February 24, 2019
Dearest Readers,
Good morning and thank you for joining us. We hope winter is treating you well.
The Gregorian Calendar and the US Supreme Court star on On This Date, while Roberta Flack headlines Top of the Charts and Philosophy 101 talks about doing things so people remember them for the rest of their lives.
xoxoxo
Kaitlyn
THE ALMANAC
On This Date:
In 1582 – Changes to the Julian calendar – in effect since 45BC – are promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII. The order was issued because the Julian calendar was out of step with seasons. It took ten days off the current calendar and, among other things, eliminated leap years in century years unless the year was divisible by 400. Though originally issued as a correction to the Julian calendar, the changes eventually became known as the Gregorian Calendar and it is now the standard for reckoning days, weeks, months and years in most of the world.
In 1803 – The United States Supreme court establishes the precedent known as judicial review in the case of Marbury v. Madison. The actual case had to do with the delivery of the judicial commission of one William Marbury, which had not been delivered by Secretary of State James Madison, who was acting under orders from new President Thomas Jefferson. Though the case itself is not particularly relevant now, the precedent of the Supreme Court passing judgment on the actions of Congress and the executive branch went a long way to establishing the roles of the branches of America government.
Top of the Charts
#1 songs on this date in 1973:
Hot 100 – Killing Me Softly With His Song…Roberta Flack (1st of five non-consecutive weeks)
Soul Chart – Love Train…The O’Jays (2nd of four weeks)
Country Chart – Rated X…Loretta Lynn (only week)
Album Chart – The World is a Ghetto…War (2nd of two weeks)
– Chart data courtesy of Billboard.
Numbers Racket
10,656: the continuous number of days the US has been at war.
22.033: the number of dollars, in trillions, of America’s national debt. – Source: usdebtclock.org
625: days until Election Day 2020.
Philosophy 101
We are going to sing so that they will remember this for the rest of their lives. There is no other reason to do it, folks, none.
Garrison Keillor
Love Me
One of the things we talk about regularly here is that we are all born with certain talents, that each of us can do something well. We also talk a lot about maximizing those talents
It doesn’t matter what it is: singing, writing, building a chair, raising a kid, what is of no consequence. If we are going to do something there is no other reason to do it except for doing it the very best we know how. Anything less and we are wasting our time and everyone else’s because we are merely marking time while on this planet.
This isn’t always easy. We must be sufficiently in tune with ourselves so that we know what we are about, that we know the life we are meant to live. Then we must have the courage to go and live that life and have the patience to see our paths through to the very end and it should be noted courage and patience are required in no small measure.
We should try to live a life that others will remember. We do this by living our lives well, by setting an example for others about making our time serve us and putting nature and circumstance to work for us.
When we do this, we will pass a life we will find worth remembering, too.
Garrison Keillor is an American writer.