Hi! I'm Lizzy!! and I'm not Martha!!!

"Beware the Ides of March." We've all heard that phrase...thank you, William Shakespeare!

But what are the Ides of March? Is there any such thing as a single Ide?

The Ides of March are what Romans called March 15. There's no such thing as a single Ide. The word "ides" was derived from the Latin "to divide." The ides were originally meant to mark the full moon - but since the solar calendar months and lunar months were of different lengths, the ides quickly lost their original intent and purpose.

Do other months have Ides? Most people don't know that the Ides only falls on the 15th of the month one-third of the time. Every self-respecting month has Ides. Is April 15th the 
Ides of April? No, but a little knowledge is always a dangerous thing. Inevitably someone will refer to the tax deadline as the Ides of April. The Ides of April falls on the 13th. Confused yet? Hey, Roman numerals are confusing...why wouldn't the Roman calendar be?

OK, I'm going to make it worse. The Roman version of "30 days hath September" is:

March, July, October and May, the Nones fall on the 7th day.

See what I mean...no help there!  But here are the clues:

The Romans did not count the days of the month from 1 through 30. Instead, three days in every month had names:

* the Kalends fell on the 1st
* the Nones on the 5th or 7th
* the Ides on the 13th or 15th.

And before you ask, there's no such thing as a single Kalend or None either.

When a Roman wanted to say "March the 14th", she had to say: "the day before the Ides of March" ( It goes faster in Latin). March the 6th would be: "The day before the None of March." (you never counted after, always and only before). April fool's day fell 'On the Kalends of April." After the Ides (the 13th or 15th, according to the month) you counted the days to the Kalends of the next month. March the 16th was "17 days before the Kalends of April." (with March 16 and April 1 in ancient fashion counting as full days). It was complicated stuff.

Julius Caesar didn't pay enough attention to the calendar rhyme and see where it got him! Forgetful Caesar would have been better off to be very careful and stay home on the 13th of March, but on the 15th of March his guard was down.

...and there's quite a story to that, too.

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According to historical writer C.J.S. Thompson in The Mystery and Romance of Astrology, the unidentified soothsayer from Shakespeare's play was a Roman astrologer by the name of Spurinna. According to Thompson (and confirmed in Plutarch's account of the story written in 75 A.D.) it was sometime prior to the fateful day of March 15 that Spurinna had first given Caesar the famous warning to "beware of the Ides of March." The astrologer, Spurinna, had warned Caesar that on the Ides of March, he would be in great danger. If, however, Julius Caesar took care on that one day - then all would be well.

According to Plutarch's account, Caesar had previously made the wise decision to stay within the safety of his bedroom chambers on the 15th of March. However, Caesar's "friend" Decimus (Albinus) Brutus (not Marcus Brutus, really "killer pal") managed to convince him that the astrologer's warnings were nothing more than superstitious foolishness. So Julius Caesar decided to attend the Senate on the 15th of March. 
On his way to the Senate, Caesar "accidentally" met up with the astrologer. Upon seeing the astrologer, Caesar confidently informed Spurinna: "The Ides of March are come." 
Spurinna answered, "Yes, they are come, but they are not past." Later that day - on March 15, 44 B.C. - Caesar's enemies assassinated him. Contrary to popular belief, 
including that of William Shakespeare, Caesar was not assassinated in the Capitol, but rather, near the statue of Pompey, where the Roman Senate was meeting that day in the 
temple of Venus.

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* Dear Lizzy -
I thought I might touch on this subject for the reader who asked this question - if you didn't have another response already for her.

The alcohol bath/rubdown thing has two components actually. The first one being that prolonged breathing of Isopropyl alcohol ("rubbing alcohol") fumes is harmful and should 
never be done. With children, it takes less time to produce the effect than in adults, and so you should not expose them to it at all.

The second thing is this.......when you have a fever, what you're doing is reacting to a "stimulus," that being a bacterial or viral infection. The heat produced is a good 
part of the immune response, and helps to fight the disease or condition. But, when you need to get RID of fever, alcohol rubs defeat this purpose. Why?

What happens when you get really chilled, like in the winter time? Your circulation "shuts down" in a way to the peripheral portions of the body - arms, hand, legs, feet, and so on. This is also known as "vasoconstriction." This acts to concentrate the blood closer to the inside of the body where the heat is, to keep the blood warm. You've probably noticed your feet, hands and fingers get whiter, and your rings can even get loose from the shrinking produced by the lack of blood in the vessels in your fingers! Wearing a hat in wintertime is not just a myth, it has proven basis in fact. Your scalp is extremely vascular, explaining the copious appearance of blood in any kind of scalp/head injury. It doesn't take a big cut on the head to make a big mess!  This high level of circulation in the scalp also allows the loss of a good deal of body heat, which is one of the components in fighting fever - the heat is allowed to leave the body naturally.

In they summertime, one of the body's natural cooling mechanisms is the weat/evaporation response. The sweat comes to the surface of the skin and evaporates, pulling heat from 
the body; and your circulation increases to the periphery - arms, legs, head and face and so on - to deliver heat to the skin level where it can dissipate. This is what produces the 
reddened "flush faced" appearance in overheated people.

If you rub the body down with alcohol, which evaporates very quickly, thereby producing a rapid cooling effect, which you feel at the skin level on a temporary basis, the blood 
"retreats" back into the inner core of the body searching for heat. This stops the heat from exiting the body through the circulatory process, which it was doing before the alcohol rub was employed, thereby trapping the heat instead of dispersing it. Best to skip the alcohol, try the tepid baths, some mild anti-inflammatory medication such as Tylenol, lots of fluids, and comfortable, non-constricting loose clothing. High fevers - the level of which varies according to the age of the patient, and should be monitored frequently in babies and very young children - should be referred to your family doctor or local emergency room.

As a means of establishing background for this information, I submit the following. My son contracted Salmonella food poisoning at the tender age of 4 months while we were on 
vacation in Virginia to visit his grandparents. The source of this infection was never located by the local city Health Department, which was investigating 4 other cases in young children and babies at the time. So, he ended up in an isolation room in the hospital, after 6 hours in the ER while they tried to diagnose him. He had a body temp of 104 degrees under his arm - and close to 106 degree core temperature. I learned a lot about fever relief from the nurses who took care of him - and whom I helped by remaining with him in the hospital 24-7 for 4 straight days, monitoring his fever, feeding him and covering and uncovering him with a continually changed round of cloth diapers soaked in tepid water, for two of those days. This was done in addition to the Tylenol suppositories, other medications and continuous fluid replacement with Pedialyte. He was one sick little baby, and I was afraid we might lose him. However, he did recover to become the strapping, 6'4", 240 pound young man I have today! But the lessons I learned then about treating fever I have kept with me ever since then, and they have served me well in the years that followed, keeping him and his older sister well and healthy.

I have been a Surgical Technologist for almost 10 years, and have previously attended nursing school (had to leave to have the older sister of that little boy), and was an EMT for four years. My background in the medical field has proven invaluable to me over the years, and I hope what I have written here has been of some use!

Thanks for your column - I read it all the time and find a great deal of useful information in it. Please feel free to use what I have written here if you would like to, editing of course as needed for space. Shari, C.S.T.

* I agree 100 percent with the clean pillowcase theory. I am also a big fan of fresh air and sunshine too. Line dry the pillowcases and air out the room and stuffed animals the sick 
child/person is in. New air in the room, and the sweet smell of a freshly dried pillowcase can just make you feel better.

'File' (pun intended) this one under the category of things that you always mean to get (but never actually do): A good manicure set. You probably have a pair of nail scissors & a 
toenail clipper in the medicine cabinet (right next to the 1980s-vintage bottle of calamine lotion). But, c'mon, you're an adult for Pete's sake! Why not get a proper manicure set 
so you can look good & project the proper image? This is an excellent, no-nonsense manicure set that includes:

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* Scissors         * Toe Nail Clippers        * Cuticle Stick 
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* Just read your tips on removing stains and had one to add; in removing stains from cups or glassware, just use some dish- washer dry crystals and hot water! Takes the stain 
right out! Keep up the good job you are doing.

k.hinton

* Oxyclean is my answer for all stains from coffee and tea to grease. It is whitening my old dish towels and removing odors from the towels I use for my dogs as kennel blankets. It is spendy to buy--Costco has it for about $12 for a 6 pound tub. Some places want twice that, so you have to shop around. It even took the tea stains out of my white shirt 
which had been laundered several times in regular laundry soap with no success, and tea is twice as hard to remove as coffee. Heather needs to dissolve the Oxyclean in some warm water and just soak the sweater for an hour or so. I am sure she is worried about shrinking a cotton sweater, too, so she should roll the sweater in towels (WHITE towels) after rinsing and press gently to remove water. Then lay the sweater flat on a dry towel to dry, gently smoothing out the wrinkles.

* In response to Heather H. who spilled black coffee on her daughters all cotton white shirt, my grand daughter came here from college for a weekend with some white cotton t-shirt type tops with stains in them. She wasn't sure if they were coffee, tea, chocolate or cola and had already laundered them and dried them in the dryer. She asked if I could remove them for her so I thought I'd give it a try. I dampened the spot with cold water and rubbed in whitening toothpaste, working it in well, then rinsing and repeating until it 
appeared the stain was gone. I then hung them on the line in the sun to dry. The stains completely disappeared. This works well with white but I don't think I'd try it on anything 
colored. I hope this helps with her stains. 
Helen
PS...Love your newsletter!!!

*Hi, Lizzy. I love your e-zine!

Here's a little tip for tea sippers who take cream:

If you take milk or cream with your tea, try putting the milk in your porcelain cup before you pour the tea. This will prevent the tannins from staining your pretty cups. (If you 
can believe it, I got this little tidbit from a lady who actually teaches tea at a local college. Take Care & God Bless,
Tina
Poulsbo, WA 

And as an interesting aside...
The Ides of March is the first day of the Roman New Year. It also marks the first day of spring in the Roman calendar. Maybe Caesar just couldn't resist a stroll on the first day 
of Spring.

Have a good weekend!  And have fun with the "Ides" info!

Lizzy

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