MUSIC VIDEO: Gallows Pole LED ZEPPELIN - Country News Cookies

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WHITE CHRISTMAS! Hermann Missouri Snow Warning 2-5 inches possible

CLICK ON WEATHER BOX ABOVE (above News Stories) OR JUST ENTER YOUR ZIP CODE FOR YOUR CURRENT UP TO DATE CONDITIONS AND EXTENDED FORECAST!!!
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Winter Weather Advisory Statement as of 10:45 AM CST on December 24, 2010 ... Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect until 6 am CST Saturday... A Winter Weather Advisory for snow remains in effect until 6 am CST Saturday. * Timing... occasional snow will continue through this evening... tapering off to flurries later tonight. * Accumulations... 2 to 5 inches of total snowfall is expected... with some locally higher amounts possible. * Winds... winds will be easterly between 5 and 10 mph with this system... before shifting to the north later tonight. * Impacts... most roadways are covered or partially covered by snow... with slick spots... especially on bridges and overpasses. Therefore it is important to exercise extra caution if traveling today. Those planning Holiday travel across the region should closely monitor the latest forecasts and information pertaining to this storm. Precautionary/preparedness actions... A Winter Weather Advisory means that up to 5 inches of snow is expected across the advisory area. Roads may rapidly become slippery once the snow begins... so motorists should plan for a slower than normal trip. Be especially alert when approaching bridges... overpasses... and curves. Local Storm Report 12/24/2010 1025 am Rosebud, Gasconade County. Snow m1.8 inch, reported by co-op observer.             Snow has stopped at this time

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Video Updated  at  11:46 AM
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Hourly Forecast for Friday HERMANN MO

HOUR		Fri 1PM	Fri 2PM	Fri 3PM	Fri 4PM	Fri 5PM	Fri 6PM	Fri 7PM	Fri 8PM	Fri 9PM
SKY
CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION		High	High	High	High	High	High	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
TEMP (F)		31°	31°	31°	30°	30°	30°	29°	29°	29°
WIND CHILL(F)		26°	26°	26°	25°	-	-	-	25°	25°
DEWPOINT (F)		31°	31°	31°	30°	30°	30°	29°	28°	28°
HUMIDITY		100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	99%	97%	96%
WIND (MPH)		SE 5	SE 5	SE 5	SE 5	E 1	E 1	E 1	NE 3	NE 3

 

Roads clear so far, MoDOT says, but more snow is coming - Missouri Christmas Eve Snow

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Gasconade County east of Hermann Missouri (2pm)

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Roads clear so far, MoDOT says, but more snow is coming

 BY GEORGINA GUSTIN AND SUSAN WEICH 

Kara Price, a Missouri Department of Transportation spokesperson, said Friday afternoon that roads were mostly clear, except for some trouble spots on Interstate 55 near Festus.
Temperatures at or around freezing meant roads were not slick, but with more snow accumulation predicted for the afternoon and temperatures expected to drop, officials were urging travelers to use caution and get to their destinations earlier.
Crews had been out since 6 a.m. and will be working through the day and night.
"We're trying to get the roads safe and passable for Christmas," Price said.

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CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION RECORD NUMBERS FLOCK TO BETHLEHEM Video Slideshow

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Manger Square Bethlehem

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Xmas joy mixed with threats for Mideast Christians

Christians in the Middle East prepared on Friday to celebrate Christmas, some in fear of attacks against their community, as in Iraq, and others in the most discreet way possible, as in Saudi Arabia.For Iraq's battered Christian community, threats of attacks from Al-Qaeda and mourning for the victims of an October massacre at a Baghdad church have turned a normally festive season into one of fear and sadness.
Many mass gatherings in Iraq were cancelled on Friday, and Saturday services will be held during the morning for safety reasons.
Security measures have been stepped up after Al-Qaeda threats against Christians, with protective walls erected around some churches and the number of soldiers and police guarding churches strengthened.
On October 31, militants laid siege to Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation church, leaving 44 worshippers, two priests and seven security forces personnel dead in an attack claimed by Al-Qaeda affiliate the Islamic State of Iraq.
Ten days later a string of attacks targeted the homes of Christians in Baghdad, killing six people and wounding 33 others.
On Friday, Chaldean Catholic archbishop Monsignor Louis Sarko said in a message from Kirkuk that Iraqi Christians must remain steadfast, despite their fears.
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Hermann Missouri High School Girls Volleyball Team Mentioned as Perennial Power on St Louis Web Site

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by Dennis Barnidge

Surprise run to baseball title is Jefferson County's top story

Here are 2010's top 10 stories for Jefferson County:

2. LANCERS CHALLENGE FOR TITLE

St. Pius X was the favorite to win its Class 2 volleyball district. After that, the Lancers were one of the pleasant surprises of the state tournament.
St. Pius became the second Jefferson County team in 15 years - and the sixth since the state tournament started in 1975 - to play in the state championship match. The Lancers ran into perennial power Hermann in the title match, and for the second time in two days they fell to Hermann. St. Pius was overwhelmed by Hermann in the round-robin semifinals 25-8, 25-16, but turned in a much stronger showing in the title match, losing 25-18, 25-20. For Herman it was the fifth state title in the last 10 years. St. Pius finished the year 25-10-3.
The Lancers' postseason run was powered by the hitting of Amelia Held. The sophomore was the kills leader in the Class 2 finals, edging Hermann's Shelby Winkelmann for honors 55-47. Held and Winkelmann were the leading hitters in the metro area during the fall season, with Held finishing with 474 kills and Winkelmann with 472.
In addition to getting a big tournament effort from Held, the Lancers also got a boost from seniors Amanda Held, the Lancers' No. 2 hitter, and Olivia Richardson, the setter.

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STOCKS SOAR: Pre-Christmas rally pushes shares to biggest gains in decade

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US hopes cheer markets

A powerful end-of-year stock market rally has sent equities to their highest levels since the collapse of Lehman Brothers more than two years ago, with hopes for the US recovery encouraging investors to pull billions of dollars out of bonds.The pre-Christmas rally has propelled leading US and European shares to their biggest December gains in a decade and pushed London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index through the 6,000 level on Thursday for the first time since June 2008.

The FTSE All-World index rose to 216.73, up 0.2 per cent, its highest level since September 2008. Even as Fitch downgraded Portugal’s sovereign debt, investors voiced optimism that stronger economic growth next year would lead to further gains. More money is pouring into equities than at any time in the last four years.

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MUSIC FLASHBACK 40 YEARS AGO: GEORGE HARRISON'S 'MY SWEET LORD' HITS NUMBER ONE

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It was 40 years ago Sunday (December 26th, 1970) that George Harrison scored the first Number One hit by an ex-Beatle with his single "My Sweet Lord," which went on to top the charts for four weeks. The tune, which he had first produced as a gospel song for good friend Billy Preston, was the first single from Harrison's triple album All Things Must Pass -- which itself went on to top the album charts on January 2nd, 1971 for a whopping seven weeks.

Harrison recalled recording "My Sweet Lord" in his 1980 "song biography" titled I Me Mine, admitting, "I thought a lot about whether to do 'My Sweet Lord' or not, because I would be committing myself publicly (to my beliefs) and I anticipated that a lot of people might get weird about it. Many people fear the words 'Lord' and 'God.' (It) makes them angry for some reason."

It's recently been revealed that "My Sweet Lord" turned out to be a mini-Beatles reunion of sorts. Ringo Starr and future Derek & the Dominoes member Jim Gordon drum on the track, along with Apple band Badfinger on acoustic guitars and none other than John Lennon strumming along himself. In a recent Beatlefan magazine interview, Harrison's longtime friend and bassist Klaus Voormann stated that Lennon actually performs on the track.

Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison says that some critics and fans misinterpreted George's spiritual lyrics as being so serious that they bordered on preachy. She says that George often used his songs as his own form of spiritual guidance: "He also wrote these things to remind himself. People sometimes accused him of preaching (laughs). But you know, he was really preaching to himself. He wasn't trying to say, 'You be like this because I'm already like this.' No, he was always trying to remind himself. And that's the reason he liked India so much, because he said that, 'Everywhere you went, there was a reminder.'"

FAST FACTS

Although the song's double-tracked slide guitar riff became a Harrison trademark, Harrison always performed it on acoustic guitar when playing the song live. During his 1971 Concert For Bangladesh performances Eric Clapton and Jesse Ed Davis handled the slide guitar duties. On his 1974 North American tour Robben Ford played the lead, and on Harrison's 1991 tour of Japan, Eric Clapton reprised his signature solo.

Former Beatles manager Allen Klein bought the rights to the Bright Tunes Music catalogue in 1976 and sued Harrison for ripping off the 1963 Chiffons hit "He's So Fine." Harrison, who testified with a guitar in his hand to demonstrate how he stumbled upon the tune, was eventually found guilty of "subconscious plagiarism" and ordered to pay $587,000.

In 2001, Harrison and his son Dhani re-recorded the song for inclusion on the 30th anniversary edition of All Things Must Pass. All proceeds from the new version went to Harrison's Living In The Material World Charitable Foundation


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Popular Culture Myth: Did 'Shrooms Send Santa And His Reindeer Flying?

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The hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria. Harvard biologist Donald Pfister claims that both people and reindeer ate the mushrooms. "Reindeers flying — are they flying, or are your senses telling you they're flying because you're hallucinating?" he says.
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Children across the land on Christmas Eve will nestle all snug in their beds to hear the classic poem "The Night Before Christmas." There's a parallel tradition on the Harvard campus at this time of year. Students and faculty gather to hear the story of Santa Claus and the psychedelic mushrooms.
I stumbled upon this curious blend of biology and fable during a wintry campus visit to Harvard's Farlow Reference Library and Herbarium a few years ago.
Curator and biology professor Donald Pfister greeted me in a majestic room, filled with glass display cases, folios and portraits. It's a short tour — no time even to peek into the rooms that contain 1.5 million specimens of fungi, algae, lichens, mosses and liverworts.


Flying Reindeer, Or 'Flying' Reindeer?

He explained that back in 1967 an amateur scholar named R. Gordon Wasson published a book arguing that Amanita muscaria was used in ancient ceremonies by shamans in the Far East. Other scholars then chimed in, noting that in Siberia, both the shamans — and the reindeer — were known to eat these mushrooms. Man and beast alike hallucinated.
You can see the Christmas connections, Pfister said.
"This idea [is] that reindeer go berserk because they're eating Amanita muscaria," Pfister said. "Reindeers flying — are they flying, or are your senses telling you they're flying because you're hallucinating?"
Look at the Christmas decorations here, he said.
"We use — all over the Western world at least — these Christmas ornaments [which] have Amanita muscaria or other mushrooms."
And finally, he said, consider the color schemes.
"So here's a red fungus with white spots. And Santa Claus was dressed in red with white trim."
Add it all up and what do you get? Pringle connected the dots: "People are flying. The mushroom turns into a happy personification named Santa."
She said it with a laugh, but the connection between psychedelic mushrooms and the Santa story has gradually woven itself into popular culture, at least the popular culture of mycology, mushroom science.
So every year, when Christmas draws near, Pfister gathers the students in his introductory botany class, and, no doubt with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, tells the tale of Santa and the psychedelic mushrooms.


The Real Santa?


Now some say that certain stories are simply too wondrous to question in this magical season. Others have no such compunction, like Ronald Hutton, a history professor at the University of Bristol.
"If you look at the evidence of Siberian shamanism, which I've done," Hutton said, "you find that shamans didn't travel by sleigh, didn't usually deal with reindeer spirits, very rarely took the mushrooms to get trances, didn't have red and white clothes."
And they didn't even run around handing out gifts.
"The Santa Claus we know and love was invented by a New Yorker, it really is true," Hutton said. "It was the work of Clement Clarke Moore, in New York City in 1822, who suddenly turned a medieval saint into a flying, reindeer-driving spirit of the Northern midwinter."
And Moore brought that beloved Santa Claus to life in his poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas,"  otherwise known as "The Night Before Christmas."
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An 1860 copy of the Clement Clarke Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," which begins: "'Twas the the night before Christmas, when all through the house / Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

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Grateful World War II Pilot who forever repaid rescuers dies at 94

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LINCOLN, Nebraska – Fred Hargesheimer, a World War II Army pilot whose rescue by Pacific islanders led to a life of giving back as a builder of schools and teacher of children, died Thursday morning. He was 94. Richard Hargesheimer said his father had been suffering from poor health and passed away in Lincoln.
On June 5, 1943, Hargesheimer, a P-38 pilot with the 8th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, was shot down by a Japanese fighter while on a mission over the Japanese-held island of New Britain in the southwest Pacific. He parachuted into the trackless jungle, where he barely survived for 31 days until found by local hunters.
They took him to their coastal village and for seven months hid him from Japanese patrols, fed him and nursed him back to health from two illnesses. In February 1944, with the help of Australian commandos working behind Japanese lines, he was picked up by a U.S. submarine off a New Britain beach.
After returning to the U.S. following the war, Hargesheimer got married and began a sales career with a Minnesota forerunner of computer maker Sperry Rand, his lifelong employer. But he said he couldn't forget the Nakanai people, who he considered his saviors.
After revisiting the village of Ea Ea in 1960, he came home, raised $15,000 over three years, "most of it $5 and $10 gifts," and then returned with 17-year-old son Richard in 1963 to contract for the building of the villagers' first school.
In the decades to come, Hargesheimer's U.S. fundraising and determination built a clinic, another school and libraries in Ea Ea, renamed Nantabu, and surrounding villages.
In 1970, their three children grown, Hargesheimer and his late wife, Dorothy, moved to New Britain, today an out-island of the nation of Papua New Guinea, and taught the village children themselves for four years. The Nantabu school's experimental plot of oil palm even helped create a local economy, a large plantation with jobs for impoverished villagers.
On his last visit, in 2006, Hargesheimer was helicoptered into the jungle and carried in a chair by Nakanai men to view the newly found wreckage of his World War II plane. Six years earlier, on another visit, he was proclaimed "Suara Auru," "Chief Warrior" of the Nakanai.

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Christmas Carol Wonderful Hallelujah Chorus: MERRY CHRISTMAS from Hermann MO News - Thank You for Your Support!!!

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A photography company said it wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas by surprising shoppers.

The company organized a flash mob to perform at the Welland Seaway Mall in Ontario last month. It begins with one woman jumping up and starting to sing Hallelujah in the food court. Then, a few more people join in. 

In the end, dozens of people serenade shoppers.
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WEB VIDEO: St. Louis Womens Chorale Flash Mob "Carol of the Bells" Holiday Treat for Shoppers Missouri

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One week before Christmas, members of the St. Louis Women's Chorale joined their voices in a surprise holiday treat for shoppers at the Schnucks supermarket in Des Peres, Missouri when they suddenly broke into song.


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