Happy Holidays!

Did you know that the British more commonly say "Happy Christmas!", while Americans tend to say "Merry Christmas!"? Strange, that.

In any case, we at the BLC wish you a happy holiday, no matter what your beliefs are.

Christmas quiz

holly

candy cane

mistletoe

How much do you know about some of the symbols of Christmas?

Take the Wilstar Christmas Quiz and find out.

The Snowman

A British Christmas class, Raymond Brigg's The Snowman is a lovely story. There's even a film version, which is usually shown on television at Christmastime. The Snowman Web site has a Snowman game you can play.

The American version, while not the same story, would be Frosty the Snowman. It's based on a song, and a cartoon of the story is always on TV during the holiday season.

Here are the first two verses of the song:

Frosty the Snowman
Was a jolly happy soul
With a corncob pipe and a button nose
And two eyes made out of coal

Frosty the Snowman
Is a fairytale they say
He was made of snow
But the children know
How he came to life one day

Read the entire song.

You can even make your own snowman with the Frosty Fabricator!

Girl/Gal Friday

The other day in class, one of my students mentioned that she and a co-worker were the office "gal Fridays" and it got me thinking about the origens of the expression. I thought I knew what it was, but I wasn't entirely sure. Turns out I was right. It is originally based on Man Friday a character from Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, one of those great classics of English literature that I have never read.

Has anyone read the book? What did you think of it? If you haven't read it, why not check it out at Project Gutenberg?

An Inconvenient Truth

A couple of weeks ago, I saw An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary on Al Gore and his quest to get people (individuals and governments) to take urgent action regarding global warming. I found it quite interesting, and it made me want to do more myself. Here are some things you can do at home.

What do you do for the environment?