A Brief look at October

Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

Sir Arthur Eddington

O.K. folks, it’s all downhill from this point on. With only 92 days left in 2006, I don’t know about you, but I’ve got to get moving if I want to get at least one or two things done that I had been putting off until ‘later in the year.’ Not only is it later in the year but I’m certain that the next time I look up this year is going to be finished. It seems to me as if it was just the other day there it was a fresh new year stretching languorously out in front of me. Now I will consider myself lucky if I get item number 1 scratched off the list and getting two or more done is simply out of the question.

Did you check the map? Because I think, we’re lost.

On the 2nd in 1535, Jacques Cartier, the adventurer not the watchmaker, began settlement of what was to become Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I shouldn’t hold it against Cartier, though I will, but I have not cared for Montreal since I was refused entrance to a restaurant there because I could not speak French. I suppose the Quebecois aren’t all bad and they do serve at least one function: they give the French someone to look down on.

When do my fifteen minutes start?

For Welshman Dayfdd ap Gruffyd, Prince of Gwyedd, they started on the 3rd in 1283 when, according to reliable sources, he became the first person to have been executed by drawing and quartering. In all likelihood he probably survived the drawing part, which if done properly can take an extraordinarily long time, but there is absolutely no chance that he survived much beyond that. The quartering is always effective on the first try. The international response to this development was swift and decisive and resulted in a total blockade of the importing of vowels to Wales.

On the 4th in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII, with a single shot from his starter’ pistol, started the ball rolling for his eponymous calendar, which is the calendar predominately used to this day. As jaded as we have become we take many things for granted. For instance, we assume that October 4 will be followed by October 5, which in turn will be closely followed by October 6, and then 7, and so on and so on. Well until October 31 of course since October only has 31 days, though that may very well change if I have anything to say about it. Such was not always the case. In 1582, October 4 was immediately followed by October 15. If you had a busy social calendar in the latter days of the 16th Century and had scheduled an event for October 11, you were probably going to lose your security deposit because in 1582 there would simply not be an October 11. Don’t even think about rescheduling for the 15th because it is amazing how quickly things sell out.