Friday, March 9

Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday, March 9.

Space and Time

     It's the birthday in 1454 of Amerigo Vespucci, the man who gave his name to our continent. Amerigo was born in Florence and as a young man went to work as a clerk in the mercantile House of Medici. In 1492, Amerigo was sent to the Spanish branch office as a kind of a spy to make sure the managers there were staying honest.
     Originally, Columbus had a monopoly on all voyages to the New World, but this quickly broke down and Vespucci traveled as an observer on two, and possibly four voyages, down the Brazilian coast. There is much confusion about the letters Vespucci wrote describing his voyages. Unscrupulous people often forged other people's names for their own purposes back then. These trips proved that this new continent was not part of Asia as Columbus thought.
    When Waldseemüller produced his world map in 1507, he used Amerigo's letters and named the area of present day Brazil "America," which is the Latin form of Amerigo. As the map of North America filled in, the name America migrated over the whole area. Columbus's fans were livid. They felt the place should be named in honor of Columbus, the real navigator and cartographer, and not after some Medici fanboy. But it was too late. The maps spread Amerigo's name throughout Europe and there was no going back.
     Out of Waldseemüller's 1,000 maps, only one has survived. It too was lost for a couple of centuries and was rediscovered in Germany in 1901. Angela Merkel gave it to the Library of Congress in 2007. Waldseemüller also made gore maps of the world. These maps resemble a series of canoes lying side by side. They were meant to be cut out and glued onto wooden globes. Only five of these remain, one of them being in the Bell Museum at the University of Minnesota. Sounds like a road trip.
    To South Americans, "America" means all of the two great continents, and they are not a little ticked that we United Staters have appropriated the term to ourselves.
     Amerigo eventually became a Spanish citizen and was appointed to the lucrative position of Pilot Major of Spain. When he died at age 57, his widow was given a pension, to be paid by his successor. I don't know if I'd want a job that included supporting the wife of old Amerigo, who'd just kicked the bloody bucket.


     It's also the birthday in 1749 of the Comte de Mirabeau, near Nemours, France. Mirabeau is the ultimate example of the political opportunist. He was born into the French nobility in the final years of the ancien régime. At the age of three, an attack of smallpox left his face disfigured. Because of this and also because he resembled his mother's side of the family, his father disliked him and sent him off to boarding school at age five. Early experiences like these can turn anyone into a not-so-nice person.
    He attended military school, and at 18, was appointed a cavalry officer. His disfigurement did not turn women off, and he started an affair with his colonel's wife. His father put a stop to this by having the king throw his son in prison.
    Once out of prison, he accompanied the army to Corsica to maintain order there. Everyone was impressed with his military skill and hard work. Like many young nobles of the day, he acquired embarrassing gambling debts, and, back in France, set out to marry an 18 year old heiress who was already engaged to someone else. The heiress wanted nothing to do with him, but he snuck into her room and claimed he had sex with her. To protect her reputation, her father forced her to marry him. He only got a small allowance for his troubles.
     He spent the next few years in and out of prison and the arms of women not his wife. Whenever he ended up in court, his remarkable eloquence won the day for him, even when he was clearly in the wrong.
     By the time of the revolution, he had worn out his welcome with the nobility so it was natural he should join with the revolutionaries. He was involved in all the crises of the day and was seen as a voice for moderation. After his death it was revealed that he was in the pay of Louis XVI, which has damaged his reputation as "a man of the people." He died at age 42 of heart disease, probably a result of "the excesses of his youth and his strenuous work in politics." Did this guy even have a heart? Again, who are we to judge.

     A storm blew into Wannaska on Monday. There was little snow, but a wild wind blew all day.
Today's poem is by myself, Chairman Joe:

The pillars of my house

stand still

in the wild wind.

The trunks of the trees

barely move.

But the branches,

The branches wave wildly,

some flying off with the wind.

All I have lost is

the minutes it took to write this poem,

And a shingle or two.

    
          Come back Sunday for more Squibs from @jmcdonnell123