A Nod to Orange

Hello and welcome to another Wannaskan Saturday here at the 'ole Almanac. Today is November 2nd, aka post-All Saints Day and Halloween Recovery day.

Happy Birthday to Wannaska's favorite Canadian channel, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). What would Wannaska have become without that steady diet of Saturday night hockey? We remember Dutch director Theo van Gogh, who was assassinated on this day in response to a critical film he made about Islam. Particularly interesting to me because I spent an entire summer living in Holland researching Dutch attitudes around language, foreigners and, what I called, the accommodation reflex. Van Gogh worked with the Somali-born writer and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce the short film Submission (2004), which Ali discusses in her memoir, Infidel. Per the blurb on Amazon, "Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West." I found it be a great book club discussion book, so this can be my reading recommendation for the week.

Halloween stirred up all the hoopla this past week. During the summer I lived in Holland, I bought a pair of orange jeans. Over the years, I have observed that Europeans have a penchant for bold jeans. (My European husband disagrees. But, whatever.) One of my German language teachers in college, from Germany (as opposed to Austria or Switzerland), paired bright yellow jeans with a dark green cable knit sweater, red eyeglasses, and a scarf that tied the look all together. (Before scarfs were a thing in American fashion.) Orange is the color of the Dutch Royal Family, which hails from the House of Orange and is devoutly donned by the locals, especially on the annual holiday, King's Day, or when the Dutch national soccer team plays. So, not only did it make sense to fold a pair of bright orange jeans into my everyday wardrobe, it paid homage to my host country. However after a few wearings of the orange jeans stateside, I realized my "new look" didn't quite ring the same note of affection or appreciation from my fellow Minnesotans. That is to say, that orange jeans-wearing was really probably fashion sense best left to the Dutch.

Which brings me back to Halloween, i.e., the only day in the year that I can proudly wear my orange jeans with no dubious remarks or questioning eyebrows.

This Hallow's Eve, I retrieved my beloved jeans from the bottom of the pants stack - still in pristine condition, even though I have owned them since 1997 - and slipped them on. Okay, not exactly slipped. More like tugged, followed by that little hop seen in Levi's commercials where the girl is trying to fit herself into too small jeans. The button fly mocked me, a wide gaping smirk. No belly control panel in these European jeans.

I replaced the orange jeans, woefully returning them to the bottom of the pants pile. and settled on an orange t-shirt, vowing to myself that I would start exercising again - on Monday.

On This Day

Historic Highlights (credits)

1982 - Ronald Reagan signs a bill to create Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
The day, observed every year on the third Monday of January, commemorates the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. a leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

1964 - Coup in Saudi Arabia
Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud takes over the government of Saudi Arabia while his half-brother, King Saud is overseas for medical reasons.

1938 - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation established
Officially known as CBC/Radio-Canada, the network is Canada's public radio and television broadcaster.

1930 - Haile Selassie I becomes the emperor of Ethiopia
Considered as a leading figure in the Rastafari movement, Selassie reigned over Ethiopia for 44 years.

1917 - Balfour Declaration
Originally sent as a letter on this day to Baron Rothschild from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, it declared British support for a Jewish state in Palestine. The letter was eventually added to Sevres peace treaty.

Happy Birthday to You!🎶 

1965 - Shahrukh Khan, Indian actor

1934 - Ken Rosewall, Australian tennis player

1865 - Warren G. Harding, American politician, 29th President of the United States

1755 - Marie Antoinette, Austrian wife of Louis XVI of France

971 - Mahmud of Ghazni

Remembering You

2007 - The Fabulous Moolah, American wrestler

2004 - Theo van Gogh, Dutch director

1966 - Peter Debye, Dutch/American physicist, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

1963 - Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnamese politician, 1st President of the Republic of Vietnam

1950 - George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate

Celebrate your favorite color, don some crazy pants and make it a great Saturday!

Kim

Dutch/American physicist, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (I wonder if he wore orange pants.)