#14 - Timeless Advice from R. Reagan, Endless Art from T. Tatsuya
+ How April Fools and the Tax Year are linked
Zdrasti from Sofia! Where I’m, strangely, after 2 months since returning from South America, still saying sí instead of да or just yes 😶
Putting aside my lame linguistic dilemmas, I want to start this issue with a simple but powerful quote I heard recently:
“Dance with the one that brung ya.” – Ronald Reagan
To understand what it means and where I heard it from, keep on reading. 😉
🕳 Random Rabbit Hole
April Fools’ Day and the UK Tax Year
While last issue’s Devils Word of the Week entry was about April Fools, I was remiss to not include a bit about where the tradition comes from.
It turns out the exact origin is not exactly known.
In most of Europe in the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on March 25. Originally, January 1 had been the date of the new year in the Julian calendar, but after the fall of the Roman Empire, the date gradually changed to March 25*, to conform with the Feast of the Annunciation (Lady Day).1
* Readers of previous issues will remember my rant about the Gregorian calendar and how the Persian calendar is so much more logical. Now imagine the legal year not even starting with the calendar… 🤦♂️
Anyways, when France changed its calendar in the 16th century and switched its year start back to January 1, some still celebrated NYE on March 25 (with a holiday in some areas that ended on April 1), so those “fools” who still clung to the past were ridiculed and thus April Fools’ Day was invented.
In France, the fooled person is called poisson d’avril (“April fish”), probably referring to an easily caught young fish. 🎣
In Scotland, the day is called Gowkie Day, after the gowk, which is Scots for cuckoo. Youngsters used to be led on a fool’s errand, from wood to wood, to track newly arrived spring cuckoos (“hunt the gowk”), at a date too early for any to be found. So, if you were ever called a huntegowk, then the joke was on you. 🐦🤡
And where, or should I say ‘when’, did Britain come into this?
Well, they were so behind2 that, excluding Scotland (from 1600), they kept that ridiculous New Year date of March 25 until 1752! And yes, this applied to all the Empire’s dominions, including those in America.
Why? Well, in 1582, to make sure all Christians celebrated Easter on the correct date, Pope Gregory XIII had introduced an (unnamed) revised calendar, later known as the Gregorian calendar. This calendar had January 1 as the first day of the new year (again) and a revised method for calculating leap years.3
However, England being Protestant didn’t accept the new papal calendar and stuck to the Julian calendar, as well as the New Year date of March 254.
Eventually it got so hard and inaccurate that they adopted the 'New Style' calendar with the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.
And for those who’ve been reading all this and wondering what any of it has to do with the UK tax year, here it is! 💷👇
Since the Julian calendar was 11 days behind the new one (due to overcounting leap days), the Act ordered that eleven calendar days be skipped in September 1752, resulting in our present tax year end of April 5, which is eleven days on from the original quarter-day of March 25. 😎
🎨 Art
I’ve been a follower of Japanese miniature artist Tanaka Tatsuya for more years than I can count, and yesterday (4/20 lol) he revealed that he hit the milestone of 13 years of daily art posting on Instagram!! Mind. Blown. 🤯
To do him justice you’ll have spend a few hours scrolling through the hundreds thousands of insanely creative pieces he’s done, but here are two of my all-time faves which I always remember.
🎙 Podcasts
Political Currency
I recently discovered and subscribed to the “Political Currency” podcast by two former British ministers - George Osbourne, famous for being David Cameron’s Chancellor5, and Ed Balls, the Shadow6 Chancellor during the same period.
The podcast has a very friendly conversational vibe and I find it both very entertaining and informative. Indeed, it’s even changed my mind about Mr Osbourne; no doubt the result of seeing a more real side of a politician.
Very recently they had on Michael Gove, the man most responsible for Brexit alongside Boris Johnson, for a 3-parter on what really went on behind the scenes - in both Leave and Remain campaigns - of the 21st century’s biggest political shakeup. Here’s the link for part one of Inside The Room: The Brexit Plots.
They also do a thing called EMQs, meaning Ex-Ministers Questions (a play on PMQs - Prime Minister's Questions) where listeners send in their social and political questions, and Ed and George answer them (very well imo) using their expertise and experience.
In one EMQ episode, an American listener asks them why Britain has such a unique array of political phrases, and what their favourites are. You can listen to it at mark 18:45 in the link below:
Here George reveals that two of his favourites are actually from US politics, a humorous one about a Texan senator and a dwarf7, and his all-time fave from Ronald Reagan: “Dance with the one that brung ya.”
When Reagan was president, he insisted on doing many small conservative radios and publications, to the confusion of White House staff who thought he was wasting his time. Reagan, who had succeeded in California and then in the presidency on the back on these small conservative outlets, would reply “you gotta remember to dance with the one that brung ya” and that he wouldn’t forget his old friends now that he’d made it to the top. 🤩
It comes from the expression “If you’re taken to a ball/dance, you got to dance with the boy who brought you” and you can see here how strongly Reagan felt about this and was admired for it.
Fantastic advice for anyone, in any situation, on any journey. 🏆
🎶 Music
And now to finish the way I started, here’s a famous Bulgarian pop-rock track from the early 2000s:
Before you go…
If you enjoyed today’s post, please remember to SHARE it with ONE friend, family or colleague ❤️ sharing is caring and all that 😄
And, did you particularly enjoy any of the sections today? Would love to hear from you in the comments!
Merci for reading!
Prince 🦊
To make matters worse, depending on the diocese, the year could’ve began on Christmas, or March 1, or March 25, or Easter.
Not at all exclusively though
It should be noted that many countries were already using January 1 as New Year’s day before adopting the Gregorian calendar, such as France from 1564 with the Edict of Roussillon.
It had adopted this date since 1155.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer post in Britain is equivalent to the Secretary of the Treasury (currently Janet Yellen) in the States.
The Shadow Cabinet are senior members of the opposition; people who would make up the cabinet if they’d been in office.
Something we’ll definitely not hear these days, especially from a Democrat.
Nice one. I’m gonna check out Political Currency. Sounds interesting.