History of the Day: 10/3

Well, the International Day of Non-Violence is over, so it's time to get back to business as usual. Congratulations to Dafydd ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales (can you say that five times fast?), the first person to be executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered. In 1283, Dafydd was dragged through the streets of Shrewsbury at a horse's tail then hanged alive, revived, then disembowelled and his entrails burned before him for "his sacrilege in committing his crimes in the week of Christ's passion," and then his body cut into four quarters "for plotting the king's death."

I don't know about the king, but I'm sure Jesus is very pleased.

Happy Anniversary to two, beloved, kids shows which both debuted on this day in 1955; Captain Kangaroo and The Mickey Mouse Club. I would wear my green jeans to school today ... but oh, well. I'll have to settle for listening to Frank Zappa's Son of Mr. Green Jeans.

In 1990, Germany reunified. I remember that! I also remember, five years later, when O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman. Seems like just yesterday when he was in court ... oh, wait, it was.

Happy Birthday to the Rev. Al Sharpton. He feels good! Know why?

What I do functionally is what Dr. King, Reverend Jackson and the movement are all about; but I learned manhood from James Brown. I always say that James Brown taught me how to be a man.

Finally, a fond farewell to Woody Guthrie, bard of the impoverished American of the Depression and the Dust Bowl. He wrote simple songs that anyone could play and sing:

If you play more than two chords, you're showing off.

And, then, he let everybody play and sing them:

This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ours, cause we don't give a darn. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do.

He wrote a song which should be our National Anthem, and which has several often ignored but wonderful verses, like:

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

By the way, double-negatives weren't always the mark of an uneducated speaker. In Middle English, it was the proper way to say things. I mean, if it's good enough for Chaucer, it should be good enough for me, right?

Ther nas no man no wher so vertuous (There was not no man nowhere so virtuous)
He nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde / In all his lyf unto no maner wight. (He never yet no vileness ever said / In all his life to any man.)

Getting back to Guthrie, he had an interesting idea about who should be president.