Beware The Ides Of March . . .

Tucson Weather Today

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It is passing strange, is it not, that we elders remember events from earlier days and years in fits and fragments... as I so well remember being a shy high school sophomore (in 1955) and standing beside my desk with book in hand reading aloud to the class from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, the words, "et tu, Brute" and "Beware the ides of March" ...and little more than that.

Julius Caesar

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George Clooney and Merisa Tomei are to appear in a movie titled The Ides Of March scheduled to be released in October 2011. "An idealistic staffer for a newbie presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail." Based on the play by Beau Willimon.

Marisa Tomei

(sigh . . .)

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On the Ides of March, in 1939 (the year I was born) Germany occupied Czechoslovakia.

On the Ides of March, in 1941 a blizzard in North Dakota killed 151 people.

On the Ides of March, in 1944 the Italian town of Cassino was destroyed by Allied bombing.

On the Ides of March, in 1957 Britain became the 3rd nation to explode a nuclear bomb.

On the Ides of March, in 1958 the USSR performed atmospheric nuclear tests.

On the Ides of March, in 1971 CBS TV announced it was dropping the "Ed Sullivan Show."

Beware the Ides of March indeed.

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Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.
--Mark Twain

Jots To Titillate . . .

Once again during the day I found myself telling Eva about the book that I perpetually claim to be writing. She listened attentively, as is her wont, while I attempted to rationalize my reasons for structuring this novel in such an unconventional form.


When she instinctively realized that I had finally finished my monologue, Eva fetched me her "Tug" and the two of us played a growling game of tug-o'-war that morphed into our never-ending run-and-chase game of keep-away.

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I have often encountered the word 'bowdlerize' and more or less just skipped by it, but now, at long last. I have discovered (and absorbed) it's true meaning.

Thomas Bowdler was born in Ashley, Somerset, England (1754). He wrote a censored version of Shakespeare's plays, called The Family Shakespeare (1807), because he thought that the Bard's sexual humor was inappropriate for women and children. And we remember him today in the verb bowdlerize, which means to revise for a censorious purpose.

Which (for some reason) reminds me . . . I have been contemplating the concepts of 'sin' and 'holiness' but find that I cannot 'grok' these terms.

Not yet, anyway.

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One of JoAnn's plants is displaying some colorful buds.

Here is a cropped enlargement of the buds (blossoms?)

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I keep hearing the term "redistribute the wealth" bandied about in the news. And, strangely enough, I read that particular term earlier today in The Writers Almanac wherein is stated --

Julius Caesar . . .
In the last years of his life, Caesar was appointed absolute dictator of Rome. He had ambitious plans to redistribute wealth and land, and he began planning public works and an invasion of Germany. But a group of senators, led by Brutus and Cassius, wanted to bring back the old republic. So they organized an assassination on the steps of the Senate. Caesar died from over 20 stab wounds.

Redistribute The Wealth? Right.

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E.B. White said: "I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."