The weekly news update featuring John Glenn Orbits the Earth
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 February 20, 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 February 20, 2023 your sponsor will be the Cocoa House, located at 447 Mistletoe Road. Featuring short stack pancakes and hot cocoa to get your morning started, The Cocoa House welcomes all elves and is open 24 hours / day 7 days a week. Every elf is welcome, but like Rocco the owner says, "No moose allowed." Stop by The Cocoa House today.
Santa has been discussing with the engineers within Santa's village the possibility of bringing out the snow machines again this year. This year has not seen the snow fall accumulation needed to sustain Santa's Village and the North Pole City ecosystem and he is thinking that it might be time to look at getting the snow generators up and operational. The engineer team and mechanics will be pulling the machines out of storage this week and going over the engines to make sure everything is operational in case they will be needed. More information should be coming out soon.
Edward Hinklemyer will be sending a security escort out to Reindeer Mountains on the morning of February 24th to escort Rudolf into the city. A parade is expected to come down Mistletoe Road as Rudolf makes his way down to the North Pole City Hotel. Frosty has already been notified and will be leading the parade. If you wish to come out and cheer on Rudolf, he is expected to enter the city at 9 a.m. on the morning of the 24th.
Edward Hinklemyer has given the entire team at the Division of WWW/PR the week off this week to relax and recharge their minds a little bit. Arguments and tempers flared this last week when he visited the offices of the division for an update the on the database project. He found that most of the programmers where strung out on cocoa and have not slept very much over the past few weeks. He kindly asked all of them to just take some time and reboot. He even offered that they all go out to his cabin out at Polar Bear Lake to have some relaxation time and most of them agreed, while some of them decided to go out to their elf village to spend some time with family. They will return next week and get back on the project.
This week temperatures will be between -25 and -30 the entire week. No snow is expected this week, but dense fog is expected on both Wednesday and Friday. Saturday is going to be cloudy with slight 23 km/h winds.
The marketing department at the WELF-NPC North Pole City radio station met this week to discuss re-ordering more cocoa mugs since our inventory has been completed depleted. Executives chimed in on the meeting to let the department know that the elves within the city really did not care for the smaller mugs and mentioned getting the taller mugs instead or maybe even the stainless tumblers with lids. This will probably be the choice so look for new merch coming sometime in the near future.
John Herschel Glenn Jr. is successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft From Cape Canaveral, Florida on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut.
Glenn, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 to become America's first astronauts.
Glenn was preceded in space by two Americans, Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, and two Soviets, Yuri A. Gagarin and Gherman S. Titov.
John Glenn lifted off from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral at 9:47 a.m. on February 20, 1962. Some 100,000 spectators watched on the ground nearby and millions more saw it on television. After separating from its launching rocket, the Friendship 7 capsule entered into an orbit around Earth at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour. Glenn radioed back, "Capsule is turning around. Oh, that view is tremendous."
During Friendship 7's first orbit, Glenn noticed what he described as small, glowing fireflies drifting by the capsule. It was some time later that NASA mission control determined that the sparks were crystallized water vapor released by the capsule's air-conditioning system. Before the end of the first orbit, a more serious problem occurred when Friendship 7's automatic control system began to malfunction, sending the capsule into erratic movements. At the end of the orbit, Glenn switched to manual control and regained command of the craft.
Toward the end of Glenn's third and last orbit, mission control received a mechanical signal from the spacecraft indicating that the heat shield on the base of the capsule was possibly loose. Traveling at its immense speed, the capsule would be incinerated if the shield failed to absorb and dissipate the extremely high reentry temperatures. It was decided that the craft's retrorockets, usually jettisoned before reentry, would be left on in order to better secure the heat shield. Less than a minute later, Friendship 7 slammed into Earth's atmosphere.
John Glenn returned, a national hero and a symbol of American ambition, and the flight is still regarded as, one of the most important flights in American history. On February 23, President John F. Kennedy visited him at Cape Canaveral. Glenn later addressed Congress and was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City.
Out of a reluctance to risk the life of an astronaut as popular as Glenn, NASA essentially grounded the "Clean Marine", as he was called, in the years after his historic flight. Frustrated with this reduction in activity, Glenn turned to politics, and in 1964 announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Ohio and formally left NASA. Later that year, however, he withdrew his Senate bid after seriously injuring his inner ear in a fall. In 1974, he won the seat in the Senate, and went on to win reelection three more times.
In early 1998, NASA announced it had approved Glenn to serve as a payload specialist on the space shuttle Discovery. On October 29, 1998, nearly four decades after his famous orbital flight, the 77-year-old Glenn became the oldest human ever to travel in space. During his nine-day mission, he served as part of a NASA study on health problems associated with aging. In 1999, he retired from his U.S. Senate seat after four consecutive terms in office, a record for the state of Ohio. He later died on December 8, 2016.
The North Pole City Commerce will be organizing a polar plunge to take place next Monday out at Polar Bear Lake as part of the Polar Bear Day. Anyone in the city wishing to take part in the event please contact the North Pole City Commerce offices to sign up. The elf who can last the longest in the cold waters will receive bragging rights for the year their photograph will be displayed within Santa's Workshop.
Snowball Games update: After week 3 of the North Pole Snowball Games, taking the lead is Love at First Snowflake with 98 points followed closely behind by the Jolly Elf with 97 points, Noel's Cozy Corner with 96 points and The Red Bow with 95 points.
The events this past week were the Snowball Shuffleboard, Snowball Stacking, and Snowman Bucket Toss. Watching Snowball Shuffleboard was quite a treat this week where The Hinklemyer Cocoa Pub looked like it was going to hold a first ever shutout game in the snowball games against Noel's Cozy Corner as they won the first 16 matchups, but then Noel's Cozy Corner dusted themselves off and pulled out a win in each of the last four matchups. Alan "Cupcake" Hinklemyer, team captain said, "We were really hoping to be the first to get a shutout game, but alas, it was just not meant to be. We were disapointed, but at the same time, we were glad that the Corners were able to get in a couple scores in the matchups. We like to win, but we like everyone toenjoy being part of the games more."
This week we start with February 20 which is National Cherry Pie Day! Mrs. Claus' Kitchen will be providing cherry pies all day long. Everyone is invited to stop by the workshop lunchroom and grab a slice!
Then on the 21st, it is Pancake Day. The North Pole City Hotel will be serving pancakes all day with a pancake topping bar. From traditional maple syrup to berries and chocolate. What will you put on your pancakes?
The 23rd is National Chili Day and residents of NPC will be celebrating with a Chili Cookoff in City Center. Pull out your favorite recipes and head out to city center to share your favorite chili or just stop by and do a taste test or two and vote for your favorite. The winner will get a weekend at a cabin out at Polar Bear Lake.
February 24th is International Stand Up to Bullying Day. Rudolph will be visiting NPC and telling his story and how he overcame his own bullying experience at the NPC Hotel at 6 pm.
Next week is International Polar Bear Day on Monday. A polar bear party will be held out at Polar Bear Lake all day and Santa's Workshop will be closed for the day to allow all to participate. Make plans to attend today!
WELF-NPC would like to wish a very happy 575th birthday to Hailey "Chilly" Winterboune. Hailey has been working in Mrs. Claus' kitchen now for almost 400 years and specialized in the making of that awesome Chili that we all love and enjoy. We wish her many more happy years.
This is Walter "Mistletoe" Livingstone and Becky "Marshmallow" Livingstone with the reminder: Being kind is giving, even when it seems you have nothing to give..
Have a good evening, and be sure to tune in next week for another WELF-NPC North Pole Radio News Update.
