I have Rick Steves' Europe 2024 Page-A-Day Desk Calendar on my kitchen counter, and in addition to information on interesting European travel destinations, it also sometimes includes some very fascinating tidbits. For example, the March 1st entry features a statue of George Salmon in front of Dublin's Trinity College. According to Rick, he was the provost there back in the 1890s and said that women would be admitted to Trinity College over his dead body. And days after his death in 1904, that is what happened. And although Rick Steves didn't mention this, I assume Trinity College must have had Salmon's body embalmed, placed across the entrance to the college, and then had the new female students step over him as part of the admissions process. Let's face it - the Irish are weird. You only have to wander around town on St. Patrick's Day to know that. And I am sure that after that solemn ritual, they gave Salmon a nice wake and respectable burial. No harm, no foul.
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