President's Day facts and history

On Monday February 15, 2016 we celebrate Presidents day and I thought it would be nice to list a few interesting President's Day facts and history about the holiday, so here goes:

1. President’s Day originally commemorated George Washington’s Birthday on February 22.

2. Due to the uniform Monday holiday act, President’s Day (As it is now known) falls on the third Monday in February.

3. Since the New Date fell between Abraham Lincoln and George Washington’s birthdays, many felt that it honored both statesmen; President’s day was born.

4. Since Presidents Day now fell on a three-day weekend, marketers used this day to clear out old winter stock and “President’s Day sales” began.

5. Some states use President’s Day to celebrate others on that day. Arkansas celebrates Washington and Daisy Gatson Bates a civil rights activist, while Alabama also celebrates Thomas Jefferson who was born in April.

6. Today President’s Day celebrates all presidents, past and present.

7. Traditionally cherries are the order of the day. Whether it is cherry pie, cherry cobbler or just plain cherries many consume cherries on this day. This is in reference to the story, whether it be truth or myth of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree.

8. George Washington was born in Virginia. (Can you tell I’m proud of my home state?) He was born in Westmorland County in 1732. He lived his boyhood years in Fredericksburg at Ferry farms and his later years at Mount Vernon. If you are ever in Virginia be sure to visit some of these historical sites.

I hope you enjoyed these President's Day facts and brief history.  If you would like to learn more about George Washington the following links will give you more information.

Washington's Birthplace

Ferry farms Washington's Boyhood home

Mount Vernon

Abcdefghi…we come to J. J is for jonquil

 Gee, this ABC book is getting harder.  Hmmm what could J be for?  How about Jonquil? Well, I’ve always heard that some people call a certain yellow flower a daffodil while others call it a Jonquil.  Still others insist it is a narcissus.  So what is the difference?

 “In some parts of the country any yellow daffodil is called a jonquil, usually incorrectly. As a rule, but not always, jonquil species and hybrids are characterized by several yellow flowers, strong scent, and rounded foliage. The hybrids are confined to Division 7 and the term "jonquil" should be applied only to daffodils in Division 7 or species in Division 13 known to belong to the jonquil group.”

Source: American daffodil society

The name Narcissus comes from the Greek myth.  It seems that Narcissus was a very handsome and vain hunter. Echo, a nymph, fell hopelessly in love with him.  He wasn’t interested, however, and instead looked into a pond where he fell in love with his own reflection.  Eventually he died and in his place was a beautiful flower—a Narcissus.

So what is it, jonquil, daffodil or narcissus? It's an apples and oranges conundrum it seems.

You can decide, but in my ABC book J is for Jonquil-- whatever it is.

Brobdingnagian

The present tense of brobdinagian...and the future

The title word grabbed you didn’t it? I’ll be honest. It got me too.

I pride myself with having a pretty sizeable vocabulary.  In fact when my daughter was little she didn’t go to Merriam Webster for her definitions, she just asked mom. And now that she is grown, it is not unusual to receive a phone call from her asking me to define a word.  That’s me, good old mom the walking dictionary.

Being the conceited wordsmith I imagine myself to be, it took me aback when watching one of my favorite TV shows, “The big bang theory," one of the characters tossed out the word... “Brobdingnagian.”

I thought, hmmmm this is a TV show, and it can’t be a real word, so I looked it up and sure as shooting Mr. Webster disagreed.  It is a word and it means marked by tremendous size.  The origins are appropriately related to "Brobdingnag" the imaginary land of giants in Gulliver’s Travels. 

I guess you really can learn something new from television, even if it isn’t on the discovery channel. Excepting reality TV shows, the descriptive phrase "Boob tube" is steadily becoming a brobdingnagian fallacy.

When my daughter and I play Words with friends (which we do all the time since I am such a nerd at heart) and she uses one of her off the wall words that no one has ever heard of, I will simply pull out brobdinagian and walk away with the win.