March 2: Lots of Old Stuff

And why not? March 2 is Old Stuff Day, a day to climb out of your rut and do some exciting new stuff.

It may also be a good day to take old stuff out of the closet and send it to Goodwill.

And Saturday will also be Dr. Suess's Birthday. Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. In honor of Dr. Suess, some of the Usual Suspects refer to March 2 as Cat in the Hat Day. The National Education Association usually remembers Dr. Suess's birthday with National Read Across America Day -- but not this year, because Saturday is not a school day. Instead, this year, the NEA observes National Read Across America Day today, on Friday, March 1.

Saturday is also the anniversary of the birth of Morris "Moe" Berg, born on March 2, 1902 in New York City. A journeyman catcher with several major league teams including the Chicago White Sox, Berg was also a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School who spoke several languages and regularly read 10 newspapers a day. He made a couple of prewar trips to Japan, on one occasion filming Tokyo Bay from the roof of Saint Luke's Hospital in Tsukiji, one of the tallest buildings in the city. According to Wikipedia, Berg's footage from the 1930s may have helped Jimmy Doolittle plan his 1942 raid.

Berg served with the OSS in World War II, at one point being dispatched to Europe to determine whether the Germans were close to developing the A-bomb. If he determined that the Germans were close, Berg had orders to assassinate Werner Heisenberg at a 1944 lecture in Zurich. (Berg decided, correctly, that the Germans were not close; Heisenberg was spared.)