Beware The Ides of March 2023

Ides simply referred to first new moon,

which usually fell between

the thirteenth and fifteenth day

of a given month.

 

Smithsonian Magazine history buff

Tom A. Frail

posted March 4, 2010 issue

url = https://www.smithsonianmag.com/

history/top-ten-reasons-to-beware-

the-ides-of-march-8664107/

top ten reasons to
beware the ides of march.

 

The following events all occurred
fifteenth of March

across span of millenniums.

 

One: Assassination of fifty five year old

Julius Caesar, 44 Before Common Era
Two thousand and sixty seven years ago
conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus

stab dictator-for-life Julius Caesar

to death before the Roman senate.

 

Two: A Raid on Southern England,
1360 Anno Domini.
A French raiding party begins

a 48-hour spree of rape, pillage and murder

in southern England.

 

King Edward III interrupts

his own pillaging spree in France

to launch reprisals,

writes historian Barbara Tuchman,

“on discovering that the French

could act as viciously in his realm

as the English did in France.”

 

Three: Samoan Cyclone, 1889
A cyclone wrecks six warships—

three U.S., three German—

in the harbor at Apia, Samoa,

leaving more than 200 sailors dead.

 

(On the other hand,

the ships represented

each nation’s show of force

in a competition to see

who would annex Samoan islands;

the disaster averted a likely war).

 

Four: Czar Nicholas II

abdicates his throne, 1917
Czar Nicholas II of Russia

signs his abdication papers,

ending a 304-year-old royal dynasty

and ushering in Bolshevik rule.

 

He and his family taken captive

and, in July 1918, executed

before a firing squad.

 

Five: Germany Occupies Czechoslovakia, 1939
Just six months after

Czechoslovak leaders ceded Sudetenland,

Nazi troops seize provinces

of Bohemia and Moravia,

effectively wiping Czechoslovakia

off the map.

 

Six: A Deadly Blizzard

on the Great Plains, 1941
A Saturday-night blizzard

strikes northern Great Plains,

leaving at least 60 people dead

in North Dakota and Minnesota

and six more

in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

 

A light evening snow

did not deter people from going out—

“after all, Saturday night

meant time for socializing,”

Diane Boit of Hendrum, Minnesota,

would recall—but “suddenly

the wind switched,

and a rumbling sound

could be heard as

60 mile-an-hour winds

swept down out of the north.”

 

Seven: World Record Rainfall, 1952
Rain falls on Indian Ocean island

of La Réunion—and keeps falling,

hard enough to register world’s

most voluminous 24-hour rainfall: 73.62 inches.

 

Eight: CBS Cancels

the “Ed Sullivan Show,” 1971
Word leaks that CBS-TV
cancelled “The Ed Sullivan Show”

after 23 years on the network,

which also dumped Red Skelton

and Jackie Gleason

in the preceding month.

 

A generation mourns.

 

Nine: Disappearing Ozone Layer, 1988
NASA reports the ozone layer

over Northern Hemisphere

depleted three times faster than predicted.

 

Ten: A New Global Health Scare, 2003
After accumulating reports

of a mysterious respiratory disease

afflicting patients and healthcare workers

in China, Vietnam, Hong Kong,

Singapore and Canada,

the World Health Organization

issues a heightened global health alert.

 

The disease became famous

under the acronym SARS

(for Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome).

Elemental forces of style at large

which indiscriminate merciless whims extant

ask Homer Simpson or Marge

g'head and even tap

a local, county, or state Sarge

gent on the shoulder, cuz

he or she would moost likely agree

that this Month predicated

on The Gregorian calendar me

didst axe Mister Google,

(who whiz courtesy enough prithee)
to validate premise about

when Time Construct came a boot re:

 

(named after Pope Gregory XIII, who

introduced it in October fifteen eighty two)

from that date to present,

the most widely

Attention Network Test (ANT) queue

test used civil calendar,

(though feel welcome to challenge above)

and when brand new
(involved approximately

0.002% correction knew

this margin of error in length

of Julian calendar year) allowing hue

 

man accurate measurement passage

as days, weeks, months...elapsed

unimportant to the average Joe,
(not quite five hundred years ago)

returning home on his emu

no matter male gendered

wordsmith named Matthew

 

cuz this flightless fast-running bird dinned,

poe whit lorry yet (wannabe)

nose tubby directed related door sill finned

and after posting blurb held pinned

regarding veracity of information

dog gone harassed primate hoo haint sinned

graced with surname Harris,

and gladly boasts being full of wind

 

which trivia finds this barred bard

(as iz his usual wont

i.e. digressing ludicrously wayward

from primary cole lord thread)

 

from initial intent, vis a vis,

how all life forms stretching

within the bounds of quisling

to an affable, convivial, and filial King

Crimson (reddit in the face),

yet knew everything liken ace

that comprised tome base

comprise zing knowledge

booking (to chase

winter blues) at getaway

gracefully re: Bedrock Cave

with proprietors of said place

Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone

offered ample space

to discuss preparations to cope

with onset of infrequent roaring blizzard

(via ominous clouds that didst trace)

 

plus minimizing setbacks affecting

the then most advanced stone age

during wrathful outbursts from beige
flesh toned gabbing Goddess,

whose gentle giantess goodness,

one could gauge

which genteel manners evident

also asper her page

gave inside information,

how to batten down hatches

while tethered like a puppet

on the then much younger global stage.