The Federal Reserve Board proposed rules Monday November 16 requiring more disclosure of gift card fees and more restrictions on expiration dates. While the final rules wouldn’t take effect until next August, an effort is already underway to get the rules in place in time for the holiday season. New York Senator Charles Schumer, who introduced legislation in the Senate to reform gift card rules, said in a statement that the new rules “are the right step, but it would be far better for them to take effect in time for this holiday shopping season. We will continue to push the Fed to speed up the effective date so that we end abuses by gift card issuers as soon as possible.” The Federal Reserve Board said it is following the time line outlined in the related legislation, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009. The Fed will accept comments on the proposed rules for 30 days, and then review them before issuing its final rules. http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/why-new-gift-card-rules-wont-take-effect-until-next-summer/
Robert G. Heft, the "Betsy Ross" of America's 50-star flag, died on December 12. In 1958, a history teacher assigned Heft and his classmates at Lancaster (Ohio) High School to each redesign the national banner to recognize Alaska and Hawaii, both nearing statehood. Heft, who was 16 at the time, crafted a new flag from an old 48-star flag and $2.87 worth of blue cloth and white iron-on material. His creation earned him a B-minus. Heft's teacher later changed that grade to an A after Heft's flag was sent to Washington, D.C., and selected by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Heft was one of thousands to submit a flag design with alternating rows of five and six stars. But apparently he was the only person who actually stitched together a flag and shipped it to D.C. His design became the official national flag in 1960. Born in Saginaw, Heft joined his grandparents in Lancaster after his parents separated when he was about a year old. He returned to Saginaw after retiring from Northwest State Community College in Archbold, Ohio, where he was a professor. He also served as mayor of Napoleon, Ohio, for 20 years. http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/12/13/heft.ART0_ART_12-13-09_B7_6JFVUOQ.html?sid=101
Quote
I’m obsessed with color—never saw one I didn’t like.
Dale Chihuly (b. 1941) American artist

Final C
Words ending in C with the hard sound of K ? add K before I, Y or E; Picnic, picnicking; panic, panicky; traffic, trafficking; mimic, mimicked.
Plurals
(a) When a noun ends in Y preceded by a consonant, the plural is formed by changing Y to I and adding ES (to the singular): variety, varieties; monopoly, monopolies. (b) When a noun ends in Y preceded by a vowel, the plural is formed by adding S to the singular: holiday, holidays; journey, journeys; attorney, attorneys. (c) When a noun ends in O, the plural in most cases is formed by adding S to the singular: piano, pianos; ratio, ratios. Sometimes the plural is formed by adding ES to the singular: potato, potatoes; veto, vetoes. (d) When a noun ends in F or FE the plural in most cases is formed by adding S to the singular: sheriff, sheriffs; plaintiff, plaintiffs; staff, staffs; safe safes. Sometimes the plural is formed by changing F or FE to V and adding ES: knife, knives; shelf, shelves. (e) The plural is formed in some nouns by a vowel change instead of by the addition of a suffix: goose, geese; man, men; mouse, mice, foot, feet. (f) Some words retain their original Greek or Latin plural forms. The singular and plural forms are given here: analysis, analyses; basis, bases; Phenomenon, phenomena; parenthesis, parentheses; hypotheses, hypotheses. Certain Latin words are almost always used in the plural such as data and incunabula. (g) Some nouns are rarely if ever used in the singular: annals, athletics, clothes, nuptials, scissors. (h) In compound nouns the plural is usually added to the last member, but sometimes the first member: passerby, passersby; son-in-law, sons-in-law; coat of arms, coats of arms; court martial, courts martial.
http://www.spellingbeeofcanada.ca/pages/guide/guide_canadawide.php
"Democrat Party" has been used from time to time by opponents of the Democratic Party and sometimes by others. The earliest known use of the term, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was by a London stock-market analyst, who wrote in 1890, "Whether a little farmer from South Carolina named Tillman is going to rule the Democrat Party in America – yet it is this, and not output, on which the proximate value of silver depends."[3] The term was used by Herbert Hoover in 1932, and in the late 1930s by Republicans who used it to criticize Democratic big city machines run by powerful political bosses in what they considered undemocratic fashion. Republican leader Harold Stassen later said, regarding his use in the 1940s, "I emphasized that the party controlled in large measure at that time by Hague in New Jersey, Pendergast in Missouri and Kelly-Nash in Chicago should not be called a 'Democratic Party.' It should be called the 'Democrat Party.'"[2] . The noun-as-adjective has been used by Republican leaders since the 1940s and appears in most GOP national platforms since 1948.[4] In 1947, Republican leader Senator Robert A. Taft said, "Nor can we expect any other policy from any Democrat Party or any Democrat President under present day conditions. They cannot possibly win an election solely through the support of the solid South, and yet their political strategists believe the Southern Democrat Party will not break away no matter how radical the allies imposed upon it."[5] President Dwight D. Eisenhower used the term in his acceptance speech in 1952 and in partisan speeches to Republican groups.[6] Ruth Walker notes how Joseph McCarthy repeatedly used the phrase "the Democrat Party," and critics argue that if McCarthy used the term in the 1950s, then no one else should do so.[7] In 1996, the wording "Democratic Party" was removed throughout the Republican party platform. In August 2008, the Republican platform committee voted down a proposal to use the phrase "Democrat Party" in the 2008 platform, deciding to use the proper "Democratic Party". "We probably should use what the actual name is," said Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, the panel's chairman. "At least in writing."[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(phrase)
Birthday Shopping Spree We had a wonderful thing just happen at Book Passage. A woman named Diana Phillips gave her partner, Diane Allevato, 63 minutes of shopping here for books for her 63rd birthday. Diane came in with lists (she prepared for weeks), her partner used a timer and off she went. I was given notice and did some decorating beforehand and had signs made welcoming her. I was allowed to help her by pulling titles and suggesting others I thought she'd like, and Elaine Petrocelli pushed the cart and also helped find some titles already selected. They also brought two friends, and after it was over we treated them to candlelight dinner in our cafe with several courses and fine wine, white tablecloth, etc. Diane ended up with 73 books Sheryl Cotleur, the buyer at Book Passage, Corte Madera, Calif.
http://news.shelf-awareness.com/ar/theshelf/2009-12-04/cool_idea_of_the_day_birthday_shopping_spree.html

Library Christmas tree 2006 made of books See picture at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donaldist/1803976340/

The Wall Street Journal on Dec. 1 has an interesting article on electronic book readers. "E-Readers: They're Hot Now, But the Story Isn't Over." By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER. LibreDigital Inc., a distributor of e-books for publishers, says the overwhelming majority of e-book buyers are women who read e-books on an ordinary computer screen, mostly between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. A growing number of readers are also perusing books on cellphones. Indeed, many e-book readers place limits on how and where consumers can use them. Only the Nook allows people to share some of their books with a friend by wirelessly transmitting them—and even then, you can share each book just once and only for 14 days. And only Sony's Readers make it easy to check out free books from Overdrive Inc., the e-book service used by many public libraries.
The e-book market is also caught up in a format war, with different companies limiting their devices to certain kinds of e-books, with file types such as .azw and mobipocket on the Kindle and .epub and Adobe Digital Editions on Sony. As a result, there's no guarantee an e-book bought from one online store will work on devices sold by a competitor.

The Oyez Project is a Web site devoted to the U.S. Supreme Court: http://www.oyez.org/

Abandoning some of the best known names in trade publishing, the Nielsen Company said that it would shut down Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews, and sell a stable of other publications, including Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, to a newly formed media company. Nielsen’s plans to sell had been reported for months, but the news that E&P and Kirkus would close at the end of the year was a surprise.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/business/media/11nielsen.html