The long grind is upon us again

Posted Thursday, January 14, 2010, at 2:54 PM

The wrapping paper, tree and lights are stowed, the champagne has been finished off and the glasses washed and stored away, and the long gray days of winter are here.

Every year, it seems this way: you scramble and work and plan and prepare for Christmas and, "poof." it's over in a minute -- or even a second. New year follows quickly and there is a little celebrating -- though not as much as we maybe did a few years ago -- and then comes the long grind where we hope against hope, wish after wish that we would see the sun pop out in the sky. Not much to look forward to now until March. (No disrespect intended to Colt's fans).

January is just a depressing month. More suicides are committed in January than any other month of the year and I think I can understand why.

Here are some more interesting facts about January:

1.	Most of the world uses the Georgian calendar, which has January as the first month of the year.
2.	It is generally the coldest month in the Northern Hemisphere and the warmest in the Southern Hemisphere.
3.	It is named for Janus, a Roman god. He is the infamous "2-faced" god that has no equivalent in Greek Mythology from which the Romans "borrowed" heavily. (What does suggest to you about his month)?
4.	One of Janus' faces looks forward, the other behind; one is bearded, the other smooth. (Who knows what that means).
5.	Roman legend has it that the ruler Numa Pompilius added January and February to the end of the 10-month Roman calendar in about 700 B.C.E.
6.	Pompilius gave the month 30 days.
7.	Romans later made January the first month.
8.	In 46 B.C., the Roman statesman Julius Caesar added a day to January, making it 31 days long.
9.	Cicero, the Roman statesman and orator was born on January 3, 106 B.C.E.
10.	Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations was established, January 10, 1920. (That didn't work out too well).
11.	The Anglo-Saxons called the first month "Wolf month" because wolves came into the villages in winter in search of food. (I just thought that was our dog howling last night).
12.	Paul Revere was born on January 1, 1735.
13.	Betsy Ross was born January 1, 1752.
14.	The first American Constitutional Presidential election was held January 7, 1789. (Too many people do not know it, but there were Presidents under the Articles of Confederation under which America was governed prior to the ratification of the Constitution. They were each the head of the Congress and served for one year).
15.	Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. It may be little known, but Lincoln's proclamation freed all of the slaves he had no power to free and none of the slaves he did. But it's really the thought that counts.
16.	Several states became states in January: Connecticut ratified the U.S. Constitution on January 9, 1788; Utah became the 45th state on January 4, 1896; Michigan became the 26th state on January 26th, 1837; Kansas became the 34th state in 1861; New Mexico became the 47th state on January 6, 1912; and Alaska was admitted as the 49th state on January 3, 1959.
17.	U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing all seven crewmembers aboard, January 28, 1986.
18.	Mohandas K. Gandhi, spiritual and political leader of India, assassinated, January 30, 1948.
19.	Women's-rights leader Lucretia Mott was born January 3, 1793.
20.	Nellie Taylor Ross became the first woman governor of a state, (Wyoming), January 5, 1925.
21.	Amendment 18 to the Constitution, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages (Prohibition) was ratified, January 16, 1919 (while all the men were overseas fighting WWI).
22.	Carl Sandburg, American poet, was born January 6, 1878.
23.	Andrew Jackson defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815.
24.	Thomas Paine published his Common Sense on January 10, 1776.
25.	Albert Schweitzer, physician, musician, philosopher, and missionary was born January 14, 1875.
26.	American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was born January 15, 1929.
27.	Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and inventor, was born January 17, 1706.
28.	The Versailles Peace Conference opened following World War I, January 18, 1919. We all know how well that treaty worked out.
29.	William McKinley, 25th President of the United States, born in Niles, Ohio, January 29, 1843.
30.	Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army in the Civil War, was born January 19, 1807. (What may not be commonly known is that he didn't particularly favor the South's cause(s), by the way, but would not "turn his sword" against his native Virginia).
31.	Edgar Allan Poe, American author, was born January 19, 1809.
32.	Controversial President Richard M. Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, was born in Yorba Linda, Calif. On January 9, 1913.
33.	Soviet dictator V. I. Lenin died on January 21, 1924. (Couldn't have been a more appropriate month).
34.	Francis Bacon, English author (who some scholars say used a pen name: "William Shakespeare" to write a lot of plays and poetry) was born January 22, 1561.
35.	Gold was discovered in California on January 24, 1848. (I'll bet Arnold would like to get any bit of it back to balance his state budget.)
36.	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer, was born January 27, 1756.
37.	Adolph Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany on January 20, 1933. (Now there was an accident waiting to happen.)
38.	Franklin D. Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York on January 30, 1882.

Stick it out, friends. March is coming....

From my window sill

Maribeth Ward

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Maribeth Ward began working for a community newspaper right out of college. Within a few years she moved to marketing and spent most of her working life as a marketing manager. In 2006 she came back to her first love--writing. She attended Indiana University and is the mother of three--identical twin daughters and a son. She is also the Nana of three wonderful grandchildren--Matt, Riley and Emma. She and her husband Faril share their home with their cat Sunny and dog Roadie.

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