Philosophy

"So, Mom, what do you think?" Bigger Girl asked as i came in the door.

She had just cut her own hair again, and this time it was a very short cut that looks cute on her.  She was also wearing glasses and her leather vest.

Nice, i said.

"What do you think of the new glasses?  I like to believe Janis Joplin would be proud."

What would Janis Say?

Yes, very likely, i noted.

Sweetie came in at that moment.  "Cool glasses!" he said.  Then he added, "I like the short hair on you."

"Thanks, Dad!" Bigger Girl was beaming.

As Sweetie left to go upstairs, she turned to me.  "Mom, I've been reading more philosophy and other studies, and I think I've come to a conclusion."

What would that be? i asked.

"Well," she said, "you know how people get so down on each other for not being a certain way.  For example, how in our society so many men are talked down for not being 'real men,' or women are fussed at for not embracing certain things.  Then, those who go against the stereotype tend to get down on those embrace it in some way.  Or the way women argue against each other in the debate over whether they should stay home or work.

"I'm tired of all of that.  Sometimes I've fussed about the same things.  But I think if you want to be a stereotypically 'macho' guy, you should do it unapologetically, and let the guys who don't want to do that, do their own thing, and accept them.  And the same with women.   Those who don't feel cut out to be mothers should accept that in themselves, and everyone else should accept it, and they should accept the women who do.  Or with working moms and stay at home moms.  Be yourself, and be true to you, and accept that others aren't going to be the same way, and be okay with it.

"What do you think?" she concluded.

Sweetheart, i think you've found the secret to a lot more peace on earth, if you could get everyone to agree, i told her.

Who knows, maybe someday, most people will.


Today is:

Celebration of the First Week of Moonhopper -- Fairy Calendar

Fasching Carnival -- Munich, Germany (through Shrove Tuesday)

Festa del Tricolore -- Italy (Tricolour or Flag Day)

Guru Goyind Singh Jayanti -- CR, HR, and PB, India

Harlem Globetrotters' Day -- anniversary of their first game in 1927

I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore Day -- declared by Bob O'Brien, Consumer Advocate, who encourages us to fight back

International Consumer Electronics Show -- Las Vegas, NV, US (the world's largest annual trade show for consumers, and the largest annual trade show of any kind in the US; through Friday)

Nanakusa no Sekku -- Japan (Festival of Seven Herbs, dates back to the 7th century and recalls the medicinal herbs that were traditionally served to the emperor)

National Tempura Day

Nativity of Christ / Orthodox Christmas / Coptic Christmas -- Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christians still using the Julian Calendar.

Old Rock Day -- a/k/a "St. Distaff's Day" or simply Distaff Day(the distaff, for spinning yarn, was also called a "rock"; today was the day women went back to spinning after the Christmas holidays)

St. Raymond of Penyafort's Day (Patron of attornies, barristers, canonists, lawyers, and medical record librarians)

Usokae -- Kameido Tenmangu Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan (Bullfinch Exchange Day, Uso also means "lie" so when exchanging carved birds, it is considered a way of exchanging lies for the truth)

Victory Day over the Genocidal Regime -- Cambodia


Anniversary Today:

Princess Juliana of Netherlands weds Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, 1937


Birthdays Today:

Dustin Diamond, 1977
Jeremy Renner, 1971
Nick Cleg, 1967
Nicholas Cage, 1964
Katie Couric, 1957
David Caruso, 1956
Erin Gray, 1950
Kenny Loggins, 1948
Jann Wenner, 1947
Paul Revere, 1938
William Peter Blatty, 1928
Jean-Pierre Rampal, 1922
Vincent Gardenia, 1922
Charles Addams, 1912
Butterfly McQueen, 1911
Aristotle Onassis, 1906
Zora Neale Hurston, 1891
St Bernadette, 1844
Millard Fillmore, 1800
Jacques Etienne Montgolfier, 1745


Debuting/Premiering Today:

Video-Telephone, 1992 (US$1,499)
"Fame"(TV), 1982
"Flash Gordon"(comic strip), 1934
"Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D."(comic strip), 1929
"Tarzan of the Apes"(comic strip), 1929
Transatlantic telephone service, 1927 (US$75 for 5 minutes)


Today in History:

Calais, the last English possession in France, is taken back by the French, 1558
Boris Godunov seizes the Russian throne upon the death of Feodore I, 1598
Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia, 1608
Galileo discovers the first 3 moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, and Ganymede), 1610
Francis Bacon becomes the English Lord Chancellor, 1618
A prototype typewriter is patented by Englishman Henry Mill, 1714
Battle at Panipat India: the Afghan army beats Mahratten, 1761
The Bank of North America opens in Philadelphia, the first US commercial bank, 1782
The first gas balloon flight across the English channel, by Blanchard and Jeffries, 1785
The modern Italian flag is first used, 1797
Liberia is colonized by Americans, 1822
The first railroad station in the US, in Baltimore, opens, 1830
Fanny Farmer publishes her first cookbook, 1896
The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS", 1904
The first steamboat passage through the Panama Canal, 1914
The Harlem Globetrotters play their first game, 1927
The first transatlantic telephone service is established – from New York City to London, 1927
"Buck Rogers", the first sci-fi comic strip, and "Tarzan," one of the first adventure comic strips, premier, 1929
Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast, 1931
The "Flash Gordon" comic strip (by Alex Raymond) debuts, 1934
President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed the hydrogen bomb, 1952
The first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM, 1954
Marian Anderson becomes the first black singer to perform at the Met (NYC), 1955
The Polaris missile is test launched, 1960
Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off, 1968
Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 1984
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Sakigake, Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union, 1985
The interior of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public because of safety concerns, 1990
U.S. President Clinton goes on trial before the U.S. Senate for perjury and obstruction of justice in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, 1999
The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics estimates at least 17 billion planets exist that are comparable to the size of the Earth, 2013