Columbus Day

Happy Columbus Day!

Break out the cannolis.  Savor the last three-day weekend of fall. Watch a parade, if you can find one. Ask a pubic school student if he can name the three ships Columbus sailed with, that ought to be fun.

Now just hold your horses there, all you anti-Columbus types. "Christopher Columbus didn't discover anything! He just bumped into land that already existed and already had a population!"

OK. He "bumped into" the New World.

So here's a question for you:

Who discovered radium?

Yes.  You at the back.

"I know, I know! Marie Curie!" 

Oh, really? Radium is a naturally-occurring element. Did Madame Curie discover anything? Or did she just bump into something that was already there?

You at the back? You have a response?

"Well, he didn't prove the world was round! The ancient Greeks knew that- they had theories!"

Yes, they did. But did any one of those theorizing Greeks get into a 70-foot long wooden tub and risk the entire Atlantic ocean to prove it? I don't think so.

Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean set in motion the chain of events that resulted in the founding of this country. That's a reason to celebrate him, and celebrate the day.

You at the back? No comment?

Ok then.