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	:: Pip		5:23 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac September 6, 1838 | Grace Darling's daring deed

Grace Darling, born November, 1815, was a lighthouse-keeper's daughter on Longstone Island, off the coast of England. On September 6, 1838, a stormy day, the Forfarshire, a 300-ton steamer, was on her way from Hull to Dundee when she smashed into the rocks at about 4am. The seas were so great that the local boatman, and lighthouse keeper Darling, refused to take vessels out to the wreck. Grace, aged 22, coaxed her father into going with her to row the mile to rescue the survivors, of whom they saved nine, including a mother who they found nursing the corpses of two infants.

Grace Darling, because of her bravery and no doubt because of her attractive name, became instantly famous in Britain, and may be described as the first media heroine. More than 700 pounds was raised for her by public subscription. She received many offers of marriage, but she was content to remain with her parents at the lighthouse, where she died of tuberculosis at the early age of 27.

	:: Pip		12:42 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Pentagon Lied About Use of Napalm in Iraq War

"During the Iraq war, some journalists reported U.S. forces were using napalm against Iraqi troops.

The Pentagon vehemently denied they had used the controversial, excruciatingly painful weapon. 'We completed destruction of our last batch of napalm on 4 April, 2001,' was the Pentagon's response.

"Now, however, the truth is out. American pilots did indeed bomb Iraqi troops with napalm in March and April, creating huge firestorms that burned Iraqi troops alive in several dug-in positions. Dozens of napalm bombs were dropped near key bridges south of Baghdad.

"'We napalmed both those [bridge] approaches, said Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11. 'Unfortunately there were people there ... you could see them in the [cockpit] video. They were Iraqi soldiers. It's no great way to die. The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect' ..."

Source

	:: Pip		12:35 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | About September, month to the goddess Pomona

I just posted a new article-in-continual-progress on the month of September, dedicated to the Roman goddess of fruits and orchards, Pomona. Lots and lots of quotes, some background info and, progressively, a growing body of folklore about the first month of spri--- I mean, autumn. Bit by bit I'm doing each of the 12 months of the Gregorian year, hampered only by the pressure of time (I still haven't done August but intend to soon) and the fact that I've run out of space with my ISP for www.wilsonsalmanac.com – I have to delete a page before I can upload one now.

I hope you enjoy the new page.

	:: Pip		2:41 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac September 4 | Appearance of Srimati Radharani (Hare Krishna faith)

Being the topmost devotee of Lord Krsna, Srimati Radharani is naturally an ocean of humility. Yet sometimes the intense love She feels for Him causes Her to become proud and She thinks, “Although the cowherd boys prepare nice flower garlands for my beloved Krsna, when I present My garland to Him He becomes struck with wonder and immediately accepts it and puts it on His heart.”
The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 29

The Indescribable Beauty of Srimati Radharani
As beautiful as two exquisite plantain trees, Sri Radha’s thighs enchant the mind of Cupid. Sri Radha’s beautiful knees are two reservoirs filled with the nectar of various transcendental pastimes. Radha’s beautiful feet are decorated with jeweled ankle-bells, and Her toes with toe rings as beautiful as the treasure of Varuna.
Source

Krishna art

	:: Pip		2:03 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Inside Karl Rove's Diary: "Things Aren't Going So Well"

"Dear Diary: Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.

"Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 coverup ... The total control we've exercised over the mass media – conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side – is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight ... the natives are restless, with nightly guerrilla attacks and sabotage and mass-bombings. The press-sharks are starting to smell the blood of Vietnam in the Persian Gulf waters ..."

Source

	:: Pip		12:42 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | No revenge urged

USA: The stepdaughter of a man killed by Paul Hill wrote in vain to the Florida governor, Jeb Bush urging against the execution of John Britton's murderer. Hill was killed by the state yesterday.

"Violence begets violence," Catherine Britton Fairbanks told the Pensacola News Journal.

"There is no murder of any kind that justifies killing the murderer, it's not going to bring the person back."

Source

In July 1994 Paul Hill gunned down John Britton, 69, and his security man and driver, a retired air force officer Lieutenant-Colonel James Barrett, 74, outside a Pensacola abortion clinic.

	:: Pip		12:37 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Question marks over Kelly



The UK police and a prominent psychiatrist are satisfied that David Kelly took his own life. I wish I could be so satisfied.

Oxford professor of psychiatry, Keith Hawton, without ever having met David Kelly, is able to say, "Taking all the evidence together, it is well nigh certain that he committed suicide." Yet the person who last saw him alive said that Kelly appeared normal just before his death.

Source

Kelly seemed to be looking towards the future in emails he made just hours before his mysterious death. He said he was planning to go to Baghdad "a week Friday", and referred to "dark actors playing games":

"A number of e-mails, written off-line, were all sent together at 1118 BST on 17 July, just over three hours before Dr Kelly set off for his final walk.

"Among them was one to Gaeta Kingdom at Oxford University saying: 'Many thanks for your thoughts and prayers. It has been a remarkably tough time. Should all blow over by early next week, then I will travel to Baghdad a week Friday. I have had to keep a low profile which meant leaving home for a week. Back now. With best wishes and thanks for your support. David'

"The inquiry was shown further e-mails including one to Judith Millers saying: 'Judy I will wait until the end of the week before judging - many dark actors playing games. Thanks for your support. I appreciate your friendship at this time.'"

Source

Meanwhile, there's a website that is claiming that the Kelly case might have something to do with his membership in the Baha'i religion:

"In short, the Baha'i Faith had a great deal to gain by the war going forward, reclaiming the House of Baha'u'llah in Baghdad and the Garden of Ridvan, extending the Baha'i pilgrimage circuit to Iraq, and leading to a more tolerant climate there and generally in the Middle East, for Baha'i expansion, all long sought goals. The interference of the Baha'i administration in Dr. Kelly's work should seriously be considered and investigated."

	:: Pip		9:32 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac September 3, 1752 | Big Greg


The calendar in Britain changed, from Julian (Old Style) to Gregorian (New Style).

Somebody stole eleven of our days!
The British calendar changed from the Julian system to the Gregorian one, just as European countries’ calendars had been changed long before. Eleven days had to ‘be lost’ to catch up, so the day after September 2 was called September 14. Riots broke out in parts of England when many simple people thought they had been robbed of time as well as wages.

	:: Pip		8:41 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac September 3, 1651 | King Charles up the tree

After the Battle of Worcester, in which Oliver Cromwell defeated the royalist forces, Britain’s King Charles II (May 29, 1630-February 16, 1685) hid himself in an oak tree with Colonel William Careless (whose name Charles changed to Carlos after the Restoration, to be more in line with his own), at Boscobel, near Shifnal, Shropshire.

Because of the oak tree, the ‘oak-apple’, or shick-shack, an insect gall found on oak trees, became a symbol of King Charles. Each anniversary of his May 29, 1660 coronation was long called Oak-Apple Day, or Shick-shack Day.

“The wearing of a sprig of oak on the anniversary of Charles' crowning showed that a person was loyal to the restored king. Those who refused to wear an oak-sprig were often set upon, and children would challenge others to show their sprig or have their bottoms pinched. Consequently, this day became known as Pinch-Bum-Day. In parts of England where oak-apples are known as shick-shacks, the day is also known as Shick-Shack Day. It is also likely that the royal association conceals a pagan tradition of tree worship.” Source

	:: Pip		8:30 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac September 3 | Bartholomew Fair

The Bartholomew Fair lasted for four days. It opened annually at Smithfield, England each St Bartholomew's Day (August 24) from 1133 to 1752, then after the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, opened on September 3, except where this was a Sunday. It was removed to Islington in 1840, and last held in 1855.

One of the great national fairs dealing in cloth, livestock, etc., accompanied by a variety of amusements and entertainments it long held its place as a centre of London life. The Puritans failed to suppress it. Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, a comedy of manners, was first acted in 1614.

Started by grant of Henry II, it was held on the eve, the day, and the day after St Bartholomew's. The proclamation of the fair on this day was attended with pomp and ceremony. It was read at the gate leading into Cloth-fair by the Lord Mayor of London's attorney, followed by a procession that marched around Smithfield then returned to the Mansion-house where all the dignitaries dined. Sideshows displayed such people as ‘The Wild Indian Woman and Child’, ‘The largest child in the Kingdom’ and ‘The female dwarf, Two Feet, Eleven Inches high’, as well as exotic animals, such as elephants, tigers and ‘the giant emew, fom Brazil’.

Many locals of Smithfield were opposed to the fair because of the noise and debauchery; as early as July 10, 1750, a petition was put to the Lord Mayor to close it down.

"No person of respectability now visits it, but as a curious spectator of an annual congregation of ignorance and depravity." (19th-century folklorist Hone)

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	:: Pip		4:41 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | New at the Almanac's Cafe Diem! Store

	:: Veralynne		1:57 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Poets Against the War


Anthology of Poets Against the War
Published by Nation Books

September 1, 2003 -- The Poets Against the War anthology is now off the press and being shipped to bookstores nationwide. The book is a representation of the variety of American poets' voices speaking out against the recent attack on Iraq, from those sent in response to Sam Hamill's initial request for poems and statements by friends and colleagues, to the website archive of the more than 13,000 poems that inspired
this web site.


THE WAR GOES ON
(and so does poetsagainstthewar.org)

More than ever, we need to speak out against war, share our poetry, and take action to end this war -- which is not over, despite the words of the Bush Administration. More than ever, we need to demand that the actions of the US be constrained by the legal sanction and moral approval of the international community and the United Nations, that the US refrain from further immoral, unilateral and preemptive wars, and that the US take full responsibility for repairing the enormous damage caused by its military assault on Iraq. The war we must oppose is the one against Iraq, but also the war against human rights, against immigrant communities, against the poor. Poetry, and the truth-telling it demands, is a powerful resource in this struggle for a peaceful, healthy and sustainable world community.

As of August 1st, we've reopened the PAW Web site for publishing new poetry against the war. Click on Submit a Poem to add your voice.


SAM HAMILL'S OPEN LETTER, JULY 4th, 2003

"All I ask is that, in the midst of a murderous world,
we agree to reflect on murder and to make a choice.
After that, we can distinguish those who accept the
consequences of being murderers themselves or the
accomplices of murderers, and those who refuse to
do so with all their force and being. Since this terrible
dividing line does actually exist, it will be a gain if it be
clearly marked. Over the expanse of five continents
throughout the coming years an endless struggle is
going to be pursued between violence and friendly
persuasion, a struggle which, granted, the former
has a thousand times more chances of success than
does the latter. But I have always held that, if he who
bases his hopes on human nature is a fool, he who
gives up in the face of circumstances is a coward. And
henceforth, the only honorable course will be to stake
everything on a formidable gamble: that words are
more powerful than munitions." -- Albert Camus

For the past six months, it has been my privilege to serve as founder and primary spokesman of Poets Against the War. Our accomplishments have been bold and vivid, subtle and modest. Both the electronic anthology of 13,000 poems and the now best-selling print selection from it have made history. Our actions in creating national and international days of poetry readings against war have also been historical firsts. We have established a worldwide network for poets opposed to George Bush's threat of worldwide "pre-emptive" war and his creation of a United States that is in fact and deed a rogue nation. We have joined with other anti-war and human rights organizations to broaden and deepen our opposition to this administration's policies as more and more people become aware of the terrible consequences we all face. All of this, and much more, has been accomplished because poets gave their art and hearts and money to make it work.

The war, however, has only just begun.

CONTINUE

	:: Pip		12:35 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi must be freed

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
News Flash

"Amnesty International is gravely concerned by yesterday's US State Department report that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) is on a hunger strike in protest at her three month detention. The organization calls on the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC, the ruling military government) to release her immediately and unconditionally.

"'Prisoner of conscience Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should never have been arrested in the first place. The SPDC must release her and provide her with adequate medical care and protection,' Amnesty International said today.

"While the organization cannot confirm these reports, it remains deeply concerned for her safety, as she is being held in incommunicado detention in an unknown location."

Source
Current Amnesty campaigns

	:: Pip		12:15 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Show us where you live

Then I'll send my mates to get you

199 people on the GuestMap showing where they live. Hmmmm, I'm tempted to push it over 200 meself.

	:: Pip		5:58 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Jesus is for real, man. Really "with it".

	:: Pip		5:05 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | How can I convert ico files to gif?

Anyone know the best way for me to convert a few hundred .ico files to .gif? Preferably, but not necessarily, in batches to make it quicker. Ta.

Baz le Tuff suggested Irfan, which I tried. It makes the gif half the size of the ico, and crops it in half too.

	:: Pip		4:42 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac September | The Bird Man ritual of Rapa Nui

Rapa Nui, known also as Easter Island (Spanish Isla de Pascua) is an island in the south Pacific Ocean, west and slightly north of Santiago, Chile and part of the territory of Chile (Valparaíso Region). It has a population of only about 2,000 locals and an unknown number of ethnographers ...

The origins of the Rapa Nui people are only slowly coming to light. Thor Heyerdahl (Easter Island: The Mystery Solved) proposed that they are of Peruvian descent, which he deduced from a similarity between Rapa Nui and Incan stonework. It has even been suggested by some, such as the long discredited Erich von Daniken, that Rapa Nui is the remnant of a lost continent, or its culture the result of some extra-terrestrial influence. Modern scholarship, however, indicates discovery of the island by Polynesians in about 400 CE, led, according to legend, by Hotu Matua.

September in Rapa Nui, until about the 1860s, was an important time for the Rapa Nui people, in an annual custom since lost to time: the springtime ceremonies of the cult (or religion) of the Bird Man ...

Today I uploaded the full article about the Bird Man ritual of Rapa Nui.
I hope you enjoy it, here at the Scriptorium.

	:: Pip		4:36 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac September 2 | About today

1838 Lydia Kamekeha Liliuokalani, Queen of the Hawaiian Islands and writer of the well-known Hawaiian song, Aloha Oe (Farewell to Thee)

In 1893 Liliuokalani tried to restore some of the monarchy's power through the political movement called Oni Pa'a (Stand Firm). But American settlers who controlled most of Hawaii's wealth disapproved of the queen's efforts and revolted against her. A republic was established in 1894. United States President Grover Cleveland tried in vain to restore Liliuokalani to her throne. Hawaii became a U.S. territory in 1898.

Liliuokalani made two trips to the United States after she lost her throne. She is perhaps best known today for her song, Aloha Oe, which became Hawaii's traditional farewell song. She was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Source


Marathonia
This ancient Greek festival commemorated the battle between the victorious Athenian army and the vanquished Persians. The historian Pausanias recorded that the battle sounds could be heard five hundred years after the terrible event.

Muin commences
The Celtic tree month of Muin starts today. Sacred to the god Lugh, Muin is a time for harvest, both actual and spiritual. Lugh represents spiritual and mental illumination.

"The Vine of the Ogham alphabet is the grape vine. Though obviously a more recently imported, cultivated species, unlike the other Ogham trees and shrubs, there is no doubt that the Vine has been known and propagated in the British Isles for a long time, its distinctive fruits and foliage appearing frequently on Bronze Age artifacts. Magical Associations: Fertility, inspiration, prosperity, binding. ”
Source

Feast day of St Mamas
This Cyprian saint befriended lions, milked lionesses and made cheese from the milk. When he hid from bandits in a Turkish cave, he was cared for by a pair of mountain sheep. At least two of his shrines are still visited by mountain sheep. Today at Morphou, Cyprus, two saltwater springs bubble blood with medicinal properties. His body, which was fragrant, signifying sainthood, had the ability to cure abscesses. Or, so it is said.

1726 John Howard, English prison reformer (died January 20, 1790)

John Howard, reformer
John Howard’s life is an example of what the wealthy can do with their good fortune. Though beginning his career as a lowly grocery worker, the English prison reformer inherited a fortune which he used to construct ‘model villages’ for his employees. Later he became shocked by the state of English prisons and dedicated his wealth to the fight for prison reforms.

1666 The Great Fire of London began in Pudding Lane, in the bakery of Thomas Farriner. It raged until the 6th, when it burnt itself out.

The fire that broke out on this day in Pudding Lane and ended at Pie Corner left 80,000 homeless but killed only six people. It consumed 89 churches, 13,200 houses and 430 streets. At the time it was widely believed that the ‘Protestant city’ was torched by the ‘popish faction’, or so the monument on Fish Hill, London, revealed.

The Great Fire of London
The only good things that came out of the Great Fire were the end to the plague and the rebuilding of the city. Starting in Farriner’s bakehouse on Pudding Lane, it destroyed 13,200 houses and many more buildings before being extinguished at Pie Corner.

1724 Margaret Dickson came back to life after hanging.

Half-hanged Maggy
On this day, single mother Margaret Dickson was hanged at Edinburgh for the crime of concealing a pregnancy in the case of a dead child. Somewhere on the six mile journey from the scaffold to the Musselburgh Cemetery, somehow the corpse of Ms Dickson revived. She went on to be reunited with her husband and to have several more children, and was known on the streets of Edinburgh, where she sold salt, as Half-hanget Maggy.

1922 Henry Lawson, one of Australia's favourite poets, died aged 55, poverty stricken and addicted to alcohol.

The world shall yet be a wider world – for the tokens are manifest;
East and North shall the wrongs be hurled that followed us South and West.
The march of Freedom is North by the Dawn! Follow, whate'er betide!
Sons of the Exiles, march! March on! March till the world grows wide!
Henry Lawson

Wilson’s poem to Lawson

	:: Veralynne		6:49 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Keep Your Act Together During Trying Times

Our friend, Lucy Lopez, has a lovely and generous offer for Blogmanac readers . . . right on time!


INSIGHT READINGS

How would you like to take a walk with me in that place so little known to the conscious mind? Where hidden meanings and imaginings, unformed and undisturbed, play silently, relentlessly, ambiguously with the world directly seen and sensed by you? The world of your interests, needs, desires, relationships, hopes and fears?

Let me lay out this landscape for you with my intuitive tools which include the Mythic Tarot, the Health and Healing Cards, and the Tao Oracle! Please email me for a FREE reading. You will need to tell me:

1. Your first name
2. Gender
3. Day and month of birth
4. Questions (two or three that are related to the same issue)
5. Any other information you think you would like me to know

Your only obligation for this FREE reading is to give me honest and accurate feedback on the reading that I do.

[This is not a "teaser ad" offer from a commercial enterprise, but an honest offer from a personal friend who'd like to help others while gaining wide and varied experience. -v]

Onward and Upward!

	:: Pip		9:01 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Mystery death of Australian PM might have inquest

"The 35-year-old mystery of Australian prime minister Harold Holt's disappearance while swimming may be re-examined by a coronial inquest, Victorian state officials said here.

"Holt, 59, vanished while swimming at Cheviot Beach, near Portsea on December 17, 1967, and after a three-week search it was presumed he had drowned and his body had been swept out to sea.

"Holt was a keen snorkeller and had often swum in the area where he went missing.

"Numerous Cold War conspiracy theories evolved, including the suggestion, never taken seriously by police, that he had been snatched by a Communist Chinese submarine ..."

Source

	:: Pip		8:51 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Baghdad burning – still

Chaos

“[Iraq] is not a country in chaos and Baghdad is not a city in chaos.”
Paul Bremer

"Where is this guy living? Is he even in the same time zone??? I’m incredulous … maybe he's from some alternate universe where shooting, looting, tanks, rape, abductions, and assassinations aren’t considered chaos, but it’s chaos in *my* world.

"Ever since the occupation there have been 400 females abducted in Baghdad alone and that is only the number of recorded abductions. Most families don’t go to the Americans to tell about an abduction because they know it’s useless. The male members of the family take it upon themselves to search for the abducted female and get revenge if they find the abductors. What else is there to do? I know if I were abducted I’d much rather my family organize themselves and look for me personally than go to the CPA.

"By BBC’s accounts there are 70 cars a day being hijacked in Baghdad alone …"

From Baghdad Burning, a blog by a young woman who lives there. It's one of my favourite weblogs, so it's permalinked in the right-hand column of the Blogmanac.

	:: Pip		4:02 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac September 1 | Wattle Day, Australia

This here is the wattle,
emblem of our land.
You can stick it in a bottle,
you can hold it in your hand.
Monty Python

Formerly August 1, gazetted September 1 by the Keating Government in 1992. The wattle may be one of many species available, and it is said that across Australia, on any day of the year there is at least one species flowering.

The flower loved by Australians (except allergy sufferers) was so named because the early British settlers used wooden slats and sticks of these Acacia trees to make their wattle-and-daub huts, being made of clay spread over light timbers in the British style. Australia's colours are green and gold, due to the popularity of the plant and its frequent presence in the Australian bush alongside the omnipresent gumtrees (Eucalyptus spp).

Australia's national floral emblem is the Golden wattle Acacia pycnantha.

First day of spring
Australians call September 1 the first day of spring, just as March 1 is first of autumn, December 1 is the first of summer and June 1 is the beginning of winter. The custom dates back to early colonial times and has to do with the dates on which uniforms were issued to the British guards of the convict colony.

Wattle 'nymphs' – art photography from 1921

	:: Pip		3:27 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac September 1, 1914 | The death of Martha, last passenger pigeon

The pigeons were picked up and piled in heaps, until each [hunter] had as many as he could possibly dispose of, when the hogs were let loose to feed on the remainder.
John James Audubon, Birds of America

When the birds appear all the male inhabitants of the neighborhood leave their customary occupations as farmers, bark-peelers, oil-scouts, wildcatters, and tavern loafers, and join in the work of capturing and marketing the game. The Pennsylvania law very plainly forbids the destruction of the pigeons on their nesting grounds, but no one pays any attention to the law, and the nesting birds have been killed by thousands and tens of thousands.Forest and Stream, 1886

USA: The last Passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), named Martha after the wife of George Washington, died in the Cincinnati Zoo. At one time, the population of this Northern Hemisphere bird might have numbered five billion, and some sources say nine. It was certainly the most populous bird in the Americas, and probably the world.

One 19th century observer watched as they flew overhead in a mass that darkened the whole sky for hours. By calculating the speed of their flight he estimated that the flock was one mile wide and 240 miles long. Alexander Wilson, the father of scientific ornithology in America, estimated that one flock consisted of two billion birds. In Kentucky, Wilson's rival, John James Audubon, watched a flock pass overhead for three days and estimated that at times more than 300 million pigeons flew by him each hour.

Passenger pigeons were shot for food, and untold thousands were shot for ‘sport’. In one competition, a participant had to kill 30,000 pigeons just to be considered for a prize. In 1896, almost all of the remaining quarter million passenger pigeons were killed in a single day by sport hunters, who knew they were shooting the last wild flock.

Lots more on these fascinating birds
Passenger Pigeon Society
More
Listen to John Herald's song, Martha, Last of the Passenger Pigeons

	:: Pip		11:54 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac September 1 | Feast day of St Giles

In Spain, shepherds consider St Giles the protector of rams, and it used to be the custom to wash the rams and colour their wool a bright shade on Giles’s feast day. They would tie lighted candles to their horns, and bring the animals down the mountain paths to the chapels and churches to have them blessed. In the Basque country, the shepherds come down from the Pyrenees on this day, dressed in their full traditional costume, sheepskin coats, staves, and crooks, to attend Mass with their best rams. This event marks the beginning of autumn festivals, and features processions and dancing in the fields.

St Giles is the patron saint of those who can't walk. He was born at Athens and came to France in about 715 (or 683; sources differ), having given his patrimony to charity. He lived for two years with Caesarius, Bishop of Arles, and became a hermit, and so continued till he became abbot at Nismes.

The legend of Giles and the hind
The Giles tradition has the following story: while hunting, King Childeric of France accidentally shot an arrow into a thorn bush, hoping to hit a deer, but instead wounded the hermit in the knee. Giles remained crippled for life, refusing to be healed so that he could better mortify his flesh.

The King of France so admired Giles that he had built the monastery of Saint Gilles du Gard for the saint’s followers, and Giles became its first abbot, establishing his own discipline there. A small town grew up around the monastery.

As he was wounded while protecting his pet hind, or female red deer, the hind is his symbol in art, together with an arrow in Giles's hand. The animal went daily to the hermit's cave to give him milk, and protected him by causing thick bushes to grow up around the convalescing eremite.

Giles once raised the son of a prince to life, and made a lame man walk. Once, he cast two doors of cypress into the Tiber River, Rome, and “recommended them to heavenly guidance”, as the 19th-century folklorist William Hone put it. On Giles’s return to France he found those doors at the gates of his monastery, and used them as the portals to his church.

Hospitals for the lame and poor
Churches, hospitals and safe houses to St Giles, which were for disabled people, people with leprosy, paupers and beggars, were generally situated outside the walls of the city, as these ‘cripples’ were not permitted within the walls, but these were built so that they could be easily reached by the needy.

When they were taken to Tyburn in London for execution, convicts were allowed to stop at Saint Giles’s Hospital where they were given a bowl of ale called Saint Giles’s Bowl, “thereof to drink at their pleasure, as their last refreshing in this life”.

St Giles died c. 710-724 (sources differ) in France. "Many wytnisse that they herde the company of aungelles berynge the soule of hym into heven" (Golden Legend). Upon Giles's death, his grave became a shrine and place of pilgrimage; the monastery later became a Benedictine house.

Giles is now an affectionate, generic name in England for a farmer, a sense that dates from 1800, when it was used in The Farmer's Boy, a poem by Bloomfield.

Patronage
Beggars, blacksmiths, breast cancer, breast feeding, cancer patients, cripples, disabled people, Edinburgh Scotland, epilepsy, epileptics, fear of night, forests, handicapped people, hermits, horses, insanity, lepers, leprosy, mental illness, mentally ill people, noctiphobics, physically challenged people, paupers, poor people, rams, spur makers, sterility, woods.

It might be that his patronage of animals and forests suggest his mythos may also have Pagan origins.

Other saints of the day

	:: Pip		10:52 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | No license? No pop stand, St. Paul tells 2 youngsters

"Mikaela Ziegler, 7, and her 4-year-old sister, Annika, were selling refreshments Wednesday afternoon near the State Fairgrounds when a woman approached them. But she wasn't there to buy.

"'She said, "You can't sell pop unless you have a license," ' Mikaela said.

"That's how it came to be that an inspector with St. Paul's Office of License, Inspections and Environmental Protection shut down Mikaela and Annika's pop stand.

"Their outraged father, Dr. Richard Ziegler, called City Hall for an explanation. He was told that St. Paul is cracking down on unauthorized merchants and that his daughters would be free to hawk their beverages once they obtained a $60 license."

Source

	:: Pip		12:00 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Thank you Nora

One of our team members, Nora Ui Dhuibhir from Ireland, has to to leave because of serious health complications. Nora doesn't want me to make a big fuss of her going, so I won't, but I want to thank her for all the work and support she has given this project, and me personally, for a long time. From my heart and on behalf of our other team members, I wish Nora excellent health, bright blessings and much happiness, and many thanks for all you have done. I hope you'll drop by here when you can.

	:: Pip		3:18 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | SIEV-X: Government story sinking

More evidence appears to be emerging that the Australian government and its agencies know much more than they are telling about the sinking of the SIEV-X refugee ship. Did these 353 people die in Australian waters? The authorities still say no, but it doesn't look that way.

"Evidence continues to mount of concealment by multiple Australian agencies of knowledge of the sinking position of SIEVX – knowledge that I have previously argued was deliberately withheld from the Certain Maritime Incident (CMI) Committee ...

"Oceanographic Professor Matthias Tomczak of Flinders University when given the rescue coordinates was able to assess the likely direction and distance that the survivors drifted during the hours they were in the water. Recently Tony Kevin has charted Tomczak's assessment narrowing down the likely sinking position of SIEVX to an area of around 140 square nautical miles inside the Australian Border Protection Surveillance zone."

Source (.pdf file)

SIEV-X.com

	:: Pip		9:03 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac August 31, 12 CE | Caligula

12 CE Caligula (Gaius Augustus Germanicus, died January 15, 41), Roman emperor renowned for his cruelty. He was tall, a massively sized man, with a hairy body but bald head, and described as having sunken eyes. To save money he fed criminals to the wild beasts he kept for cruel sports.

One well-known anecdote tells that Caligula appointed his horse, Incitatus, as a Senator. Before the emperor got around to having Incitatus made a Consul, as he intended, Caligula was assassinated in 41 by several of his own guards.

	:: Pip		3:35 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | The spoiling of Shangri-la

Tibet is modernising rapidly, thanks to booming China's billions, but at what cost to its unique culture?

"The hottest nightclub on the roof of the world sits between an enormous concrete monument to Chinese rule and Potala Palace, the awe-inspiring world heritage site that was formerly the winter residence of the Dalai Lama."

Source
Speculation that Dalai Lama could return to Lhasa
Guardian's special report on China

	:: Pip		3:13 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Well, if that don't beat all!

Did Bush make Osama deal with Musharraf?

"LONDON: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has struck a deal with the US not to capture Osama Bin Laden, fearing this could lead to unrest in Pakistan, according to a special investigation by The Guardian.

"The paper reported Saturday that Bin Laden was being protected by three elaborate security rings manned by tribesmen stretching 192 kms in diameter in northern Pakistan."


Source via A Changin Times blog

Will Bush capture bin Laden as an election stunt?
Here is an except from the article referred to above, as it appeared in the prestigious international journal, The Guardian:

"With the US election nearing and mounting concerns about Washington's second great military project – Iraq – George Bush more than ever needs the incalculable political boost that Bin Laden's capture would bring."

Source

Bin Laden is accused of killing more than 3,000 Americans, and Bush made a song and dance about catching Osama quickly, dead or alive. It beggars belief to be told by the US government that they cannot locate and capture cohorts of military men such as bin Laden, Hussein and their troops, with all the trucks and resources they would require to move about the countryside, and with all the sophisticated satellite and other snooping equipment owned by the USA.

I do wonder what the loved ones of those 9-11 victims must think of allegations that their President is only pretending to be hunting for the Al Qaeda leader – if, indeed, stories like The Guardian's are circulated widely in US media, which I doubt very much. If the Shrub is keeping bin Laden 'on ice' while his own popularity is falling, only to capture him for a media stunt close to election time, how will the American people feel? If I had lost a family member in the Bali bombings, and Australia's Prime Minister Howard was using that in order to get himself re-elected, I would be absolutely outraged.

This should be an interesting unfolding story to watch during the coming US election campaign. However, it will probably not unfold in the mainstream media, as they have not tended to cover any of the long list of similar misinformations so skilfully managed by the US Administration's expensive and powerful public relations consultants. Of course, this is because of the incestuous relationship between the huge, transnational media corporations and the huge, transnational PR firms. (It's clear that most TV watchers and newspaper readers have not even heard of almost-invisible corporations such as Burson-Marsteller or Hill & Knowlton, nor understand how large, powerful and influential they are. Even less is it widely known the extent to which "news and current affairs" are written by PR firms.)

This has been a war of political spin, cooked up as a 'war on terrorism', and it looks like we're about to get another good serving. It also appears that we might have one more myth to add to the list.

	:: Pip		3:02 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Burning Man festival a focus for parties, religious yearning

"Rising from the desert in one of the flattest, most remote places on earth is an 80-foot temple topped by the stylized figure of a man.

"It wasn't here last week and it won't be here after Saturday night, except for a pile of ashes where it is to be ritually burned to the ground.

"In one of the most bizarre rites of the Silicon Age, nearly 30,000 people are camped in the middle of the Nevada desert 90 miles north of Reno to build and then destroy a temporary city built around a religious icon."

Source
The Burning Man Project

	:: Pip		2:11 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Robert Anton Wilson for California Governor?

Still Another Hat in the Ring

"Okay, this one I find particularly amusing: Author, comedian, guru, satirist, and all-around... well, strange guy Robert Anton Wilson has just entered the California governor’s race as the “unofficial write-in candidate” for the Guns and Dope Party. He says he was inspired by the surrealist concept of critical paranoia and the political philosophy of Lysander Spooner, but do the specifics really matter?

"It’s not like this recall election wasn’t surreal enough — but now it’s admittedly so."

I found this at an interesting and well-designed (non messy) blog, Prometheus Unleashed.
Permalink at that site

Wilson campaign page

Maybe Logic, RAW site

	:: Pip		1:05 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Feeling hot?

Try Baghdad:

Sunday
Clear. High: 111° F. / 44° C.
Monday
Clear. High: 113° F. / 45° C.
Tuesday
Clear. High: 114° F. / 46° C.
Wednesday
Scattered Clouds. High: 113° F. / 45° C.
Thursday
Scattered Clouds. High: 113° F. / 45° C.

Weather forecasts for Baghdad