LM1182 Beware of the Ides of March

LM1182 Beware of the Ides of March

LM, Episode 1182, 3/15/23 (Remaster Episode 121, 3/15/20), Beware of the Ides of March

The first I ever heard of the Ides of March was after hearing my Grandma Rowan say, “He’s deader than Julious Caesar,” and I read Shakespeare’s play.

“Beware of the Ides of March,’ the prophet warned Julious Caesar.  If we’re to believe Shakespeare, Caesar mocked him just before being stabbed to death on March 15, the Ides of March. And I’m sure it happened that way because I’m certain Shakespeare did what all writers do, consult Google.

“He’s deader than Julious Caesar.”  The political elite were angry with Caesar’s populist agenda and, because Caesar had proclaimed himself dictator for life, a group of senators decided to give him a term limit by stabbing him to death.  Later, one of the conspirators, Brutus, issued a coin with the cap of freedom between two knives and the words, “Ides of March.”  Seems like a confession to me.

Brutus proclaimed, “sic semper tyrannis,” after killing Caesar, which is Latin for, “Thus always to tyrants.” After shooting President Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth yelled, “sic semper tyrannis,” which may be the last thing Lincoln heard.  It is more eloquent than the last thing President Kennedy heard.  Seconds before being shot, Nellie Connelly, said, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.”  Knowing Kennedy’s sense of humor, I think he’d enjoy the irony of those words.

I am amazed and a bit disheartened after 2,000 years, humans are still arguing and killing of the same ideas.  I just hope when I’m deader than Julious Caesar people will remember laughter matters.