Canny Granny

Then it was the weather. I can tell you right here and now that the weather has never been the same since the feisty fahrenheit was ousted by the cold-blooded celsius. How I miss the days when I could cheerfully call out to neighbours “A hundred degrees today” now I am reduced to the old standby “Hot enough for ya’?”. A lamentably common greeting. If you can suggest another, please do so.

No wonder I need a little sweet sherry sometimes ….

Then came the weights and measures. I still have trouble with these. When the TV news tells me there is a homicidal maniac running amok in my area and they give the description in centimetres and kilos I don’t know if he’s short and fat or tall and skinny. There should be a translation included for people like me.

But the time – oh hells bells, the time.

In October sometime I have to wind my clock forward. This has the effect of forcing me up out of my bunk an hour earlier and I am tired all day! And the next. I have lost an hour of sleep and I’m cranky.

Then, we have to wind the blasted clock back later! This has the effect of forcing me up out of the aforementioned bunk an hour earlier again. I automatically wake up at the same time. And I’m tired all day. And the next.

I never catch up and I want my hour back!

Mind you, I’m not in the same boat as the poor buggers in 1752.

It was all to due to the switching of calenders. And to the English lagging behind the Catholic countries. In 1582 Pope Gregory X111 put forward a new, more accurate calendar to replace that introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE.

(Just by the way : You get a few perks when you’re a Caesar. July, of course, was named by Julius Caesar. When you’re changing the calender why not give your own name to one of the months? Following this example, Emperor Augustus made a month for himself as well).

Most countries adopted the Gregorian calendar in a single, one-time correction and the Catholic countries adopted the reform instantly when it was proclaimed by Pope Gregory.So most of the major countries (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland), skipped from October 4, 1582 to October 15, 1582.

The English, devout Protestants to the core, didn’t see the light for another 170 years. As a result September 2, 1752 was followed by September 14, 1752. The English people were understandably furious at the change and believed that the days had been stolen by Parliament or by Papish Plotters. “Give us back our 11 days” was the cry.