In this diary, I promise not to talk about John McCain, debates, the market, Sarah Palin, witchcraft, Washington Mutual, Fannie Mac Frandie Mace, David Broder or the latest polls.
I'm scared to look at Sept. 27. The way things have been going of late, it'll be Jo Rowling, Thomas Jefferson, Sojourner Truth, Linus Pauling, George C. Scott and Madame Tussaud.
Today's honorees invented the airplane, instituted the Library of Congress, cured malaria, discovered the Lesser Antilles, inspired the Mona Lisa and brought about the world's first welfare state, in 1760s Belgium.
OK, not really. But seriously, the list of names is ridiculous. Spread over a week, this'd be a hell of a body to research. Get ready for a crash course in things you'll be glad you read about here if you didn't know about them already.
For the relatively obscure people here, any one of whom I would have gladly researched had today not been so wonderfully packed.
Insane.
No. Beyond insane. Approaching realities normally seen only in comic book physics.
The short list -- and I feel bad limiting it to only these:
Johnny Appleseed
T.S. Eliot
Martin Heidegger
George Gershwin
Daniel Boone
Levi Strauss
Bessie Smith
Hugh Lofting
George Santayana
Byron Nelson
Appointments of U.S.' first attorney general, secretary of state, chief justice and postmaster general
First televised presidential debate
Nolan Ryan throws his fifth no-hitter
That's the short list. Really, that's two weeks of Todays in History.
Once upon a time, I struggled to find anything really and truly worth writing about. Some days had a good list of topics from which to choose, and some ... well, I reached.
I'm not thrilled with my decision for today's diary, but really, whom would you leave out? I prefer storytelling to "here's a video and a link," but to be frank, telling a story about each of the listed items would have taken a week's lead time.
Today ... at one link per, and one song or quotation for each artist, that's a hell of a well-rounded education. Philosophy, music, sports, politics, history, the natural world, poetry, industry, race relations, ... the only thing this list doesn't have is a little per riding a unicycle. (And I don't know that such a connection wouldn't be found among the "not quite" list.)
So now, without further ado, brief forays into today's Today in History participants:
Johnny Appleseed
His real name was John Chapman.
T.S. Eliot
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Martin Heidegger
Biographical information.
George Gershwin
He was born Jacob Gershowitz.
Daniel Boone
Don't look for his coonskin cap. (I'd link to video, but it's mostly all of a TV show whose production values look really low, even for the 1960s.)
Levi Strauss
Embedding disabled, consarnit: http://www.youtube.com/...
A short article.
Bessie Smith
A book. And I'm glad I read most of that intro, as I had no idea Bessie was bisexual and Langston Hughes gay. Score one for queer society!
Hugh Lofting
The books you know as the Dr. Doolittle series. Here's the man.
George Santayana
An appropriate name to study these days, given a news event I promised to not mention but also given this administration, which I did NOT promise to not talk about. Happy reading.
Byron Nelson
Appointments of U.S.' first attorney general, secretary of state, chief justice and postmaster general.
First televised presidential debate:
http://www.youtube.com/...
(I regret that I could not find a series of videos showing the entirety of the debate, but the above clips should give y'all an idea of how things went down.)
Nolan Ryan throws his fifth no-hitter. No other pitcher has more than four, and no active pitcher has more than two. Ryan threw seven.
Hope you enjoyed today's foray into issues nobody is talking about. I know I'd rather write about this stuff than write the 546th diary on a current event.