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.
Filed under News
“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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Survivalist Tip: Vitamin E refers to a group of 8 fat-soluble compounds, each with its own name that – like most everything from a biologist’s mind – makes absolutely no sense. But, Vitamin E is best known as an antioxidant, which I previously mentioned protects against such calamities as radiation and second-hand smoke. Actually, radiation is a genuine calamity; second-hand smoke can be eliminated easily by taking out the smoker. Since Vitamin E is good for the immune system and metabolic processes, you’d best have some in your survival supply. Natural food sources include leafy green vegetables, nuts, seeds and vegetable oil. People with certain disorders like liver disease may need extra doses of Vitamin E. People with other disorders like a bad attitude can’t be helped, even with heavy doses of Vitamin E, so it’s best just to boot them out of your posse and let them fend for themselves. The chaos of the new Baktun will require enough of your attention and energy without the need to bitch-slap some fool in the group.
Filed under Mayan Calendar Countdown
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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If yours is today also, “Happy Birthday!”
Actress Jane Powell (Deep in My Heart, Hit the Deck, Small Town Girl) is 83.
Actress – singer Debbie Reynolds (Singin’ in the Rain, Tammy and the Bachelor, The Tender Trap) is 80.
Singer Rudolph Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 73.
Actress Ali MacGraw (Love Story, The Getaway, The Winds of War) is 73.
Singer Phil Margo (The Tokens) is 70.
Drummer Johny Barbata (The Turtles) is 67.
Keyboardist – violinist Billy Currie (Ultravox) is 62.
Actress Annette O’Toole (Imaginary Crimes, Love Matters, White Lie) is 60.
Dog sled racer Libby Riddles (1st woman to win Iditarod, 1985) is 56.
Guitarist Mark White (ABC) is 51.
Filed under Birthdays
1789 – The first U.S. House of Representative, meeting in New York City, elected Pennsylvania Representative Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberger as its first speaker.
1826 – Samuel Morey of Oxford, New Hampshire patented the internal combustion engine.
1918 – The British Royal Air Force was formed as an amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Services.
1931 – Pitcher Jackie Mitchell became the first woman in organized baseball, when she was signed by the Chattanooga Baseball Club at the age of 19.
1946 – A massive tsunami, triggered by a seaquake off the Aleutian Islands, slammed into Hawaii, killing 159 people.
1960 – The first U.S. weather satellite, TIROS I, was launched and instantly produced images of a mid-latitude cyclone over the northeastern United States.
1970 – President Richard Nixon signed legislation officially banning cigarette ads on television and radio.
1985 – The long-awaited album, We Are the World, was finally released. Eight music stars donated previously unreleased material for the LP. Three-million copies of the award-winning single of the same name had already been sold.
1987 – Steve Newman became the first man to walk solo around the world, completing the 15,000-mile trek in four years.
Filed under History
Filed under News
“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?
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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