For September 1, the opening lines of a poem by Phillis Wheatley (emancipated from slavery in 1774).
Attend my lays, ye ever honour’d nine,
Assist my labours, and my strains refine;
In smoothest numbers pour the notes along,
For bright Aurora now demands my song.
Aurora hail, and all the thousand dies,
Which deck thy progress through the vaulted skies:
The morn awakes, and wide extends her rays…
For the rest of this poem, please see An Hymn to Phillis.
Discussing the new novel by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, and grateful not to be living in 17th century Vardø (or 17th century anywhere).
As a fundraiser, Jim has created a T-shirt. It reads: PUTIN IS A D!¢K in Ukrainian. (It has had thumbs up from the Ukrainian refugees staying in our neighborhood and the protestors outside the Russian Embassy.) All proceeds go to the International Rescue Committee and World Central Kitchen. A shirt is $25 if you pick it up, plus $6 if you want it shipped. Sizes S, M, and L. If you are interested, email eachdayisacelebration@gmail.com.
Snow and daffodils: the turning of the year.
Terrible math jokes for Pi Day. And, a Pi Pie. (It’s cranberry-apple.)
Q: What did one math book say to the other?
A: Don’t bother me. I’ve got my own problems.
Q: Why should you never mention the number 288?
A: Because it’s two gross.
Q: Why do plants hate math?
A: It gives them square roots.
Q: Why did the student get upset when the teacher called her average?
A: It was a mean thing to say.
Q: How do you stay warm in a cold room?
A: Go to a corner. It’s always 90 degrees.
Q: What did the zero say to the eight?
A: Nice belt!
Q: Why did pi get its driver’s license revoked?
A: Because it didn’t know when to stop.
Q: What do you get when you take the sun and divide its circumference by its diameter?
A: Pi in the sky.
Q: What is a math teacher’s favorite vacation destination?
A: Times Square.
Q: Have you heard the latest statistics joke?
A: Probably.
Q: Why is it sad that parallel lines have so much in common?
A: Because they’ll never meet.
Q: Why is the obtuse angle upset?
A: Because it is never right.
Q: Why does no one ever speak to circles?
A: Because there’s no point.
Q: What do you call friends who love math?
A: Algebros.
Q: Why do atheists have trouble with exponents?
A: They don’t believe in higher powers.
For this day, a painting, and a poem by Philip Booth.
Nightsong
Beside you,
lying down at dark,
my waking fits your sleep.
Your turning
flares the slow-banked fire
between our mingled feet,
and there,
curved close and warm
against the nape of love,
held there,
who holds your dreaming
shape, I match my breathing
to your breath;
and sightless, keep my hand
on your heart’s breast, keep
nightwatch
on your sleep to prove
there is no dark, nor death.
—Philip Booth
For this double celebration, a sketch, and the first verse of a poem by Lynn Ungar.
Celebrate this unlikely oracle,
this ball of fat and fur,
whom we so mysteriously endow
with the power to predict spring.
Let’s hear it for the improbable heroes who,
frightened at their own shadows,
nonetheless unwittingly work miracles.
Why shouldn’t we believe
this peculiar rodent holds power
over sun and seasons in his stubby paw?
Who says that God is all grandeur and glory?
—from “Groundhog Day” by Lynn Ungar
…and a celebration for Colette, Elijah Wood, and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (published on this day in 1813).
