Dancing Mania

On June 24th, 1374 a sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance (aka dancing mania, dancing plague, choreomania) caused people in the streets of Aachen, Germany to suffer hallucinations and jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapsed from exhaustion. Now that sounds like it beats the Electric Shuffle to me. Affecting thousands of people across several centuries, dancing mania was not a one-off event, and was well documented in contemporary reports.There is no consensus among modern-day scholars as to whether it was an actual illness or social phenomenon. Generally, musicians accompanied dancers, to help ward off the mania, but this tactic sometimes backfired by encouraging more to join in. So what would I do to celebrate this day? Dance of course! Well that was the plan, but I ended up just dancing around my room earlier today, because I clocked-out after Happy Hour at Fairmont Hamilton Princess....so much for that. At least tomorrow I have Ramon & Christie's wedding after party to get down at.

I'm also acknowledging two dates in history that prevented death. In 1932 a bloodless revolution instigated by the People's Party in Siam (Thailand) ended the absolute power regime of King Prajadhipok. And in 2004 New York State outlawed Capital Punishment. Yay for change without violence. New York also deserves kudos for it's decision yesterday to allow gay marriage. Woohooooooo!

Today is also the birthday of Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac. And my favourite song of theirs is landslide. Here's an EXCELLENT live version:

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