  • 2 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • 1 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
  • 0 Zarbon 19:39, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 00:58, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

I feel like a spinning top or a dreidel.
The spinning don't stop when you leave the cradle.
You just slow down.
~ Don McLean ~ song lyrics related to Hanukkah, for last day of Hanukkah 2009.

This was the dedication of the altar. ~ Traditional verse for the last day of Hanukkah (last day of Hanukkah 2009)

May you be sealed totally for good. ~ Traditional blessing for the last day of Hanukkah (last day of Hanukkah 2009)

"I don't know what day of the month it is!", said Scrooge. "I don't know how long I've been among the Spirits. I don't know anything. I'm quite a baby. Never mind. I don't care. I'd rather be a baby. Hallo! Whoop! Hallo here!"~ Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol (first published on this date in 1843)

In the green fields a turnin', a baby is born
His cries crease the wind and mingle with the morn
An assault upon the order, the changing of the guard
Chosen for a challenge that is hopelessly hard
And the only single sound is the sighing of the stars
But to the silence and distance they are sworn.
~ Phil Ochs ~
Images of innocence charge him go on
But the decadence of destiny is looking for a pawn
To a nightmare of knowledge he opens up the gate
And a blinding revelation is laid upon his plate
That beneath the greatest love is a hurricane of hate
And God help the critic of the dawn.
~ Phil Ochs ~
They say they can't believe it, it's a sacrilegious shame
Now, who would want to hurt such a hero of the game?
But you know I predicted it; I knew he had to fall
How did it happen? I hope his suffering was small.
Tell me every detail, I've got to know it all,
And do you have a picture of the pain?
~ Phil Ochs ~
Time takes her toll and the memory fades
but his glory is broken, in the magic that he made.
Reality is ruined; it's the freeing from the fear
The drama is distorted, to what they want to hear
Swimming in their sorrow, in the twisting of a tear
As they wait for a new thrill parade.
~ Phil Ochs ~
The American Politician has developed into the gutless master of procrastination with a maximum of non-committal statement and the barest minimum of action. This moral vacuum is exceeded only by the apathetic public who allows him to stay in power.
~ Phil Ochs ~
Leave the old and dying America and use your creative energies to help form a new America, which would be de-militarized, more humanistic, where the police are less hostile and closer to the community, where the wealthy are not given unleashed power for the exploitation of the people. And, mostly because it's now a matter of life and death, reassert an ecological balance with the environment, which means the people in the oil companies and the car companies and the space industry and all the other industries will have to be brought into account, so that there will be a new definition of government which has to be closer to the people and less close to special interests which are far more harmful than any revolutionaries.
~ Phil Ochs ~
I helped design the party, formulate the idea of what Yippie was going to be, in the early part of 1968. … The idea of Yippie was to be a form of theater politics, theatrically dealing with what seemed to be an increasingly absurd world and trying to deal with it in other than just on a straight moral level. They wanted to be able to act out fantasies in the street to communicate their feelings to the public.
~ Phil Ochs ~
Show me an alley, show me a train
Show me a hobo who sleeps out in the rain
And I'll show you a young man
With many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or I.
~ Phil Ochs ~


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