Forgotten English Day-to-Day Calendar

In case any of my suitemates, both current and future, are interested in what the word of the day is, for the past two days... (Copied verbatim, excluding any obvious typos... sorry.)

March

Saturday 1/Sunday 2:

Starry-gazy-pie: A pie made of [herring-like] pilchards and leeks, the heads of the pilchards appearing throughout the crust as if they were studying the sky.
-James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855

Feast Day of St. David,
the patron saint of Wales, He cleverly employed leeks to defeat the fifth-century Saxons by fastening these tasty members of the onion family to his warriors' hats to distinguish them from their enemies in hand-to-hand combat. Heroics aside, William Turner's Herbal (1568) cautioned would-be consumers of the leek's dark side: "The leek breedeth wind and evil juice, and maketh heavy dreams; it stirreth a man to make water and is good for the belly. But if you would boil a leek in two waters, and afterwards steep it in cold water, it will be less windy than before." William Bullein's Book of Simples (1562) mentioned another use for leeks: "Protective against lightening, and useful to cure burns, is the succulent-leaved houseleek, once carefully cultured on our roofs. Old writers do call it Jupiter's Beard, and hold opinion superstitiously that is what house soever it groweth no lightening or tempest can do any harm.

___________

1. That pie sounds disgusting. I would not want to eat something that was looking up out of the food.
2. The mental image of men running around fighting each other with small onions on their heads.... There are no words...
3. There's a guy in the 16th century by the name of William Turner. Brilliant!
4. I want to grow leeks on my roof. Not because I'm scared of lightening, but because how many houses do you see nowadays that have onions growing on top of them?
___________

Monday, March 3

Comstockery: Excessive opposition to, or censorship of, supposed immorality in art or literature; prudery. From the name Anthony Comstock (1844- 1915), member of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.
-Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1893

Hey, Mr. Postman
Passed unanimously on March 3rd, 1873, the yet unrepealed "Comstock Act" made it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" publications by US mail. Included was the censorship of various printed materials, even including educational handouts on birth control and condoms -- a policy that hamstrung well-meaning doctors and pharmacists. Stiff fines and five years' imprisonment could be meted out for each "obscene book, pamphlet, paper, writing, advertisement, circular print, picture, drawing or other representation, figure, or image... of an immoral nature, or any medicine, or any article whatever for the prevention of conception." That same year, zealot Comstock became a "special postal agent" with the power to arrest violators and the privilege to roam the country free of charge on all mail trains. In 1913 he boasted that his work had led to the convictions of enough people to fill a sixty-one-car passenger train.
_____________

1. New York used to have an organization for the suppression of vice? That. Is amazing.
2. He sounds like a bit of a creep.
3. I think he got all his bases covered in which "lewd" material could be printed. Good thing the internet didn't exist back then.