Didn’t we all grow up with a solid background in classical languages and literature? I think that’s a safe assumption. We all had to translate the Iliad and the Odyssey, we all read every major work of Shakespeare (and some of his piddling sonnets), we all played “Simona Dicit” every Wednesday and what do we have to show for it?
Ummmm…..
I remember the caveat, “Beware the ides of March,” don’t you? The problem is, I don’t remember who or what to be weary of, so – I just stay in bed and pull the covers over my head just to be on the safe side and not tempt the fates.
Some others that missed the warning and would have been better off in a cozy bed:
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1781 In the American Revolution, the Battle of Guilford NC, 1900 British troops under Gen. Cornwallis defeat an American force of about 4500.
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1848 Revolution in Hungary.
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1905 Cretan revolutionaries announce re-unification of Crete with Greece (Admittedly, this was probably a good thing but, not very often are you given the chance to write, ”
CretinCretan revolutionaries.” How are they ever supposed to prevail?) -
In Reunion (east of Madagascar) 73 inches of rain fall in one day in 1952, setting a new world record. If that isn’t a curl up in bed scenario, I don’t know what is.
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President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 US troops after Pancho Villa (This may have been the origin of the saying “Make a run for the border.” Also, may not have been).
The term ”ides” was simply the way to denote the middle of the month (Referring to the 15th in March, May, July and October; the other months of the year, the ides was on the 13th). Kalends, you all will recall, referred to the first of the month and the nones, to the 7th or the 5th.
The remaining, unnamed days of the month were identified by counting backwards from the kalends, nones, or the ides. For example, March 4 would be III nones - 3 days before the nones. Simple, no?
But this year, Saint Patrick’s Day is officially March 15 due to its otherwise interference with Holy Monday. I didn’t even know that the Roman Catholic Church had the power to change the date! Huh.
Last time the date was changed was 1940 (conflicting with Palm Sunday). St. Patrick’s Day will not fall during Holy Week again until 2160. So, in all actuality, I will not be alive to see St. Paddy be displaced again. And neither will you!
This is like better than an eclipse, people!
Okay, so this Ides thing has got me totally ticked off and no amount of googling or wikipediing (oooh, now I’m also mad I can’t add a New Yorkerian umlaut over that second i) can give me satisfaction.
I’m not a mathemafuckingtician but the 15th can only be the middle of a month with 29 days, 14 before and 14 after plus one, the Ides, in the middle. These months with the 13th as the middle would be 25 days long. Now I know during the New Deal when the government actually helped a fella out, we got a bunch of extra days in each month so we could build dams and bridges and stuff, so shouldn’t now the Ides in months with 31 days be the 16th?
And that truly makes sense because then the Ides of March is not only the day on which the Jedder got talked into that awful Caesar haircut back in ’98, but also the birthday of a certain someone, and if that’s not something to beware, I don’t know what is.
We agree. Romans were smart. And it should be noted that their calendar and system of dating was supposedly invented by Romulus (one of the twins that were raised by wolves and founded the city that bears his name). But being raised (and presumably home schooled by a she-wolf does not necessarily mean that you have the strictest grasp of math or numbers or counting. So we cut the bitches some slack.
And happy birthday to that certain someone in your life. We know he’s special. Whoever he may be.
Prometheus hasn’t commented because he is sleeping. SSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!11111
Where I come from, we call it mid-March. Ides are fer seeing wit, ya big dummy.
Oh, it wasn’t 1998. More like 1999 (because I was partying like it was that exact year at the time.) But it was awful.