The word of the day for February 6, 2008 is "purloin" — transitive verb — : to appropriate wrongfully and often by a breach of trust.
Dan of Slapinions wrote in counter-response to a note I left in his blog:
In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at
sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All
Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween,
the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day.
I really like the whys and wherefores of the holidays we celebrate and the dates on which they are celebrated. Most of the Christian holidays are celebrated on days reserved for other deities. For instance, the nativity of Christ is pretty much accepted nowadays to not have happened on December 25 from evidence presented in the Gospels. Dec. 25th was celebrated as the birthday of Mithras. Many of the saints who were downgraded in the Roman Catholice housecleaning a few years back were just whitewashed local deities anyway.
Then we have nations creating secular holidays like Memorial Day and Cinco de Mayo, Juneteenth and Labor Day (which is celebrated on May 1st in most places, but the first Monday of September in the US). For sheer nerve, we also have the commercial "celebrations" created by the greeting card companies: Sweetness Day and Grandparents' Day. Personally, I like to celebrate October 4th as Broderick Crawford Day since I heard it posited by Garrison Keillor several years ago. Once when I mentioned this holiday while buying a KFC dinner, the sweet-young-thing clerk said: "I'm sorry, I wouldn't know about that. I'm not from around here."
Those of you who, like the KFC clerk, are too young to remember the 1950's television show Highway Patrol—starring Mr. Crawford behind the wheel of a CHP cruiser rolling through the fruit groves of Orange County—would not know that it is proper to celebrate with doughnuts and oranges on 10-4.
Our quote for the day is from George Leybourne, lyricist, "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze":
..And my love he has purloined away.
;^) Jan
4 comments:
Although I old enough to remember the fifties ,I cant remember that programe ,''you see I from the UK ''hee hee ...love Jan xx
"Not from around here," right.
;^) Jan
Hi Jan, It is inetersting to read about the various days that we could celebrate..half of them I must admit I don't know anything about !! A bit like your word today "sternutation" can't think that I have ever heard that someone has had a sternutation session !!! must try it out on Mary when she sneezes next time LOL Summer I am glad to say has arrived..bliss...glorious warm weather. Love Sybil xx
Long before my time :) I take it the date (October 4th/10-4) was a reference to it being a cop show?
Dan
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