TODAY - August 27

 

NIELS’ MORNING GREETINGS

ON: AUGUST 27

New edition

TODAY’s LENGTH:

This day is here in Denmark 3 hours and 44 minutes shorter than June 21. Its length is 14 hours and 22 minutes – from 06.09 to 20.31.

See more – also in English – about where you are on: www.dagenslaengde.dk

TODAY’s NAME:

This day's name is GEBHARDUS' DAY.  He was a German noble man, who decided to work for the church. He became bishop in Konstanz near the Bodensee in the south of Germany. He also founded the Benedictine monastery Petershausen in Switzerland. He died on this day in 996 AD.

The day’s name in Belgium is SAINTE MONIQUE – after a Christian woman in Africa. She lived in the years 331-87. She was the mother of Augustin of Hippo.

TODAY’s EVENT:

79:  The town of Pompeji in Italy is destroyed by the volcano Vesuvio.

 

TODAY’s QUESTION:

Water off the duck's back  - what does that mean? And where does the expression come from?

It simple means that something has no effect. It might be to teach somebody, to ask somebody to do something or to critisize somebody.  It is all in vain.

The background of the expression is double:

One reason is that the feathers of a duck is so efficiently impregnated that water simply falls off the feathers.  It cannot penetrate it.

The other reason is that a duck is considered to be stupid. It is not able to learn anything. Trying to teach something it is hopeless.

The same expression exists in Danish. In that case the animal is a goose.

 

QUESTION FOR TOMORROW:

Haparanda - what is so special about that?

 

47 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT EUROPE:

EUROPE AT WORK     www.europe-at-work.be

 

TODAY’s QUOTE & FAMOUS PEOPLE :

1.  Yesterday’s quote:

             Gratitude is an important sense for future honors.

            This was said by the British politician Robert Walpole .

 

Today’s quote:

What is sensible is real; and what is real is sensible!

Who among today’s persons has said that?

2.  Famous people born on this day:

1770:  Georg Friedrich Hegel  ( died 1831 )

1908:  Lyndon B. Johnson  ( died 1973 )

1909:  Lester Young ( died 1959 )

1929:  Ira Levin  ( died 2007 )

1942:  Per Stig Møller

          

3.  Famous people died on this day:

          1645:  Hugo Grotius  ( 62 years )

            1965:  Le Corbusier  ( 61 years )

            1975:  Hailie Selassie  ( 83 years )

            1979:  Earl Mountbatten  ( 83 years )

 

Niels Jørgen Thøgersen

niels4europe@gmail.com  

www.simplesite.com/kimbrer   + EUROPE AT WORK:  www.europe-at-work.be

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