We are in the time space designated as January 13, 2024. I just googled the question: “How much does mankind spend on killing each other?” The answer came back by $13.6 trillion a year and that number is a few years old. To save you the math, that’s $5 per person per day for every man, woman and child on Earth. It would be nice to live in a world where people, and governments, used most of their time and resources to help people. Ah well. Moving on. Today is Eagle Day, Korean American Day, Make Your Dreams Come True Day, National Peach Melba Day, National Sticker Day, Poetry Break Day, and Rubber Ducky Day. Now some history: On this day in 1404 The Act of Multipliers was passed by the English Parliament forbidding alchemists from turning lead into gold. On this day in 1830 the Great Fire in New Orleans began, thought to have been started by rebel slaves. On this day in 1842 Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army was the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 that marched into Afghanistan during the 1st Anglo-Afghan War. It seems that there is no end of bad things that happen when Afghanistan is invaded. On this day in 1938 the Church of England accepted the theory of evolution. This is the day in 1942 that Henry Ford patented a method of constructing plastic auto bodies. In 1962 on this day Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” went to #1. In 1968 on this day Johnny Cash performed live at Folsom State Prison to record a live album. In 1979 the UMCA filed a libel suit against the Village People’s YMCA song. Today’s dead person is the Irish novelist and poet, James Joyce who said, “There is no past, no future; everything lows in an eternal present.” “Your mind will give back to you exactly what you put into it.” “They lived and laughed and loved and left.” “Wipe your glasses with what you know.” I’ll end with this very Irish quote: “Beware of the horns of a bull, the heels of the horse and the smile of an Englishman.” Abide.
