TODAY - February 18

 NIELS’ MORNING GREETINGS

ON: FEBRUARY 18

New 2021 edition

TODAY’s LENGTH:

This day is here in Belgium 2 hours and 17 minutes longer than December 21. Its length is 10 hours and 15 minutes – from 07.49 to 18.04.

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

 

TODAY’s NAME:

CONCORDIA’s DAY is the name of today.  She was a young Christian virgin in Rome at the time of emperor Decius ( 249-51 AC ). The name means Agreement.  A non-historic legend tells that she had relations with the house of Saint Hippolytus. She died around 250.

In Belgium the day’s name is:  SAINTE BERNADETTE – named after Bernadette, daughter of a miller in Lourdes in south-west of France. She lived in 1844-79.  She was according to the legend the first person to see Virgin Mary near a cave in Lourdes. And since then Lourdes has been a famous place of pilgrimage.

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TODAY’s EVENT:

1929:  The Oscar ceremony takes place for the first time.

TODAY’s QUESTION:

Great minds think alike – Origin? Meaning?

Great minds think alike' isn't especially old as proverbs go, but the thought behind it dates from at least the early 17th century. The impressively named Dabridgcourt Belchier wrote this in Hans Beer-Pot, 1618:

Though he made that verse, Those words were made before. Good wits doe jumpe.

That citation uses 'jump' with a meaning long since abandoned in everyday speech, that is 'agree with; completely coincide'. Laurence Sterne repeated that usage in Tristram Shandy, 1761:

Great wits jump: for the moment Dr. Slop cast his eyes upon his bag the very same thought occurred.

The 'think alike' version wasn't found in print until sometime after that. The earliest example that I have found is in Carl Theodor von Unlanski's biography The woful history of the unfortunate Eudoxia, 1816:

It may occur that an editor has already printed something on the identical subject - great minds think alike, you know.

Thomas Paine, the English-born revolutionary who became one of the founding fathers of the USA, like many today, had a different response to the idea that 'great minds think alike', that is, "No, they don't". He expressed that opinion in the 1792 political pamphlet The Rights of Man, edition 2 :

I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all. It is only those who have not thought that appear to agree.

Today the expression great minds think alike normally means that “I just thought that” – when somebody is saying something.  Or more negatively in the sense:  Fools seldom differ!

QUESTION FOR TOMORROW:

Out of sight – out of mind – where does that come from? And it means what?

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47 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT EUROPE:

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

 

TODAY’s QUOTE & FAMOUS PEOPLE :

1.  Yesterday’s quote:

It is easy to make fun of medical doctors, as long as you are not ill.

            This was said by the French playwright Molière.   See photo below.

2.  Today’s quote:

It is neither advisable nor undangerous to play around with one’s conscience.

Who among today’s personalities has said that?

3.  Famous people born on this day:

1516:  Maria 1. Tudor  ( ”Bloody Mary” )  ( died 1558 )

1849:  Alexander Kielland  ( died 1906 )

1898:  Enzo Ferrari  ( died 1988 )

1932:  Milos Forman  ( died 2018 )

1933:  Yoko Ono

1954:  John Travolta

 

4.  Famous people died on this day:

1405:  Timur Lenk  ( 69 years )

           1546:  Martin Luther  ( 63 years )

           1564:  Michelangelo di Lodovico Buanarrotti Simoni  ( 89 years )

 

Niels Jørgen Thøgersen

niels4europe@gmail.com  

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




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