Octopi or octopuses?

Dear reader,

Happy October! What could be argued is the best month is finally here.

Despite the brief Spring rain this week, Stellenbosch is particularly colourful during this time of the year. Flowers are in full bloom all over town, including a lovely range of proteas in the Jan Marais Park. The bright green of young oak leaves has uplifted much of the doom and gloom the BAHons Journalism class has been feeling due to the weather. But before we delve fully into the importance of this month, I would like to raise a question: What do octopuses, octagons, and octogenarians make you think of? 

The prefix octo is derived from Latin, meaning “eight”. A mollusc with eight limbs, a shape with eight straight sides, and a person in their 80s are all appropriately named. The tenth month in the year is the odd one out. There is a very interesting reason for this – October was in fact the eighth month in the year of the Roman calendar, according to Dictionary.com. This calendar was used in the Roman Republic until 46 B.C., when it was replaced by the Julian calendar. The Roman calendar had only 10 months, with the absence of January and February. It was Julius Caesar who expanded the calendar, advised by the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes, to be in line with the Egyptian solar calendar. According to Britannica, Caesar sought to implement a universal calendar across the Roman commonwealth. 

Now that the naming conventions have been clarified, we can discuss the importance of the month of October. This month signified the last three weeks of class. What we have routinely experienced since January (being seated at 9 am, guest speakers, production time, receiving assessments, etc) is coming to a close in exactly 14 days. Most of us have not processed this yet because we have been incredibly busy re-learning how to do accounting for media entrepreneurship, but this is a momentous milestone. With the end of class comes the opportunity to reminisce, and this newsletter will be dedicated to a retrospective of stories that were particularly meaningful this year.

I have consulted the news diaries, and would like to present:

The top ten non-time sensitive stories of the year: *

10. 🏞️ Stellenbosch parks in urgent need of upgrades
    By Reid Donson

9. 📜 New international research project to make Afrikaaps literature more accessible
   By Danielle Schaafsma

8. 📚 New student book club… for banned books only
   By Lienke Norval

7. 🌳 Oudste boom in SU Botaniese Tuin bly in slag na sterk wind
   Deur Marise Schoonraad

6. 🍉 Pro-Palestinian group hosts first of weekly pickets
   By Iman Allie

*Picked by the newsletter editor, based on her own personal preferences.

Check back in next week for our 5 finalists! 

Anke Spies, newsletter editor.

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