Sunday, March 16, 2008

Happy St. Urho's Day!


According to Steve, my cousin by marriage*, today is the feast day of St. Urho, he who drove the grasshoppers from Finland. It is a day to wear purple and celebrate. Celebrations seem to involve drinking, according to Steve.

If you are Finn or Saami, maybe you just like reindeer sausage or think Nokia is super cool, or maybe you just like having silly days to celebrate, whatever reason you have, raise a glass of aquavit, eat some horrible licorice candy, wrap yourself in a Marimekko print, or take a sauna and remember the efforts of St. Urho. I'm sure that somewhere, inside all of us, is a person that wants to tell things to go to hell. When we do finally say it, that's St. Urho sharing his wisdom and strength in our time of need.


*Yeah, it's not like I have a common last name. After working with the guy for six years, he one day up and asks me if I'm related to Bob Clucas. I reply that as a matter of fact, Bob's my uncle (heh). Turns out his wife is also my uncle's niece, but through the other half of his marriage (Aunt Janet). It took Steve six years to make the connection? I'm shocked he got his PhD completed as speedily as he did, with reasoning skills like that! Yes, I'm joking. Steve is a wonderful guy, and has a sense of humor that can't be beat.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... I wonder if I should use that as an excuse to watch MST3K's The Day the Earth Froze.

John the Scientist said...

All right, you're not related ot an Alan Clucas, are you? Because I work with him.

Tania said...

Well, he's not in my immediate family, but I'm willing to bet that if you went back 10 generations or so, there'd be a Clucas or two on the Isle of Man that we could use to connect.

Tom said...

Tania, is that near Isla de Mujeres?

Nathan said...

Shawn,

Take your medicine.

Tania,

New Blog Post! (Must I keep reminding you?)

Anonymous said...

it's not like I have a common last name

A few years ago, I was working on a project with a woman from another department. Her family name was Dano, which isn't common either so I asked if she was somehow related to old-time actor Royal Dano. She was. He was her granduncle.