Notre Dame burns

“Notre Dame is our history, it’s our literature, it’s our imagery. It’s the place where we live our greatest moments, from wars to pandemics to liberations… I’m telling you all tonight — we will rebuild this cathedral together. This is probably part of the French destiny.”

“This history is ours. It is burning. I say to you very solemnly tonight, this cathedral, we will rebuild it.”

French President Emmanuel Macron

Image via mafaro

As I watch the flames rip through the roof of the spire of the Cathedral of Notre Dame last evening, I shook my head at history going up in smoke. It was ugly and grotesque.

Paris does not mourn alone. The world stands with her at the dawn of this heartbreak, but this is not the time to be distracted for God is never limited to a building.

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Francophones, this day (and month) belongs to you! 🇫🇷

March is celebrated as Francophonie Month and today is UN French Language Day and International Francophonie Day.

UN French Language Day celebrates the culture, history, and achievements of this beautiful language and to also promote multilingualism. International Francophonie Day celebrates Francophone culture. This day was created in 1988 to celebrate the signing of the Niamey Convention in Niger on 20 March 1970.

French used to be the language of diplomacy, so today, I’ll just share a few facts about La langue française.

* French is one of the five most spoken Romance languages.

* French is the official language or one of the official language in more than 43 countries. It is spoken by 125 million people globally on every continent.

* The French language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. The other five includes Arabic, Chinese, Russian, English, and Spanish.

* Although many dialects and different variations exist, Parisian French is the ‘model’ for the French language.

* French is one of the official languages of Switerzland, Belgium, and Canada.

* We can trace the roots of the French language during 6 periods: 

1. Gallo-Romance (5th-8th centuries)

2. Old French (9th-13th centuries)

3. Middle French (14th-15th centuries)

4. Early Modern French (16th century)

5. Classical Modern French (17th-18th centuries)

6. Contemporary Modern French (since the 19th century)

On a not so related French note, France has won 15 Nobel Prizes for literature, more than any other country. After all, they gave the world some fantastic writers such as Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas and I think their literature is top notch. 👍

Now, I’m just going to Chez Bogato on 17 rue Liancourt to sample some authentic French pastries. 😉

Happy French Language et Francophonie Day, Francophones (and Francophiles! Yes, we’re joining in, too!) 

***GIFs via Google Search

“I thought dying had been harder.”

King Louis XIV was a fascinating man and King! His reign (1638-1718) lasted for 72 years, longer than that of any other European sovereign. Known as the Sun King, this man was my favorite French King and these were his last words:

“Why do you weep? Do you think I should live forever? I thought dying had been harder.”

King Louis XIV

Tom Cruise Day!

Today is Tom Cruise Day in Japan! 

According to the Japan Memorial Day Association, Cruise was awarded his own national day because of his love for Japan and close association with the country. Tom has visited Japan more than any other major movie star and spent hours on end with the fans.

Tom Cruise Day has been celebrated in Japan since 2006.

I have no idea what they do on that day, though, so I’ll share a few pictures of TC in Japan…

I also have no idea if he speaks Japanese in real life, but he learned the language for The Last Samurai and the effort was definitely appreciated by moviegoers.

And what is this post without a funny clip of TC on some Japanese show? Although I learned Japanese at one point in my life (I even watched YuGiOh! in Japanese for the language’s sake!), I don’t understand anything. 😛 And I honestly don’t get Japanese humor. *shrugging* Shirimasen. 

Happy Tom Cruise Day, Japan!

National Coffee Day!

I love this beverage and I consider every day National Coffee Day, so I’ll just share a few photos that I’ve pinned recently via Pinterest:

Tiramisu Coffee. I need this in my coffee life.

Coffee in Paree!

Coffee art!

Ice, ice, baby! Coconut iced coffee.

National Poetry Day!

Today is National Poetry Day in the UK! I don’t have a new poem to share because they’re written on a whim, but I do have one that I’ve shared a while back. I’ve since edited it, but it’s not a masterpiece. It was based on a photo of TC and Rebecca during the shooting of the awesome Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation.

National Pancake Day!

Pass the syrup because it’s National Pancake Day!

Images via Pinterest

Math Storytelling Day!

Math Storytelling Day is observed annually on September 25th. It was created by Maria Droujkova of naturalmath.com in 2009 on her birthday after she read a blog post by Seth Godin entitled “What should I do on your birthday?” 

On this day, Math lovers share their love of Maths through storytelling, but today, I’ll be sharing a few facts instead of telling stories. 

* Pythagoras established the Pythagorean School, whose doctrine it was that mathematics ruled the universe and whose motto was “All is number”.

* Mathematics is not discovered; it is invented.

* It wasn’t until the 16th century that most mathematical symbols were invented. Before this time math equations were written in words.

* It is believed that Ancient Egyptians used complex mathematics such as algebra, arithmetic, and geometry as far back as 3000 BC.

* French Mathematician and inventor, Blaise Pascal contributed Pascal’s triangle and probability theory. He also invented an early digital calculator.

* What comes after a million, billion, and trillion? A quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, and nonillion. 

* An icosagon is a shape with 20 sides.

* Trigonometry is the study of the relationship between the angles of triangles and their sides. 

* Here’s a fun fact:

The name of the search engine ‘Google’ came from a misspelling of the word ‘googol’, which is a very large number (the number one followed by one hundred zeros to be exact).

* A ‘googolplex’ is the number 1 followed by a googol zeros, this number is so big that it can’t be written because there isn’t enough room in the universe to fit it in. It would take a length of time far greater than the age of the universe just to write the numbers.

* The number Pi (the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle) can’t be expressed as a fraction, this means it is an irrational number. When written as a decimal it never repeats and never ends. Here is Pi written to 50 decimal places: 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939935710 (I can only hope that I wrote this right!)

A fun problem!

Cutting a cake into 8 pieces with JUST 3 slices is very possible. How do you go about doing that?

Have fun solving that one! It’s really easy. 🙂

***Cody Martin GIFs via Google Search

National Read A Book Day

Image via Pinterest

For National Read A Book Day, I want to share this story of a man and his horse who touched my heart recently.

Ridwan Sururi and his horse Luna hails from the village of Serang, in the Purbalingga region of Java island. Sururi is a father of five and a horse caretaker who desires to see the young ones reading. Since December 2014, he has been running a Kudapustaka (horse library) which sees him take the library around the village and nearby areas weekly (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday).

Image via Al Jazeera

Image via Aktuality.sk

To read more on what this beautiful being is doing for the future of reading in Indonesia, visit bbc.com and happy Read A Book Day!

It's #ReadABookDay! Meet the man and his horse on a mission to fight illiteracy in Indonesia. pic.twitter.com/jpUh0CX1mL

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 6, 2017

Happy Independence Day, T&T!

We’re celebrating 55 years of Independence today!

Here every creed and race,
Find an equal place,
And may God bless our nation.

All images via Google Search