Dear friends,

If I asked you 'where do you think the relics of St. Margaret of Scotland are?' and you said "Spain, of course," you'd be right (except nobody knows exactly where).

If you win an Olympic or Paralympic medal, you can also award your coach a medal—the Order of Ikkos. (Ikkos of Tarentum being the earliest known Olympic coach, and incidentally possibly the source of the idea that abstinence improves athletic performance.)

Do you need a new fence? Why not knit a lace one?

William James changed the name of one of his sons three times (from Francis to John, then settling on Alexander when the boy was seven). (To be fair, it seems as if the child had some say in this.)

"Gradualism in theory is perpetuity in practice."

It is impossible for me to choose one thing from the marvel that is the Wikipedia page for Śmigus-dyngus, so I recommend you read the whole thing (okay but pay special attention to the part where "in 1410 it was forbidden by the Bishop of Poznań in an edict titled Dingus Prohibetur" because if you missed the phrase Dingus Prohibetur that would be sad).

The Heilmeier Catechism is a good list of planning questions. (The Communist Manifesto was originally intended to be a catechism but then Engels thought the format didn't work.)

A new cure for illness: temporarily change your name, as they do in Angmagssalik: "Coughs, like insomnia and rocks, were soulful entities with thought processes of their own, and they tended to get confused if they found themselves installed in the wrong person."

"They despise all living writers because they themselves are neither writers nor living." (Oof, Simone.)

Please stay well, please get all the shots you need (I've collected the whole set this year: Covid, flu, and shingles, highly recommended), and perhaps indulge in some philosophy?

Your friend,

Erin