Words 1.1

 Words Twice a Week        1.1.22

(Well, really 1.2.22, and 1.3.22 by the time I actually got anything done. But I just think the date 1122 is kind of fun.  In a month we’ll have 2.2.22 and even 2.22.22!  sounds like tailor made for Valentines day!!)

If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.  Click here.

A few days from the church calendar -

Jan 2  Juliana of Lazarevo  She was born in Moscow, to Justin and Stefanida Nedyurev, and married Giorgi Osorgin, owner of the village of Lazarevo, near Murom. She lived a righteous life, consecrating herself to helping poor and needy people.  Her life is considered as an example of a layman living in the world, as anyone may be supposed to please God not only by withdrawing from the world to a monastic cell, but within a family, amid cares for children, spouse, and members of the household.

Jan 4  Elizabeth Ann Seton   Born in 1774, she started out as an Episcopalian, but when her husband developed tuberculosis and they traveled to Italy looking for a cure, she joined the Catholic Church.  Returning home after he died, she was rejected bt family and friends.  A priest suggested she start a school for girls.  She ultimately gathered enough helpers to found an order – the Sisters of Charity – which established schools and orphanages.  She became known as Mother Seton, and was the first native-born American citizen to be canonized.

Jan 5  Sarah, Theodora, and Syncletica  - Desert Mothers.  Sarah, as opposed to Julianna above, was a hermit and followed a life dedicated to strict asceticism for some sixty years.  Theodora was married to a prefect of Egypt.  In order to perform penance for adultery, she disguised herself as a man, and pretending to be a eunuch and joined a monastery in Thebaid. (Doesn’t make much sense to me either)  Her true identity as a woman was discovered only after her death.  Syncletica was of a wealthy background and is reputed to have been very beautiful. From childhood, however, Syncletica was drawn to dedicate her life to God.  From the time she took responsibility for her family's affairs, after her parents' deaths, she gave to the poor all that had been left to her. With her younger blind sister, Syncletica abandoned the life of the city and instead resided in a crypt, thus adopting a hermetic lifestyle.   Her holy life soon gained the attention of locals and, gradually, many women joined her to live as her disciples in Christ.  (That’s all from wikkpedia, and frankly, there isn’t much more on any of them.)

Jan 6  The Epiphany – Here’s the wikipedia page.  It lists a variety of local/national customs from a Kings Cake to a fruitcake toss to presents for children to taking down the Christmas decorations to “women’s night out kind of events.  I suppose you could also read or watch part or all of Twelfth Night by W Shakespeare.  There are a variety of versions, including a manga one.  Here’s the best version of We Three Kings that I know of!  

Jan 8  Harriet Bedell  Born in 1875, she was an Episcopal deaconess and missionary to the Cheyenne in Oklahoma, Alaska Natives (spending 15 years at a missionary school), and the Seminole of Florida.  She died on this day in 1969.

Jan 9  Julia Chester Emery  She was the National Secretary of the Women's Auxiliary of the Board of Missions for forty years, from 1876 to 1916.  She died on this day in 1922.  She initiated the United Thank Offering, complete with the box with a slit on the top.

A few days from the earth/world calendar -

Jan 2

+ In 1860 Urbain Le Verrier announced the discovery of the planet Vulcan.  He had previously, in 1846, predicted the existance of Neptune using only mathematics to explain the movements of other planets.  He proposed a planet Vulcan that was between Mercury and the sun, but no one ever found it.  

+ Birthday of Isaac Asimov in 1920.  Seems appropriate, given the preceding!

+ Apsley Cherry-Garrard was born in 1886. He was a south pole explorer, as member of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition in 1910-1913.  He wrote about a preliminary journey in a book called The Worst Journey in the World.  My notes have him as the ultimate source of the quote (in the preface to the book, paraphrased by Richard Priestly) "Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton".

Jan 3

+ birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien in 1892.  We focus on Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, (and a few of us The Silmarillion and a few other more obscure works) but we also have a slim book of Father Christmas Letters that he wrote for his children year by year between 1920 and 1943.

Jan 4

+ 1847 Samuel Colt sells his first revolver.

+  Utah becomes the 45th state in 1896.  One requirement was that a provision prohibiting polygamy be written into the state constitution.

Jan 5

+ Ernest Shackleton died in 1922.

+ construction of the Golden Gate Bridge was begun in 1933.

+ Oil tanker MV Braer ran aground off the coast of the Shetland Islands, eventually spilling twice as much oil as the Exxon Valdez.

+ In 2005 the largest known dwarf planet – Eris – was discovered.  Ultimately led to the downgrading of Pluto which has roughly the same size.

Jan 6

+ 1838 – Samuel Morse presented the telegraph to the public with the message “A patient waiter is no loser.”  “All things come to he/she who waits”?

+ German scientist Alfred Wegener presented his theory of continental drift.

+ It’s the birthday of Kahlil Gibran in 1883.  Hands up – how many people read The Prophet?

+ Louis Braille died in 1852.  Braille kind of resonates with Morse code in my mind, though they are certainly different.

+ anyone think of anything else of importance that happened on Jan 6?

Jan 7

+ Transatlantic telephone service was established.  A three minute call between New York and London cost about $45, about $550 in today’s dollars.  On the other hand, most long distance calls aren’t even long distance anymore!

+ and in 1785 Jean Pierre Blanchard flew a hot-air balloon from Dover (England) to Guines (France) for the first time.  It took about two and a half hours.

Jan 8

+ first State of the Union Address (by George Washington) in 1790.

+ Elvis was born in 1935.  So how come it is not a national holiday?

Jan 9

+ first shots of Civil War, as the Confederates fired on the steamer, Star of the West, in 1861

+ birthday of Joan Baez in 1941, and Richard Nixon in 1913.  So here’s an interesting idea – write a short dialogue between the two of them at a dinner party.  You could do that for each day – pick two people born on that day, either similar or different, and write a short dialogue between the two…..  I’ll have to think about that a bit.

That’s what I got for now…..

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