If It Makes Anyone Feel Better

"The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect to their elders.... They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and are tyrants over their teachers."

"The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress."

Both attributed to Socrates by Plato.

"I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise [disrespectful] and impatient of restraint"

Hesiod, 8th century BC

"It is a gloomy moment in history...never has the future seemed so dark and incalculable. The United States is beset with racial, industrial and commercial chaos, drifting we know not where. Of our troubles, no man can see the end."

Editorial in Harper's Magazine, 1847

Maybe things aren't so bad after all.



Today is:

Ati Atihan Festival -- Aklan, Kalibo, Panay Island, Philippines (through the 15th; a vivid religious carnival and feast)

Balloon Ascension Day / Aviation in America Day -- the first manned free balloon flight in the US was on this date in 1793 at Philadelphia

Clean Off Your Desk Day -- me and what army?

Eugenio Maria de Hostos' Day -- Puerto Rico

Feast of All Fairies -- Fairy Calendar

Feast of the Most Holy Black Nazarene -- Quiapo district, Manila, Philippines (400 year old Catholic procession with a black life-sized wooden statue of Jesus)

Festival of the Agonalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (gifts given to Janus)

Full Wolf Moon -- the wolves howl hungrily during this cold month

Hatsu-Ichi -- Maebashi, Japan

Mahayana New Year -- Buddhist (celebrated through the 12th)

Martyr's Day -- Panama

National Apricot Day

Peace Agreement Day -- South Sudan

Plough Monday -- UK (farm work is resumed the Monday following the 12 Days of Christmas)

Positively Penguins Day -- a day to celebrate all things penguin

Republic Day -- Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Seijin Shiki -- Japan (Adult's Day, or Coming of Age Ceremony)

Show and Tell at Work Day -- another to observe carefully if at all (traditional date -- what tradition?! -- Jan. 8; on the Monday following if the 8th is on a weekend)

Static Cling/Static Electricity Day -- on some sites, listed as April 26; i can only ask why it's listed anywhere for any reason

St. Marciana's Day (Patron of those with wounds)

Stepfather's Day -- not official, but it should be, there are some great stepfathers out there

Stuffed Animal Laundry Day -- give that old bear a bath!

Thurseblot -- Ancient Norse Calendar (Thor's Feast, on the first full moon of the year)

Toka Ebisu -- Japan (parades and shrine rituals through Japan, but especially in Kyoto, Osaka, and Fukuoka; through the 11th)


Anniversaries Today:

Connecticut becomes the 5th US State, 1788


Birthdays Today:

Dave Matthews, 1967
Mark Martin, 1959
Crystal Gayle, 1951
Jimmy Page, 1944
Joan Baez, 1941
Susannah York, 1941
Bob Denver, 1935
Les Paul, 1915
Gypsy Rose Lee (Rose Hovick), 1914
Richard Nixon, 1913
Chic Young, 1901
Gracie Fields, 1898


Today in History:

Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople, 475
Seven hundred Jews, believed to be causing the Black Death, are burned in their homes in Basel, Switzerland, 1349
The first sighting of manatees by a European (Columbus), 1493
Philip Astley stages the first modern circus in London, 1768
The first hot-air balloon flight in the US lifts off in Philadelphia, 1793
Income Tax is introduced in the UK (to fund the war against Napoleon), 1799
Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred in St Paul's Cathedral, 1806
Sir Humphry Davy tests the Davy lamp for miners at Hebburn Colliery, 1816
The Daguerrotype photo process is announced at French Academy of Science, 1839
Thomas Henderson makes the first measure of stellar parallax, of Alpha Centauri, 1839
The Astor Library opens in NYC, 1854
The first hostilities of the Civil War, at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, 1861
The Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and Washington with high wind and heavy snow, 1880
New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts, 1894
Alfred Tennyson's son, Hallam, the Second Baron Tennyson, becomes the second Governor General of Australia, 1903
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., the first historically black intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity to be officially recognized at Howard University is founded, 1914
The Ottoman Empire prevails in the Battle of Çanakkale, as the last British troops are evacuated, 1916
Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogiro (helicopter) flight, Spain, 1923
A fire at the Laurier Palace movie theatre in Quebec, Montreal, kills 78 children, 1927
Several Panamanian youths try to raise the Panamanian flag on the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone, leading to fighting between U.S. military and Panamanian civilians, 1964
Elections are held to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He is succeeded by Rawhi Fattouh, 2005
Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement rebel group sign a peace agreement in Naivasha, Kenya, 2005