Today the U.S. is observing Columbus Day. New York's Columbus Day Parade kicked off at 11 AM winding its way from 47th Street to 72nd Street along Fifth Avenue. Bands, floats and celebrities all turn out to celebrate Italian American pride.
Over the years there's been controversy over whether or not Columbus should be honored for discovering America. Obviously indigenous cultures were here first, so were the Vikings. I'm not getting into that; this is a blog about animals after all so you can guess where I'm going with this. Were there any four-legged voyagers on the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria?
There were - cats! Now, I've searched the internet trying to corroborate this but I can't other than finding one answer to this question on Wiki.answers.com claiming Columbus had 25 cats to eat mice. Interesting to think of cats working to keep Columbus' ships free of vermin. That's my furry take on Columbus Day.
As I sit here with my daily cup of coffee, listening to WCBS FM play oldies by Italian American singers and searching the internet for information on Columbus, I will end this post with a poem printed on the bottom of my Christopher Columbus mug:
1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
Sails aloft, hard alee, guided by astronomy.
Our goal: Peking-straight & true,
me thinks there's been a switcheroo!
How could this discov'ry be?
Thanks a lot, Ptolemy!
There are tons of different versions of this poem. I've given up trying to find this one so I can credit the source. If you're home, enjoy the day off and the beautiful weather.
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| Yeah, interesting. You won't catch me working for mice! |
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