Early Light: Celebrate the bike!
Today is Wednesday, May 21, 2008. This is th
e 142nd day of the year.
On this day in 1819, the first bicycles in the United States were seen for the first time on the streets of New York City. They were dubbed “swift walkers.”
They were an update of the 1817 proto-bike invented in Germany by a baron who was looking for a cooler way to cruise through his elaborate gardens.
Also on this day in 1945, Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart were married. Legend has it that the couple fell in love in 1943 during the making of the film “To Have and Have Not.” Theirs would become one of Hollywood’s most enduring marriages.
Today’s word for the day is “Otiose.” It means ineffective, futile or a state of leisure - which when carried to the extreme may be called lazy, indolent or idle. “Since I retired from from the working world, I enjoy many hours of otiose activities - the more the better!”
