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Weather: Patchy fog in the morning. Partly cloudy. Highs in the mid 60s. West winds 5 to 10 mph. Monday Night: Partly cloudy. Lows in the lower 40s. West winds 5 to 10 mph, becoming northwest after midnight. See the daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
Today at a Glance:
Happy New Year.
In Coming Days:
Notably: From Statista: Planning to save more money is top of mind for many Americans making resolutions for 2024. Where in previous years the vows to exercise more, eat healthier and lose weight had come in top positions, now the financial goal has leapfrogged them to become the most commonly cited resolution this year. This is according to data from a Statista’s Consumer Insights survey. Slightly further down the list came the goal of reducing stress from work and spending less time on social media (both 19 percent), while less popular resolutions included cutting down on alcohol (13 percent) and becoming a vegetarian or a vegan (3 percent). In a similar vein to saving more money, one in four U.S. adults said they wanted to reduce their spendings on living expenses such as food and energy in the coming year. Looking further into U.S. savings habits, data from an earlier Statista survey found that in 2022, the three areas most commonly cut back on in times of high inflation and rising energy costs were contracts and subscriptions (66 percent), purchasing clothes (42 percent) and visiting bars, cafes and restaurants (39 percent).
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Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
For the full calendar, go here.
It was the ancient Romans, however, who decided to celebrate New Year’s on the first of January, a day when nothing special was happening in nature. At the time they had a calendar that divided the year into 10 months. The first month was March and the last was December. At the end of December, everyone stopped counting for 60 days until March got started. It was a very confusing policy. In 153 B.C., a Roman general noticed that the Egyptians had filled in the blank time with two new months and he mentioned it to the Roman Senate. The politicians loved it, immediately introduced January and February and marked the first of January as the official opening day of the New Year. This was an extraordinary change from the past. Suddenly it was Man taking charge over Nature. […] A baby in diapers is often used as an image, symbolizing the old Germanic idea of welcoming in the New Year “child” while ushering out the “old man” of last year. At my age, I’m not thrilled with that imagery, but in the interest of even-handed journalism I’m passing it along.
–From Burt Wolf’s “In our bubbly is our beginning,” Salon, Dec. 24, 1999.
