Beware the Ides of... April?

T.S. Eliot wrote in The Waste Land that April was the cruellest month. Where do you suppose he got an idea like that?

* The American Revolution (Started with Paul Revere's ride: April 18-19 1775)
* The American Civil War (Started April 1861, ended April 1865, thus "Across Five Aprils")
* The Bosnian War began in the first days of April 1992
* The Rwandan Genocide began in April 1994
* The Armenian Genocide began on April 24, 1914

* President Abraham Lincoln's assassination (April 14, 1865)
* Adolf Hitler born (April 20, 1889)
* The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (April 18, 1906)
* The sinking of the RMS Titanic (April 14-15 1912)
* Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination (April 4, 1968)
* Jumbo tornado outbreak (April 3-4, 1974)
* Woo Bum-Kon spree killing (April 26-27, 1982)
* Chernobyl nuclear accident (April 26, 1986)
* The 1992 Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King verdict (April 29, 1992)
* The bloody end to the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas (April 19, 1993)
* Kurt Cobain commits suicide (April 5, 1994)
* The Oklahoma City bombing (April 19, 1995)
* 106 Lebanese civilians killed when Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Qana (April 18, 1996)
* The Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, Australia (April 28, 1996)
* The Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado (April 20, 1999)
* The 2007 Virginia Tech massacre in Blacksburg, Virginia (April 16, 2007)


In the wake of all this, you may be feeling a bit depressed; I apologize for that. Those were horrible, tragic events and the victims should not be forgotten, but please remember that life is not all bad. Thousands of puppies and kittens were born today. Futurama is coming back and Scrubs is still on the air. And on the first of April 2006, a very brave woman bit the bullet and married me, ensuring that none of you will ever have to. So yes, April may be the cruellest month... but remember, May is just around the corner.