DCML digest #815

Don Rosa donrosa at iglou.com
Sat Jan 26 14:52:35 CET 2002


From: "Soeren Schridde" <sschridde at web.de>
>>>it is great to read a new ROSA story and to know - you can learn and
quote what you learned... the thing with April 1st

That puzzled me for a minute, but I hope you mean Friday the 13th, or your
translator made a drastic fubar!

>>>...and the different
calendar in the crusader story - usually I would've thought it's an
invention by the storyteller... but as it's a ROSA story, I'm quite
sure he hunted down some libraries and in one old book from the dusty
shelf in the dark far back corner found that information to be woven
into the story.
(and now don't tell me that THAT part by chance was ONLY an invention
, Don!)

No, fear not. Every historical fact in that story, whether regarding the
changing calendars, the history of the Knights Templar, the lost logbook of
Columbus or any other Columbian facts, the life and activities of
Nordenskiold... everything was absolutely authentic. The only parts I made
up was how I wove the facts and events together. In other words, I don't
know if Columbus really took the Crown of the Crusader Kings to Haiti under
some sort of secret deal with the Templars (but it's possible, given his
Templar connections), and I don't know that Nordenskiold ever had the lost
logbook of Columbus (but it's possible, given that he was a Columbian
scholar and collector).
There is one single dialogue balloon that a few sharp readers have told me
was in error, but it was purposely so, just for the benefit of a better
gag, and I had that license since it was Donald who said it. He was saying
that the Friday the 13th that the Templars were destroyed in France was 9
days off, and that what we call "Friday the 13th" should actually be Sunday
the 22nd. However, even if the calendar had been corrected earlier and the
proper leap years had skipped the correct days, the day the Templars were
disbanded would still have been a Friday. We only skip dates in leap years,
not days of the week. See? Yeah, I could have had a Nephew correct him, but
that would have "stepped on the punchline" and been a bit rude for an
ever-polite Woodchuck. Or I could have had him just say it was "Friday the
22nd", but that doesn't sound as funny (not to say that the joke is so
hysterical in the first place).
But the fact is quite true that all of the dates that our history books
give for events that took place before the 16th to 20th centuries
(depending on what country the event occurred in since not all countries
skipped dates at the same time) are inaccurate for up to several weeks. The
October Revolution in Russia (last country to update their calendar)
actually took place in November! And we Americans have created a national
holiday around Columbus Day on October 12th... even though Columbus
actually discovered America on October 21st. (Maybe we can say we are also
celebrating his wonderful nutball geographic inaccuracy of thinking he was
in Cathay or India by celebrating the event on the wrong day?)






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