Tag Archives: history

May7

my odyssey with the iliad.

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with the absence of my carpool mate

due to the arrival of her newest bambino

i attempted to fill my commute time

with my personal repertoire

of all things musical

every known

genre and format

then

sports rants

  in-car karaoke singing

 thoughtful npr shows

science

politics

mindless morning shows

when

i remembered

audio books

 the iliad

seemed

the perfect candidate

 a story

i read under duress

long ago

yet remembered

nothing of

i decided

to give it

a second chance

it was an incredible odyssey for me

filled

with drama

and matched wits

and dialogue

long forgotten

 “you are a bitch, unparalleled.”

“i will offer you 3 fine horses and a chariot or a woman who will sleep with you.”

“my wife, the goddess, defies me out of habit.”

not unlike reality tv shows

but much better written

with humor

and grace

and honor

and ego

and pride

and emotion

and death

and rituals

and flashy armor

and sumptuous meals

and lusty sex

and days off from fighting

for celebrations

and memorials

and just for rest

and always

the behind the scenes manipulations

with gods

and mortals

mixing it up

 all trying

to find their way

 figure out life

win their battles

much like the rest of us

and

 i grew to love the story

all fourteen discs of it

through

rain

dark

sunrises

traffic jams

accidents

highway miles

sunsets

high winds

 i looked forward to it

every day

as i began to understand

who all the

‘son of, maker of, and those whose names all ended with the letter s’

 characters were

 how they were connected

 when it all ended

i was left wanting more

and

if only

homer had

written another

epic poem

he could have called it

“the odyssey”

oh, he did.

and

i can’t wait.

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the journey has been incredible from its beginning.
– sidney poitier

Feb16

americans kick off the week with a day off. some of us.

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Unknown

here’s the most amazing thing you’ll ever read about our 10th president:

john tyler was born in 1790.

he took office in 1841, after william henry harrison died.

and he has two living grandchildren.

not great-great-great-grandchildren.

their dad was tyler’s son.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

the tyler men have a habit of having kids very late in life.

lyon gardiner tyler, one of president tyler’s 15 kids, was born in 1853.

he fathered lyon gardiner tyler jr. in 1924, and harrison ruffin tyler in 1928.

harrison tyler has been interviewed in the last few years for new york magazine.

lyon tyler spoke to the daughters of the american revolution a while back.

it’s all in the math.

his living legacy continues.

happy_presidents_day_cards_4942786367

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credits: j.english, mentalflossmagazine, google images

Dec4

feeling young.

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at 4,841 years old, this ancient bristlecone pine

is the oldest known non-clonal organism on earth.

located in the white mountains of california,

in inyo national forest.

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credit: earthporn.com

Mar26

To be able to look back upon one’s past life with satisfaction is to live twice. – Lord Acton

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     freda kelly was just a shy teenager from liverpool who left school at 16 to make her way in the world. in this documentary, freda tells her story for the first time after 50 years, for very personal reasons all her own. it is the story of a young girl, who, through fate and circumstance, found herself working for a local band, the beatles, hoping to make it big. while none of them had any concept of how far they would go, it was her undying loyalty and dedication that kept her in their inner circle, a rare thing among the many who came and went from their universe.

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at only 16, she became their devoted personal secretary and fan club president, and she understood the young girls’ frenzy them as they grew in fame, as she was herself just a young girl, as well as a fan. she was fiercely protective of each of them and never was swayed by the fame and fortune that came along. Freda saw it all, and became a sister and friend to them, and a daughter to their families. 

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she witnessed their evolution to international fame and watched history unfold before her eyes, taking it all in with amazement and pride.

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it was her dream job, and she was there at the beginning, and there at the end. and as was said, ‘they were together for 10 years, and she worked for them for 11 years.’  the archival footage in this film is amazing, and if you are a fan of the beatles, music history, or just of the pure and sweet side of human nature, you will fall in love with freda and with this movie.

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freda today, as she tells her story, with a few tears and a lot of laughter.

You learn from a conglomeration of the incredible past –

whatever experience gotten in any way whatsoever.
Bob Dylan

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image credits: magnolia pictures, the guardian.com,dailymail.co.uk,scope features,sxsw film festival

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nov26

family tree-oh!

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photo i love of my great great grandfather (right), his ‘man friday’ (left), and an unaccounted for cousin of some sort (center). taken in glasgow, scotland many years ago. wondering what the story of this photo is, and which of the 3 i most resemble? 

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“Why waste your time and money looking up your family tree? Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you!” —Mark Twain

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“The family. We were a strange little band of characters drudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms … and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.” —Erma Bombeck

Nov12

perspective

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i followed two 4-year olds at the back of the line, as my class made their way down the school hallway. one was crying. the other reached over, took his hand, and walked with him silently for a minute. the crying continued. the hand-holder decided to take a different approach and share his own tale of woe to make his friend feel better. “hey, when i was a baby, my mom never even played with me. she just wanted to stay in her room with the door closed and watch t.v.,” he told him. (how does he know this? how sad, and it really explains a lot, i thought to myself.) the other little guy stopped crying and they continued on in silence once again, hands swinging. 

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If you think you have it tough, read history books.   – Bill Maher

 

Aug30

real buildings half curves

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      i love this building, stuck right in the heart of our bustling and modern downtown. each and every time i walk by, i am drawn in once again, as i encounter its beauty, and especially its ‘and a half’ address. each time, i feel as mesmerized by it as i felt the first time i ever laid eyes on it. 

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     a historic house known as ‘the shant’, (officially called “the hall of omicron”), it now serves as a meeting place for the university of michigan chapter of the delta kappa epsilon (DKE) fraternity, as well as the headquarters for the international fraternal organization and the gerald ford library.  

     architect william lebaron jenney, later known as the ‘father of the american skyscraper,’ designed the building. jenney came to ann arbor as a professor to found the architecture program at the university of michigan. the library is named after gerald ford, one of five presidents who were members of DKE. it houses books that were written by or about DKE brothers as well as memorabilia.

     according to A Century and a Half of DKE, a history of the fraternity, (founded in 1855, 10 years after the first frats came to the university of michigan), the building was used only for fraternity ritual in its early years. the cornerstone was laid in 1878 and construction was completed the following year. an exterior eight-foot high brick wall was added in 1901, increasing the building’s mysterious appearance. it was used only for late night meetings, the gas-lit interior enhancing the building’s eeriness. today, the building still sticks out as somewhat eerie, especially in comparison with its new surroundings. 

     i like to imagine the secret late-night meetings, the rituals, the ghosts of times past, that still inhabit this special ‘half’ place, caught somewhere in between the past and the present.  

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 ‘my address is like my shoes. it travels with me.’ –  mary harris jones