Ides of March

"Beware the Ides of March" is a famous old quote I wondered about, so of course I looked it up on Wikipedia. I knew this phrase as the day when Julius Caeser was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate. According to that link,

Caesar was warned by a seer (a clairvoyant) to be on his guard against a great peril on the Ides of March. On his way to the Theater of Pompey (where he would be assassinated), Caesar saw the seer and joked "Well, the Ides of March have come," to which the seer replied "Aye, they have come, but they are not gone."

"Ides" refers to the 15th day of March, May, July and October, and the 13th day of the other months. I wasn't able to find out why the difference in these months, but it doesn't really matter. Today is the Ides of March. It turns out that the day is celebrated every year with a toga run in the streets of Rome, in the same place where Julius Caesar was killed.

Today as I left the Y, I saw the cutest sight, a woman was leading a bunch of toddlers into the Y using a long rope with handles in it. Each toddler had his or her own handle, and I asked if I could take a picture of them. This is probably the only way you could safely have just one person take care of so many little ones on the sidewalk. Here's the picture (click to enlarge):

I suspect that you would need to be sure to tell them that the handle is like their parent's hand, and that they should keep ahold of it whenever they are on the street. Maybe they make it into a game, I don't know. The handles are quite useful and I didn't want to ask (in case they wanted to show me they didn't have to hold on) how they make sure they all cooperate.  It was an adorable scene, though, and several of the little ones said, "cheese" as I took the picture. They are so cute they probably have cameras pointed their way all the time! A closeup of the handles:

:-)