Goodbye Columbus!

Columbus Day is coming right up, a day dedicated to someone who was basically lost. It has come to be an Italian celebration, now that we are in a time where very nationality needs to have its own special holiday – though the Irish get the short end of the stick as usual as St Pat’s isn’t a national holiday. The Norwegians don’t even really have a day, though perhaps they should, say Leif Eriksson day.

Leif brings up the point that the Vikings of yore actually discovered the New World, in particular North America. Wrong-way Columbus most likely discovered Hispaniola, an Island in the Caribbean. Some Native Americans protest on Columbus day, but in reality they are after the wrong guy. I can see them being sore for being tagged as Indians, when in fact Columbus wasn’t anywhere near the place (one has to wonder if Columbus had ever met someone from India as they look nothing like the Indians settled on the carib islands). Anyway the Native Americans should be after old Leif, though I would caution against upsetting a Viking. Leif may have also been one of the first in recorded history to be impacted adversely by climate change, forcing his folks to abandon their holdings in the new world, much to the dismay of the local natives that were about to broker a really sweet casino deal…

Have a great Columbus Day and try not to be sore at the guy, it wasn’t really his fault, after all.