While gale-force winds, feet of snow, and blizzard bombardments can plunge a winter wonderland into a life-threatening deep freeze, there is an upside to the wintry weather: breathtaking images of the partially frozen Niagara Falls.

Rather than deter tourists, it seems the icy waterfalls are getting people out of their blankets and into their jackets to view the scene.

“The attention the Falls is receiving is bringing a crowd to view them in their majestic, winter splendor!” said Michelle Blackley, communications & community relations manager for the Falls.

The chilly conditions transformed the gush of water into a carpet of snow when temperatures dropped to -8.8°C (16°F) on Wednesday morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iuZuVqf7jE

• Foer started writing his first novel, the critically acclaimed Everything is Illuminated, as part of his senior thesis at Princeton University, New Jersey.
• The New Yorker magazine included Foer on its list of “20 Under 40,” young writers who were world-changers.
• Foer became a vegetarian activist and wrote a satiric piece about cooking and eating dogs.

• It’s impossible not to notice the similarities between the characters Oskar Schell (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) and Oskar Matzerath, the protagonist of Gunter Grass’s The Tin Drum. They’re both intelligent kids of German descent coping with trauma (Oskar M. never leaves home without his drum) who conjure up fantasies to deal with the horrible events they’ve witnessed. Foer was hugely influenced by this novel.
• Jonathan Safran Foer gave the 2013 commencement address at Middlebury College in Vermont. NPR included it on its list of “The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever.”  Below, is the video of that speech:

It stars Theatre Arts Teacher Scot Pankey and his students and they totally did an amazing job!

Jonathan Vega, the video’s editor and producer, wrote on YouTube that Pankey was the real mastermind behind the now-viral video.

“This is a great example of how a bunch of technology students let go of their fears, trusted their teacher and got down to Uptown Funk,” Vega wrote.

A. Maceo Smith New Tech High School is a magnet school with a focus on project-based learning and as far as projects go this is a pretty good one.

Not only was this the first White House “community” Christmas tree, but it was the first to be decorated with electric lights–a strand of 2,500 red, white and green bulbs. The balsam fir came from Coolidge’s home state of Vermont and stood 14.6 meters (48 feet) tall. Several musical groups performed at the tree-lighting ceremony, including the Epiphany Church Choir and the U.S. Marine Band.

At 17:00 on Christmas Eve, President Coolidge touched a button at the foot of the tree which lit the ornaments. Later that evening, President Coolidge and First Lady Grace were treated to carols sung by members of Washington D.C.’s First Congregational Church.

 On the fourth Thursday in November, families across the U.S. gather to feast on turkey. Below are some facts about this American holiday.

The first Thanksgiving was held in the autumn of 1621 and included 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians and lasted three days. Many historians believe that only five women were present at that first Thanksgiving, as many women settlers didn’t survive that difficult first year in the U.S.

Thanksgiving didn’t become a national holiday until over 200 years later! Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who actually wrote the classic song “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” convinced President Lincoln in 1863 to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, after writing letters for 17 years campaigning for this to happen.

No turkey was on the menu at the first Thanksgiving: Historians say that no turkey was served at the first Thanksgiving! What was on the menu? Deer, ducks, geese, oysters, lobster, eel and fish. They probably ate pumpkins, but no pumpkin pies. They also didn’t eat mashed potatoes or cranberry relish, but they probably ate cranberries.

No forks were at the first Thanksgiving! The first Thanksgiving was eaten with spoons and knives — but no forks! That’s right, forks weren’t even introduced to the Pilgrims until 10 years later and weren’t a popular utensil until the 18th century.

Why is Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November? President Abe Lincoln said Thanksgiving would be the fourth Thursday in November, but in 1939 President Roosevelt moved it up a week hoping it would help the shopping season during the Depression era. It never caught on and it was changed back two years later.

Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird, not the eagle.

Americans eat 46 million turkeys each Thanksgiving.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s first meal in space after walking on the moon was foil bags with roasted turkey.

The heaviest turkey on record, according to the Guinness Book of Records, weighs 39 kilograms (86 pounds).

Californians consume the most turkey in the U.S. on Thanksgiving Day!

Female turkeys (called hens) do not gobble. Only male turkeys gobble.

The average turkey for Thanksgiving weighs 6.8 kilograms (15 pounds).

On this day in 1954, Ellis Island, the gateway to America, shuts it doors after processing more than 12 million immigrants since opening in 1892. Today, an estimated 40 percent of all Americans can trace their roots through Ellis Island, located in New York Harbor off the New Jersey coast and named for merchant Samuel Ellis, who owned the land in the 1770s.

On January 2, 1892, 15-year-old Annie Moore, from Ireland, became the first person to pass through the newly opened Ellis Island, which President Benjamin Harrison designated as America’s first federal immigration center in 1890. Before that time, the processing of immigrants had been handled by individual states.

During the busiest year of operation, 1907, over 1 million people were processed at Ellis Island. With America’s entrance into World War I, immigration declined and Ellis Island was used as a detention center for suspected enemies. Following the war, Congress passed quota laws and the Immigration Act of 1924, which sharply reduced the number of newcomers allowed into the country and also enabled immigrants to be processed at U.S. consulates abroad.

After 1924, Ellis Island switched from a processing center to serving other purposes, such as a detention and deportation center for illegal immigrants, a hospital for wounded soldiers during World War II and a Coast Guard training center. In November 1954, the last detainee, a Norwegian merchant seaman, was released and Ellis Island officially closed.

Beginning in 1984, Ellis Island underwent a $160 million renovation, the largest historic restoration project in U.S. history. In September 1990, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum opened to the public and today is visited by almost 2 million people each year.