Morning Folks March 1 2008

Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit y'all!

It's March 1. The 61st day of the year, because it is a Leap Year. Usually it is the 60th day of the year. There are 305 days left in the year 2008.

Ron Howard is 54 today. Can you believe Opie is 54 years old?

And on this date in 1692 the scene was set for the Salem Witch Trials the first of the interrogations began.

And in 1445 Botticelli was born.

and the Hoover Dam was completed on March 1, 1936.

Speaking of Rabbits and March, perhaps we should say Hare, Hare, Hare this month. After all, the March Hare is a familiar Lewis G Carroll character.

In Through the Looking Glass Alice says:

"The March Hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won't be raving mad -- at least not so mad as it was in March."

But what is a March Hare anyway?

Huh?

I had always thought it was a specific kind of rabbit, like a jackrabbit. You know how you get these ideas when you are a kid and they just stick? Well, I looked it up and found out that "Mad as a March Hare" is an idiom from England that was supposed to have been coined by Sir Thomas More in the 1500s.

Apparently hares act particularly crazy in the month of March, when mating season starts in Britain. They jump vertically for no reason, they box each other standing on hind legs

and act generally "mad", dazed and confused and, well, hare brained!

For our New England Folks, March is coming in like a lion but should be going out like a lamb, as far as the weather goes, that is. That is what I always thought the phrase meant. But on further investigation, I find it originally referred to the constellations Leo, the Lion, and Aries, the ram or lamb.

It has to do with the positions of these constellations in the sky at the beginning and end of the month. Isn't that interesting? I thought it was.

Among other things, March is National Furniture Refinishing Month,

National Peanut Month,

National Foot Health Month,

and my favorite...

National Noodle Month.

March 1 is National Pig Day, by the way.

And you thought the only special day in March was Saint Patrick's Day!

And don't forget that other March Hare. This year the Easter Bunny makes an appearance in March.

So, enjoy National Pig Day and Happy Birthday Opie.

Have a great day!

Love,

Suz