Friday Donuts

Dear Members and Constituents, Happy New Year! A year filled to the brim with hope and optimism. Where everything is new again and nothing seems impossible. The unmarked pages on the calendar speak of unspoiled potential and unbridled possibilities. Opportunity knocks and we are rested and ready to answer the call. But, why do we start the new year on January 1st? That was the deceivingly simple question Verónica, my teenage daughter, asked during the holiday lull. Why indeed. The closest cosmic event is the winter solstice, nearly two weeks earlier, so I speculated the Julian calendar had slowly fallen out of synch with the solar cycle (which is, of course, why the Gregorian calendar was instituted). Not content with mere speculation, and figuring there had to be a perfectly good explanation, I set-out to find an answer. My speculation proved to be way off the mark. It turns-out January 1st was instituted in 153 BC as the day the new year begins because that was the day the government...

Dear Members and Constituents, It's 08/08/08 (at 08:08 AM). Is that cool or what! Why do I find this pattern fascinating? Why does that smooth succession of zeroes and eights somehow make the date (and time) seem special? Perhaps it's just my innate desire to predict, and even control the future that subconsciously attract me to patterns in general. Let's face it, whether we care to admit it or not, we all find things like symmetry, balance and repetition appealing because they give us the false illusion of control. Perhaps it's the fact that zeroes resemble donuts and eights (sideways) resemble the character used to represent infinity. Just think: donuts intermingled with eternity: what a soul soothing thought. Then again, perhaps it's just the fact that this is the first time in over a month I will get an opportunity to consume a donut that has got me all giddy. Whatever the reason, the fact is donuts are here, thanks to Danelle Vitale, who was torn between delega...

Dear members and constituents, Last week marked the fourth anniversary of the Friday Donut Club and not even I remembered it. I suppose it only goes to prove that if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it... well, you know. My, how time flies! And it does not matter what calendar you use, the progression of time is inevitable. Whether you think of today as June 20, 2008 (Gregorian Calendar); Sivan 17, 5768 (Jewish Calendar); Jumada t-Tania 15, 1492 (Islamic Calendar) or even 12.19.15.7.15 --15 Zotz 10 Men-- (Meso American Long Count Calendar) the fact is that day counter on your calendar will move ahead again tomorrow. I think it was a wise and anonymous e-mail chain letter sage who once wrote "you should not focus on how many years you are able to put into your life. Instead, try to put as much life as you can into the years you are given" (Or something to that effect, the precise wording eludes me, a curse I must live with due to not having forwarded tha...