A word of caution

A word of caution regarding the Trayvon Martin case:

While I agree that there do appear to be disturbing irregularities in the story of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's death at the hand of George Zimmerman, a local Neighborhood Watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, we all need to watch what we say right now. 

Trying Zimmerman in the media, or in the "court of public opinion" is without a doubt emotionally satisfying to many people. However, do we really want the current wave of passions flooding the media (both broadcast and social) to taint the potential jury pool if and when Zimmerman ever comes to trial? 

Go ahead: call for the Justice Department to conduct a thorough investigation of the case - in fact, more power to you if you do. Young people should be able to walk to the store and back without fear of being shot to death, whatever their race, class, or gender, and no matter what neighborhoods they happen to find themselves in. Just be careful that in calling for justice that we don't prejudice anyone's right to a fair trial. It's a right that any one of us might need some day. 

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH

The ancient Roman calendar was a bit clunky. At one point, it only contained 10 months, not 12, and, rather than numbering the days within a month in consecutive order, like we do, the Romans were what you might call "fixed point reckoners." They had 3 fixed points in each month:


the Calends (also spelled Kalends) -- the first of the month (the reason we call the entire series of charts for the year a calendar);


the Nones -- the 9th, or in some months, the 7th; and, most famously,


the Ides -- the "middle" of the month, i.e., the 15th, or the 13th (in the months when the Nones were on the 7th).


The Romans would count backwards from each of these fixed points, and they would include the fixed point in the count. What we would call the 13th of March was to the Romans "the 3rd day before the Ides of March," and the next-to-last day of February (this year, the 28th, but usually the 27th) was "the 3rd day/3 days before the Calends of March." The last day of each month was called "the day before the Calends of [     ]." As I said, it was clumsy.


As for the Ides of March, the reason they are so famous (or, at least, notorious) is, of course, the assassination on this date, in 44 BCE, of Julius Caesar, who is remembered in connection with the calendar for two other reasons:


1. He issued the decree that established the version of the calendar that, with some revisions made in 1582, we still use today, the older, unrevised version being known as the Julian calendar in his honor; and


2. The month of July is named after him (because his birthday was in it).

Original U.S. Inauguration Day

Did you know that all US presidents between George Washington in 1793 and FDR in 1933, with the exceptions of: 
John Tyler
Millard Fillmore
Andrew Johnson, and 
Chester A. Arthur 
(who finished out the terms of Presidents who died in office and did not win election to the Presidency in their own right), took the oath of office at least once on 4 March?

This was the original Inauguration Day prescribed in the Constitution.

George Washington was sworn in the first time on 30 April 1789, in New York City, while Presidents since FDR's 2nd Inauguration in 1937 have commenced their terms on 20 January, as per the 20th (Lame Duck) Amendment -- with the single exception of Gerald R. Ford, who never won election to the office.