@coracle Ah, so there ARE hobbits in New Zealand!! (Couldn't resist, sorry. I have an auntie back in Australia who once went to NZ and visited the filming location for the Shire in the Lord of the Rings movies, but was deeply disappointed that "there was no little hobbit village there." She sounded like she was seriously expecting one. )

While not short enough to count as part of the dwarfism community, I'm right down the lower end of what would be considered the average human height range, so it doesn't take too much imagination to empathise with those who are even smaller. (I'm 155 cm, or 5 ft 1 in, which is about the height of a hobbit who's been drinking Ent-draughts. )

I do remember when I was in my teens, one of the alternative terms being bandied around was "vertically challenged", but I'm not sure how serious that was!! And as you say, smaller people are people first and all have the right to be treated with respect and to have their needs catered for appropriately. I didn't know there was a Dwarfism Awareness Month until now, so thank you for letting us know.

In addition to being Dwarfism Awareness Month (I didn't know that before, thanks for sharing @coracle ! ), October is also ADHD Awareness Month as well.

Here is a website for anyone who would like to learn more: https://www.adhdawarenessmonth.org/

It addresses myths about ADHD and provides other valuable information about the condition. Their goal is to clear up a lot of the misunderstandings surrounding this surprisingly common mental condition (about 2.8% of adults are estimated to have ADHD). It also has a place where people with ADHD can submit stories, videos, art, and/or memes to express ourselves and share our experiences.  

I think I knew October was ADHD Awareness month, didn't realize it was Dwarfism Awareness month as well. I always think of October as Pastor Appreciation month and specifically the second Sunday in October is Pastor Appreciation day.

SnowAngel 

It's National Chocolate Day! My sister is currently baking a chocolate sourdough loaf. It's also National Breadstick Day, but my sister declined to make chocolate breadsticks.  

National Chocolate Day! And wouldn't you know ... in the past few months I have been trying to be extra careful of my sugar intake.
Enjoy your tasty-sounding loaf, @snowangel. (And tell your sis that I think chocolate breadsticks sound yummy. )

On this date (November 7) in 1940, "Galloping Gertie" (aka the Tacoma Narrows Bridge) collapsed into Puget Sound 5 months after it opened. The only casualty was a dog that refused rescue attempts.

The video is rather famous and has been shown in physics and engineering classes.

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead, when the skies of November turn gloomy...

47 years ago this evening, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a 'gales of November' storm in eastern Lake Superior. All 29 hands were lost.

A number of Lake Superior lighthouses and museums (including Minnesota's Split Rock Lighthouse and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Michigan) hold annual memorial services, including the reading of the names and the tolling of a bell 29 times. The lighthouse is then lit. (I attended the Split Rock ceremony with friends in 2000 for the 25th anniversary; there were a lot of people there despite it being a blustery November evening).

@stargazer 

The ship was lost in Lake Superior not far from the Whitefish Point Lighthouse in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It was said that the light was out in the lighthouse because of a power outage on the night that the ship sank.

When I used to hear the song about it, I imagined it had happened many years before,  maybe in the 19th century. 

@coracle 

Gordon Lightfoot, a Canadian songwriter, wrote “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” in 1975.  He is still living and I think he still performs that song, which is one of his most popular.  I still have the vinyl LP “Summertime Dream”, which includes the song. It is very good folk music. 🙂

Today 59 years ago (22 November 1963), C.S. Lewis died. 

Jack, as he called himself, was a remarkable man who used the talents God gave him to teach, encourage and challenge the minds of his generation and onward. He missed promotions because of his Christian apologetics works.

Thank you, Jack. You've been a bright star in our heavens ever since. 

@coracle Thank you for reminding us of both those anniversaries associated with Jack!

That last post has just got me thinking — do we know if his publishers, or any other organisations associated with him, will be marking his 125th birthday this time next year? That's a significant enough anniversary for some kind of commemoration, and I would hope he's still considered a significant enough figure! (We've had plenty of musical organisations in the UK this past year marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, and I would say C.S. Lewis is much more of a household name, especially because of the enduring popularity of Narnia.)

It's national cupcake day! Just what I need an excuse to bake cupcakes.  

@courtenay I'm hoping at least that the publishers will. 

I'll contact the person I know in the Estate, and ask them.

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Today in NZ is 16 December, so it is the anniversary of our province, Canterbury, and its main city Christchurch. It's the day that a large number of early settlers arrived, in four shiploads known as The First Four Ships. 
https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/the-first-four-ships/
The people came as a planned new settlement, with passengers from all levels of society, a slice of English life so to speak. Landowners, professionals, tradespeople, down to domestic servants and labourers.

What they came to was a small port with wooden buildings for initial accommodation, but most were going to the sit of the new city. It was a swampy flat space, yet to reach it they had to walk up and over hills carrying their possessions. The harbour is inside a large extinct volcano, so they were walking up the steep inner side of the crater, then down to the flat land. I cannot imagine the courage needed to do this, and to live for months in canvas tents surrounded by swamps - like marshwiggles!