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To all mayors, sheriff's, constables, and other head officers within the county of Middlesex. After our hearty commendations, whereas we are informed that one John Seconton, poulter, dwelling within the parish of St. Clement's Danes, being a poor man, having four small children, and fallen into decay, is licensed to have and use some plays and games at or upon several Sundays, for his better relief, comfort, and sustentation, within the county of Middlesex, to commence and begin at and from the 22nd of May next coming, after the date hereof, and not to remain in one place not above three several Sundays; and we considering that great resort of people is like to come thereunto, we will and require of you, as well for good order as also for the preservation of the Queen's Majesty's peace, that you take with you four or five of the discreet and substantial men within your office or liberties where the games shall be put in practice, then and there to foresee and do your endeavour to your best in that behalf, during the continuance of the games or plays, which games are hereafter severally mentioned; that is to say, the shooting with the standard, the shooting with the broad arrow, the shooting at twelve score prick, the shooting at the Turk, the leaping for men, the running for men, the wrestling, the throwing of the sledge, and the pitching of the bar, with all such other games as have at any time heretofore or now be licensed, used, or played. Given the 26th day of April, in the eleventh year of the Queen's Majesty's reign. Queen Elizabeth I; licence issued April 26, 1569
Chernobyl area, taken from the Russian Mir spacecraft in
1997
Each generation takes the Earth as
trustees. We ought to bequeath to posterity as many forests and
orchards as we have exhausted and consumed. J Sterling Morton, founder of Arbor Day, USA
Beauty in things exists in the mind which
contemplates them. David Hume, Scottish
philosopher and historian, born on April 26, 1711; Essays, 'Of Tragedy'
Question: At what age to take children into your mills?
Robert Owen: At ten and upwards.
Question: Why do you not employ children at an earlier age?
Robert Owen: Because I consider it to be injurious to the children, and not beneficial to the proprietors.
Question: What reasons have you to suppose it is injurious to the children to be employed at an earlier age?
Robert Owen: Seventeen years ago, a number of individuals, with myself, purchased the
New Lanark establishment from Mr. Dale. I found that there were 500 children, who had been taken from poor-houses, chiefly in Edinburgh, and those children were generally from the age of five and six, to seven to eight. The hours at that time were thirteen. Although these children were well fed their limbs were very generally deformed, their growth was stunted, and although one of the best schoolmasters was engaged to instruct these children regularly every night, in general they made very slow progress, even in learning the common alphabet. I came to the conclusion that the children were injured by being taken into the mills at this early age, and employed for so many hours; therefore, as soon as I had it in my power, I adopted regulations to put an end to a system which appeared to me to be so injurious.
Question: Do you give instruction to any part of your population?
Robert Owen: Yes. To the children from three years old upwards, and to every other part of the population that choose to receive it.
Question: If you do not employ children under ten, what would you do with them?
Robert Owen: Instruct them, and give them exercise.
Question: Would not there be a danger of their acquiring, by that time, vicious habits, for want of regular occupation?
Robert Owen: My own experiences leads me to say, that I found quite the reverse, that their habits have been good in proportion to the extent of their instruction.
On April 26, 1816, Robert Owen
(1771 - 1858), Welsh-born philanthropic social reformer, pioneer of the
cooperative movement,
founder of New
Lanark and New
Harmony communities, appeared before Sir Robert
Peel's House of
Commons Committee, UKSource
Men talk about Bible miracles because there is no
miracle in their lives. Cease to gnaw that crust. There is ripe fruit over your
head. Henry David Thoreau, who moved into
Ralph Waldo Emerson's home, April 26, 1841
Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not
only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have even lived a more simple
and meagre life than the poor. Henry David Thoreau
To regret deeply is to live afresh. Henry David Thoreau
The world is but a canvas to the imagination. Henry David Thoreau
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. Henry David Thoreau
Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around. Henry David Thoreau
I do not wish to kill nor to be killed, but I can foresee circumstances in which
these things would be by me unavoidable. Henry David Thoreau
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where
they should be. Now put foundations under them. Henry David Thoreau
It takes two to speak truth – One to
speak, and another to hear. Henry David Thoreau
I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances
confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life
which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Henry David Thoreau
Many go fishing all their
lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. Henry David Thoreau
There's no such thing as a bad
Picasso, but some are less good than others. Pablo Picasso, one of
whose paintings sold on April 26, 1967 for a record US$532,000
(Also
known as Hoke-tide. In the 15th and 16th
centuries, in London it was called Hob-tide.) In the English
tradition, Hocktide is the Monday and Tuesday following the second Sunday
after Easter (Low
Sunday), though the Tuesday is considered the main day. ('Tide'
is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'time, period or season', and is
obsolescent, if not obsolete, in most senses except when referring to the
oceans' rise and fall.)
Long before the Industrial
Revolution when people became ensnared in the long working week that still
prevails for the benefit of our idle masters, work was hard but feast days
were plenty. Weekends, as yet uninvented, would never have been enough for
our forebears. As one sees each day in the Almy, scarcely a week –
scarcely three days – went by in medieval Europe without a holiday with
feasting and frolicking. (There are still societies today clinging to such
lifestyles in defiance of globalization's juggernaut, but they are
labelled 'primitive'.)
Hocktide was for our Western
ancestors such a day of high festivity and pranks. The best known of
these was 'ransoming'.
On the Monday, men would go out and about and capture women, binding
them with cords and holding them for small ransoms, which was usually
given to church restoration funds or charity (though a kiss was often accepted). There was equality in these fun and games, however – on the Tuesday
the women could take their revenge on the men in the same way. The
meaning of the word is unknown, but the custom can be traced back to
the 13th century. In 1450 a bishop of Worcester inhibited
these 'Hoctyde' practices. It prevailed in all parts of
England, but pretty much died out early in the 1700s.
You can't keep a
good prank down, though, and although not nearly so widespread as
before, ransoming is still played in some places at Hocktide. One of the places to keep the tradition alive is Hungerford,
where another custom is to grab any dignitaries attending the Hocktide
feast and for a blacksmith to put horseshoes on their feet.
It may be that these games evolved to commemorate the
dreadful massacre of thousands of Danes (Vikings) on St
Brice's Day, November
13, 1002, the 1,000-year anniversary
of which passed in recent years without war between
England and Denmark. (King Aethelred Unraed
[Ethelred II; Æthelred II; Ethelred the Unready, or 'ill-advised'] ordered
"to be slain all the Danish people who were in England ..." [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle CDE].)
For it is
fully agreed that to all dwelling in this country it will be well known
that, since a decree was sent out by me with the counsel of my leading
men and magnates, to the effect that all the Danes who had sprung up in
this island, sprouting like cockle amongst the wheat, were to be
destroyed by a most just extermination, and thus this decree was to be
put into effect even as far as death, those Danes who dwelt in the
afore-mentioned town, striving to escape death, entered this sanctuary
of Christ, having broken by force the doors and bolts, and resolved to
make refuge and defence for themselves therein against the people of the
town and the suburbs; but when all the people in pursuit strove, forced
by necessity, to drive them out, and could not, they set fire to the
planks and burnt, as it seems, this church with its ornaments and its
books. Afterwards, with God's aid, it was renewed by me.
From a royal charter by King Aethelred Unraed(968 - 1016)
On the Feast of St
Brice (successor to St Martin of
Tours), the Anglo-Saxon people rose up and massacred all the Danish
people living in England (mostly merchants and mercenaries), under whose
Danelaw
the Anglo-Saxon people were required to live. It is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for the year
1002 that on St Brice's Day the Danish
community in Oxford, fearing for their lives, took refuge in St Frideswide's, the minster church of the
female
saint who founded Oxford (Cardinal
Wolsey later transformed her monastery into Christ Church College, and
King Henry XIII made her church into Oxford
cathedral). The townspeople burnt down the church building with
considerable loss of life. Among those said to have been murdered were
Gunnhild (Gunhilda), sister of King
Sweyn I ('Forkbeard') of Denmark(circa 965 - February 3, 1014; father of King Canute
the Great, 994/995-1035), her husband and their son.
This act of carnage, ordered by King Æthelred II ('the Unready') so outraged the Vikings
that it led to a full scale invasion by them the following year. Æthelred's
anger derived from the factthat
he was paying protection money – Danegeld
– to Danish warriors or Vikings, who were
becoming, as he saw it, much too greedy in their demands. Both king and
subjects became exasperated with the financial burden imposed on them.
This year the king and his council agreed that tribute
should be given to the fleet, and peace made with them, with the
provision that they should desist from their mischief. Then sent the
king to the fleet Alderman Leofsy, who at the king's word and his
council made peace with them, on condition that they received food
and tribute; which they accepted, and a tribute was paid of 24,000
pounds. In the meantime Alderman Leofsy slew Eafy, high-steward of
the king; and the king banished him from the land. Then, in the same
Lent, came the Lady Elfgive Emma, Richard's daughter, to this land.
And in the same summer died Archbishop Eadulf; and also, in the same
year the king gave an order to slay all the Danes that were in
England. This was accordingly done on the mass-day of St Brice;
because it was told the king, that they would beshrew him of his
life, and afterwards all his council, and then have his kingdom
without any resistance.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
1002
Aethelred penny from around the year 1000 CE,
with a legend that reads ÆTHELRED REX ANGLO[RUM]
(Æthelred, King of the English)
Regrettably,
President Æthelred, his Defence Department and his Office of Homeland
Security had a pre-modern, limited apprehension of human nature, and did
not foresee that their action would incense the Danes, who returned to
England in 1003 to exact cruel revenge.
Understandably, perhaps, for most of the next decade King Sweyn extracted
'blood-money' for the death of his sister and nephew – he took
36,000 pounds in tribute in 1005, 3,000 pounds in 1009, and 48,000 pounds
in 1012.
[John
of Wallingford suggests that the Vikings had to be killed because they
combed their hair daily, bathed every Saturday and regularly changed their
clothes – helping to undermine the
virtue of married women and even seduce the daughters of nobles and make
them their mistresses.
As another wayward point of
interest, Æthelred, according to William of Malmesbury, as a child
defecated in the baptismal
font
leading St Dunstan to prophesy that the English
monarchy would be overthrown during Æthelred's reign; King Sweyn's reign fulfilled the prophecy.]
It is widely held that Hocktide games in England commemorated the Anglo-Saxon's inhumane slaughter on that
cruel day ...
Other theories of the
origins: Read on at the Hocktide page at
the Scriptorium
Feast day of St Paschasius
Radbert, abbot of Corwei, in Saxony
Radbertus Paschasius or St Paschasius (c.790 - 865),
FrenchBenedictinetheologian
and saint,
was born at or near Soissons
towards the close of the 8th
century. He has been indicted as a forger, someone behind the Pseudo-Isidore
forgeries. He lived for a time at the monastery of St Richarius (see
below).
From Wikipedia:
The Old Permic script, sometimes called Abur, is an original
ancient Permicwriting
system introduced by a Russian
missionary Stepan Khrap, also known as St Stephen
of Perm (Степан
Храп, св.
Стефан
Пермский) in 1372.
The name Abur is derived from the names of the first two
characters An and Bur. The alphabet derived from Cyrillic
and Greek,
and Komi
tribal signs, the latter being similar in the appearance to runes
or siglas
poveiras, because they were created by incisions, rather than
by usual writing.
The alphabet was in use until the 17th
Century, when it was superseded by the Cyrillic
alphabet.
April 26, which is the saint's day of
Stephen of Perm, is celebrated as Old Permic Alphabet Day.
Feast day of St Richarius
(Riquier; Ricardus) (Yellow erysemum, Erysemum
barbarea, is
today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
St Richarius (d. 643)
is a Christiansaint
of France
who was a founder of a monastery.
When he was in advanced age, Richarius made a shelter in the forest
of Crécy,
fifteen miles from his monastery. He lived there alone with his
disciple Sigobart.
"Originated in 1983, by then-U.S.
Representative Robert Walker (R, Pennsylvania), 'Pretzel Day'
was introduced to Congress as a means of recognizing the
invaluable contributions of the numerous pretzel bakeries within
Pennsylvania and their impact on the nation's economy."
Source
"Coming up with all these commemorative
days was costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in
printing costs, and wasting a third of the floor time in the
House. (Although you might argue that's good, because it keeps
them from doing worse things.)
"So seven years ago, the House changed
its rules to ban new ones.
"Did that stop the waste? Of course not!
Now lawmakers just suspend the rules and do it anyway." Source
Wikipedia says: A pretzel is a baked snack
that is ordinarily twisted into a unique knot-like
shape. The pretzel is usually made from wheat
flour with yeast; the dough is briefly dipped in lye water
before baking, and usually (though not always) salted.
Sources differ as to the time and place of the
pretzel's origin. Many sources say it originated in southern Germany
(where it remains very popular and is known as Brezel);
others say it comes from the French region of Alsace
on the border between France and Germany.
Some say it originated in Medieval
times, others that it dates back to Ancient Rome or even Celtic
times.
There are also several stories about the origin of
the pretzel shape. One legend holds that a baker
accused of larceny was offered the opportunity to cancel
his sentence if he could make a bread
through which the sun could be seen thrice; the ingenious baker
twisted his dough into a pretzel before baking. Another common
story says that the shape represents the position of arms of a monk in
prayer. Another story says that the three holes represent the ChristianHoly Trinity. A sign with three rings was
an old symbol to mark a bakery in Germany, but sources differ as to
if the signs were made to imitate the pretzel or the pretel was made
to imitate the signs. However, stories told of the pretzel are
likely apochryphal, and the actual origin of the pretzel seems to be
a mystery.
"Also known as 'power gum', mesir
paste is a blend of 41 different spices. As its name implies, it is
intended as a general cure-all and tonic, and was invented by Hafsa
Haftun, the wife of an Ottoman sultan, as a medicine for the masses.
"Although
its somewhat incongruous nature may have meant that it took a while
to catch on, Manisa locals are now so thankful for her invention
that they fling it from the minaret of the Sultan Mosque once a
year.
"Exactly what these antics are supposed to cure remains something of
a mystery, but the event itself also includes plenty of craft
exhibitions, concerts and sporting tournaments if you aren't
convinced by the miracle gum."Source
Universal Ordination
Day (Discordian
Calendar)
Today, Discordians commemorate the Ordination of the Universe by
passing out as many Authorized and Authentic All-Purpose Discordian
Society Ordination Certificates as possible. It marks the day (April
26, 1990) on which Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst (under his alias of
Kerry
Thornley) became an ordained Minister of the Universal Life
Church upon his completion of 52 years and 11 days of studying the
universe. Use of Ordination Certificates is outlined in Principia
Discordia.
"On April 26th
of 1990 the entire cosmos -- people, stars, space rubbish and
all -- became an ordained minister and so anyone or anything is
now legally qualified in most states to get drunk at weddings
and giggle at funerals, spit holy water, christen puppies and
preach salvation by fire and brimstone.
Only an ordained minister, however, can see how this is
possible.
"So, on Universal Ordination Day we commemorate the Ordination
of the Universe by passing out as many Authorized and Authentic
All-Purpose Discordian Society Ordination Certificates as
possible."
Source: Discordian Holydays
"Today is the
43th Day (Sweetmorn) of the Season of Discord (the second season
in the Discordian Year) in this, the YOLD 3174, Universal
Ordination Day. The Universal
Life Church will ordain anyone, for free, without any
specific requirements about faith." Source
"An ORDAINED POEE
PRIEST or PRIESTESS is defined as 'one who holds an Ordination
Certificate from the Office of the Polyfather.'"
Source: Principia Discordia
World
Intellectual Property Day World Intellectual Property Day has been observed each year on
April 26 since 2001.
This event was set up by the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), to "raise
awareness of the role of intellectual
property in our daily lives, and to celebrate the contribution
made by innovators
and artists
to the development of societies across the globe" (source).
April 26 was chosen since this was the date on which the Convention
Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization entered
into force in 1970.
Stoicismisa philosophy named
after the Stoa Poikile, a hall in Athens where it was first
formulated around 300 BCE by
Zenon of Citium. According to Stoic
ethics, the goal of human existence is to live consistently with
Nature, which means 'consistently with Reason'.
Audubon overcame the loss of two hundred drawings,
featuring more than 1,000 subjects, but in
1830 he published his
first volume, with 99 birds, life-sized and in colour, and the kings
of England and France subscribed. Audubon was made a Fellow of the
Natural History Society of Paris.
In
1834, the
second volume of American birds was published. He painted 1,165
birds, from the hummingbird to the eagle.
The US
government gave him the use of an exploring vessel. "His
description of a hurricane proves that he never ceased to be a
careful and accurate observer in the most agitating
circumstances".
1798Eugène Delacroix, French painter (d. 1863); most
famous work is Liberty on the Barricades, (Louvre, Paris),
which reveals his sympathy with the French Revolution
1822Frederick Law Olmsted, one of America's first prominent landscape
architects (designed Central Park and landscaped the American
Capitol) and author (A Journey through Texas, 1857).
In 'The Bully's'
earlier years, he once spent thirteen weeks in prison for libel (the
public raised £3,000 and he was released). He was
later editor of the Newsletter, which in
1906attacked
fellow parliamentarian and Truth
publisher, John
Norton as a criminal and murderer. In parliament and through the
courts, he also pursued the corrupt NSW politicians William
Patrick Crick (Haynes
knocked him down in a fight in
1893) and William
Nicholas Willis, the latter all the way to South Africa.
From Wikipedia:
In 1891,
when the newly-founded Liberal
Party came to power, the new Prime Minister, John
Ballance, appointed Ward to the position of Postmaster
General. Later, when Richard
Seddon became Prime Minister after Ballance's death, Ward became
Treasurer (Minister
of Finance). Ward's basic political outlook was that the state
existed to support and promote private enterprise, and his conduct
as Treasuer reflects this.
Ward's increasing occupation with
government affairs led to neglect of his own business interests,
however, and Ward's personal finances began to deteriorate. In 1896,
a judge declared Ward "hopelessly insolvent". This placed
Ward, as Treasurer, in a politically difficult situation, and he was
forced to resign his portfolios on June
16. In 1897,
he was forced to file for bankruptcy, which legally obliged him to
resign his seat in Parliament. A loophole, however, meant that there
was nothing to stop him simply contesting it again — he did so,
and was elected with an increased majority. Ward actually gained
considerable popularity as a result of his financial troubles —
Ward was widely seen as a great benefactor of the Southland region,
and public perceptions were that he was being persecuted by his
enemies over an honest mistake.
"If there
was no promise of work ahead of the Lawsons, there was plenty of
scandal to boggle at on their arrival at Wellington on 9 April. As
soon as the Anglian touched the wharf, the police came aboard
and arrested one of the passengers on a warrant for breaking and
entering. The misfortunes of the Hon. Joseph G. Ward, 'late'
colonial treasurer, and the penurious J. G. Ward Farmers'
Association were on every tongue. Press reports from Dunedin
informed Wellington that Ward was in debt for a trifling £55,000 or
more – which debt a compatriot of Invercargill was prepared to buy for
£8500." Roderick, Colin, Henry
Lawson: a life, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1991, p 173
(The Australian poet and
author Henry
Lawson and his wife Bertha disembarked at Wellington, NZ, from
the SS Anglian on April
9, 1897.)
He committed suicide at
Lestelle-Bétharram (Basses-Pyrenées), France,
to prevent his capture by the Nazis.
A plaque in the Boel-Bezing cemetery
(Atlantic Pyrenees) remarks on his fight for freedom in Spain:
"Where the Column advances, one
collectivizes. The land is given to the community, the agricultural
proletarians, slaves of caciques which they were, metamorphose
themselves as free men.
"One passes from agrarian feudalism to free
Communism."
1898Vicente Aleixandre
(d. 1984), Spanish poet (Destruction or Love; History of
the Heart; Poems of Consummation) whose works were banned
during the Spanish Civil War; awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature, 1977, "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates
man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the
same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of
Spanish poetry between the wars"
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1564William Shakespeare
(1564 - 1616) was baptized in the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon;
from this, his
birth date is generally reckoned as April 23, which was
also his date of death.
1655 American colonies: The
Dutch West India Co. refused to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam.
1812England: Luddite problem. Thousands of
strangers appeared in Manchester, and the local militia was called out; most
strangers had disappeared by April 28.
Booth was surrounded at Garrett's
Tobacco Farm, and set fire to the barn in which he was hiding. Instead of the
fire distracting the federal troops, it destroyed his cover and one of the
soldiers, Sergeant Corbett shot him dead. Booth died looking at his hands
muttering "Useless ...".
Corbett was a religious fanatic who
had castrated himself with a bayonet to be free of sin; years later he took his
own life.
1867
Australia: The bushrangers known as the Clarke
Brothers were ambushed in a hut by police. They were tried and found guilty
of murder and hanged on June
25, 1867.
1874
Birth of the word 'impressionist' – French art critic
Louis Leroy used the term to
lampoon the avant garde artists on show in Paris.
1877
USA: Minnesota declared a Day of Prayer for deliverance from the grasshopper.
1897As reported in the Houston
Daily Post of April
28, at Merkal, Texas, people returning from church
followed a heavy object dragging along the ground. When they caught up with it,
they found it to be an anchor hanging from an airship. A small man in a blue
sailor suit came into view; he cut the ropes and left the anchor, which the
townsfolk exhibited in the local blacksmith shop.
1897
"Aquila-Hillsboro (Texas). Approximate
date. A lawyer was surprised to see a lighted object fly over. His horse was
scared and nearly toppled the carriage. When the main light was turned off, a
number of smaller lights became visible on the underside of the dark object,
which supported an elongated canopy. It went down toward a hill to the south, 5
km from Aquila. When the witness was on his way back one hour later he saw the
object rising. It reached the altitude of the cloud ceiling and flew to the
northeast at a fantastic speed with periodic flashes of light."Source
1902 USA Congress passed the second
Chinese Exclusion Act, making it
unlawful for Chinese labourers to enter the USA for the next 10 years and denying
naturalized citizenship to the Chinese already there. It extended the Chinese
Exclusion Act of 1882 another 10 years; in 1904 the act was extended indefinitely.
Thirty-one
people were killed directly by the incident and many thousands (by some
estimates, hundreds of thousands) more were exposed to significant amounts of radioactive
material, despite the evacuation of about 100,000 people.
Is Chernobyl the 'wormwood' of the Book of
the Revelation?
"'And
the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as
it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the
fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the
third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters,
because they were made bitter.'Revelation
8:10-11.
"The
book of Revelation describes cataclysmic events that are to happen in the
endtime. Part of these events are signaled by the blowing of seven trumpets by
seven angels. At the sounding of the third trumpet in chapter 8, a great star
called Wormwood was cast into the earth.
"The
world's worst ever nuclear meltdown occurred in 1986 at Chernobyl in
Ukraine, at that time one of the states of the Soviet Union. Incredibly,
Chernobyl is the Russian word for wormwood! It appears that the Chernobyl
catastrophe was the fulfillment of the sounding of the third trumpet of
Revelation 8!"
Googling
for 'chernobyl revelation wormwood' brings up 900 or so web pages, many of
them saying this or something similar. Is this correct? Does 'Chernobyl'
actually translate to 'wormwood' in Russian? No. It translates to 'mugwort'.
From Wikipedia: The city is named after the chornobyl'
grass, or mugwort.
The word itself is a combination of chornyi (чорний,
black) and byllia (билля, grass
blades or stalks), hence it literally means black grass
or black stalks.
Sometimes
it is erroneously translated as wormwood (Artemisia
absinthium), with consequent apocalyptic associations, probably originating
from a New York Times article by Serge
Schmemann, 'Chernobyl Fallout: Apocalyptic Tale', July 25, 1986.
There, an unnamed "prominent Russian writer" was quoted as claming
the Ukrainian word for wormwood was chernobyl.
Actually,
the Ukrainian Чорнобиль
(chornobyl) and its Russian equivalent
Чернобыльник
(chernobylnik) refer to the plant mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris). Wormwood is a different
plant, Artemisia absinthium,
Полин in Ukrainian and
Полынь in Russian (both pronounced Polyn).
'Polyn' has no English equivalent, but corresponds to the botanical
genus Artemisia. Botanically, mugwort is "Common Polyn" (Ukr.
Полин
звичайний / Rus.
Полынь
Обыкновенная);
while wormwood is "Bitter Polyn" (Ukr.
Полин гіркий
/ Rus. Полынь
горькая).
Chornobyl bears poetic connotations in folklore,
for a number of reasons. Various species of Artemisia are common in the steppes, and its
strong smell is often a token of that region. Also, chornobyl roots were used in folk
medicine to heal neurotic conditions, but its overdose
could lead to psychical distress, including memory loss.
Ambrosia artemisiaefolia
Rag Weed, Roman Wormwood, Bitter Weed, Hog Weed Description: Natural Order, Compositae. Stem one to three feet high, slender, pale- green, pubescent when young, branched; leaves twice pinnatifid, nearly smooth, light-green; flowers small, green, sterile ones in terminal racemes, fertile in the axils of upper leaves. A somewhat common nuisance along roads, in meadows, and through fields everywhere. Properties and Uses: The leaves are stimulating and astringing, bitter, and permanent in action. An infusion is useful in diarrhea and dysentery of a passive character; in uterine, gastric, and pulmonic hemorrhages; and in degenerate leucorrhea as an injection and drink. It is also a valuable local styptic; and may be applied to bleeding surfaces, as in piles, epistaxis, wounds, etc., either in powder or infusion. A use of a strong decoction influences the kidneys considerably, sustains the tone of the stomach, and slowly elevates the circulation; and these actions render it useful in the treatment of chronic dropsies, especially when combined with hepatics and stimulating diaphoretics. A very strong decoction, used freely, is reputed among the people in some sections to be a reliable antiperiodic; and many of the actions of the agent certainly suggest properties analogous to cinchona. It is said to be useful in poultices to phagedaenic ulcers– checking putrescence; and I do not doubt but such is the case. The article is too much overlooked by the profession.
Ambrosia Trifida is probably similar in properties to the above species. Pharmaceutical Preparations: I. Infusion. Macerate an ounce of ambrosia and one drachm of zingiber in a quart of hot water. Dose, one to two fluid ounces every two, three, or four hours, pro re nata. II. Compound decoction. Ambrosia, four ounces; fraxinus acuminata, two ounces; liatris spicata, two ounces. Macerate in four pints of water, strain and reduce to two pints. Dose, a fluid ounce four or five times a day. Useful in dropsies, in conjunction with baths, and with physic if the case should need it. The same article may be formed into a sirup in the usual manner.
William Cook, MD, The
Physiomedical Dispensatory, 1869
1987 Jan Murray, wife of the Australian Federal Minister for Sports
and Tourism, John
Brown, revealed on TV's 60 Minutes that she and her husband once
had sex on his desk in Parliament
House, Canberra.
1989
Shaturia, Bangladesh: 1,300 people died and 500 were left homeless in a storm
and the world's deadliest tornado.
1991
Seventy tornadoes broke out in the central United States. By its end, Andover,
Kansas recorded the year's only F5 Tornado
tornado and 17 people perished.
2005
Under international pressure, Syria
withdrew the last of its 14,000 troop military
garrison in
Lebanon, ending its 29-year
military domination of that country.
Tomorrow: Mary Wollstonecraft, English pioneer feminist
reetings from Australia.
How it works
On the Monday, men would go out and about and capture women, binding
them with cords and holding them for small ransoms, which was usually
given to church restoration funds or charity (though a kiss was often accepted). There was equality in these fun and games, however – on the Tuesday
the women could take their revenge on the men in the same way. The
meaning of the word is unknown, but the custom can be traced back to
the 13th century. In 1450 a bishop of Worcester inhibited
these 'Hoctyde' practices. It prevailed in all parts of
England, but pretty much died out early in the 1700s. 
On the Feast of St
Brice (successor to St Martin of
Tours), the Anglo-Saxon people rose up and massacred all the Danish
people living in England (mostly merchants and mercenaries), under whose
Danelaw
the Anglo-Saxon people were required to live. It is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for the year
1002 that on St Brice's Day the Danish
community in Oxford, fearing for their lives, took refuge in St Frideswide's, the minster church of the
female
saint who founded Oxford (Cardinal
Wolsey later transformed her monastery into Christ Church College, and
King Henry XIII made her church into Oxford
cathedral). The townspeople burnt down the church building with
considerable loss of life. Among those said to have been murdered were
Gunnhild (Gunhilda), sister of King
Sweyn I ('Forkbeard') of Denmark (circa 965 - February 3, 1014; father of King Canute
the Great, 994/995-1035), her husband and their son.
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