18 January 2020

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 18 January 12020 is Thesaurus Day (at last), and we can all spend our time substituting slightly less appropriate words for the more familiar but overused workhorses of our lexical library. The saint of the day is Cyril of Alexandria (died 444), best remembered for the part he is alleged to have played in the death of the philosopher Hypatia.

In the news we read of the untimely death of Christopher Tolkein (born 1924), who served as his father’s posthumous editor and the custodian of his legacy. And Virginia has ratified the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution—likely an empty gesture, as the time-limit set for passage has expired. (Several states have also rescinded their approval, but I doubt the legality of the move, as there is no provision for it in the Constitution.) And it appears that Hank Azaria will no longer provide the voice of Apu on The Simpsons, and that Disney is dropping the Fox from Twentieth Century Fox.

Well, the crescent moon is in Scorpio today, which means we should all be abnormally aware of our genitalia, I guess. Otherwise things continue much as they are, though we should all be mindful of the sun’s impending entry into Aquarius, as it does this time of year. I intend to spend the time huddled under the blankets pretending that the sun’s in Leo and all is well.