One Trillion Dollars

This is very stunning, and every American should see it.

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

It's your tab.

St. Patrick's Day

Factoids today, beginning with:

St. Patrick

• Born in Britain
• Kidnapped at age 16 by Irish raiders and held captive in Ireland
• He was a shepherd in Ireland, quite solitary
• Escaped back to Britain after 6 years
• Studied 15 years and became a priest, then went back to Ireland as a missionary
• Began converting the Irish to Christianity, although there was already a small number of Christians on the island
• St. Patrick's Day is the date he is believed to have died, around the year 460
• The driving the snakes out of Ireland legend is a myth

St. Patrick's Day

• An Irish religious holiday, church in the morning and dinner in the afternoon
• For dinner: Irish bacon and cabbage
• Until the 1970's, pubs were closed on St. Pat's Day in Ireland

St. Patrick's Day Parade

• First one held in New York City in 1762
• It was Irish soldiers serving in the English military
• There were numerous parades held annually until 1848, when the various Irish aide societies combined to sponsor the parade, now the longest running in the country.

Enjoy the day!

Making the Point

On March 16, 1802, Congress approved legislation establishing the United States Military Academy at West Point, one of the oldest military service academies in the world. Strategically located on the west bank of the Hudson River approximately fifty miles north of New York City, West Point was first garrisoned in January 1778 and is the oldest continuously occupied military post in America. George Washington transferred his headquarters there in 1779 as a Revolutionary War outpost. In 1780, Benedict Arnold, then in command of the post, tried unsuccessfully to betray it to the British.

The Ides of March, The Rest of the Story

March 15 is the Ides of March. The infamous date of Julius Caesar's assassination is locked into time in the year 44 B.C. There were a number of events that occurred years earlier that would converge and on 3/15/-44 to make Julius famous forever. It was much, much later that his fame would ascend to a higher plane.


The Roman government of the time was quite refined, long established and stable. The lawmaking process was likewise an evolved practice, with an involved citizenry being a vital part of the process. This process had evolved over the 450 years since the Romans had last endured the rule of a king. Seems that old Julius Caesar wasn't monitoring the trends very closely. His countrymen didn't really go for royalty.


So, Julie was an opportunist and self promoter and it was working for him. At 22, he won an award for saving a life in battle. A couple of years later,he was kidnapped and held for ransom. He joked with his captors that they weren't asking a high enough ransom, and they treated him well, big buddies and pals, sure. After he was released, he tracked down his captors and killed them all.


At age 30-31, when he aunt and then his wife croaked, he used the eulogies to make a point of informing everyone that he was descended from royalty on his mother's side and from the gods on his father's side. A year or two later he won a Senate seat and parlayed that into an appointment as a general.


Over the next few years he won higher offices, largely on the strength of promoting his candidacy with promotional games for the electorate. He financed his campaigns borrowing from relatives. At around age 41 he headed off and spent nine years conquering most of central Europe, fighting during the summer only, very cool. He wintered in northern Italy and dabbled in politics.


By the end of the wars, Caesar's political alliances crumbled and he ended up at odds with his former partner, Pompey. He and Pompey met in battle, and Pompey had him outmanned, 40,000 to 21,000, but Caesar kicked Pompey's butt.



At age 54, he returned to Rome and brought back Cleopatra as his main squeeze., Julie had nailed Cleo a couple years earlier and now they had a son. He rocked on for a couple of years and ruled the Roman empire, and at age 56 had himself named Emperor for Life, a title that sounds like a runaround way of being king.

Well, you go kicking people's arses all over the world and putting down internal rebellions and wiping out a lot of people and climbing over their carcasses to elevate yourself and you're bound to make a few enemies, even before the Emperor for Life thing. On March 15, 44 B.C. a group of conspirator senators attacked him and stabbed him to death. This is where his dying gasp included "et tu, Brutus", sort of stating the obvious.


Mark Antony took Caesar's job and took Cleopatra, too.


1600 years later, Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar and had the soothsayer utter the fateful warning "Beware the Ides of March". Bam! A cliche was born.


In 1964, the bass player for the Shon-dels, a garage band from Berwyn, suggested that the band be renamed the Ides of March. He got the idea from reading Julius Caesar in high school.

And now you know...the rest of the story.

Feeling a Bit Flush?

If you get one of these, you may want to wear a life jacket when you take your seat.

http://www.break.com/usercontent/2009/3/This-Toilet-Is-Awesome-680472.html

Reminds me of my late Uncle Norb, the plumber, who was wont to say "Your sh#% is my bread and butter".

A poet, he was.

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Different crap, from the AP:

Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin, the teenage daughter of Gov. Sarah Palin, have broken off their engagement, he said Wednesday, about 2 1/2 months after the couple had a baby.

Never saw this one coming, did you?

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Got a few minutes on your hands? Here's an unusual photo album.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ny-liacci-pg,0,4201127.photogallery