{"id":9194,"date":"2014-12-25T13:42:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-25T18:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?p=9194"},"modified":"2014-12-25T13:42:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-25T18:42:00","slug":"happy-birthday-bob-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2014\/12\/happy-birthday-bob-3.html","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday, Bob!"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/81\/2014\/12\/ripleys-cartoon-web.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/81\/2014\/12\/ripleys-cartoon-web-223x300.jpg\" alt=\"ripleys-cartoon-web\" width=\"323\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-9195\"><\/a><br>\nAccording to the good folk at Wikipedia the very first record of a Christmas celebration took place in Rome on this day in 336.<\/p>\n<p>While it is past unlikely Jesus was born on this date, one of the heroes of my youth <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Robert_Ripley\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Robert Ripley <\/a>was, in 1890.<\/p>\n<p>His cartoons occupied my imagination throughout my childhood, opening doors to the weird, the fantastic and the unlikely.<\/p>\n<p>For which I remain eternally grateful\u2026<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kZ8xdY1qYr4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the good folk at Wikipedia the very first record of a Christmas celebration took place in Rome on this day in 336. While it is past unlikely Jesus was born on this date, one of the heroes of my youth Robert Ripley was, in 1890. His cartoons occupied my imagination throughout my childhood, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Happy Birthday, Bob!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to the good folk at Wikipedia the very first record of a Christmas celebration took place in Rome on this day in 336. While it is past unlikely\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2014\/12\/happy-birthday-bob-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Happy Birthday, Bob!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to the good folk at Wikipedia the very first record of a Christmas celebration took place in Rome on this day in 336. While it is past unlikely\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2014\/12\/happy-birthday-bob-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Monkey Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/james.ford.1029\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-25T18:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/files\/2014\/12\/ripleys-cartoon-web-223x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2014\/12\/happy-birthday-bob-3.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2014\/12\/happy-birthday-bob-3.html\",\"name\":\"Happy Birthday, Bob!\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-25T18:42:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-25T18:42:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\"},\"description\":\"According to the good folk at Wikipedia the very first record of a Christmas celebration took place in Rome on this day in 336. 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