Kalevala Day

And down the slippery slope we've begun. I know, I got a late start to this (Thursday, Veer-waar, Panjshanbeh, yawm-al-khamis, Istijlal, Prickle-Prickle). I spent my morning purchasing a vehicle. It's very liberating to buy a car when you've not had one for nearly three months. But I may as well have been at the Blue Oyster Bar with a sing on my ass that reads, "Free-4-All. BYOL." (If you can't figure out what the "L" stands for, I'm not going to tell you.)

Seeing as how I am supposed to be in a meeting that has yet to start, this may be a reader's digest version of the daily. In 1710 the Swedes beat the Danes at the Battle of Helsingborg. In 1784 John Wesley chartered the Methodist Church. The Methodists believe in enthusiastic congregational singing and stress missionary work. Often combining the two is the reason for missionaries getting kidnapped and murdered in 3rd world countries. Most white people cannot sing. In 1787 the University of Pittsburgh was chartered. The mascot is the Panthers. In 1827 the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was incorporated becoming the first railroad to carry both people and freight. In 1849 the steamboat SS California arrived in San Francisco 4 months and 21 days after leaving NYC. Can you imagine being stuck on a boat for nearly five months just to get accross the country? I thought Greyhound was horrible. In 1850 the University of Utah opened; mascot: Utes, as in "the two utes". In 1861 Colorado became a US Territory. In 1885 AT&T was incorporated. In 1935 nylon was invented. Matching sweatsuits for retirees followed shortly after. In 1940 the televised basketball game was played featuring the Fordham Rams vs. the aforementioned Pittsburgh Panthers. In 1958 26 children died when their school bus slammed into a tow truck and then plunged down an embankment into the Leviska Fork River in Kentucky. This is the worst school bus accident ever. In 1993 the Branch Davidian standoff began in Waco, TX. And in 2005 a suicide bomber killed 127 police recruits in Al Hillah, Iraq.

Today is as implied by the title Kalevala Day in Finland. The Kalevala is a 19th-century epic poem written in Finnish by Elias Lonnrot. Finnish people around the globe are celebrating their rich cultural heritage today by doing Finnish stuff like skiing, eating pickled herring, and drinking vodka. One of the characters in the Kalevala is named Kullervo and he is known to go berserker. Berserkers were Viking warriors who wore coats of wolf or bear skin and went into uncontrollable trancelike rages known as berserkergang.

Happy Birthday to: Mario Andretti; John Turturro; and Rae Dawn Chong

Enjoy the day; tonight is for Clutch- the greatest rock band ever!!!!!!!!!!