Today is Sunday, September 3 and there are only 113 days until Christmas.  Yes you read that right – 113 days until Christmas.  Time to shop for guar gum and polysorbate 80 so your Christmas cookies will last until Easter.  Today we remember the birthdays of Nicolo Amati, Prudence Crandall and Mitzi Gaynor.  On this day in 1189 England’s King Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) was crowned in Westminster, in 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the US Revolutionary War and in 1967 the final episode of “What’s My Line?” was aired.  In Monaco it is Liberation Day, In Qatar it is Independence Day, in the US it is National Welsh Rarebit Day and tomorrow, as I am sure everyone knows, is Labor Day.

We have tidbits about September to share so let’s get going.  September is the 9th month of the year and marks the beginning of autumn in the Northern hemisphere and the start of spring in the Southern hemisphere.  The name September comes from the Latin septem for seven, since this was the seventh month of the Roman calendar. The month was named during a time when the calendar year began with March, which is why its name no longer corresponds with its placement in the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

September has three birth flowers: the forget-me-not, the morning glory and the aster. Forget-me-nots represent love and memories, asters represent love as well, and the morning glory represents unrequited love. These are all very passionate flowers.  The birth stone for the month is the sapphire. 

Some important events occurred in September.  On September 5, 1774 the first Continental Congress was called to order, on September 9, 1776 Continental Congress changed the name of the United Colonies to the United States, on September 24, 1789 the US Supreme Court was established and on September 1, 1830 “Mary had a little lamb” was published.

Moving on, we come to Labor Day.  In the past I have regaled (?) you with a great deal of Labor Day information.  Rather than repeat that information and bore you with facts you already know, I am going to declare a holiday and not get into it this year, so relax and put away the holiday folder.

In looking up the national days, I noted that yesterday was National Tailgating Day and it reminded me of something from back in July that I wanted to tell you about and kept forgetting.  So, while it is back in my head, let me relate it.  I’m back.  I had to leave the room for a few minutes to refill my water glass.  Where was I? Oh, right, tailgating.  When planning our drive to Myrtle Beach in July, we decided that it would be wise to make the trip over two days.  When we arrived at the place where we would be spending the night we saw something interesting.  

In the parking lot of the motel there were three cars parked together at the back of the lot and there was a group of people there.  They had a couple grills set up, a small canopy and tables and chairs.  They were cooking food, tossing a football around and having a good time.  I was never able to figure out why they were tailgating in a motel parking lot.  There were no sporting events in the area.  I don’t know if they were guests of the motel or if the lot just looked like a good place to set up a party.  If it were me, I would have set up at the Walmart just up the road.  That way they could go in and buy anything they might have forgotten and they would have had the added benefit of seeing the Walmartians that came by.  Oh, well.

This past week Barbara and I took another trip down to the shore.  I will not go into the various sights we saw on the beach and the boardwalk, again.  Suffice it to say that those two locations are a people watcher’s paradise.  However, not to disappoint you, there was one individual that I wanted to tell you about.  We were sitting on the beach enjoying the sizable waves being churned up by the storm that was passing off to the east.  Swimming was not allowed, but there were still plenty of people there.

As we sat watching the waves, a guy walked down to the edge of the water.  He went into the water up to his knees and then came out and walked back so that the surf would not hit him.  After a minute of looking around, he turned and faced west.  He spread his legs slightly, put his hands on his hips, closed his eyes, put his head back and just stood there for several minutes.  Then he walked away.  I wondered what that was all about, but let it go.  

A short time later he came back down and stood in the same basic position.  This time he rolled the legs of his bathing suit up, took up his same pose and stood there some more.  Every so often, he would turn his head to one side and then the other, but always maintaining his basic pose.  You know the one I mean. The superman pose.  You could almost see the cape I am sure he was imagining.  When he walked away again, I asked Barbara what she thought that was all about.  She had no idea either.  

What got me was that he was sitting with a woman on the beach about 20 feet behind us, so if he was trying to get some sun, he could have just stood up and done it where he was.  Also if he was looking to work on his tan, he would have needed to stand there a lot longer than he did.  It was almost as if he felt it was important to share himself with everyone.  I think we were supposed to be impressed.  We were not.

This week our fact tells us that Anatidaephobia is the fear that somewhere in the world there is a duck watching you.  Now we can understand the look on Daisy Duck’s face when Donald is around.

Enjoy the holiday and welcome to the unofficial end of summer.