ROCKEFELLER CENTER TREE
Every year on the Wednesday after Thanksgiving, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is lit between West 48th and West 51st Streets in midtown Manhattan in New York City. Here’s a glimpse into the history of this tradition. • Construction began on Rockefeller Center in May of 1930, a cluster of 14 buildings in an Art Deco style. Its centerpiece is the 70-floor, 872foot GE Building located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, formerly known as the RCA Building, and nicknamed 30 Rock. Today the complex consists of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres. • On Christmas Eve, 1931, in the midst of the Great Depression, a group of 30 construction workers dragged a 20-ft. balsam fir tree through the muddy construction site and decorated it with strings of cranberries, paper garlands, and tin cans. In 1933, the year that 30 Rock opened, the tree became an official holiday tradition with the first lighting ceremony.
by Samantha Weaver
• Mount Wingen, Australia, is home to the world's longestburning fire. The coal deposits there have been aflame for 6,000 years.
*** • You may be surprised to learn Thought for the Day: "He who that rats and mice are ticklish hesitates is a damned fool." --- they even laugh! Mae West © 2014 King Features Synd., Inc.
/tidbitsgf
@tidbitsgf
Answer
• Nobody is really a fan of vacuuming, but did you ever wonder what the most annoying thing about the chore is? Electrolux's Global Vacuuming Survey found that the single most hated thing about vacuuming is the noise it makes.
Weekly SUDOKU
• Those who study such things say that one-quarter of all trips made in the United States are less than 1 mile, but threequarters of those trips still are made by car.
• Usually a Norway spruce, the tree must have a minimum height of 65 feet. The height is limited to 110 feet due to the width of Manhattan’s streets. The tallest Christmas tree at the Center was in 1999, a Norway spruce from Connecticut, 100 feet tall. Since 1999, the tree has come from one of four states – New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, or Pennsylvania.
Answer
• The Surinam toad method of reproduction is unique in the animal world. The female releases eggs, and the eggs are fertilized by the male, who then rolls them into holes on the mother's back. Skin soon grows over the holes, offering protection to the eggs as they develop through the tadpole stage. Once the young ones have become toadlets, they literally punch through their mother's skin to emerge on their own into the world.
• An eight-ton bronze sculpture of the Greek Titan Prometheus bringing fire to mankind was installed in early 1934 and is a prominent feature in the plaza. On Christmas Day, 1936, the Center’s ice skating rink was opened. Its popularity has grown to the point that today over a quarter million people skate there every year.
• Popcorn may be indelibly associated with movie theaters these days, but that wasn't always the case; in the early days of the movies, when the films were still silent, popcorn was actually banned in theaters. The first movie theaters were swanky affairs trying to compete with traditional theaters. The owners didn't want to have popcorn spilled on the fine upholstery and ground into the carpets.
King CROSSWORD
• It was noted Major League Baseball player and manager Yogi Berra who made the following sage observation: "You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."