Surf almanac with menu above. Click here to consult your free I Ching and Tarot while waiting (opens in a new window).
The Blogmanac: "On This Day" ... and much more
Think universally. Act terrestrially.
For in a hard-working society, it is rare and even subversive to celebrate too much, to revel and keep on reveling: to stop whatever you're doing and rave, pray, throw things, go into trances, jump over bonfires, drape yourself in flowers, stay up all night, and scoop the froth from the sea.
Anneli Rufus*
*Ø* Blogmanac | Two demonstrators from Greenpeace display banner
"Two demonstrators from Greenpeace display a banner beneath the clock face of Big Ben, in central London on the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, March 20, 2004. Two anti-war protesters climbed London's landmark Big Ben clock tower at the Houses of Parliament on Saturday ahead of a demonstration to mark the first anniversary of war in Iraq, police said. The pair reached the clockface 328 feet (100 metres) above London using ropes and mountaineering equipment after scaling the tower early in the morning." Source: Yahoo/Reuters
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
Thousands march in anti-war protests "About 4,500 people have rallied in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane as part of a global day of action against the American occupation of Iraq.
"It is a year since United States-led forces invaded the country.
"About 2,000 protesters have marched to Hyde Park in the heart of Sydney ..." Source: ABC Oz
*Ø* Blogmanac | Sydney: 7000 march for ‘Troops out of Iraq’
By Pip Hinman (no relation)
"SYDNEY – Australian troops should be pulled out of Iraq now. This was the unequivocal message from all speakers at the March 20 protest organised by the Stop the War Coalition. Some 7000 people joined a march around the city.
"Clearly, the Spanish election results had given anti-war activists a renewed sense of purpose. Howard was put on notice to pull the troops out, and ALP opposition leader Mark Latham urged to make a clear commitment to do the same if the ALP won the federal elections.
"Indigenous community activist Sylvia Scott welcomed the rally participants to Eora land and urged support for a March 24 protest against racist police attacks on Aboriginal youth.
"Andrew Wilkie and Senator Kerry Nettle argued that there had to be immediate phased withdrawal of the Australian troops. Nettle added that the troops should be out by June 30 – the date of the hand-over to the Iraqi Governing Council.
"Nettle announced that she was joining an international fact-finding mission to Iraq over Easter and would report back her findings across the country.
"Susan Price from Socialist Alliance and an activist in the National Tertiary Education Union, called on the leadership of the union movement – in particular the ACTU and the NSW Trades and Labor Council – to assist the fledging trade union movement in Iraq. The puppet Iraqi Governing Council has maintained the Saddam Hussein regime’s anti-union laws, she said.
"Keysar Trad, from the Lebanese Muslim Association, also called for the troops to come out. He pointed to the US government’s hypocrisy in its posturing over weapons of mass destruction: Iraq, which didn’t have any, was invaded whereas Israel, which is armed to the teeth including with nuclear weapons, remains Washington's close friend. Saif Abukeshek, a visiting Palestinian from the International Solidarity Movement, urged the crowd to support the Palestinian people's struggle for justice, a struggle he said that is linked to the Iraqi people’s.
"Actor Judy Davis gave a moving rendition of a Syrian poem about the futility and horror of war.
"The internationally-renown journalist John Pilger slammed the invasion of Iraq as a 'massive act of terror'. Bush, Blair and Howard will be the ones to blame for any terrorist attacks as a result of the Iraq war, he said to loud applause.
"Pilger slammed the establishment media for closing ranks behind the government's warmongering lies, challenging them to publish more of the truth and lift the level of public debate. He recounted how foreign minister Downer and deputy PM Anderson had both issued media releases attacking him after appearing on the ABC's Lateline program arguing that the occupation troops were legitimate targets of the Iraqi resistance.
"'This proves just how much Howard and Downer fear isolation', Pilger said, adding that Coalition of the Willing is falling apart following Spain’s decision to pull its troops out."
"In Melbourne, about 3,000 protesters were addressed by Terry Hicks, the father of Australian terror suspect David Hicks.
"Mr Hicks said David, who has been detained without charge at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should have been charged or released two years ago." Source: Yahoo News, which estimates 6,000 protesters in Sydney
[Here's something I've been warning about since GW pulled his first Executive Powers tricks on September 12, 2001, and practically every day thereafter. -v]
Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me by Dan Sullivan, Buzzflash
Fellow Americans, beware o' The Ides of September. Of GOP Conventions in mid-town Manhattan, and of World Trade Center Anniversaries.
In the months leading up those events, two questions should be asked and addressed in our public discourse, as well as by Bush Administration officials:
What is being done to secure and ensure the integrity of our Presidential election?
What happens if an election gets canceled?
That's right. Canceled.
Should it appear, by mid-September or early October, that he may be unseated, what's to stop the commander-in-chief, in this era of amorphous war on terror, from postponing our election for political gain, or simply canceling outright? Surely not the Constitution. Or the Supreme Court. Surely not a rubber stamp masquerading as the United States Congress. Popular will? Ha!
*Ø* Blogmanac March 20 | Happy First Birthday, Shock and Awe
Tonight, British servicemen and women are engaged from air, land and sea. Their mission: to remove Saddam Hussein from power, and disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair telling porkies, March 20, 2003; the 'Coalition of the Willing' invaded Iraq today
I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on November 14, 2002, speaking on National Public Radio and Infinity Radio, USA Source
JIM LEHRER: Rightly or wrongly, Mr. Secretary, I went back and checked the record today, the impression that was given in public statements and all that sort of thing was that when this war ended, this war was going to end, that when Saddam Hussein and his regime, you know, fell, then the rest of it was going to be kind of a mop-up. And I'm just – DONALD RUMSFELD: Not by me. Amnesiac Donald Rumsfeld, September 10, 2003 Source: PBS News Hour
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Australia's a funny place, and we Aussies are a funny breed. We're better known, internationally, for our sports men and women, and showbiz types, than for our Nobel prizewinners or our 'public intellectuals', although there are plenty to name (stop laughing, I'm trying to think).
The level of public discourse is not what you would call highbrow. To be honest, it's almost nobrow. If you were to go into a Sydney cinema and yell "Fire!", it's a moot point whether the audience would catch your drift. Apparently quite a few people died watching Lethal Weapon in 1987 because of this, so it's a shame. Not a big one, but a bit of a shame.
Having said this, although the average Bruce or Sheila is not renowned for knowing their arse from a hole in the ground, we have a tradition of intellectual culture that has deep roots – witness the standards of our public libraries and universities. And my countrypersons have (as my countryperson, Germaine Greer, rightly pointed out), "built-in bullshit detectors". In this, I doubt we differ from our brotherpersons and sisterpersons in all countries. As the great Australian feminist author, Abraham Lincoln said ... something about how often you can fool folks. Not all the time. But Aussie bullshit detectors are pretty sophisticated – for a country that's sold off all its manufacturing to Richer Countries, so we can be the mineworkers, bedmakers and coffee pourers of the Southern Hemisphere.
Back to the chase. Now, Terra Australis has also produced two Big Rich Persons, by the names of Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer. Both are True Blue Aussies, despite the sissy names, and both became fabulously wealthy from selling ordure to many millions of people. Let me express that anew. Both became fabulously wealthy because they inherited immense fortunes from their dads who sold ordure, but they added to the inherited wealth with more ordure. Piles and piles of it. Piles of ordure, and dirty big piles of money.
Rupert (come on, what sort of name is that for a bloke?) turfed his Australian citizenship so that he could become a Yank in order to buy something or other (I forget exactly what he wanted ... the New York Times, or Disneyland, Camp David or some such), but we still call him an Aussie, because we still suffer our cultural cringe and have to blow the trumpet of any expatriate who's "dun good", regardless of how seldom they visit these shores. Don't get Sheila or Bruce started on "our" Errol Flynn, our Mel Gibson or our Bee Gees.
Rupert dun good. He owns half the world, half the world's media and half the world's transmission of 'facts'. He owns half our minds. Nuff said.
Kerry dun good, too. Not as good as Rupe, but good. He owns a few billion, the other half of the media (only in Australia), half the facts and the other half of our minds. Onya, Kezza!!
Now, one of Kezza's shiniest toys is called the Daily Telegraph (or, Daily Telecrap as the naughty ones call it). It is what we laughingly call a "newspaper" and it sells by the shiteload. Literally. You needn't worry about getting the important news in the Telecrap: why, if every man, woman and child in Africa were dropping dead because of lunar dust dropping on their continent, or if some scientist discovered George W Bush's brain was in the same zipcode as his beady eyes, you could be sure it wouldn't knock the latest Rugby League sex scandal off Page One. Not a prob. Don't sweat it. Kerry's got things under control at the Tele, just as he has on all those TV channels he owns. (The ones that Rupert doesn't.)
Let me round this up, and say what I was going to say. Phew. I have a compliment to pay The Goanna (what the naughty ones call Kerry). And that's this: although his Daily Telecrap today has the usual neanderthal pro-war editorial by some pubescent cadet journo who is just learning to hold a crayon, there is something else; something encouraging, something mind-shredding. And that's a reprint of David Rose's excellent article from that prestigious British journal, The Guardian, called 'How We Survived Jail Hell'. It's paginated between the Rugby League sex scandal and something about Courtney (retch) Love, but it's there, and it's a few pages long. It'll stretch the attention spanette of Tele readers, I guess. There'll be a lot of tired lips in Australian McDonald's family restaurants by the afternoon. But we need the exercise so we can Win the Gold at Athens, right?
Yes, Kerry Packer's Daily Telegraph today tells the story of how George W Bush's military goons are ill-treating uncharged men in Guantanamo Bay. The reprint leaves out nothing: the massacre of prisoners by the US-backed Northern Alliance, the cruelty, the inhumanity, the mental and physical torture. It also has today an opinion piece by Michael Duffy that isn't pro-war and is actually quite intelligent.
Kerry Packer is well aware that nobody ever went broke by underestimating the intelligence of the Australian reader, but he let this stuff get through today's edition (I hope he's not on the phone as I speak, sacking the editor). So, for once (and don't hold your breath for twice), oh boy, this is hard to write ... Mr Packer ... I ... I ... I salute Sydney's Daily Telegraph.
"Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." So George Bush declared on Sept. 20, 2001. But what was he saying? Surely he didn't mean that everyone was obliged to support all of his policies, that if you opposed him on anything you were aiding terrorists.
Now we know that he meant just that.
A year ago, President Bush, who had a global mandate to pursue the terrorists responsible for 9/11, went after someone else instead. Most Americans, I suspect, still don't realize how badly this apparent exploitation of the world's good will — and the subsequent failure to find weapons of mass destruction — damaged our credibility. They imagine that only the dastardly French, and now maybe the cowardly Spaniards, doubt our word. But yesterday, according to Agence France-Presse, the president of Poland — which has roughly 2,500 soldiers in Iraq — had this to say: "That they deceived us about the weapons of mass destruction, that's true. We were taken for a ride."
This is the context for last weekend's election upset in Spain, where the Aznar government had taken the country into Iraq against the wishes of 90 percent of the public. Spanish voters weren't intimidated by the terrorist bombings — they turned on a ruling party they didn't trust. When the government rushed to blame the wrong people for the attack, tried to suppress growing evidence to the contrary and used its control over state television and radio both to push its false accusation and to play down antigovernment protests, it reminded people of the broader lies about the war.
By voting for a new government, in other words, the Spaniards were enforcing the accountability that is the essence of democracy. But in the world according to Mr. Bush's supporters, anyone who demands accountability is on the side of the evildoers. According to Dennis Hastert, the speaker of the House, the Spanish people "had a huge terrorist attack within their country and they chose to change their government and to, in a sense, appease terrorists." ...
But the bigger point is this: in the Bush vision, it was never legitimate to challenge any piece of the administration's policy on Iraq. Before the war, it was your patriotic duty to trust the president's assertions about the case for war. Once we went in and those assertions proved utterly false, it became your patriotic duty to support the troops — a phrase that, to the administration, always means supporting the president. At no point has it been legitimate to hold Mr. Bush accountable. And that's the way he wants it.
*Ø* Blogmanac March | 700 named in Iraq's death toll after a year of slaughter
As the anniversary of the Iraq invasion approaches, Iraq Body Count has been able to establish the names of almost 700 civilians killed in Iraq between March 19th 2003 and February 29th 2004 as a direct consequence of the US/UK invasion and subsequent occupation.
The list, periodically updated and permanently available on the Iraq Body Count website, details (where known) name, age, gender, place of death, cause of death, and the media sources from which they were obtained.
Although this list provides details for less than 7% of the 10,000 civilians reported killed during the same period (see http://www.iraqbodycount.net/bodycount.htm), it is the closest so far to a truly comprehensive accounting and memorial for the civilian dead in Iraq. Among the 692 deaths listed there are 106 females, 421 males and 94 known to be under 18 years of age.
As world opinion increasingly turns against the US-led coalition for the lies that forced war on a powerless country, and for the chaos into which Iraq has now sunk, the human details pieced together in the Iraq Body Count list paint in graphic and poignant form the terrible, true cost of this war: the pointless loss of husbands, wives, sons and daughters of a proud but suffering people. Source: Iraq Body Count media release
*Ø* Blogmanac | Israeli Lobby Slips Anti-Free Speech Bill Through
Bill Can Still Be Defeated in Senate if Citizens Act Now By Michael Collins Piper From americanfreepress.net
"The Israeli lobby has launched an all-out drive to ensure congressional passage of a bill (approved by the House and now before a Senate committee) that would set up a virtual federal tribunal to investigate and monitor criticism of Israel on American college campuses.
"Ten months ago the New York-based Jewish Week newspaper claimed that the report by American Free Press that Republican members of the Senate were planning to crack down on college and university professors who were critical of Israel was "a dangerous urban legend at best, deliberate disinformation at worst." In short, they were saying AFP lied.
"Now the truth has come out. On September 17, 2003 the House Subcommittee on Select Education unanimously approved H.R. 3077, the International Studies in Higher Education Act, which was then passed by the full House of Representatives on October 21. The chief sponsor of the legislation was Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a conservative Republican from Michigan ..." Source: pagans4peace
*Ø* Blogmanac March 19 | Las golondrinas: the swallows of Capistrano
Today marks one of the natural wonders of the world, though by no means unique as marvels of migration of insects and birds are around us every day, whether we notice or not.
Swallows traditionally return to Capistrano Mission, California, USA, from Goya, Corrientes province, Argentina, on or around St Joseph’s Day (March 19) each year, greeted by large numbers of locals and visitors from all over the world. It is one of the planet’s best-known equinox (or near-equinox) events.
In 1998, monks from the Mission had to entice the swallows with ladybugs and other insects, as renovations at Capistrano had frightened them away ...
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
First day of Quinquatria, Festival of Minerva, Goddess of Wisdom, ancient Rome (Mar 19 - 23) The name of this festival to Minerva derives from its duration of five days. It was also known as the Minervalia. The Palladium statue which had supposedly fallen from Olympus was carried in procession during the Quinquatria. On this, the the first day (the Quinquatrus), sacrifices and oblations were offered, though no blood was spilled.
Throughout the festival, plays would be enacted and public discussion of the arts openly encouraged. The festival was also associated with the opening of the campaign season; during this time the arms, horses and trumpets of the army would be ceremoniously purified at Rome ...
These are just snippets of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
I was reading quite "heavy" news this morning when I came across this, and I have to admit that it caused more than a little mirth! (Mind you, the guy had guts. LOL)
"OSAMA" RUNS FOR LIFE
"A driver who tried to run down a long-bearded pedestrian he mistook for terror chief Osama bin Laden has been given a three-month suspended sentence.
"He chased the shopper through Montpellier, southern France, running a red light and driving through a pedestrian zone.
"The man escaped when the car hit a staircase. The driver, who was not identified, told a court yesterday: 'My fears over the global terrorist threat we are continually facing must have made me delirious.' He must pay £300 compensation to the victim."
Dedicated to Sheelah-Na-Gig, Goddess of Fertility The day following St Patrick's is Sheelah's day. Some say she was Patrick's wife (but the Catholic Church would surely not allow this), some say his mother.
Traditionally, shamrocks are again displayed, although last night the shamrock was 'drowned' in the last drink. At the turn of the 20th century, one sarcastic observer wrote that the holiday's adherents "are not so anxious to determine who 'Sheelah' was, as they are earnest in her celebration". He tells us that revellers would take the shamrock they had been wearing since St Patrick's day, the day before, plop it in the drink, and drown it in the last glass, at the end of the night's drinking.
Sheelah is an old Irish term for a slovenly or muddling woman, particularly an old one. In Australia, with its very Irish background, the term 'sheila' is still common (though culturally self-conscious, ie, rarely used these days except jocularly and somewhat mockingly of old Aussie manners) slang for 'woman'. Perhaps the day after St Patrick?s obtained the name without any reference to the calendar of saints.
'Sheelahs' or 'Sheela-na-gigs' are gargoyles on ancient Christian churches in Ireland and throughout the British Isles. Stone carvings of one persona of the Goddess, they show a woman, often with her legs open and exposing her vagina.
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
On this day in 1910, American escapologist Harry Houdini flew a heavier-than-air machine at Digger's Rest. This was probably the first such flight in Australia.
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Blogmanac team member Nora Ui Dhuibhir from Dublin has graciously donated three Irish Celtic brass bookmarks for our readers.
I have one myself that I use and it is really very attractive.
This being St Patrick's Day, our question is about Ireland's famous saint. The question is, what was the name of the place of Patrick's birth? No, not Ireland, and a clue is, it starts with B. (Britain is not the answer either.)
I will mail to the first three correct entries a brass bookmark.
To enter: Put the one-word answer in the subject header of your email. That's all. I will reply by email to the three winners only and ask their postal details.
Good luck, and happy St Paddy's Day to our thousands of members in dozens of countries.
Abundance and gratitude
Pip Wilson Wilson's Almanac free daily ezine http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com
(Sing to the tune of the /Beverly Hillbillies/ theme)
Come and listen to my story 'bout a boy name Bush. His IQ was zero and his head was up his tush. He drank like a fish while he was drivin' all about. But that didn't matter 'cuz his daddy bailed him out.
DUI, that is. Criminal record. Cover-up.
Well, the first thing you know little Georgie goes to Yale. He can't spell his name but they never let him fail. He spends all his time hangin' out with student folk. And that's when he learns how to snort a line of coke.
Blow, that is. White gold. Nose candy.
The next thing you know there's a war in Vietnam. Kin folks say, "George, stay at home with Mom." Let the common people get maimed and scarred. We'll buy you a spot in the Texas Air Guard.
Cushy, that is. Country clubs. Nose candy.
Twenty years later George gets a little bored. He trades in the booze, says that Jesus is his Lord. He said, "Now the White House is the place I wanna be." So he called his daddy's friends and they called the GOP.
Gun owners, that is. Falwell. Jesse Helms.
Come November 7, the election ran late. Kin folks said "Jeb, give the boy your state!" "Don't let those colored folks get into the polls." So they put up barricades so they couldn't punch their holes.
Chads, that is. Duval County. Miami-Dade.
Before the votes were counted five Supremes stepped in. Told all the voters "Hey, we want George to win." "Stop counting votes!" was their solemn invocation. And that's how George finally got his coronation.
Rigged, that is. Illegitimate. No moral authority.
Y'all go vote now. Ya hear?
If you like this little ditty you can thank me by going to the polls and voting George Bush out of Washington!
*Ø* Blogmanac | Not getting Wilson's Almanac ezine from Yahoogroups?
If your Wilson's Almanac ezine is "bouncing" back to us, Nora's reply to my Yahoogroups rant below might have the key.
It could be that your ISP has blacklisted all bulk mail, and your favourite ezines, e-groups and e-newsletters have been caught in their net.
Our team member Nora's solution (happy St Patrick's Day, by the way, Nora in Ireland!) is the best. Phone your ISP and ask them to whitelist all Yahoogroups mails. This should be easy enough for them to do, and lots of their clients will be grateful you did it, as almost everyone subscribes to one or more YG's.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Will y’ be wearin’ the green on St Patrick’s Day?
Will you be wearin’ the green on March 17?
And will ye be drownin’ the shamrock as well? For ’tis St Patrick’s Day, one of the most widely celebrated national and religious feasts in the world.
St Patrick's day is celebrated around the world, but you won't be finding the Irish in their native land drinking green-coloured beer, wearing enormous shamrocks, or dressing in green from head to toe. They might be marching in a parade, having a night out, or taking the opportunity to get away for a long weekend.
Elsewhere, however, this is the day of days for those with even the slightest claim to Irish blood (and even for some of those without), a day when all can revel in the pride of association with that remarkable race of people which has contributed so much to world culture.
Celebration of this saint’s day reaches its highest fervour in several parts of the United States, where St Patrick’s Day Parades have long been a part of the multicultural calendar. Irish immigrants made up a large segment of American society by the nineteenth century, particularly after the disastrous Irish potato famine of 1845-47, during which time emigration and death reduced the population of the small island by two million souls. Even during the preceding century, the homesick Irish naturally gathered in their adopted countries, such as America and Australia, on the day of their national patron saint to celebrate their Irishness.
Today the annual St Patrick’s Day parade in New York draws hundreds of thousands of participants and spectators. Dating back to 1762, this event is a parade of international fame and significance, in which Irish-Americans and Irish "wannabes" let their hair down. The parade in Boston reaches back even further in time, having first been celebrated in 1737.
America’s oldest Irish society, the Hibernian Society, was founded in 1812 in Savannah, Georgia. The next year they held their first private procession, the forerunner of Savannah’s famous annual St Patrick’s Day parade. In Savannah, as in other parts of the States, you can close your eyes and hold your nose to partake in some of the ubiquitous green-dyed beer and green donuts.
Saint Patrick was an historical character who was born in an unknown place called Bannavem, probably in England or South Wales, about 389 CE. His father, Calpurnius, was a Roman official and deacon of the Christian Church.
At the age of 16, Patrick was captured by Celtic raiders and spent six years as a slave swineherd on an Irish farm, where he learned the Irish language, until he escaped to Europe. There he studied theology and was sent by Pope Celestine I back to Ireland to teach the natives about Christianity.
Landing at Wicklow in 432, he soon established religious communities and churches, despite the relentless opposition of the established religion of the pagan Druids – a religion that in succeeding centuries was fiercely suppressed.
Showing great courage, Patrick even preached the Gospel to the High King of Tara, and eventually the faith which he had brought to the Emerald Isle won over almost completely, as is evidenced even today. (Of course, there were many other Christian proselytisers who did the work besides Patrick, as well as many potentates and preachers who felt it their duty to destroy the indigenous religions.)
Patrick’s life story, as it has been passed down over the centuries, is delightfully replete with miraculous events and adventures. As every schoolchild knows, it was he who was responsible for the fact that there are no snakes or similar vermin in Ireland even yet.
Several versions exist to tell how he performed this miracle. One relates how the good saint beat a drum whenever he entered a town. On one occasion, he beat his drum on Mount Croagh Patrick (later named after him, in County Mayo), and, proclaiming his intention to rid Ireland of snakes, beat the drum so hard as to punch a hole in it. When simultaneously a huge black serpent appeared, the locals thought Patrick’s faith was insufficient for the task. Suddenly, however, an angel of the Lord appeared and mended his drum, and as Patrick beat his instrument the snakes vanished from the land ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
"Try to explain the crimes against humanity of September 11, 2001 and we were anti-American. Warn readers about the crazed alliance of right-wingers behind Bush, and we were anti-Semites. Report on the savagery visited upon Iraqi civilians during the Anglo-American air bombardment, and we were anti-British, pro-Hussein, sleeping with the enemy."
"William Shakespeare's will is now available to the public to read online, nearly 400 years after the playwright put quill to paper.
"The historic document, in which Shakespeare famously bequeathed his 'second-best bed' to his wife, has been put on the web by the [UK] National Archives."
*Ø* Blogmanac | David Kelly inquest not to be reopened
"The Oxfordshire coroner today ruled out reopening the inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly. Nicholas Gardiner, the coroner, had the right to conduct a fresh inquiry into the weapons scientist's death if he was not satisfied with Lord Hutton's findings into the cause of his death ...
"Mr Gardiner acknowledged he had received letters from medical experts but said it was not exceptional for experts to disagree among themselves, and that he had not been persuaded by them to reopen the inquest."
*Ø* Blogmanac March 16 | The Finnish St Patrick, just for fun
Feast day of St Urho, the grasshopper slayer Finland’s answer to Ireland’s St Patrick, Urho expelled the grasshoppers from Finland. Raising his staff, he intoned, “Grasshopper, grasshopper, go to hell!”, and they accommodated him, and the country’s wine-grape crop was saved forever. Of course, St Urho is a made-up saint, just for fun.
Some say that a Finnish-American store owner in Minnesota, USA, became weary of his Irish-American employees always asking for March 17 off in honour of St Patrick, and it was he who invented St Urho ...
All over the USA, Finnish Americans commemorate today as a national celebration ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
*Ø* Blogmanac March 16 | Festival of boys passing to manhood, ancient Rome
Liberalia, ancient Rome (From Liber, or Liber Pater, a name of Bacchus.) Bacchanalian feasts were banned in 186 BCE by the Roman Senate because of extreme licentiousness, except by special permission of the senate, and for only five initiates at a time. However, the Liberalia, another festival of Bacchus, was celebrated on March 16, as we know from Ovid, Fasti iii.713. Adorned with garlands of ivy, priests and old priestesses carried through the city wine, honey, cakes and sweets together with an altar in the middle of which was a small fire-pan in which sacrifices were sometimes burnt.
The Romans had a god Liber and goddess Libera, his counterpart. In his original Roman conception, Liber was probably a god who presided over male fertility and especially the act of ejaculation. After the formation of the Aventine triad, he absorbed the mythology of Dionysus. This was a festival of liberation from "the powerlessness of childhood" in which boys aged about 15 - 17 took off for the last time their purple-bordered purple togas (the toga praetexta) and donned the unbleached woollen toga virilis, or toga libera that represented their manhood. As long as a male wore the praetexta, he was impubes, and when he assumed the toga virilis, he was pubes.
The boys removed the phallic bullae charms – which had protected them in youth – from around their necks and offered them to the household gods. Their fathers took them to the Forum in Rome and presented them as adults and citizens. This was in the days when male rites of passage were encouraged.
An infans was incapable of doing any legal act. An impubes, who had passed the limits of infantia, could do any legal act with the auctoritas of his tutor; without such auctoritas he could only do those acts which were for his benefit. With the attainment of pubertas, a person obtained the full power of his property, and the tutela ceased: he could also dispose of his property by will; and he could contract marriage.
Originally the two deities Liber and Libera had something to do with germination and creation. Later they were merged with Bacchus. Women called Sacerdotes Liberi (priestesses of the two gods) on this day sat on the footpaths tending foculi, portable altars, and for a fee they sacrificed honey cakes (liba).
Stein (Stein, Diane, The Goddess Book of Days, Llewellyn Publications, St Paul Minnesota, 1989) calls this a "women's festival of Bacchus dedicated to the Maenads", but most sources emphasise that it was a male festivity.
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Feast day of St Longinus, the centurion converted at the Crucifixion Biblical authors Matthew and Mark both tell of the Roman centurion who said "Truly this man was the son of God", and tradition calls him Longinus. He was popular in medieval legend, and said to have been blind. Presumably in medieval times a blind centurion was believable. However, he didn’t remain blind forever. Pontius Pilate ordered him to spear Christ in the side – the blood ran down his spear, into his eyes and restored his sight ...
The Spear of Destiny “A legend grew around the lance that whoever possessed it would be able to conquer the world. Napolean [sic] attempted to obtain the lance after the battle of Austerlitz, but it had been smuggled out of the city prior to the start of the fight and he never got a hold of it. According to the legend, Charlemagne carried the spear through 47 successful battles, but died when he accidentally dropped it. Barbarossa met the same fate only a few minutes after it slipped out of his hands while he was crossing a stream.
“The spear finally wound up in the possession of the House of the Hapsburgs and by 1912 was part of the treasure collection stored in Hofburg Museum. According to Ravenscroft it was in September of that year, while living in Vienna and working as a watercolor painter, that a young Adolf Hitler visited the Museum and learned of the lance and its reputation ..."
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Is something rotten in the state of Spain?
Does it strike anyone else as peculiar that Al Qaeda would: claim responsibility for its bombings in the 1990s (as terrorist groups tend to do); then clearly and repeatedly deny having executed the 9-11 events; and now claim responsibility for the Spanish tragedy and point out that the Spanish bombings commemorated the 2-and-a-half-year anniversary of 9-11?
Let's not forget that bin Laden said that although he was pleased that the WTC was destroyed, he condemned the killing of its occupants, and emphatically stated that his organisation didn't do it. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. But something's fishy and out of character with an organisation that, according to the conventional wisdom, chops and changes in its propaganda about its activities.
I don't have the answers, but I think I smell the stench of Operation Northwoods again and again. I wonder if in a few years time another Judge Sirica will be asking Dubya: "What happened to the 18 minutes of tape, Mr President?"
*Ø* Blogmanac | Spanish government ousted in elections
MADRID (Reuters) - "Opposition Socialists claimed victory in Spain's general election on Sunday as voters apparently punished the government over Madrid bombings that may have been retaliation by al Qaeda for the Iraq war ...
"Some Spaniards were vitriolic in accusing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of 'manipulating' public opinion by spending three days blaming the bombings of four packed commuter trains on the Basque separatist group ETA, despite its denials ...
"The Socialists have pledged to withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq if the U.N. does not take control by June 30 when Washington plans to hand power back to Iraqis. Opinion polls showed as many as 90 percent of Spaniards opposed the Iraq war."
*Ø* Blogmanac | US - 'Special skills Draft' on drawing board
Computer experts, foreign language specialists lead list of military's needs
"Washington -- The government is taking the first steps toward a targeted military draft of Americans with special skills in computers and foreign languages.
"The Selective Service System has begun the process of creating the procedures and policies to conduct such a targeted draft in case military officials ask Congress to authorize it and the lawmakers agree to such a request.
"Richard Flahavan, a spokesman for the Selective Service System, said planning for a possible draft of linguists and computer experts had begun last fall after Pentagon personnel officials said the military needed more people with skills in those areas."
Announcing “Ireland Or Bust!” Arik Huber drove his recycled boxcar down Sheridan Avenue in Cody [Wyoming] Saturday afternoon. His “On The Road To Ireland” entry in the St. Patrick’s Day parade was to promote cardboard recycling.
*Ø* Blogmanac March 14 | The Mamuralia and scapegoating
Feast of the Mamuralia, ancient Rome This festival was celebrated during the time of the Republic. A man clad in furs was beaten with rods and driven beyond the bounds of the city, a practice said to have commemorated the expulsion of the smith Mamurius Veturius from the city, as Rome had suffered because of shield he had provided. It seems that Mamurius represented the old year, depicted as the god of war, Mars. This festival also celebrates the art of armour making.
On this day, Frazer (Frazer, Sir James George (1854–1941), The Golden Bough, 1922, Ch. LVIII) tells us (originally the day before the traditional first full moon of the new year which began on March 1), a man dressed in goatskins would be ceremonially beaten with long white rods and chased out of the city in a rite of purification. Mamurius, representing the old year and all its troubles, is thus purged from the community.
Mamuralia and the scapegoat This ritual of scapegoating is not uncommon in world cultures and religions – Frazer investigates some of these – and may be said to find an echo in the passion and execution of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament (Leviticus 16) deals with the concept of the scapegoat (literally an animal) and prescribes the methods of ritual: But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat [Azazel goat; pronounced in Hebrew as aw-zah-zale, translated as scapegoat in the King James Version] shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat (Lev. 16:10).
It seems to your almanackist that there might be a duality in the person of the scapegoat as both Christ and Satan, beast and homo fabricus – man who imposes order on creation, often to the detriment of Nature, for which atonement must be made (Hebrews 9:28, NIV: so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people). For 1 Enoch, 8:1,2 reveals (quite remarkably) that, like Mamurius, Azazel was a blacksmith: And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures.
One might add that the association with the god of war is implicit, beyond Azazel’s role as the teacher of manufacture ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
[This one is worth watching, but I'd like to see some corroboration - N]
"TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) – Over the past few days, in the wake of the bombings in Karbala and the ideological disputes that delayed the signing of Iraq’s interim constitution, there have been reports that U.S. forces have unloaded a large cargo of parts for constructing long-range missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the southern ports of Iraq.
"A reliable source from the Iraqi Governing Council, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Mehr News Agency that U.S. forces, with the help of British forces stationed in southern Iraq, had made extensive efforts to conceal their actions."
Sat 13 March, 2004 22:28 MADRID (Reuters) - Anti-government protesters have taken to the streets across Spain this evening, on the eve of a general election, demanding to know "the truth" behind rail bombs that killed 200 people in Madrid two days ago.
Witnesses in Madrid and other major cities reported protesters gathering in squares on Saturday night, shouting slogans like "Don't Manipulate Our Dead!", and banging pots and pans to denounce the ruling Popular Party of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
The demonstrations followed the Spanish government's announcement that it has arrested five people, some possibly linked to Moroccan militants, for the train bombs in Madrid.
Many of the protesters slammed the government for initially saying the prime suspect was Basque separatist group ETA.
"This is a dictatorship!" protesters shouted in Madrid. "Before we vote, we want the truth." More than 5,000 crowded round the PP's headquarters in Madrid, flanked by riot police.
"It's a technical coup d'etat if a government retains information. That's not playing clean," a 32-year-old engineer, who gave his name as Rafa, said in Madrid."
"US Secretary of State Colin Powell last night denied claims by a British prisoner at [sic] Guantanamo Bay that he was badly treated. Freed Jamal al-Harith, 37, claimed Camp Delta detainees were shackled for up to 15 hours, tortured and abused for confessions.
"Mr Powell insisted: 'I think that's unlikely. It is not in the American tradition to treat people in that manner.' Source
[Who mentioned American traditions, Colin? You and your gang have shown scant regard not only for American traditions, but international law, so pardon me if use a phrase my mother used to use, "I believe you. Thousands wouldn't". - N]
National "I'm Embarrassed by My President" Day April 1st, 2004
Are you embarrassed by the arrogance, greed, shortsightedness, selfishness, and outright lies told by George W. Bush?
Join tens of thousands of others across the country and world and wear a brown armband or ribbon to symbolize all the BS coming out of the White House.
It's not just that I disagree with the current administration. I'm outraged. And I'm downright embarrassed to talk to anyone from another country. I'm embarassed to have a President so arrogant, so dishonest, so hawkish, that in three years, he has nearly destroyed any good relations we had before he took office, and worsened those that were already bad.
I find myself apologizing to my foreign friends both in this country and abroad while trying vainly to explain the sheer idiocy and illogic of the current administration's policies.
So this April 1st, April Fools day, join tens of thousands of others who are wearing brown armbands or ribbons to signify the bullshit flowing down from Washington.
Making the armbands is easy -- just use tape and cut a brown paper bag, brown cloth, a brown sheet, ribbon, or anything else into strips 3 inches wide and 12-24 inches long. Or get brown ribbon. If you make a band for yourself, then make lots of spares to pass on to friends and strangers.
"Up to two million people have taken part in a demonstration against terror in the Spanish capital Madrid a day after bomb attacks killed nearly 200. European leaders joined the protest to show solidarity. Millions more Spaniards joined similar rallies and vigils held across the country, which remains in mourning ...
"Spanish editorial writers are demanding answers before voters go to the polls on Sunday, because the culprits' identity might influence people's choice of party.
"The ruling Popular Party campaigned on a hardline stance against ETA but also defied popular opposition by supporting the US-led war against Iraq -- which may have triggered an attack by al-Qaeda.
"Thursday's attack was the worst act of terrorism in modern Spanish history and the deadliest in Europe since the Lockerbie airliner bomb killed 270 in 1988."
Pages
of Days
Almanac
President
"Two demonstrators from Greenpeace display a banner beneath the clock face of Big Ben, in central London on the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, March 20, 2004. Two anti-war protesters climbed London's landmark Big Ben clock tower at the Houses of Parliament on Saturday ahead of a demonstration to mark the first anniversary of war in Iraq, police said. The pair reached the clockface 328 feet (100 metres) above London using ropes and mountaineering equipment after scaling the tower early in the morning."
Thousands march in anti-war protests
Tonight, British servicemen and women are engaged from air, land and sea. Their mission: to remove Saddam Hussein from power, and disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.
Dammit, this sticks in my craw, but here goes
Bill Can Still Be Defeated in Senate if Citizens Act Now
Today marks one of the natural wonders of the world, though by no means unique as marvels of migration of insects and birds are around us every day, whether we notice or not.
Dedicated to Sheelah-Na-Gig, Goddess of Fertility
Will you be wearin’ the green on March 17? 
Saint Patrick was an historical character who was born in an unknown place called Bannavem, probably in England or South Wales, about 389 CE. His father, Calpurnius, was a Roman official and deacon of the Christian Church.
Liberalia, ancient Rome
The Spear of Destiny
Does it strike anyone else as peculiar that Al Qaeda would: claim responsibility for its bombings in the 1990s (as terrorist groups tend to do); then clearly and repeatedly deny having executed the 9-11 events; and now claim responsibility for the Spanish tragedy and point out that the Spanish bombings commemorated the 2-and-a-half-year anniversary of 9-11?
Mamuralia and the scapegoat 
Join tens of thousands of others across the country and world and wear a brown armband or ribbon to symbolize all the BS coming out of the White House. 
"Up to two million people have taken part in a demonstration against terror in the Spanish capital Madrid a day after bomb attacks killed nearly 200. European leaders joined the protest to show solidarity. Millions more Spaniards joined similar rallies and vigils held across the country, which remains in mourning ... 