Leif Erickson Day seems like it might be more of a drinking holiday than Columbus Day. So I hoist a tall mug of beer as a salute to Leif Erickson. Now tomorrow is Columbus Day and I will have a hard time drinking beer to that. Perhaps a glass of wine. I can picture Columbus as more of a wine drinker.
Speaking of Leaves, does anybody remember Leif Garrett? During the late 1970s, he attained a certain degree of notoriety as some sort of teen idol. A few lame Top 40 hits and possibly a movie or two but I can't remember. He was some kind of sissy long-haired kid. Faded into obscurity even faster than Shaun Cassidy.
http://dophine0.tripod.com/
I Was Made for Dancin'
Like a wheel on a road
Turning round and round
Nowhere to go
I've got to find out
If you're feeling it too
It's hard to tell
So here's what I do
And everytime I want more
I take you out on the floor
(CHORUS)
I was made for dancing
All, all, all, all night long
Yes, I was made for dancing
All, all, all, all night long
The days and nights
Are moving by me and you
You're such a crazy love
You tear me in two
I spend my time
Moving to dreams that I face
Such a crazy love
You can see it in my face
And everytime I want more
I take you out on the floor
(CHORUS) etc to fade
Thanksgiving Day in Canada is always celebrated on the same day in October as Columbus Day in the U.S. Perhaps our friends to the North should instead take Leif Erikson day as their holiday -- to thank God that at least someone discovered Canada...
Look, never fear. Our friend Columbus had flaming red-hair, and his favorite navigator was a fellow named Carvajal, and that's just another name Magelheis (McWallace), and these guys were much more related to the Scots, Welsh, Cornish, Irish and Bretons than to any Italians or Spaniards (other than the royal family itself who were, of course, of ancient Cornish and Breton ancestry).
The part about the wool-carders in Genoa is just a story. By the time he was 18 years of age he was sailing on ships owned by Rene of Anjou, one of the King of France's cousins, and Isabella's Grandpa!
"They" knew who he was, even if you weren't supposed to. His wife was a niece of the King of Portugual as well, and you didn't climb to such heights in the High Middle-Ages without being born with a privilege or two.
My money's always been on Columbus (Colombo to the cognizenti, and knowing that "BO" is an old Welsh and Breton prefix for "Mc", we have some interesting possibilities here) being one of Rene's cousins, or possibly even a batard or thereabouts.
To get to the point, it's very likely that all the Scanderhoovians in the world are descended from half a dozen of Columbus' Breton cousins, so what's the big deal?~!