<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">The British, like all modern, civilized nations, enjoy a good riot. You should see it when we change the hour twice a year, never mind the calendar. And we would go to war with France again if they declared UTC based on an imaginary line of longitude through Paris.<div><br></div><div>Phil M1GWZ</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 5 Sep 2016, at 03:44, Thomas F Davis wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; position: static; z-index: auto; "><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472996754857_20318"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472996754857_20319">Yeah, I'd take that Ripley story with a pinch of salt. Catholic canon law allows for "dispensations" from rules such as abstinence from meat. I've seen it done when St. Paddy's Day falls on a Friday and people wanted their coned beef (I'd rather have the fish, so I don't get that one). A simple dispensation is a lot easier than declaring a virtual Thursday. If people did riot it was likely after finding out the dispensation didn't apply to them.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472996754857_20417"><span> </span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472996754857_20419"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472996754857_20418">The most interesting thing about this is that Italian civil law follows in the use of dispensations. I understand it is possible to park in a no-parking zone in Italy and then get a dispensation from the police to put on your dashboard. Don't know if it has a fee but if there is one it must be less than the fine.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472996754857_21225"><span></span><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472996754857_21227" dir="ltr"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472996754857_21226">Back to calendar stuff. When the International Date Line was created some locations skipped or repeated a day of the week. The most populous such location was the Philippines.</span></div> <div class="qtdSeparateBR"><br></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>