TODAY - MARCH 9

 NIELS’ MORNING GREETINGS

ON: MARCH 9

New 2021 edition

TODAY’s LENGTH:

This day is here in Belgium 3 hours and 32 minutes longer than December 21. Its length is 11 hours and 27 minutes – from 07.10 to 18.37.

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

TODAY’s NAME:

This day is called THE DAY OF 40 KNIGHTS.  It refers to 40 soldiers in the army of the Roman emperor Licinius ( 308-23 ). They had taken the Christian faith. Therefore, they were put naked on an ice floe. But when they still survived they were instead killed by burning.

In Belgium the day is called SAINTE FRANCOISE ROMAINE  (Frances of Rome). She was an Italian saint, who lived in the years 1384-1440.  She made a lot of good work for the poor.

 

TODAY’s EVENT:

1956:  Archbishop Makarios was deported from Cyprus to the Seychelles by the British.

 

TODAY’s QUESTION:

Potëmkin wings – what is the background?  And what does the expression mean?

This expression comes from Russia in the 18th century.  Tsarina Catherine the Great (1729-96) had a governor-general in the south of Russia called Grigorij Potëmkin. He lived in the years 1739-91. He was a dynamic officer, who was very interested in many things, including women (also the tsarina). When he in 1787 had to show Catherine around in his part of the country he contructed a range of artificial villages to give her the best possible impression. All houses looked nice and attractive from the street side. And they were filled with people, who looked very healthy and happy. The Tsarina should get the impression that his region developed very positively under his leadership.  But behind the front walls everything was like before: depressing and underdeveloped.

 

When you today talk about Potëmkin Wings you refer to the fact that things are not always as they pretend to be at first sight. The “decorated reality” does not correspond to the real reality.

 

QUESTION FOR TOMORROW:

Hocus-pocus – where does that expression come from?  And what does it mean?

47 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT EUROPE:

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

 

TODAY’s QUOTE & FAMOUS PEOPLE :

1.  Yesterday’s quote:

“Hygge” (cosiness) is what you feel when you are in peace with yourself, with your husband, with the tax authorities and with your internal organs.

            This was said by the Danish author Tove Ditlevsen.

2.  Today’s quote:

You fight bureaucrats best by following their regulations.

Who among today’s people has said that?

3.  Famous people born on this day:

1454:  Amerigo Vespucci  ( died 1512 ) – see photo below

1890:  Vjateslav Molotov  ( died 1986 )

1934:  Jurij Gagarin  ( died 1968 )

1938:  Lill-Babs  ( Barbro Margareta Svensson )  ( died 2018 )

1943:  Bobby Fischer   ( died 2008 )

1954:  Bobby Sands  ( died 1981 )

 

4.  Famous people died on this day:

1661:  Jules Mazarin  ( 59 years )

1851:  H.C. Ørsted  ( 73 years )

1888:  Wilhelm I  ( 91 years )

1992:  Menachim Begin  ( 78 years )

1993:  Cyril Northcote Parkinson  ( 84 years )

 

Niels Jørgen Thøgersen

niels4europe@gmail.com  

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



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