The “D” in D-Day doesn’t really stand for anything.

WORLD HISTORY

On June 6, 1944, the largest land, sea, and air invasion in the history of the world took place on the beaches of Normandy, France. It was the first phase of Operation Overlord, an Allied plan to land hundreds of thousands of troops into French enemy territory, then move east and liberate the rest of Nazi-occupied Western Europe. The planners of the operation gave it a simple name: D-Day. But what exactly does the “D” stand for? 

The simplest and most widely cited explanation is that the “D” in D-Day stands for “day,” essentially a code indicating a date to be determined (or concealed from enemy forces). “It simply signifies the day that the invasion will launch and puts all the timetables into play,” Keith Huxen, a historian at the National WWII Museum, told TIMEmagazine in 2019. Military history also supports this theory. In the field, the U.S. Army began substituting the letters “D” and “H” for “day” and “hour” as early as World War I. The days and hours leading up to or following an operation, meanwhile, were often noted with plus and minus signs, such as “H-2” or “D+3.”

Not everyone has agreed with this interpretation, however. In his book The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, author Robert Hendrickson wrote that “the French maintain the ‘D’ means ‘disembarkation,’ still others say ‘debarkation,’ and the more poetic insist D-Day is short for ‘day of decision.’” Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during Operation Overlord, added to the confusion with his explanation. War Slang author Paul Dickson noted that in 1964, Eisenhower instructed his executive assistant to answer a letter he received about the meaning of D-Day by stating “that any amphibious operation has a ‘departed date’; therefore the shortened term ‘D-Day’ is used.” In fact, there were multiple “D-Days” during World War II, and other single-letter designations were used as well, such as M-Day for “mobilization.”

Ancient Olympic athletes competed naked.

ARTS & CULTURE

Many aspects of the ancient Olympics are similar to what we see in our modern competition, but there’s at least one notable difference: Today, all Olympians wear clothes. For ancient Greek athletes, nudity functioned as something of a national uniform, an intentional contrast to their Persian rivals, who traditionally found it against decorum to appear naked. Competing in the nude (often while covered in olive oil) was also seen as a way to show off status. According to historian Donald Kyle, “In Archaic Greece, disrobing fully to become naked for sport became an assertive communication of maleness, ethnicity, status, freedom, privilege, and physical virtue.” Some athletes also considered performing naked a tribute to Zeus. In fact, the words “gymnasium” and “gymnastics” both come from the Greek word “gymnasion,” which refers to a place to train or exercise naked. 

While competing naked became a Greek tradition, it wasn’t always that way; some ancient vases from the Minoan period (which ended around 1200 BCE) depict Athenian athletes competing in loincloths. According to accounts by various scholars, the first naked competitor appeared in the 15th Olympiad in 720 BCE. Orsippus of Megara was said to have lost his loincloth during a race, and then ran on to victory. An epitaph of Orsippus, attributed to the poet Simonides of Ceos, reads, “First of the Greeks in Olympia was he crowned while naked; Before him, all contestants were girdled in the stadium.” In the modern Olympics, things have changed a little bit, and now competitors wear clothing —  though on rare occasions, some modern runners will still go without shoes.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

The judge in Florida has pushed the trial for Trump out on the end of the pier that is marked indefinite. So his handling of classified material seems to be of no importance to our justice system. Again I would like to see how this would be handled if the former Commander and Chief were tried under UCMJ rules. It would not be put on indefinite and it would not be treated as unimportant.
The erosion of democracy is well underway in many parts of the world and it seems the republican party is determined to make it go away in the US. Articles in the paper about cartels running elections and killing their opposition are the kinds of issues we can look forward to if we allow democracy to become a thing of the past.
How this can be viewed as desirable is totally beyond my comprehension, the idea of having armed thugs killing people that don’t agree with them is just unthinkable. Where do such ideas come from? Is it the gun lobby that cannot recognize that assault weapons are for war not the kind of weapon that john q average needs to have in his closet. If we limit weapons then what will we limit next, power drinks, drugs, the use of condoms so that we don’t end up with a nation full of idiots?
It seems that every other right can be infringed upon but guns and blatant stupidity. Those items can not be interfered with for some reason beyond common sense. Books can be banned because they depict a historical view that is detrimental to white supremacy. Subjects in school are not to be taught for that and reasons that go against the bible or other religious theory. Women’s health issues are denied because women are chattel and disposable property, they are here to produce offspring and keep the master happy. These things can not happen in a democracy because everyone has a voice not just the wealthy or the male of the species or not just the white men of property, everyone has a voice. We need to keep it that way.

This is a serious question I have…

How can you fly a Vietnam POW MIA Flag and a Trump 2024 flag on the same vehicle ?

My rational brain can’t make the connection, can anyone help me out here…

The ancient Romans celebrated a version of Mother’s Day.

WORLD HISTORY

Each May, American families celebrate their matriarchs with brunches, flowers, cards, and phone calls. Thousands of years before this modern Mother’s Day tradition started, the ancient Romans had a similar observance, although it focused on marriage and childbirth at least as much as mothers themselves. Celebrated each year on March 1, Matronalia commemorated the establishment of a temple to Juno Lucina, the Roman goddess of childbirth, on Rome’s Esquiline Hill. 

As on our modern Mother’s Day, husbands would give their wives gifts — but that’s about where the similarity ends. Matronalia was a pretty pious affair; after a procession of married women to the temple to make offerings to Juno Lucina, families would return home and pray for marital happiness. Enslaved women were also given a feast by their female enslavers as part of the festivities.

Matronalia wasn’t the only ancient Roman holiday relating to mothers, however. In fact, it was pretty tame in comparison to the annual celebration of the Great Mother of the Gods, also known as Magna Materor Cybele, who entered the Roman pantheon around the third century BCE. Her festival, called Megalensia, took place over several days in March or April, and included games, theatrical performances, and other rituals.

The War Technically Hasn’t Ended Yet

Armistice negotiations to end the Korean War began in 1951 and lasted for two years, the longest such negotiations in history. While the Korean Armistice Agreement of 1953 ended active military conflict on the Korean Peninsula, it was not an official peace treaty. The agreement was adopted by the United Nations Command, the North Korean army, and the Chinese army, but South Korea leaders refused to sign. To this day, no official peace treaty has been signed between North and South Korea, and the two nations still technically remain at war. A tense ceasefire is maintained by the Demilitarized Zone that runs across the Korean Peninsula and divides the two nations, but both sides maintain a heavy military presence there, and the area still sees occasional outbreaks of violence. Despite continued negotiations, North and South Korea have been unable to reach an official peace agreement 70 years after the Armistice Agreement.