Category Archives: News
Picture of the Day
Flowers line the steps of a cathedral in Girona, Spain, along the Costa Brava region, for last year’s “Temps de Flors” festival. The annual spring gathering sees an explosion of colorful flowers that clutter Girona’s patios and gardens and surround a number of public buildings. This year’s event will be held May 12 – 20. Photo courtesy David Adamson.
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Quote of the Day
“We are updating our economic model, but we are not talking about political reform.”
– Marino Murillo, a top government official in Cuba, after Pope Benedict XVI visited the communist nation and called for a more open society.
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Pliny the Elder and a “Natural History”
Gaius Plinius Secundus, or Pliny the Elder, was a Roman officer and author of Natural History, the first published encyclopedia of the natural world. Pliny was born around A.D. 23 in the region in Italy known then as Gallia Transpadana. Not much is known about his early life or his family, except that his father apparently was very affluent, which allowed Pliny to study and attend school. Like all young men of his time, he entered the military, leaving home at age 21 and traveling to Gallia Belgica. Since he was from an affluent background, he naturally ascended to the rank of officer, serving in Germania Inferior, or Lower Germany. His military career provided him with plenty of personal adventures, but it also endowed him with an appreciation for the human and natural worlds. He observed a great deal and read even more. After years of culling data from a variety of sources, he composed his Natural History.
For over a thousand years, Pliny’s work was considered to be an authoritative compendium of human knowledge. While Pliny only knew the world from his own experiences, Natural History is proof what an ambitious, curious and educated mind can accomplish. The Folio Society is selling the complete Natural History at a discounted rate for members. This is somewhat ironic, considering that Encyclopedia Britannica recently announced that it will cease producing its paper volume set. But, for those of us who’ve adapted to the electronic age without getting addicted to it, the Folio Society announcement is priceless. I have several Folio-produced books and can say with all honesty and total bias that Kindle has nothing on them.
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Picture of the Day
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Quote of the Day
“So can the government require you to buy a cell phone because that would facilitate responding when you need emergency services?”
– Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to Solicitor General Donald Verrilli in oral arguments last week over the Obama Administration’s health care reform law. The Court is expected to announce its final ruling in June.
Personally, I support Obama on many issues, including the health care effort, but he and the Democratic Party have overstepped their bounds on this one. I only have an issue with the legal requirement that everyone buy health insurance. As someone who’s been unemployed for the better part of a year, I can’t imagine figuring health care into my already stretched budget. I have to wonder how much it would cost me (COBRA would have been a $300 monthly expense) and what the government would do to me if I refused to buy into it. I mean, seriously! What are they going to do? Put me in a time out? I’ve had to deal with workplace politics my entire adult life, now this?
Happy April Fool’s Day!
The history of April Fool’s Day, or “All Fool’s Day,” is uncertain. But, I’m sure the ancient Romans had something to do with it, which means the Roman Catholic Church ultimately had a hand in its development. The current theory holds that the entire fiasco began in France around 1582 with the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar under King Charles IX. Pope Gregory XIII had created his own personal calendar to replace the common Julian Calendar, which was no less dysfunctional. Like I said, you can blame the Romans and the Catholic Church for this mess. The abrupt shift in all the dates meant that New Year’s would now take place around January 1, instead of somewhere between March and April, as it had been.
Communication traveled slowly in those days, thus some people didn’t learn about the new calendar for a few years after its adoption. That created its own gallery of problems, not the least of which meant some folks had been cheated out of their birthdays. In a state of rebellion, or denial, a number of holdouts continued to celebrate New Year’s on April 1. The general population and the Catholic hierarchy labeled them fools – and if you’ve ever attended a Catholic mass, you’ll see the irony in that accusation! But, those who’d accepted the new calendar often would play practical jokes on the stalwarts – sending them invitations to non-existent parties; dispatching them on false errands; telling them all Jews were converting to Christianity.
The harassment evolved into a custom of prank-playing on April 1. The tradition eventually spread to the British Isles who then brought it with them to the Americas. It’s another reason why Indians kick themselves for not having a cohesive immigration plan in place 500 years ago. That’s no joke, of course. Regardless, have as much clean fun with it as you can – and don’t do anything Chief Writing Wolf wouldn’t do, when you get too damn bored.
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Tejano Monument Commemorated in Austin
The Tejano Monument was unveiled on the south lawn of the Capitol for dignitaries instrumental in the creation and funding of the legacy sculpture. Photo by Ralph Barrera / Austin American-Statesman.
As I’d mentioned in a previous post, Texas finally has decided to honor some of the state’s earliest settlers – the Spanish and Mexican ranchers and farmers who often intermarried with the indigenous peoples, gave the state its name and built a complex society long before the Mayflower pilgrims even set sail. This past Thursday, the 29th, a dedication ceremony took place on the capitol grounds with members of Texas’ oldest families, various local political figures and the monument’s designer, Armando Hinojosa, among those on hand. Gov. Rick Perry said the dedication was “long past due.”
Sen. Judith Zaffirini, the first Hispanic woman elected to the state Senate, praised the lawmakers who helped pass legislation that made the monument possible. She also thanked the private contributors who helped design and fund the sculpture by Hinojosa, a Laredo artist and a descendant of Laredo founder Don Tomas Sanchez.
“The history of Texas is the history of Tejanos,” Zaffirini said in both Spanish and English.
Andres Tijerina, the keynote speaker at the ceremony and an expert on Tejano history at Austin Community College, described how Tejanos settled Texas 150 years before the first Anglos came to the Spanish territory. He explained how cowboys, ranching and much of modern Texas culture and language originated with the early Tejano settlers along the Rio Grande and the Gulf Coast and were adopted by Anglo immigrants.
The Tejano monument “is a testament to the legacy of the modern Texas and the living Tejanos who are here with you,” Tijerina said. “It is because they are Texans that Tejanos come here today to claim moreover their place in the future of Texas.”
Texas has a modern history under 6 different nations, including Spain and México. But, historians always have complained that too much attention has been given to the state’s English-speaking leaders and settlers, most of whom came from the east coast. It’s really no coincidence that this monument comes at a time when the state has seen a dramatic increase in the Hispanic population and the economic and political powers that come with that. Much of that population growth is due to Latin American immigration, of course, but that shouldn’t overshadow the fact that Hispanics have been here all along.
