February 3, 2022. A year ago, on this day I got my second Moderna vaccination and it was a very good day. It marks the point in time when I began the journey back to normal. Not quite there yet but very close to that happy place. It’s not over yet and may never be. So far, the official death by Covid count is 893,147. I’m grateful that my name isn’t on that list. Let us see what’s been selected by the Commission for today: It’s Elmo’s Birthday, American Painters Day, National Carrot Cake Day, Take a Cruise Day, and The Day the Music Died which is a song by Don McLean about the untimely deaths of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, who passed in a plane crash in the early hours of February 3, 1959. Now to the history of today: In 1743 Philadelphia established a “pesthouse” to quarantine immigrants who could have communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera, smallpox or typhus. In1863 Samuel Clemens first used the pen name Mark Twain. In 1882, Circus owner P. T. Barnum bought the world famous elephant “Jumbo”. In 1913 the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, federal income tax was ratified. Prior to 1913, the revenue to run the government came mostly from import tariffs. This is the day in 1967 that Jimmy Hendrix recorded “Purple Haze”. Today is the birthday of the novelist, poet and playwright Gertrude Stein. She said, “Every day is a renewal, every morning the daily miracle. This joy you feel is life” and “There ain’t no answer. There ain’t gonna be an answer. There never has been an answer. That’s the answer.” She also observed that “We are always the same age inside.” Enough for this day. Abide.
