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Image from David Martin's article

On March 2, we Native Texans celebrate Texas Independence Day. On this day in 1836, the Lone Star State had our own version of signing a declaration of independence - not from England, but from Mexico. Our nickname comes from the design of the Texas flag, a 'lone star' on a color block field of red, white and blue. 2021 marks the 182nd anniversary of the Texas state flag. David L. Martin has written a well-researched article on its history. The current flag's simple design was influenced by events in Europe and South America in the early 1800s.

Some interesting tidbits from David's article:

The role of maritime commerce and communication was a powerful influence in flag design. In the heydays of piracy and privateering, it was important to be able to identify ships from a distance. Flags were simple and effective ways to communicate this information in the days long before  radio and cell technology.

La Bandera Estrella Solitaria ('lone star' flag),
Chilean flag circa 1817.
Can you spot the difference between this
and the Texas flag?
Image from David's article.

Ever wonder why so many flags look so similar? Lots of color blocks. Lots of simple patterns, like stars juxtaposed with stripes. I just figured the flag designers were lazy (like me), or lacked artistic skills (also like me). But no! Similar-looking flags were the 'Prado' handbags of the maritime world. Crafty mariners knocked off the flag designs of powerful countries such as England and the USA to ward off possible attacks from marauders. Anything appearing similar to the stars and stripes or Union Jack from a distance might be enough to send profiteers in search of a weaker target. At the very least, potential victims could gain some time escaping while the perpetrators stood around peering through their bleary 19th century spyglass, wondering if was worthwhile to attack.

So many men are mentioned in David's article about flags, I suppose because they were the ones involved in the politicking. But who was doing the actual sewing? Who spent hours hunched over a spinning wheel/loom/needle? The women, that's who! Several created a variety of eye-catching designs for their husbands to carry off with them when they joined a military expedition. Sorta reminds me of when folks nowadays hit the Dollar General for poster board and tempera paint before they head off to a political rally.

Jane Wilkerson Long's 1818 design. Image from David's article.

In fact, the infamous 'Come And Take It' flag was made by two women in Gonzales from some leftover wedding dress silk. The image of the cannon, and the defiant message to the Mexican Army, were hand-painted on, rather than sewn. And you thought consignment was your only option for a dress you will never wear again!

Click-O-Rama

Much of this week's Click-O-Rama comes to us from another fabulously informational article via the Atlantic (magazine, not ocean) about the history of flags in general (not just Texan).

Mongolian Peace Banner, made from the tails
of white mares. Image from here.
  • My day is not complete unless I learn a new word. Today I learned there is a word for the study of flags: vexillology; and that my composer seems to think this word needs to be underlined in red. It does not. I checked. It comes from a Latin word, vexillum, that describes a type of banner carried by the Roman military.
  • The same company that made the American flag that was raised by soldiers over Iwo Jima in that iconic World War II image also made the flag that draped Abraham Lincoln's coffin. Annin Flagmakers was founded in 1847 and still going strong today.
  • Red, white and blue came to represent independence and the republican model of government after the Netherlands won their independence from Spain in 1648. You may be thinking, hey, wait a minute - it's the Netherlands. Isn't it supposed to be orange, not red? Yes, it was orange for a time. But the orange morphed into red as the flag's official color hundreds of years ago; some say due to the yellow pigment leaching out of the red it had been blended with to create the orange.

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8

If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. - Harry S. Truman

Inspired by the return of presidential pets to the White House with the Biden administration, I found this 1920 photo of Anna Roosevelt and her German Shepherd, Chief of the Mohawk. That's her famous father, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, standing beside them. Mr. Mohawk was first in shepherd class at that year's 7th Annual Washington Kennel Club dog show. Mr. Roosevelt was not yet president, but was Assistant Secretary of the Navy serving under Josephus Daniels during Woodrow Wilson's two terms as Commander-in-Chief.

Source: Library of Congress

As you can see, Mr. Roosevelt looks hale and hearty in this shot. Just one year later he would contract polio while on vacation in Canada.

As an adult, Anna Roosevelt was active during her parents' White House years, helping out as a secretary and hostess when needed. She also worked as a writer and journalist. Anna married three times and had three children. She passed away in 1975 at age 69.

Click-O-Rama

The Wiki article about presidential pets is a most delightful way to spend an afternoon. That's my original source for all of this week's Click-O-Rama topics.

The Bidens with their German Shepherds Major (left) and Champ
  • President Biden isn't the first to have German Shepherds as pets. JFK and FDR also had them. Roosevelt's even shares the name Major. Herbert Hoover had a German Shepherd as well as a Malinois, which is a very similar breed.
  • Some of the oddest pets originated as gifts to the presidents from other world leaders. George Washington received an Andalusian donkey from the King of Spain (hence the Andalusian heritage). Zebulon Pike gave Thomas Jefferson a pair of grizzly bear cubs. Gesture of friendship, or assassination attempt? Ditto Marquis de Lafayette's alligator which (allegedly) somehow wound up in the possession of John Quincy Adams.
  • John Adams had some dogs, one of which was named 'Satan'. I found this hilarious because after watching the HBO series about Adams, I had the impression he was very religious.
  • Some sicko thought it wasn't quite enough that President Lincoln was assassinated; he thought it would be cool to assassinate the late President Lincoln's dog Fido as well. That poor pup is also why we consider 'Fido' as a sort of generic name for a dog. I hope that dude got what was coming to him. Side note: one of my favorite southern expressions is from my dearly departed cousin Nan, may she rest in peace. Whenever she wanted to describe something as particularly messy or unattractive, she compared it to 'Fido's tail': "I can't do a thing with my hair today. It looks like Fido's tail."
  • Several presidents, or those in their immediate family, had birds as pets. My favorite bird anecdote is this one about Andrew Jackson's parrot: it had to be escorted away from Jackson's funeral service because of its incessant cursing. Wonder where it learned that?
  • Pet-loving presidents are by far the majority. Of the 40-some-odd presidents we've had, only three have not had pets of any kind. In contrast, some presidents have had so many pets, I was starting to worry about them a little bit while reading the Wiki. Even so, I'd rather have too many pets in the White House than none.

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The theme of my current WIP has been on my mind a lot lately. And not just because I'm sunk in the swamp of editing a saggy middle build. Thanks to several great craft articles like this one, I was able to settle on a theme for my trilogy some time ago. My theme is 'the end justifies the means'. Sometimes I use a little more casual shorthand: 'sometimes you gotta do bad to do good'.

You don't have to look very far to find examples of this philosophy in real life. I've been listening to the most excellent podcast Presidential by Washington Post writer Lillian Cunningham. Presidents often make decisions for us that I feel fall into the 'end justifies the means' category.

  • Perhaps the first example that comes to many minds is Harry Truman's decision to drop the nukes on Nagasaki and Hiroshima during World War II. Numbers vary, but hundreds of thousands died. However, Japan surrendered soon after the second bomb was dropped. Developing and using the atomic bomb achieved Truman's goal of ending the war.
Image of Hiroshima via National WWII Museum
  • Abraham Lincoln chose to prosecute a bloody war to preserve the union. A Union victory also meant the abolition of slavery. The Civil War cost more than 600,000 lives. But I believe/hope most would agree preserving the union and ending slavery was worth it.
  • Dwight Eisenhower was an early supporter of intelligence services. It makes sense. He saw plenty of death and destruction in his military career. In his mind, if there was a way to resolve controversy without going to war, he was all for it. Hard to say what he would've thought of covert operations taken to their extremes - assassinations, coups, torture.
  • Richard Nixon's active role in attempting to cover up illegal activities by his re-election campaign staff, known as the Watergate scandal, eventually resulted in ending his presidency. In their minds, the end (winning the next election) outweighed the means (breaking many laws and compounding that mistake with trying to cover it up). I'm not sure if Nixon and his cronies ever considered the possibility of failure. Hubris is often a huge factor with presidents.
  • Bill Clinton's similar approach to a sex scandal worked out a little better for him. He gambled on splitting hairs, word salad, and other forms of verbal obfuscation rather than come clean about his extramarital relationship with a White House intern. Unlike Nixon, however, Clinton's gambit was successful. Apparently the end (staying in office) justified the means (spewing a bunch of nonsense and looking like fool in the process).

It has been pointed out to me, and I agree, that 'the end justifies the means' is a slippery slope to anarchy. Anarchy is not something I aspire to in real life. But in my fiction, I'm totally fine with a little chaos.

In my story, the main character starts out as a nerdy follower of the rules. By the end, he embraces breaking them. But he also learns that no matter how carefully you evaluate your options and make tough choices, you cannot always accurately predict the outcome. Robert McKee calls this wildcard component the 'gap'. I call it 'life'.

p.s. You may be wondering why I haven't mentioned the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I am choosing to include topics I have heard while listening to the Presidential podcast. Their last episode so far is the one covering our 44th president, Barack Obama. I have no doubt there will be much applicable material on this topic when and if they ever release an episode on 45.

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True wisdom is knowing what you don't know. - Confucius

The call to action to buy this candle: "Tired of feeling like a bone-dry hack?" Not kidding.

Once upon a time, I was stumped for a blog topic. (I'm sure I'm probably the only blogger that happens to.) Falling back on the last refuge of the blogger who can't decide what to write about, I checked to see what was trending on Twitter. It changes constantly, of course, but here's what was listed when I checked.

#HappyBirthdayBeliebers
#LiamWeStandByYou
#AquariusComeBack
#NionerAndRemaja
#Balqis
#BuZulumArsiTitretir
#GustavvoLimaNoDomingoLegal
The Bat Cave
TheApprenticeAsia
AngkaYangkamu
Eriksen
Three Musketeers

Talk about a lesson in humility. Of the twelve topics listed, how many did I know with certainty what they were about? Exactly one. I could hazard a guess or at least give the definition of the words on a few. After Googling all of them, I discovered that just because I knew the definition of a few words, certainly did not equate to knowing what the heck the hashtags or trends were about. Before you continue reading this post, take a moment and see if you can predict what each one is about.

Okay. Let's see how you did. No pressure.

  • The Apprentice Asia is obviously about the reality show. My confidence is so high on that assumption I didn't even fact-check it.
  • The Beliebers one wasn't too difficult to guess - it had something to do with the Canadian pop singer. But if you guessed it was his birthday, you would be wrong. I think the fans were celebrating his 7 year anniversary on Twitter?? Still not sure about that one.
  • Speaking of heartthrobs, Gusttavo Lima is one in Brazil. And 'Liam' is someone from American Idol. 
  • Indonesian topics dominated the list of 12. I know what Three Musketeers are - book/film or candy bar. But I could not have guessed why that was trending. Apparently one of the movie versions was broadcast on telly in the Phillipines recently. This was a big deal because it was broadcast without being 'tagalized' (translated into Tagalog). The Angka appears to be something about lucky numbers.
  • The Aquarius thing is an analysis of the traits of men with birthdays around this time of year.
  • BuZulumArsiTitretir is Turkish and looks like something that if I click on through, I will land on a terrorist watch list. Not kidding.
  • It is a shame The Bat Cave was a broken link. Apparently it was a cool home theater setup.
  • Eriksen is soccer (football) related.
  • Balqis may possibly be a musical group/artist.
  • And the Nioner-and-Remaja I could not figure out, even with the aid of Google's translating tool.

Being in the dark about some topics was understandable in the Dark Ages, when our ancestors had fewer options for staying informed.  For example:

  • The Chinese invented gunpowder about the same time Leif Ericson discovered America (1000 A.D.). But it was hundreds of years before gunpowder became commonplace in the West. 
  • Christopher Columbus' Spanish sponsors had to wait eight months to hear whether or not his gamble on sailing west amounted to anything. 
  • The last battle of the American Civil War was fought a month after Confederates surrendered at Appomattox in April of 1865 because Texas troops hadn't gotten word it was over. 

Today we have the technology to stay informed. But so many people are overly preoccupied with their own little worlds, they don't bother. Even when we are interested in the world around us, parsing the torrent of information available is a tall order. 

I'm not arguing for even more screen time so we can all know what lottery numbers are trending in Indonesia today. But just realizing how much there is out there that we don't know serves as a healthy reality check. 

Image from Gaping Void

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Cabeza de Vaca is Spanish for "looks good in hats"

So I get an email from Amazon the other day, saying someone bought a copy of my biography of Cabeza de Vaca and I was to ship it to them forthwith. Cool, right? Honestly, I hadn't sold one in so long, I had forgotten I even had them listed for sale.

When the book was published, I purchased extra copies, intending to include them as incentives on school visits. Having some left over, I listed them on Amazon and moved on to other projects. The book is OOP now (Out of Print), so I guess I have cornered the market. It was originally listed at $9.95 from the publisher. Mine are a great value at $4.99 plus shipping.

Imagine my surprise to discover a few other random Amazon book sellers are offering my book, the very same book, for $70 and higher! Each! I guess because it is now OOP, they feel justified in charging a king's ransom for this little paperback. Really curious if they actually have any in inventory as listed, but I don't want to pay $70 to find out. Doubly curious if they have sold any!

If you're like me and spent your entire K-12 public education never hearing of this guy, let me take a minute and fill you in. When I finally learned of him (thank you, UTA Special Collections!), it blew my mind that someone so cool was so, well, undiscovered. That's what inspired me to write about him.

Some fun facts about Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (actually, he may not have considered them 'fun'):

  • He was one of only four survivors of the Narvaez expedition, which set out from Spain headed for Florida in 1527 with more than 300 (mostly) men.
  • He was the first European to cross the North American continent, from Florida in the east to Mexico in the west.
  • Most of those nearly 3000 miles he traveled on foot, naked and starving.
  • He earned a reputation as a healer among the natives by improvising some techniques patched together from his Catholic upbringing. He freely confessed he thought it was nonsense, but the natives insisted.
  • We can add 'writer' to his long list of achievements. One of the first things he did when he returned to Spain is write a journal detailing his experience. He is considered one of the first ethnologists of the New World, thanks to the meticulous documentation of some of the natives he encountered.
  • My favorite 'fun' fact about Alvar is that after eight years of wandering the desert southwest, surviving many near-death experiences from cannibals, starvation, slavery, hurricanes, and pirates, and finally making it back home to Spain, he didn't curl up next to a fire with a decent plate of tapas and live out the rest of his days. Oh, no. He demanded reassignment for another expedition to the New World. He wanted to go back! And he did!

So far I've been able to resist the urge to double, triple, or even quadruple my sales price, so spread the word, folks - you can get a great deal on my book, directly from the author, and save a whopping 88%! Hurry, before I succumb and can no longer resist those greedy impulses.

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photo from this site

I used to have a fairly long work commute. I remember at one point, there was cause for celebration as a construction project scheduled for completion finally removed its last traffic cone, only three months late. Ahh, blessed relief! as this reduced my commute from 55 pressure-filled minutes, to 48.

I shouldn't be so stingy in my appreciation. After all, I had the luxury of choosing well-paved interstate or paved two- or four-lane thoroughfares (including shoulders!) both ways, cones or no cones. But a simple walk through the nearby wooded state game lands recalls a time when 'roads' were little more than well-trodden walking paths, which were previously well-trodden goat tracks, which previously had been muddy sluices created by rainwater seeking the path of least resistance. Only a few generations separate highway from wildlife trail, and the El Camino Real is proof.

2014 marked the ten year anniversary designating Texas' El Camino Real as a National Historic Trail. The 'Royal Road' has been guiding travelers from Mexico through San Antonio and Nacogdoches into Louisiana for more than 300 years. Modern roads still follow its general path, including Texas Highway 21.

Looking at the map, it is easy to take the USA-centric view and assume the road sprang from Louisiana and expanded southwest. Quite the opposite! It expanded from Mexico as a means to connect with Spanish outposts bordering French-held lands in Louisiana.

El Camino Real was witness to hundreds of years of history. Thousands, if you consider its pre-Spanish origins as Native American trading path. It is also a focal point of some of my historical interests:

Spanish exploration: it was an outgrowth of the Spanish pushing north after the conquest of Mexico by Hernan Cortes in 1521. My first published book was a children's biography of Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. What a story! His expedition shipwrecked near Galveston. He spent many years wandering Texas and Mexico. He may have crossed El Camino Real in his quest to make it back to civilization.

French exploration: El Camino Real also has a tangential role in the saga of French explorer Robert La Salle, who may have been murdered near where the road passes the Trinity River at Keechi Creek. This might also be a good time to mention one of my works-in-progress (working title La Belle) is partly inspired by the story of La Salle's doomed Texas colony, and therefore also has an El Camino Real connection.

Archaeologist Al McGraw's article on El Camino Real has tons more info. Now that I no longer have a commute, I can go down that rabbit hole.

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1

One more post about hair, and I'll stop, I promise.

Have you heard about the TV series, Rake? It stars Greg Kinnear as a ne'er-do-well Los Angeles lawyer. No lack of material there, amirite? The show is pretty funny, but I discovered it is the American version of an Australian series (tagline: 'the bar has been lowered'). So I gave the original a look as well, which is also a scream. Because it features a lawyer, naturally there are many courtroom scenes. And here's the connection to the hair topic:


He has a curious craving for a bag of oats, guaranteed

What on earth is up with those ridiculous wigs the British empire lawyers, or 'barristers', wear in court?? A courtroom should be a scene of solemn dignity. Yet the most powerful guys in the room are all wearing what looks like a child-size vintage Easter bonnet. I should know - I had one (bonnet, not wig). Might as well have the President deliver the State of the Union in a Davy Crockett-style cap. Or an amateurish orange combover.

How can one be expected to maintain decorum and focus while wearing a hot, itchy, not to mention comical, remnant of a 400-year-old tradition on top of your head? For comparison, imagine wearing one of those Viking horn helmets the next time you give a PowerPoint presentation at work.

Turns out the wigs are a holdover from the 17th century wig craze. The Brits and the Aussies have given up wearing them except on special occasions. I'm sure they are all thrilled. Not only do they look silly, they were expensive and a pain in the tuckus to maintain.

The barristers aren't the only ones who are thrilled. The wigs are made of horse hair. I guess those donations from Manes of Love will have to go somewhere else.

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2

The first of two posts about everyone's favorite insect. Here's the second.

Long before the dawn of man, the mosquito was around, anxious to make a meal of him. In the 21st century, we have many years of scientific research providing us with a variety of complex chemical sprays and lotions to keep the pests away.

Alas, these modern products have only been available relatively recently. Early cultures had to 'make do', as we say here in the South, with other methods.

STRONGLY recommend reading this article about the Karankawas at the Texas State Historical Association website https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bmk05

One of the first mosquito repellent methods consisted of smearing something on the skin. Early peoples didn’t know that only the female mosquito feeds on blood, or that she is attracted by a combination of aroma and temperature. All they knew was that the little buggers had an annoying, itchy bite. Therefore, if one could come up with something that would keep the mosquitoes off their skin, the battle was won. No one can know for certain how they decided on what to use, but it does make sense that they settled on something that smelled absolutely awful. After all, if it repelled their fellow humans, wouldn’t it work the same way on mosquitoes?

Journals of early European explorers in America relate the use of rancid bear grease, alligator grease, and even shark oil. The grease was simple to find – it was the layer of fat just below the skin of animals killed in a hunt or perhaps found already dead. The shark oil comes from the shark’s liver. The natives smeared the grease or oil, sometimes combined with dirt, over all exposed skin. As they often went with very little clothing, this meant they were usually covered head to toe with the smelly mixture.

Primitive cultures also figured out that if they built smoky fires, this seemed to keep mosquitoes away. Some cultures preferred a certain type of tree, such as black mangrove. Others were not so picky – any green wood was acceptable. The secret was to get the wood smoking while not allowing it to achieve a full burn. During the summer months when mosquitoes were in full force, much time and effort was spent collecting wood specifically meant to keep mosquitoes at bay. It is difficult to say which was more unbearable – being covered with dirt and animal fat, or withstanding the heat of a smoky fire in the middle of summer, complete with stinging eyes and choking breath. Clearly mankind was willing to do almost anything to keep the mosquitoes away.

This effect is easily achieved by forgetting to open the damper in your indoor fireplace. NOT recommended.

Less offensive methods evolved with the passage of time. Early peoples were very knowledgeable about the properties of the plants growing nearby. They soon discovered that plants with pungent or strong smells seemed to be effective against mosquitoes.  Many of these plants are still used today for the same purpose. One of the most familiar to modern culture is citronella. Lavender, eucalyptus, and garlic are just a few of the plants that have some effect on keeping mosquitoes away. Before glass windows or wire screens were commonplace, people often constructed window boxes in order to grow some of these fragrant plants just below the window in the hopes of steering the mosquitoes away. Even today, in many countries where mesh screening is not widely available, window boxes still serve this purpose. These plant remedies have never been quite as effective as smoky fires or animal fat, but they are certainly more pleasant.

Modern man is still battling with the mosquito. We are still very interested in keeping those hungry females from biting us, no matter how unpleasant the solution. But the next time you complain about applying one of those high-tech creams, lotions or sprays, just remember – it could be worse. It could be alligator grease.

  • “gallinipper” is another word for mosquito.

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A previous version of this post first appeared in 2016.

I blogged previously about the history of some of the world championship hardware teams earn when they win a championship. I promised to follow up with the real reason all those players are smiling as they hoist those trophies: their financial bonuses.

According to various sources, the winners of Super Bowl L (50, but as a former Latin student, I'm going old school there) won $97,000.00 each. That's right. Every player on the Denver Broncos roster earned more for winning that game than many people earn in a year. The Panthers each received $49,000.00 for losing it. That will pay for a lot of tissues for wiping away the tears on the plane ride home.

2015 Super Bowl bling

Ninety-seven grand is very grand indeed, but here's the kicker (pun intended): the Super Bowl bonus is literally pocket change for most of the players. The average player salary in the NFL is over $2 million per year. The regular season consists of 16 games, so that works out to about $125,000.00 per game. Teams who reach the Super Bowl have also received bonuses every time they advance in the post-season, so the total bonus take for the champs is closer to $165,000.00 per player. That doesn't include the ring each player will receive after several months of design and manufacture. The rings for the 2015 champs, the New England Patriots, are valued at $36,500.00 each.

Salaries are just the tip of the income iceberg for many professional athletes. Endorsements are where the real money is. Peyton Manning is not only the master of the endorsements game. He's an expert in product placement. Some estimate his mention of Budweiser products in his post-game interviews to be worth billions to the company, which trickles back down to him in the form of profits at the two Anheuser-Busch distributorships in which he owns a stake. And that doesn't even include the Papa John's and Nationwide contracts and his latest entertainment ventures. (Come to think of it, I'm surprised he didn't deliver part of his canned Super Bowl speech to the tune of the Nationwide jingle.) Estimates of the elder Manning's annual endorsement income is $12,000,000.00. That's twelve million if all those zeroes are starting to make your eyes spin. Remember, that's on top of his 5-year, $96 million contract for actually playing football. That's just over $19 million per year, so it's more than the endorsements, but with the endorsements, 350-lb linemen are not threatening to separate your head from your shoulders on every play.

Is it me, or doesn't Grange favor Manning just the tiniest bit?

In the early years, football players were paid per game. Player salaries fluctuated wildly based on perceived skill as well as the budgets of the various teams. The first player to play under season-long contract was Red Grange in 1926. He was paid $100,000.00 for a 19 game season with the Chicago Bears. That may not seem like much compared to the numbers I was throwing around earlier. It's certainly less than what many players earn per game today. But factoring in inflation over the last 90 years, that works out to about $1,300,000.00 in today's money. Not bad, considering he had to wear a helmet that looks like it was inspiration for a Coneheads skit.

The players union made progress in standardizing salaries starting in the 1970s. Thanks to the popularity of the game, broadcast rights, ticket prices, and licensing revenue, there's a lot of green to go around for the players who get the hooey knocked out of them every Sunday for our entertainment. From the look of their celebration dances (and their bank account balances), they're enjoying it as much as we are.

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4

Februarius panel from mosaic calendar, Roman Africa (Tunisia)

Ah, February - one of my favorite months for many reasons. It's my birthday month. It's my mom's, my former dog's (may she RIP), two cousins, and my paternal grandmother's as well. It's Super Bowl time, and Groundhog Day, and Mardi Gras. And of course Valentine's Day which happens to be my wedding anniversary (yeah, my husband's wallet gets slammed in February). It signals the end of winter (I live in the South) which in and of itself is a reason to celebrate. History nerds rejoice - February is Black History Month which I have blogged about previously, and also features a three day weekend thanks to the fairly recent national holiday known most places as Presidents' Day.

I say most places, as according to the federal government, it is still known as Washington's Birthday, even though his actual birthday is on February 22 and 'his' holiday has been celebrated a week early for more than 40 years. Why the change? Back in the 1960s, legislators (likely with help from labor union lobbyists) decided to shift certain holidays away from specific dates, in favor of moving them to a specific Monday. This created a nice three day weekend that would fall on the same day (not date) each year to make it easier to plan vacations. Retailers loved the idea - an extra day off to shop! And once the holiday was no longer tied to February 22, it could be expanded to include other notable leaders whose birthdays fell in February - like Abraham Lincoln (Feb 12). Indeed, the holiday is now meant to honor all presidents, not just the February babies.

True history nerds may want to take issue with my statement that Washington's 'actual' birthday is on Feb. 22. You got me! Washington was 'actually' born on February 11, 1731. But when the British empire converted from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in September of 1752, his birth date got bumped to Feb 22 due to the 11 day adjustment. If you are a little math-challenged like me, you may be wondering why he didn't just keep his birthday on Feb 11. But if he did that, he would always be 11 days off from his true solar age. That would bug me almost as much as having to switch birth dates. Washington was not exactly an early adopter, but had switched to celebrating on Feb. 22 before he died in 1799. I envision an elderly Washington doddering around Mt. Vernon every February, asking Martha, 'is it today?'.

The Gregorian calendar - get out your cheaters

There was some initial resistance to using Washington's birthday as an excuse to take the day off and tie one on. Thomas Jefferson, of all people, thought celebrating an individual's birthday was uncomfortably close to the British custom of feting King George on his special day. Jefferson's suggestion to substitute the birth of our nation on July 4 was warmly received. But it wasn't long before Washington's birthday was back on the holiday calendar. Parades, elegant 'Birthnight' (not birthday) balls, and cannon fire marked the February occasion throughout the new country.

This weekend the tradition continues. Folks somewhere are standing on a downtown sidewalk six deep in the bitter cold, waving cheap but cheerful flags at the passing high school marching band. However, I'm guessing even more folks will be waving debit cards at newly lowered prices on holiday clearance items in the comfort of their centrally heated local mall. Whether you prefer celebrating your day off with patriotism or conspicuous consumption, you have that guy on our money to thank.

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