Happy Ayyám-i-Há

In the Bahá'í calendar, the Festival of Ayyám-i-Há celebrates the 4 (or 5) intercalary days that round out their calendar of 19 months of 19 days. The days run from "sunset of February 25 to sunset of March 1" (conveniently making leap years automatically accounted for).

Pernod, the Creator of Absinthe, by Marie-Claude Delahaye

A delightful little book (another much appreciated gift from aaronjv) that traces the history of Pernod from its foundation through to its 200th anniversary in 2005 and a bit beyond. The text is occasionally a bit garbled -- I assume it's translation issues -- but the real beauty of the book is the oodles of photographs, paintings, illustrations, etc. of bottles, spoons, fountains, advertising, factories, etc. If you're fond of the green fairy, you probably know there's any number of paintings involving absinthe, but this book makes it clear how many of them recognizably involve Pernod, from Manet to Picasso.