Posted on 03/14/2005 9:08:52 PM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs
Forget Friday the 13th. Ignore ladders, black cats, broken mirrors and spilt salt. Think instead of today, March 15, and beware.
As superstitions go, being wary of the ides of March is certainly more unusual. Yet the day does have a certain resonance.
In the complicated world of the Roman calender, there were 45 public festivals (not bad compared to the UK's eight bank holidays), as well as the ides of each month, days which were sacred to Jupiter.
In March, May, July and October, the ides fell on the 15th.
The Julian calendar, established by Julius Caesar, gave us the basis of our system of 365 days a year and 366 in a leap year. But for the most part, the Roman festivals of his time have had their day.
The ides of March, however, is one day that continues to appeal, marked because that was the date that Julius Caesar was assassinated in the senate, in 44BC.
Its modern-day memory is thanks, like so many things, to Shakespeare's way with words.
In act one, scene two of Julius Caesar, Caesar asks a soothsayer what the future holds.
Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music Cry "Caesar!" Speak. Caesar is turn'd to hear. Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.
Although today the reference will not be understood by everybody, David Ewing Duncan, author of The Calendar, wrote that it was not always so.
A Roman saying "four ides" (meaning four days before the ides) would be just as clear to other Romans as someone saying March 11.
And furthermore, the system lasted 2,000 years, well into the Renaissance, he wrote. This meant Shakespeare could include the line, and expect his audience to know what he meant.
Test of time
However, just four hundred years later, the ides seems set only to survive as a literary and historical reference - in spite of it being the date by which debts (including Caesar's) were usually settled.
Professor Eileen Barker, of the London School of Economics, said it was a shame but the ides probably only had significance for schoolchildren reading Julius Caesar.
"I was thinking about this when I saw what date it was, and I thought no wonder I'm feeling awful," she said.
One significant historical event that fell on the ides of March is, perhaps, worth noting. It was on this day in 1876 that Test cricket was born.
Reason for anyone to beware? Perhaps for the English.
It was against Australia.
I'm finding it more productive to pray for her than to rehash the same arguments over and over again.
It's March Madness, Bay Bee!!!
I can tell you about a wonderful, quaint place in Woods Hole. You can catch the ferry to Nantucket from there.
RE:Schiavo -- I was until last night. I really think there's a strong case that the husband has wanted her dead. Some of the nurses that have come forward - I just heard one on CNN a few minutes ago, convinces me that her husband should NOT have the authority to make this decision. I, too, want the parents to have her. Then she would get some therapy which could help her have a much more functional life.
I watched an interview last night with a woman who had had a stroke and the doctors wanted to pull the plug and she said she was awake and could hear people talking but she had no way of shoing she was cognizant of the goings on. The doctors told her husband she was never coming out of the PVS and there was no hope. He persisted, and she did come out of it.
We really know very little about levels of consciousness. There are many cases of people who are allegedly under anesthesia who can feel pain and can tell you what was talked about in the OR during their procedure.
Her best friend has said that Terri was planning on leaving her husband - they'd talked about getting an apt together. The guy had the classic symptoms of an abuser - excessively controlling, etc. There's more to this case, and it sickens me.
It really looks like spring today and I wish I could hit the links, but have to bake two apple pies for the local church's bake sale for tsunami relief. We don't attend that church, but I'm just trying to be a good neighbor (when I'm not putting "W" stickers on my liberal neighbor's car in nighttime commando raids, that is).
E - I may ask you about that place in Massachusetts. We're thinking of going to Boston for the marathon next April, as usual, then heading to Nantucket for a few days.
U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites), D-N.Y., pauses to look at a Carolina Herrera-designed evening dress, once worn by former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, that is part of the 'First Ladies of New York and the Nation' exhibit at the New-York Historical Society, Monday March 21, 2005. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
In other news:
CHELSEA Clinton partied like a Bush girl Friday night. The presidential daughter had a little too much to drink after celebrating two friends' birthdays and ended up being helped out of Marquee by two bouncers and club owner Noah Tepperberg. A rep for Chelsea said, "She was celebrating and got a little giddy." Clinton's pals took her home to her apartment in the Flatiron District. Let's hope the hangover wasn't too bad! (Page Six)
________
The Bush girls may have partied a bit, but I don't recall seeing them carried out of bars in a drunken stupor as often as the lovely Chelz. Still no Ian - having a swell time in Iraq, or wherever the Sam Hill he supposedly is "working."
IT cost Rush Limbaugh a few million to get divorced from his wife, Marta. Palm Beach Post columnist Jose Lambiet reports the talk-radio star appeared with his lawyer Dec. 21 in a court in Key West — 250 miles from his Palm Beach home — with a separation agreement and a divorce petition. "Redefining 'quickie divorce,' the judge pronounced the childless couple officially split within an hour," Lambiet reports. As part of the settlement, Marta, a former aerobics instructor, got title to a $9 million house just across Caribbean Road from Limbaugh's $26 million compound. ...
IT looked like love at first sight when crooner Michael Bolton laid eyes on Court TV anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle-Newsom, the estranged wife of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. The meeting took place at Elaine's at the party for Catherine Crier's book about the Scott Peterson case, "A Deadly Game." Tongues wagged as the duo spent the entire evening close-talking and stayed long after the party ended, our spies report. Guilfoyle-Newsom's rep declined to comment. ...[Here's hoping she doesn't make suggestive "banana" comments about him like she did her husband, the gay-friendly mayor of San Francisco]
I'm sure they would have included Old Crusty in that exhibit of the couture of 'First Ladies of New York and the Nation,' had they been able to peel it off of the Hildebeaste.
The Bush twins did party hardy when they were in college and young and foolish....Chels is 25 and her behavior begs the question: Does she have a problem with alcohol?
More on the 'toons, from the NY Daily News:
Sen. Hillary Clinton was a surprise speaker yesterday at the funeral of Walter Cronkite's beloved wife, Betsy.
She recalled how the former First Family found refuge with the Cronkites on Martha's Vineyard during President Clinton's impeachment.
"I wasn't sure we wanted to go out in public, to be honest, but they said, 'Let's go sailing.' How do you say no to the Cronkites?" the senator said. "They offered us the refuge of their home and sailboat in some overheated days."
Another friend at St. Bartholomew's Church privately remembered Betsy as a "tart-tongued, funny, down-to-earth broad who always kept Walter from getting a big head."
Also among the mourners were Tom Brokaw, Bill Moyers, Andy Rooney, Lesley Stahl and fellow CBS anchor emeritus Dan Rather.
"Which was very gracious of him after Walter completely trashed him the other week," opined a spy.
James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, wrote what I thought was the best "bottom line" on Terri's case. He asked "What kind of husband is Michael Schiavo?". Given his cohabitating with a woman who called herself his "fiancee" 5 years ago, his 2 children with her, and his refusal to provide therapy for Terri.....given all that, wouldn't Terri divorce him the moment she woke up? Everyone talks about Terri's wishes....THAT one is pretty easy to figure out.
You know what's kinda funny, I've never been to Nantucket. I'm in love with Woods Hole -- the beauty is just so incredible - those pristine beaches, old homes on the water, and of course the Marine Bio Institute (what can I say, I'm a nerd). I love being able to hop on a ferry and cruise over to Martha's Vineyard - a lovely island, even with all the libs that live there. I've just never made it to Nantucket. I know there's a fast ferry to N -- I can't remember if it leaves from both Woods Hole and Hyannis, or just out of Hyannis.
I'd think I'd died and gone to Heaven if I could afford waterfront property in the Woods Hole area. It is even more stunning than Maine, to me. A different kind of beauty. The thing is, not only is it ridiculously expensive, it is a shame that tourists (like myself) have discovered it because the traffic on the Cape is just so atrocious.
One goal I have is to rent a place on MV and rent one of those little motorbikes and tour the island. They're pretty reasonable and I'm such a sap for that kind of thing -- I'd be taking pictures every half minute - it would take me forever to get all over the island. But what a treat!
If you feel that way about Nantucket, maybe you would be better served finding a spot on the island. I'm sure Teh-ray-zuh could help you locate a place to stay (grin).
I believe that girl has some serious alcohol issues.
Jeez, you could drive a Mac truck through her (guilfoil-newsome whatever) mouth and still have room for a bunch of bananas. What a stupid and unattractive woman.
That's a thought - I'll just write Teresa and offer to housesit, as I imagine she and Effin will be staying at one of her other houses in April (plus we have a year to plan it). I just hope she doesn't make us use the portapotties in the back yard.
If you go in April, can you windsurf or is it "off season"...Bet your in-shape Mr. M. could windsurf circles around effin...And remember Kerry said lots of regular guys windsurf. Why even carpenters windsurf, said he...it is not a sport limited to the elite, lol...
I love C. Herrera. As we discussed before, Renee Z. almost always wears her. And are you aware that after the Oscars Renee got a new hair color, much nicer than the shoe polish black she had at the Oscars...not blond but brown with a reddish tint...
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