The Day That Will Live in Infamy, Among Other Things

So, consider this: Every date on the calendar grid is the square-shaped tip of a time iceberg, of meaning.  All those anniversaries. For sure, December 7 is no exception. For one thing, one of my earliest memories is being 5 years old, going into the bedroom one evening and picking up my new baby brother Timothy, startling the grownups by carrying him into the front room. On this day in 1990, the wife of that same kid brother gave birth to a baby girl. 

There are probably still plenty of people who think that Franklin D. Roosevelt knew that the Japanese were going to attack the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor,  Hawaii on that fateful Sunday morning. Do I think so? No, but history is chockablock with mysteries. The dead take many a secret to the grave. 

Ms. Fay Bainter – Is that a great face or what?

And it's the anniversary of the birth of writer Willa Cather, in 1873. Of the singer/songwriter Harry Chapin, who'd be 70 today. Of the wonderful actress of the old silver screen, Fay Bainter (1891). Of singer/trumpeter and voice of Jungle Book's orangutan king, Louis Prima (1910). 
   Apart from all that, it's a chilly grey day here, but not a proper December day because it's not COLD. It's not SNOWY, which is wonderful because don't you hate the notion that once you step outside into the beautiful, sparkling icy snow, you face the risk of slipping and changing your life, maybe forever?