The Thing About Today – March 17

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 17, 2020
Day 77 of 366

 

March 17th is the seventy-seventh day of the year. It is Saint Patrick’s Day, as well as the associated Christian feast day, a public holiday in Ireland, Montserrat, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day, National 3-D Day, and World Social Work Day. National 3-D Day is typically observed on the third day of the third full week of the third month of the year. World Social Work Day is typically observed on the third Tuesday in March.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1805, the Italian Republic (with Napoleon as president) became the Kingdom of Italy (with Napoleon as King of Italy).
  • In 1901, legendary composer and conductor Alfred Newman was born.
  • In 1919, singer, pianist, and television host Nat King Cole was born.
  • In 1936, astronaut Ken Mattingly was born. He flew on the Apollo 16, STS-4 and STS-51-C missions.
  • In 1941, the National Gallery of Art was officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC.
  • In 1948, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Brussels. This was a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty, which established NATO.
  • In 1950, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announced the creation of element 98. They named it “californium”.
  • In 1951, actor Kurt Russell was born.
  • In 1955, actor and director Gary Sinise was born.
  • In 1960, actress and singer Vicki Lewis was born.
  • In 1966, the DSV Alvin submarine found a missing American hydrogen bomb, the result of the 1966 Palomares incident, off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean.
  • In 1968, as a result of nerve gas testing by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps in Skull Valley, Utah, over 6,000 sheep are found dead. It certainly was neither the first nor the last weapons test in the state. Just ask the Downwinders.
  • In 1992, actor John Boyega was born.

 

March 17th is Saint Patrick’s Day.

The cultural and religious celebration is observed on the traditional death of Saint Patrick, the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Patrick was a 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop. According to his own story, the Declaration, he was kidnapped at the age of sixteen by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to work as a shepherd in Gaelic Ireland. After making his way home he trained to become a priest.

According to tradition, he returned to Ireland to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity. His efforts against the druids were transformed into the allegory in which he “drove the snakes” out of Ireland.

The holiday generally involves public parades and festivals, Irish traditional music sessions (céilithe), and the wearing of green attire or shamrocks. The shamrocks are credited to a legend in which Patrick used the three-leaved item to explain the Holy Trinity to the Irish. Historically, there were also formal gatherings such as banquets and dances.

St Patrick’s Day parades began in North America in the 18th century but did not spread to Ireland until the 20th century. Typically, participants include marching bands, the military, fire brigades, cultural organizations, charities, youth groups, and so one.  Over time, these celebrations have evolved into a carnival of sorts, linking the holiday to excessive consumption of food and alcohol, which some churches temporarily lift Lenten restrictions to accommodate.

While St Patrick’s Day – or “St. Paddy’s Day” colloquially – is observed worldwide, celebrations are often criticized for public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and derogatory stereotypes. One example of that is wearing leprechaun outfits, which are based on a derisive 19th-century stereotype.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 16

Michael Falkner1 Comment

March 16, 2020
Day 76 of 366

 

March 16th is the seventy-sixth day of the year. It is the Day of the Book Smugglers in Lithuania. Opposing imperial Russian authorities’ efforts to replace the traditional Latin orthography with Cyrillic, Lithuanian book smugglers defied the ban on books written in Latin that was in force from 1864 to 1904. They carried printed matter as far as the United States, becoming a symbol of Lithuanian resistance to Russian assimilation.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Artichoke Hearts Day, Everything You Do Is Right Day, National Freedom of Information Day, and National Panda Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1802, the Army Corps of Engineers was established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.
  • In 1870, the first version of the overture fantasy Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky premiered.
  • In 1898, the representatives of five colonies adopted a constitution in Melbourne, establishing the basis of the Commonwealth of Australia.
  • In 1926, Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts.
  • Also in 1926, comedian Jerry Lewis was born.
  • In 1949, Canadian actor and singer Victor Garber was born.
  • In 1966, Gemini 8 was launched with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and David R. Scott, the first spaceflight both men. It was the twelfth manned American space flight and first space docking with an Agena Target Vehicle.
  • In 1967, actress and producer Lauren Graham was born.
  • In 1971, actor Alan Tudyk was born.
  • In 1975, actress Sienna Guillory was born.
  • In 1995, Mississippi formally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery in the United States. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865, over a century prior to Mississippi’s approval.

 

In 1968, the Mỹ Lai Massacre occurred.

A dark mark on the history of the United States military, the Mỹ Lai Massacre was the mass murder of between 347 and 500 Vietnamese civilians – including men, women, children, and infants – by American soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment and Company B, 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division. Some of the women were gang-raped and mutilated, as were children as young as twelve.

This war crime took place in two hamlets of Sơn Mỹ village in Quảng Ngãi Province, marked as Mỹ Lai and Mỹ Khê on Army maps. The event is referred to as the My Lai Massacre in the United States, but as the Sơn Mỹ Massacre in Vietnam. The soldiers, already stressed from enemy engagements, assumed that the villagers were hiding Viet Cong guerillas. Their gunships engaged several armed enemies in the vicinity, confirming their suspicions. The massacre began soon after.

Initially, three U.S. servicemen who had tried to halt the massacre and rescue the hiding civilians were shunned. Several Congressmen even denounced them as traitors, including Mendel Rivers (D-SC), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

These soldiers – Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr., Specialist Four Glenn Andreotta, and Specialist Four Lawrence Colburn – initially received medals for their actions. Warrant Thompson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, which he threw away due to a fabricated account of the incident. The two specialists were awarded Bronze Stars, but Andreotta’s award was posthumous since he was killed a month later. Thirty years later, all three of the awards were replaced by the Soldier’s Medal, the highest medal the U.S. Army can award for bravery not involving direct conflict with the enemy. Thompson forced the Army to award them publicly.

The incident prompted global outrage when it was made public in November 1969 after an initial cover-up. Twenty-six soldiers were charged, but only C Company platoon leader Lieutenant William Calley Jr. was convicted. Found guilty of murdering 22 villagers despite his claims that he was merely following orders, he was originally given a life sentence. The American public disagreed with the verdict. Even though he was disliked by his fellow soldiers – men under his command had discussed “fragging” him (killing him with a fragmentation grenade) – many people thought that he was made into a scapegoat for the rest of the soldiers who participated. Calley attempted to appeal his case but was denied.

In the end, he only served three and a half years under house arrest.

The Sơn Mỹ Memorial was built in 1978 in the former hamlet of Tư Cung. Survivors and former soldiers from both sides have attended peace ceremonies at the site, but neither diplomats nor officials from the United States have attended.

On August 19, 2009, Calley finally apologized for his actions. Trần Văn Đức, who was seven years old at the time of the massacre, called the apology “terse”. He wrote a public letter to Calley, describing the plight of the remaining survivors and reminding him that time did not ease the pain. That grief and sorrow over lost lives will forever stay in Mỹ Lai.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 15

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 15, 2020
Day 75 of 366

 

March 15th is the seventy-fifth day of the year. It is World Consumer Rights Day, an annual occasion for celebration and solidarity through the promotion of rights of consumers and protesting of market abuses. It is also International Day Against Police Brutality.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Everything You Think is Wrong Day, National Kansas Day, National Pears Helene Day and National Shoe the World Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1783, Commander-in-Chief George Washington delivered an emotional speech to his officers at Newburgh, New York. He was imploring his troops to not support the Newburgh Conspiracy, which appeared to be a planned military coup by the Continental Army. The plea was successful and the threatened coup d’état never took place.
  • In 1819, French physicist Augustin Fresnel was judged as winner of the Grand Prix of the Académie des Sciences for his “Memoir on the Diffraction of Light”. This work verified the Fresnel integrals, accounted for the limited extent to which light spreads into shadows, and eliminated Sir Isaac Newton’s initial objections to the wave theory of light.
  • In 1820, Maine was admitted as the 23rd U.S. state.
  • In 1835, Austrian composer and conductor Eduard Strauss was born.
  • In 1906, Rolls-Royce Limited was incorporated.
  • In 1921, Madelyn Pugh was born. An American television writer and producer, she was well known for her work on I Love Lucy.
  • In 1932, astronaut Alan Bean was born. He was the fourth person to walk on the moon.
  • In 1933, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born.
  • In 1954, the CBS Morning Show premiered with Walter Cronkite and Jack Paar.
  • In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson advocated for the Voting Rights Act in response to the crisis in Selma, Alabama. This was the site of his famous quote to Congress: “We shall overcome.”
  • In 1969, actress Kim Raver was born.
  • In 1972, The Godfather premiered in New York City. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brandon and Al Pacino, the highly regarded film was based on a book by Mario Puzo.
  • In 1977, Eight is Enough premiered on ABC.
  • Also in 1977, Three’s Company premiered on ABC.
  • In 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected as the first President of the Soviet Union.

 

In 44 BC, Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger and his fellow conspirators – Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus, and several other Roman senators – marched to the Capitol following the assassination of Julius Caesar. There was no response to their appeals to the population, who instead fled the streets in fear. Caesar’s body remained in place.

Previously known for coinciding with several Roman religious observances and as a notable deadline for settling debts among Romans, this date became famous for this particular assassination.

Unlike our modern calendar, the Romans did not number days of the month from first to last. Instead, they counted back from three fixed points of the month: the Nones (the 5th or 7th, nine days inclusive before the Ides), the Ides (the 13th for most months, but the 15th in March, May, July, and October), and the Kalends (the 1st of the following month).

The Ides of each month were considered sacred to the supreme deity Jupiter. Jupiter’s high priest, the Flamen Dialis, would lead an “Ides sheep” (ovis Idulis) in procession along the Via Sacra (sacred way) to be sacrificed at the arx.

In addition to this monthly sacrifice, the Ides of March was also marked by the Feast of Anna Perenna, a goddess of the annus – Latin for year – whose festival originally concluded the ceremonies of the new year. It was a day of picnics, drinking, and revelry among commoners.

The Mamuralia also occurred on the Ides of March, which has aspects of scapegoat or ancient Greek pharmakos ritual. This involved beating an old man dressed in animal skins and driving him from the city, presumably to represent the expulsion of the old year.

In the later Imperial period, the Ides began a “holy week” of festivals celebrating Cybele and Attis. On the day Canna intrat (“The Reed enters”) when Attis was born and found among the reeds of a Phrygian river, he was discovered by shepherds. Depending on the narrative, he may have been discovered by the goddess Cybele, who was also known as the Magna Mater (“Great Mother”).

A week later, on March 22nd, a commemoration of Arbor intrat (“The Tree enters”) commemorated the death of Attis under a pine tree. A college of priests called the dendrophoroi (“tree bearers”) cut down a tree each year, hung from it an image of Attis, and carried it to the temple of the Magna Mater with lamentations. A three-day period of mourning followed, culminating with celebrating the rebirth of Attis on the vernal equinox.

Back to that famous assassination…

On the Ides of March, Caesar was stabbed to death at a meeting of the Senate by sixty conspirators. According to Plutarch – and as dramatized by William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar – a seer had warned that harm would come: “Beware the Ides of March.” On his way to the Theatre of Pompey, Caesar passed the seer and joked about the prophecy: “The Ides of March are come.” The seer replied, “Aye, Caesar; but not gone.”

Caesar was assassinated at the Theatre of Pompey.

This ended the nearly 100-year crisis of the Roman Republic and triggered a civil war that would eventually lead to the rise of the Roman Empire.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 14

Michael Falkner1 Comment

March 14, 2020
Day 74 of 366

 

March 14th is the seventy-fourth day of the year. It is White Day in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, and China. It occurs one month after Valentine’s Day, which (in these countries) typically entails women presenting gifts to men, and flips the script by expecting men to give gifts to women.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Children’s Craft Day, National Learn About Butterflies Day, National Pi Day, National Potato Chip Day, and National Write Down Your Story Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1879, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic Albert Einstein was born.
  • In 1885, The Mikado received its first public performance in London. It was a light opera by famous duo W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.
  • In 1900, the Gold Standard Act was ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.
  • In 1920, Hank Ketcham was born. He was the author and cartoonist who created Dennis the Menace.
  • In 1903, Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge was established by United States President Theodore Roosevelt.
  • In 1933, actor Michael Caine was born.
  • In 1948, actor and comedian Billy Crystal was born.
  • In 1951, Jerry Greenfield was born. He is half of the world-famous Ben & Jerry’s ice cream duo.
  • In 1956, Alexey Pajitnov was born. A Russian video game designer and computer engineer, he created Tetris.
  • In 1961, actress Penny Johnson Jerald was born.
  • In 1968, actor James Frain was born.
  • In 1995, astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American astronaut to ride to space onboard a Russian launch vehicle.

 

In 1961, a United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber crashed near Yuda City, California.

What makes this unique is that it was a Broken Arrow event, meaning that the accident involved nuclear weapons, warheads, or components but did not create a risk of nuclear war. Those criteria include events like accidental or unexplained nuclear detonation, non-nuclear detonation or burning of a nuclear weapon, radioactive contamination, loss in transit of nuclear asset with or without its carrying vehicle, jettisoning of a nuclear weapon or nuclear component, and public hazards (actual or implied).

The 1961 incident involved a B-52F that was carrying two nuclear weapons from Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento. The aircraft experienced an uncontrolled decompression that required it to descend 10,000 feet. That decrease in altitude increased the aircraft’s fuel consumption and, reportedly, mid-air refueling could not be accomplished in time.

The crew ejected safely and the aircraft crashed fifteen miles west of Yuba City. The nuclear weapons were released but did not detonate due to their safety interlocks.

Lieutenant Colonel Earl McGill, a Strategic Air Command veteran and B-52 pilot, suggests that the aircrew may have been using dexedrine to overcome fatigue due to a 24-hour flight preceding the accident.

The United States Department of Defense has officially recognized at least 32 Broken Arrow events, the first of which was a Convair B-36 that crashed in British Columbia after jettisoning its nuclear payload.

The term inspired Broken Arrow, a 1996 action thriller directed by John Woo and starring John Travolta and Christian Slater. It is a peak ’90s action film involving the theft of nuclear weapons and the military response to recover them.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

Culture on My Mind – The Chaos

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
The Chaos
March 13, 2020

This week’s “can’t let it go” is a poem that reinforces a favorite quote of mine from James D. Nicoll, a Canadian freelance game and fiction reviewer:

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

The poem in question is called The Chaos, and was composed by Dutch writer, traveler, and teacher Gerard Nolst Trenité. The poem demonstrates the irregularity of English spelling and pronunciation. The first version, published under Trenité’s pseudonym Charivarius, was a 174 line appendix to his 1920 textbook Drop Your Foreign Accent: engelsche uitspraakoefeningen. A version billed as “the most complete and authoritative version ever likely to emerge” was published in 1993 by the Spelling Society and has 274 lines.

I would normally put quotations around this as I did with the Nicoll quote above, but the formatting is important. In particular, words with clashing spellings and pronunciations were printed in italics for ease of reading and analysis.

The Chaos
Gerard Nolst Trenité

Dearest creature in Creation,
Studying English pronunciation,
⁠I will teach you in my verse
⁠Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.
It will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy;
⁠Tear in eye your dress you’ll tear.
⁠So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer,
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it?
⁠Just compare heart, beard and heard,
⁠Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain,
(Mind the latter, how it’s written!)
⁠Made has not the sound of bade,
⁠Say—said, pay—paid, laid, but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,
⁠But be careful how you speak,
⁠Say break, steak, but bleak and streak,
Previous, precious; fuchsia, via;
Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir,
⁠Cloven, oven; how and low;
⁠Script, receipt; shoe, poem, toe,
Hear me say, devoid of trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
⁠Typhoid; measles, topsails, aisles;
⁠Exiles, similes, reviles;
Wholly, holly; signal, signing;
Thames; examining, combining;
⁠Scholar, vicar and cigar,
⁠Solar, mica, war and far.
From “desire”: desirable—admirable from “admire”;
Lumber, plumber; bier but brier;
⁠Chatham, brougham; renown but known,
⁠Knowledge; done, but gone and tone,
One, anemone; Balmoral;
Kitchen, lichen; laundry, laurel;
⁠Gertrude, German; wind and mind;
⁠Scene, Melpomene, mankind;
Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,
Reading, Reading, heathen, heather.
⁠This phonetic labyrinth
⁠Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.
Billet does not end like ballet;
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet;
⁠Blood and flood are not like food,
⁠Nor is mould like should and would.
Banquet is not nearly parquet,
Which is said to rime with “darky”.
⁠Viscous, viscount; load and broad;
⁠Toward, to forward, to reward,
And your pronunciation’s O.K.
When you say correctly croquet;
⁠Rounded, wounded; grieve and sieve;
⁠Friend and fiend; alive and live;
Liberty, library; heave and heaven;
Rachel, ache, moustache; eleven.
⁠We say hallowed, but allowed;
⁠People, leopard; towed, but vowed
Mark the difference, moreover,
Between mover, plover, Dover,
⁠Leeches, breeches; wise, precise;
⁠Chalice but police and lice.
Camel; constable, unstable;
Principle, disciple; label;
⁠Petal, penal and canal;
⁠Wait, surmise, plait, promise; pal.
Suit, suite, run, circuit, conduit
Rime with “shirk it” and “beyond it”,
⁠But it is not hard to tell,
⁠Why it’s pall, mall, but Pall Mall.
Muscle, muscular; gaol; iron;
Timber, climber; bullion, lion,
⁠Worm and storm; chaise, chaos, chair;
⁠Senator, spectator, mayor.
Ivy, privy; famous, clamour
And enamour rime with “hammer.”
⁠Pussy, hussy and possess.
⁠Desert, but dessert, address.
Golf, wolf; countenance; lieutenants
Hoist, in lieu of flags, left pennants.
⁠River, rival; tomb, bomb, comb;
⁠Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rime with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
⁠Soul, but foul and gaunt, but aunt;
⁠Font, front, wont; want, grand, and, grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say: finger,
And then: singer, ginger, linger.
⁠Real, zeal; mauve, gauze and gauge;
⁠Marriage, foliage, mirage, age.
Query does not rime with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
⁠Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth;
⁠Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath.
Though the difference seems little,
We say actual, but victual,
⁠Seat, sweat, chaste, caste; Leigh, eight, height;
⁠Put, nut; granite, but unite.
Reefer does not rime with “deafer,”
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
⁠Dull, bull; Geoffrey, George; ate, late;
⁠Hint, pint; senate, but sedate;
Scenic, Arabic, pacific;
Science, conscience, scientific;
⁠Tour, but our, and succour, four;
⁠Gas, alas and Arkansas!
Sea, idea, guinea, area,
Psalm; Maria, but malaria;
⁠Youth, south, southern; cleanse and clean;
⁠Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion with battalion,
⁠Sally with ally; yea, ye,
⁠Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay!
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, receiver.
⁠Never guess—it is not safe;
⁠We say calves, valves, half, but Ralf!
Heron; granary, canary;
Crevice, and device, and eyrie;
⁠Face but preface, but efface,
⁠Phlegm, phlegmatic; ass, glass, bass;
Large, but target, gin, give, verging;
Ought, out, joust and scour, but scourging;
⁠Ear, but earn; and wear and tear
⁠Do not rime with “here”, but “ere”.
Seven is right, but so is even;
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen;
⁠Monkey, donkey; clerk and jerk;
⁠Asp, grasp, wasp; and cork and work.
Pronunciation—think of psyche!—
Is a paling, stout and spikey;
⁠Won’t it make you lose your wits,
⁠Writing “groats” and saying groats?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel,
Strewn with stones, like rowlock, gunwale,
⁠Islington and Isle of Wight,
⁠Housewife, verdict and indict!
Don’t you think so, reader, rather,
Saying lather, bather, father?
⁠Finally: which rimes with “enough,”
⁠Though, through, plough, cough, hough, or tough?
Hiccough has the sound of “cup”…
My advice is—give it up!

During my research on this poem, several sources noted that the line “Shoes, goes, does. Now first say: finger,” has a rather interesting anomaly since the word does can be pronounced in two distinct ways:

The first, pronounced /dəz/, is the third person singular present form of do. In a sentence: “Watch what that ferret does.”

The second, pronounced /dōz/, is the plural form of doe, a female deer.

Based on reading of the poem, I’m pretty certain that Trenité intended the first form of does, particularly since he precedes it with goes. Either way, it demonstrates Trenité’s point.
cc-break

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – March 13

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 13, 2020
Day 73 of 366

 

March 13th is the seventy-third day of the year. It is National Elephant Day in Thailand.

It is also the first Friday the 13th in 2020.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Good Samaritan Day, National Coconut Torte Day, National Earmuff Day, National Jewel Day, National K9 Veterans Day, National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day, and National Blame Someone Else Day. That last one is typically observed on the first Friday the 13th of the Year.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1781, William Herschel discovered Uranus.
  • In 1855, astronomer and mathematician Percival Lowell was born.
  • In 1862, the Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves was passed by the United States Congress. This effectively annulled the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and set the way forward for the Emancipation Proclamation later that year.
  • In 1930, the news of the discovery of Pluto was announced by Lowell Observatory.
  • In 1956, actress and producer Dana Delany was born.
  • In 1969, Apollo 9 returned safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
  • In 2014, Captain America: The Winter Soldier premiered in Los Angeles, California. It is one of my favorites in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

 

This year, March 13th is the first Friday the 13th out of two.

The day is considered to be an unlucky one in Western superstition. It happens at least once annually – it occurs during any month that starts on a Sunday – but can happen up to three times in one year. The last time that three of them occurred in one year was 2015, and the next one will happen in 2026.

The irrational fear of the number thirteen is known as triskaidekaphobia, and the associated fear of Friday the 13th is paraskevidekatriaphobia. The superstition may have started in the Middle Ages, presumably from the biblical story of The Last Supper during which thirteen individuals were present in the Upper Room on the 13th of Nisan (Maundy Thursday), the night before Jesus was crucified (Good Friday).

Historically, there are accounts of both Friday and the number 13 being unlucky, but the combination of the two wasn’t mentioned before the 19th century. Additional fuel may have been poured on the fire with Thomas W. Larson’s 1907 novel, Friday, the Thirteenth, in which a corrupt broker takes advantage of the superstition to panic Wall Street on the same date.

There’s also a popular horror film franchise, Friday the 13th, that started in 1980. Twelve films, one television series, novels, comics, and several video games later, and the icon of a serial killer in a hockey mask has become synonymous with the supposed misfortune of the date.

Ki ki ki ma ma ma…

For what it’s worth, Fridays the 13th have treated me rather well.

The next Friday the 13th will be in November.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 12

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 12, 2020
Day 72 of 366

 

March 12th is the seventy-second day of the year. It is World Day Against Cyber Censorship, an online event held each year to rally support for a single, unrestricted internet that is accessible to all and to draw attention to the ways that governments around the world are deterring and censoring free speech online.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Baked Scallops Day, National Girl Scout Day, National Plant a Flower Day, and World Kidney Day. The last one is typically observed on the second Thursday in March.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1710, English composer Thomas Arne was born.
  • In 1912, the Girl Guides (later renamed to the Girl Scouts of the USA) were founded in the United States.
  • In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi began the Salt March, a 200-mile march to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt in India.
  • In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the nation for the first time as President of the United States. It marked the beginning of his famous “fireside chats”.
  • Also in 1933, actress Barbara Feldon was born.
  • In 1946, Liza Minnelli was born.
  • Also in 1946, voice actor and singer Frank Welker was born.
  • In 1947, the Truman Doctrine was proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
  • In 1968, Mauritius achieved independence from the United Kingdom.
  • In 1984, actress Jaimie Alexander was born.
  • In 1993, North Korea announced that it would withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and refused to allow inspectors access to its nuclear sites.
  • In 1999, former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO.
  • In 2011, a reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melted down and released radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

 

March 12th is also the Aztec New Year, a date that depends on the version of the calendar, but is generally observed at sunrise.

The holiday is observed in some Nahua communities. The Nahua are the indigenous people of Mexico and El Salvador, comprising the largest group in Mexico, the second-largest in El Salvador, and historically present in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The Aztec and Toltec cultures were of this ethnicity. Their language of Uto-Aztecan affiliation is called Nahuatl and consists of many more dialects and variants, a number of which are mutually unintelligible. About 1.5 million Nahua speak Nahuatl and another million speak only Spanish.

To celebrate, ocote (pitch-pine) candles are lit on the eve of the new year. The ocote or ocotl produces a highly flammable and very aromatic resin. Celebrations also include fireworks, drumming, and singing, particularly in places like Huauchinango, Naupan, Mexico City, Zongolica, and Xicotepec. At the end of the celebrations, celebrants burn a flag that represents the year that ended while perfuming the replacement flag.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 11

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 11, 2020
Day 71 of 366

 

March 11th is the seventy-first day of the year. It is the Day of Restoration of Independence in Lithuania, celebrating the country’s 1990 breakaway from the former Soviet Union.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Funeral Director and Mortician Recognition Day, National Johnny Appleseed Day, National Oatmeal Nut Waffles Day, National Promposal Day, National Worship of Tools Day, and National Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day. The last one is typically observed on the second Wednesday in March.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1702, The Daily Courant was published for the first time. It was England’s first national daily newspaper.
  • In 1708, Queen Anne withheld Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill. It was the last time a British monarch vetoed legislation.
  • In 1824, the United States Department of War created the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
  • In 1851, the first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi took place in Venice.
  • In 1903, famous bandleader Lawrence Welk was born.
  • In 1946, Rudolf Höss was captured by British troops. He was the first commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
  • In 1954, composer and conductor David Newman was born.
  • In 1956, voice actor Rob Paulsen was born.
  • In 1963, actress Alex Kingston was born.
  • In 1967, actor and singer John Barrowman was born.
  • In 1989, actor Anton Yelchin was born.
  • In 1993, Janet Reno was confirmed by the United States Senate as the first female Attorney General of the United States.
  • In 1997, the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry were launched into space.
  • In 1999, Infosys became the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
  • In 2006, Michelle Bachelet was inaugurated as the first female president of Chile.

 

In 1952, English author and playwright Douglas Adams was born.

Some of his earliest writing was during prep school in 1962, including spoof reviews, short stories, and poetry. After university, he moved back to London with the intent of breaking into television and radio as a writer. He was discovered by Monty Python’s Graham Chapman and began to write for the comedy troupe, becoming one of only two people other than the original Python members to receive a writing credit.

His career stalled as his writing style became incompatible with the current style of radio and television comedy. He took various odd jobs and continued to submit sketches. In 1977, he pitched the idea for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to BBC Radio 4.

He allegedly made the story up as he went, and he developed a problem keeping deadlines. That problem only got worse as he started working in television and writing novels. He wasn’t a prolific writer and often needed help to get moving, but his work was popular and well-regarded. This resulted in his well-known quote:

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

During the development of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Adams began to work on Doctor Who after submitting the pilot script to Hitchhiker’s Guide to them. He was commissioned to write The Pirate Planet, and followed that up with City of Death and Shada. A potential film script, “Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen”, later became his novel Life, the Universe and Everything which evolved into the third Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series. He also served as script editor Doctor Who‘s seventeenth season.

Elements of Shada were reused in his novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and a story he pitched called “The Doctor Retires” inspired Steven Moffat’s The Snowmen for Doctor Who in 2012.

Despite his difficulty with deadlines, Adams wrote five novels in the Hitchhiker’s Guide series, published in 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1992. The series took multiple forms, including print, television, radio, video games, and film.

His other novel universe, the Dirk Gently series, contained two books. He was also a musician who played guitar left-handed and was influenced by Pink Floyd and Procol Harum.

Douglas Adams died of a heart attack on May 11, 2001, at the age of 49. He was survived by his wife, Jane Belson, and his daughter, Polly Jane Rocket Adams.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 10

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 10, 2020
Day 70 of 366

 

March 10th is the seventieth day of the year. It is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day in the United States.

It is also Harriet Tubman Day in the United States, a holiday observed in honor of the famous American abolitionist, humanitarian, and armed scout and spy for the United States Army during the American Civil War. Born into slavery, Harriet Tubman escaped and then made around thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved families and friends via the Underground Railroad, a network of antislavery activists and safe houses. She later helped abolitionist John Brown to recruit men for his raid on the Harpers Ferry. She was the first woman to lead an unarmed expedition during the Civil War, during which she served as a cook, nurse, armed scout, and spy. After the war, she continued the fight as an activist for women’s suffrage.

She died of pneumonia on March 10, 1913, at the age of 91. She was buried with semi-military honors.

 

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Blueberry Popover Day and National Pack Your Lunch Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1804, a formal ceremony was conducted in St. Louis, Missouri to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.
  • In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was ratified by the United States Senate, ending the two-year-long Mexican–American War.
  • In 1891, Almon Strowger patented the Strowger switch. Strowger was a Topeka, Kansas-based undertaker and his device led to the automation of telephone circuit switching.
  • In 1902, a United States court of appeals ruled that Thomas Edison did not invent the movie camera.
  • In 1922, Mahatma Gandhi was arrested in India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years in prison. He was released two years later for an appendicitis operation.
  • In 1959, thousands of Tibetans surrounded the Dalai Lama’s palace to prevent his removal by China. The Tibetan uprising and Lhasa Rebellion ended thirteen days later with approximately 85,000 Tibetan casualties as China secured the temple.
  • In 1971, actor and director John Hamm was born.
  • In 1977, astronomers discovered the rings of Uranus.
  • In 1978, The Incredible Hulk premiered on CBS, starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno.
  • In 1984, actress and producer Olivia Wilde was born.
  • In 1997, Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on the WB network, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.
  • In 2006, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrived at Mars.

 

March 10th is celebrated worldwide as Mario Day.

Mario is a fictional character in the Nintendo catalog of video games. He was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and first appeared in 1981’s Donkey Kong, since appearing in over 200 titles since then.

Mario evolved from Miyamoto’s desire to make a game based on the characters from Popeye, but since he couldn’t secure the rights to Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl, he created an unnamed player character and the Donkey Kong game. The English translation of the game’s manual called the character Jumpman – because he jumps from point to point – and Mario in the sales brochures. Miyamoto allegedly settled on the Mario name in response to an altercation with the Nintendo of America warehouse landlord, one Mario Segale.

Miyamoto envisioned Mario as a “go to” character that could be in any game as needed. By the time of Super Mario Bros., Mario’s credit as a hero was established as he defeated the evil King Koopa and rescued Princess Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom. Over the years, Mario, his brother Luigi, and his allies have appeared as flagship characters for the Nintendo juggernaut as the games evolved from two-dimensional platformers to three-dimensional adventure games, go-kart racing games, and so much more.

Mario has also appeared in media outside of the video game worlds, from comic books and television (Saturday Supercade, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, and more) to film (1993’s Super Mario Bros.) and beyond as Universal Studios prepares to open Super Nintendo World attractions at its theme parks worldwide.

Mario holds seven world records in the Guinness World Record books, including Best Selling Video Game Series of All Time.

March 10th was picked as Mario Day purely because of how MAR 10 looks like the character’s name. It is a day of celebration and promotion of Mario’s legacy over the last four decades.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 9

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 9, 2020
Day 69 of 366

 

March 9th is the sixty-ninth day of the year. It is Teachers’ Day, also known as Eid Al Moalim, in Lebanon.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Barbie Day, National Crabmeat Day, National Get Over it Day, National Meatball Day, and National Napping Day. That last one is typically observed on the day after the return of Daylight Saving Time because one has to pick up that extra hour somewhere.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1454, Italian cartographer and explorer Amerigo Vespucci was born.
  • In 1815, English inventor Francis Ronalds described the first battery-operated clock in Philosophical Magazine.
  • In 1841, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on the case of United States v. The Amistad. They decided that that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.
  • In 1842, Giuseppe Verdi’s third opera, Nabucco, premiered in Milan. This success established Verdi as one of Italy’s foremost opera composers.
  • In 1862, USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fought to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads during the American Civil War. This was the first battle between two ironclad warships.
  • In 1910, pianist and composer Samuel Barber was born.
  • In 1934, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was born. He was the first human in space.
  • In 1943, chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer was born.
  • In 1979, actor Oscar Isaac was born.
  • In 2011, Space Shuttle Discovery made its final landing after 39 flights.

 

At the top, I mentioned that it was National Barbie Day. That’s because, in 1959, the Barbie doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

The iconic (and often controversial) fashion doll was created by Ruth Handler. She was inspired by her daughter, Barbara, who would play with paper dolls and give them adult roles. At that point, most children’s dolls represented infants, and Handler saw an opportunity. She suggested the idea to her husband Elliot, a co-founder of Mattel, but the board of directors wasn’t enthusiastic until the Handlers brought Bild Lilli toy dolls back from a trip to Germany.

The Bild Lilli dolls were exactly what Ruth Handler had in mind. The Lilli doll was based on a popular character from a comic strip drawn by Reinhard Beuthin for the newspaper Bild. Lilli was a blonde bombshell working girl who knew what she wanted and was not above using men to get it. The doll was first sold in Germany in 1955 for adults, but it later became popular with children who dressed her in separately available outfits.

Handler redesigned the Lilli doll with help from aerospace engineer and Mattel toy designer Jack Ryan. (There’s a Tom Clancy joke in here somewhere.) She then named it Barbie – the full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts – after her daughter.

After its debut, the doll was marketed as a “Teen-age Fashion Model” with fashions hand-stitched by Japanese homeworkers. Some parents were unhappy about Barbie’s obvious breasts, but Ruth Handler was adamant that the doll should maintain an adult appearance. The toy has been controversial over the years, from body image concerns to diversity and role model inspirations. Despite this, the toy has an avid following and a healthy collecting market. An estimated one billion Barbie dolls (or more) have been sold worldwide in over 150 countries.

The Barbie doll was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in 1998.

Ruth Handler was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1970 and survived, creating her own breast prosthesis after a radical mastectomy. Afterward, she formed a company to follow her designs. She resigned from Mattel after investigations of fraud in the late seventies. She died from complications of surgery for colon cancer in 2002 at the age of 85, and her husband died nine years later at the age of 94.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.