… first star I see tonight ...
In the mailbox here in Okieland this snowy, wet Odin's day of.January 25th, 2023 ...
Today is the 149th anniversary of W. Somerset Maugham's birth. The novelist, playwright, and short story writer was born on this day in 1874 Paris. His historic reputation rests primarily on four novels: The Razor's Edge, Of Human Bondage, The Moon And Sixpence, and Cakes and Ale. These and many short stories were adapted into film. He died in 1965 at the age of 91.
Virginia Woolf was also born on this day, 141 years ago. Her birthplace was Kensington, England in 1882. In her lifetime she published more than 200 reviews and essays and three now famous novels: Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Orlando. She is considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Yesterday, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released its nominations for the 2022 Oscar awards. Cnet provided a list of the best pix nominations and links to possible viewing online (IMO a terrible way to watch a movie). That said my faves thus far were Tar (Tár was named "Best Picture of the Year" by more critics than any other film released in 2022), and The Banshees of Inisherin received nine nominations for the 95th Academy Awards. The Academy seems to be slowly waking up to the value of film as a collectively created art-form and not just a way to make a buck, even if it takes million$ to make one. Paper and pencil are still, almost, affordable.
Take it to the bank . . .
In Tew's Day's mailbox on this soon-to-be-snowing-in-Okieland-January-24th moment . . .
Today is the 161st anniversary of Edith Wharton's birth. The novelist was born Edith Newbold Jones in New York City (1862). “The Joneses were wealthy New York society — that's where the expression "Keeping up with the Joneses" comes from. . .They were alarmed by their little girl, who was precocious; she taught herself to read, and wrote her first novel on brown wrapping paper when she was 11 years old.” – Garrison Keillor. The House of Mirth (1905) was published when she was 43, and was followed by Ethan Frome (1911), and The Age of Innocence (1920). According to Keillor, “She loved motorcars, especially fast ones, she loved dogs — especially small dogs — she liked to knit, she was passionate about design and she loathed the Victorian style she had grown up with: cluttered, dark, heavy drapes and fancy upholstered furniture. And she loved to write.”
Gold was discovered 175 years ago today at Sutter's Mill in California. When the “gold rush” began, the population of California was about 150,000 Indians and about 14,000 non-Indians. Twelve years later, more than 300,000 people had migrated to California, and fewer than 30,000 Indians.
Out of all our striving with symbols in order to grasp what is called “reality,” there are only three we can rely upon with veracity: “The Great Mystery.” The Great Mystery is so named because … it's a mystery. Take that to the bank.
It's always morning somewhere . . .
In the mailbox this January 23, 2023 Monday morning ...
Joanna Macy provided a reminder that gratitude is both liberating and subversive while reinforcing our awareness that we are sufficient in this moment.
Yesterday was the 462nd anniversary of the birth of Sir Francis Bacon. The philosopher, statesman, essayist, and champion of modern science was born in London on this day in 1561. And it was the 235th anniversary of Lord Byron's birth. The British Romantic poet (born George Gordon) was born today in 1788.
Yesterday also marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. An excellent discourse on the case was posted by Heather Cox Richardson on her website.
Today is the 93rd anniversary of Derek Walcot's birth. The Nobel Prize-winning poet and playwright was born in Castries, St. Lucia 1930. He died in 2017.
Time marches on bringing news of science reversing aging. No kidding.
"For every poet it is always morning in the world. History a forgotten, insomniac night; History and elemental awe are always our early beginning, because the fate of poetry is to fall in love with the world, in spite of History." – Derek Walcot, 1992 Nobel Prize acceptance speech.