Chicken pox is old news

Ottawa Hospital for skin cancer check. Had two actinic keratosis spots frozen off, since they can mutate into squamous cell cancer (not a high concern cancer) , but otherwise OK. Two doctors in their twenties looked me over very professionally and gave good advice on avoiding the sun (hat, shirt) and upping the SPF on sun tan lotion to 50. I told them I'd had chicken pox in case there was anything that looked like shingles. They both said 'chicken pox!' as if I was talking about a long forgotten disease. Since the vaccine was released around 2000 chicken pox cases in Canada have dropped from ten of thousands to a few hundred each year, and I don't think either doctor had seen a case in real life. 

Celebratory automatic gunfire on the St. Lawrence, New Year's 2025

The usual gunfire to welcome in the New Year. The sounds are coming from both the US and Canadian sides of the St. Lawrence.

Happy New Year!

Postcard from 1936

 Santa: Well So Long Pals! I'll see you next year/Old 1935 in outhouse/Baby 1936: For the love o'Pete! Old Drizzle Beard Make It Snappy I'm Next

Copyright 1935 Caption: The Same old Crap, Greetings

Christmas Day sunset, 2024

 

Jimmy Carter 1924-2024

 Jimmy Carter died today. Although he's most famous for being US president he also help save a nuclear plant that had melted down and was on the river that flowed past Ottawa.

Jimmy Carter as midshipman, date unknown

 Naval History and Heritage Command Photo Archives Branch, photo no. L38-14.02.01.

Chalk River Laboratories is a nuclear research plant in Deep River, Ontario, 180 km up the Ottawa River from Ottawa, Canada's capital. In December 1952 the control rods were accidently removed and three jammed, causing the reactor to overheat and flood the containment building. Carter was doing working on a nuclear submarine program in Schenectady, NY, not far from Ontario, and he and 150 other US Navy personell came to Chalk River. Carter and his team worked to dismantle the reactor in an environment with so much radiation they could only stay in the building for 90 seconds. He was told that due to his exposure to radiation, he would not be able to have children, but he went on to have four.

How a future U.S. president helped avert nuclear disaster near Canada's capital - CBC News, 2021

He came back to Canada several times, including one stint building affordable houses in Kitchener, Ontario in 1993 with Habitat for Humanity. He also corrected the impression left by the 2012 film Argo that the CIA operative did everything in extracting the US embassy staff from Tehran when most of the work was done by Canadians.

Merry Christmas 2024!

There was a postal strike this year so I didn't mail out any cards!

I did a story on Christmas Day in 1993 or 1994 about the Cappuccinos, a family that had adopted 21 children. They're still around!

 

Eggnog à la belge

 

Eggnog made with buttermilk and crème fraîche. I read that Marguerite Yourcenar drank it every day so I looked for Belgian recipes and got this from RTBF. Sweet and sour.