NOT EVERYONE KNOWS THIS… ILLUSTRATIONS BY KATE JOHANSEN
JANUARY 29, 1594
By John Chaput John Chaput was raised in Montreal, has lived in Western Canada for about 45 years, and is seriously thinking about settling down there. A retired journalist and editor, he is the author of three books about Saskatchewan sports history. He is also an amateur actor and has won two awards for his performances at Theatre Saskatchewan festivals.
Mathematician John Napier of Merchiston dedicates
JANUARY 12, 1628
his book A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation
Charles Perrault is born in Paris. An accomplished
of St. John to King James VI, advising the Scottish
scholar of many talents, Perrault’s most noteworthy
monarch to “reform the universal enormities of
achievement will come in 1697 at the age of 69 when
this country, and first to begin at his own house,
he publishes Histoires ou Contes du Temps passé: Les
family, and court.” Napier, a man with considerable
Contes de la Mère l’Oye (Old Stories and Tales: The
reputation who is credited with the discovery of
Tales of Mother Goose). The collection would launch
logarithms, sees his book receive a popular reception.
the genre of fairy tales and included such time-
The king will eventually succeed Elizabeth I to become
honoured stories as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little
James I of England and spearhead the compilation of
Red Riding Hood and Puss in Boots. Not everyone
the King James Bible, thus cementing his commitment
knows this, but when it came to delivering a moral
to Protestantism. And a good thing, too, because
Perrault was about as subtle as a guillotine. (Which
Napier warned in A Plaine Discovery that, based on his
wouldn’t be invented for another century, but some
study of the Book of Revelation and the development
similes are just too irresistible.) Perrault uses Little
of human history, the world would end in either 1688
Red Riding Hood as a warning that “tame wolves
or 1700. Not everyone knew this at the time, but
are the most dangerous of all ... obliging and gentle,
Napier was wrong. Presumably, he forgot to carry a
following the young girls in the streets, even into their
digit somewhere in his computations; but admit it, if
homes.” In Perrault’s version, the wolf tricks young
he had said 2020, you would have spent nine months
Ms. Hood into bed and devours her. At least the wolf
believing him.
lives happily ever after ...
SIDEONE JANUARY 2021
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