TOOSDAI

Today is Ethiopian New Year. Known in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia as Enkutatash, this holiday marks 1 Meskerem, the first day in the Ethiopian calendar.

The Ethiopian calendar is a solar calendar based on the Egyptian and Julian calendars and was brought to Ethiopia by missionaries. The year consists of 12 months of 30 days and a thirteenth month of five or six timekeeping days. Pagume, the 13th month in the Ethiopian calendar, comes from the Greek word epagomene, which means ‘days forgotten when a year is calculated’.

Enkutatash means the ‘gift of jewels’. It is said to refer to the Queen of Sheba returning from her visit to King Solomon in Jerusalem in 980 BC. On the Queen’s arrival back in Ethiopia, her chiefs welcomed her by filling her treasury with jewels (‘enku’). It may also refer to the countryside, as this time of year coincides with the end of the rainy season meaning the landscape is covered with Adey Abeba, whose bright yellow flowers appear almost in celebration of the impending harvest.


Here’s a photo of Earth taken from Mars (thanks, rovers!). Can you see me waving??

BADA BING!!!

Despite the high cost of living, it remains popular.

Forget about the zombie apocalypse that will never come. Worry about the idiot apocalypse that’s already upon us.

Those preventing history from being taught intend to repeat it.

Guy who only knew Jesus professionally: Honey, did you hear they crucified our carpenter?!

8yo singing quietly to himself, “Dancing queen, young and sweet, only seven teeth.”

How to draw a horse in two steps: Draw a unicorn. Erase the horn.

What do you say when your sister steps on your foot and breaks your toe in half? That’s mitosis.

My wife was walking upstairs with the laundry and dropped it when she missed a step. I watched it all unfold.

I’ve reached the age where my obituary will not contain the word ‘untimely’.

We’ve trained our dogs to come running anytime we spill something. We just yell HOUSEKEEPING!

I don’t watch men’s soccer. If I wanted to watch a bunch of men struggle to score for 90 minutes, I’d just go to a bar.

It’s called a corn dog because meat Twinkie sounds too trashy.


Today is the birthday, in 1944, of Colin Young, from British soul band The Foundations who scored the 1967 UK No.1 single ‘Baby Now That I’ve Found You’ and the 1969 US No.3 single ‘Build Me Up A Buttercup’. The group was the first multi-racial group to have a No.1 hit in the UK in the 1960s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klNean7JJdA