Monday, April 06, 2009

Cambridge Life: 4/6/09: Beware the Ides? Cambridge Life: 4/6/09: Beware the Ides?


Photos by John Carlson and June Mohan

We just wrapped-up one crazy week in Cambridge, NY. Things started with a bang...the special election for the 20th Congressional Assembly District. Talk about "too close to call!" We still don't know who will be our representative. Last I heard only six (6), that's right...SIX, votes separated the candidates. With over 10,000 absentee ballots still to count, we probably won't know who won until it's time for the next election in 2010. Can you say shades of Minnesota (do we know if they've decided that race yet?).

After the craziness of last Monday, we had a stretch of beautiful weather. The sun came out, the crocus bloomed, the trees began to bud up and then it snowed! Yes, snow. Okay, so it only lasted overnight, but it certainly did turn colder and dreary. Guess that's April in the north, eh!

Now we're headed into the final stretch before the spring holidays of Easter and Passover. Oh, and don't forget tax time on April 15th. Maybe Caesar needed to beware the Ides of March, but I'd say the Ides of April (oh I know that the 15th isn't exactly the Ides of April...). In fact, here' the skinny on the Ides of a Month:

The Ides of March Just one of a dozen Ides that occur every month of the year by Borgna Brunner

The Roman calendar organized its months around three days, each of which served as a reference point for counting the other days:

The term Ides comes from the earliest Roman calendar, which is said to have been devised by Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome. Whether it was Romulus or not, the inventor of this calendar had a penchant for complexity. The Roman calendar organized its months around three days, each of which served as a reference point for counting the other days:

Kalends (1st day of the month) Nones (the 7th day in March, May, July, and October; the 5th in the other months) Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the 13th in the other months) The remaining, unnamed days of the month were identified by counting backwards from the Kalends, Nones, or the Ides. For example, March 3 would be V Nones—5 days before the Nones (the Roman method of counting days was inclusive; in other words, the Nones would be counted as one of the 5 days).

So enjoy this week, remember that April showers bring May flowers (or so they say) and don't sweat the Ides.

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