Remember our first stop today, when we briefly visited Dun Nechtain in Scotland with Ecgfrith of Northumbria? Well the good news is that we've made it out of there. Ecgfrith? Not so much. He bit the big one there. And by the way, I just noticed that his foe at the battle, Bridei mac Bili, was apparently his cousin. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, huh? Anyhow, RIP the king of Northumbria, and an awful lot of the soldiers who were with him.
Another guy who died today, and one that you probably know, was Christopher Columbus. He made it to 1506, and to Spain, but no further. There's no need for me to recap his life and voyages, but I will mention that his belief he could reach Asia came about because he apparently was way off in his concept of the circumference of the world. Oddly, his ideas were apparently not shared by most everyone else, so there you are. I've also read one book which suggested that he claimed to have reached Asia because by the time he reached America, he'd realized that it was impossible, but still wanted to collect what the author of that book called a "performance bonus" for finding Asia. Perhaps... But he also apparently thought that Japan was hundreds of miles further from the mainland than it in fact is. At any rate, he's dead. And it happened on this date. Deal with it.
An honest to God, bona fide, comedic genius left us on this date in 1989. RIP the incomparable Gilda Radner. Don't believe anyone who tells you that Tina Fey or Kristen Wiig is the most talented woman in the history of SNL. It's not even close. Gilda sits atop that pile, and nobody else is close. And given her talents, one should also remember the old saying that, "If I have seen further than others, it is only because I stood upon the shoulders of giants". Gilda was a giant, and they stand upon her shoulders.
Wow I guess that's all there is today. Not many, but they're interesting. So remember to keep going, and do as Columbus, and sail into the unknown.
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