TODAY - December 15

 NIELS’ MORNING GREETINGS

ON: DECEMBER 15

New edition

TODAY’s LENGTH:

This day is here in Belgium 8 hours and 30 minutes shorter than June 21. Its length is 8 hours – from 08.38 to 16.38.

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

TODAY’s NAME:

The name of this day is NICATIUS DAY. He was bishop in Reims in France in the middle of the 5th century. He was beheaded during an invasion by non-Christians.

The day’s name in Belgium is SAINT AUBERT.  He lived in the years 695-720, and he was a French bishop in Avranches in Normandy.  He is the founder of the monastery in Mont Saint-Michel.

 

TODAY’s EVENT:

1939:  The film “Gone with the Wind” is shown for the first time in Atlanta, Georgia.

TODAY’s QUESTION:

A fox behind the ear  -  where does that expression come from? And what does it mean?

This is a very old expression from the Middle Ages. It is based on the popular belief, that people with very protruding ears are very sly.  In German you use the expression: Etwas hinter den Ohren zu stecken  (to hide something behind the ears).

Already in the Antiquity fables were talking about the slyness of the fox. In the 17th century the fox became the direct symbol of slyness. The Danish collector of fables, Peder Syv (1631-1702) found fables about having a fox in the sleeves (the sleeves at that time were very wide and easy to use to hide something in). Another fable collector got hold of a story in 1876 about a fox living behind a man’s ear, and it got seven puppies there!

Today the expression still means that a person is very sly and artful. You have to watch out, when you are dealing with him or her.

 

QUESTION FOR TOMORROW:

Troya  -  what is that? And what is the history?

47 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT EUROPE:

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

 

TODAY’s QUOTE & FAMOUS PEOPLE :

1.  Yesterday’s quote:

We did it!

This was said by the Danish prime minister Helle Thorning Schmidt, when she won the parliamentary elections first time.

2.  Today’s quote:

The past is for many people almost like a lump of clay, which you have been squeezing and squeezing for so long, that you at the end almost believe that you have created it yourself.

Who has said that?

3.  Famous people born on this day:

37:      Nero   ( died 68 )

1832:  Gustave Eiffel  ( died 1923 )

1860:  Niels Finsen  ( died 1904 )

1901:  Werner Heisenberg  ( died 1976 )

1928:  Friedensreich Hundertwasser  ( died 2000 )

1931:  Klaus Rifbjerg  ( died 2015 )

1952: Allan Simonsen  

 

4.  Famous people died on this day:

1675:  Johannes Vermeer  ( 43 years )

1890:  Sitting Bull ( 59 years )

1916:  Grigorij Rasputin  ( 47 years )

1943:  Fats Waller  ( 39 years )

1944:  Glenn Miller  ( 40 years )

1966:  Walt Disney  ( 65 years )

 

Niels Jørgen Thøgersen

niels4europe@gmail.com  

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

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