History of the Day: 9/29

The first dating service, called The Office of Addresses and Encounters, was started in 1650 by Henry Robinson in London. I'd LOVE to see what their method of finding compatibility was.

Miguel de Cervantes was born in 1547. He wrote Don Quixote who is one of my heroes. I love this poem which celebrates Quixote's horse, Rocinante:

When truth outwears, and withered fact grows cold,
When knowledge stales with plundered wisdom's gold,
Come gather in the garden of delight,
And journey with the mock Manchegan Knight.
Here, in a curtained pleasance of the mind
The sumptuous cenotaph to honor find
Raised by the god of laughter; he who hears
May scarce discern his merriment for tears.

Can truth or history such beauty keep
As vast reality of visions deep?
Shall deeds of Caesar or Napoleon ring
More true than Don Quijote's vapouring?
Hath winged Pegasus more nobly trod
Than Rocinante stumbling up to God?

Horatio Nelson, famed admiral of Britain, was born in 1758. In the battle of Trafalgar, he died a heroe's death. His usual last words are reported to be:

Thank God, I have done my duty.

In reality, they were:

Drink, drink, fan, fan, rub, rub.

No, I'm not kidding. He summarized the duty of an Englishman thusly:

Firstly you must always implicitly obey orders, without attempting to form any opinion of your own regarding their propriety. Secondly, you must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your king; and thirdly you must hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil.

Kind of sounds like what it means to be an American these days. Freedom Fries, anyone? Speaking of Frenchmen, Émile Zola died in 1902. He was an entirely different kind of hero, one who put his reputation on the line to expose a great evil in his home country. In his book J'accuse! (I Accuse), Zola pointed out the anti-semitism in the trial and conviction of Alfred Dreyfuss. He wrote:

The action I am taking is no more than a radical measure to hasten the explosion of truth and justice. I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul. Let them dare, then, to bring me before a court of law and let the enquiry take place in broad daylight!

Today is Michaelmas, the feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Here's a really cool Hymn to St. Michael from the Scottish Carmina Gadelica. According to an old legend, blackberries should not be picked after this date. This is because, so folklore goes, Satan was banished from Heaven on this day, fell into a blackberry bush and cursed the brambles as he fell into them.

St. Michael, far from being the fat cherub you see in modern paintings, was a sword-wielding toughie crushing a serpent under his feet. I read an article recently which has the coolest prayer written by a four-year old to St. Michael:

He had a small statue of St. Michael the Archangel beside his bed on his nightstand. He liked it so we bought it for him. It was a very manly Michael, with a great and terrible sword drawn, and the devil, stuck beneath one of Michael's feet, writhing helplessly. My son's prayer (still a family favorite):

Dear St. Michael, guard my room.
Don't let anything eat me or kill me.
Kill it with your sword. Kill it with your sword. Amen.

Thought for the day:

Things are set up as contraries that are not even in the same category. Listen to me: the opposite of radical is superficial; the opposite of liberal is stingy; the opposite of conservative is destructive. Thus I will describe myself as a radical conservative liberal; but certain of the tainted red fish will swear that there can be no such fish as that. Beware of those who use words to mean their opposites. At the same time have pity on them, for usually this trick is their only stock in trade. But do not pity them overly, it is your own death and your soul's death that they work by their deception.

- from The Flame is Green by R.A. Lafferty

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