The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 11

News Journal, Wilmington, Del. Monday, Jan. 1, 1990 Section ABB ELEV I 10 HEALTH COMICS i jtei? 111 I is 4 1 1 For some cultures, Jan. 1, 2000, will be just another day at the office 3 is ,3 I about to flood when Sirius, the Dog Star, stood on the horizon at sunrise: Plant. Australian aborigines know it's time to hunt termites when Arcturus is on the horizon at dawn: Eat.

The Sumerians and Babylonians, first-rate farmers and no dummies either, had a good calendar. But it was based on the moon and pretty soon, if you're not paying attention, you're planting wheat in December. "The year hath a deficiency," would declare Hammurabi, the great lawgiver, as he threw in an extra month. We call such doctoring of a calendar "intercalation." The Babylonians also invented the week, maybe because seven was their lucky number, maybe because it so conveniently divided the lunation into quarters. The Jews later reinvented the week based on the seven days of Creation.

Somewhere along the line Sunday was named the first day, because the sun gave life. Saturday, at week's end, comes from the Roman god Saturn, who ruled over old age. Old-time Teutons named days for gods such as Wodan, Thor and Fria. Guess what became of them. In Yemen the day begins at the point when you can tell a white goat hair from a black one.

Moslems begin each month when holy men first report a sighting of 4 4 V. i 1 il ilinirt A mMlr in i iii ifi i ill i iymmmmmmmmmmmmmmmtAt, tradition in 1941. They also celebrate the October Revolution in November, which we'll get to. The ancient Egyptians switched from the Babylonian moon to a 12-month solar calendar of 30 days each and tagged on five holidays at year's end. In 238 B.C., Ptolemy III, also no dummy, put in a leap day after checking with Sirius to make up for the fraction of a day left over from 365 days in orbit.

Meanwhile, in Rome, the Romans did as the Romans do. Romulus, co-founder of the city, devised a 10-month calendar of 304 days. Winter months were considered "useless" and not counted. The year began in "Aprilis" (from Latin "to at the time of the equinox (equal night and day). Romulus's successor, King Numa, added Januarius and Februarius and came up with a 12-month calendar of 365 days not bad, but still out of tune, made more so by high priests who were not above subtracting a month to collect taxes sooner or adding months to extend friends' terms of office.

What with one thing and another, by the time of Julius Caesar the calendar was three months out of phase with the sun. To make adjustments, Caesar hired the Egyptian astronomer Sosigenes. He added three months, just like that, to 46 B.C., producing a single year of 445 days. It became known, justly, as "the year of confusion." The Julian calendar had the requisite 365 days, plus a leap day every third year. Caesar's birth month of Quin-tilis was renamed in his honor.

Guess where July comes from. Augustus Caesar fine-tuned things by making leap year every fourth year. In HIS honor, the month of Sextilils was renamed for him by now you must have realized where August comes from and a day was added to it to make 31, so he wouldn't be outshone by 31-day Julius. The Julian calendar was OK, but still, it lagged 14 seconds a year, or one day every 128 years. But which year was it? The Romans started counting from Romulus and Remus, year one being 753 A.U.C.

(for Anno Urbis Conditae, the year the city was founded). The Jews See CALENDAR B3 By SID MOODY Associated Press Repent, brothers and sisters, repent! The millennium is at hand. Kind of. Kind of, because this small planet does not, most decidedly does not, spin altogether to the same calendar. Worldwide there are at least 40 of them, each marching to its own drummer.

But just 10 years from today, Christians will rip a page off the calendar and Saturday 12311999 will become Sunday 112000, the zeros lined up like cherries in a slot machine, like a milestone 100,000 miles on the family clunker. (Killjoys insist the millennium really is 112001, because 2000 is really the 10th year of the 1990s. Disregard them.) But one man's millennium is another's numberless day at the office. Moslems will uncelebrate the middle of 1420 A.H.; Jews, 5761 A.M.; ancient Greeks will observe the 694th Olympiad. Comparing the calendars B3 The way years get numbered, depends on who's counting, when they began counting and WHAT they're counting.

If you count by the moon Moslems do a year is 12 lunar months based on 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.8 seconds from new moon to new moon. The solar year is about 11 days longer, the 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds it takes Earth to circle the sun. Eventually, by the Moslem calendar, it's June in January. But who decided it's January in January anyway? A calendar is a human contrivance that marks the passage of time. The calendar tells you when it's time to move the sheep into the hills, when to report for spring training, when to plant cotton, when to pay bills The ancients just chased mastodons whenever they could find them, not worrying about dates until they settled down and started planting crops.

For that, they had to know seasons and the clock of the heavenly bodies in their unalterable cycles told the seasons. The Egyptians knew the Nile was This small planet does not, most decidedly does not, spin altogether to the same calendar. The Osborne Company FRIENDLY ADVERTISING Advertising That Reaches the Heart of the Home and Stays There Main Offices and Works, Newark, New Jersey 1931 A A 1931 SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT ralMan LMOar. NtwMmw TkmQvm. 1 4h lltk IHtk I 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 the new crescent moon.

If the weather's overcast, they wait a day to start counting. "The Mursi in southwest Ethiopia spend most of the month arguing about what day it is. They spend the rest arguing about what month it is," says LeRoy Doggett, editor of the Nautical Almanac in Washington. "If you don't have to catch a plane, the date may not really matter." The Soviets, in the flush of communist creation, tried a five-day week in 1919, went to six davs in 1932 and returned to AP -The 1931 calendar captioned "Happiness Trail" is one ol the first best-selling calendars to ifeature a woman driver. The Tigers rosy march to glory New group seeks to protect turtles 1 nior.

The foundation's small office was furnished with a casual mixture of computer, files and a terrarium containing a black snake and a corn snake removed from people's basements as part of the group's "reptile rescue" effort. The organization started as "just a few people who enjoyed helping out turtles, a club of about a dozen people," Wright says. "The idea is to become national." Wright makes his living in- Habitat destruction and polluti taxo a toll on turtles. A.I. du Pont ready for today's role in Rose Parade By EDWARD KENNEY Staff reporter PASADENA, Calif.

The Tiger Marching Band of A.I. du Pont High School will become the first Delaware band to march through this Southern California city in 30 years, when it participates this morning amid flowery floats and network TV cameras in the 101st Tournament of Roses Parade. The spectacle caps off a year's worth of work and preparation for the Greenville marching unit. During the pa.st weekend, A.J came fl step c'osr to its California drtam when performed at Paiadt la Commun'ty College in Bandfest, a pre-p-rade event featuring the talents of five of the best bands from the 22 that will march in today's parade. To make up for days lost due to the cold and snow back home, the band got in a practice session for Bandfest Friday night at the Harbor High Sch ol football field in Newport Beach.

"They look good," band director Paul Parets said, two numbers into the practice. "I'm not going to tell them that, but they look good." Parets soon changed his tune, however, chastising the band after the next song: "What kind of a clown routine was that? You had a nice workout up till this one, folks. Then you lost it." Parets got his early training as a marching band conductor while a graduate student the University of Michigan, which takes on By FRANCES L. HAMILTON Staff reporter WILMINGTON The sight is familiar throughout rural America: With ponderous dignity a turtle paces toward the other side of a highway until finally some kind-hearted motorist stops and totes the creature to safety. In a high-speed, four-lane world that sort of help is impossible, no matter how kind the heart.

But D. Jeffrey Wright and a handful of other turtle enthusiasts are working to develop a eont mporary solution to the problems of chelo-nians, or turtles. They've founded a bruidnaw o-ganiza-tion with far-flung goals: the Endangered Turt'e Protection Foundation of tne Americas. The foundation a non-taxable, charitable Delaware corporation is headquartered in a house Wright owns at 1717 W. Fourth St.

in Wilmington. Last week, the main room devoted to the foundation was bare, cold and bustling with Boy Scouts building shelves and racks to house the group's library and a planned display of Delaware reptiles and amphibians. Robert E. Whitney 17, of Greenville, is making the foundation's library and museum his Eagle Scout project. The Archmere Academy senior is mustering friends and fellow members of Troop 63, which n.eets at Christ Episcopal Church Christiana Hundred, to carry out the work.

Helping him last Wednesday were Alan Dow, 15, an Alexis I. du Pont High School sophomore; Matt McGuire, 15, an Archmere freshman; and Ray Coghlan, 17, an Archmere se 1 1 lLfei IL The Tiger Marching Band of A.I. du Pont High School performs Saturday at Bandfest In Pasadena, Calif. The pompon girls and rest of the 54-member bandfront are directed by Barbara Turner, who was A.I.'s pompon girls would not be allowed to march in the parade. "I said, 'Either the whole band goes or nobody Parets said.

stalling electronics systems such as antennae, telephones, cable televisions and intercoms. He knew he had far more enthusiasm than experience in running a conservation organization, so he went looking for information. Marion Bailey of United Way of Delaware answered his questions about setting up a non-profit group. Wilmington attorney William F. Lynch II provided legal help.

The Delaware state veterinarian, Dr. H. Wesley Towers, agreed to help where he could and directed Wright to herpetologists at the Philadelphia Zoo for more specialized veterinary help. Wright and his friends have offered to participate this year in the final year of the Delaware herpetofaunal survey being financed by the state Department of Natural Resources See PROTECT B5 See BAND B2 Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl this afternoon. The training has taught him how to play the band students like a finely tuned instrument.

He's a surrogate father to them when they need his help, but he can make them tremble with a look or a gruff remark delivered like the surliest of drill instructors when they do something wrong. "It's not that they're afraid of him," said student chaperon Irvin "Bee" Becnel. "They just don't want to let him down." Parets showed where he stood with the band when the Tournament of Roses committee told him The A.I. du Pont High School band will be the 2oth unit out of 114 in this morning's Tournament of Roses Parade, which airs on all three major networks at 11:10. (Philadelphia's Channel 3 is airing the Mummers' Parade.) The parade is scheduled to last for two hours, so you can expect to see the A.I.

marchers in the first half hour of the telecast. Parade organizers said the A.I. band will be right behind the car carrying Tournament of Roses president Don Fedde. No 'Hot' Bill Hayden is on vacation, and his "Hot" column will resume next Monday..