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I have a lot of history with various women. Some of this history I take pride in. Some of it I’m not so proud of. In essence, I find that the more history I have with myself; the better my history with women. I don’t know why or how this is; only that it “is”.

I can only attribute this to experience and growth. Any other causality escapes me. I’m certainly no sexist and believe that those who “can” should be allowed to “do” regardless of their genotype, i.e., the presence of a “Y” chromosome in the mix doesn’t make you qualified for anything in particular.

March is National Women’s History Month. This years theme is “Writing Women Back into History”; and while I’m all for celebrating who you are and what you’re all about I find the entire notion of the theme to appear to project a downtrodden feminist spun appearance to the entire observance … you know, womyn and other purveyors of militant misandry.

While I do recognize the subservient history evident as late as the 60s; it is my experience that women these days are sometimes given more than their fair share of “breaks” and most certainly there should not be any ‘Benson and Hedges’ ad style to all this going on.

The so-called ‘glass ceiling’ — oh and yes, the “good ole boy club” women in banking and other industries complain of may still certainly exist. I’m just saying that mechanisms exist by which they may be eliminated and that the best candidate should prevail in the workplace in lieu of promotion based on gender.

So flame away if you must … and forgive my arrogance, but I’ve worked for one conniving, lying, dullard educator too many — who just happens to be female, incompetent, and utterly unnoteworthy.

Happy National Women’s History Month. Now get out there and write that history … regardless of how much fluff it takes. Everybody has a special interest group anymore. It can’t just be “history” now.

This day in 1959 marked the final television appearance of Groucho, Harpo, and Chico Marx together.

On March 8, 1959 the 30 minute TV film “The Incredible Jewel Robbery” broadcast at 9:00 p.m. on the General Electric Theater and is the last film to feature three Marx Brothers on television — though Groucho makes a cameo appearance in a plot where Harpo and Chico pull off a jewel heist.

The end of a comedic era and I was but four years old.

When I was in the Navy Jimmy Carter was the commander in chief.

As peanut farmer (just like Thomas Jefferson) he was the subject to various jokes in which I would participate from time to time.

I also recall being infuriated by some of the choices he made during his time in office because I thought he politicized things better left to purely social strata … like boycotting the olympics and the Mariel boatlift when it was discovered that a number of the exiles had been released from Cuban jails and mental health facilities.

Be all of this as it may, in retrospect I would have to say that Mr. Carter is singularly one of the most decent individuals to ever walk this Earth … perhaps to a fault from some perspectives — but he is still an exceptionally good person and should be recognized as such.

March is National Peanut Month

March is National Peanut Month, time to celebrate one of America’s favorite foods!

National Peanut Month had its beginnings as National Peanut Week in 1941. It was expanded to a month-long celebration in 1974.

Roasted in the shell for a ballpark snack, ground into peanut butter or tossed in a salad or stir-fry, peanuts find their way into everything from breakfast to dessert.

Though they’re not actually nuts, but legumes just like lentils, beans, peas and so forth we in the United States consume some three pounds of peanut butter on average annually.

An acre of peanuts will make about 30,000 peanut butter sandwiches. A serving of peanuts is a good source for protein, Niacin, folate, Vitamin E, Magnesium, and Phosphorus. Peanuts are naturally cholesterol-free and low in saturated fat.

Nothing of the peanut goes to waste. The shells are used for numerous products like paper, animal feed, burned as fuels, kitty litter … and the list goes on.

It’s a sad fact that persons have allergies to peanuts which cause varying levels of distress which include anaphylaxsis and death. If you ever have an adverse reaction to eating peanuts you should discontinue eating them and consult a physician without delay.

For most, however, peanuts are a wonderful thing. I eat them regularly.

Hinamatsuri
aka The Japanese Doll Festival
aka Girls’ Day

Held on March 3^rd, the third day of the third month.

Platforms covered with a red carpet are used to display a set of ornamental dolls representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period which means “peace and tranquility” in Japanese and refers to the years 794 through 1185 — which corresponds to that era when the doll display custom started.

There are customary foods and beverages served and different regional placement orders for the dolls on tiered display … more so horizontally than vertically.

People once thought that the dolls had a power to contain bad spirits.

Hinamatsuri traces its origins to an ancient Japanese custom called hina-nagashi “doll floating” where straw hina dolls are set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea, supposedly taking troubles or bad spirits with them.

The Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto celebrates the Nagashibina by floating these dolls between the Takano and Kamo Rivers to pray for the safety of children.

People have stopped doing this now because of fishermen catching the dolls in their nets.

They now send them out to sea, and when the spectators are gone they take the boats out of the water and bring them back to the temple and burn them.

References to the holiday and its activities are often referred to in native film and music. The festival has also been depicted in modern anime.

You can bet that when I was engaged in my early childhood and elementary education at Irving School in Blackfoot, Idaho, Aragona Elementary School in Virginia Beach Virginia, and of course, George R. Fishburne Elementary School in Hanahan, South Carolina that I was a big fan of books by Dr. Seuss.

The first book he penned that I read was “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street”. I was hooked from that day forward and I believe I read about every children’s book that he wrote. My other favorites were “The Cat in the Hat” and “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish”.

I watched the animated version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” each holiday season more times that I can count. It was equally entertaining each and every time.

Though there was a depth my childhood perceptions failed to realize, the work of Dr. Seuss is likely a large part of the attitudes I have cultivated over the years with the subliminal mores and spin on his views which were in the mix of that which I read.

Theodor Seuss Geisel
March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991

American author, cartoonist, and animator best known for over 60 childrens books written under the nom de plume of Dr. Seuss. He was also a prolific illustrator for advertising and political cartoons.

My personal attempts at poetry lent extra appreciation for the hallmarks of his work — which include trisyllabic meter and impressive rhyme schemes. My loves of fantasy and whimsy were stimulated by his characters … which push the boundaries of imagination.

His work has been adapted for film, television, and even Broadway.

He won the 1947 Academy Award for Documentary Feature with an animated piece he did for the Department of the Army called “Design for Death”.

National Read Across America Day is an observance in the United States held on March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss.

One of the courses taken predominately by the male students at Wagener-Salley High School during that time I attended was called “agriculture”.

The Wagener-Salley area of rural Aiken county, South Carolina being a farm oriented place indeed; I decided to catch the wave and take the plunge, delving into a totally new area of didacticism.

It was taught by a pillar of the faculty turned local legend in his own time, Mr. Spencer Smith — who has the distinction of teaching not only me, but all my brothers as well as my father and all of his brothers.

Periodically the student would engage in assembly in the auditorium for various reasons which typically included segments of cultural entertainment.

One day it was a silhouette montage projection on a large cotton sheet backlit by floodlights. Here various students performed skits depicting persons from history.

One of these featured Kevin Hutchinson — whom I immediately recognized from the outline of his very distinctive and pronounced eyebrows — sitting at the piano which he began to play.

It was a soft somewhat sad piece by the person he was portraying in the montage, Frederic Chopin — which was revealed to me sometime after the performance.

Later that day Mr. Smith had related how he recognized both the music and composer thereof from it’s particular style.

Later in my life I came to appreciate the fact that Mr. Smith knew a lot of things besides agriculture.

That must be why my dad had so much respect for him his entire life.

Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin
aka Frédéric François Chopin

March 1, 1810 – October 17, 1849

Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. A child-prodigy of the keyboard, he was born in Warsaw, Poland in the village called Zelanowa Wola.

He was one of the great masters of the genre known as ‘Romantic Music’ which include pieces such as preludes, etudes, and nocturnes.

He wrote technically demanding pieces primarily for solo piano. He also invented several musical forms and contributed to the evolution and refinement of many others.

Having emigrated to France he made a comfortable living in Paris as a composer and piano teacher, while giving a few public performances.

Chopin suffered from poor health for most of his life and died in Paris in 1849, at the age of thirty-nine from pulmonary tuberculosis.