On Welcoming March 2015

Why? Because everybody knows that one can count on John Phillips Sousa for a good march.

March in other languages includes Marzo (Italian), mars (Albanian), Hlyd-monath (Anglo Saxon), mart (Armenian), br’ezen (Czech), Marts (Danish), and dawa-ssumpa (Tibetian) … so feel free to contribute others

March was named for Mars, the Roman god of war, who was also the guardian of agriculture

The name of March comes from Latin Martius, the first month of the earliest Roman calendar

Martius was the beginning of the season for both farming and warfare, so and festivals held in his honor during the month were mirrored by other festivals in October, which closed the season for farming and warfare

March in the northern hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent to September in the southern hemisphere

March starts the same day of the week as November every year, and February – but only in common years

March ends on the same day of the week as June every year

Because this is 2015 (preceding a leap year), March 2016 will start on the same day as September and December 2015. However, March 2015 ends on the same day of the week as May 2016

March’s birth flowers are the daffodil and jonquils

March’s birthstones, which symbolize courage, are aquamarine and bloodstone

March’s Zodiac signs are Pisces (until March 20) and Aries (March 21 and thereafter)

Full Moon on March 5th (6:05 pm UTC), and the New Moon displays on March 20th (9:36 am UTC)

March moon are called Crow Moon, Lenten Moon, Sap Moon, Seed Moon, and Worm Moon

Solar Eclipse on March 20 with the total eclipse of the sun being visible in Ireland, Europe, northern Africa, Europe, and Asia

The March equinox on the 20th at 10:46 pm UTC, which means sometime March 21st for many of the world … thus the day marking the transitions of winter to spring or summer to autumn

March has national celebrations in Australia, Bangladesh, Gibraltar, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, and South Korea

March 1st celebrations include Compliment Day, Daughters & Sons Day, Black Women in Jazz & the Arts Day, Wear Yellow Day (Endometriosis Day), Go Bowling Day, Horse Protection Day, Fruit Compote Day, Peanut Lovers Day, Pig Day, Plan a Solo Vacation Day, Refired not Retired Day, Seals Day, Self-Injury Awareness Day, Share a Smile Day, Zero Discrimination Day, Namesake Day (mine is after my Dad’s Army buddy from SF – we went sometime in the 1990s)

March promotes adopting a rescued guinea pig, expanding girls’ horizons in science & engineering, women’s health, dietetic nutrition, cheerleading safety, color therapy, eye donors, literacy, social work, women’s history, fire prevention, transgender healthcare equality, singing with your child, saving your vision, and playing the recorder

March celebrates crafts, child life, deaf history, ideas, mad for plaid, athletic training, kidneys, on-hold, supply management, and American Red Cross

March embraces credit education, employee spirit, Honor Society, expecting success, Irish-American heritage, music in schools, optimism, small press, spiritual wellness, youth art, hexagons, March Madness, and Francophones

March increases awareness in Alport Syndrome, brain injuries, colic, colorectal cancer, deep vein thrombosis, endometriosis, listening, malignant hypertension, caffeine, chronic fatigue syndrome, ethics, essential tremor, multiple sclerosis, nutrition, poison prevention, Trisomy, vascular abnormalities, and epilepsy

March appreciates humorists as artists, mirth, frozen foods, kites, peanuts, umbrellas, quinoa, maple sugar, sauces, flour, noodles, no meat, moustaches, hamburger & pickle, and dolphins

Which music did you enjoy? Do you have any personal celebrations in March?

Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 76

On My Palin Plight
I continue to boycott Dancing with the Stars as long as Bristol Palin continues as a contestant. Nothing against Bristol, plus she’s worked hard, but she should have been gone weeks ago.

Since her mother recently launched her multi-week infomercial on TLC to promote herself under the disguise of a tribute to Alaska, I suggest a 24-hour All-Palin, All-the-Time Channel for satellite and cable viewers. Pay-be-view events could make a bundle – even a prime time mud-wrestling catfight between Mama Grizzly and Lisa the Cat Murkowski – but it would not get a dime from me.

On Wrangling a Rangel
Rep Charles Rangel (D-NY) is a long-time member of Congress. At age 80, he had a chance to walk away from Capitol Hill, but chose not to do so – thus has just been burned by the House Ethics Committee. I know Congressional Ethics is an oxymoron, but there’s no sympathy from this camp.

Meanwhile, in their respective caucuses, Congressional party reps took my advice by selecting new party leaders in both chambers. Oh … that was in a dream!

On Cincinnati Dry
Cincinnati receives an average annual rainfall of 39.9 inches – and to think that half way through November we are down 9.0 inches of rain for the year. Wednesday we receive our first widespread rain in quite some time. Although we only received about a half inch, the ground is so compact and hard that water still gathered in low spots – at least it keeps the dust down. Meanwhile, the final two months typically delivers 6.4 inches of precipitation. I hope we get some water!

On a Handbell
Last weekend we played a very glorious, majestic arrangement by Kevin McChesney of Holy, Holy, Holy. Unfortunately, I cannot find either a video or a recording of this grand piece.

On a Recipe
In 2006, Food Network featured an Iron Chef battle between Rachel Ray-Mario Batalli against Giada DeLaurentis-Bobby Flay. Rachel made an interesting spaghetti dish, for which my wife and I developed a recipe from watching the show several times. Cranberry-sausage spaghetti may seem like a strange combination, but it is good stuff – so here is the recipe. Try it!

On a Tribute to Long Ago
On October 29, 1950, 22 died on a short-after-takeoff crash of a charter plane carrying the Cal Poly football team from the Toledo airport. Ironically, earlier that day the team lost at Bowling Green, my eventual alma mater. At a recent BGSU home game, the school held a moment of silence for that fatal crash. Here are two interesting articles looking back at that event, one from Toledo and the other from San Luis Obispo.

On the Weekend Ahead
Contrary to my normal pattern, I have a special tribute post for the weekend (coming Saturday).

Local broadcasts for MLB teams can be legends, one Seattle recently lost theirs – Dave Niehaus. This clip of great Mariner moments features his calls.

Have a safe weekend!