Wilson's Blogmanac
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:15:59 +0200
The Waving Man
 1962 Joseph Charles, California's 'Waving Man', did his first wave.
Joseph Charles was a naval supply employee who waved at complete strangers in the Berkeley, California rush-hour for precisely 30 years to the day, from October 6, 1962 until he retired from his avocation on October 6, 1992. The Waving Man started when a neighbour waved to Charles and he waved back; they waved again the next day. Charles had caught the waving bug and he became a California institution.
He stationed himself in his front yard on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr Way and Oregon Street, each day during morning rush hour and for those three decades and waved to motorists. Wearing bright yellow gloves and a big smile, he'd call out, "Keep smiling!" and "Have a good day!" The Waving Man died on March 14, 2002, just short of his 92nd birthday.
At his funeral, attended by more than 200 people, Berkeley's Mayor Shirley Dean called the waving a "simple act" that cost no money and required no environmental impact reports or endless meetings, yet it "brought joy and improved the quality of life for everyone every day."
"Our best way to honor him," Dean added, "is to carry out his legacy – do one simple act of kindness each day. And when you do, whisper the name Joseph Charles in your heart and he will wave."
After the funeral service, participants lined up outside the door and waved to his casket as it was carried out. Some, like the Rev. Whitney Lester of Independence Community Church in Oakland, thought Charles might be waving again soon.
"I imagine if they gave Brother Charles the space," Lester had told the congregation, "he'd be out in front of the gates, waving 'Come on! Come on!'"
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:15:59 +0200
Jim Cairns
 1914 Dr Jim Cairns (d. October 12, 2003), Australian politician and author, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer (1974 - '75) in Gough Whitlam's Labor Government.
Cairns is best remembered as a leader of the movement against Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, for his affair with Juni Morosi and for his later renunciation of conventional politics. After leaving politics he became a leading light of the countercultural Down to Earth movement which organised the ConFests attended by many thousands of Australians interested in alternative lifestyles (see December 12, 1976, Cotter ConFest, in the Book of Days).
In a 1982 defamation case he initiated before the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Cairns denied on oath having had a sexual relationship with Morosi. The jury in that case found that the article in question did contain "an imputation" that Cairns was "improperly involved with his assistant, Junie Morosi, in a romantic or sexual association," but that this statement was not defamatory. Cairns did not receive money for defamation, although Morosi did. In 2002, Cairns admitted that he had had a sexual relationship with Morosi ...
Categories: australia, counterculture
Sat, 04 Oct 2008 07:09:05 +0200
Bellingen Global Carnival excrescence
As the world enters a recession, or depression, and financial meltdown, my hometown Bellingen is today embarking on its annual self-indulgent me-fest known as the Bellingen Global Carnival -- this year touting rather disingenuous blather about the importance of local Indigenous people. Even the local Council is in on the act, having blocked the end of my street so the tourists can have easy access. A pox on all their greedy houses!
Smart friends of mine find holes in the fence through which to gain free entry at night. Less prudent others, possibly well-heeled BMW and Porsche drivers from Sydney, pay the outrageous fee of $190. The poor can sneak in, or go and fuck themselves.
This page shows that, for all the hype, and the avaricious ticket charges, the Bellingen Global Carnival won't pay a writer, let alone a proofreader. Click the following image to enlarge, and be amazed at how badly some people communicate, despite their abundance, and even while sticking their hands into the pockets of their deludedly willing but often impecunious customers.
 Categories: bellingen
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:44:11 +0200
First Thursday, Friday and Saturday in October, Nottingham Goose Fair, Nottingham, UK
 This Michaelmas fair held in Nottingham, England on the first Thursday, Friday and Saturday in October has been celebrated since 1284 when the Charter of King Edward I (June, 1239 - July 7, 1307) makes the first recorded reference to a fair on the Feast of St Matthew the Apostle (September 21) as already being established in Nottingham. Other Goose Fairs and Mop Fairs (because servants are being hired) take place in other towns throughout the early weeks of October. In some places, Runaway Fairs were held the following week for those servants who disliked their new situations.
An old story said the name Goose Fair came about after an angler caught a pike in the River Trent. 'Perched high in the air a wild goose aspied the fish, secured it and carried it off with rod, line and angler attached.' After the goose dropped the angler, uninjured, in the Market Place, the old story goes that a holiday and the Fair was set up to celebrate.
More than 20,000 geese from the Lincolnshire Fens would be sold to provide the traditional Michaelmas dish. The fens are 400 square miles of low-lying salt and fresh water marshes, quicksands, rivers and bogs. The Romans were the first to recognize the fertility of the soils and the quality grazing on the fenlands, so constructed a drainage system from Peterborough to Lincoln to stop upland water from flooding into the fens each winter. After the Roman occupation ended, over centuries the fens fell back to wilderness, and when the Viking raiders came during the 8th and 9th Centuries, the fens became a refuge for the Anglo-Saxons of Lincolnshire.
The Viking Danes had a settlement in Nottingham and it might be that they established a market on the Fens, and this market might have become a fair. When the calendar was revised in 1752, omitting 11 days from September, the date of Goose Fair was switched to October 2 and this remained the starting date until 1875 ...
Categories: uk, calendar-customs
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:33:27 +0200
October and its folklore
 October is the tenth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 31 days. From the Latin octo for 'eight' (it was originally the eighth month of the year, before January and February were inserted).
October begins on the same day of week as January, except in leap years.
The old Dutch name for October was Wynmaand and the Old English was Winmonath (Wine-month, or the time of vintage; the month for treading the wine-vats); also Teomonath (tenth-month) and Winter-fylleth (Winter full-moon). In some Saxon calendars, the month was allegorised by the figure of a husbandsman carrying a sack on his shoulders, sowing corn. Sometimes, October is personified as a vineyard worker riding on Scorpio .... In other old calendars, the sport of hawking is represented. In the Domesday Book the vineyards are mentioned often.
The Frankish name, Windurmanoth, means 'vintage month'. American backwoods calendar: Hunter's Moon. Ásatrú name: Hunting.
In the French Revolutionary Calendar the month was Vendémiaire (time of vintage, c. September 22 to c. October 21). It is the month for making beer, wine and cider, because of the steady temperature.
In the Goddess calendar, October is sacred to goddess Hathor (October 3 - October 30). October's flowers are the calendula and cosmos. In the Wiccan faith, according to one source, October is sacred to the deities Cernunnos, Hekate (Hecate), the Morrigan, Osiris, and "the Wiccan Goddess in Her dark aspect as the Crone", and Calendula is the month's traditional flower ...
Categories: calendar-customs, deity
Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:31:03 +0200
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