Food for thought: Beware the Ides of March!

It's time for RagDoll's contemplations on Holidays and Days of Note.

Here is a possibly useless fact for you to chew on. C'mon how many of you have heard the phrase ' Beware the Ides of March!' and wondered just what the hell WERE the Ides of March?

• Are they thieves?
• Potholes?
• Sunburns?
• Why should I be wary of them?
• Are they going to bite me?
• Am I going to poke my eye out with them?
• Are they a swarm of gnats that will descend upon me and get caught in my nose and hair?
• Can I sic the Ides of March on my arch nemesis?

Julius Caesar made the phrase famous by being assassinated on this date in the year 44BC. (Or did Brutus make the phrase famous?) According to the Roman writer Plutarch, Caesar had been warned by a soothsayer that a great danger threatened him on the ides of March. As he was on his way to the Senate-House that day, he called the Soothsayer and said (laughingly), "The ides of March are come". FAMOUS (NEAR) LAST WORDS! The Soothsayer replied "Yes, but they are not gone To the ancient Romans, the expression "Ides of March" did not imply a dire warning (OK, maybe to good Ole Caesar it did)—it was simply the standard way of saying "March 15."BUT such a fancy expression MUST imply something more than merely another day of the year? NOPE. Sixteen centuries later, audiences attending Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar wouldn't have blinked twice upon hearing the date called the Ides. (Thanks Wikipedia for the info.) On that note...Happy Birthday my Dear friend Bryan. TOAST! I have spared you this year and have not called you and announce in a theatrical voice " BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH!". But I THOUGHT IT!