Also sprack Zarathustra

"My humps, my humps, my humps, my humps, my lovely lady lumps..."

Yep, it's (Wednesday, Bhud-waar, Charharshanbeh, yawm-al-arba'a, Idal, Setting Orange). I think that I deserve a cookie. I don't know why, but I do. I also think that I could give a rat's ass about Jamie Lynn Spears who has done absolutely nothing to warrant being in the news other than being Brittney's sister. Do you not see the innate human desire for monarchy in this? We long to place people on pedestals and obsess about their every act and when their visibility becomes dull, we look to their blood relations, as if by genetic proximity they share the pedestal of idolization. The royal bloodline is begged to be tainted with human flaws.

In 1484 William Caxton published his translation of Aesop's Fables. Aesop lived in ancient Greece and was responsible for stories such as "The Tortoise and the Hare" and "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". In 1552 Guru Amar Das became the 3rd Sikh guru. There is a Sikh temple in Shawnee, KS but I don't know if there are any gurus there. In 1636 Utrecht University was founded in the Netherlands. In 1812 an earthquake destroyed Caracas, Venezuela. In 1953 Jonas Salk announced he discovered a polio vaccine. In 1976 Queen Elizabeth II sent the first royal email. I bet that was exciting. In 1998 15 men wielding knives and axes killed 52 people in Algeria, 32 of whom were children under the age of two. This was one of five such events that year in which over 50 people were killed. WTF? What kind of country is Algeria? And, please, someone tell me why there are certain types of people that should not be extinguished from the gene pool. And in 1999, Jack Kevorkian, who sat across the table from me at dinner once, was found guilty of 2nd degree murder by a jury in Michigan. If you ask me, there's nothing wrong with euthanasia. If someone is terminally ill, and suffering, of sound mind and of absolutely no use to anyone any longer, let them die if they want to. What harm is there in giving someone a peaceful death?

In the south Asian country of Bangladesh, today is Independence Day. The capital is Dhaka and the country is home to over 150 million people, 2/3 of whom are farmers growing mostly tea, rice, and mustard. Roughly 90% of Bangladeshis are Muslim. The largest industry is the garment industry- read here sweatshops. Bangladesh sounds like a pretty much horrible place to live and is subject to monsoons, cyclones, and the worst flooding in the world on a yearly basis.

It is also Zoroaster's birthday today who was the prophet and founder of Zoroastrianism, which was the major Persian religion until Islam took over. The meaning of Zoroaster's name is disputed, and in Persian it's actually Zarathustra, which may mean "camel lover". It's generally assumed that he was born ca. 1000 BCE which is a really long time ago. In a nutshell, Zarathustra believed that life is a constant struggle between truth and lie and that humanity's purpose is to uphold truth (this does not apply to politicians from Texas).

Others celebrating birthdays: the poet Robert Frost; Rudolf Dassler, who founded Puma; Joseph Campbell, who wrote "The Golden Bough"; Tennessee Williams, no relation; Sandra Day O'Connor; Spock; Alan Arkin; James Caan; Nancy Pelosi; Diana Ross, a native Michigander; Steven Tyler, who is the fugliest rock star ever; Martin Short; Sopranos star, Michael Imperioli; and Kiera Knightley, who is pretty hot, although she may be one of those actresses that shouldn't voice her opinions publicly- ever.

Enjoy the hump...it only comes once a week.