Remember when Julius Caesar royally screwed up (no-pun intended) in terms of his rather disappointing calendar additions?
Everything was fine, until he decided to go ahead and add “July” and “August” (which, for the record, he named after himself and his son, like a conceited and nepotistic jerk).
The idea of adding two months to the calendar itself I have no problem with. However, he decided to add these two months RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE YEAR, like an IDIOT.
The months were named very deliberately before Caesar sauntered onto the scene, like the lumbering oaf he was. “November” comes from the Latin novum meaning “nine.” “December” comes from the Latin decem meaning “ten.” Did Caesar think it was a coincidence that, before he started poking around like an IDIOT, the ninth month was literally called “NINE,” and the tenth month was literally called “TEN.”
So, what did Caesar do?
He chose to add 2 months, right in the middle of the year, pushing back the month that is literally named “nine” to become number 11, and the month that is literally named “ten” to become number 12.
Why wouldn’t he just put July and August at the end?
There are two possible explanations: he either “didn’t realize” (like an IDIOT), or he knew what he was doing and chose to do it anyway.
If he “didn’t realize” his mistake (what a stupid, dumb idiot!), then we should, at the very least, switch the names of the months back now so that November and December return to month 9 and month 10. We wouldn’t even have to change the number of days in the months—we could just change the NAMES of the months to reflect how things SHOULD be. Honestly, I’d even concede to make the 11th and 12th months still be called “July” and “August,” if that’s a deal-breaker.
If he knew what he was doing and chose to do it anyway, he deserved EXACTLY what happened to him (our history buffs will know what I’m talking about…).
Until next time,
Michael J. Erickson, CEO & Co-Founder
