puppetmaker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
puppetmaker) wrote2008-10-13 08:57 am
puppetmaker) wrote2008-10-13 08:57 am
Columbus Day 2008
In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
-from the poem In 1492
Which is about all I remember from the poem. I do know that it is much longer than that.
So this guy came and found something that had already been found and renamed an entire group of people something that they were not and it stuck. I guess it was right place, right time, and right publicist.
We celebrate this achievement by shutting down a good chunk of the government. There is no mail or garbage pickup. Federal offices are closed. The kids are home from school. And, from what the newspapers tell me, Americans are suppose to shop for all kinds of things. Furniture and electronics seem to be the primary focus however clothing is also being pushed. I ceased to be amazed at the number of holidays that seem to have become about one of two things either shopping or drinking and in some cases both.
There will be a parade through the town. A number of local shops, that had Irish flags up in March, have Italian flags up today. We do have a goodly sized Italian-American population in the area. I wonder how many people are going to eat pizza for dinner tonight to celebrate.
As for me, I plan to take Ariel to our favorite beauty salon to get a hair cut since she is in really dislike of her hair right now. She let it get long but she doesn’t like how it is behaving which is not like it was behaving last time she grew it out. We are having leftovers for dinner. Peter and I have bowling tonight. I might take Caroline to see the parade. They usually have really cool older fire trucks.
I am grateful for clean car interiors.
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
-from the poem In 1492
Which is about all I remember from the poem. I do know that it is much longer than that.
So this guy came and found something that had already been found and renamed an entire group of people something that they were not and it stuck. I guess it was right place, right time, and right publicist.
We celebrate this achievement by shutting down a good chunk of the government. There is no mail or garbage pickup. Federal offices are closed. The kids are home from school. And, from what the newspapers tell me, Americans are suppose to shop for all kinds of things. Furniture and electronics seem to be the primary focus however clothing is also being pushed. I ceased to be amazed at the number of holidays that seem to have become about one of two things either shopping or drinking and in some cases both.
There will be a parade through the town. A number of local shops, that had Irish flags up in March, have Italian flags up today. We do have a goodly sized Italian-American population in the area. I wonder how many people are going to eat pizza for dinner tonight to celebrate.
As for me, I plan to take Ariel to our favorite beauty salon to get a hair cut since she is in really dislike of her hair right now. She let it get long but she doesn’t like how it is behaving which is not like it was behaving last time she grew it out. We are having leftovers for dinner. Peter and I have bowling tonight. I might take Caroline to see the parade. They usually have really cool older fire trucks.
I am grateful for clean car interiors.
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Have a great massage.
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Columbus
Columbus sailed for India/ Found Salvador instead/ He shook hands with some Indians/ Soon they all were dead/ They got TB and typhoid and athlete's foot/ Dyptheria and the flu/ 'SCUSE ME! Great Nations comin' through...
-- from his song "Great Nations of Europe"
About that poem? I once heard of someone meanly teasing a kid by getting the kid to think that couplet was "In Fourteen Hundred Ninety-Three/ Columbus sailed the deep blue sea."
I guess it was right place, right time, and right publicist.
Same thing later with Amerigo Vespucci. (I like saying "Amerigo Vespucci." We don't have enough people named "Amerigo" anymore!)
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And now for something completely different... (I saw this and thought of you.)