Today is Sunday, March 4 and there are only 159 days until National Connecticut Day.  We should all plan to go there for the day.  I am sure we can find things to do.  Today we remember the birthdays of Prince Henry the Navigator, Antonio Vivaldi and Harry Helmsley .  On this day in 1789 the first Congress (9 senators, 13 representatives) declared the constitution in effect, in 1837 the city of Chicago incorporated and in 1964 Jimmy Hoffa was convicted of jury tampering.  In Thailand it is Magka Puja Day and in the US it is Constitution Day, Marching Music Day, National Pound Cake Day and National Hug a GI Day.

Since it is March already, let me give you your monthly information.  March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars.  The March equinox on the 20^th or 21^st marks the beginning of Spring.  The name comes from Martius and was named after Mars, the Roman god of war.  His month Martius was the beginning of the season for warfare, and the festivals held in his honor during the month were mirrored by others in October, when the season for these activities came to a close.  March’s birthstones are aquamarine and bloodstone and the birth flower is the daffodil.  It is also National Nutrition Month, National Celery Month, National Frozen Food Month, Music in our Schools Month and National Reading Awareness Month.  That should hold you for this month.

In looking for historic things to list, I came across something interesting.  I thought that presidential inaugurations were always held in January.  Not so!  On this day, the following inaugurations were held:  George Washington’s second one, John Adams (1797), Thomas Jefferson (1801) and he was also the first president inaugurated in Washington, DC, James Madison (1809) and he was the first president inaugurated in American-made clothes, John Quincy Adams (1825), Andrew Jackson (1829) and on and on. Of note were the inaugurations of William Howard Taft (1909) who was sworn in during a 10” snow storm and Calvin Coolidge (1925) whose ceremony was broadcast live on 21 radio stations. Apparently up through Franklin D Roosevelt, this was the day to be inaugurated.

The first inauguration, that of George Washington, took place on April 30, 1789. All subsequent (regular) inaugurations from 1793 until 1933, were held on March 4, the day of the year on which the federal government began operations under the U.S. Constitution in 1789.  Inauguration Day moved to January 20, beginning in 1937, where it has stayed since.  I am sure that you now know more than you ever needed or wanted to about inaugurations, so I will move on to something else.

I have been sort of paying attention to commercials again and I keep wondering about certain ones.  I find it interesting that there are still Presidents’ Day sales going on a couple weeks after the day has passed.  I also find there are commercials that still tout the Olympics a week after they have ended.  If people still have Olympic Fever, they should go to the doctor, it may be the flu.  The commercials that really get me are the ones from a certain insurance company.  The Washington crossing the Delaware … Turnpike one has got to be one of the more ridiculous ones.  I know I keep promising that I will not rant about commercials, but it is difficult not to when I see some of the stuff they put out.

What happened to the ones like the one where Madge has you soaking your hands in dishwashing liquid while getting a manicure?  I know I am showing my age but I remember when commercials were used to tell you what the product did, how well it did it and told you to buy it.  Those were okay.  They interrupted the show you were watching, but they were tolerable.  Back in those days the commercial breaks were short and you didn’t always have time to take a bathroom break, let alone get a snack.  

Then the commercials started to evolve and they started to become more about entertainment than the product.  Then you had to wait until the middle of a show, if it was an hour long, to get a break long enough to run to the bathroom.  Those one hour shows had a pattern.  They would go for about 15 minutes, show some commercials, run for another 15 minutes, show a longer string of commercials, run 15 minutes, run a few more and then finish out the hour with maybe another ad or two at the end.

Nowadays, you are lucky to get 10 minutes of a program before the first commercials come on.  I figured once that we were lucky to get 40 minutes of actual program for a one hour time slot.  The breaks now are long enough for you to go to the bathroom, make coffee, grab a snack and check on the laundry.  Generally, the commercials are trying way too hard to be amusing and clever and entertaining and not coming close to achieving those goals.  You want me to buy your product?  Tell me what it is, what is does and how well it does it and I might.  It may be because I am cantankerous, but I try to avoid buying the products that have stupid commercials.  I know, that severely limits the things that I can buy, but I am a senior citizen and on a fixed income, so that is a good thing.

This week our fact tells us that in New Hampshire a law forbids you to tap your feet, nod your head, or in any way keep time to the music in a restaurant, tavern or café.  I wonder if there is a special section for people outside those places who are standing there keeping time to the music, like the groups who are outside smoking.  

“Excuse me, sir, I am Officer Jones and I am going to have to cite you for nodding to the music.”

“I wasn’t nodding to the music.  I was responding to a question from my wife.”

“I’ve heard that before.  I am going to cite you and ask you to step outside to the special section for keeping time.”

“But it’s raining!”

“Just cooperate and don’t make me cite you for unauthorized weather reporting.”