HISTORY OF TOWEL DAY

May 25 celebrates Towel Day as a day to honor Douglas Adams, the author of the five (or six) book trilogy Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Originally created in May of 2001 to mark the passing of English science fiction humor author Douglas Adams, the day is set aside for fans of his writings to carry a towel throughout the day in honor of the author. Why a towel? I’ll explain below.

I had the honor of meeting Douglas Adams almost two decades ago when he was speaking at a special Sun Microsystems event. I recall at the time noting that he talked at 2400 baud, meaning he spoke the English language faster than any other person I had heard before. Erudite, clever, and mind stretching — his talk was much like his writings, at times laugh-out-loud funny. He has appeared on Monty Python’s Flying Circus TV show, and wrote a skit for the album to the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He had also written for the TV show Doctor Who.

Though the books may not be as well known outside the world of Science Fiction, the phrase “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” has become a well known literary concept, due in large part to the other media it has appeared in. It gained immense popularity as a radio show, as well as a British TV series. It was a computer game, a stage show, a comic book adaption, and it was a 2005 film.

Why a towel? The story of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy starts with the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it (I hope I haven’t spoiled anything) which kicks off a tour of the Milky Way Galaxy using a guide to it, found in an electronic book. Think iPad. This guidebook often quotes the Encyclopedia Galactica — a tribute to Isaac Asimov’s seminal sci-fi trilogy Foundation – though contrasts itself with it by saying: ”…it is slightly cheaper; and second, it has the words ‘DON’T PANIC’ inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.”

We learn from the Hitchhiker’s Guide that:

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value… more importantly, a towel has immense psychological value …any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

This idea of a towel is perfectly consistent with, and in harmony with Linus’ comments in A Charlie Brown Christmas.

I leave you with this thought regarding Life, the Universe, and Everything…

If the Answer is 42
What is the Question?

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

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1. History of Australia Day
2. History of Star Trek: 45 Years On
3. History of A Christmas Carol: A ghost story of Christmas
4. History of Guy Fawkes Day: How gunpowder mixed with Parliament
5. History of Black Friday: One day only?

MEMORIAL DAY: WHY WE FIGHT

The world is different than it was even a decade ago as we celebrate Memorial Day. We now are fighting more than one war, and we now remember why we fight. The History Channel re-runs the HBO series “Band of Brothers,” the adaptation of the Stephen Ambrose book about a company of soldiers from the landing at Normandy through the end of the World War II.

During WWII my father crossed paths a couple of times with the Company E mentioned in “Band of Brothers.” Once at the Battle of the Bulge and later while liberating the Dachau Concentration Camp.

My father’s story was originally told in part on HBO’s website during the premier, regarding the episode entitled “Why We Fight” on the liberation of Dachau and its many subcamps.

His full story is told in pictures at billpetro.com/johnpetro. He rarely volunteered to me information about the War, but when I did ask specific questions, he would answer. He left me pictures taken during the liberation of Dachau. Ironically, during a visit to Dachau, when I told the workers at this modern memorial that my father had participated in the liberation, they all asked me the same question: “Do you have pictures?” I still have these pictures of those who survived, who looked like skeletons. I also have pictures of the skeletons of those who did not survive, of the open boxcars with bodies piled high.

Dachau gate: “Work Makes Free”

My father had seen a lot of action during the war and later was in charge of three P.O.W. camps for German prisoners, but nothing prepared him for what he saw at Dachau. He said that he watched his commanders vomit when they saw the camps. Those who were liberated were like the dead, they could not believe that they were finally being freed.

At the end of the tour when I stood before this plaque attached to the tunnel leading up to the gate shown above, even with the school children running around playing in the yard on their field trip day, I wept as I considered the bravery of my father’s group, Rainbow Division, one of three divisions to liberate the camp.

These gruesome images must never be forgotten. It must never be forgotten what barbarism man is capable of committing toward fellow men. But some may say, “I don’t want to think about it, surely no one believes that these atrocities were justified, that they’d ever be repeated.” But only three decades ago, an organization asked to use University of California conference grounds property for a meeting. This request was later denied when it was learned that the organization requesting the facilities maintained that the Holocaust was a hoax, that it did not really occur. There was also a corresponding outcry that this organizations’ free speech rights were being violated.

A person who remembers the past can be grateful for the freedoms that were purchased at great cost by those who went before them. They can memorialize those who fought and died, they can honor those against whom horrors were committed. A person without this sense of history is a severed person, self-referential, cut off from the past. If you get a chance this weekend, rent Ken Burns’ excellent series The War.

On this Memorial Day, the words of George Santayana, Harvard philosopher and poet are most apt:

“Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.”

Bill Petro, son of John Petro
www.billpetro.com

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HISTORY OF MEMORIAL DAY

The city of Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, an American village on the National Historic Register, claims to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, as do some 24 other towns in America. But Boalsburg’s claim goes back to a practice at the end of the Civil War. It does have a local museum, and a history that stretches back over two centuries. Its claim is supported by pointing out, on a large sign near the center of town that:

The custom of decorating soldiers’ graves was begun here in October, 1864, by Emma Hunter, Sophie Keller, and Elizabeth Myers.

Named for David Boal who settled here in 1798. Village laid out in 1808. Boalsburg Tavern built in 1819. Post Office established 1820. First church erected 1827. Home community of three United States ambassadors.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian

www.billpetro.com

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CINCO DE MAYO

Cinco de Mayo is frequently regarded as the Mexican equivalent of the United States 4th of July. This is incorrect. In actuality, it is the equivalent of the “5th of May” in the Spanish language. Another misconception is that this has something to do with Mayonnaise. That too is a bum spread, as the condiment had its origin with the French, who will come into our story later. Nor does it have to do with County Mayo in Ireland, though we’ll make sure the Irish get into this story at some point. Rather, the “Battle of Cinco de Mayo” or specifically the Battle of Puebla, occurred on May 5, 1862.

Background: President Benito Juarez, who had been Zapotec Indian minister of Justice in Juan Alvarez‘ cabinet in the 1850′s, entered Mexico City on January 11, 1861 and promptly expelled the Spanish minister, the papal legate, and members of the episcopate. Additionally, he took steps to enforce the decrees of 1859, dis-endowing and disestablishing the church. He could not have known then that almost a century later, “antidisestablishmentarianism” would become the longest word in the English dictionary. Although Juarez was recognized by the United States and had received both moral and military aid from the US, there were over $80,000,000 in debts at that time to Europe alone. The Mexican Congress in July 17, 1861 decreed the suspension for 2 years of interest payments on the external national debt, and 3 months later a convention occurred between Great Britain, France, and Spain calling for joint intervention in Mexico.

As European forces advanced, and particularly French troops, their advance was checked at Puebla on May 5, 1862. The Mexican forces under the command of Texas-born General Ignacio Zaragosa managed to defeat a larger and better equipped French force.

However, the next year Napoleon III of France sent almost five times as many troops to Mexico to take over and install a puppet ruler, his relative the Archduke Maximillian of Austria, though he was defeated four years later.

Many believe that Cinco de Mayo is universally celebrated in Mexico as a day of independence. This is wrong on two counts. First, the call for Mexican independence, the Grito de Dolores, was made by Miguel Hidalgo at the town of Dolores on September 16, 1810, though it was not recognized by the Spanish viceroy until 1821. Secondly, because it is not a federal holiday, Cinco de Mayo is not widely celebrated in Mexico, except in Puebla, the largest city in the state of Puebla, Mexico. Elsewhere in Mexico it is observed with eating, drinking, and dancing. In the United States, however, it is widely recognized along the border states that have significant Mexican-American populations, especially in California, to celebrate Hispanic pride and culture, not unlike Irish-Americans do on St. Patrick’s Day.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

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MAY DAY

May Day is many things to many people. Etymologically, it is a homophone (same sounding word) for the international call for help. It is a corruption of the French imperative “M’aidez” meaning “Help me!” As a holiday it is claimed by many. It is known in the pagan world as Beltane, a fertility celebration, one of the four high holidays in the pagan calendar, Samhain on October 31 is another. Beltane is the day of fire commemorating Bel or Belenos, the Celtic sun god. Indeed, in the modern Irish language, Bealtaine is the name for the month of May. The early Anglo-Saxons began their celebration on the eve before, feasting the end of winter and the first planting. It was a time of revelry and abandon — note the song from the musical Camelot “It’s May, it’s May, the lusty month of May” — with the selection of a May Queen and the ribbons of the Maypole. But this day’s celebration of the revival of vegetation goes back to the Roman practice of visiting the grotto of Egena. The people of ancient Rome honored Flora, the goddess of flowers and springtime.

In 1886 it was co-opted as an international workers day to celebrate the 8-hour workday movement, following national strikes in the US and Canada. Later, the French declared May 1 the International Working Men’s Association holiday in 1889. Some countries consider May Day a bank holiday. This “Labor Day” is on one of the non-holy days in the calendar.

Occasionally, May 1st also marks the National Day of Prayer in the U.S. This day of non-sectarian prayer is observed on different days usually around the beginning of May and goes back to 1775 when the first day of prayer was declared when the Continental Congress “designated a time for prayer in forming a new nation.” President Lincoln proclaimed a day of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in 1863. In 1952, a joint resolution by Congress, signed by President Truman, declared an annual, national day of prayer. In 1988, the law was amended and signed by President Reagan, permanently setting the day as the first Thursday of every May.

A pagan festival, a labor day, or a day of prayer. May Day is many things to many people.

How will you observe May Day?

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

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HISTORY OF EARTH DAY

April 22 is called Earth Day because it both commemorates and celebrates the observance of the anniversary of our discovery of planet Earth. At this time by all accounts, there is general agreement that Earth is far superior to the place from which we came, as we shall recount below.

Recently, however, there has been increased concern regarding our displacement of the original aboriginal inhabitants, as is often the case with more “enlightened” conquerors, which we like to think of ourselves.

The indigenous population, a kind of Eukaryota or more specifically Archaeplastida, is known in the vernacular as plants. You cannot have missed the increased coverage in the media on all things “green.” Of course, the Irish were the first to capitalize on this theme, but now everyone seems to have jumped on the bandwagon, with everything from green vehicles to green computing.

Even Google is gaining ground in going green, gathering gajillions of Gmail guests giddy with great gobs of gleefully garnered gigabytes of storage.

Increased recognition of this under-represented previous population of our planet, sometimes persecuted almost to the point of extinction — when was the last time you saw a chocolate bush? — has brought greater attention to rampant plantocide: witness for example that in Kansas whole fields of corn continue to be slaughtered.

Hence, this year there is special attention paid to underprivileged plants, with the motto:
 

“Take A Plant To Lunch…But Don’t Eat It.”

Instead, responsible Earth people might consider an alternative. One could chose instead animals, which already have the good sense to be made of meat. And they are higher in protein, like chocolate, one of the other four food groups.

So, in celebration, let’s respect our plant brethren. They’re often at least as intelligent as some people you know: have you ever noticed how a sunflower tracks the movement of the sun? Think about it. They’re also quiet and, while generally not good conversationalists, are better behaved than many human children.

Of course, this is with the exception of fungi, the so-called “trailer trash” of the plant kingdom, which have been disowned for phylogenic reasons, not to mention their being “photosynthetically challenged.” Some of these heterotrophs have, through remedial education, found a home in breweries and Italian cuisine.

Nevertheless, plants, as you’ll recall, are one of the reasons we came to Earth. Some of the other reasons include:

• Location: it’s right here. Look just below your feet.

• Memorable: it’s shaped like the AT&T logo.

• Spherical: which makes it convenient for those “round the world” trips and has a much more pleasing shape than where we came from. Did you ever wonder why we called the previous generation “squares?” Think about it.

• Great restaurants: and great atmosphere, unlike, for example, the Moon which has great restaurants but no atmosphere.

• Oxygen-Nitrogen atmosphere: so crucial for those of us who breathe, and better than methane in so many ways.

• Gravity: which is set at a convenient “one-g,” quite handy for keeping everything in its place.

• Neighbors: generally far enough away that they don’t bother us much, and those who do are generally more intelligent than average, needing to understand things like calculus, tachyons, and three-phase cyclotronic nuclear-fissionable uranium isotope molecular reconstructors for trans-dimensional physics.

I don’t know about you, but I’m planning on spending the rest of my life right here on Earth. I have other plans thereafter.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood Earthling
www.billpetro.com

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Related posts:

1. Science of the Winter Solstice
2. History of Leap Year
3. History of Australia Day
4. History of The Spring: What is the Equinox?

HISTORY OF APRIL 19

Many of my Facebook friends have asked me to write an article on the History of April 19th. Why? What important things have happened historically on this date in history? There are many, here are just three:

• Reformation – 1529

On April 19, at the Second Diet of Speyer the first use of the term Protestant occurred. What was the context? Back in the First Diet of Speyer, Germany in 1526, followers of Martin Luther in Germany and Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland understood that the Roman Church would permit the toleration of Lutheran and Swiss Reformed versions of worship, essentially suspending the impact of the Edict of Worms, which back in 1521 had declared Luther to be an outlaw and banned the reading or possession of his writings. (He had already been religiously excommunicated by the Pope the previous year in 1520.) German Princes understood now that cujus regio, ejus religio — literally “Whose realm, his religion” or roughly “the religion of the Prince is the religion of is territory.” This meant that if a Prince followed Luther, so too could his people. However, if the First Diet suspended the Edict of Worms, the Second Diet reinstated it, or more particularly excluded toleration for Lutherans, Zwinglians or Anabaptists. A group of German Princes formally filed a legal “protest” and were called Protestants.

• Revolution – 1775

April 19 two centuries later saw the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, also known as the War of Independence. The event that triggered this was The Battles of Lexington and Concord. Across four small towns in Middlesex County, Massachusetts (modern day Arlington and Cambridge) the first armed conflicts of the War occurred, following the the rapid warning system and the ride of Paul Revere, and the engagement of the Sons of Liberty, resulting in the death of perhaps 103 Americans.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his Concord Hymn recounts this episode of history with the words “the shot heard ’round the world.” What is perhaps less well known is that it was his own grandfather, the Reverend William Emerson, an ordinary country preacher, who played a role in the story. The month before, on March 13 he had preached a sermon to the Concord militia of the “approaching storm of war and bloodshed” calling them to “real service” based on moral and spiritual resolve trusting on God’s power to uphold them. He said:

“For my part, the more I reflect upon the movements of the British nation… the more satisfied I am that our military preparation here for our own defense is… justified in the eyes of the impartial world. Nay, for should we neglect to defend ourselves by military preparation, we could never answer it to God and to our own consciences…”

• Reflection

Two centuries later, for me April 19 is the date I celebrate the birthday of my twin sister. She claims that she’s an only child, but I recall that she was born at a young age to get an early start in life. She was born in a hospital, so she could be close to our mother.

Why is April 19 important to you?

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

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2. History of Global Social Media Holiday: April 16=Foursquare Day
3. History of Australia Day
4. History of the Super Bowl: Just another Religious Holiday?
5. History of the Marathon

HISTORY OF THE MARATHON

Today in Boston, Massachusetts is the running of the Boston Marathon the oldest and longest running (no pun intended) annual marathon event, at least in the Western World. It began in 1897, the year following the reintroduction of the marathon competition in the first modern Olympics in 1896. This large event typically features roughly 20,000 participants and is one of more than 800 marathons held each year worldwide. It is held annually on Patriots’ Day which used to be fixed on April 19, but is now the third Monday in April.

The race begins in Hopkinton, Massachusetts where buses drop off the runners in front of the world headquarters of EMC Corporation, and the traffic nearby gets congested. The course winds east toward Boston, about a “marathon’s distance” away or 26.22 miles where it ends at Copley Square. Traditionally, the Boston Red Sox baseball team holds a game at Fenway Park to coincide with the race finishing the last mile in front of Kenmore Square.

Originally the word Marathon comes from the legendary run of Pheidippides, a Greek soldier who ran from Marathon to Athens in ancient Greece. The story goes that he ran all the way between these two cities without stopping until he arrived at the Senate where he proclaimed “We have won” against the Persians and then fell from a heart attack and died. The 1st century historian Plutarch first records in writing this story quoting a lost work. In the late 19th century Robert Browning immortalized the runner in his poem “Pheidippides” cementing the story into popular historic legend.

Traditionally the word Marathon has become synonymous with a long endurance race in contrast to a shorter sprint race. The Marathon was a popular feature in the ancient Olympics and even the Apostle Paul seems to have been aware of it — King Herod the Great sponsored the Olympic games of 12 B.C. — and St. Paul was perhaps alluding to the Olympics when he wrote to the church in Corinth:

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly.

1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

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FOURSQUARE DAY

In the history of holidays, we see new holidays each year. Some are beautiful, some are nerdy. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide which one this is. This year, the latest event for the cognoscenti, for those “in the know,” for the hipper-than-thou, is Foursquare Day.

Four squared is 4 x 4=16, so 4 / 16 or April 16, 2010 was the inaugural date for this eponymous holiday.

Last year New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proclaimed Saturday, April 16, 2011, “Foursquare Day.” New York joins over a dozen other cities that have already officially recognized the Foursquare fan-created social media day.

What is Foursquare?

Foursquare is a social networking system that uses location based services to permit people to “check-in” at various locations around the world: restaurants, cafes, stores, parks, museums, clubs, even churches. You can “add” locations if they don’t yet exist in the Foursquare service. As you check-in to a location more frequently, you can earn “badges” to impress your friends and neighbors. With a high enough rank, you can become “Mayor” of a location. The proprietor of said establishment may offer special perks for the Mayor.

How do you start?

After signing up for an account at foursquare.com, you can connect with your contacts from Gmail, Facebook or Twitter. You can add “tips” for what people might do at these locations, or “to-dos” for yourself. After you “check in” you can publish your location to the social “presence” services like Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr.

Brands are starting to use Foursquare to promote their name and generate buzz. Companies are using Foursquare to connect with their customers, and Foursquare has published APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that permit developers to integrate with their applications.

What happens on this holiday?

It will be celebrated in over 100 major cities, including Seoul, Budapest, Kuala Lumpur, Dublin, Pune, Sydney and Tampa. Some call it the first “global social media holiday.” Hyperbole aside,

If you have the Foursquare app on your smartphone — iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry — your GPS chip  determines your location by Global Positioning so you too can participate in this holiday. The latest news is on the Foursquare Day blog or Facebook page.

What’s the objective?

If you check-in at more places, and at the same place more frequently, than other users — you might generate the highest amount of points in your area and earn special badges for specific kinds of check-ins. Example: a user who checks into 20 different pizza places can earn the coveted “Pizzaiolo” badge, or the “Swarm” badge for checking into a Foursquare venue with at least 50 other users, like airports. Others will be shooting for the special badge pictured at the top of the article.

What’s the origin of this holiday?

It started in 2010 with an idea by a Foursquare user in Tampa Bay, Florida named Nate Bonilla-Warford. An optometrist by training, Nate floated the idea on Foursquare’s online forum, being amused by simple number relationships like squares and primes. You’re probably aware of holidays like Pi Day on March 14 (3.14), or Star Wars Day on May 4, “May the Force (May the 4th) be with you.”

What’s unique about Foursquare?

While most social networking sites have “presence” systems, where you can set your status, or “what you’re doing,” and many have location based services, like Yelp, Google+, Facebook, and Twitter — Foursquare rolls all this into a “game,” a competition between friends, a way of connecting with them and seeing their social (and local) trends.

Caveat:

Foursquare tells people where you are. By implication, it also suggests where you’re not — like at home, for example. If public visibility of your location or non-location presents a privacy or security risk for you, perhaps you might reconsider getting in this game.

So, where will you be on 4 /16? Here’s where I’ve been: foursquare.com/billpetro

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

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PASSOVER

This year, the sunset on the evening of April 6 marks the beginning of Passover. Exodus 12 in the Bible tells the story of Passover from the life of Moses. Ten plagues were visited upon the Egyptian pharaoh (starring Yul Brenner, but he was much better in “The King and I”) to get his attention to release the Children of Israel from bondage. The final plague was the death of the first-born son. The Jews were to smear the blood of a lamb upon their door posts, so that the angel of death would “Passover” them unharmed. Pharaoh relented and released the Israelites.

In making their hasty exit, the Jews did not have time to let their bread rise, so in commemoration, they celebrate the Passover Seder (“order”) meal with unleavened bread (motzo), bitter herbs, and roast lamb to be eaten in traveling garb. The term is often used interchangeably with the term Feast of Unleavened Bread at least in St. Luke’s Gospel (Chapter 22:1) though the first century Pharisees marked its start on the day after Passover. Nevertheless, during the seven days following Passover, only unleavened bread was eaten.

This was a major holiday in the Jewish calendar when Jews from all over the world return to Jerusalem. During Passion Week, which was at Passover, the Jerusalem of Jesus’ time would have tripled from its population of about 50,000.

Could “The Last Supper” (made famous by Leonardo da Vinci’s painting now hanging in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazia in Milan) that Jesus had with his disciples in the Upper Room have been a Passover meal? It seems likely from the New Testament Gospels, and the Epistles make it explicit. It was at about the right time in the calendar. Some churches commemorate this meal by using unleavened bread for their Communion Eucharist.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian

www.billpetro.com

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