Big Shot Birthdays and Special Events for the weekend ahead:
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16 _ Marg Helgenberger (CSI: Vegas) is 66 (in 2024) • Lisa Bonet is 57 (in 2024) • Martha Plimpton (Mass, The Real O’Neals) is 54 (in 2024) • Missi Pyle (Gone Girl, DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story) is 52 (in 2024) • Brandi Glanville (Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) is 52 (in 2024) • Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Deuce, The Dark Knight) is 47 (in 2024) • Kimberly J. Brown (Halloweentown, Guiding Light) is 40 (in 2024) • Pete Davidson (Saturday Night Live) is 31 (in 2024)
SPECIAL EVENTS _ International Day for Tolerance • Have a Party With Your Bear Day • Check Your Wipers Day • Button Day • Fast Food Day
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17 _ Director Martin Scorsese is 82 (in 2024) • Lauren Hutton is 81 (in 2024) • Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels is 80 (in 2024) • Danny DeVito is 80 (in 2024) • Stephen Root (King of the Hill, NewsRadio) is 73 (in 2024) • RuPaul is 64 (in 2024) • Dylan Walsh (Nip/Tuck, Brooklyn Bridge) is 61 (in 2024) • Daisy Fuentes is 58 (in 2024) • Leslie Bibb (ER, Popular, Christine Everhart in Iron Man movies) is 50 (in 2024) • Rachel McAdams (Mean Girls, Wedding Crashers, The Notebook) is 46 (in 2024) • Tom Ellis (Lucifer) is 46 (in 2024)
SPECIAL EVENTS _ International Students’ Day • Baklava Day • Butter Day • Take a Hike Day • Unfriend Day • The Little Mermaid Day • World Prematurity Day • World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims • World Peace Day • Farm Joke Day
TIME’S PERSON OF THE YEAR _ As of now, there is no official announcement regarding Time’s 2024 Person of the Year, but we’ll likely know in the first week of December.
• 2023: Taylor Swift
• 2022: Volodymyr Zelensky
• 2021: Elon Musk
• 2020: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
• 2019: Greta Thunberg
… Time selects its Person of the Year based on the individual, group, idea, or object that has had the most significant influence on global events over the past 12 months, whether for better or worse. Some are suggesting ath Artificial Intelligence could be the choice this year, reflecting its growing influence in 2024.
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS _ A bit of history.
• Prior to the 1880s, Christmas trees were lit by candles. However, this changed thanks to Thomas Edison and his colleague Edward Johnson. After Edison patented the light bulb in 1880, Johnson hand-wired 80 red, white, and blue bulbs and strung them together around a tree in New York City, creating the first electric Christmas light display.
• The first Christmas lights were quite expensive. In 1900 a string of 16 bulbs sold for a pricey $12 — about $350 in today’s money. By 1914, a 16-foot string cost just $1.75.
• Today, an estimated 150 million light sets are sold in America each year. They light 80 million homes and consume 6 percent of the nation’s electrical load each December.
• In 1894, President Grover Cleveland put electric lights on the White House tree, making him the first president to do so. This act played a significant role in popularizing the use of electric Christmas lights.
