Can't we have both- Whiskey and the Pope?

I'll drink to that.
In fact, I am drinking to that.

Don't you think Oklahoma is a special case

in that it was "Indian Territory" and then opened on one particular day to settlers who rushed in, presumably mainly from southern states?

I believe, not just in regard to OK but to many states, that people move into a region and, if they are unaffiliated or not strong believers in the religion they were raised in, join the church/religion of the majority already there.

It seems that Irish Catholics who moved to the rural South in the nineteenth century, finding no RC priests or churches, gravitated to the prevailing churches.

I called Pope Francis on Nov. 24 for Time's Person

of the Year.
On the Catholicism & Orthodox Christianity group.
No prize, though, unless they let me put another DUer on Ignore (as necessary)

Rouhani? Only if he's a troublemaker by then

and I'm not hoping for that!

Edward Snowden was the runner-up

Time representatives have said it was a close call.
Both men were largely unknown one year ago and both have had a large impact on the entire world within the last year.

Well, what do you think, kids? Are we prescient or not? nt

I personally think someone other than Mark Mallory, but that's just me.

Alicia Reece is a State Senator from the Cincinnati area and has served on city council. Not sure if she is savvy enough or esteemed enough in her community, though her father, Steve Reece, is a mover and shaker, I believe.

Ted Berry Jr. is a local judge, the son of the first black mayor of Cincinnati, the late Ted Berry, who is/was something of an icon in his community.

Perhaps there are others in Dayton or Columbus, of whom I'm not aware.

That's a good idea I'll use.

I knew honey was good for that purpose, but didn't think about it this year.

Incidentally, have you heard anything about a lot of honey now available in the US coming from China? Which means, I guess, that it may be adulterated or not as pure as we would like?
I know that honey local to one's home area is always considered the best for what ails you; that type is often more costly.

I'm still a bourbon drinker

I have used very little alcohol for many years, but just in the last month, with the premature cold weather and a little sniffle, I've had a hot toddy most evenings. Bourbon, lemon juice, sweetener, hot water. MMMM nice.

I'm just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, and my brother went to school in Bardstown, home of distilleries.

I guess Elian didn't get the memo that his President Raul Castro

and the U.S. President Barack Obama were making nice in South Africa.
(And I'm glad they did.)