Friday, March 16

Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday, March 16.

     'Tis the eve of Saint Patrick's Day, and much as I revere Ireland's patron, I wonder why he gets all the glory. The great St. Columba runs a distant second, and the many other spiritual heroes of Ireland get forgotten. Well I intend to remedy that.
     Today is the feast day of St. Finian the Leper. He was born some time in the early sixth century and grew up to be a strict abbot and a vegetarian. He got his name when he contracted leprosy while healing a young boy. Another source says he did not contract leprosy, but once you get a nickname, it's hard to shake it.

     Today is the birthday of James Madison, our fourth president, and more importantly, the Father of the Constitution. His own constitution was delicate, and he was sent to college at Princeton up in New Jersey to escape the oppressive heat and fevers of his native Virginia. When war broke out with Britain, he signed up to fight, but was shunted off into the political arena where he learned valuable lessons about human nature.
     After the war, the new United States was a mess. The government had no money, the states were squabbling among themselves, and the European powers were waiting to swoop in and pick up the pieces. Madison was the brains behind the Constitutional Convention that wrote the new constitution. There was much opposition among the states to giving power to the central government. Madison nursed the new Constitution through the ratification process in the various states and like a proud midwife, presented a strong and healthy new government to its reluctant mother.
      Madison served as his friend Thomas Jefferson's secretary of state, and was elected president himself in 1808. In his second term, war with Britain broke out again. Madison is our only president to have led troops into battle.
     He married the widow Dolly Todd when he was 43, and she, 26. He had no children of his own, but adopted Dolly's young son.  After his second term, Madison retired to his plantation, but was plagued by money problems due to falling tobacco prices and mismanagement by his adopted son.
     He remained active in public life, and served as chancellor at the University of Virginia which he helped set up with Jefferson. Historians later discovered that Madison altered historical documents he had in his possession to ensure his legacy. Madison called it a "straightening out." He died at his plantation, Montpelier, in 1836 at age 85, the last of the Founding Fathers.

Google doodle marking Anna Atkins 216th birthday in 2015.

      It's also the birthday in 1799 in Kent, England of Anna Atkins. She is the first person to have published a book illustrated with photographs. Atkins mother died when she was born and her father, a translator of scientific books, gave Anna a good scientific education. She illustrated some of his translations with her drawings.

      She married a prosperous merchant. Among their friends was the early photographer, William Talbot. She learned how to use a camera and in 1843 illustrated her book, Photographs of British Algae, with her photographs. She produce her photographs by laying the dried algae onto light sensitive paper and exposing it to the sun. Only 17 copies from her three editions have survived. The copy at the New York Public Library can be viewed here:
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections?utf8=%E2%9C%93&collection_keywords=Photographs+of+British+Algae%3A+Cyanotype+Impressions

        And now, a story to get you in the mood for St. Patrick's Day.

       Paddy was late for an important appointment and he could not find a parking spot to save his soul. He looked up to heaven and said, "Lord, if you find me a parking spot, I'll be in church every Sunday." 
      But no spot appears. So he looks up again and says, "Lord, if you find me a spot, I'll give up me cursin'."
       Nothing. Finally, in desperation he says, "Lord, find me a spot, and I'll even give up the whiskey."
      Bing!  A lovely spot appears. As Paddy pulls in, he says, "Never mind Lord, I found one meself."
 

          Come back Sunday for more Squibs from @jmcdonnell123