Well-Bred & Well-Brewed

The date is August 7th, Wednesday, and today I’m coming to you from Rochester, NY. 

Today is the birthday of Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy. 

Born in the Netherlands as Margaretha Zelle in 1876, her lavish childhood fell apart when her father declared bankruptcy in 1889. Her parents divorced and her mother died not long afterwards. Margaretha was sent to live with a godfather.

Eighteen and ready for change, Margaretha Zelle answered an ad in a newspaper. A Dutch Army Captain was looking for a wife. As you may be able to predict, the marriage didn’t work out well. Zelle was swept away to Java where her new husband, 20 years her senior, proceeded to reveal alcoholic and abusive tendencies. She found solace in studying Indonesian traditions and by joining a local dance group. 

After a few more turbulent years in Indonesia, the couple returned to Europe where a divorce was finalized. Margaretha then moved to Paris, and rose to fame as an exotic dancer, taking the name Mata Hari. 

Mata Hari’s fame as a dancer made her a favorite entertainer in Europe and led to her recruitment as a spy for the Allies during WWI. Ultimately and unfortunately, Mata Hari got caught in the crosshairs of WWI espionage. Naïve and out of her element, she was not fully prepared to be a spy. As paranoia set in on the side of the French, the Allies convicted her double-crossing and Mata Hari was executed. She remains a controversial casualty of WWI. 

Today is the birthday of Kermit Love, American puppeteer and costume designer. We have Kermit Love to thank for Sesame Street residents Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster. 

Born in 1916 in New Jersey, Kermit Love was raised by his grandparents after the death of his mother at age three. His grandparents first introduced him to puppets when he was a child, and they were big fans of radio programs. In his teens, a horsing accident confined Kermit Love to bed, and to fill his time, he began drawing characters to fit the voices on the radio program. 

Kermit Love was a young man during the Great Depression and found work through the New Deal Works Progress Administration as a mask maker in a theater department. From there he entered into the tight-knit world of the Theater. 

Kermit Love found his next job in a ballet costume department in New York City under the tutelage of ballet costume designer Barbara Karinska. Karinska would turn Love’s sketches for costumes into reality for the stage and with her blessing he traveled to Europe, working as a costume designer in Paris and then London, before heading back to the States in 1962. 

Back in New York City, Love found himself in a perfect partnership with big-time choreographer George Balanchine and former ballerina Twyla Tharp both of whom he worked with for many years. 

A friend of Love’s introduced him to Jim Henson. Jim Henson and his Muppets, including Kermit the Frog, had already taken off, but he needed help on a new project: Sesame Street. 

Henson had some drawings ready for a new gaggle of motion puppets but it was Love who helped bring them to life. Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, and Mr. Snuffleupagus were all the handy work of Love. Kermit Love in fact accompanied Big Bird on a few tours and made a few appearances as Willy the Hot Dog Vendor on Sesame Street. 

Kermit Love enjoyed a long tenure as a designer, passing away in 2008 at 91.

They shut me up in Prose (445)

Emily Dickinson

They shut me up in Prose –

As when a little Girl

They put me in the Closet –

Because they liked me “still” –

Still! Could themself have peeped –

And seen my Brain–go round –

They might as wise have lodged a Bird

For Treason–in the Pound –

Himself has but to will

And easy as a Star

Look down upon Captivity –

And laugh– No more have I –

Thank you for listening. I’m your host Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening. 

The date is August 6th, Tuesday, and today I’m traveling from Mattapoisett, MA to Rochester, NY. 

On this day in 1825 Bolívia declared independence. The rumblings of independence began as early as 1808 when the Spanish crown was overthrown. The uncertain times in Spain created room for uprisings across all of Latin America, including Bolívia, which was then known as Charcas. 

Charcas had an uphill battle. As one of only two land-locked countries in South America, they had to drive out Spanish loyalists as well as fend off Argentina and Peru who both attempted to expand their influence Bolívia. 

Charcas was fortunate enough to have Simon Bolívar as their first president. Simon Bolívar had led the fight for independence in multiple countries in South America and to secure his leadership was an important step for a new nation. 

However, Simon Bolívar wanted Charcas to unite with Peru. It’s theorized that to persuade Bolívar away from that idea, the Charcas government council took the name “Bolívia” for their new independent nation. 

And today is the birthday of Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet. 

Recognizable lines we get from Tennyson include:

• “'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all”
• "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield"
• "Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers"

Born in 1809 to a reverend, Tennyson is more proof that you don’t have to have a torturous childhood to become a successful writer. He was one of five in a loving middle-class family. His father was savvy with money for a reverend and the family always had just enough to take a yearly vacation. 

Of course Tennyson did not lead a life completely free of strife. His father passed away when Tennyson was nearly done with college. When Tennyson returned for the funeral services he missed the end of the term and did not obtain an official degree from Trinity College, Cambridge. 

Two years later Tennyson’s best friend and brother-in-law suddenly died of a brain hemorrhage. On top of that Tennyson’s second book of poetry was unfavorably reviewed. 

It wasn’t until nearly ten years later that Tennyson would see literary success with his 1842 collection of poems titled, what else, Poems. 

Alfred Tennyson was appointed Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland by Queen Victoria and served from 1850 to his death in 1892. One of his enduring poems “The Charge of the Light Brigade” was written during his time as Laureate. 

Lord Tennyson remains the laureate with the longest tenure. He was also the first person to be raised to a British peerage (the “Lord” titled) for his writing. His is the ninth most-quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. 

Marriage Morning

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Light, so low upon earth, 

   You send a flash to the sun. 

Here is the golden close of love, 

   All my wooing is done. 

O all the woods and the meadows, 

   Woods where we hid from the wet, 

Stiles where we stay'd to be kind, 

   Meadows in which we met! 

Light, so low in the vale 

   You flash and lighten afar:

For this is the golden morning of love, 

   And you are his morning star. 

Flash, I am coming, I come, 

   By meadow and stile and wood:

Oh, lighten into my eyes and my heart, 

   Into my heart and my blood! 

Heart, are you great enough 

   For a love that never tires? 

O heart, are you great enough for love? 

   I have heard of thorns and briers. 

Over the thorns and briers, 

   Over the meadows and stiles, 

Over the world to the end of it 

   Flash of a million miles.

Thank you for listening. I’m your host Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening. 

The date is August 5th, Monday, and today I’m coming to you from Mattapoisett, MA. 

Today is the birthday of Guy de Maupassant, French author. Maupassant is considered the father of the modern short story. During his lifetime he published over 200 short stories, seven novels, and a poetry collection. 

Born in 1850 in France, Maupassant was no stranger to family drama. When he was 11, his mother was finally able to separate from an abusive husband. Maupassant, his mother, and his brother moved away to a small town, settling comfortably into a villa. Maupassant’s mother was an avid reader and provided a solid educational foundation from which Maupassant would grow. 

In his 20s Maupassant had the good fortune to have Gustave Flaubert, author of Madame Bovary, as a mentor. Through Flaubert, Maupassant successfully entered the literary world, becoming a bestselling author and an in-demand contributor to literary magazines and periodicals. 

Maupassant joined a group of intellectuals and artists - one of whom was Alexandre Dumas who protested the Eiffel Tower. In proper melodramatic fashion, Maupassant made it a point to frequent the café below the Eiffel Tower. He noted that sitting under the Tower was the best place to not see it.

Today is the birthday of Gertrude Rush, African American lawyer and activist. 

In Des Moines, IA, Gertrude married James B. Rush in 1907. After marrying, Gertrude Rush attended Des Moines College while simultaneously participating in a LaSalle University of Chicago correspondence program. She received both her bachelor’s degree and law degree in 1914.

Four years later, James died unexpectedly, and Gertrude took over his law practice. She also filled in for her late husband in his activist roles in the Des Moines Community. When she was denied entry to the American Bar Association, she and three other black lawyers started their own, known as the Negro Bar Association, later known as the National Bar Association.

Today is the birthday of Peter Viereck, American poet, political philosopher, and professor. 

Peter was born in 1916 in New York City. Peter’s own father was a poet and journalist, but questionable politics would lead to Viereck, Sr. four year stint in federal prison. Peter’s views were less radical. 

He gained notoriety first for an article he wrote in the Atlantic Monthly titled “But—I’m a Conservative!” At the time Viereck was finishing up a PhD in European History at Harvard. 

This launched Viereck’s 20-ish year long career as a journalist as a political philosopher. He was a conservative in name but exercised a more moderate view, particularly in the second half of his career. [He had a strong moral compass and supported New Deal policies while denouncing the fear-mongering rhetoric of conservative provocateurs such as George McCarthy of the McCarthy era.] By the 1960s, conservative media would reject his contributions as too moderate, while his previous association with conservatives barred him from journaling for liberal media outlets. 

Aside from politics, Viereck is remembered today for his poetry. He won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1949 for his debut collection Terror and Decorum and published consistently afterwards. Viereck embraced the traditional in his poems and believed the only “proper topics” for poems were love and death. 

Again, Again!

Peter Viereck

Who here’s afraid to gawk at lilacs?

Who won’t stand up and praise the moon? 

Who doubts that skies still ache for skylarks,

And waves are lace upon the dune?

But flowering grave-dust, flowerlike snow dust,

But tinkling dew, but fun of hay,

But soothing buzz and scent of sawdust,

Have all been seen, been said—we say. 

BANALITY, our saint, our silly,

The sun’s your adverb, named “Again”;

You wake us willy-nilly

And westward wait to tuck us in. 

We, nurse, are flouted when we flout you,

Even to shock you is cliche. 

O inescapable dowdy!

O gold uniqueness everyday!

Who’s new enough, most now, most youngest?

Enough to eye you most again?

Who’ll love the rose that love wore longest,

Yet say it fresher than brief rain?

I’ll see. I’ll say. I’ll find the word. 

All earth must lilt then willy-nilly,

And vibrate one rich triple chord 

Of August, wine, and waterlily. 

Thank you for listening. I’m your host Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening. 

The date is August 2nd, Friday, and today I’m coming to you from Charlton, MA. 

Today is the birthday of Marianne Weber, German sociologist, writer, and women’s rights activist. 

At the age of three Marianne was sent away to be raised by her aunt and grandparents upon the death of her mother. Her father and brothers were deemed psychologically unstable by family and would later be institutionalized.

After a proper upbringing and education, in 1891 Marianne was introduced to a few distant cousins, namely, Max Weber, a budding sociologist and philosopher as well as his mother, Helene. Marianne and Max married in 1893, at ages 23 and 29, respectively. Marianne enjoyed being daughter-in-law to Helene with whom she had already grown close.

While Max taught at University of Heidelberg, Marianne pursued philosophy in her spare time as a new wife. She read up on the subject     and became active in a burgeoning feminist movement in Berlin. Around this time, she persuaded her husband to aid in her campaign to increase enrollment of women at Heidelberg. 

In 1907 Marianne proudly opened her own intellectual salon. Simultaneously, she completed her first book and began to regularly publish sociological essays. Essay topics usually involved female and family life and marriage. Summed up, her thoughts were that the institution of marriage is “a complex and ongoing negotiation over power and intimacy, in which money, women's work, and sexuality are key issues."

She was a champion of women’s rights in Germany all her adult life, taking a break from an active role in politics only twice. The first was on account of her husband's sudden death of pneumonia. She spent a few years compiling his unfinished papers into ten volumes and was rewarded with publication of the volumes and an honorary doctorate from the University of Heidelberg in 1924. 

The second break came with the rise of the Nazi party. She was more or less forced out of her role in the Democratic Party, though she continued hosting her intellectual salon throughout WWII. 

Today is the birthday of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (Bar-tol-dee), French sculptor. 

Bartholdi is best known for designing the Statue of Liberty. He studied art in France in his youth, but it wasn’t until a trip to Egypt and Yemen on 1855 at age 21 that he became interested in colossal sculpture. 

At the completion of the Suez Canal, Bartholdi proposed the idea for a lighthouse: a figure draped in robes holding a torch. It was to be called Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia and sounds an awful lot like a description of the Statue of Liberty. The massive project was not commissioned by the Egyptian government. 

Just two years later, Bartholdi made a trip to America and proposed a similar idea in slightly different terms: a massive statue gifted from French to Americans for the 100th year anniversary of American Independence. Fundraising would be the responsibility of the French and American citizens, which was a much easier pill to swallow for the governments involved. 

The Statue of Liberty stands at 151 feet which is 46 meters or about 14 stories high. During the fundraising and construction of the copper statue, Bartholdi enjoyed commissions from many American cities for smaller monuments. 

And today is the birthday of Bertha Lutz, Brazilian feminist, activist, and zoologist. 

She was born in São Paulo Brazil in 1894, the daughter of Adolf Lutz, a prominent physician and epidemiologist. She followed in her father's footsteps, studying biology and natural sciences at university in France. 

But upon returning to Brazil in 1918, it was soon evident that she had a passion for women’s rights. 

She founded League for Intellectual Emancipation of Women shortly after her return. The first mission was achieving women’s suffrage in Brazil and she was a leader in the movement.

And she didn’t stop there. After women receive the right to vote in 1931, Lutz remained active in politics and women’s rights. She received a law degree in 1933 which she felt would help her successfully campaign for government measures that would expand women’s rights, such as gender equality in workplaces. 

As a new Congresswoman in Brazil, one of her first initiatives was the “Statue of Women” which aimed to review all Brazilian laws in order to ensure none would undermine gender equality. 

Fog

Carl Sandburg

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

Thank you for listening. I’m your host Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening.

The date is August 1st, Thursday, and today I’m coming to you from Charlton, MA. 

Today is the birthday of Herman Melville, American author and poet. 

Melville’s life started out smooth sailing. He was born in 1819 to loving, doting parents. And they were wealthy to boot. His mother had a vast inheritance as did his merchant father. As years ticked by and the family grew, the Melvilles moved to a bigger house each year in New York City, and maintained two to four servants. The Melville parents enjoyed spending money. To them, it seemed their inheritances were never-ending.

But of course they did end. Eventually Mr. and Mrs. Melville’s respective families, cut them off for over-reaching. The whole family then had to grapple with near bankruptcy. The entire Melville clan, eight kids and two adults, moved to Albany to cut costs and Herman’s father entered the fur trade. 

Herman entered a new school in Albany but was pulled from it after only a few months. He was a fine student, but it’s likely that even the small fee for school was too much of a financial burden. Herman was disappointed and watched on as his two older brothers finished out the year. 

The next big storm to hit Herman’s life was at age 12. Mr. Melville was returning from a business trip by boat, but with below-freezing temperatures, waterways were frozen over. Instead of waiting for better conditions, Mr. Melville commandeered an open carriage to make the rest of the journey.  Mr. Melville arrived home with what would be a fatal cold. 

His father’s death meant Herman would have to find work. 

After working through his teens, Melville joined a whaling voyage as a crew member at about age 20. He was inspired by stories of sea-faring adventures and wanted to check it out for himself.  

Melville did not anticipate just how wild the ride would be. During his time at sea, he abandoned ship with a friend, participated in a mutiny, and eventually left whaling for the navy. He did not return to the continental US until 1844, burnt out from life on the water. 

No matter how much he abhorred his time spent at sea, his family loved hearing accounts of his life as a whaler. Encouraged, he began writing them down. 

It seems almost fitting that a few pieces of writing inspired Melville to begin a journey and then that his own journey inspired him to write.  Perhaps Melville could have saved himself from five years at sea if he had skipped ahead to just writing. But, certainly his work – both his prose and poetry – would be missing the depth of understanding of life at sea. 

Melville’s notable work includes Typee (his first novel and instant success), Redburn, Moby Dick (of course), Pierre, Clarel (an epic poem), and Billy Budd, in addition to short stories and poems. 

The Ribs and Terror in the Whale

Herman Melville

The ribs and terrors in the whale, 

Arched over me a dismal gloom, 

While all God's sun-lit waves rolled by, 

And left me deepening down to doom. 

I saw the opening maw of hell, 

With endless pains and sorrows there; 

Which none but they that feel can tell— 

Oh, I was plunging to despair. 

In black distress, I called my God, 

When I could scarce believe him mine, 

He bowed his ear to my complaints— 

No more the whale did me confine. 

With speed he flew to my relief, 

As on a radiant dolphin borne; 

Awful, yet bright, as lightening shone 

The face of my Deliverer God. 

My song for ever shall record 

That terrible, that joyful hour; 

I give the glory to my God, 

His all the mercy and the power.

Thank you for listening. I’m your host, Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening. 

The date is July 31th, Wednesday, and today I’m still traveling to Boston, Massachusetts.

Today is the birthday of Ahmet Ertegun, Turkish-American founder of Atlantic Records.

Ahmet was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1923. His father was a successful lawyer and his mother a skilled musician. She played the piano and a number of stringed instruments and indulged in records. Ahmet and his brother Nesuhi were admittedly spoiled by their unimpeded access to the music from the top musicians and bands of the day. 

Ahmet proclaimed he truly fell in love with music at age 9. While in London with his family, Ahmet’s brother Nesuhi dragged him to a concert to see Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and their respective bands play at the Palladium Theater. Ahmet was in awe of the performers and their sound. 

In 1935, Ahmet’s father became the Turkish Ambassador to the United States and the family moved to Washington, D.C.. Ertegun joked that despite attending an affluent private high school and then Georgetown, he “got [his] real education at Howard.” (Meaning Howard University, the historically black University in Washington, D.C.). Although he didn’t share the exact same ethnic heritage, Ertegun felt a kinship with the African American community. When traveling in Europe his family often met with discrimination due to their Muslim background. 

While in college at Georgetown he worked at a record shop while taking in the music scene. Finally, he moved to New York, not knowing exactly what he would do, but determined to be entrenched in the music scene. 

In 1947, with $10000 borrowed from his family dentist, Ertegun and partner Herb Abramson started Atlantic Records. Atlantic was to be the premiere independent label for jazz, gospel, and R&B. 

It was a rocky start. Ertegun was still honing his skills as a talent scout and producer and missed out on stars that would be big. It took 22 records before their independent label finally found commercial success. 

Ertegun did a bit of everything at Atlantic Records in the beginning. He scouted new talent, wrote songs, produced the music, and sometimes hopped on a track as a back-up singer. 

Atlantic Records would sign the likes of Ray Charles and Coltrane and was one of the first labels to record in stereo sound. 

From humble beginnings in an office in a old crumbling hotel, Ertegun helped to grow Atlantic Records into a premiere independent music label. Atlantic stock was ultimately sold to Warner Bro.s in the 1970s, though Ertegun remained active in the company for another 20 years. And of course, he would frequent jazz clubs and concerts until his dying day. 

The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd

Sir Walter Raleigh

If all the world and love were young,

And truth in every shepherd's tongue,

These pretty pleasures might me move

To live with thee and be thy love.

Time drives the flocks from field to fold

When rivers rage and rocks grow cold,

And Philomel becometh dumb;

The rest complains of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields

To wayward winter reckoning yields;

A honey tongue, a heart of gall,

Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,

Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies

Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten--

In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,

Thy coral clasps and amber studs,

All these in me no means can move

To come to thee and be thy love.

But could youth last and love still breed,

Had joys no date nor age no need,

Then these delights my mind might move

To live with thee and be thy love.

Thank you for listening. I’m your host, Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening.

The date is July 30th, Tuesday, and today I’m traveling from Portland, Oregon to Boston, Massachusetts. 

Today is the birthday of Emily Brontë, English writer. 

Born in 1818 in Northern England, Emily was joyously welcomed. She was the fifth child out of six for a simple clergyman and his wife. Emily’s sister Anne, two years her junior would become her closest confidante. 

Emily’s early years were plagued with loss: her mother died of cancer when Emily was just three. 

At six, Emily was sent away to school, joining her three elder sisters. Charlotte had written home insisting the school was only bad news. The teachers were abusive and abrasive, the instruction subpar and she begged her father to bring them all home. He refused.

Maria the eldest, became sick while at school and made the journey home. Upon her return to the parsonage, she quickly succumbed to her illness. When the remaining three girls arrived home, presumably for Maria’s funeral, Elizabeth the second oldest also succumbed to a months-long cold she contracted at school. Mr. Brontë did not send Charlotte and Emily back to that horrid school, literally fearing for their lives. 

The Brontë’s maternal aunt was already living at the Brontë parsonage. She was put in charge of the children when their mother died and now would oversee their education at home. Despite their middle-income status and remoteness of their village, the remaining Brontë children had access to various written material. 

Emily was notoriously shy around anyone outside her immediate family. She much preferred the solitude of walks outdoors to crowded balls and dinners. Her walks were closely tied to her love of nature. Emily would often return home with a stray country dog at her heels or an injured bird in her hands.

On first glance, the contents of Emily’s only novel Wuthering Heights stand in stark contrast to the life she led. Wuthering Heights is indeed known for psychological torture, violence, and overt sensuality. It confounded readers in 1847 when it was first released. 

However, Emily had quite a bit of practice in drama growing up. In a small country town, the children were educated by their aunt but also had plenty of time to play. On days were they were stuck inside due to weather, the Brontë children made up storylines for a box of toy soldiers. They created their own fictional worlds for their characters, and more often than not the soldiers were Scottish Highlanders, romantic, brutish, and living in extremes. 

Reviewing the poetry and verse that survive from the Brontës’ tween and teen years, one can see the seeds of Wuthering Heights. 

Emily Brontë unfortunately was not able to escape an early death. She died at age 30 from tuberculosis, her death hastened by a harsh winter and contaminated water near the Brontë parsonage. She lives on in her poetry and prose.  

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Christopher Marlowe

Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,

Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow rivers to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses

And a thousand fragrant posies,

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool

Which from our pretty lambs we pull;

Fair lined slippers for the cold,

With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,

With coral clasps and amber studs:

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing

For thy delight each May morning:

If these delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me and be my love.

Thank you for listening. I’m your host, Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening.

The date is July 29th, Monday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, Oregon.

Today is the birthday of Alexis de Tocqueville, French politician and historian. 

Born in 1805 in France, Tocqueville’s lasting mark in history is his work De la démocratie en Amerique or Democracy in America. 

A typical aristocratic upbringing saw Tocqueville seamlessly enter politics. When Tocqueville was 26, the French Monarchy sent him and a partner to America. They were to study the American prisons and prison systems and report back. Tocqueville returned after nine months in North America and, three years later, published an account of his travels. Democracy in Ameri ca published in 1835 is not what the Monarchy had asked for, but it is undoubtably a more interesting read. 

Tocqueville did pursue a line of inquiry into American prisons, but he was much more impressed with cultural differences between America and Europe. Tocqueville found that while Europe clung to the vestiges of an idle aristocracy, American democracy championed and rewarded hard work. He noted that hard work in Europe was often looked down upon (for certainly if you were working so hard you must be poor). But Tocqueville noted a staunch individualism in America meant that men of all classes enjoyed a sense of dignity. The common man was lauded for dogged work ethic and was not afraid to defy elites or nay-sayers.

And today is the birthday of Maria Latigo Hernandez, Mexican-American activist. 

Born in 1896, just across the border in Mexico, Maria Latigo was a schoolteacher in her young teens. At 18 she fell in love with Pedro Hernandez from Texas. She moved to Texas to be with him and they were married not long after. 

Maria Latigo Hernandez was no dunce. Although her formal education was limited to small-town schools, her father was a professor. There’s no doubt he valued education and saw to it that his daughter was just as quick and intelligent as he was. 

She became keenly aware of the rife discrimination that Mexican Americans and African Americans faced in Texas. She and her husband got involved in politics when the last of her ten children were still babes. She became a force to be reckoned with and fought her whole life for civil rights. 

She believed strongly in the role of the mother in society. She argued in a 1945 essay that mothers (or the stay-at-home parent) were of the utmost importance to society as they wielded considerable influence over the next generation during their formative years. 

In 1968 at the age of 72, she testified to the United States Commission on Civil Rights that increased education for all children and adults was necessary in order to rewrite “deformed historical narrations.” She continued her activism until her death at age 99 and was known as an “untiring fighter.”

I Never Saw That Land Before

Edward Thomas

I never saw that land before, 

And now can never see it again; 

Yet, as if by acquaintance hoar 

Endeared, by gladness and by pain, 

Great was the affection that I bore 

To the valley and the river small, 

The cattle, the grass, the bare ash trees, 

The chickens from the farmsteads, all 

Elm-hidden, and the tributaries

Descending at equal interval; 

The blackthorns down along the brook 

With wounds yellow as crocuses 

Where yesterday the labourer's hook 

Had sliced them cleanly; and the breeze 

That hinted all and nothing spoke. 

I neither expected anything

Nor yet remembered: but some goal 

I touched then; and if I could sing 

What would not even whisper my soul 

As I went on my journeying, 

I should use, as the trees and birds did, 

A language not to be betrayed;

And what was hid should still be hid 

Excepting from those like me made 

Who answer when such whispers bid.

Thank you for listening. I’m your host, Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening.

The date is July 26th, Friday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, Oregon. 

Today is the birthday of George Bernard Shaw, Irish-born English writer. He was a noted critic of music, plays, and art during his lifetime, but its his own plays that live on today. 

Born the youngest of three in 1856 in Dublin, his parents were already drifting apart. His father had married his mother hoping to see some of her family’s wealth; and his mother married his father to escape her overbearing family. It seems neither got what they wanted. 

When George was 6, his mother and her new beau, a man named George Lee, decided to move in together. Mrs. Shaw, Mr. Lee, and the three Shaw children shared two homes: one in an upper-class neighborhood in Dublin, and a cottage outside of town with a view of Killiney Bay. 

George preferred the cottage. Lee was a popular vocal teacher and conductor and it seemed, particularly in the city, there were always singers and players and music in the home. When his mother and/or sisters put George off in favor of practice or rehearsals, George took comfort in the music. 

A perk to living with such a popular maestro was an abundance of gifts from pupils. Mr. Lee, not particularly interested in reading, gave any books he received to George. George was delighted by this and read each book, getting to know a variety of genres.

[The reading proved a useful habit since George abhorred school. He said “Schools and schoolmasters are prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents." To a child accustomed to much independence, formal schooling with lots of rules and regulations must certainly have seemed jail-like.]

In 1873, when George was 17, his mother and sisters followed Mr. Lee to London. A few years later, when George was 20, he also followed, leaving behind a steady but boring job. 

Shaw who said, “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing” did for a time, do nothing. When he first moved to London, he did not seek work, living with his mother rent free, perhaps spending most of his days reading and walking about. 

Work was finally hand-delivered to him. Mr. Lee had George ghost-write a music column for him. 

Shaw dabbled with writing his own novels and plays, but they weren’t very good. It wasn’t until the mid-1880s that two of his novels were published in serial form. 

In fact finally, in 1884 and 1885, Shaw found steady work as a critic of music and the theater. It seemed that being a critic ultimately drove Shaw to write seriously. He became frustrated with the Victorian theater’s “artificiality” and sought to create art that included a lesson or some teaching. He believed “all great art must be didactic.”

The turn of the century became a fertile period for Shaw and his output solidified him in the theater world. In 1926 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty."  By the time of Shaw’s passing at age 95, he had produced 62 plays of various length, including titles such as Pygmalion, Candida, and Saint Joan. 
 

There Will Come Soft Rains

Sara Teasdale

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,

And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,

And wild plum trees in tremulous white,

Robins will wear their feathery fire

Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one

Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree

If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,

Would scarcely know that we were gone.

Thank you for listening. I’m your host, Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely weekend.

The date is July 25th, Thursday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland Oregon. 

Today is the birthday of Rosalind Franklin, English chemist and X-ray crystallographer. 

Besides being instrumental to the discovery of DNA and its double-helix shape, Franklin had a rich life outside of her science work. One thing she enjoyed most was trekking. She would take off on multi-day trips with a backpack full of supplies and hike wherever was convenient. After a particularly stunning trek through the French Alps, Franklin declared “I am quite sure I could wander happily in France forever.” 

Despite James Watson’s critical account of Rosalind Franklin’s personality, by accounts of friends, she was truly fun. First there was her adventurous spirit as evidenced by her trekking. Second, her consorting with colleagues in America led them to think she had quite an entertaining sense of humor. In fact, Watson’s words regarding Rosalind in his biography are likely stained with self-importance. Francis Crick admits he and Watson treated Franklin with a “patronizing attitude.” 

Franklin and Crick and Crick’s wife enjoyed a friendship later on in life. During Franklin’s fight against cancer, likely caused by her exposure to X-rays, the Cricks spent plenty of time with her as she healed from a round of treatment. 

Today is the birthday of Maxfield Parrish, American artist and illustrator. 

Parrish was born in 1870 in Pennsylvania and raised in a Quaker Society. An early predilection for drawing was cheered on by his parents, his father being a painter.  His parents went so far as to take him to Europe to show him the great works of artists and helped him enroll at an art school in Paris for a time. 

He returned to America and pursued further art and design schooling in his teens and early 20s. He gladly took commissions and illustrated works such as an edition of Arabian Nights, Eugene Field’s Poems of Childhood, and Oz series author, Frank L. Baum’s book Mother Goose in Prose.

Besides illustrations for children’s books, calendars, magazines, and greeting cards, it’s Parrish’s painting that stands out as spectacular. His imaginative scenes combined with almost iridescent color, particularly the blue of the skies, earned him fortune and fame. His Quaker roots kept him humble, however, and he went so far as to say "I am hopelessly commonplace, I don't know what people see in me!" 

The blue in his paintings would come to be known as “Parrish blue” it was so unique and striking. Digital copies of his work don’t do his blue justice. Parrish would apply layers of glaze and varnish over a monochromatic color, the effect being that the color looks as fresh and vibrant 100 years later as it did when it was first applied. 

Parrish’s art is on display at museums across the country, including a beautiful piece titled Interlude at the Memorial Art Gallery in my hometown of Rochester, NY. (See this link for a few of his works and see this one for Interlude) 

And today is the birthday of Maria Weston Chapman, American abolitionist. One of her great achievements was editing, for nineteen years, The Liberty Bell, a ‘giftbook’ whose proceeds directly benefited the abolitionist cause. The Liberty Bell included works by writers such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who all contributed without payment and as a show of their support of the abolitionist cause.

A Baby Running Barefoot

D. H. Lawrence

When the bare feet of the baby beat across the grass

The little white feet nod like white flowers in the wind,

They poise and run like ripples lapping across the water;

And the sight of their white play among the grass

Is like a little robin’s song, winsome,

Or as two white butterflies settle in the cup of one flower

For a moment, then away with a flutter of wings.

I long for the baby to wander hither to me

Like a wind-shadow wandering over the water,

So that she can stand on my knee

With her little bare feet in my hands,

Cool like syringa buds,

Firm and silken like pink young peony flowers.

Thank you for listening. I’m your host Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening.