Monday, March 20, 2017

Greetings Infomaniacs,

This is the first day of spring. The first day of spring is called the vernal equinox. The term vernal is Latin for "spring" and equinox means "equal night."

Enjoy!

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WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "All Nature seems at work; slugs leave their lair, The bees are stirring; birds are on the wing, And winter, slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of spring."

HINT: (1772 - 1834) was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets.

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RANDOM TIDBITS
Spring almost always arrives on March 20 or 21, but sometimes on the 19th. The reason the equinoxes and solstices don't always come on the same day is that Earth doesn't circle the sun in exactly 365 days.

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The fall and spring equinoxes are the only two times during the year when the sun rises due east and sets due west.

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The early Egyptians built the Great Sphinx so that it points directly toward the rising sun on the spring equinox.

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According to Greek myth, the return of spring coincides with the return of Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, who is the goddess of plants and fertility.

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At Chichen Itza, Mexico, the Mayan celebrate the first day of spring with 'The Return of the Sun Serpent.' On the evening on the spring equinox, the setting sun creates a triangular shadow on the El Castillo pyramid that looks like a descending snake, or the feather serpent god Kukulkan.

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Every year on the first day of spring, people in Poland gather to burn an effigy and throw it in the river to bid winter farewell.

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Spring may be the worst time for human babies to be born. A large-scale study found that babies born in the spring are more likely to develop schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, and anorexia.




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*** Weekly Mind-Scrambler ***
It stalks the countryside, with ears that cannot hear.

What is it?

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Be sure to put "Winner" in the subject line.

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WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "All Nature seems at work; slugs leave their lair, The bees are stirring; birds are on the wing, And winter, slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of spring."

ANSWER: From the Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Work Without Hope"