This and that

by chuckofish

Today we honor the first president of the United States, George Washington on his 291st birthday.

We will also toast the artist Rembrandt Peale, who was also born on this day in 1778. In 1795 at the age of 17 he painted the above portrait of Washington. Impressive, I think.

Today is also the birthday of actor/producer Sheldon Leonard (1907-1997) who you would recognize immediately by his heavy New York accent. He played Nick the bartender in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)…

…along with countless gangsters, various Damon Runyon types, the occasional American Indian, and even J. Edgar Hoover before becoming a very successful television producer of shows like The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., I Spy and so on.

As far as I know, he never played George Washington, although he did bear a certain resemblance to him.

Maybe I’ll watch To Have and Have Not (1944) in which Leonard plays Lt. Coyo (in the boater)…

Well, a toast is in order for all three men, especially G.W., the father of our great country.

And for Jimmy Carter, 39th president and Sunday School teacher, we offer this prayer:

Be near me when I am dying,

O show thy cross to me;

And for my succor flying,

Come, Lord, to set me free:

These eyes, new faith receiving,

From Jesus shall not move;

For he who dies believing,

Dies safely, through thy love.

–Medieval poem, translated by Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) and James W. Alexander (1804-1859)