Happy Columbus Day!

[AstroBen]

Columbus was no hero. He was a greedy opportunist who accidentally sailed to the wrong place and brutally subjugated the people he found there who welcomed him with open arms.

If I may add a quote here: "It's not personal; it's just business."

But in the spirit of commemoration, whereby those important events of the past, usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, are celebrated with a nice holiday, it is important to remember that course of history, and certainly the lives of many on this forum, would be decidedly different without the influence of this man.

So, Happy Columbus Day.

[Tartan Tess]

I like what Riverkilt said about the old and new Columbus day. I remember when Lincoln and Washington had separate days off from school.
Nevada doesn't celebrate Columbus day, and I am sure there are other states that doesn't either. But, like so many other things in this crazy country now, everything has to be politically correct and able to be made into a 3 day week-end.
In school, I learned about Columbus because it was a brave thing to jump in a boat and go into the unknown (kinda like astronauts)
I like Antonio's idea as another great excuse for a day for wearing a kilt!

[bdkilted]

Antonio, I don't want to burst your bubble, but some of more recent research indicates that Christobal Columbo was a Jewish convert to Catholism (as was his father). But, the family did live in Italy, so I guess it is OK to call them Italians.
As to the Vegan's comments- don't confuse Columbus with the greedy Spanish aristocrocy that came with him. History shows that while he certainly hoped to make some money off of this adventure, his other motivation was to bring Christianity to the new world. He tried to get the Spanish to stop mistreating the natives. Don't be too quick to fall for the revisionist history that is spread in the media.

[Antonio]

hah hah! Thanks for *not* bursting my bubble guys! I'd vote for a national Spaghetti and Meatballs Day in the USA but then folks would just say the Chinese invented it...

[ForresterModern]

Not to be a bubble burster but there is some genetic research that says that Columbus was likely of Catalan origin (a portion of northeast Spain that at the time was not part of Spain, and actually spread eastward into Northern Italy to encompass where Columbus' family is said to originally hail from. It was only later that the Catalan throne and Spanish throne were joined into surrent day Spain, and parts of the old Catalan were lost to now Italy.).

[Irish Jack O'Brian]

Speculative histories are fun in science fiction, but I personally am uncomfortable defending the historical actions of someone like Columbus by making up a worse scenario in a what-if world. Not sure this is the proper venue to vent on historical methodologies.

[Lallans]

Speculative histories are fun in science fiction, but I personally am uncomfortable defending the historical actions of someone like Columbus by making up a worse scenario in a what-if world. Not sure this is the proper venue to vent on historical methodologies.

Yeah well if this comment was regarding my last post on this thread, all of the theory I quoted (except, possibly, for St Brendan's account) is part of modern archoleogical theory and while no scientific theory should ever be considered proven, this one is strongly supported by European stone age tools and skeletons that have been dug up all across North American, as well as that touchstone of our age, DNA evidence. If memory serves, my first exposure to all this was via the National Geographic Society.
And if you want to know how socialism works, look at the 20th century. 100 million killed and all we got was North Korea.

[Jack Daw]

Hey, Columbus called it for dibs before the Vikings (who came and went), so it's only fair.

[denmcdough]

Jack Daw...good comment. Yep, the vikings messed up. We could be celebrating Lief Erickson Day, or Viking day. Since I'm half Italian, I'll take any day I can get to celebrate!!!

[wildrover]

Sorry to burst all your bubbles, but Columbus was actually of Arab descent, with a Dutch grandmother, before converting to Christianity in Scotland and eventually making his way to Spain. He was baptized with a first name of "Pedro", and did briefly dabble in politics, using the timeless slogan "Vote for Pedro" in his unsuccessful campaign.

There is a Viking connection, of course...the early piratical exploits of the Vikings made quite an impression on a young man named Vincenzo Columbus, who later in life captured young Pedro and made him First Mate in exchange for political deals with Pedro's existing connections. Upon Vincenzo's death, Pedro became captain of the ship, and his name was changed to Christopher Columbus in a nod to his former captain, and because "Pedro" isn't a very good pirate name.

Hewing to the Viking influence on his long-time and late captain, Christopher Columbus made for the Americas, having heard of good places to build timeshare vacation homes, and later to introduce SUVs, and the epic sport of rollerderby, which encourages both kiltedness and chick fights.

This is all established historical fact. I don't know where you guys all got that leftist-revisionist theory nonsense.

Happy Columbus Day .

-Sean