So, you’ve already noticed the holiday music on Magic 96 and its website and the decorations out in stores. New to the “we haven’t even hit Thanksgiving but it’s Christmastime” file is the expansion of The Christmas Carolers into metro Birmingham and six other markets. So if you see some folks looking like they stepped out of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at your holiday party this year, that’s why.

I’m assuming that there are several who are not familiar with C.I. Taylor. While he was not a Birmingham native, Taylor is responsible for starting and managing The Magic City’s first black professional baseball team, the Birmingham Giants, in 1904 (serving as their first manager until 1909). He also served as one-time vice president of the Negro National League. The annual C.I. Taylor Awards are presented by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to their choices for managers of the year in the American and National Leagues and were given to the Tampa Bay Rays’ Joe Maddon and the Chicago Cubs’ Lou Piniella yesterday.

A reminder that Birmingham hosts the nation’s largest and oldest Veteran’s Day Parade this afternoon (Tuesday) in the city center. It will begin at 1:30 p.m.

We don’t have a pretty graphic showing you the route, but John Morse has created a parade route map for you with Google Maps and the official parade (and celebration) website has turn for turn directions for you to check out. Thanks to all of our armed forces, past and present, for all that they do.

Screenshot of Get inked for Pink website.

There’s a new non-profit in town and they’re asking you to Get inked for Pink - specifically as it pertains to breast cancer awareness. They’re planning to hold two fundraisers in the coming months (the first is coming up on November 16 at The Bottletree) and have lined up a great stable of sponsors so far for their efforts, not to mention a two-day event being planned at Wicked Ways Tattoo Studio. You’ll also want to check out this video on NBC 13’s website from October. You’ll also want to visit their MySpace profile to learn about how you can get involved.

This seems to be a popular question today as Twitter is becoming a more recognized part of everyday communication among people. We still maintain our primary Twitter account (if we haven’t invited you to join it from our other profiles, it’s coming soon). People seem to have all sorts of reasons for sending Twitter messages or tweets. Lisa Hoffman invited some of her followers to share their reasons on her blog while local blogger Ike Pigott updated his expectations.

What are your thoughts?

Image: Macapper.com

That could be one of many questions asked by customers that choose to visit Circuit City locations in Birmingham and nationwide as the electronics retailer announced that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this morning. The publicly traded company once traded for $8.54 - its current value at the time of this post was $0.11 and they’d just announced last week that they would be closing 20% of their stores, including one that recently opened in Trussville. Reports had been suggesting that it would be bankruptcy or closings, but not both. The company will stay open and they still have a location in Hoover during their current reorganization, easily accessible for the upcoming holiday shopping season.

So if you’re hungry for some new tidbits of knowledge, a homegrown fountain of trivia is hoping you’ll head on over to UAB’s Alys Stephens Center tomorrow evening to get your fix.

The Mental Floss History of the World: An Irreverent Romp through Civilization’s Best Bits book tour stops in Birmingham at the center’s Sirote Theatre starting at 7 p.m. So if you’ve never seen Will Pearson but want to make sure you know who he is, check out the post on the magazine’s blog (which also has dates and locations for those of you that aren’t in town but still want in on the action).