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However, just four hundred years later, the ides seems set only to survive as a literary and historical reference - in spite of it being the date by which debts (including Caesar's) were usually settled.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.
'Clones Win! 'Clones Win!
Yes, I'm very happy for you!
Good afternoon. Kind of a slow day (already having done my chores), so I'm daydreaming and websurfing about a vacation, perhaps next year's anniversary trip. What a slug I can be!
I've been out and about today. Left home at 6:45 am, returned a little bit ago with more than $200 worth of groceries to put away.
I had to stock up on things we only use during planting and harvest season. We eat differently when we're eating on the run. It takes lots of chips, dips, cookies and other things you hold in your hand while you eat it, so you can have the other hand on the steering wheel.
I cannot watch or listen to the news any more today.
I think I'll take a nap.
I certainly can identify what that sentiment. Nothing but golf (go Stewart!) and basketball for us for the rest of the day!
Raining here again in sunny California...gonna read Elizabeth George's new English mystery (hey it got 4 stars in PEOPLE, lol) and then watch World Figure Skating tonight. No more cable news for me today either...I will get basketball updates from Mr. D. who will be watching in another room...
AT the launch of Edun, Bono's "conscious consumer" clothing line, [I don't even want to know what that means] at Saks Fifth Avenue last week, Alexandra Kerry, the daughter of Sen. John Kerry, was asked by a reporter: "Fidel Castro has vowed to give 100,000 pressure cookers a month to Cuban households. [Not that they have any food to cook in them] What should our government hand out?"
Kerry replied: "Under George Bush, I would presume guns. [Woo hoo, I'd like a .357, Alex] Under different leadership, I would hope stable Social Security, [She missed the Dem talking points: there's nothing wrong with SS. It doesn't need fixing] good education and adequate health care." (Page Six)
__________
Wrong answer, Alex. It's not the role of government to "hand out" anything, you stupid git. Take two facials and call me in the morning.
Castro vowed to make available pressure cookers and rice cookers- for a low monthly payment plan! That isn't my idea of a gift.
You know you're not supposed to confuse a liberal with the facts!
But it's so much fun!
'Clones loose. They looked tired and were out played. No excuses here.
I pulled for them. M - congrats to your Mountaineers.
In other news, video games prove fatal when a TV falls on a brain-numbed child's head.
SIGHTINGS - CHELSEA Clinton walking into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame on Hudson Street, only to find Monica Lewinsky chowing down with a pal at a nearby table . . . (Page Six)
Odd comments from the Hildebeaste:
TO help the Eleanor Roosevelt Center, Meera Gandhi opened her town house where once Eleanor Roosevelt lived. And the guest speaker? Another former first lady. Hillary Clinton told the assembled publicly: "Mrs. Roosevelt was once asked to run for public office but, given her good judgement, didn't." The room laughed. And then she told me privately: "I'm a little done in. Y'know, it's been tough going for me because of Bill. I'm continuing to do my thing and keep to my schedule because he's doing well now. He's coming along fine. I'm OK, but I'm exhausted. Five days in the hospital is heavy duty." Still, she spoke brilliantly and, like the pro she is, posed for photos, smiled at people, shook the hands, worked the room, then into her SUV and onto the next speech. (Cindy Adams)
Boy, that'll kill a whole day, won't it?! You wouldn't believe the amount of research I've done for a fall trip to Rome/Paris. After hours of searching, it appears we'll stay at the same Paris hotel we stayed in last time. LOL!
Oh well...if anyone needs a thorough list of moderately priced Paris hotels, I'd happily share mine. (There's no such thing as a moderately priced Rome hotel!)
We're looking to go to Nantucket next year for our 10th ann'y, as that's where we honeymooned, so I've been looking for someplace a little more upscale than where we stayed before, but still reasonably priced.
Anyone else here worn out from the Schiavo debate?
Yes. I feel very strongly that she should be turned over to her parents for care, but I have no confidence that will happen. I went on a couple of the threads...the heat was so intense I had to boogey out before I got burned.
I certainly have views on the subject (especially as we had to face the issue as my father lay helpless from Alzheimers, being fed through a tube in a nursing home), but all this talking about it and the namecalling and heated arguments are just wearying and unproductive.
I can certainly understand. We faced that with my Mom not too long ago. But she was 88. That's quite different than this case.
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