So last night I watched “Dances with Wolves”. I can understand why it won a bunch of academy awards. Life in the United States in the mid 19th century wasn’t pretty. And the movie did a fairly accurate portrayal if only brief of the utter hell that is war.

I’ve seen it before but it was a long time ago so I watched it again. It’s a LONG movie but it definitely sets up the story. In it Kevin Costner plays Lieutenant John J. Dunbar. Through the element of curiosity he meets the local Sioux tribe. And then is dubbed his Sioux name Dances with Wolves. Now I know I have a few percent Native American floating in my DNA and I sort of know how it got there. In a brief way it’s because one of my ancestors some ways back went Native. Likely between the 17th and 18th centuries. Which by some little prestidigitation means I have roots in the part of North America that is now the United States going back some five centuries.

And October – while it’s the 10th month on our calendar the OCTO prefix means it’s eight. In fact if you look at the months you can kind of see where ego cases from long ago inserted themselves. But it starts in September or the 7th month, then October the 8th, November the 9th and December the 10th. So where did July and August come from – yup old Roman emperors.