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6 THE NEW TANNER THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 EDITORIAL The Christmas Story According to Luke (2:1-16) In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver herchild. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see ­ I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!" When the angels had left them and gone to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us". So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. My last column? As you read this, I hope it isn't the last time you read my ramblings. If you haven't heard, the world is supposed to end tomorrow ­ December 21, 2012. This is good news for those of you who have left their Christmas shopping to Christmas Eve. You've saved yourself the money and the hassle. There has been a lot of talk about Friday. For the longest time I thought the "end" was on the 12th which makes much more sense to me as it would have ended on 12-1212 instead of 12-21-12. The apparent end is based on one of three Mayan calendars. I heard someone on a radio station the other day query about this wondering if they factored in leap years. That was funny. Do you remember Y2K? More importantly, do you remember the build up to Y2K? Oh my gawd, the world was going to change from the 1900's to the 2000's. The talk of the world coming to a crash was hanging over us all. Everything from computers crashing to alarm clocks By Angela Tyler not working properly was in the forecasts. I remember flying home that afternoon from vacation and driving to a friend's house for a New Year's Eve party. At midnight, the power breaker was turned off and on, quickly, but not too quick. It was just long enough for everyone to think the world had stopped as it became January 01, 2000. In the end sure there was some glitches with electronics and some programs had to be revamped, yet somehow we all survived. I "googled" "end of the world dec 21." That was it just end of the world dec 21 and in less than a second over 1-million responses were available to me. That is amazing. Here we have a world wide web that can figure out what you are asking and in less than a second produce access 1-million websites that match the search. Yet on the other hand, there are people who believe what I searched is going to come true based on a calendar that started in 3114 BC. I'm fairly confident that I'll be around on the weekend and be waiting for it to snow for Christmas. I need a bit of white stuff for the big day instead of all this dreary mud. However, on Thursday if you're prepping your bomb shelter or wherever you're going to hang out when the possible galactic alignment is impending and you are wondering how much time you have left to stock pile the cases of water and such you may wish to check out the website http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/ maya-world-end.html On this page, there is a countdown clock to the big day right down to how many seconds are left. I think it's fairly accurate but I'm not sure if the website truly believes the end is near because just below the calendar is an advertisement for the theatre production of War Horse where you can click on and book your Disney Vacation for 2013. Publisher Ted Tyler Editor Frances Learment Angela Tyler Distributed to every home in Acton and area, as well as adjoining communities. Every effort will be made to see advertising copy, neatly presented, is correctly printed. The publisher assumes no financial responsibility for typographical errors or omissions in advertising, but will gladly reprint without charge that part of an advertisement in which an error may occur provided a claim is made within five days of publication. All articles, advertisements and graphic artwork appearing in The New Tanner is copyrighted. Any usage, reproduction or publication of these items, in whole or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher of The New Tanner is a copyright infringement and subject to legal action. Editorial Contributors email: thenewtanner@on.aibn.com 373 Queen Street East, Unit 1 Acton, Ontario L7J 2N2 Advertising and Circulation Marie Shadbolt (519) 853-0051 Fax: (519) 853-0052 Composing Traci Gardner, Iain Brennan Typesetting Melissa Paul