Philippines: Philippine President Benigno Aquino has declared a “national calamity” as his country digs out from the damage of Typhoon Haiyan. The UN put out a call for $301 million in disaster aid as the risk of hunger and disease sets in. The aircraft carrier George Washington and four other Navy ships are on the way and nongovernmental groups are pouring into the country. But airports are not operating normally and roads are still clogged with debris.

  Praveen Agrawal, the World Food Program’s Philippines representative told the NY Times, “Under normal circumstances, even in a typhoon, you’d have some local infrastructure up and some businesses with which you can contract.” But, he said, “Being as strong as it was, it was very much like a tsunami. It wiped out everything. It’s like starting from scratch.”

Healthcare: The Wall Street Journal reports that fewer than 50,000 people bought insurance policies through the Healthcare.gov website in October. The government’s target figure was 500,000, but the White House has not publicly released its own numbers. The figure reported by the Journal does not include people who enrolled in state-run exchanges, including California, which is the largest. The success of Obamacare depends upon having millions of people buy insurance.

China Shop: Yesterday China’s biggest online shopping company processed $5.75 billion in sales, marking the biggest day in the history of online shopping. It was two and a half times the online sales reported by US retailers for “Cyber Monday” last year. But the Chinese are not shopping for Christmas. The four 1s of 11/11 have come to symbolize the day single men bought themselves a toy to ease their loneliness, although yesterday’s sales included 1.6 million bras.

Shopsgiving: Walmart announced it will open its stores at 6pm this Thanksgiving, two hours earlier than last year. Nine major chains, including Target, Kmart and Best Buy are opening on Thanksgiving in an attempt to squeeze more cash out of the Christmas season. Because of a calendar quirk, this year has six fewer shopping days

Old Soldier: President Obama at Arlington Cemetery yesterday honored 107-year-old Richard Overton, believed to be the oldest surviving veteran of WWII. Overton served with the Army in the Pacific. He said he smokes 12 cigars a day and has whiskey with his morning coffee. In the ceremony Overton was given a standing ovation and a box of cigars.

Old Man: Winter. It’s snowing. Chicago, Cleveland, Rochester, Buffalo, New York, Boston.

Culture: The soap opera of the “Lost Generation” will have a fifth season, according to the British producers of “Downton Abbey”. Season four is just wrapping up in England and will play soon on public television in the US. One of the plotlines received 450 complaints in England, but we won’t be the spoiler.

Imagine: John Lennon’s high school detention records are being put up for auction, revealing that this was a young man with no good future. At Quarry Bank High School for Boys in Liverpool, Lennon was described in teacher comments as a “class clown”. He was punished for “sabotage”, “fighting in class”, being a “nuisance”, “shoving” and having “just no interest whatsoever”.

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