First, some good news about our economy that defies the belief of the voting public, for   62% disapprove of President Joe Biden's job dealing with the economy .  Well: Wall Street  capped its eighth straight winning week with a quiet finish Friday, following reports showing inflation on the way down and the economy potentially on the way up. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% to sit less than 1% below its record set nearly two years ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 18 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite edged 0.2% higher. On Friday, December 13, the Dow closed above 37,000 for the first time, an all-time record .  On Tuesday, the Dow closed at 37,542, now the all-time high.  The next day the  Dow reached 37,633 , closing Friday at 37,393.   On January 5, 2022, it almost reached 36,953, which was the all-time high until this month . The next three days will be devoted to Christmas, non-traditional, but hopefully memorable.  Most of us have grown up with Christma

 How much do you really know about Santa Claus?   To begin , historians identify Bishop Nicholas of Myra, who was born around the year 260 in what is today southwestern Turkey, as the first Santa Claus.  He was known to be a miracle maker, and was known as the patron saint of schoolchildren. But it took until the end of the 11th century for his relics to be transferred to Italy for the cult to begin. The Feast of Saint Nicholas (this painting by Jan Steen in the 17th century) was welcomed in the Netherlands, which spread the tradition. Around this time, Dutch Calvinists fleeing religious persecution set sail for what became Nieuw Amsterdam, later named New York.  But Sinterklaas was introduced to the New World.  He was also called De Goedheiligman (The Good Holy Man), so who knows where this would have gone if it had prevailed. His Dutch name was Americanized to Santa Claus, as a symbol of resistance against the British around the time of the 1776 Revolution. In 1809 Washington Irving