Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Even though Christmas is behind us, I want to share the following item from the Dartmouth College Special Collections Library's blog. It discusses the origins of the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, who was created by Robert May '26. Quite a neat story, especially the way in which May received back the copyright from the Montgomery Ward Company. You can read all about it here. Frosty the Snowman, that inveterate subversive, tellingly shares no such noble origin.

The final two days of December saw that annual Upper Valley event, the Ledyard National Bank Men's Hockey Classic. In the past I have been home for winter break during this four-team, two-round tournament, but this year I had the opportunity to attend all four games. In addition to Dartmouth and ECAC foe Colgate, Mercyhurst College and defending national champions Boston College rounded out the field. In the end, Boston College emerged victorious, defeating Mercyhurst 4-1 in the championship game. I had fun, even though Dartmouth finished in third place. And it's not every day you get to see a shootout in college hockey.

Now that January has arrived, I have tallied up my 2010 reading list. In the end I read twenty four books, not counting material for paramedic school. I finished at least one book in every month except April; July was my most prolific reading month, with six books finished, and there were six months in which I only finished a single book. It would seem my pleasure reading comes in spurts! I am already nearly a quarter of the way through Mutiny on the Bounty (which is also on the list of books made into Best Picture-winning movies), and I'm hoping to hit the ground running in 2011.

In other news, I read last week that at the worst point in Christmas weekend's blizzard, New York City dispatchers were holding 1,300 EMS calls (that is, they were backlogged by that number of requests for emergency medical service). It's difficult--and often pointless--to assign blame in such situations, but it's sad nonetheless.