BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

What with one thing or another, almost the entire month of January has gone by, and I haven’t written a single post honoring any of the many august January holidays, such as:

Jan. 4  –  Trivia Day
Jan. 7  –  Old Rock Day
Jan. 9  –  Play God Day
Jan. 10 – Peculiar People Day
Jan. 16 – National Nothing Day
Jan. 21 – Squirrel Appreciation Day

So, in the spirit of BETTER LATE THAN NEVER, I will now try to make up for my oversight – at least in part – by assuring each holiday that being a part of one post beats being the whole of no posts. I’ll start with a trivia question in honor of Trivia Day:

Who originated the phrase, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER? (Hint: it wasn’t a, c, or d)

a. Barack Obama, in defending his late response to the spread of ISIL/ISIS
b. Geoffrey Chaucer, in The Canterbury Tales
c. Rip Van Winkle, in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
d. Michael Bloomberg, in planning a possible run for President as an independent

Old Rock Day – I’m no geologist, but isn’t all rock old? For example, it’s possible there’s big rock in Little Rock, but new rock? Though everything may be relative, no matter how you roll it, any rock worth its salt has to be eons older than Einstein….at least, that’s my theory. In any case, a rolling stone gathers no muse, but a Rolling Rock definitely does:

Play God Day, in my judgment, is redundant, because many ideologues and religious Grand Poobahs play God every day. So let us move on to the next day, which includes ideologues and Grand Poobahs, but is more broad.

Peculiar People Day – Spotlight broad, Sarah Palin. All others pale-in comparison.

National Nothing Day –

Squirrel Appreciation Day – Here’s a squirrel I can not only appreciate, but appreciate even more the place where it makes its ending exit:

That does it for January make-up days, but the month isn’t over yet. We still have tomorrow to look forward to (or do we?):

Jan. 31 – YAD DRAWKCAB

 

 

TODAY IS “PLAY GOD DAY”

We should not play God before we have learned to be men, and as we learn to be men we will not want to play God. –Paul Ramsey, Christian ethicist

• * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

According to holidayinsights.com., January 9 is PLAY GOD DAY. While not an official holiday (i.e., it’s not sanctioned by God, the President or Congress), it nonetheless should be one, as man has been playing God since emerging from the cave, if not before.

If you’re an atheist, you may well ask how man can play what doesn’t exist. Friends, if you think about it, it’s done all the time. In olden days B.F. (Before Film), a man could only play the Almighty in his own time, but since then, God-playing has not been confined to tyrants, despots, politicians and overlords. The invention of motion pictures has been a godsend to a man playing God even after the man is gone. God is not dead — like Frankenstein’s monster, it’s his own creation….and IT’S ALIVE! To wit:

Here is a list of films (including the actor/God)  in which man has played God. I do not proclaim it a complete list, nor have I seen but a few of the of the films on the list. What do you want for nothing? Remember, this is PLAY GOD DAY, so take it or leave it. I doubt God Itself ever made a better offer.

THE GREEN PASTURES (1936), Rex Ingram
THE BIBLE (1966), John Huston
SKIDOO (1968), Groucho Marx
MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975), Graham Chapman
OH, GOD! (1977), George Burns (plus two sequels: Oh, God! Book II, and Oh, God! You Devil)
TIME BANDITS (1981), Ralph Richardson
TWO OF A KIND (1983), Gene Hackman
NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR (1985), Ferdy Mayne
RELIGION, INC. (1989), George Plimpton
ALMOST AN ANGEL (1990), Charlton Heston
THE PRINCE OF EGYPT (1997), Val Kilmer
THE ACID HOUSE (1998), Maurice Roeves
DOGMA (1999), Alanis Morrissette (the first actress to play God?)
BRUCE ALMIGHTY (2003), Morgan Freeman
SUPER (2010), Rob Zombie