DAILY MUSELI: Happy Michael's Day

Good morning. If your name is Michael, today is the day you should treat yourself to a nice lunch or dinner. It is my namesday, which if you don't know is what it sounds like, a celebration of one's name. I am half-Latvian, and in Latvian culture, your namesday can be just as important as your birthday in terms of celebrations. How do you determine your namesday? Typically, it corresponds with a saint's feast day. But in many Baltic and Northern European cultures, all names get assigned a day.

So to my father and brother-in-law, who are also Michaels, happy namesday.

To learn more about St. Michael, check out this backgrounder from the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Something tells me that kids these days who are being named ESPN, Timberland and Courvoisier are going to have an interesting time researching their name's origin. (Oh, golly gee, I think I was named for a cable sports network in Bristol, Conn. My dad really liked SportsCenter back in the Rich Eisen days ...)

1.) Yesterday's indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is the big news and is the biggest Congressional story in quite some time, a story with so many subplots, complexities and side stories (Abramoff), it's going to be a wild ride for many months. With the 2006 midterm elections 13 months away, this drama is going to be fun if you get your kicks out of political soap operas.

2.) In a state that takes its pharmaceutical industry seriously, I'd like to point you to New Jersey's newest blogger, (pH)armakon. An old college newspaper friend based in Princeton, who monitors daily business news relating to the pharmaceuticals industry for a living, will be blogging on matters of where pharmaceuticals intersects with policy, culture and society.

3.) It's almost too late. Be sure to vote for the new baby panda's name. The "Butterstick" fanatics out there must be certainly dejected that their ideal name for the cub isn't on the list.