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reetings from Australia.
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The name "sheela-na-gig" was
most likely derived from the Irish language. The two most common
translations are "Sile na gCioch" ("sheela of the
breasts") or "Sile-ina-Giob" ("sheela on her
hunkers"). In the Encyclopedia of Sacred Sexuality, Rufus
Camphausen notes
that in Mesopotamia the term "nu-gug" ("the pure and
immaculate ones") referred to the sacred temple harlots, and he
postulates that the name may somehow have had its origins there. Kathryn
Price Theatana
outlines an interesting etymological study of the name on her
website-- well worth a look. Source
Thereupon old Wainamoinen,
Only wise and true magician,
Cut three chips from trunks of alder,
Laid the chips in magic order,
Touched and turned them with his fingers,
Spake these words of master-magic:
"Of my Maker seek I knowledge,
Ask in hope and faith the answer
From the great magician, Ukko:
Tongue of alder, tell me truly,
Symbol of the great Creator,
Where the Sun and Moon are sleeping;
For the Moon shines not in season,
Nor appears the Sun at midday,
From their stations in the sky-vault.
Speak the truth, O magic alder,
Speak not words of man, nor hero,
Hither bring but truthful measures.
Let us form a sacred compact:
If thou speakest me a falsehood,
I will hurl thee to Manala,
Let the nether fires consume thee,
That thine evil signs may perish." Elias Lönnrot
(1802 - 1884); The Kalevala,
Rune XLIX, 'Restoration Of The Sun And Moon'.
Today commences the Celtic tree month of Fearn (Alder).
Cold and still my golden mother
Lies beneath the meadow, sleeping,
Hears my ancient songs no longer,
Cannot listen to my singing;
Only will the forest listen,
Sacred birches, sighing pine-trees,
Junipers endowed with kindness,
Alder-trees that love to bear me,
With the aspens and the willows. Elias Lönnrot; ibid, 'Epilogue'
Harry Houdini: pioneer aviator in Australia
My grandson, I will tell you; that flute is of
wood, – alder wood. That is an alder flute, but the wood is people's
bones. There were people long ago, and that alder wood grew out of their
bones. My grandson, would you like to have another young man with you, or
do you wish to be alone? I think it would be better for you to have
company. Waida Dikit Kiemila instructs Tsaroki Sakahl in creation; in Jermiah
Curtin; Creation Myths of Primitive America, 1898, 'Hawt'
It enters from outside with clothes; it is
undressed in the outer tent. — The alder tree. Chukchee riddle, Waldemar Bogoras; Chukchee Mythology, Leiden & New York, 1910
(Alder-bark is peeled off and used for tanning-purposes)
Before Christian times there was a
great alder forest in the island of Dagö, where the people used to make
sacrifices and hold festivals. WF Kirby; The Hero of Esthonia [The Kalevipoeg], 'The Church at Pühalepp',
London, 1895
When a woman first takes ill in her
confinement, unlock instantly every press and drawer in the house, but
when the child is born, lock them all up again at once, for if care is not
taken the fairies will get in and hide in the drawers and presses, to be
ready to steal away the little mortal baby when they get the opportunity,
and place some ugly, wizened changeling in the cradle beside the poor
mother. Therefore every key should be turned, every lock made fast; and
if the fairies are hidden inside, let them stay there until all danger is
over for the baby by the proper precautions being taken, such as a red
coal set, under the cradle, and a branch of mountain ash tied over it, or
of the alder-tree, according to the sex of the child, for both trees have
mystic virtues, probably because of the ancient superstition that the
first man was created from an alder-tree, and the first woman from the
mountain ash. Lady Francesca Speranza
Wilde; Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of
Ireland, 'Various
Superstitions and Cures', 1887
At Niederpöring, in Lower Bavaria, the
Whitsuntide representative of the tree-spirit—the Pfingstl as he was
called—was clad from top to toe in leaves and flowers. On his head he
wore a high pointed cap, the ends of which rested on his shoulders, only
two holes being left in it for his eyes. The cap was covered with
water-flowers and surmounted with a nosegay of peonies. The sleeves of his
coat were also made of water-plants, and the rest of his body was
enveloped in alder and hazel leaves. Sir James
George Frazer (1854 - 1941),
British folklorist; The
Golden Bough,
Ch. 28. 'The
Killing of the Tree-Spirit', 1922
Shortly after the gods had created the world
they walked by the side of the sea, pleased with their new work, but found
that it was still incomplete, for it was without human beings. They
therefore took an ash tree and made a man out of it, and they made a woman
out of an alder, and called the man Aske and the woman Embla. Odin then
gave them life and soul, Vili reason and motion, and Ve bestowed upon them
the senses, expressive features, and speech. Midgard was then given them
as their residence, and they became the progenitors of the human race. Bulfinch's
Mythology, CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Northern Mythology- Valhalla- The Valkyrior
To say that which
is untrue is a crime both in the sight of God and man. Not one of us has
betrayed his God or his country. I do confess my guilt, which consists in
having, to my shame and dishonor, suffered myself, through the pain of
torture and the fear of death, to give utterance to falsehoods imputing
scandalous sins and iniquities to an illustrious Order, which hath nobly
served the cause of Christianity. I disdain to seek a wretched and
disgraceful existence by engrafting another lie upon the original
falsehood. Last words of Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar,
burned at the stake on March 18, 1314, attrib.
The fact that fat oils from vegetable sources can be
used may seem insignificant today,but such oils may perhaps become in course of
time of the same importance as some natural mineral oils and the tar products
are now. Twelve years ago, the latter were not more developed than the fat oils
are today, and yet how important they have since become. One cannot predict what
part these oils will play in the Colonies in the future. In any case, they make
it certain that motor-power can still be produced from the heat of the sun,
which is always available for agricultural purposes, even when all our natural
stores of solid and liquid fuels are exhausted. Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the compression
ignition engine; in a presentation made to the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers (of Great Britain), March, 1912
Source (PDF file)
He followed the sheep up through gorse and
fern in the Kerry hills, and cut himself a rude flute of alder ... Marah Ellis Ryan; The Druid Path, 'The Dark Rose',
1917
You don't make a poem with ideas, but with
words.
Stéphane Mallarmé, French poet, born on March 18, 1842
There is only beauty – and it has
only one perfect expression – Poetry. All the rest is a lie –
except for those who live by the body, love, and, that love of the
mind, friendship … Stéphane Mallarmé
The pure work implies the
disappearance of the poet as speaker, who hands over to the words. Stéphane Mallarmé
Learn to live! Then there is no
death, save the transition, when desired. Many live who have never
died as yet. Edgar Cayce, American mystic, born on March 18, 1877
Quite
suddenly I come upon a Hall of Records. It is a hall without walls,
without ceiling, but I am conscious of seeing an old man who hands me
a large book, a record of the individual for whom I seek information. Edgar Cayce describing a
Near-Death Experience (NDE)Source
Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. Wilfred Owen, British war poet, born on March
18, 1893
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
– Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. Wilfred Owen, 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'
I read it and thought, "This is the worst piece of junk I've ever seen". Peter Graves, American actor, describing his first reaction to the
screenplay of Airplane!
(1980), the movie that revived his career
We would have to be complete dickheads to let
most of our famous Australian brands be taken over by foreign
companies. Brands such as Vegemite, Aeroplane Jelly, Arnott's, Speedo
and Redhead Matches are in overseas hands. This means the profit and
wealth created goes overseas and robs our children and grandchildren
of a future. Dick Smith, Australian adventurer and philanthropist, born on March
18, 1944
Sheelah's Day, Ireland, dedicated
to Sheelah-Na-Gig
(Sheela na Gig), Goddess of Fertility
The day following St Patrick's Day
is Sheelah's day. Some say
she was Patrick's wife (but the Catholic Church would surely not allow
this), some say his mother.
Traditionally, shamrocks are again displayed, although
last night the shamrock was 'drowned' in the last drink. At the turn of
the 20th Century, one sarcastic observer wrote that the
holiday's adherents "are not so anxious to determine who 'Sheelah'
was, as they are earnest in her celebration". He tells us that revellers
would take the shamrock they had been wearing since St Patrick's day,
the day before, plop it in the drink, and drown it in the last glass,
at the end of the night's drinking.
Sheelah is an old
Irish term for a slovenly or muddling woman, particularly an old one. In
Australia, with its very Irish background, the term 'sheila' is still
common slang for 'woman' (although culturally self-conscious, ie, rarely used these days
except jocularly and somewhat mockingly of old Aussie manners). Perhaps the day after St Patrick's obtained the name
without any reference to the calendar of saints.
'Sheelahs' or 'Sheela-na-gigs' are gargoyles on ancient Christian
churches, castles and other buildings in Ireland and throughout the British Isles. Stone carvings of
one persona of the Goddess, they show a woman, often with her legs open
and exposing her gaping vagina. On January 9, 1990, a sheela-na-gig was
stolen from Kiltinan Church, Lethard, Tipperary, Ireland.
"The motif was started
in France and Spain, moving later to Britain and then Ireland in the 12th
century. In support of this theory is the fact that almost all surviving
Sheelahs are in areas where the Anglo-Norman conquest was most keenly felt.
Those areas that remained more Irish have relatively few carvings."
Source
See also June 5 at the Book
of Days:Feast day of St
Gobnet, suggested by some to be Sheel-na-Gig
Like other Iron Age Europeans, the Celts were a polytheistic people prior to
their conversion to (Celtic) Christianity. The Celts
divided the year into 13 lunar cycles (months or moons). These were linked
to specific sacred trees which gave each moon its name.Today commences the Celtic
tree month of Alder.
"Alder was anciently renowned as the best wood for making whistles and pipes. As well as individual whistles, panpipe instruments using several shoots of Alder bound together in varying lengths were also crafted, these instruments were probably used by the Druids in rituals and ceremonies to invoke air elementals. Such was the reputed harmony of the music played on Alder pipes that the top most branches of the Alder tree became known as the
'oracular singing head' of the great Celtic god Bran. (Paterson 1996)
"The god Bran was renown [sic] as a beneficial, protective, oracular and generous deity who ruled his people well, becoming known as one of the guardians of ancient Britain. Alder was seen as possessing similar symbolic qualities to Bran and therefore became his totem tree. Such was the reverence held by the Celtic people towards Bran the early Christian church was obliged to sanctify him whereby he became know
[sic] as St. Brons or
'Bran the Blessed'.
"The legend of Bran tells us that when he was close to death he advised his men to cut off his head and carry it to London. Bran's head did not decay but instead remained alive and continued to advise its followers through prophetic song. His oracular head was eventually buried in the White Hill beneath the Tower of London.
"Bran's totem bird was the Raven, a solar and oracular symbol, a bird of wisdom and change, the Raven became one of Britain's most important totem creatures believed to be a guise for the White Goddess (Gifford 2000). Bran's oracular head prophesised that if the Raven was to ever leave the Tower of London then Britain would fall. In the rather dubious wisdom of our present times the wings of the Ravens at the Tower are clipped to prevent their departure.
"Other deities associated with Alder, ravens and oracular heads
include Cronos, one of the titans of Greek mythology, the Greek sun god
Apollo, the Celtic sun god Lugh, the Scandinavian god Odin and the
legendary King Arthur of Britain." Source:
Wood Dragon Arts
(This is the blank day in
this calendar, the one day of the year that is not ruled by a tree
and its corresponding Ogham
alphabet
character. Its name denotes the
quality of potential in all things.)
In ancient Latvia,
Bindus Diena was a
festival observed on the day after Kustonu Diena. It was later named Binduli
Diena, in honour of St Benedict,
and was associated primarily
with insects.
According to
tradition, everyone must be awake before the sunrise, and water
must not be poured inside barns. The backs of the cows, and the
barns' ceilings, must be washed. Bears were believed to wake up on
this day, but then fall back asleep. Bringing firewood in on this
day will bring snakes with you. Rushes, twigs and straw will also
attract snakes. Potatoes and cabbages cannot be planted on this
day.
Alternative: Binduli Diena, Benediktu Dienu, Bimbulu
Dienu
Invocation of Ashleygog
"Demon of chaos, plangency and satirical mischief. Be wary of blond strangers, watch for cloven footprints and resist the temptation of being consumed by your own anger."
Source
Festival of the god Mars, ancient Rome (Mar 1 - 19)
Festival of Hilaria, in honour of the Mother
of Gods, ancient Rome (Mar 15 - 27)
Jacques de Molay's Day
"The Last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, who underwent unspeakable torture by The Inquisition in order to extract heretical confessions against the Catholic Church. On March 18th, 1314 in Paris, De Molay heroically recanted his earlier confessions in public and was burned alive."
Source
Feast day of
St Edward
the Martyr, king of
the West Saxons
His flower: The Crown imperial, or Kaiser's Crown (Fritillaria
imperialis).
Edward (born c. 962), who was King of England at age 13, was killed on this
day at Corfe
Castle in 978 or
979
(see below)
at the behest of his
stepmother,
Ælfthryth
(Elfrida), second
wife of King Edgar of
England, so as to place her 10-year-old son Ethelred on the throne
as King Ethelred
II of England. Edward was popularly proclaimed a martyr.
He is recognized as a saint in the
Eastern Orthodox Church, the
Roman
Catholic Church, and the
Anglican
Communion.
Alban Butler (Lives of
the Saints) says his body was discovered by a pillar of light,
was buried in Wareham church, and worked miracles. Many miracles
were reported at the tomb of St Edward, including the healing of
lepers and the blind. Elfrida spent the
remainder of her days "in dismal horror". She obtained a kind of
armour made of crucifixes, wore it, did penance and built
monasteries, but died hated by the people. Edward was killed as he
took a drink. It is said that because of this the
populace would no longer drink without security from their companions,
whence the obsolete expression 'I pledge you', when one person
invites his companion to drink first. (More below in the history
section.)
For many years, the Tuesday night sessions
in his apartment on the rue de Rome were considered the heart of
Paris intellectual life, with WB Yeats, Rainer Maria
Rilke, Paul Valéry,
Stefan George,
Paul Verlaine,
and many more in attendance, as Mallarmé held court as judge,
jester, and king.
"The folk music of Russia, including
that of the Caucasus and Trans-Caucasus peoples, permeates
Rimsky's music. Striking instances of asymmetrical rhythms are
also derived from this source, foreshadowing the radical
experiments of Stravinsky, his most famous student."Source
1850James Matthew Toohey, Australian
brewer (named after Father Matthew, an advocate of temperance). His
family company was and is
Tooheys, one of
the largest brewers in Australia.
1857William
Henry Thomas McNamara (WH McNamara; WHT McNamara; Bill McNamara), radical orator
and owner of McNamara's Book and News Depot
at 221 Castlereagh St, Sydney, where many
radicals of the day met, including the poet Henry Lawson,
who married his step-daughter Bertha Bredt.
McNamara learned
journalism in Melbourne and was in Sydney by May,
1887. After a time
in Sydney, he went back to Melbourne, married
Bertha Bredt,
Sr, a
widow with two daughters (Bertha and Hilda), and, on his return in
1892, became Sydney's
most prominent radical bookseller.
On May 4, 1887,
McNamara and six others met as a socialist group and began taking
members. They held debates on Sundays, and out of these, and open-air
meetings, grew the foundation of the Australian Socialist League (ASL),
which met on Sunday evenings at 533½ George St, Sydney, with
McNamara, George
Black and Thomas
Walker as leaders. The ASL
reading rooms housed more than 220 foreign newspapers, many of them
radical. Contemporary anarchist Jack Andrews
preferred to call it the "Alleged Socialist League".
On August
27, someone showed the ASL leaders a copy of 25-year-old Bob
Winspear's newspaper, the Radical, which had been launched on
March 12, and McNamara decided to arrange with
Winspear to make it the official organ of the ASL. From August, 1888, it was called Australian
Radical. Winspear was a Modern Socialist – a follower of William
Morris – and the ASL was not. The newspaper finished up on September 28, 1889,
with recriminations flying between Winspear and the League. McNamara was angry
that Winspear published so many pieces by Andrews. The League itself fell to
pieces around that time, and the Australian Radical re-emerged even more
strongly in 1890. More
WHT McNamara's Book and News Depot
McNamara's
first bookshop, founded in
1892, was at 238 Castlereagh St, next door to the Labour
Bureau run by the American anarchist Larry Petrie, who bombed the Aramac.
Heat from the police forced the move to 221, next door to Leigh House
on one side, and on the other the Active
Service Brigade, urban unemployed workers organised by
John
Dwyer (1856 - 1934) and Arthur Desmond
during the 1890s Depression. The Brigade ran a soup kitchen, housed
the homeless and also disrupted Parliament and Protestant church
services. This south end of town was a densely populated working class district – some 30,000 of
inner Sydney's 100,000 population, according to
Statistical Register of New South Wales for 1894, p. 588 (source).*
The bookshop was a main
meeting place of 'the Castlereagh Street radicals'. Jack Lang,
Premier of New South Wales, wrote "It was in the early nineties
that I first heard of the plan [ie, William Lane's
New Australia utopian socialist community – PW] in McNamara's Bookshop. Quite a
number of those who frequented the shop were arguing whether it
could be a success. There was great social unrest in Sydney at the
time. We had been through the Big Strike. There was much
unemployment. There were runs on some of the banks. About 20,000
were without work in Sydney alone." (Lang, Jack, I Remember,
1956, Chapter Three, 'Australia's
Experiment in Communism'.)
Henry Lawson told his radical friends to mention
the Haymarket
Martyrs to McNamara's wife (Mathilde Emilie Bertha Bredt,
b. 1836) if they wanted a feed. He called it "the password for a
meal". The shop was demolished in
1922 by the Commonwealth
Government led by none other than Prime Minister William Morris
Hughes, a former habitué of McNamara's.
"By 1894, the radical litterateur
could choose between McNamara's Book and News Deport and the Active
Service Brigade's Reading Rooms a few doors opposite. Over in Pitt
Street, the Australian Socialist League ran a bookshop of its own,
while papers like the Democrat, the Dawn, the Workman
and the Worker were also depots for the dissemination of
radical literature ... McNamara's Lending Library, an adjunct to his
Bookshops, boasted 20,000 volumes. All could be hired out on a daily
or weekly basis, 6d for the most popular titles, 3d for the others
... Beyond Adelaide [the Georgists] relied on the Red Van: a wagon
laden with books, pamphlets and newspapers and driven by men with a
good deal more politics than horsesense. Generally such tours would
last several weeks, blazing a trail of literature across the South
Australian countryside. Only when supplies of oats and books ran
low, would the van return to the city, hastily refitting for another
campaign of leafleting.
"The Red Vans were British in origin;
even the slogans emblazoned across their side _ 'Free Men, Free
Land' _ were borrowed from the Land Nationalisation
Society." Source
* I presume this is
inner-city Sydney's population as the whole city's was about
400,000. "Sydney's population grew steadily after the city
was founded in 1788. Sydney had about 50,000 residents by the late
1840s; 100,000 by the mid-1860s; 500,000 around the turn of the
century; 1 million by the early 1920s ... The city had periods of
slower growth in the 1850s, when population was lost or diverted to
the Australian gold fields, and in the 1890s, when a combination of
drought and economic recession prevailed." Source:
Sydney/Population/Encarta
" ... by 1901, the Sydney metropolitan population was 481,830, (the city of Sydney itself being 112,137) and the population of NSW was approximately 1,400,000."
Source:
Board of Studies, NSW Government
The little boy growing up in Hopkinsville,
Kentucky, surprised his parents, in the
1880s, with his imaginary friends and his ability to see the auras of
others. In time, Edgar Cayce grew into probably the best known and
most influential psychic healer of the twentieth century.
A story persists that Cayce was illiterate,
but this is an urban legend. Although his formal schooling
went not much past grammar school, he was reasonably well read –
the Skeptic's Dictionary article
on him calls him a "voracious reader", though much of what he
read was "occult and osteopathic literature". As a boy,
Cayce saw a radiant figure while he read his Bible. The being asked
what wish he would like granted, and young Edgar replied that he
would like the ability to heal the sick.
At the age of 21, Cayce lost his voice and
had no satisfaction from the doctors who tried to cure him. A
hypnotist named Al Lane put him into a trance and told him to
diagnose his problem, and effect his own cure. Cayce followed Lane's
suggestions; after the session his voice had returned. Lane,
impressed, suggested that Cayce diagnose others this way. Despite
his initial reluctance, the man who became 'the sleeping
prophet' began 'readings' for others on
March 31, 1901. On
October
9, 1910, the New
York Timespublished an article,
'Illiterate Man Becomes A Doctor
When Hypnotized', and Cayce's career as a psychic and healer was
underway.
Cayce preferred not to meet his patients,
taking instead their name and address. He entered into a trance,
made a diagnosis, and recommended a treatment. His high success-rate
drew the attention ofthe
New York Times, and Edgar Cayce, the retiring psychic healer, became
a disinclined celebrity.
The sleeping prophet's work, as his
sobriquet implies, encompassed far more than healing, despite the
many thousands of readings he gave, including 360 on cancer. Cayce
also spoke of karma: he
saw our past lives as contributing to our current conditions. He
gave readings about the fabled lost continents of Atlantis and
Lemuria, and about his own past lives as Ra-Ta, an ancient Egyptian
priest, among others; he also claimed to have psychic access to the Akashic Records (records of all
knowledge).
Cayce's prognostications were often way off beam:
he predicted that 1933 would be a good year (when it was one of the
worst of the Great Depression), and that China would
convert to Christianity by 1968. In twelve months from June 1943, Cayce gave readings
at the rate of six a day, and he collapsed from exhaustion, dying on
January 3, 1945, aged sixty-seven.
Edgar Cayce attracted vilification and
adulation in equal measure, along with the fame he did not covet.
The sleeping prophet of Kentucky remains a mystery to this day.
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
[Owen quotes the Roman poet Horace:
"Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori" ("It is
sweet and proper to die for one's country") and calls these words
"the old Lie".]
1903e. o. plauen
(Erich Ohser; d. April 5, 1944),
German illustrator and progressive cartoonist. In 1944, after he was
apprehended by the
Gestapo, he committed suicide in his cell.
1940Dick Smith,
Australian businessman, adventurer, filmmaker, aviator, explorer
and philanthropist. He made a fortune in domestic electronics (Dick
Smith Electronics, similar to Tandy), and has given millions to
charity, frequently shaming his fellow millionaires publicly for
their greed.
Concerned by the massive loss of Australian
businesses to transnational corporations, he launched a range of
products, including many foodstuffs,
that are completely made and owned by Australians. When the famous
national icon, Redheads
matches, was sold to overseas interests, he launched a new brand
of wholly Australian-made and owned matches, and named them … Dickheads
(see animation near foot of this page).
Dick Smith is well known in his home
country not only for his business acumen and genuine patriotism, but
also for his philanthropy, his activities
in the Australian Skeptics Association, and for his sense of humour
and occasional hoaxing, such as the Sydney Harbour
iceberg hoax.
"His many accomplishments are listed
below within the field of giving and generosity ...
• First Trans-Tasman Balloon flight –
2000
• Founded Dick Smith Foods – 1999
• Chairman of the National Centenary of Federation Council –
1996-2000
• Appointed as Ambassador for the Council for Aboriginal
Reconciliation – 1998
• Chairman of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority Board –
1997-1999 and 1990-1992
• First non-stop balloon crossing of the Australian continent
– 1993
• Founded Australian Geographic in 1986 and returned the
Australian Encyclopedia [sic] to Australian ownership in 1987, sold to
Australian-owned John Fairfax Publication Pty Ltd – 1995, now
privately owned.
• First person to fly around the world via the poles in 1989 and
made the first helicopter flight to the North Pole in 1987
• Australian of the Year for 1987
• Made first solo helicopter flight around the world – 1983
• Founded Dick Smith Electronics 1968 and sold his interests to
Aussie-owned Woolworth's in 1982
• Awarded Baden Powell Award in 1996 after 14 years in the
scouting movement"Source
1959Irene
Cara, American singer and actress, who won an Academy Award, two Grammy Awards, a Golden
Globe Award, plus
numerous other awards
for her work with Fame
and Flashdance
Your family and friends will get a
kick when they hear their own name being sung in 'Happy Birthday'!! You can schedule your singing cards in advance, and even add your
own face to funny animations. (Pay cards)
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For a long time, there was
scheming by Edward's stepmother,
Ælfthryth
(Elfrida). When Edward went to visit her in Dorset (which shire he had given
her), Elfrida welcomed him and, while he was still on horseback, offered him a
cup with her own hand. While he drank from it, he was stabbed by one of the
queen's attendants, on her orders. Edward rode off towards the woods, but became
faint, and fell from the horse. His foot was entangled in the stirrup and his
corpse was dragged along. Next morning it was found in a hut which was so lit up
by a holy light that a blind woman could see it, whereupon the queen learned of
the miracle and was troubled, and again ordered the disposal of the body, this
time by burying it in a marshy place near
Wareham. A year after
the murder, however, a pillar of fire was seen over the place where the body was
hidden, lighting up the whole area. This was seen by some of the inhabitants of
Wareham, who disinterred the body. Immediately, a
spring of healing
water emerged in that place.. However, his body was reclaimed and
eventually interred at Shaftesbury by St Dunstan, on
June 20, 980. The monastic party, whom he represented,
made him a saint and martyr.
In 1001, it was recorded that the tomb in
which the saint lay was observed regularly to rise from the ground.
"In 1976, two Orthodox Christians
of the Orthodox Parish of St. Michael the Archangel, Guildford, Surrey,
England (Russian Orthodox Church Abroad)
made contact with Mr. J. Wilson-Claridge, an amateur archaeologist and the
owner of the wonder-working relics of Martyr-King Edward of England, who was
killed over a thousand years ago, on March 18/31, 979. Mr. Wilson-Claridge
was looking for a worthy reliquary for the relics of the king-martyr, and was
not satisfied by the offers to house them made by the Catholic and Anglican
Churches.
"In response to the offer of the
Orthodox Christians to give the English Orthodox king a worthy resting place,
Mr Wilson-Claridge decided to give his relics to the Russian Orthodox Church
Abroad (ROCA); and on September 3/16, 1984, they were formally accepted on
behalf of the ROCA by Bishop Gregory (Grabbe) of Washington and Eastern
America, and placed in a beautiful reliquary in the Orthodox Church of St.
Edward, Brookwood, near Guildford, Surrey, England.
"It may therefore be of interest
to Russian readers to learn of the life of this great saint of the
Anglo-Saxon Orthodox Church before the schism between the East and West,
whose relics have now become the possession of the Russian Church."Source
1584Ivan IV of Russia ('the
Terrible'; 1530 - '84), grand
prince of Moscow (1533 - '84),
Tsar
of Russia (1547
- '84), who
waged war with Sweden and Livonia, and who is noted for executing at least 3,000
noblemen and boyars, died in Moscow, Russia.
He was succeeded by his
feeble-minded son Fyodor I as 'Tsar of All the Russias'. Russia was then
governed by a regency council dominated by his brother-in-law
Boris Godunov
(c. 1551 -
1605).
Fyodor was to be the last tsar of the
Rurik Dynasty.
1662The first public bus service started in
Paris.
1718Belgrade,
London: Britain's first inoculation, for smallpox, was given by Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu (1689 - 1762)
to her infant son.
Lady Mary had herself contracted the disease in 1715 at the age of 26 and
wished to spare him the pain and disfigurement she had endured.
Lady Montagu, the celebrated letter writer, had seen in Turkey the custom of introducing smallpox by a needle into the veins, and she wrote "I am patriot enough to try to bring this useful invention into fashion in England".
The first patient, her son, did well, but almost the entire medical profession opposed inoculation, as did the clergy who considered it to be meddling in God's affairs. Lady Montague had to endure a great amount of personal strain from the opposition. However, the Princess of Wales became interested, and after having four condemned criminals (!) inoculated successfully, she had her own children exposed to the
'ingrafted' smallpox. As a result, the practice became fashionable.
Voltaire learned of the practice as it became popular throughout England, and was largely responsible for its introduction into France.
In 1796,
Edward Jenner announced the discovery of vaccination (from the Latin word for
'cow'), which used cowpox rather than smallpox to introduce into the patient. By 1840,
inoculation with smallpox was made illegal in Britain as vaccination was established.
1768 British author, the Reverend
Laurence Sterne (The
Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman) died, aged 54, in London. In 1741, on the Sunday
following his marriage to Elizabeth Lumley, Sterne had shocked his parishioners
by discoursing upon the fifth verse of the fifth chapter of Luke: "we have
toiled all the night, and have taken nothing".
More than 200,000
people turned out at the City Hall to see their newly elected officials, whose
names were read to great and festive acclaim, making this day a revolutionary
festival. The red flag, raised over all public buildings, is emblematic of the
Commune.
On April 2,
the government forces of the Versailles Army attacked the Commune, and the city
was constantly bombarded. The remaining Communards
were shot, against what is now known as the Communards'
Wall in the Père Lachaise
Cemetery while
thousands of others were marched to
Versailles for trials.
1910 American
magician,
escapologist and aviator, Harry Houdini,
flew a
heavier-than-air machine at Digger's Rest, near Melbourne, Australia. This was probably the first such
flight on the continent.
Footage of Houdini flying in
Australia, from YouTube
The magic of flight, he later wrote, was in the
"glorious thrill" of first adventure, and "not in minor modification which is perpetual in any art".
However, if 110 metres be considered a flight,
Colin Defries should get the honour.
On December 9 [qv],
1909, Defries arguably flew a
powered aircraft about 110 metres at Sydney's Victoria Park racecourse.
However, at the time
Defries's flight was disputed. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the aviator had successfully completed a short flight, while Sydney's
Daily Telegraph said that he had not left the ground. The Aerial League insisted that a controlled flight had not occurred.
In the five months before Houdini's success, Defries crashed on three attempts
to be the first, including once at Digger's Rest on March 1, 1910.
On the day before [qv]
Houdini's great successful attempt, Fred Custance allegedly made a short flight in South
Australia in an imported Bleriot aircraft, with a "very rough
landing", but the claim has long been disputed.
SIX MILES IN 7 minutes, 37
seconds (March 31)
Harry Houdini has fully established his claim to be
considered the first successful aviator in Australia. To his records he added,
on the morning of March 31st, a flight of about 6 miles, covered in 7 min. 37
sec., on his Voisin bi-plane, at Digger's Rest. The time was taken by Mr. W.
M. Marks, owner of the Sydney yacht "Culwalla II" (who had motored
up from town with Mr. John Dixon, "Sayorana's" owner), and was
checked by another stop-watch in the hands of a reporter of The
Argus. The performance far excels Houdini's previous flights, and
constitutes the Australian record.
Attempting
to reclaim music from what they labelled "filthy, capitalist" record
companies, a radical Madison, USA, newspaper called Kaleidoscope released
a 'bootleg' album.
Kaleidoscope's
album featured Beatles cuts excluded from the album Get Back/Let It Be
Sessions (Let It
Be) and
Bob
Dylan's Isle of Wight concert. It sold for three dollars and all profits went to
a local activist bail fund. The cover featured a photo of
John Sinclair, who
founded the White Panthers and was serving 10 years for handing two joints to an
undercover agent.
2002 "In response to a query that [Arnold]
Schwarzenegger received a facelift to look so good in his 50's, he answers, 'You are confusing me with Cher.'
(People Magazine.) It is readily apparent to anyone examining 'before and
after' pictures that Arnold has received plastic surgery on his
eyes, on his chin, and received a facelift."Source
2003"The
Cuban government launched a massive crackdown on peaceful dissidents,
independent journalists, human rights defenders, and independent labor
unionists, librarians, medical doctors, and teachers. Almost 90 democracy
advocates were detained in a matter of days, their houses thoroughly searched,
and many of their belongings confiscated.
"Over the following three weeks, 75 of those
arrested were tried, convicted and sent to prison with sentences ranging from 6
to 28 years. The government accused the democracy advocates of attempting to
subvert state authority, of spying for the United States and other governments,
and of reporting lies to the foreign press about the Cuban economy. The trials
fell far short of international human rights standards. Judges and prosecutors
in Cuba are not independent, but operate under direct government control.
International observers were barred from the proceedings. Defense lawyers were
not given an adequate opportunity to prepare their client's defense. They were
granted access to court files less than 24 hours before trial, and, in most
cases, they did not see their clients until an hour before court proceedings
began."Source
reetings from Australia.
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Sheelah's Day, Ireland, dedicated
to
Sheelah-Na-Gig
(Sheela na Gig), Goddess of Fertility
Celtic tree
month of Fearn (Alder) commences (Mar 18 - Apr 14)
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