Today: a significant day in my personal life for many years, and also a significant day in world history.
— March 15th was spring Removal Day — Higashi (East) removal — when (for about 10 years) Jacques and I left Palo Alto (after winter quarter at Stanford) to drive the 2650 miles east to Columbus OH (for spring quarter at Ohio State); the winter Removal Day — Nishi (West) removal — in the opposite direction was December 15th
— March 15th is also the Ides of March, the day of Julius Caesar’s assassination in 44 B.C.E.
Spring removal. In our customary most direct route (across CA, AZ, NM, TX, OK, MO, IL, IN, and OH) — spring removal notably took us through Flagstaff AZ, Albuquerque NM, and a companionable neighborhood of Oklahoma City OK. There was St. Patrick’s Day going across northern Arizona. And some very tedious driving through TX and OK, with an annual fight against giant slabs of rare beef at roadside stops that couldn’t produce a decent fresh salad, and conspicuously sharing a bed at motels in places where gay sexual acts were still illegal.
And then arrival back in Columbus in early spring. Once, but only once, we got home just in time for a late-March, blessedly short-lived, snowstorm. Forsythias blooming in the snow. Jacques was seriously disgruntled. Before descending into his annual litany of complaint about the bread and fresh fruit in the local grocery stores.
The Ides of March. As depicted in this shot from Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1953 film Julius Caesar (of the Shakespeare play):
James Mason as Brutus, Louis Calhern as Caesar (from the Turner Classic Movies site)
March 17, 2026 at 2:42 pm |
My aunt Terry Glenn was born on the Ides of March, 1923.
Uncle Grov – Grosvenor Eugene Glenn, Jr. – played Cassius in David Bradley’s 1950 Caesar, shot in Chicago. Charlton Heston was Antony. They were at Pasadena Playhouse together. I laughed to see a swimming scene, as it reminded me of the story that Grov had to tell Chuck not to swim naked in the movie. Heston does show off his physique – time stamp 4:59 in this video is a good place to start.
I’ve found mentions in a few film books. Uncle Grov is called out for his brooding looks in one, as I recall. Here he is:
https://youtu.be/sjo6FG_4M7g?si=sB8xTxbVff4VSCWd&t=389