Today is also the birthday of Omar Khayyam. In addition to being a poet, Khayyam was also a mathemetician and an astronomer. My engineer husband would like this:
Khayyam measured the length of the year as 365.24219858156 days. Two comments on this result. Firstly it shows an incredible confidence to attempt to give the result to this degree of accuracy. We know now that the length of the year is changing in the sixth decimal place over a person’s lifetime. Secondly it is outstandingly accurate. For comparison the length of the year at the end of the 19th century was 365.242196 days, while today it is 365.242190 day
He was born in 1048 in Nishapur, Persia. Omar Khayyam’s full name was Ghiyath al-Din Abu’l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami. (That great long name reminds me of the picture book Tikki Tikki Tembo. Lots of things remind me of picture books.)

Unborn Tomorrow and dead Yesterday
Why fret about them if Today be sweet?

Perhaps we fret because if yesterday was disastrous and if tomorrow hath a foreboding look, today is unlikely to be very sweet.