What are you reading?
by chuckofish
As I mentioned, I re-read The Searchers by Alan Le May last week. It is a terrific book in the western genre. General Sherman is mentioned at one point in reference to his visit to Texas in 1871 on an inspection tour where he narrowly avoided being part of the Warren Wagon Train Massacre. So I thought I would look in his Memoirs to see what he had to say about it. As it turned out, he didn’t have much to say about the Indians in the West.
I think by this time in his career, he was winding down, at least in terms of what he was willing to write about. He brings his memoirs to a close shortly thereafter:
This I construe as the end of my military career. In looking back upon the past I can only say, with millions of others, that I have done many things I should not have done, and have left undone still more which I ought to have done; that I can see where hundreds of opportunities have been neglected, but on the whole am content; and feel sure that I can travel this broad country of ours, and be each night the welcome guest in palace or cabin; and, as “all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” I claim the privilege to ring down the curtain.
Spoken like a true Episcopalian.
I also have been reading Things that Matter by Charles Krauthammer, which the boy gave to the OM for his birthday back in July. It is a collection of Krauthammer’s “essential, timeless writings.”
Krauthammer died in June of this year and I miss him.
“Delta Airlines, you might have noticed, does not run negative TV ads about USAir. It does not show pictures of the crash of USAir Flight 427, with a voice-over saying: “USAir, airline of death. Going to Pittsburgh? Fly Delta instead.” And McDonald’s, you might also have noticed, does not run ads reminding viewers that Jack in the Box hamburgers once killed two customers. Why? Because Delta and McDonald’s know that if the airline and fast-food industries put on that kind of advertising, America would soon be riding trains and eating box-lunch tuna sandwiches. Yet every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country—and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.”
What are you reading?
We always knew she was a smart cookie, but now it’s official. Champagne corks were popping in Maryland and will pop again next week when she and DN visit us in our flyover town.
Look at all the men in shirts and ties! I was going to Vacation Bible School at the time and remember my VBS teacher was George Guernsey and he was going to the game that afternoon. We were all jealous, but maybe we needn’t have been!
Today we toast John Singleton Copley (July 3, 1738 – September 9, 1815) on his birthday. Copley was was an American painter, active in both colonial America and England. He was famous for his portraits, but the above painting–Watson and the Shark (1778)–traumatized me as a child. It is still scary!
I also saw George M! with Joel Grey at the Muny Opera back in 1970 when it was touring.
I wonder if kids today have ever heard of George M. Cohan or heard any of his songs. I grew up with them. “Over there! Over there!/Send the word, send the word over there/That the Yanks are coming/ The Yanks are coming…” I guess Americans lost their enthusiasm for that sentiment somewhere in the 1960s. Oh well.
June was Leslie Howard and July is Steve McQueen. Have I been a good girl or what? Set your DVRs for Thursdays! By the way, the OM and I watched The Towering Inferno (1974) the other night–possibly one of the worst movies ever–but it was worth the 165-minute investment of time to see Steve McQueen…
…and Paul Newman.
The horrible 1970s sets and costumes were amusing as well. Egad, 1974 was the pits.
Today is also the start of the Dog Days of summer according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. To the Greeks and Romans, the “dog days” occurred around the day when Sirius appeared to rise just before the sun, in late July. They referred to these days as the hottest time of the year, a period that could bring fever, or even catastrophe.
The Shermans lived there for 11 years before moving back to New York City. When his wife, a devout Catholic, died in 1888, she was buried in Calvary Cemetery back in St. Louis. Three years later when the great man died, their children buried WTS (an Episcopalian) beside his wife.
For four hours on February 21, 1891, a procession of 12,000 soldiers, veterans and notables marched past mourners on a winding, seven-mile path from downtown St. Louis to Calvary Cemetery.
However, I can’t say I have a great desire to go to Little Rock.
I remember their wedding. I was just finishing up the ninth grade and I thought they were a very attractive pair.
C’mon, he was pretty cute. And she weighed 95 pounds–it said so in the NYT article about the wedding!
dual personalities 