I am going to remember today. I think of them as days with hooks that can hold memories. I will get my second vaccination this morning putting me firmly back on the road to normal. I know I still will have to wear a mask and socially distance but I will be safe being out and about. Been waiting for February 3, 2021. Let us see what’s been selected by the Commission for today: It’s Elmo’s Birthday, American Painters Day National Carrot Cake Day, National Football Hangover 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. My pick is to nibble on carrot cake while playing American Pie on my ukulele. Now lets see what footnotes in the history of today yield. 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. Mark Twain said “No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot”. In 1882, Circus owner P. T. Barnum buys his world famous elephant Jumbo. In 1913 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”. This is Horace Greeley’s birthday (1911). Horace was a newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and editor of the New-York Tribune. He said, “Common sense is very uncommon”. He also is the person that said, “Go West young man, go West”. This is also the day that Woodrow Wilson, 28th President dies at the age of 67. He said, “A conservative is someone who makes no changes and consults his grandmother when in doubt.” And “I would rather lose in a cause that will someday win, than win in a cause that will someday lose.” I would have enjoyed having a beer with Woodrow. Enough for this day. Hope yours will be as good as mine. Abide
