“If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot.” Rev. John Bunyan, born this day in 1628.

I guess it's a bit obsessive and silly, this bit of daily trolling for commemorations, birthdays & such, but if I hadn't formed this habit I'd never have come across Rev. Bunyan's words, so beautifully expressed. For that matter, I wouldn't have known that today's the 115th anniversary of America's first automobile race. And you may not know that the event was rather wonderfully portrayed [here I am, mastering my native tendency to jealousy & insecurity, the wishing that I'd done this book and weren't such a sadsack piece of doomed flotsam...ooh wait. I'd better give Rev. Bunyan's words more thought. this pilgrim is in sore need of progress...] in Michael Dooling's historical picture book, The Great Horse-less Carriage Race.

Oh my goodness - I scrolled down wikipedia's list of today's deathdays and, along w/all else that's slipped my mind, today's the anniversary of the day that Washington Irving kicked the bucket. Why would I ever have known that? Because 1. I'm something of a weirdo and 2. I wrote & illustrated a fine, pretty much ignored book about this charming folklorist, travel-writer, biographer, diplomat, and amateur architect. I loved working on that book.