On this day in 1893, Edwin Booth died. That infallible source is a master of understatement. His achievements are often overshadowed by his relationship with his younger brother, actor John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. He was the elder brother of John Wilkes Booth, himself a successful actor who gained notoriety as the assassin of President Lincoln. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Booth Overshadowed. Notoriety.
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In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with
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Reposted from April 7, 2014. The reading of good books is one of the most helpful ways in which young people can develop themselves. One of the saddest mistakes I made in years gone by was utter neglect of reading. I now realize what I have missed by not having read and studied more. …
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Today in the year 1898 was fought and won by Americans The Battle of Manila Bay. Daily Readings 5/1 Morris’ “May” Ware’s “Manila” Graves’s “It’s a Queer Time“ I cannot find “May” anywhere. I can find William Morris’ “End of May” but not his “May.” You’ll survive. The Battle of Manila Bay was during the
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On this day in 1865, Abraham Lincoln died. On this day in 1912, the Titanic sunk. Daily Readings 4/15/20 Farewell at Springfield Speech to 166th Ohio Regiment Letters to Mrs. Lincoln [I have no idea what these might be. But I did stumble upon something interesting about her displays of grief. No idea if it’s
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On this day in 1865 Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth. Daily Readings 4/14/20 Markham’s “Lincoln, Man of the People” Flecker’s “Dying Patriot” [Flecker’s] “Ballad of Camden Town” Oh, brother. I am not a special fan of Abe so you will pardon my lack of enthusiasm for this “poem”. Here’s the penultimate stanza of “Lincoln,
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All is well here on The Farm. Sadly, I cannot report the same for everyone. Eleven folks died. Here is the initial damage report. More than 72,000 homes and businesses without power. The phone just rang. Someone looking for the power company. From Mississippi Emergency Management’s twitter feed: Enough to make you cry, isn’t it?
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Disappeared this day in 1909, John Davidson. You read that correctly. Not born. Not died. Disappeared. That’s what The Guide to Reading (1925) says. According to The Encyclopædia Britannica: A New Survey of Universal Knowledge (1955), Davidson was a Brit born (1857), married (1885), published good stuff “all full of remarkably fresh and unconventional beauty”
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A study from 2015 found that walking 90 minutes in a natural or urban settling lowered activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is the region that focuses on negative emotions. https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/why-you-must-get-outside-even-when-you-are-supposed-to-be-social-distancing Thrust of the article is that you can reduce the stress of being cooped up by walking outside. There’s a bit
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But stupidly worded. Seniors who walk for 30 minutes daily less likely to be fatal in car accidents. Seniors who walk for 30 minutes daily less likely to be pedestrian fatalities. Seniors who walk for 30 minutes daily less likely to die in hurricane. Seniors who walk for 30 minutes daily less likely to die
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National Geographic Volume XXXVI Number Five, November, 1919 Not a pleasant story at all. And quite the contrast to the first half dozen or so pages of advertisements. Here’s the last sentence, spoken by the author’s traveling companion, a doctor, as their ship departed Ararat: “God bless America,” he said; “for America, with God’s help,
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There’s a land that is fairer than day, And by faith we can see it afar; For the Father waits over the way, To prepare us a dwelling place there. In the sweet by and by, We shall meet on that beautiful shore; In the sweet by and by, We shall meet on that beautiful
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June 6, 1944– Tonight’s communiqué just in from D-Day invasion headquarters summarizes the news. “Allied forces,” it says, “have succeeded in their initial landings in France; and fighting continues.” Lowell Thomas was the Walter Cronkite of radio. Beginning in 1930, he broadcast twice each evening on CBS radio. It was said that his voice had
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I posted the following on October 2, 2013. Reposting it in its entirety (though reformatted) for the Memorial Day weekend, 2019. Ernie Pyle was an American journalist and war correspondent. A quick perusal of Brave Men confirms that he wrote from the perspective of the common soldier. A few snippets from Chapter 35, “A Last Word”: This final
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The religious value of such a picture lies in its power to revive personal memories. Death is one of the most solemn realities in the world; it is the door by which one passes from the seen and temporal into the more immediate consciousness of things unseen and eternal. Commentary on Decent from the Cross
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There’s a blog I read religiously, American Digest. A little of this, a little of that. Poetry, music, stories, personal history, thoughts on current and past events, occasional Monty Python. It’s smartly written by Gerard Van der Leun, edited by Olive. Gerard’s mom, who is 104 and looks fabulous in red, is not well. If
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A few days ago, Mr. Big Food came across a dead sheep in the Pond Pasture. It was not the first. A while ago, I saw buzzards going back & forth between the ground and the almost dead gum tree in the pond pasture. Upon further investigation, I discovered a dead sheep corpse lying between
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This evening Mr. big food and I attended a funeral service for the sister of one of John’s colleagues. It’s not clear to me why funerals have been renamed “Memorial Services” but I knew one of the three songs and was able to sing along to the others. I had sympathy for the Preacher Man.
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I feel compelled to tell the truth. I killed or mortally wounded something. Dumb shit. I did not see it.
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