July 23 1867 - Edward Frederic Benson: He Deceived Me By Telling The Truth. He was an English writer and archaeologist. Writing as E.F. Benson, he is a literary figure from a forgotten age who still retains a cult following for his charmingly sharp-eyed novels. His books … [Read more...]
Dispatches from Portland: Mayor Ted Wheeler Teargassed by POTUS’s Goons
KUTV via YouTube Heavily armed federal officers in military camouflage uniforms have provoked outrage in Portland for fracturing the skull of one protester and for their frequent use of tear gas. They have nabbed civilians off the streets who were taken away in unmarked vans. … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Pooped Pope, Julius III
Painter unknown July 23, 1487 - Pope Julius III The Cathedral of Sienna is one of my favorite structures, certainly my favorite House of the Holy. A medieval church, the alternating bands of dark and light marble that make the cathedral's façade are so striking and they … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: “America The Beautiful” Writer, Katharine Lee Bates
18887, public domain July 22, 1859 - Katharine Lee Bates When the irrepressible Mormon Tabernacle Choir did their version of America The Beautiful at the mango-hued president's inauguration in 2017, I couldn't stop thinking how the song's lyricist would have been appalled … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay – Writer, Ernest Hemingway
July 21, 1899 - Ernest Hemingway: "I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake." I haven't read any Hemingway in decades. In young, handsome, dynamic, delicious professor Daniel Roberto's American Literature 101 class in the autumn of 1972, I was so taken … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Natalie Wood
Photo from Columbia Pictures via YouTube July 10, 1938 – Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko: The only time a woman really succeeds in changing a man is when he is a baby. At the funeral service for Natalie Wood, the pallbearers … [Read more...]
#QueerQuote: “Muses Work All Day Long & Then at Night Get Together & Dance…” –Edgar Degas
Self-portrait, 1855, courtesy of the Musée d'Orsay Edgar Degas (1834 – 1917) presented scenes of contemporary life, especially dancers, entertainers and women at their bath. His technique is superb and he experimented with various media. Degas, gone for more than a century, … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Actor, Lupe Vélez
Via YouTube July 19, 1908 - Lupe Vélez Mexican Spitfire is not a term that the president uses for Latin bondage porn; you're thinking of Mexican Hayride. Mexican Spitfire is used to describe Lupe Vélez in a series of seven films released by the RKO Pictures between 1940 and … [Read more...]
“Get In The Way” – John Lewis (R.I.P.)
1964, photo PBS via YouTube Born in 1940 to sharecroppers in Troy, Alabama, John Lewis became a leader of the American Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. He joined the Freedom Rides that began in 1961, traveling to the south by bus to fight segregation on interstate … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Fashion Icon, Charles James
Charles James July 18, 1906 - Charles Wilson Brega James: "A great designer does not seek acceptance. He challenges popularity, and by the force of his convictions renders popular in the end what the public hates at first sight." Charles James was a British-born fashion … [Read more...]
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