It’s March 20, I’ve just woken up (7:00 am, unconscionably late), and I can hear the wild peacocks calling outside: they roam the campus of JNU, which is in a huge tract of forest. What happened on this day? On March, 20, 1616, Sir Walter Raleigh was released from the Tower of London after 13 years of confinement, and, in 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published. The best-selling novel of the 19th century and the runner up to the Bible as best-selling book, it helped ignite anti-slavery feeling in the northern U.S. In 1854, the Republican Party was organized in Illinois, but it was very different in those days (Lincoln, for example, was a Republican), and on this day in 1916, Einstein published his general theory of relativity. Finally, on March 20, 2003, the U.S., along with the U.K., Australia, and Poland, began an ill-fated attack on Iraq. Mission not accomplished!’
Notable births on this day include Napoleon Bonaparte (1811), B. F. Skinner (1904), Carl Reiner (1922, still alive), and John Boswell (b. 1947), a well-known historian and scholar of homosexuality and religion, who lived across the hall from me in college. Sadly, he died of AIDS at the age of 47. He was perhaps the first openly gay person I ever knew. Spike Lee was born on this day in 1957, and William Dalrymple, a superb popular historian of India, in 1965 (read his books White Mughals and Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India—a terrific read). Those who died on this day include Isaac Newton (1726), George Curzon (1925), and newsman Chet Huntley (1974).
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s again bushed up again:
A: What do you see out there?Hili: Nothing yet but it should know that I’m bigger than it thinks.
In Polish:Ja: Co tam widzisz?
Hili: Jeszcze nic, ale to powinno wiedzieć, że jestem większa niż mu się zdaje.
Ssshhhh. . . Gus is trying to sleep:
Finally, some lagniappe from reader Lauren:
Notable births on this day include Napoleon Bonaparte (1811)
No wonder Wellesley beat him at Waterloo, he was only 4 years old!
I second the approval of Dalrymple’s books. “City of Djinss” is great reading, too.
Napoleon’s son, also called Napoleon, known as the King of Rome.
…was born in 1811.
actually 1769..
for the napoleon who fought at Waterloo not Buonaparte fils
for your North American Vernal Equinox of today – enlightenment (and borrowed off of from my twitter – feed) … … https://twitter.com/SpotTheLoon2010/status/711262948459610112
Reeeeally, really N O R T H American !
heh.heh.heh.
Blue
And w / the Google Doodle in this particular hemisphere as well —
https://g.co/doodle/an4hud
The cherry blooms are, indeed, fragile !
I am told that they last — upon the tree — inside the Washington, DC area, when .un.disturbed, for only up to ten days time !
Of course, the more blooms now (+, please, continuing – to – rise temperatures) = the more cherries within a couple+ of months’ time subsequently ! Yea !
Blue
Last night was the lawrence krauss evolution vs Id debate at the University of Toronto. Lawrence was brilliant as usual!! Steven meyer the Id proponent was pathetic. I’m sure PCC (E) will watch it and cringe at the lack of coherent info provided by the ider’s. Meyer kept complaining of a migraine because of the lighting and repeatedly used it as an excuse for his incoherent presentation.
Link, please, if/when you know one – it sounds like something to watch!
Sorry, I see there is a link given two posts later on this site, in the article “God vs. physics: Krauss debates Meyer and Lamoureaux”.
Since 1854 was the beginning of the republican party, maybe 2016 will be the end of it.
Should note that Lincoln was not a founding member of the party but joined later. Both Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stowe were in favor of the ACS, American Colonization Society, believe it or not. Just another important reason why our modern values create unfair judgement on people of another era.
If you look at a map of red and blue states before and after the 1964 Civil Rights Act there is a virtually overnight change. The (what I call) racist states became Republican and vice versa.
When the southern Democrat evaporated, you might say. And the Goldwater republicans went on to lose 44 states in the 64 election. We will hope to see a similar result this year.
Exactly. As for the election, I can see that happening again too.
Republican politicians have a bad habit of pandering to the squeaky wheel, and failing to recognize what most people want. It looks like they’re set to do it again.
only rich squeaky wheels. The poor and middle class be damned!
I was thinking of the religious types too. Stats show that most people support Planned Parenthood for example, but GOP candidates have to not only oppose choice when it comes to abortion, they have to vow to de-fund Planned Parenthood for all their other services.
Lincoln had been a supporter of the movement for encouraging black Americans to migrate to Africa, but after he met with a group of them in the White House, he abandoned the idea. They impressed upon him that whatever hardships they face in the United States, it was still their homeland and they had no desire to move to Africa. Lincoln had the good sense to change his mind when presented with sufficient good reason to rather than remaining stuck on an opinion that was not based on any evidence. One opinion Lincoln had from an early age and which he held until he died was that slavery was abominable and ought to be abolished, although he would have preferred it be abolished peacefully. Alas, even before the election of 1860, circumstances had reached the point that either a majority of slave states would break away in order to keep that institution intact indefinitely or a very bloody war would break out over the issue of slavery — and when it did, even if the original intent of the Lincoln administration was to keep the union together with or without slavery, everyone knew that the ultimate and predominant cause of the war was slavery.
Agreed, mission definitely not accomplished.