Sunday, February 14, 2010
2-14
posted at 7:45 AM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
I want to wish a Happy Valentine's Day to everyone even though I know it's a greeting card holiday and not "real" the way Thanksgiving is . . . but wait . . . all the holidays that aren't celebrating a specific event are contructs and not anniversaries so what's the fuss all about anyway so I hope everyone has a wonderful loving friendly smiling day.

Labels: ,

Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Birthdays
posted at 11:02 AM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
Bertholdt Brecht and Jimmy Durante would be 112 and 107 today, respectively. A pairing only a very detailed astrologer could love.

Labels:

Sunday, February 7, 2010
Birthdays
posted at 11:12 AM | Permalink | 1 comment(s)
It's astonishing that Charles Dickens would be 200 years old today. (And that Jane Austen's first book was published 199 years ago, but it's not her birthday today so she's a subject for some other time.) One does rather hope for some kind of eternal consciousness, in general and personally, of course, but specifically so that people like Dickens know the hugeness of their impact and the many many generations of very different and changing people who have read and enjoyed their work. May we all be living in the best of times even if it occasionally feels like the worst of times - which he would say was appropriately balanced, I think - and may our houses not be bleak yet our expectations always great.

Labels: ,

Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Maine
posted at 9:18 AM | Permalink | 1 comment(s)

It's Acadia National Park's 81st anniversary today. Acadia is, bar none, one of the most serene and beautiful places on earth and I only wish I could wiggle my nose and be there to celebrate. Since I can't be there in person, these will have to suffice.

The winter photo by Kurt Repanshek was in National Parks Traveler. The summer photo is mine, looking down from Cadillac Mountain at Frenchman Bay and the three Porcupines.

Labels: ,

Saturday, January 9, 2010
Anniversaries
posted at 9:48 PM | Permalink | 2 comment(s)
Richard M. Nixon and Simone de Beauvoir. Gosh.

Labels: ,

Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The internet
posted at 9:13 AM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
Mistakes are made. We know that. It's a big wide complex world nowadays and the internet ceo just can't keep up with every single thing. Errors will be made. Diligence will fall through the cracks sometimes. Can't be helped. But John Singleton's birthday (today) was either 41 or 50 years ago. I wonder which. Do you suppose this is what comes of lying about one's age? Well I for one have no knowledge of such things nor the consequences.

Labels: , ,

Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Anniversaries
posted at 2:16 PM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
I realize there is a good deal more to astrological portraits than sun signs but it's hard to resist noting that Konrad Adenauer, Jean Dixon, Friedrich Durrenmatt, Walter Mondale, Alvin Ailey, and - least similar of all, at least as far as public personas go, Marilyn Manson and Umberto Eco all celebrate their birthdays today.

Labels:

Friday, January 1, 2010
HNY 2010
posted at 12:01 AM | Permalink | 2 comment(s)
To each of you who chances by,
and to all my family
and to my blogging friends,
and theirs and theirs,
I wish the best of years ahead

Labels: ,

Friday, December 25, 2009
12/25/2009
posted at 7:16 AM | Permalink | 1 comment(s)
Merryness and happiness and joyfulness and love. . . . May they all be yours today.

Labels:

Saturday, November 7, 2009
Tennessee and Cape Cod
posted at 5:17 PM | Permalink | 3 comment(s)
Those of us who grew up before rap and hip hop probably all remember The Tennessee Waltz and Old Cape Cod, among other songs that Patti Page made popular. Her slight twang and almost too sweet voice are memorable as soon as you simply say the titles. It's her birthday this week and I think we should all hum some of her songs, in tribute.

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Happy birthday!!!!
posted at 9:18 AM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
They're 40. Amazing.
And thanks to Google for doing such a good job of illustrating the occasion.

Labels: ,

Friday, October 23, 2009
Anniversaries
posted at 9:02 AM | Permalink | 3 comment(s)
What's your favorite Ang Lee movie?
Pushing Hands
The Wedding Banquet
Eat Drink Man Woman
Sense and Sensibility
Ice Storm
Ride with the Devil
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Chosen
Hulk
Brokeback Mountain
Lust, Caution
Take Woodstock
Life of Pi (in production)

What's your favorite Michael Crichton book?
A Case of Need
Andromeda Strain
Five Patients
Terminal Man
Jurassic Park
The Great Train Robbery
Eaters of the Dead
Congo
Sphere
Travels (one of my favorites)
Jurassic Park
Rising Sun
Disclosure
The Lost World
Airframe
Timeline
Prey
State of Fear
Next

Today is the birthday of both Ang Lee and Michael Crichton today. Two people whose words and imaginations have brought so much enjoyment to so many people.

Labels: , ,

Sunday, October 18, 2009
Guggenheim + crosswords
posted at 9:03 AM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
The dramatic and oft-criticized Guggenheim Museum is fifty years old this week. Oh how the artistes excoriated Frank Lloyd Wright's design and how the pundits and doomsayers predicted it would have no audience and never last. Ha to them and happy birthday, SRG!!!!

In commemoration of the notable anniversary, the NYT Sunday puzzle had the museum as its theme and Modern Art Notes interviewed the puzzle's creator (here).

One of the joys of growing up in Manhattan, is getting to see first-hand so much time-honored, respected art and I remember vividly racing around and around the circles and circles and circles of the Guggenheim, seeing impressionists and expressionists - Kandinsky and Mondrian, in particular - and being amazed at the architecture.

Labels: ,

Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Today
posted at 1:41 PM | Permalink | 3 comment(s)
According to Hungry Girl, today, October 14th, is National Chocolate Covered Insects Day. I am in complete agreement with them and, just like every other year, will NOT be partaking in any commemoration!

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Birthdays
posted at 9:23 AM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
Another interesting group of birthday honorees:

Toni Braxton
Vladimir Putin
Oliver North
Heinrich Himmler
Louis Leakey
Andy Devine
John Cougar Mellencamp
Yo-Yo Ma
Joe Hill
R. D. Laing
Desmond Tutu
Niels Bohr
And can we make anything of this?

Labels: ,

Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Birthdays
posted at 9:24 AM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
Today's group is probably a bit obscure for some but they're interesting:

Jenny Lind
Le Corbusier
Rebecca Lobo
Helen Willis Moody
Carol Lombard
Thor Heyerdahl
Britt Ekland
Gerry Adams
George Westinghouse (alternating current, not fridge)
Stephanie Zimbalist
So what can we make of this?

Labels: ,

Monday, September 21, 2009
Birthdays
posted at 8:51 AM | Permalink | 4 comment(s)
Stephen King and H.G. Wells today. Nice.

Also H.L. Mencken and Gustav Holst and Bill Murray. I wish one could actually make a great big - and accurate - theory about people who are born on the same day.

Labels:

Friday, September 11, 2009
9-11
posted at 9:04 AM | Permalink | 2 comment(s)
It's raining in New York City - pouring, in fact - and is expected to rain and be gloomy all day. Which makes this the first day since and including the day itself that the color of the light and the quality of the air reflects the emotional atmosphere.

What a somber and difficult day. It's an occasion for serious quiet thought. But the more I have thought and learned in the last eight years, the less I have a clear sense of what reactions would be best personally, let alone any idea whatsoever of what would be best nationally or internationally. All I know is that I have hope that nothing like it will ever happen again to anyone for any reason.

Anger is understandable. Resentment is understandable. Passion for one's beliefs is understandable. Wanting to wreak revenge on those who have harmed loved ones is understandable. Intense feelings on all sides are understandable. But what about trying to listen and hear and work and live together? It *has* to be possible. It just has to be.

Labels: ,

Thursday, September 3, 2009
One person
posted at 11:55 PM | Permalink | 5 comment(s)
Nicholas Winton. Do not let his name go unremembered. He is personally responsible for saving nearly 700 children's lives. Now over 100 years old, he proves that one person can make an incalculable and wonderful difference. (H/T London Telegraph article)

Yesterday, the "Winton Train" arrived in London, having recreated the trip that the rescuing trains took from Prague to the North Sea and then to London. The passengers on the anniversary train included some of the original passengers as well as their families.

On 1 September 2009, a special "Winton train" set off from the Prague Main railway station. The train, consisting of an original locomotive and carriages used in the 1930s, headed to London via the original Kindertransport route. On board the train were several surviving "Winton children" and their descendants, who were welcomed by Sir Nicholas in London. The occasion marked the 70th anniversary of the intended last Kindertransport which was due to set off on 1 September 1939 but never did because of the outbreak of the Second World War. At the train's departure, Sir Nicholas Winton's statue was unveiled at the railway station.
It's dreadful to separate families but many if not most of these children would have died in eastern Europe had English generosity in accepting so many children not have been there. In fact, apparently none of their family members survived.

And now there are over five thousand descendants of the children who came to England on the Kindertransport. People who would not have existed were it not for Nicky Winton and his trains. It shows that things can be done and that there are good people.

England itself deserves credit, too. Winton must have possessed remarkable powers of persuasion but England deserves enormous credit for being persuadable.

(Side note. I do not believe that people would buy fewer magazines and newspapers nor watch less televised coverage of it, were the world's media to spend less time blaring photos and words about celebrities who push white powder up their noses or down their throats, or dress scantily, or shop a lot, than writing about thoughtful and extraordinary people like Nicholas Winton. Do you?)

Labels: , ,

Thursday, August 27, 2009
Anniversaries
posted at 9:13 AM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
Hegel changed the political world over 200+ years ago, Goldwyn changed our entertainment expectations and Man Ray changed the visual landscape.
1952 – Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens)
1929 – Ira Levin
1910 - Mother Teresa
1908 - Lyndon B. Johnson
1890 - Man Ray
1882 - Samuel Goldwyn
1770 - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Quite the group of birthday celebrants today.

Labels: ,