Sunday, November 23, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving trivia:
The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt restored the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day in the year 1939. FDR did so to make the Christmas shopping season longer and thus help to stimulate the economy.
The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition began in the 1920's.
Californians are the largest consumers of turkey in the United States.
There were an estimated 272 million turkeys raised in the United States last year.
Top turkey producing states:
Minnesota: 46 million / North Carolina: 39 million / Arkansas: 31 million / Virginia: 21.5 million / Missouri: 21 million / and California: 16.8 million. These six states together will account for about two-thirds of U.S. turkeys produced.

Cranberries:
The U.S. will produce ~ 690 million pounds of cranberries. Wisconsin is expected to lead all states in the production of cranberries, with 390 million pounds, followed by Massachusetts (180 million).
New Jersey, Oregon and Washington are also expected to have substantial production,
ranging from 18 million to 52 million pounds.

Pumpkins:
There are approximately 1 billion pounds of pumpkins grown in the U.S. The value of all the pumpkins produced by major pumpkin-producing states was approximately $101 million.
Cherries:
If you prefer cherry pie, you will be pleased to learn that our
nation’s forecasted tart cherry production totals 294 million pounds.
Of this total, the overwhelming majority (230 million) will be produced in Michigan.

Name that instrument
(Answer to last week’s quiz) It is one of the most recent additions
to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th
century, when it largely replaced the ‘ophicleide.’ The answer is the instrument which was the single most important influence in the history of instrumental music. It is the perfect blend of power and grace. The answer is the Tuba.


Thanksgiving History
The first official Thanksgiving Proclamation made by the American colonies, which rebelled against the Crown of England was issued by the Continental Congress in 1777. Six national Proclamations of Thanksgiving were issued in the first thirty years after the founding of the United States of America as an independent federation of States. President George Washington issued two, President John Adams issued two, President Thomas Jefferson made none and President James Madison issued two. In 1789 Washington designated a national thanksgiving holiday for the newly ratified Constitution, specifically so that that the people may thank God for “affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness” and for having “been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed...” After 1815 there were no more Thanksgiving Proclamations until the Presidency of Lincoln, who declared Thanksgiving a Federal holiday as a “prayerful day of Thanksgiving” on the last Thursday in November.

Bud: (716) 934-7734, email: tubamanbud@gmail.com
For choir / chorus or church music updates:
www.frombudsworld.blogspot.com

Key to success


"The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided."

~ Casey Stengel