The weekly news update featuring Sinking of the Titanic
To all North Pole City Elves, those in Santa's Village, in the Lower 48 and all around the world, this is your weekly update for the week of April 10, 2023. I'm your host Walter "Mistletoe" Livingstone and I'm your co-host, Becky "Marshmallow" Livingstone, Let's go to press.
For the week of April 10, 2023 your sponsor will be Crystal's Candy Confections; Specializing in chocolate creations that are out of this world. You can find Crystal's at 2 Candy Cane Lane. This week, Crystal is featuring her Licorice. She has 10 flavors of licorice to choose from including the traditional red and black, but also she has orange cream and rootbeer among others. That is Crystal's Candy Confections.
Santa and his team have left the North Pole to travel to Easter Island to stop by and check on the Easter Bunny. He does this every year and sometimes, EB will come back with him to the North Pole to spend some time. We are not certain if EB will be returning this year, as he does not every year, but if he does will be let everyone know through announcements throughout the city.
Edward Hinklemyer will be touring the workshop and factories during Santa's absence and sending him reports each day until he returns back to North Pole City. Santa is not expected to be gone too long, but it is possible that it may be a few days before he returns. If anyone has any questions at all, please be sure to stop and ask Edward if you see him making his rounds.
The Division of WWW/PR has opened up the backend communication system through the TAOLF.com website so that the department can communicate more thoroughly and robustly over the Internet instead of through the security radio communications. This method has only been used a few times in the past, but it is more effective with communications to the other side of the planet.
This week in North Pole City Weather temperatures will be between -18 and -26 all week with the later part of the week will have the highest temperatures. There will be only 20% chances of snow all week, so we expect the week to be a dry one, but it will be a mostly sunny week so get outside and enjoy.
Everyone at NPC Radio is putting out a challenge to all the elves oll over NPC for Thursday. We will be playing in this week's Scrabble in the Yard event. Come out and play with us! Which of our radio personalities can you beat? If you beat us, you can win one of our WELF-NPC Radio Cocoa Mugs! So come out and see us on Thursday in City Center.
At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, the British ocean liner Titanic sank into the North Atlantic Ocean about 400 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada. The massive ship, carried 2,200 passengers and crew and had struck an iceberg two and half hours before.
The Titanic was designed by the Irish shipbuilder William Pirrie and built in Belfast. It was as high as an eleven-story building and nearly four city blocks long;, the Titanic was one of the largest and most magnificent ships in the world. It spanned 883 feet from stern to bow, and its hull was divided into 16 compartments that were presumed to be watertight.
On April 10, the RMS Titanic, one of the largest and most luxurious ocean liners ever built, departed Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.
Just before midnight on April 14, the RMS Titanic failed to divert its course from an iceberg and ruptured at least five of its hull compartments. These compartments filled with water and pulled down the bow of the ship. Because the Titanic's compartments were not capped at the top, water from the ruptured compartments filled each succeeding compartment, causing the bow to sink and the stern to be raised up to an almost vertical position above the water. Then the Titanic broke in half, and, at about 2:20 a.m. on April 15, stern and bow sank to the ocean floor.
A sent radio message from the illfated Titanic read, "We are sinking fast, passengers being put into boats."
Because of a shortage of lifeboats and the lack of satisfactory emergency procedures, more than 1,500 people went down in the sinking ship or froze in the icy North Atlantic waters. Most of the approximately 700 survivors were women and children. A number of notable American and British citizens died in the tragedy, including the heirs to the Straus, Astor and Guggenheim fortunes.
One hour and 20 minutes after Titanic went down, the Cunard liner Carpathia arrived. The survivors in the lifeboats were brought aboard, and a handful of others were pulled out of the water. It was later discovered that the Leyland liner Californian had been less than 20 miles away at the time of the accident, but had failed to hear the Titanic's distress signals because its radio operator was off duty.
In the disaster's aftermath, the first International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea was held in 1913. Rules were adopted requiring that every ship have enough lifeboat space for each person on board, and that lifeboat drills be held. An International Ice Patrol was also established to monitor icebergs in the North Atlantic shipping lanes. It also became required that ships maintain a 24-hour radio watch.
On September 1, 1985, a joint U.S.-French expedition located the wreck of the Titanic lying on the ocean floor at a depth of about 13,000 feet. The ship was explored by manned and unmanned submersibles, which shed new light on the details of its sinking.
The North Pole City Commerce Association will have booths set up this week on Thursday for Scrabble in the Yard Day. They will be providing lunch and beverages to all of the participants during the day. If you would like to sign up to be a member of the association, applications will be available at the associations booth. Make sure you stop by and pick one up.
A group from the North Pole City Sports League will be heading out this week to Polar Bear Lake to go through all of the storage for the items for this summer's reindeer games. If you would like to volunteer to go out and help out this group, you are welcome to stay with them in the North Pole City Sports League cabin. Food for the trip will be provided by the sports league. Just bring yourself, some personal items, and a change of clothing. A sled will be leaving the North Pole City Sports League offices at noon on Wednesday.
This week in community events we begin with Monday the 10th as Siblings Day. Bring your sibling to the NPC Hotel and recieve a free Cinnamon Crescent Roll to celebrate both Siblings Day and Cinnamon Crescent Day.
On Tuesday the 11th for Barbershop Quartet Day, Marty and the Misletoes will be performing in City Center from 12 pm-2 pm.
Wednesday the 12th is Licorice Day. All the local confectioners will be giving out samples of various types of licorice and licorice inspired treats.
On Thursday the 13th for Make Lunch Count Day, Mrs. Claus's Kitchen is sponsoring their 525th Annual Brown Bag Lunch Exchange. See the Peppermint Post for a refresher on the rules of the exchange. Thursday is also Scrabble Day so the NPC Library will be hosting this year's annual Scrabble in the Yard games. The supersized scrabble gameboards and tiles will be set-up in city center all day. Stop out and participate in a game.
Friday the 14th is Gardening Day. The NPC Greenhouse will be offering NP gardening tips sheets and all the greenhouse gardeners will be on hand for answering questions.
Saturday the 15th is Microvolunteering Day. What is something small you can do to help others today? Volunteering sometimes seems like such a large ask. Microvolunteering Day is about ways you can do little things to help and that volunteering is not such a big task.
On Sunday the 16th, it is Fly a Kite Day and Librarian Day and Orchid Day. Head outside and fly a kite with friends. Also, there will be Orchids provided to all the NPC Library Librarians at the NPC Greenhouses. The greenhouses will also have orchids that others can procure as well and tours of the orchid rooms at the greenhouses will be held throughout the day.
WELF-NPC would like to wish a very happy 600th birthday to Isabella "Evergreen" Cumberbatch from the Office of Elf Affairs. Isabella is in charge of collecting job postings each week and getting the list to the Peppermint Post. We wish her many more happy years.
This is Walter "Mistletoe" Livingstone and Becky "Marshmallow" Livingstone with the reminder: The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart..
Have a good evening, and be sure to tune in next week for another WELF-NPC North Pole Radio News Update.