It's a good thing that Augustus changed his name from Octavian; that would have made things really confusing for the Romans.

Ha! Yes indeed.

So, I have a cup shaped like this one [link] (I don't have that one, it's just an image I found that is pretty close) that I use for green tea. I was burning my fingers all the time so I looked up how to drink from it properly without hurting myself and learned that it's supposed to be on a saucer, so I have been using a small bowl for that (since seeing Mr. Holmes alerted me to the existence of saucers that are more bowl-shaped than plate-shaped, anyway) which is working well except I manage to drip tea from the cup into the saucer (which is right and proper, I think?) and then when I am reaching the end of my cup of tea I spill the tea from the saucer onto my body. Pretty sure I am not doing that part right. Maybe I'm not supposed to drink down to the last dregs?

I am so not feeling it today, thank goodness for buffistas and talk of cabbages and their comedic as well as super villain potential, and the hinkiness of the Roman calendar.

Maybe I'm not supposed to drink down to the last dregs?

Maybe as you drink the tea will cool enough to pick up the cup directly? Not sure. Not finishing the whole cup sound like crazy cakes to me.

Before they were renamed after the Caesars, July and August were called Quintilis and Sextilis.

How very cool! Which presumes that March through June had other names, though March could be for Mars and June for Juno. April and May, though, hm.

edit: It reminds me of when the French Revolutionaries redid the calendar, changing the lengths of months and weeks and using harvest-based names (I think).

Maybe as you drink the tea will cool enough to pick up the cup directly?

Probably. But changing my tea drinking process sounds hard. Maybe worth it. Hm. I know that if I am going to do a second pour I am supposed to leave some water on the leaves. This might need more research.

I keep forgetting to say - the cabbages are totally giving me an Avatar/Korra vibe.

Per timeanddate.com:

Calendar of Romulus: Martius - 31 Days Aprilis - 30 Days Maius - 31 Days Iunius - 30 Days Quintilis - 31 Days Sextilis - 30 Days September - 30 Days October - 31 Days November - 30 Days December - 30 Days

I'm not very creative, so I kind of don't understand how anything gets anything other than the most obvious name! "Which mountain?" "You know, the tall one?"

One of the Discworld novels has a bit about explorers grabbing natives by the arm and demanding to know the names of things so they can fill in the empty bits on their maps, leading to many landmarks with names that translate to "A Mountain, I Don't Know, What?"

Your Finger You Fool is my favorite. I have been looking for a way to drop that into this conversation.

I gotta, say, now that I know a little more about Romulus's calendar I kinda like the idea of just not counting the winter months. Get to December and then, whatever, we'll care what month and day it is again in the Spring. I can see the value in that.

I gotta, say, now that I know a little more about Romulus's calendar I kinda like the idea of just not counting the winter months.

As you noted, it was commonplace in the Middle Ages to have open revelry at times over the winter, and anything you did during that space Did Not Count because it was off the calendar. You see some of that hanging over into Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, but commonly there were all kinds of satirical plays that mocked the local nobles openly during that stretch and It Didn't Count. Plus everybody having sex and not too much concern about parentage down the line.

That's why there were riots when the calendar was closed up and those Festival days were eliminated.

That's why there were riots when the calendar was closed up and those Festival days were eliminated.

The Middle Ages were a lot more pleasant than a lot of people realize.