Famous
First Words: Nun schießt nur hin, daß es alle wird!
--Egmont by Goethe
It's
Hug a Medievalist Day! ~~Warning, R-rated, at least. The Abbot of
Septimo, a very fat and corpulent man, on his way to Florence one
evening, inquired of a peasant he met, “Do you think I shall be
able to enter the gate?” Of course, he thus meant to ask whether he
was likely to reach the city before the closing of the gates. But the
country-man, rallying his stoutness, replied, “To be sure, you
will; a cartload of hay gets through, why should not you?” --Poggio
Bracciolini
..........Never've
I once looked back to sigh over the romance behind me.........Shirley
Jones/ Laurey …..Many A New Day (Oklahoma)
Being
an activist is about getting things done. It's not about standing
around shaking your fist in anger. --Christine Quinn
It
is a cloudy Friday morning. It is 44°F and it is not raining but as
I walk through air I feel moisture against my cheek. The sky is a
solid gray with almost invisible puffs of grayer floating beneath.
The world itself is awash with color – greens and purples, whites
and yellows. Even the big, old, stately trees are beginning to get
their green on. The ground is muddy from two days of rain and I pick
my way around the yard. Puck and Pax stalk the perimeter and then
sit on the deck stairs watching the neighborhood, alert for trouble.
I linger; there is little breeze to carry the cold into the clothing
or the bones. Birdsong is varied and everywhere...the call and
answer of cardinals...the whooo of mourning doves...the chatter of
sparrows. When a car rushes by on its way to work the birdsong
disappears and returns seconds later as if for those moments we are
transported from a Disney movie to another movie, a modern,
gritty...who cares. What beautiful morning. Eventually I get thirty
for my morning decaf and we return to our rooms and the smell of
coffee and the hum of clothes in the washer. Now I sit with sweet
creaminess on my tongue and thoughts of you in my head.
Hope
your weekend is Up to Date, ePistliers.
Christine
Update: Last week I was sick. When it started I thought it
was bad hay fever but it got into sinus infection or something.
Friday I slept sitting up in my recliner thinking this would let crap
slide down my throat and not gather in my sinuses. In the middle of
the night when I moved back to the bed so that I could actually
sleep, I expected to die from lack of breathing and this seemed at
the time like the best result. Fortunately (or not depending on your
bent), I began to be better on Saturday and now I just blow my nose
every few minutes and sound funny.
A
Friar, who was but moderately considerate, was preaching to the
people at Tivoli, and thundering against adultery, which he depicted
in colors of the deepest dye. “It is such a horrible sin,” said
he, “that I had rather undo ten virgins than one married woman!”
--Poggio Bracciolini
..........Time
and again I would try to say...........Shirley Jones / Julie …..If
I Loved You (Carousel)
Trivia
Questions: Happy Birthday, Daylight Savings Time
^
Who first posited arbitrarily changing the time and/or why?
^^
What was the first concrete proposal to arbitrary time change?
^^^
Why is Daylight Savings Time so important to radio stations?
^^^^
Know the effects of DST on heart attacks?
^^^^^
Any other health risks to changing the clocks?
Fake
Library Statistic of the Week:
28% if librarians regularly think to themselves, “What we need most
right now is Mr. Rogers”.
https://www.facebook.com/FakeLibStats/?fref=ts
Moonbeam:
There are only two races on this planet – the intelligent and the
stupid. --John Fowles
A
Florentine I was acquainted with was under the necessity of buying a
horse in Rome, and bargained with the dealer, who asked him
twenty-five gold ducats, too high a price; he offered to pay fifteen
ducats cash, and to owe the rest; to which the dealer agreed. On the
following day, when asked for the balance, the buyer refused, saying,
“We must keep our agreement: it was settled between us that I was
to be your debtor; I should be so no longer if I were to pay you.”
---Poggio
Bracciolini
......….reach
for a star...........Shirley Jones/Maggie Flynn …..The Thank You
Song (Maggie Flynn)
Something
to Think About of the Week: Lent is a favorable season for
opening the doors to all those in need and recognizing in them the
face of Christ.-- Pope Francis
Big
Hello: Assalām 'alaikum (Muslim) - Kashmiri
Week
of the Week: National Cleaning Week
(March 26 – April 4) – Cleaning is just putting stuff in less
obvious places. / Thought about cleaning the house. But then, I
thought, “what's the house done for me lately?”
Science
Fiction Convention of the Week:
Sigh! There are 3 conventions listed - none sounded really, really
fun. Albacon (Albany, NY) http://www.albacon.org/2017/
/ NashiCon 2017 (Columbia, SC) http://nashicon.com/
/ Universal Multicultural Film Festival (Rancho Palso Verdes, CA)
http://umfilms.org/Home.html
A
man who had given his wife a valuable dress, complained that he never
exercised his marital rights without it costing him more than a
golden ducat each time. “It is your fault,” answered the wife,
“why do you not, by frequent repetition, bring down the cost to one
farthing?” --Poggio
Bracciolini
..........A
whole lot of lovin' is what we'll be bringing..........Shirley
Jones/Mrs. Partridge …..Come On Get Happy
^
Benjamin Franklin purposed changing time in an essay, “An
Economical Project” to boost the sales of his friends new kind of
oil lamp. (1784)
Almanac:
It is Friday, March 31, 2017. The moon will be first quarter on
Monday and is in Gemini. It is Bunsen Burner Day,
Cesar Chavez Day, International Hug A Medielvalist Day, International
Transgender Day of Visibility, National Prom Day and National "She's
Funny That Way" Day . In Malta it is Republic Day/National Day
(1974).
Among
those born on this day were Rene Descartes (1596), Andrew Marvell
(1621), Joseph Haydn (1732), Edward FitzGerald & Nikolai Gogol
(1809), John LaFarge (1835), Karl Bonhoeffer (1868), Arthur Griffith
(1872), Arthur Godfrey (1903), Henry Morgan (1915), Leo Buscaglia
(1924), John Fowles (1926), Cesar Chavez (1927), Liz Clayborne
(1929), Shirley Jones (1933), Richard Chamberlain (1935), Marge
Piercy (1936), John Jakes (1938), Barney Frank (1940), Christopher
Walken (1943), Gabe Kaplan (1946), Cesar Trujillo (1947), Al Gore,
Jr. (1948), Rhea Perlman (1948), and Ewan McGregor (1971).
On
March thirty-first Goethes "Egmont" premiered (1796),
Quebec & Montreal were incorporated (1831), Wabash, IN became the
first town lit entirely by electricity (1880), daylight saving was
first used in the US (1918), Ford unveilsed the V-8 engine (1932),
the Civilian Conservation Corps were formed (1933), Oklahoma
opened on Broadway (1943), Glass
Menagerie
premiered (1945), Jimi Hendrix burned his first guitar (1967), NCAA
Women's basketball champions - Old Dominion beat GA (1985), NCAA
Men's basketball champions Louisville beat Duke (1986), NCAA Men's
basektball champions IN beat Syracuse (1987), and Trump purchased
Eastern Northeast Shuttle (1989).
Night
Sky 3/31:
The huge, bright Winter Hexagon is still in view after dark, filling
the sky to the southwest and west. It's the biggest well-known
asterism in the sky. Start with brilliant Sirius in the southwest,
the Hexagon's lower left corner. High above Sirius is Procyon. From
there look even higher for Pollux and Castor, rightward from Castor
to Menkalinan and bright Capella, lower left from there to Aldebaran
(near the Moon tonight), lower left to Rigel at the bottom of Orion,
and back to Sirius.
This
Week: Saturday, April 1 - All
Fools Day & Reading Is Funny Day
Night
Sky, 4/1: Around 40° north latitude, Mercury is at its
highest sunset altitude of the year. Look for it low in the west
about 45 to 60 minutes after sunset. Fainter Mars is 15° above it.
Sunday,
April 2 – International Children's Books Day & National
Ferret Day
Monday,
April 3 – Tater (Sweet) Day & Don't Go To Work Unless
It's Fun Day
Night
Sky, 4/3: Arcturus, the "Spring Star," rises above
the east-northeast horizon by the time the stars come out. How soon
can you spot it? Brighter Jupiter comes up a little later, depending
on your latitude, 30° to Arcturus's right.
Tuesday,
April 4 – Equal Pay Day & World Rat Day
Wednesday,
April 5 – Deep Dish Pizza Day & Read A Road Map Day
Thursday,
April 6 – National Fun At Work Day & International Day
of Sport for Development & Peace
Several
persons were conversing in Florence, and each was wishing for
something that would make him happy; such is always the case. One
would have liked to be the Pope, another a king, a third something
else, when a talkative child, who happened to be there, said, “I
wish I were a melon.” “And for what reason?” they asked.
“Because everyone would smell my bottom.” It was usual for those
who want to buy a melon to apply their noses underneath.
--Poggio Bracciolini
..........I'll
be waitin; where the lane begins.........Shirley Jones/Dorothy
…..About a Quarter to Nine (42nd Street)
^^
William Willett (Waste of Daylight, 1907) proposed London
advance clocks 20 minutes on each of 4 Sundays in April, and
retarding them by the same amount for four Sunday in September.
Funniest
thing I Read of the Week:
Moonbeam:
A strong woman is a woman determined to do something others are
determined not be done. --Marge Piercy
Late
Night Snacks: According to a new report, the
average health insurance deductible is projected to be over $1,500
higher under the Republican plan to replace Obamacare. And the only
way that’s good news is if hearing it gave you a heart attack now,
while it’s cheaper. --Seth Meyers / For weeks now, Republicans have
been pushing their Obamacare replacement plan. But the bill has a
pre-existing condition: Everybody hates it! --Stephen Colbert / At
this point, it appears the Republican healthcare plan is going to die
on the floor of the House. Coincidentally, dying on the floor of the
house happens to be the Republican healthcare plan. --Conan O'Brien /
Today the House Republicans were furiously working to get enough
votes to pass the healthcare bill to replace Obamacare. As it stands,
they may not have enough, and the vote has been postponed. Right now,
it’s not looking good. The bill is basically on life support —
and like most things on life support, Republicans will probably deny
it coverage. --James Corden / The vote on the Republican healthcare
bill was delayed today because they didn’t have enough votes to
pass it. When he heard that, Obama called Drumpf and said, “Don’t
worry, Obamacare covers depression. So don’t worry about it.”
--Jimmy Fallon / On Capitol Hill today, one of the most dramatic
episodes of “The Celebrity Appresident” yet: Republicans in the
House were forced to postpone their vote on healthcare today because
they cannot agree on what the plan should be, so it’s back to the
drawing board. Unfortunately, Drumpf’s budget for education cut
funding for drawing boards, so there’s no board for them to draw
on. --Jimmy Kimmel
I'm
a dad, I'm a husband, I'm an activist, I'm a writer, and I'm just a
student of the world. --Michael J Fox.
An
inhabitant of Perugia was going along the streets, wrapped in thought
and melancholy, and, being met by someone who inquired the motive of
his concern, replied that he owed money which he could not pay. The
man responded, “Leave that anxiety to your creditor.” --Poggio
Bracciolini
..........And
wishing on the star up above.........Shirley Jones/Mama Partridge
…..Walking In The Rain
^^^
AM radio signals propagate much further at night than during the day.
During daytime, more stations in neighboring areas can broadcast on
the same frequency without interfering with each other. Because of
this situation, there are hundreds of stations licensed to operate
only in the daytime. Daylight Saving Time can affect the bottom line
of these daytime-only radio stations: during parts of the year it can
cause the stations to lose their most profitable time of day--the
morning drive time. The gain of an hour of daylight - and thus
broadcast time - in the evening does not fully compensate for the
morning loss.
Worthless
Fact of the Week: Charles Chandler (Animals),
Jimi Hendrix and rock writer Keith Altham were hanging out before the
tour’s show on March 31 at London’s Finsbury Park Astoria, when
the journalist suggested that it would be cool if the guitarist
played “Fire,” then actually played with fire. A roadie was sent
out to buy some lighter fluid and Chandler concocted the plan. After
the Experience concluded their opening set with “Fire,” Hendrix
put down his guitar by the amplifiers and sauntered back to the front
of the stage as Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding continued to jam.
While Hendrix was distracting the crowd, Chandler doused the
Stratocaster in the fuel. Hendrix grabbed the guitar, knelt beside it
and, after a few burnt matches, set it alight.
Weird
Word of the Week:
Bioart – art that has been inspired by biological mechanisms or
which makes use of biological concepts. These include pictorial art
based on aspects of nature or medical illustrations, software that
turns the genetic code into luminous, scientifically accurate
pictures, and robotic sculptures operated by fish.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-bio9.htm
Wicked
Funniest Thing I Read of the Week:
Bumper Sticker: Elect a clown, expect a circus.
Wacky
Uses for Common Products:
Clean toilet bowls. Put Tang in the toilet bowl, and let it sit for
one hour. Brush and flush. The citric acid in Tang removes stains
from vitreous china. http://www.wackyuses.com/wacky/tang.html
~I find this even creepier than polishing my shoes with tampex.
An
inhabitant of Gobbio, named Giovanni, an exceedingly jealous man,
racked his brains for a way of ascertaining, without a shadow of a
doubt, whether his wife had an intimacy with any other man. By a
deeply matured contrivance, well worthy of a jealous mind, he
emasculated himself with his own hands. “Now,” he thought, “if
my wife becomes pregnant, she will not be able to deny her adultery.”
--Poggio Bracciolini
...........The
moon may be high but I can't see a thing in the sky..........Shirley
Jones/Dorothy …..I Only Have Eyes for You (42nd Street)
^^^^
Switching over to daylight saving time, and losing one hour of sleep,
raised the risk of having a heart attack the following Monday by 25
percent, compared to other Mondays during the year, according to a
new US study. By contrast, heart attack risk fell 21 percent later
in the year, on the Tuesday after the clock was returned to standard
time, and people got an extra hour's sleep.
Word
Shakespeare Made Up of the Week: Generous – liberal in
giving or sharing; unselfish. Love's Labour's Lost Act V
Scene I Holofernes: The posterior of the day, most
generous sir, is liable, congruent and measurable for the afternoon:
Amazing
Thing on the Internet of the Week:
Pointer, Pointer. This site will find a picture of somebody pointing
at wherever your cursor sits. http://www.pointerpointer.com/
Puck
the Brave Episode of the Week:
Here's our fearless Puck checking out the Polaris missile in
Centennial Park and the perfect spot for a new Peace Pole** in the
case of the Belligerent Boxer.
**It
will be planted on May 1st at 6:30 pm in the park and the
2017 Tom & Anne Moore Peace & Justice Award will be
presented, dances of universal peace will dance, and other stuff and,
of course, cake.
One
of our fellow citizens, a very witty man, was labouring under a
painful and lengthy illness, was attended by a Friar who came to
comfort him, and, among other words of solace, told him that God thus
especially chastens those he loves, and inflicts his visitations upon
them. “No wonder then,” retorted the sick man, “that God has so
few friends; if that is the way he favours them, he ought to have
still less.”
--Poggio Bracciolini
..........And
I'm calling everyone of you my friends...........Shirley Jones/Maggie
Flynn …..I Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way (Maggie Flynn)
^^^^^
Losing 1 hour of
afternoon daylight after setting the clocks back to
standard time can
trigger seasonal depressions like Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
or winter depression. A Danish study found an 11% increase in
depression cases during after the seasonal change. The cases
dissipated gradually after 10 weeks. However, when it comes to car
crashes and DST, there were less accidents after switching back to
standard time, probably due to another hour sleep.
Month
of the Week: April is Straw Hat Month -
A man was sunbathing naked at the beach. For the sake of civility,
and to keep it from getting sunburned, he had a hat over his private
parts. A woman walks past and says, snickering, "If you were a
gentleman you'd lift your hat." He raised an eyebrow and
replied, "If you were better looking it would lift itself."
~~Apparently humor hasn't changed that much in a thousand years.
Summer
Pussy Hat in straw.
Famous
Kansans:
Cameron Mitchell, Lieutenant Colonel of Stargate SG-1 was born in
Auburn. Played by Ben Browder.
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0005982/
Today's
Peace of History, March
31, 1970: The
Oakland, California, Induction Center revealed that over the prior
six months, half those drafted for the Vietnam War had failed to
appear, and 11% of those who reported then refused induction into the
U.S. Army. Later that Spring 2500 University of California-Berkeley
students at once turned in their draft cards to the Oakland Center.
..........That's
all there is to that.........Shirley Jones/Julie …..What's the Use
of Wond'ring (Carousel)
Masthead
of the Week:
fRiday ePistle March 31, 2016, eVen eArlier ePistle. Online at:
http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/
All
the Fun that Fits.
Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. 1800 Goodell Ct. Lawrence, KS
66046
Moonbeam:
Preservation
of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for
other cultures. --Cesar Chavez
Cost
of War:
Tax
dollars spent in Afghanistan: as of 3/30/17: $767,301,445,346.
Tax
dollars spent in Afghanistan: as of 3/23/17: $766,622,940,811.
Tax
dollars spent on the Iraq war since 2001 as of 3/30/17:
$820,357,397,614.
Tax
dollars spent on the Iraq war since 2001 as of 3/23/17:
$820,357,566,100.
Tax
dollars spent on Daesh conflict as of 3/30/17: $14,309,884,462.
Tax
dollars spent on Daesh conflict as of 3/23/17: $14,205,580,617.
Tax
dollars spent on the Pentagon Slush Fund as of 3/30/17:
$145,817,243,412.
Tax
dollars spent on the Pentagon Slush Fund as of 3/23/17:
$145,236,882,918.
Tax
dollars spent on all wars since 2001 as of 3/30/17:
$1,752,186,318,007.
Tax
dollars spent on all wars since 2001 as of 3/23/17:
$1,750,769,213,183.
Any
attorney general who is not an activist is not doing his or her job.
--Eric Holder
..........Don't
laugh at my jokes too much.........Shirley Jones/ Laurey …..People
Will Say We're In Love
I
knew an old Bishop who had lost some of his teeth, and complained of
others being so loose that he was afraid they would soon fall out.
“Never fear,” said one of his friends, “they won’t fall.”
“And why not?” inquired the Bishop. His friend replied, “Because
my testicles have been hanging loose for the last forty years, as if
they were going to fall off, and yet, there they are still.”
--Poggio Braccoilini
Famous
Last Words: Blow out your candles, Laura – and so good-bye.
--Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie
May
Peace be your base
And
Joy be your needle valve**
prairie
mama
christine
**Parts
of a Bunsen Burner
Last
Laugh:
