It is Sunday, February 7.  I know, where has the time gone?  we are already 1/12^th of the way through the year!  There are only 211 days until Labor Day so watch for those back to school specials.  Today we remember the birthdays of Anna Ivanova Romanova, Frederick Douglass and Eubie Blake.  On this day in 1668 Dutch Prince William III danced in the premiere of “Ballet of Peace”, in 1818 the first successful US educational magazine “Academician” began and in 1974 Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles opened in movie theaters.  In Switzerland yesterday was Homstrom, in Grenada today is Independence Day and World-wide it is Boy Scouts Day.

First let me make a point that I am pretty sure I have not made in a while.  When you look at the top of this blog it says that it was published on February 6.  I actually wait until it is Sunday, in this case February 7, to publish.  Apparently while I am publishing it here on the east coast on Sunday, it is being received on the left coast on Saturday.  You gotta love time zones.  I hope that clears up any confusion that may arise from the difference in dates.

Next, you might remember that last week I was lamenting the lack of cool holidays in the US.  Another example of that is the holiday in Switzerland – Homstrom.  One of the things that makes this interesting is that it celebrates the end of winter.  They are celebrating the end of winter on the first weekend in February!  That in itself is just a little strange.  I believe I covered this last year, but I just thought you might like a little refresher.

The "hom strom" is the famous "Straw Man of Scuol" that is set alight on the first Saturday in February every year. On that day, the boys of Scuol go from farm to farm collecting straw which they then take down to the village square. There, it is artfully tied together to make a huge straw man. Come the afternoon, "l’hom strom" is taken to Gurlaina and there set up ready for burning and carefully guarded to protect him from pranksters. At dusk, the people of Scuol parade through the village streets singing songs and once they have arrived at the Gurlaina set a light to the straw man they went to such lengths to make. This death by fire symbolizes the rapidly approaching end of winter.

Also, last week I discussed some issues I had with commercials for various drugs.  Another question came to me this week as I was confronted by more of these commercials.  Here is my question – what makes the creators of this stuff think that I will be moved to ask about their product by seeing animated organs such as the bladder and the digestive system?  I like the one where the digestive system walks along, looks in a fish tank, sits down at a table and starts to peruse a menu.  When the commercial ends the announcer says ask your doctor if such and such a drug is right for you.  Why can’t the blobby digestive system ask the doctor.  If it can read a menu, it should be able to do that.

The other issue I have with this is why should you have to ask your doctor?  If he or she is current in their field, they should know about the drug and would probably prescribe it for you if you needed it.  Would it not be reasonable to assume that if he is not suggesting it, it is because it is not right for you or you don’t need it?  If you have so little confidence in your doctor that you have to start asking him about medicines, maybe you need to change doctors.

Now how’s this for a segue – that brings me to commercials that have been showing for an insurance company.  They keep talking about how their company is better than the other ones because they don’t raise your rates when you have an accident and the others do and that you should change your company.  One or two of the commercials are good and talk about how you are hit by someone else and they take care of you.  The others are not so good and one I find a little stupid.  There are ways to get a message across, but generally I think they just miss the mark.  The one that really gets me is the one where the person is talking about all the research you do before buying a car, then it goes on to say that you smash your new car into a tree.  The commercial says that your insurance company is ready to raise your rates and maybe you should have researched the insurance company.  No!  You should have spent some time learning how to drive well enough that you could have avoided hitting the tree in the first place.

This week our fact tells us that 55,700 people in the US are injured by jewelry each year.  A good portion of those injuries are preceded by the words, “You slept with my best friend?”