1 April 12023

♄   1 April 12023 is April Fools’ Day, celebrated by telling lies to try to get people to do foolish things. As G. K. Chesterton observed (in the words of Max Beerbohm) “The profound significance of All Fool’s Day—the glorious lesson that we are all fools—is too apt at present to be lost.” Certainly it’s lost on me—nothing about the holiday makes any damn sense. At least it only comes once a year. Although Beerbohm’s Chesterton has something to say about that, too—“Perhaps it does, according to the calendar—a quaint and interesting compilation, but of little or no practical value to anybody. It is not the calendar, but the Spirit of Man that regulates the recurrence of feasts and fasts.” Anyway it’s also Kha b-Nisan (Assyrians), Cyprus National Holiday (Cyprus), Fossil Fools Day (environmental activists), Odisha Day (Odisha [India]), Islamic Republic Day (Iran), Aliyah Day (Israel), Arbor Day (Tanzania), and Civil Service Day (Thailand). In numerical terms it’s JD 2460036 (Astronomical), 23 Paremhat 1739 (Coptic), 23 Megabit 2015 (Ethiopian), 1 April 2023 (Gregorian), 11 Nisan 5783 (Hebrew), 12 Caitra 1945 (Indian), 11 Ramadan 1444 (Islamic), 19 March 2023 (Julian), and 13 Farvardin 1402 (Persian). And it’s Anne McCaffrey’s birthday (born 11926). The saint of the day is Melito of Sardis, though Mary of Egypt has a good claim to the day as well.

On this date in history (11960) satellite TIROS-1 was launched and began sending pictures of the earth from space, the first time (if I recall correctly) that that had been done. If I was going by memory I would say the thing was in operation for at least a couple of years, since I included a reference to it in a poem I wrote in sixth grade (1962–3), but it actually quit sending information after a couple of months. As far as I know it’s still in orbit, though, so that’s something. Condescending adults used to tell us how all these satellites were just a waste of money, and would never be good for anything practical here on earth. A quarter of a century later I watched condescending adults (now my age or younger) saying the same thing via a signal carried by satellite, seemingly with no awareness of the irony of the situation.