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The Daily Dose/September 2, 2010
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around the Human Experience...
FROM THE SOUTH AMERICAN DESK: Official Writer's Shack Faves, yes you read that right, official Writer's Shack Faves, our brave Chilean miners (well, 32 Chileans and one Bolivian) are probably in better spirits than we would be under the circumstances. They've received their first hot meal, and some have shaved their beards and most are wearing clean clothes. They're still nowhere close to being rescued, but they've already been down there close to a month and if they've made it this long without getting completely on each other's nerves, they may well be all right.
What The Hell's Going On Here? The Writer's Shack confers Official Fave status on people or things that please us, usually sports teams that win a lot, such as the Mount Union Purple Raiders football team, winners of ten NCAA Division III football titles, and the All Blacks, the national rugby union team of New Zealand, but also on spunky miners trapped a half-mile underground.
FABULOUS: Since absolutely nothing nowadays is complete without US interference, officials from NASA are on hand to advise on how to keep people alive in confined spaces, although it should be pointed out that NASA's expertise is 1) in space, and 2) keeping people alive in spaces that were designed for long-term human habitability.
Warning Shot: Although, honestly, given NASA's track record they may well have been brought in to give top-secret advice on how to collapse the mine completely.
Fly In The Ointment: Still not clear is exactly what information the miners have been given regarding a potential rescue date. Earlier reports indicated they had been told, which we inferred to mean - just like you might have - that they were told it could take upwards of four months.
The BBC reported thought, that Chilean officials have only told the miners it would be 'a long time'.
Although these miners weren't walking into their first mine shaft last month. No doubt they've reckoned, probably pretty accurately, when they can reasonably expect to be freed.
Oh Yeah: The owners of the mine are still publicly groveling for forgiveness. What they should be groveling for is that their public executions are painless instead of painful.
DISCO INFERNO: The Great Fire of London starts in a bakery on this date in 1666. It would burn for three days, destroying over 13,000 homes. Only six deaths are recorded, which nobody really believes and can be attributed to the fact the deaths of the poor may not have been duly recorded, and the fact that a fire of this scale might well have charred victims beyond recognition.
More From the British Desk: The British Empire, which at the time included the colonies that would become the United States, adopts the Gregorian Calendar on this date in 1752. With the change, Wednesday, September 2, 1752 was followed by Thursday September, 14 1752.
Really Dry, Technical Matter: The Gregorian calendar had been proclaimed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 because the Julian calendar was starting to get a little off. Under the Julian calendar, the spring equinox was supposed to occur every 365 days and six hours, when actually it was every 365 days, five hours and 49 minutes, give or take. Over the centuries, and despite the leap year factored in by the Julian calendar, this resulted in the spring equinox now occurring on March 11.
God, We Love Dry, Technical Matter: The Catholic Church, not happy unless its hands were in everything, was desirous of having the spring equinox on March 21 every year because that made it easier to reckon the date of Easter, which long ago was established as the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox, though the church reckons the full moon not by the date of the actual full moon, but by a table that reckons the lunar month, which sometimes can be as much a couple of days off.
FunFact: The Gregorian calendar changed the number of leap years. The Julian calendar had leap years in all years evenly divisible by four, a bigger correction than was really required. Gregory took the advice of several people and decreed that leap years would still occur in years divisible by four, except in years that are evenly divisible by 100, unless that year is divisible by 400, in which case it is a leap year.
We The People: The United States Department of the Treasury is established on this date in 1789. On September 11, 1789, Alexander Hamilton is sworn as the first Secretary of the Treasury.
Now Hear This: Vice-president Theodore Roosevelt, another official Writer's Shack Fave, uses the now-famous phrase "speak softly and carry a big stick" in a speech on this date in 1901.
Big Picture Stuff: Roosevelt was speaking at the opening of the Minnesota State Fair. Roosevelt began his speech with fairly typical TR rhetoric, exhorting parents not raise their kids to shirk responsibility and - again, fairly typically - TR showed his genuine admiration for the average American.
You are typical Americans, for you have done the great, the characteristic, the typical work of our American life…have shown the qualities of daring, endurance and far-sightedness, of eager desire for victory and stubborn refusal to accept defeat, which go to make up the essential manliness of the American character.
FunFact:What's funny is that the 'carry a big stick' line is not original, nor, to his credit though not our surprise, did TR ever take credit for it. Here is the context it was used in his speech 109 years ago:
A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big stick - you will go far." If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power. In private life there are few beings more obnoxious than the man who is always loudly boasting, and if the boaster is not prepared to back up his words, his position becomes absolutely contemptible.
Yeah, Yeah, Whatever: Roosevelt goes on to equate this principal with how nations should behave with each other:
So it is with the nation. It is both foolish and undignified to indulge in undue self-glorification, and, above all, in loose-tongued denunciation of other peoples. Whenever on any point we come in contact with a foreign power, I hope that we shall always strive to speak courteously and respectfully of that foreign power.
A Gunshot Away: Roosevelt would become President of the United States two weeks later, after President William McKinley died on September 14, from wounds received after being shot on September 5.
Thought For The Day: …in the long run, success or failure will be conditioned upon the way in which the average man, the average women, does his or her duty… The stream will not permanently rise higher than the main source; and the main source of national power and national greatness is found in the average citizenship of the nation. - Theodore Roosevelt, from the In The Arena speech, 4/23/1910.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Alexander Graham Bell received his middle name when he was ten years old. He had asked his father for one because both his brothers had middle names. Graham was the last name of a family friend.
Today's Stumper: Alexander Hamilton was not President George Washington's first choice for Treasury secretary. Who was? - Answer next time!
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