No Saints today, but in 1896 the world première performance of La bohème took place in Turin at the Teatro Regio and was conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini.

The Italian libretto of La bohème was by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger, a collection of vignettes with no unified plot. Since the 16th century the French word bohémien was used to refer to gypsies, based on the erroneous belief that they come from Bohemia. As gypsies were associated in the common imagination with a wild and free life separate from rigid society, the name came to be associated with the counter-culture of young artists and other rebels in the Latin Quarter of 19th century Paris. This was a common colloquial term in Paris when Murger used it in the title of the stories which eventually became the basis for the opera. The fame of Murger’s stories carried the term to the world beyond Paris and into other languages, such as English, where “bohemian” has a similar connotation. The word bohème denotes the place where these bohemians live, and thus translates to “Bohemia”. When referring to the geographic region, the preferred French spelling was (and is) Bohême, with a circumflex. Murger encouraged the alternate spelling of bohème, with a grave accent, to specify the conceptual Bohemia he wrote about. La bohème has become part of the standard Italian opera repertory and is one of the most frequently performed operas internationally. According to Opera America, it is the second most frequently performed opera in the United States, just behind another Puccini opera, Madama Butterfly. In 1946, fifty years after the opera’s premiere, Toscanini conducted a performance of it on radio with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. This performance was eventually released on records and on Compact Disc; it is the only recording of a Puccini opera by its original conductor.

Richard left for his dental appointment a little after 8:00 am, and I woke up at 8:30 am. It being the first day of the month, I backed up my Launch, BeBuzz, and BerryWeather settings from my BlackBerry to the media card on my BlackBerry, cleared out my BlackBerry Internet Browser cookie cache and passwords, and zeroed out my phone call lists and timers. I started my laundry, saved Screen Shots of my important BlackBerry screens to the media card on my BlackBerry, and read the morning paper while eating my breakfast toast. Richard came home while I was eating my breakfast; his next dental appointment will be on August 1 at 8:30 am. After breakfast, I wrote a letter to Matthew and Callie, ironed my casino shirts, finished my laundry, did my Devotional Reading, and said the Eighth Day of my Novena to Saint Blaise.

I left for Lafayette at 12:00 pm; I realized en route that I had forgotten to mail off the letter to Matthew and Callie and called Richard; he said we could mail it out tomorrow. I also got an E-mail from my church with the new Lector schedules for February through May; I forgot to tell them I’d like to be a lector at the Easter Vigil, so I am not lectoring for that Mass. At 1:00 pm I arrived at Piccadilly Cafeteria, where I ate my lunch and read in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. I then went to Crossroads Catholic Bookstore; the new St. Paul Missals are still not in, and they are not even hazarding when they will get them in. I then went to Barnes & Noble, where I spent some comfy chair time reading my book; I also finished reading the February 2012 issue of National Geographic, which I had started reading a few days ago. Finally, at 3:15 pm I arrived at the Lafayette Public Library – Southside Branch; as I parked the car I heard thunder. (Since thunder in February means a cold day in April, I made a note in my BlackBerry calendar that April 1st should be a cold day, plus or minus a day or two.) At the library I returned Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield and took out The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton.

Arriving home through some weather (I missed the gully-washing rains) just before 4:30 pm, I watched Jeopardy!, then Richard and I  headed out into town. At the Hit-n-Run I got my Powerball and Louisiana Lotto lottery tickets for tonight’s drawing, and we ate dinner at Peking Chinese Restaurant, returning home at 5:45 pm. While I was reading another chapter of my book while waiting for Richard to finish with the computer, my counselor called; I have an appointment set up with her on Wednesday, February 15th, at 12:00 pm. Finally, I uploaded the one photo that I had on my BlackBerry for January 2012 onto the hard drive of the computer; I did not have any January 2012 photos to upload from my camera to the hard drive of my computer, but I did charge up my camera and change the battery. Once I am done with tonight’s Daily Update I will take a bath and go to bed early.

Tomorrow Richard and I have to go to the casino for a four-hour class from 7:30 am to 11:30 am; we plan to eat breakfast when we get to the casino before our class. In the afternoon I will be getting my salad supplies and making lunch salads; I doubt that I will have the time to do filing of papers.

Our Parting Quote on this first day of February comes to us from Don Cornelius, American television host and producer. Born as Donald Cornelius in 1936 in Chicago, Illinois, he became a Chicago police officer. In the mid-1960s he pulled over a driver for a traffic violation, and was asking the usual traffic stop questions when the driver, WVON radio personality Ed Cobb, complimented him on his unique speaking voice and told him that he was in the wrong profession. Cobb suggested that Cornelius come down to the radio station and make a demo tape; when Cornelius did so, he was hired by the station as an announcer, and was also a backup disk jockey and news reader. He was hired by upstart UHF station WCIU in 1967 as a news and sports reporter. Cornelius also was promoting and emceeing a touring series of concerts featuring local talent (sometimes called “record hops”) at Chicago-area high schools, calling his travelling caravan of shows “The Soul Train”. WCIU-TV took notice of Cornelius’s outside work and in 1970, allowed him the opportunity to bring his road show to television. After securing a sponsorship deal with the Chicago-based retailer Sears, Roebuck and Co., Soul Train premiered on WCIU-TV on August 17, 1970, as a live show airing weekday afternoons. It was produced by Don Cornelius Productions. The first episode of the program featured Jerry Butler, the Chi-Lites, and the Emotions as guests. Its immediate success attracted the attention of another locally based firm—the Johnson Products Company (manufacturers of the Afro Sheen line of hair-care products)—and they later agreed to co-sponsor the program’s expansion into national syndication. Cornelius and Soul Train‘s syndicator, Syndicast Services, targeted 24 markets outside of Chicago to carry the show, but stations in only seven other cities—Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco—purchased the program, which began airing on a weekly basis on October 2, 1971. By the end of the first season, Soul Train was on in the other seventeen markets. Through the show Cornelius was instrumental in offering wider exposure to black musicians such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Michael Jackson, as well as creating opportunities for talented dancers that would presage subsequent television dance programs. Besides his smooth and deep voice, Cornelius was best known for the catchphrase that he used to close the show: “… and you can bet your last money, it’s all gonna be a stone gas, honey! I’m Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace and soul!” In 1987, Soul Train launched the Soul Train Music Awards, which honors the top performances in R&B, hip-hop, and gospel music (and, in its earlier years, jazz music) from the previous year. Cornelius ended his run as host at the end of the show’s 22nd season in 1993, though he remained the show’s main creative force from behind the scenes. Soul Train created two additional annual specials: The Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, first airing in 1995, celebrated top achievements by female performers; and the Soul Train Christmas Starfest, which premiered in 1998, featured holiday music performed by a variety of R&B and gospel artists. The Lady of Soul Awards and Christmas Starfest programs last aired in 2006. The 2008 Soul Train Music Awards ceremony was not held due to the WGA strike, and the closing of Tribune Entertainment’s syndication division complicating the process of finding a new distributor to air the ceremony and to continue airing Soul Train. In May 2008, the rights to the Soul Train library were purchased by MadVision Entertainment, whose principal partners came from the entertainment and publishing fields. The website for Soul Train acknowledged that the program had ceased distribution on September 22, 2008. On October 17, 2008, Cornelius was arrested at his Los Angeles home on Mulholland Drive on a felony domestic violence charge and released on bail. Cornelius appeared in court on November 14, 2008 and was charged with spousal abuse and dissuading a witness from filing a police report. He appeared in court again on December 4, 2008, and pleaded not guilty to spousal abuse; he was sentenced to three year’s probation and also banned from going anywhere near his estranged wife, Russian model Victoria Avila-Cornelius (Viktoria Chapman), who had filed two restraining orders against him. On March 19, 2009 he changed his plea to no contest and was placed on 36 months probation. MadVision came to terms with Viacom-owned Black Entertainment Television (BET) to relaunch the Soul Train Music Awards for BET’s new spin-off channel, Centric, in November 2009. Cornelius appeared at the 2009 BET Awards to present The O’Jays with the 2009 BET Lifetime Achievement Award (died 2012): “It’s always a pleasure to find something that matters.”

Today we honor Saint  John Bosco, Priest (died 1888). Today is also the birthday of my friend Linda in West Virginia, who I knew while growing up in West Virginia (1957).

Born in 1815 in Becchi, Castelnuovo d’Asti, Piedmont, as Giovanni Melchior Bosco, the father of today’s Saint died when the boy was two years old; and as soon as he was old enough to do odd jobs, he did so to helps support his family. He would go to circuses, fairs and carnivals, practice the tricks that he saw magicians perform, and then put on one-boy shows. After his performance, while he still had an audience of boys, he would repeat the homily he had heard earlier that day in church. He worked as a tailor, baker, shoemaker, and carpenter while attending college and seminary. Ordained as a priest in 1841, he worked as a teacher, working constantly with young people, finding places where they could meet, play and pray, and teaching catechism to orphans and apprentices. He was also a chaplain in a hospice for girls. He would write short treatises aimed at explaining the faith to children, and then would teach children how to print them. In 1859 he founded the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), priests who work with and educate boys, under the protection of Our Lady, Help of Christians, and Saint Francis de Sales. He also founded the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians in 1872, and the Union of Cooperator Salesians in 1875. He is the Patron Saint of boys and of schoolchildren. Today is also the birthday of my friend Linda in West Virginia, who I knew while growing up in West Virginia (1957).

On our way to work this morning, I did my Devotional Reading, and said the Seventh Day of my Novena to Saint Blaise. Once at work, Richard was dealing on Mini-Baccarat, and I was on Blackjack. On my breaks I started reading 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. At about 5:15 am I ended up being switched to being the Relief Dealer for Let It Ride, Mississippi Stud, and Three Card Poker, which I regarded as an improvement over being on Blackjack.

After work we stopped at Champagne’s for some groceries; once home, I read the morning paper. I then took a nap from 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm, and woke up in time to watch Jeopardy! with Richard. I had gotten E-mails from Liz Ellen, and told her I would call her about 5:00 pm; I first got my plate of Chicken Sauce Piquant and Corn, and I missed a call from her at 5:15 pm; I called her back, and we talked about her new Siamese kitten Winger. After I ate my dinner, I did Advance Daily Update Drafts through next Tuesday, and Richard took the trash out and dumped it. I am now doing tonight’s Daily Update, and will then take a bath and then go to bed.

Tomorrow Richard has a dental appointment (his six-month checkup) at 8:30 am. I will do my laundry tomorrow morning, then head to Lafayette to look for, read, and pick up books at Barnes & Noble and the library.

Our Parting Quote on this last day of January comes from Molly Ivins, American newspaper columnist, political commentator, humorist, and bestselling author. Born in 1944 as Mary Ivins in Monterey, California, she was raised in Houston, Texas. In high school she was active in extracurricular activities including the yearbook staff. She had her first pieces of journalism published her high school newspaper, though she never wrote any of the political columns that would become her specialty later in life. Ivins later became co-editor of the arts and culture section of the student paper. In addition, she frequently participated in theater productions and earned a lifetime membership to the school’s drama club. Ivins enrolled in Scripps College in 1962 but was not happy there, and transferred to Smith College in 1963. She spent her junior year at the Institute of Political Science in Paris, and received her B.A. in history in 1966. She earned a master’s degree at Columbia University’s school of journalism in 1967. While at Smith, Ivins spent three summers as an intern at the Houston Chronicle. Her jobs there included the complaint department as well as “sewer editor,” as she put it, responsible for reporting on the nuts and bolts of local city life. After graduating from Columbia, she took a job in the Twin Cities at the Minneapolis Tribune, where she was the first female police reporter in the city. She later covered a beat called Movements for Social Change. In 1970 Ivins left the Tribune for Austin, Texas to be the co-editor and political reporter for the Texas Observer. She covered the Texas Legislature and befriended folklorist John Henry Faulk, Secretary of State Bob Bullock and future Governor Ann Richards, among others. She also gained increasing national attention through op-ed and feature stories in The New York Times and The Washington Post along with a busy speaking schedule inside and outside Texas. The Times, concerned that its prevailing writing style was too staid and lifeless, hired her away from the Observer in 1976, and she wrote for the Times until 1982. During her run there, Ivins became Rocky Mountain bureau chief, covering nine western states, although the writer was known to say she was named chief because there was no one else in the bureau. Ivins also wrote the obituary for Elvis Presley in The New York Times for the August 17, 1977 edition. Generally, her more colorful writing style clashed with the editors’ expectations, and in 1980, after she wrote about a “community chicken-killing festival” in New Mexico and called it a “gang-pluck,” she was recalled to New York as punishment. In late 1981, after receiving an offer from the Dallas Times Herald to write a column about anything she liked, Ivins left New York for Dallas. She wrote for the Dallas Times Herald for ten years, although by 1985 the editors had moved her to the paper’s Austin bureau to reduce friction with Dallas city leaders. Her freelance work and speaking engagements continued to grow, and she hired Elizabeth Faulk, John Henry Faulk’s widow, as a personal assistant. In 1991, her book Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She? was published and spent 29 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Also in 1991, rival newspaper Dallas Morning News bought the Times Herald and closed it down. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram immediately made Ivins an offer and said she could stay in Austin. She accepted, and wrote a column for the Fort Worth paper from 1982 until 2001, when she became an independent journalist. Her column, syndicated by Creators Syndicate, eventually appeared in nearly 400 newspapers nationwide. In 1999, Ivins was diagnosed with stage III inflammatory breast cancer. The cancer recurred in 2003 and again in late 2005. In January 2006 she reported that she was again undergoing chemotherapy. In December 2006 she took leave from her column to again undergo treatment. She wrote two columns in January 2007, but returned to the hospital on the 26th for further treatment (died 2007): “Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you. I have been on blind dates better than that.”

Again we have no Saints to honor today. On this date in 1969, the Beatles performed what turned out to be their last concert on the roof of their Apple headquarters in central London.

The Beatles were finishing up the work on what would be their last studio album, Let It Be, with keyboardist Billy Preston on board for the last ten days. Various ideas had been tossed around for a location for the live performance of their material, but it wasn’t until just days before the show that they settled on performing on the roof of their Apple headquarters in central London. The unusual venue made sense; they had also commissioned a studio in the building’s basement (where some of the final Let It Be recordings would be finalized), and cables could be snaked down the stairwells to the multi-track recorder there. So, the Beatles and Preston tromped up to the Apple rooftop accompanied by a few friends, associates, and Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s modest film crew. The air was so chilly that George Harrison and John Lennon opted for heavy fur coats, and Ringo Starr wore a bright red rain slicker. The Beatles rooftop performance, interrupted as it was by the London police investigating noise complaints, quickly became an iconic rock touchstone, often imitated by other bands since that day.

I woke up this morning with a sore throat; on our way to work I did my Devotional Reading and said the Sixth Day of my Novena to Saint Blaise. Once at work, Richard was on Let It Ride (until about 8:00 am, when he was moved to Mississippi Stud), and I was the relief dealer for Pai-Gow and Mini-Baccarat. On my breaks I did my Book Review for Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield, and posted it to my Goodreads account (more anon), and I posted my Daily Update for yesterday, January 29, 2012, via WordPress for BlackBerry. On my last break I called the library (they will have The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton for me on Wednesday afternoon) and called my counselor’s office for an appointment (the answering service took my name & number to give to her to call me back).

On our way home from work I read the January 30, 2012 issue of Sports Illustrated (which did not take me long; I really don’t care who wins the Superbowl). Once home, I posted my Goodreads review of Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield to Facebook (Goodreads used to do it automatically, but now does not), and started the Weekly Computer Maintenance. I then ate peanut butter crackers for lunch while reading the morning paper. I then watched Road House (1989) with Richard all afternoon on AMC (I still think that they should have killed Kelly Lynch instead of Sam Elliott). And after watching Jeopardy!, I got my dinner of spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread, which I have just finished eating while doing today’s Daily Update. Once I am done with the computer (including starting the Weekly Virus Scan), I will take a hot bath and read; and with any luck, I will not have the faucet control come off in my hand again. (And I plan to be asleep long before the First Quarter Moon arrives at 10:10 pm local time.)

Tomorrow is Tuesday, which is our Friday; in the afternoon I may or may not take a nap, but I will try to also be marginally productive in getting stuff done that I need to get done.

On this Monday afternoon our Parting Quote comes to us from Coretta Scott King, American author, activist, and civil rights leader. Born in 1927 as Coretta Scott in Heiberger, Alabama, her parents owned a farm that had been in the family since the Civil War, but were not particularly wealthy; during the Great Depression the Scott children picked cotton to help earn money. At their parent’s insistence, all the children attended school; King graduated valedictorian of her high school in 1945 and enrolled at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she became politically active, due largely to her experience of racial discrimination by the local school board. She became active in the nascent civil rights movement and joined the Antioch chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the college’s Race Relations and Civil Liberties Committees. The board denied her request to perform her second year of required practice teaching at Yellow Springs public schools; for her teaching certificate King appealed to the Antioch College administration, which was unwilling or unable to change the situation in the local school system and instead employed her at the college’s associated laboratory school for a second year. King transferred out of Antioch when she won a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she met Martin Luther King, Jr. In her early life King was as well known as a singer as she was as a civil rights activist, and often incorporated music into her civil rights work. She and King were married on June 18, 1953, on the lawn of her mothers’ house; the ceremony was performed by King’s father, Martin Luther King, Sr. After completing her degree in voice and violin at the New England Conservatory, she moved with her husband to Montgomery, Alabama in September 1954, and raised the couple’s four children; however, there was conflict in the marriage, as she wished to take a more public leadership role in the Civil Rights Movement, while her husband wanted her to focus on her duties as a wife and mother.She did take part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and took an active role in advocating for civil rights legislation. Most prominently, perhaps, she worked hard to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Not long after her husband’s assassination in 1968, King approached the African American entertainer and activist Josephine Baker to take her husband’s place as leader of the Civil Rights Movement. After many days of thinking it over Baker declined, at which time King decided to take the helm of the movement herself. She published her memoirs, My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1969. She broadened her focus to include women’s rights, LGBT rights, economic issues, world peace, and various other causes. As leader of the movement, she also founded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. She served as the center’s president and CEO from its inception until she passed the reins of leadership to son Dexter Scott King in 1989. On January 14, 2006, after recovering from a stroke and heart attack, she made her last public appearance in Atlanta at a dinner honoring her husband’s memory (died 2006): “Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.”

Today is the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. We have no Saints today to honor, but on this date in 1845 Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven” was published in the New York Evening Mirror.

Poe claimed to have written the poem very logically and methodically; his intention was to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and popular tastes, as he explained in his 1846 follow-up essay “The Philosophy of Composition”. His description of its writing is probably exaggerated, though the essay serves as an important overview of Poe’s literary theory. He explains that every component of the poem is based on logic: the raven enters the chamber to avoid a storm (the “midnight dreary” in the “bleak December”), and its perch on a pallid white bust was to create visual contrast against the dark black bird. No aspect of the poem was an accident, he claims, but is based on total control by the author. Even the term “Nevermore”, he says, is used because of the effect created by the long vowel sounds (though Poe may have been inspired to use the word by the works of Lord Byron or Henry Wadsworth Longfellow). The poem’s publication made Poe widely popular in his lifetime though it did not bring him much financial success; he was paid $9.00 by the Daily Mirror. Many parodies promptly sprang into print; Abraham Lincoln first knew of the poem via a parody titled “The Pole-Cat”, though he later read the actual poem and memorized it. Poe’s original gravesite at Baltimore’s Westminster Hall and Burying Ground is marked by a stone which includes the epitaph, “Quote the Raven Nevermore”. (I love the poem, but I do object to the lines “Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer / Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.” If a “tufted floor” is a carpet, how can foot-falls tinkle upon it?)

On our way to work I did my Devotional Reading and said the Fifth Day of my Novena to Saint Blaise. Once at work, Richard was dealing Mini-Baccarat, and I was the Relief dealer for three Blackjack tables. Richard and I put in for seven hours of PTO to cover when we got out of work early last Tuesday on separate breaks.

I finished reading Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield on our way home; we also stopped at Spot’s Corner (where they used to have crawfish pies), and Richard got gas for the truck and some boudin balls. Once home, I found that the whole front half of our Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate was actually the Morning Advocate from Saturday. I called our newspaper delivery man, who said he would deliver a new paper to us in thirty minutes. I then read the back half of the Sunday Advocate while eating my lunch salad. The replacement Sunday Advocate showed up just after I had gone to bed to take a nap. I had planned to wake up about 4:00 pm, but slept until time to get up to work on Monday. While I was sleeping our LSU Women’s Basketball team lost to Vanderbilt by the score of 69 to 81, and I missed going to Mass once again.

Our Parting Quote this Sunday afternoon comes to us from Margaret Truman, American singer and author. Born in 1924 as Mary Margaret Truman, she was the only child of Harry S. Truman, later the 33rd President of the United States, and his wife, Bess Truman. In 1944 she christened the battleship USS Missouri, which was named after her home state. Her father became President upon the untimely death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, and remained in the White House until the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. After graduating from George Washington University and receiving some operatic vocal training, Truman debuted with the radio broadcast of a vocal recital in March 1947. After a performance in December 1950, Washington Post music critic Paul Hume wrote she was “extremely attractive on the stage… [but] cannot sing very well. She is flat a good deal of the time.” Her father, then President, wrote to Hume, “I have never met you, but if I do you’ll need a new nose and plenty of beefsteak and perhaps a supporter below.” Years later she recalled, “I thought it was funny. Sold tickets.” Her singing career was widely publicized during her father’s presidency and the February 26, 1951 cover of Time Magazine carried her image with a single musical note floating by her head. She performed on stage, radio, and television until the mid 1950s. Truman became part of the team of NBC Radio’s Weekday show that premiered in 1955, shortly after its Monitor program made its debut. She was paired with Mike Wallace to present news and interviews aimed at a female listening audience. Her place in pop culture was confirmed by her appearances as a guest panelist on the popular game show What’s My Line?, replacing Dorothy Kilgallen several times and also appearing as a mystery guest. Truman married New York Times reporter (and later editor) Clifton Daniel (1912–2000) on April 21, 1956 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Independence, Missouri, but continued to use her maiden name in her professional life. In 1957 she guest starred on an episode of NBC’s variety show, The Gisele MacKenzie Show, joining MacKenzie in a duet of “I Only Have Eyes For You”. Truman wrote several non-fiction and fiction books. Harry S. Truman (1972) was a critically acclaimed, full length biography of her father drawn from extensive resources at the Truman Library, published shortly before his death. Bess W. Truman (1986) was a detailed personal biography of her mother. She also wrote books on White House first ladies and pets, the history of the White House and its inhabitants, along with a critically successful series of fictional murder mysteries set in various locations in and around Washington, D.C. When the battleship USS Missouri was recommissioned in 1986 she was a featured speaker at the ceremony. She continued to write and publish regularly into her eighties. In later life she resided in her Park Avenue home in Manhattan and served on the Board of Directors for the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum along with the Board of Governors for the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Her last non-fiction book was The President’s House: 1800 to the Present (2004), and her final fiction book was her 24th murder mystery, Murder inside the Beltway (2008) (died 2008): “Mother considered a press conference on a par with a visit to a cage of cobras.”

This fun non-fiction book has to do with Fonts, and tells one everything one ever wanted to know about Fonts. I very much enjoyed reading this book, and must confess that at one time I was a fan of Comic Sans MS.

Each chapter in this book deals with one aspect or another about fonts, such as the history of fonts, people who have designed fonts, and the proliferation of fonts in the computer age (largely driven by Microsoft). Between each chapter is a “font break”, a chapter about the history of a particular font.

Before reading this book, my font of choice on my computer and BlackBerry was Kingthings Foundation. While reading the book I was inspired to try out different fonts, and can now report that I have changed to – Kingthings Foundation. But I still loved reading the book.

Today we honor Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor (died 1274). And on this date in 1984, at a time when I was totally unaware that this was the feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Richard and I were married in Baton Rouge, making this our 28th Anniversary.

Born in 1225 at Roccasecca, Aquino, Naples, Italy, the son of the Count of Aquino, today’s Saint was educated by Benedictine monks at Monte Cassino and at the University of Naples. He secretly joined the mendicant Dominican friars in 1244; his family kidnapped and imprisoned him for a year to keep him out of sight and to deprogram him, but they failed to sway him, and he rejoined his order in 1245. He studied in Paris, France from 1245 to 1248 under Saint Albert the Great, then accompanied Albertus to Cologne, Germany. Ordained in 1250, he then returned to Paris to teach theology at the University of Paris. He wrote defenses of the mendicant orders, commentaries on Aristotle and Lombard’s Sentences, and some bible-related works, usually by dictating to secretaries. He won his doctorate and taught in several Italian cities. Recalled by the King of France and the University to Paris in 1269, he was then recalled to Naples in 1272 where he was appointed regent of studies while working on the Summa Theologica. On December 6, 1273, he experienced a divine revelation which so enraptured him that he abandoned the Summa, saying that it and his other writing were so much straw in the wind compared to the reality of the divine glory. He died four months later while en route to the Council of Lyons, overweight and with his health broken by overwork. His works have been seminal to the thinking of the Church ever since; they systematized her great thoughts and teaching, and combined Greek wisdom and scholarship methods with the truth of Christianity. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1567, and Pope Leo XIII (died 1903) commanded that his teachings be studied by all theology students. He is the Patron Saint of theologians, colleges, and pencil makers. And on this date in 1984, at a time when I was totally unaware that this was the feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Richard and I were married in Baton Rouge, making this our 28th Anniversary; The anniversaries after the 25th one get short shrift in gift lists, but I do believe the appropriate gifts for the 28th Anniversary are velcro and cactus.  

On our way to work today I did my Devotional Reading, and said the Fourth Day of my Novena to St. Blaise. Once at work, Richard was on Three Card Poker all day, and I was the relief dealer for Mini-Baccarat and Pai-Gow. Our friend and co-worker Christine returned Cutting for Stone by Abarham Verghese to me that I had lent to her, and not long after we were on our way home from work I posted my Daily Update for yesterday, January 27, 2012 via WordPress for BlackBerry.

When we got home I set up my medications for next week (one prescription to renew on Friday), then I ate my lunch salad and read the morning paper. I then went to the Adoration Chapel, where I finished reading the January / February, 2012 issue of The Bible Today, and started my next chapter in The Book: A History of The Bible by Christopher de Hamel. When I got home, I opened a package I had gotten from my friend C.J. in Nevada; it was neat glass map of Louisiana pin! For the rest of the afternoon, I read in Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield. I did not go to the 4:00 pm Saturday Anticipation Mass, and our LSU Men’s Basketball team was beaten by #1 Kentucky by the score of 50 to 74. And now that I have eaten my dinner of spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread, I will go read for awhile before going to bed.

Tomorrow on my breaks at work I will probably finish reading Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield. In the afternoon I will make lunch salads for Monday and Tuesday and do the Weekly Computer Maintenance. 

Our Parting Quote this Saturday afternoon comes to us from Father Robert Drinan, Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, lawyer, human rights activist, and politician. Born in 1920 in Boston, he grew up in Hyde Park, Massachusetts, received a B.A. and an M.A. from Boston College in 1942, and joined the Jesuit Order the same year. He received an LL.M. and LL.B. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1950, , was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1953, and received a doctorate in theology from Gregorian University in Rome in 1954. He studied in Florence for two years before returning to Boston, where he was admitted to the bar in 1956. He served as dean of the Boston College Law School from 1956 until 1970, during which time he also taught as a professor of family law and church-state relations. During this period he was also a visiting professor at other schools including the University of Texas School of Law, and served on several Massachusetts state commissions convened to study legal issues such as judicial salaries and lawyer conflicts of interest. In 1970, Drinan sought a seat in Congress as a Representative from Massachusetts on an anti-Vietnam War platform; he won the election and was re-elected four times, serving from 1971 until 1981. He was the first of two Roman Catholic priests (the other being Robert John Cornell of Wisconsin) to serve as a voting member of Congress. Drinan sat on various House committees, and served as the chair of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the House Judiciary Committee. He was also a delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention. Drinan was the first member of Congress, in July 1973, to introduce a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon, though not for the Watergate Scandal that ultimately ended Nixon’s presidency. Drinan believed that Nixon’s secret bombing of Cambodia was illegal, and as such, constituted a “high crime and misdemeanor”. However, the Judiciary Committee voted 21 to 12 against including that charge among the articles of impeachment that were eventually approved and reported out to the full House of Representatives. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, he played an integral role in the Congressional investigation of Nixon Administration misdeeds and crimes. Drinan’s consistent support of abortion rights drew significant opposition from Church leaders throughout his political career, who had also repeatedly requested that he not hold political office in the first place. He attempted to reconcile his position with official Church doctrine by stating that while he was personally opposed to abortion, considering it “virtual infanticide,” its legality was a separate issue from its morality. This argument failed to satisfy his critics. In 1980, Pope John Paul II unequivocally demanded that all priests withdraw from electoral politics. Drinan complied and did not seek reelection. He taught at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. from 1981 to 2007, where his academic work and classes focused on legal ethics and international human rights. He privately sponsored human rights missions to countries such as Chile, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Vietnam. In 1987, he founded the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. He regularly contributed to law reviews and journals, and authored several books, including The Mobilization of Shame: A World View of Human Rights, published by Yale University Press in 2001 (died 2007): “Justice will not come until those who are not suffering feel just as hurt as those who are.”

Today we honor Saint Angela Merici, Virgin (died 1540). Today is also the birthday of Callie’s mother Lisa, who is also, of course, my son’s mother-in-law (1962).

Born in 1474 in Desenzano, Lake Garda, Italy, today’s Saint became a Franciscan tertiary at the age of 15 and received a vision telling her she would inspire devout women in their vocation. In Crete, during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, she was struck blind. Her friends wanted to return home, but she insisted on going on, visiting the shrines in the Holy Land with as much devotion and enthusiasm as if she had her sight. On the way home, while praying before a crucifix, her sight was restored at the same place in Crete where it had been lost. In 1535 she gathered a group of girl students and began what would become the Institute of Saint Ursula (the Ursuline Sisters); her first schools were in Desenazno and Brescia. Towards the beginning of the 18th century, the period of its greatest prosperity, the Ursuline order embraced some 20 congregations, with 350 convents and from 15,000 to 20,000 nuns. Saint Angela is the Patron Saint of the handicapped and is invoked against illness. And today is also the birthday of Callie’s mother Lisa, who is also, of course, my son’s mother-in-law (1962).

On Thursday night, after Richard had gone to sleep, I started taking a bath; when I went to turn off the hot water, I couldn’t turn the faucet control at first, and when I got it turning, the whole assembly came off the wall. I tried for about ten or fifteen minutes to get it back on the wall, with no success; I had to abandon it, with the water spewing into the tub from the faucet control, so that I could get a screwdriver. Richard woke up, and tried to fix the faucet control, then, after yelling at me for misunderstanding an unclear question, managed to turn off the water and fixed the faucet control with Michelle’s help. I was very upset about Richard yelling at me, even after he apologized; I read my chapter of The Book: A History of The Bible by Christopher de Hamel, and the next story in

On Thursday night, after Richard had gone to sleep, I started taking a bath; when I went to turn off the hot water, I couldn’t turn the faucet control at first, and when I got it turning, the whole assembly came off the wall. I tried for about ten or fifteen minutes to get it back on the wall, with no success; I had to abandon it, with the water spewing into the tub from the faucet control, so that I could get a screwdriver. Richard woke up, and tried to fix the faucet control, then, after yelling at me for misunderstanding an unclear question, managed to turn off the water and fixed the faucet control with Michelle’s help. I was very upset about Richard yelling at me, even after he apologized; I read my chapter of The Book: A History of The Bible by Christopher de Hamel, and the next story in The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain Edited by Charles Neider, but I was still upset, and had a hard time getting to sleep.

On our way to work I did my Devotional Reading and the Third Day of my Novena to
Saint Blaise. Once at work, Richard was on Three Card Poker and I was on a Blackjack table. During the day I signed my PAN (Personnel action notice) for my raise. After work Richard and I put in for our time off for our vacation in October with the scheduling office.

Once home from work I read the morning paper and ate my salad; then, like every other Friday this month, I took a nap until it was time to wake up on Saturday.

Our Friday Afternoon Parting Quote comes to us from Howard Zinn, American historian, author, left-wing anarchist activist, playwright, intellectual and academician. Born in 1922 in Brooklyn, New York into a Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn, his parents introduced him to literature by sending 10 cents plus a coupon to the New York Post for each of the 20 volumes of Charles Dickens’ collected works. He also studied creative writing in high school. Eager to fight fascism, Zinn joined the Army Air Force during World War II where he was assigned as a bombardier in the 490th Bombardment Group, bombing targets in Berlin, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. After World War II Zinn attended New York University on the GI Bill, graduating with a B.A. in 1951 and Columbia University, where he earned an M.A. (1952) and a Ph.D. in history with a minor in political science (1958). His masters’ thesis examined the Colorado coal strikes of 1914. His doctoral dissertation LaGuardia in Congress was a study of Fiorello LaGuardia’s congressional career, and it depicted LaGuardia representing “the conscience of the twenties” as LaGuardia fought for public power, the right to strike, and the redistribution of wealth by taxation.  The work was published by the Cornell University Press for the American Historical Association, and was nominated for the American Historical Association’s Beveridge Prize as the best English-language book on American history. In 1960–61, Zinn was a post-doctoral Fellow in East Asian Studies at Harvard University. Zinn was Professor of History at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia from 1956 to 1963, and Visiting Professor at both the University of Paris and University of Bologna. Although he was a tenured professor, he was dismissed from Spelman College in June 1963, after siding with students in the struggle against segregation. Fresh from writing two books about his research, observations, and participation in the Civil Rights movement in the South (The Southern Mystique (1962) and SNCC: The New Abolitionists (1964)), Zinn accepted a position at Boston University in 1964. His classes in civil liberties were among the most popular at the university with as many as 400 students subscribing each semester to the non-required class. He wrote one of the earliest books calling for the U.S. withdrawal from its war in Vietnam. Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal was published by Beacon Press in 1967 based on his articles in Commonwealth, The Nation, and Ramparts. Zinn’s diplomatic visit to Hanoi with Rev. Daniel Berrigan, during the Tet Offensive in January 1968, resulted in the return of three American airmen, the first American POWs released by the North Vietnamese since the U.S. bombing of that nation had begun. Daniel Ellsberg, a former RAND consultant who had secretly copied The Pentagon Papers, which described the internal planning and policy decisions of the United States government during the Vietnam War, gave a copy of them Zinn; along with Noam Chomsky, he edited and annotated the copy of The Pentagon Papers that Ellsberg entrusted to him. Zinn’s longtime publisher, Beacon Press, published in 1972 what has come to be known as the Senator Mike Gravel edition of The Pentagon Papers, four volumes plus a fifth volume with analysis by Chomsky and Zinn. At Ellsberg’s criminal trial for theft, conspiracy, and espionage in connection with the publication of the Pentagon Papers by The New York Times, defense attorneys called Zinn as an expert witness to explain to the jury the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam from World War II to 1963. However, the federal judge dismissed the case on the ground that it had been tainted by the Nixon administration’s burglary of the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. Zinn came to believe that the point of view expressed in traditional history books was often limited. He wrote a history textbook, A People’s History of the United States (1980) to provide other perspectives on American history. The textbook depicts the struggles of Native Americans against European and U.S. conquest and expansion, slaves against slavery, unionists and other workers against capitalists, women against patriarchy, and African-Americans for civil rights, and was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1981. A Professor of Political Science at Boston University, he taught for 24 years and retired in 1988. His autobiography,You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times, was published in 1994. In the 2001 film Unfinished Symphony, Zinn provided a historical context for the 1971 antiwar march by Vietnam Veterans against the War. In 2004 he published Voices of A People’s History of the United States with Anthony Arnove. Voices is a sourcebook of speeches, articles, essays, poetry and song lyrics by the people themselves whose stories are told in A People’s History. Zinn opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq and wrote several books about it. In 2005, forty-one years after his firing, he returned to Spelman College where he was given an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters and gave the commencement address. Due to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, on July 30, 2010, the FBI released a file with 423 pages of information on Zinn’s life and activities. During the height of McCarthyism in 1949, the FBI first opened a domestic security investigation on Zinn (FBI File # 100-360217), based on his activities in what the agency considered to be communist front groups and informant reports that Zinn was an active member of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA). Zinn denied ever being a member and said that he had participated in the activities of various organizations which might be considered Communist fronts but that his participation was motivated by his belief that in this country people had the right to believe, think, and act according to their own ideals. Later in the 1960s, as a result of Zinn’s campaigning against the Vietnam War and his influence on Martin Luther King, the FBI designated Zinn a high security risk to the country, a category that allowed them to summarily arrest him if a state of emergency were to be declared (died 2010): “I suggest that the history of bombing — and no one has bombed more than this nation — is a history of endless atrocities, all calmly explained by deceptive and deadly language like “accident,” “military target,” and “collateral damage”.”

Today we honor Saint Timothy (died 97) and Saint Titus (died c. 96), Bishops.

Born about AD 17, Timothy’s father was a Greek gentile, and his mother Eunice was Jewish. He was converted to Christianity by Saint Paul the Apostle around the year 47, and became the partner, assistant and close friend of Paul. After a career as a missionary, he became head of the Church in Ephesus, and was the recipient of two canonical letters from Saint Paul. Martyred for opposing the worship of Dionysius, he is the Patron Saint invoked for intestinal disorders. Titus was a disciple of Saint Paul as well, and First Bishop of the Church in Crete. Born sometime in the first century, he was also the recipient of a canonical letter from Paul, and is the Patron Saint of Crete. There is a minority opinion that “Titus” is another name for “Timothy”, and that both names refer to the same person. In any case, the Church has chosen to remember these companions of Paul on the day after the Feast of the Conversion of Paul.

First up, last night our LSU Men’s Basketball team was beaten by #18 Mississippi State by the score of 71 to 76.

I woke up this morning at 9:00 am, started my laundry, and read the morning papers while eating my breakfast toast. Back on the computer, I was wrestling with a BlackBerry synchronization problem (my Desktop Software won’t let me synch my BlackBerry address book with the Outlook Express on the PC), and finally put in a request to help on the CrackBerry forums online. I then did my Devotional Reading and said the Second Day of my Novena to St. Blaise. I then ironed my casino shirts, finished my laundry, and played my trivia games.

At 1:00 pm I headed out into town; my first stop was at D.C.’s Sports Bar and Steakhouse, where I ate my lunch and continued reading Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield. I then went to the Hit-n-Run to get my Powerball and Louisiana Lotto lottery tickets for the Saturday evening drawing, then went to Wal-Mart to get salad supplies. Once home at 2:15 pm, I found that my new BlackBerry battery had been delivered, and I gathered up the aluminum cans to put in the garage. I then continued reading Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield until about 3:30 pm, when I made my lunch salads for tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday. At 4:30 pm Richard and I watched Jeopardy! and ate the last of the gumbo for dinner. He has now gone on to bed; I will finish this Daily Update, take a bath to read the next chapter in The Book: A History of The Bible by Christopher de Hamel, then read one or two short stories in The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain Edited by Charles Neider before I go to sleep.

Tomorrow we return to work; after work we will talk with the Scheduling Department about our proposed October vacation and get our flu shots at the Clinic. And in the afternoon I really would like to lock myself in this room and do the filing of papers.

This Thursday afternoon we have a Parting Quote from Viktor Schreckengost, American industrial designer, sculptor, and artist. Born in 1906 in Sebring, Ohio, his father worked at a ceramics factory from which he brought home material for his six children to model. Every week he held a sculpture contest among the children, the winner of which accompanied his father on his weekend trip into the local big city of Alliance, Ohio. Only years later did Schreckengost realize that his father systematically rotated the winner. In the mid-1920s, he enrolled at the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art, or CIA) to study cartoon making, but after seeing an exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art he changed his focus to ceramics. He graduated from the college at the Cleveland School of the Arts (now the Cleveland Institute of Art) in 1929 at which time he earned a partial scholarship to study at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna. To make the trip, he borrowed $1,500 from two owners of Gem Clay, an industrial ceramics manufacturer in Sebring. When he returned six months later, having built a reputation as both a ceramist and as a jazz saxophonist, Schreckengost paid back his loans — a fortuitous event for the men from Gem Clay, since separate bank failures during the Great Depression had otherwise wiped them out. A year later, at the age of 25, he became the youngest faculty member at the CIA. In 1931, Schreckengost won the first of several awards for excellence in ceramics at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and his works were exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, and elsewhere. By the mid-1930s he had started to pursue his interest in industrial design. For American Limoges, he created the first modern mass-produced dinnerware, called Americana. Along with engineer Ray Spiller, Schreckengost designed the first-cab-over-engine truck for Cleveland’s White Motor Company. By the end of the decade he became the chief bicycle designer for Murray-Ohio, a position held formerly by the famous Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky. In 1939 he released his first design, the 1939 Mercury Bicycle, which was displayed along with four of his sculptures (The Four Elements) at the New York World’s Fair. In the early 1940′s Schreckengost began quietly revolutionizing the manufacture of children’s pedal cars as well. World War II interrupted his design and ceramic work when he joined the US Navy. His talents were soon recognized and he was recruited to develop a system for radar recognition that won him the Secretary of Navy’s commendation. After the war Schreckengost resumed his industrial design career creating products for Murray, Sears, General Electric, Salem China Company, and Harris Printing, among others. Approximately 100 million of his bicycles and pedal cars were manufactured by Murray, which made it the largest bicycle-maker in the world. He retired from industrial design in 1972, but continued teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Art, serving as Professor Emeritus at the institute. In April 1991, at the age of 93, Schreckengost travelled with Henry B. Adams, then curator of the CIA, to Norfolk, Virginia to address the Hampton Roads chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In 2000, the Cleveland Museum of Art curated the first ever retrospective of Schreckengost’s work. Broad in scope, the exhibition included sculpture, pottery, dinnerware, drawings, and paintings. The centerpiece of the exhibit was the Jazz Bowl, created in 1930. The industrial design portion included many of his famous designs such as safer and cleaner printing presses, economical pedal cars, cab-over-engine trucks, banana-seat bicycles, electric fans, and lawn chairs. Then in his 90s, Schreckengost made many personal appearances at the exhibit. For his 100th birthday in June 2006, The Viktor Schreckengost Foundation planned more than 100 exhibits of his work, with at least one in each state, to celebrate the milestone. The exhibits opened in March 100 days before his 100th birthday. He attended an exhibit in New York City to open the shows, and the night before his birthday he was honored at Cain Park in Cleveland Heights by a large and appreciative crowd. Also in 2006, Schreckengost was awarded the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor the federal government can bestow on an American artist. He and the nine other winners were feted in an Oval Office ceremony by President George W. Bush and the First Lady Laura Bush on November 9, 2006 (died 2010): “I remember picking up one request from a gallery in New York City asking a large punch bowl with a New York theme. I thought about it awhile and felt that the City of New York reflected the excitement and energy of jazz music. I listened to a lot of it when I had visited the city. I also felt that the bowl should be blue to mirror the strange blue tinged light that rose over the city at night. I started with plaster, creating a bowl and then went to white porcelain and started to use a rather primitive method of scratching (etching) an image on the surface of the bowl. This was a black and white technique. I then put on the bowl translucent copper and cobalt blue glazes that were then baked on. A week after the bowl was shipped, the gallery called to say that the lady who ordered it was so pleased that she wanted to order two more. She said that her husband Franklin loved it, too. One was to be sent to her house in Hyde Park, New York, and the other was to the White House in Washington. The lady was, of course, Eleanor Roosevelt.”

Today is the Feast of the Conversion of Paul, Apostle. Today also is the Eighth and Final Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, with the overall theme for 2012 is “We will all be changed by the Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. 1 Cor 15:51-58); for today, we highlight United in the Reign of Christ, And today is the birthday of our former friend Tim here in town, who has alienated himself from everyone in town (1956).

The story of Paul’s conversion from the virulently anti-Christian Saul to the Apostle Paul is told no less than five times in the New Testament; on the road to Damascus to persecute the Christians there, Saul was blinded by a light from heaven, fell to the ground, and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” When Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” the answer came back, ”I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” He regained his sight upon being baptised, changed his name to Paul, and became the Apostle to the Gentiles. The Christian theological implication of the Conversion of Paul is that it witnesses the absolution of sin that is offered by faith and grace through belief in Jesus Christ. The magnitude of Paul’s transgressions, such as his attempts to completely eradicate Christianity, indicate that any sinner may be forgiven, no matter how terrible his sins, except for the Unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit. Today also is the Eighth and Final Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  For today, we highlight United in the Reign of Christ, and we pray, “Almighty God, Ruler of All, teach us to contemplate the mystery of Your glory. Grant that we may accept Your gifts with humility and respect each person’s dignity. May Your Holy Spirit strengthen us for the spiritual battles which lie ahead, so that united in Christ we may reign with Him in glory. Grant this through Him who humbled Himself and was exalted, who lives with You and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.” Today is also the birthday of our former friend Tim; he has, unfortunately, alienated everyone in town (to the point that he was pointedly not invited to the wedding of our son) (1956).

Not surprisingly after our long day yesterday (even though I did take a four-hour nap between 1:00 am and 11:00 pm), I did not wake up until 10:30 am today. My first order of business was to read the morning paper; I was surprised to see that our LSU Women’s Basketball team beat East Tennessee State 71 – 68 in overtime, as the last text alert from ESPN that I got last night told me that our Lady Tigers had lost the game. I then got online, did my Trivia games, printed out the 2011 application from my National Parks Travelers Club to apply for the appropriate certificate for all the parks I visited (and got stamps for) in 2011 (I have to submit my application by February 29), did my Devotional Reading and said the First Day of my Novena to St. Blaise, and addressed and mailed birthday cards out to Callie’s mother Lisa here in town and to my friend Linda in West Virginia.

At 1:15 pm I headed out into town; my first stop was at the thrift store, where I left off a Hefty bag of jeans and jeans shorts. After I got my Powerball and Louisiana Lotto lottery tickets for tonight’s drawing at the Hit-n-Run convenience store, I ate lunch and read at McDonald’s. I then went to Wal-Mart, where I got the stuff that Richard had put on a store list for me. I got home a little after 2:30 pm, did a couple of Advance Daily Update Drafts through next Thursday, then occupied myself with reading until I had finished By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions by Richard Cohen. After Richard and I watched Jeopardy! I did my book review for this weblog and for my Goodreads and Facebook accounts for By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions by Richard Cohen. I then started reading Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield and fixed myself some toast, while a very large and nasty thunderstorm system started to move slowly through our area. Blackjack had come in earlier; when the lightening and thunder started she insisted on going outside and immediately went under the house. I then got on the computer to work on today’s Daily Update (saving every few minutes, as the storms are still coming through), and I printed out a claims form for our medical plan flexible spending account. As the storms seem to be abating, I think it’s safe for me to take a bath and to start reading The Book: A History of The Bible by Christopher de Hamel, and then to read some stories in The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain Edited by Charles Neider before I go to sleep.

Tomorrow I will try to get up relatively early to do my laundry; I will also at some point during the day get my salad supplies and make lunch salads for the early park of my upcoming work week.

Today’s Parting Quote comes to us from Philip Johnson, American architect. Born in 1906 in Cleveland, Ohio, he studied at Harvard University as an undergraduate, where he focused on history and philosophy, particularly the work of the Pre-Socratic philosophers. Johnson interrupted his education with several extended trips to Europe; these trips became the pivotal moment of his education, as he visited Chartres, the Parthenon, and many other ancient monuments, becoming increasingly fascinated with architecture. In 1928 Johnson met with architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who was at the time designing the German Pavilion for the Barcelona exhibition of 1929. The meeting was a revelation for Johnson and formed the basis for a lifelong relationship of both collaboration and competition. He returned from Germany as a proselytizer for the new architecture. Touring Europe more comprehensively with his friends Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and Henry-Russell Hitchcock to examine firsthand recent trends in architecture, the three assembled their discoveries as the landmark show “The International Style: Architecture Since 1922″ at the Museum of Modern Art, in 1932. The show was profoundly influential and is seen as the introduction of modern architecture to the American public. It introduced such pivotal architects as Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe. The exhibition was also notable for a controversy: architect Frank Lloyd Wright withdrew his entries in pique that he was not more prominently featured. Johnson continued to work as a proponent of modern architecture, using the Museum of Modern Art as a bully pulpit. He arranged for Le Corbusier’s first visit to the United States in 1935, then worked to bring Mies and Marcel Breuer to the US as emigres. During the Great Depression he resigned his post at MoMA to try his hand at journalism and agrarian populist politics. His enthusiasm centered on the critique of the liberal welfare state, whose “failure” seemed to be much in evidence during the 1930s. As a correspondent Johnson observed the Nuremberg Rallies in Germany and covered the invasion of Poland in 1939. The invasion proved the breaking point in Johnson’s interest in journalism or politics, as he returned to enlist in the US Army. After a couple of self-admittedly undistinguished years in uniform, he returned to the Harvard Graduate School of Design to finally pursue his ultimate career of architect. Johnson’s early influence as a practicing architect was his use of glass; his masterpiece was the Glass House (1949) he designed as his own residence in New Canaan, Connecticut, a profoundly influential work.  The building is an essay in minimal structure, geometry, proportion, and the effects of transparency and reflection. After completing several houses in the idiom of Mies and Breuer, he joined Mies van der Rohe as the New York associate architect for the 39-story Seagram Building (1956). Johnson was pivotal in steering the commission towards Mies, working with Phyllis Lambert, the daughter of the CEO of Seagram. This collaboration of architects and client resulted in the bronze-and-glass tower on Park Avenue. Completing the Seagram Building with Mies also decisively marked a shift in his career. After this accomplishment, Johnson’s practice enlarged as projects came in from the public realm—such as coordinating the master plan of Lincoln Center and designing that complex’s New York State Theater. Meanwhile, Johnson began to grow bored with the orthodoxies of the International Style he had championed; although startling when constructed, the glass and steel tower (indeed many idioms of the modern movement) had by the 1960s become commonplace the world over. He eventually rejected much of the metallic appearance of earlier International Style buildings, and began designing spectacular, crystalline structures uniformly sheathed in glass. From 1967 to 1991 Johnson collaborated with John Burgee. This was by far his most productive period — certainly by the measure of scale — he became known at this time as builder of iconic office towers, including Minneapolis’s IDS Tower. That building’s distinctive stepbacks (called “zogs” by the architect) created an appearance that has since become one of Minneapolis’s trademarks and the crown jewel of its skyline. In 1980, the Crystal Cathedral was completed for Rev. Robert A. Schuller’s famed megachurch, which became a Southern California landmark. The AT&T Building in Manhattan, now the Sony Building, was completed in 1984 and was immediately controversial for its neo-Georgian pediment (Chippendale top). At the time, it was seen as provocation on a grand scale: crowning a Manhattan skyscraper with a shape echoing a historical wardrobe top defied every precept of the modernist aesthetic: historical pattern had been effectively outlawed among architects for years. In retrospect other critics have seen the AT&T Building as the first Postmodernist statement, necessary in the context of modernism’s aesthetic cul-de-sac. In 1987, Johnson was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Houston (died 2005): “All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space.”

This is a marvelous book about fencing by Richard Cohen, a British fencer who competed at three Olympic Games. He goes into just about everything that is possible to discuss about fencing, which has always been a sport that has fascinated me. This history goes into dueling, history, world figures, swords in literature, the stage, and movies, the making of swords – just about the only thing not included is the swordplay in the Kill Bill movies, which came out after the 2002 publication date of this book. (Alas.)

After a Prologue, the book has several main sections: From Egypt to Waterloo (containing a chapter on France In The Age of The Musketeers), The Search for Perfection, The Duels High Noon, Wounded Warriors (the chapter Scars of Glory has to do with the specialized dueling at German universities), Great Powers, and Faustian Pacts (about cheating at this most honorable of sports).

The author, being a fencer of renown himself, goes into great detail about world champion and Olympic champion fencers of the past and present, possibly into too much detail. At the same time, I would have appreciated very basic photos and explanations as to the differences between foil, épée, and sabre, both in terms of the weapons themselves and what parts of the body are legitimate targets (which information, of course, one can get online).

With those caveats, this is a dandy book, giving you everything you ever wanted to know about swords, sword-fighting, and fencing.

Today we honor Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor (died 1622). And today is the Seventh Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, with the overall theme for 2012 is “We will all be changed by the Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. 1 Cor 15:51-58); for today, we highlight Changed by the Good Shepherd. 

Born in 1567 at Château de Thorens, Savoy (part of modern France) to a well-placed Savoyard family, the parents of today’s Saint intended that Francis become a lawyer, enter politics, and carry on the family line and power. He studied at La Roche and Annecy in France, was taught by Jesuits, and attended the Collège de Clermont in Paris, France at age 12. In his early teens, Francis began to believe in pre-destination, and was so afraid that he was peremptorily condemned to Hell that he became ill and eventually was confined to bed. However, in January 1587 at the Church of Saint Stephen, he overcame the crisis, decided that whatever God had in store for him was for the best, and dedicated his life to God. He then studied law and theology at the University of Padua, Italy, and earned a doctorate in both fields. He returned home and found a political position as Senate advocate. It was at this point that he received a message telling him to “Leave all and follow Me.” He took this as a call to the priesthood, a move his family fiercely opposed, especially when he refused a marriage that had been arranged for him. However, he pursued a devoted prayer life, and his gentle ways won over the family. Becoming a priest, in 1593 he was appointed provost of the diocese of Geneva, Switzerland, a stronghold of Calvinists. His simple, clear explanations of Catholic doctrine, and his gentle way with everyone, brought many back to the Roman Church. He even used sign language in order to bring the message to the deaf. Becoming Bishop of Geneva in 1602, he travelled and evangelized throughout the Duchy of Savoy, working with children whenever he could, and was the friend of Saint Vincent de Paul. He turned down a wealthy French bishopric to continue working where God had placed him, and with Saint Jeanne de Chantal he helped found the Order of the Visitation. A prolific correspondent, many of his letters have survived; he is also the author of Introduction to the Devout Life (still in print), addressed to Christians in all walks of life, not just to those in a professional religious vocation. Besides being the Patron Saint of the deaf, he is also the Patron Saint of authors and confessors. And today is the Seventh Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity; for today, we highlight Changed by the Good Shepherd, and we pray, “Father of all, You call us to be one flock in Your Son, Jesus Christ. He is our Good Shepherd who invites us to lie down in green pastures, leads us beside still waters, and restores our souls. In following him, may we so care for others that all see in us the love of the one true Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.”

While I was blow-drying my hair this morning my hair dryer died, and I had to finish drying my hair with my travel hair dryer. On our way to work I did my Devotional Reading, and Richard’s truck reached 250,000 miles on the odometer. Once at work, we signed the Early Out list as the #1 and #2 dealers on the A side. Richard was on Mini-Baccarat, and I was the relief dealer for Pai-Gow and Mini-Baccarat. To our surprise, we got out at 4:00 am.

We arrived home at 5:00 am; I started the Weekly Computer Maintenance, finished reading The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany by Susannah Heschel, and took a nap from 5:45 am to 10:15 am. When I woke up I read the morning paper, then finished the Weekly Computer Maintenance. I then did my book review for my weblog and for my Goodreads and Facebook accounts for The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany by Susannah Heschel, requested The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien (the next Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club book, even though I won’t be able to attend the meeting) and The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton (our next Third Tuesday Book Group at Barnes & Noble book) from the Lafayette Public Library, did some Advance Daily Update Drafts through Friday, and worked on the photos for my Daily Updates.

I left the house at 1:15 pm and ate lunch at D.C.’s Sports Bar and Steakhouse, where I read in By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions by Richard Cohen while eating my lunch. I then went to Wal-Mart, where I got a new umbrella for the truck, a new hair dryer, and a large cuff for my blood pressure monitor. I arrived home at 2:30 pm and did more photo work and Advance Daily Update Drafts (through next Monday) for my weblog; I also got a call from the pharmacist at Wal-Mart letting me know that they now have the large cuffs for blood pressure monitors in stock.

After we watched Jeopardy! Richard and I left the house at 5:00 pm. At 6:00 pm we were at the Lafayette Public Library – Southside Branch, where I returned The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany by Susannah Heschel (and paid an overdue fine of $1.50), and took out The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien, and Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield, which were both on the Hold shelf for me. We then headed for Baton Rouge. Just as we parked the truck at Perkins Rowe, I got the text message that our LSU Women’s Basketball team was beaten by East Tennessee State by the score of 61 to 63. From 7:45 pm to 9:00 pm Richard and I had a very good meal to celebrate our upcoming 28th anniversary at Texas de Brazil. We got home just before 11:00 pm, and now I am going to go to bed.

Tomorrow I will do laundry and do filing; so I am planning a fairly low-impact day.

Our Tuesday Evening Parting Quote comes from Pernell Roberts, American stage, movie and television actor and singer. Born in 1928 in Waycross, Georgia, during his high school years, he played the horn, acted in school and church plays and sang in local USO shows. He attended, but did not graduate from, Georgia Tech. While serving for two years in the United States Marine Corps, he played the tuba and horn in the Marine Corps Band, although he was also skilled in the sousaphone and percussion. He later attended, but also without graduating, the University of Maryland, where he had his his first exposure to acting in classical theater. He appeared in four productions while a student, including Othello and Antigone, but left school to act in summer stock. In 1949 he made his professional stage debut with Moss Hart and Kitty Carlysle in The Man Who Came to Dinner at the Olney Theatre in Olney, Maryland. Roberts moved to Washington D.C. in 1950, supporting himself in a variety of jobs while performing with the Arena Stage Theater. In 1952 he relocated to New York City where he appeared first off-Broadway in one-act operas and ballets with the North American Lyric Theater, with the Shakespearewrights at the Equity Library Theater, and later on Broadway with performances in Tonight in Samarkand, The Lovers opposite Joanne Woodward, and A Clearing in the Woods with Robert Culp and Kim Stanley. He won a Drama Desk Award in 1955 for his performance in an off-Broadway rendition of Macbeth, which was followed by the role of Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. Roberts then moved to Los Angeles and made his television debut in 1956 in the “Shadow of Suspicion” episode of Kraft Television Theater, followed by guest starring roles in The Whirlybirds, Gunsmoke, Sugarfoot, and Cheyenne. He signed a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1957 and made his film debut a year later as one of Burl Ives’ contentious sons in Desire Under the Elms (1958). The film was nominated for a Best Cinematography Academy Award. He also landed character roles in such features as The Sheepman (1958). He continued to guest star on television shows such as episodes of Shirley Temple Storybook Theater (“The Emperor’s New Clothes”, “Rumplestiltskin”, “The Sleeping Beauty”, and “Hiawatha”), the live-broadcast Matinee Theater where he starred in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, and later in The Heart’s Desire, Trackdown, Buckskin, and episodes of Zane Grey Theater. in 1959 he continued his TV work and co-starred with James Coburn in the film Ride Lonesome. That same year he was cast in the television series Bonanza as rancher Ben Cartwright’s eldest son, Adam. Roberts, having been a highly trained stage actor, was not happy with the limited role of his character in the series, especially that his character, a man in his 30′s, had to continually defer to the wishes of his widowed father. Finally, after disagreements with writers and producers over script quality, characterization and Bonanza’s refusal to allow him to perform elsewhere while on contract, Roberts left the series in 1965, largely to return to legitimate theater. During Roberts’ Bonanza years, he recorded Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies, a folk music album for the Bonanza box set albums. The series ran until 1973, with his character’s storyline kept open in case he returned, which he never did. After Bonanza Roberts played the straw hat circuit, regional theaters, and episodic TV, which gave him the opportunity to play a wide variety of roles. He later returned to Broadway and toured with Ingrid Bergman in Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, in which he played the title role. He continued television work, and in 1979 starred in the television series Trapper John, M.D. (1979–86), receiving an Emmy nomination in 1981; and playing the character twice as long as Wayne Rogers had (1972–1975) on the CBS M*A*S*H series. In the 1980s and 1990s, playing off his Trapper John M.D. persona, Roberts acted as TV spokesman for Ecotrin, a brand of analgesic tablets (died 2010): “I feel I am an aristocrat in my field of endeavor. My being part of Bonanza was like Isaac Stern sitting in with Lawrence Welk.”

I had always understood that during the time when the Nazis were in control of Germany the Christian Churches were lonely bastions of sanity, defending human rights against the evil Nazis and only accommodating to the Nazis insofar as was absolutely necessary for the survival of the Churches. This very scholarly book tells a very different story, and I am very glad I read it, although, since the book reads very much like a thesis, it is not at all a book for the popular press.

The Germans had lost the First World War, and there were many elements within Germany who blamed the Jews for the outcome. The Nazis came to power on a platform of saving Germany and making Germany great again by eliminating non-Aryans, especially those non-Aryans who were Jewish (and who thus were determined to destroy Germany). Meanwhile, the Christian Churches (almost entirely Lutheran) had a turf war, between those who felt that the Old Testament should be retained and those who felt that the Old Testament should be thrown out as being too Jewish. At this same time, theologians, working with the pervasive anti-Semitism within the church, worked to determine that Jesus was not Jewish, and that it was his opposition to the Jews that got him crucified. In 1939 theologians opened the Institut zur Erforschung und Beseitigung des J’udischen Einflusses auf das Deutsche Kirchliche Leben (Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Church Life), which worked closely with the government and the University of Jena in producing papers, conferences, and a New Testament that were shorn of Jewish content, in accordance with Nazi racism.

Essentially, the entire German people were subject to a pervasive anti-Semitism in favor of what was truly German. (We in America have no grounds to be smug; racism against people of color was simply accepted as the prevailing way of life until the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960′s.) The Nazis essentially took this anti-Semitism to a whole new level, pledging to make Germany great by removing all Jews and Jewish influence on German life, and the churches had no problem at all with this policy. As Jesus had fought valiantly against the Jews, so Hitler was fighting valiantly against the same Jews who wished to destroy Germany.

This is a very complex book, with a horrifying subject; I had no clue that organized religion worked so closely with the Nazis, although organized religion did not want to know the details of just how the Jews were being “removed” from German life. But I feel better for having learned about this subject (forewarned is forearmed), and I would recommend this book to anyone who is willing to wade through the forest of details contained in this book.

Happy New Year! Today is the First Day of the First Month of the Chinese lunar calendar, so today begins the Year of the Dragon. We also honor Blessed Marianne Cope, Virgin and Religious (died 1918). Today is the Sixth Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, with the overall theme for 2012 is “We will all be changed by the Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. 1 Cor 15:51-58); for today, we highlight Changed by God’s Steadfast Love. Finally, yesterday was the 39th Anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade; as yesterday was a Sunday, today we observe a Day of Prayer and Penance for Life.

Celebrated in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese, Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction. These include Koreans (Seollal), Tibetans and Bhutanese (Losar), Mongolians (Tsagaan Sar), Vietnamese (Tết), and formerly the Japanese before 1873 (Oshogatsu). Outside of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, Chinese New Year is also celebrated in countries with significant Han Chinese populations, such as Singapore, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Today we also honor Blessed Marianne Cope, Virgin and Religious (died 1918). Born as Maria Anna Koob in Heppenheim in the Grand Duchy of Hesse (modern-day Germany), her family emigrated to the United States when she was one year old, settling in Utica, New York and changed the family name to Cope. By the time she was in eighth grade her father had become an invalid and, as the oldest child in the house, she became a factory worker to help support the family. Her father later became an American citizen, which at the time granted automatic citizenship status to her entire family. By the time her father died in 1862, her brothers and sisters were old enough to support themselves, so she felt free to enter the novitiate of the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis based in Syracuse, New York. At the completion of her year of formation, she received the religious habit of the Franciscan Sisters along with the new name Marianne. Cope then became first a teacher and then a principal in newly-established schools for German-speaking immigrants in the region. By 1870, she was a member of the governing Council of her congregation. In this office, she was involved in the opening of the first two Catholic hospitals in Central New York. At the time, their Charter was stipulated so that medical care was to be provided to all, regardless of race or creed. She was appointed by the Superior General to govern St. Joseph’s Hospital, the first public hospital in Syracuse, from 1870 to 1877. During her period of hospital administration, she became involved with the move of the College of Medicine in Geneva, New York to Syracuse, where it became the Geneva Medical College. She contracted with the college to accept their students in the treatment of the hospital’s patients, to further their medical education. Her stipulation in the contract–again unique for the period–was the right of the patients to refuse care by the students. In 1883, Mother Marianne, by then herself Superior General of the congregation, received a plea for help in caring for leprosy sufferers from King Kalākaua of Hawaii. More than 50 religious institutes had already declined his request for Sisters to do this. She responded to the letter enthusiastically, and set out with six of her Sisters from Syracuse to travel to Honolulu to answer this call, arriving on November 8, 1883. The bells of Our Lady of Peace Cathedral pealed to welcome their ship, the SS Mariposa, as it entered Honolulu harbor. With Mother Marianne as supervisor, the Sisters’ task was to manage Kakaʻako Branch Hospital on Oʻahu, which served as a receiving station for Hansen’s disease patients gathered from all over the islands. Here the more severe cases were processed and shipped to the island of Molokaʻi for confinement in the settlement at Kalawao, and then later at Kalaupapa. The following year, at the request of the government, she set up Malulani Hospital, the first General Hospital on the island of Maui. Soon, however, she was called back with haste to the hospital in Oahu, where she had to deal with a government-appointed administrator’s abuse of the leprosy patients at the Branch Hospital at Kakaako, an area adjoining Honolulu. Her demand to the government to choose between his dismissal or the Sisters’ return to Syracuse resulted in her being given full charge of the overcrowded hospital. Her own expected return to Syracuse to re-assume governance of the Congregation was then delayed when her leadership was declared by both government and church authorities to be essential to the success of the Mission. Two years after the arrival of the Sisters, her accomplishments had so stirred the admiration of the Hawaiian government that the King himself bestowed on Mother Marianne the Cross of a Companion of the Royal Order of Kapiolani for her acts of benevolence to his suffering people. Another pressing need was fulfilled when a year later, in November 1885, after Mother Marianne had convinced the government that it was of vital need to save the homeless female children of leprosy patients, the Kapiolani Home was opened. The unusual choice of location for healthy children to dwell in a Home situated on the grounds of a leprosy hospital was made because no one other than the Sisters could be found to care for those so closely associated with people suffering from the dreaded disease. A new government took over in 1887, which changed the official policy toward leprosy patients. While new patients had not been forced into exile at Molokai for several years, the new administration decided to end that policy, and closed the hospital built for them in Oahu. A year later, as the consequences of this decision became clear, the authorities pleaded with Mother Marianne to establish a new Home for women and girls on the Kalaupapa peninsula of Molokai. In November 1888 she moved to Kalaupapa, both to care for the dying Father Damien, SS.CC. (who was already known internationally for his heroic care of the leper colony there) and to assume his burdens. She had met him shortly after her arrival in Hawaii, when, while still in good health, Father Damien had gone to Oahu to attend the dedication of the chapel in the hospital she was establishing. After his diagnosis as a leper, he was shunned by both civil and church leaders. It was only Mother Marianne who gave him welcome, even arranging for the King to meet him. When Father Damien died on April 15th, 1889, the government officially gave Mother Marianne charge for the care of the boys of Kalaupapa, as well as her original commission for the female residents of the colony. A prominent local businessman, Henry P. Baldwin donated money for the new home; Mother Marianne and two assistants, Sister Leopoldina Burns and Sister Vincentia McCormick, opened and ran a new Girls School, which she named in his honor. At her suggestion, a community of Religious Brothers was invited to come and care for the boys. After the arrival of four Brothers of the Sacred Heart in 1895, she withdrew the Sisters to the Bishops School for Girls and “Brother” Charles Dutton was given charge of the Baldwin House by the government. (He was a veteran of the American Civil War who had left behind in the United States a life broken by alcoholism, and it was he who had been Father Damien’s primary assistant.) Mother Marianne died in 1918; in 2003 the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared her to have been “heroically virtuous”. In 2004 Pope John Paul II issued a papal decree declaring her Venerable, and in 2005 she was beatified in Vatican City by Pope Benedict XVI in his first beatification ceremony as pope, and her canonization is set for October 2012. Today is the Sixth Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, with the overall theme for 2012 is “We will all be changed by the Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. 1 Cor 15:51-58), For today, we highlight Changed by God’s Steadfast Love, and we pray, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, by Your Resurrection You have triumphed over death, and have become the Lord of life. Out of love for us You have chosen us to be Your friends. May the Holy Spirit unite us to You and to one other in the bonds of friendship, that we may faithfully serve You in this world as witnesses to Your steadfast love; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.” And, as yesterday was the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has ruled “In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life.”

Today I freshened up my casino shirts for today and tomorrow in the dryer, and noted the arrival of the New Moon at 1:39 am. We then dumped a load of trash on our way out, and headed to work with me doing my Devotional Reading along the way. Once at work, Richard was on Let It Ride; I was scheduled for a Blackjack table, but was immediately re-assigned to Mini-Baccarat, which had a maximum of four players at any given time until the table went dead for the rest of the day at 5:00 am. (For the next six hours, I became very aware of all of the Coushatta commercials and events being broadcast on the in-house television screens, one of which is right in front of the Mini-Baccarat table I was on; in the 30-second video promoting the upcoming Alan Jackson concert, he wears three different hats and five different shirts, and has at least two different guitars.)

On our way home I read the January 23, 2012 issue of Sports Illustrated; we stopped at Champagne’s for gumbo supplies, stopped at the bank to pay on our loan, and mailed some letters at the collection boxes outside of the post office. Once home, I had some peanut-butter crackers while I read the morning paper, then took a nap from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. After we watched Jeopardy! we considered when we would like to take our trip this fall (more anon), and we got our dinner of Chicken Sausage Gumbo, which I am now eating as I work on today’s Daily Update. I will then take my bath and read the next chapter in my overdue inter-library loan book, The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany by Susannah Heschel, and then read a short story or two in The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain Edited by Charles Neider before going to sleep.

Tomorrow is our Friday at work; after work, we will go over to the Scheduling Office to see if we can take the time off that we would like to take off in October for our trip. In the afternoon I really need to do the Weekly Computer Maintenance and to do filing of papers. (Stupid papers.)

Our Parting Quote this afternoon comes to us from Jack LaLanne, American fitness, exercise, and nutritional expert. Born as Francois Henri LaLanne in 1914 in San Francisco, California, his older brothers nicknamed him “Jack”. He grew up in Bakersfield, California and later moved to Berkeley when he was still a child. His father died at the age of 58 of a heart attack, caused in part by poor nutrition. As a boy LaLanne was addicted to sugar and junk food. He had violent episodes directed against himself and others, and also suffered from headaches and bulimia, and temporarily dropped out of high school at age 14. The following year, at age 15, he heard health food pioneer Paul Bragg give a talk on health and nutrition, focusing on the “evils of meat and sugar.” Bragg’s message had a powerful influence on LaLanne, who then changed his life and started focusing on his diet and exercise. He went back to school, where he made the high school football team, and later went on to college in San Francisco where he earned a Doctor of Chiropractic degree. He studied Henry Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body and concentrated on bodybuilding and weightlifting. In 1936 he opened what is considered the nation’s first health and fitness club in Oakland, California, where he offered supervised weight and exercise training and gave nutritional advice. His primary goal was to encourage and motivate his clients to improve their overall health. LaLanne designed the first leg extension machines, pulley machines using cables, and the weight selectors that are now standard in the fitness industry. He invented the original model of what became the Smith machine. LaLanne encouraged women to lift weights (though at the time it was thought this would make women look masculine and unattractive). His gym ownership led to a brief professional wrestling career in 1938. The Jack LaLanne Show was the longest-running television exercise program. It began in 1951 as a local program on San Francisco’s ABC television station, KGO-TV, with LaLanne paying for the airtime himself as a way to promote his gym and related health products. LaLanne also met his wife Elaine while she was working for the local station. In 1959, the ABC network picked up the show for nationwide broadcast, which continued until 1985. The show was noted for its minimalist set, where LaLanne inspired his viewers to use basic home objects, such as a chair, to perform their exercises along with him. Wearing his standard jumpsuit, he urged his audience “with the enthusiasm of an evangelist,” to get off their couch and copy his basic movements, a manner considered the forerunner of today’s fitness videos. LaLanne published several books and videos on fitness and nutrition, appeared in movies, and recorded a song with Connie Haines. He marketed exercise equipment, a range of vitamin supplements, and two models of electric juicers. LaLanne celebrated his 95th birthday with the release of a new book titled Live Young Forever. In the book, he discussed how he kept healthy and active well into his advanced age (died 2011): “People thought I was a charlatan and a nut. The doctors were against me—they said that working out with weights would give people heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive.”

Today is the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. Today we honor Saint Vincent, Deacon and Martyr (died 304). Today is also the Fifth Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, with the overall theme for 2012 is “We will all be changed by the Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. 1 Cor 15:51-58): for today, we highlight Changed by the Peace of the Risen Lord. And as today is the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court Decision of Row v. Wade, today would normally be a Day of Prayer and Penance for Life, but this Day will be postponed until tomorrow, since today is a Sunday.

Born in Heusca, Aragon (in modern Spain), today’s Saint was a friend of Saint Valerius of Saragossa in Spain, and served as his deacon. Imprisoned and tortured in Valencia, Spain for his faith during the persecutions of Diocletian, he spent part of his time being burned on a gridiron. While in prison, he converted his jailer. He was finally offered release if he would give up the scripture texts for burning, but he refused. After further torture, he was released to the care of his friends; they cleaned him up and put him in a bed, where he promptly died. He is the Patron Saint of  Lisbon, Portugal, and of all things having to do with wine and wine-making. Today is also the Fifth Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity; for today, we highlight Changed by the Peace of the Risen Lord, and we pray, “Loving and merciful God, teach us the joy of sharing in Your peace. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit so that we may tear down the walls of hostility separating us. May the risen Christ, who is our peace, help us to overcome all division and unite us as members of His household. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, to whom with You and the Holy Spirit be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.” And, as today is the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973, today would normally be a Day of Prayer and Penance for Life, but this Day will be postponed until tomorrow, since today is a Sunday.

On Saturday night I charged up my spare BlackBerry battery, and charged up my camera. Also our LSU Men’s Basketball team lost their game with #17 Florida by the score of 64 to 76.

Today I did my Devotional Reading on our way to work; once at work, Richard was dealing on Let It Ride, and I was the relief dealer for Pai-Gow, Mini-Baccarat, and (for one rotation) a Blackjack game. Otherwise, our day at work was uneventful.

Once home from work, I read the Sunday papers and ate my lunch salad; I then took a nap. While I slept, our LSU Women’s Basketball team lost their game with Arkansas by the score of 52 to 72, I did not go to Mass (this is the second weekend I’ve missed), and Michelle came in; Richard reported that she seemed much better in mental outlook. I woke up about 8:00 pm, and figured that I’d better do my Daily Update before going back to sleep.

Tomorrow is Monday; besides working, I need to get a haircut in the afternoon and to do the Weekly Computer Maintenance.  

Our Parting Quote on this Third Sunday in Ordinary Time comes to us from Joe Paterno, American college football coach. Born as Joseph Paterno in 1926 in Brooklyn, New York, after serving a year in the Army, he attended Brown University; where he played quarterback and cornerback. Paterno graduated with the Brown University Class of 1950 and joined his college coach Rip Engle as an assistant coach at Penn State in 1950. Engle retired after the 1965 season, and Paterno was named his successor. For the rest of his professional life, he was the head coach at Penn State. The Pittsburgh Steelers offered their head coach position to Paterno in 1969, an offer he considered seriously. Michigan Athletic Director Don Canham contacted Paterno in 1969 to see if he would accept the vacant Michigan job; Paterno turned down the offer. In 1972 he was offered the head coaching position by the New England Patriots. He accepted their offer, but only three weeks later decided to back out of it. The New York Giants reportedly offered Paterno their head coaching spot numerous times during the team’s struggles during the 1970s and early 1980s. He led the Nittany Lions to National Championships in 1982 and 1986; in the latter year he was named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year. In 1995 Paterno was forced to apologize for a profanity-laced tirade directed at Rutgers then-head coach Doug Graber at the conclusion of a nationally televised game. Paterno was well-known for his gameday image—thick glasses, rolled-up pants (by his admission, to save on cleaning bills), white socks and Brooklyn-tinged speech. Reflecting the growth in Penn State’s stature during his tenure, Beaver Stadium was expanded six times during his tenure, more than doubling in size in the process (from 46,284 in 1966 to 106,572 in 2001). He was accused of “making light of sexual assault” in 2006 by the National Organization for Women which called for his resignation. In November 2006 Paterno was involved in a sideline collision during a game against Wisconsin. He was unable to avoid the play and was struck in the knee by Badgers linebacker DeAndre Levy’s helmet. Paterno, then 79 years old, suffered a fractured shin bone and damage to knee ligaments. He was was involved in a road rage incident in 2007. Also in 2007 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach, and after five years of court battles, the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS) revealed Paterno’s salary in November 2007: $512,664. The figure was not inclusive of other compensation, such as money from television and apparel contracts as well as other bonuses that Paterno and other football bowl subdivision coaches earned, said Robert Gentzel, SERS communications director. In 2008, due to a litany of football players’ off-the-field legal problems, including 46 Penn State football players having faced 163 criminal charges according to an ESPN analysis of Pennsylvania court records and reports dating to 2002, ESPN questioned Paterno’s and the university’s control over the Penn State football program by producing and airing an ESPN’s Outside the Lines feature covering the subject. Paterno was criticized for his response dismissing the allegations as a “witch hunt”, and chiding reporters for asking about problems. On November 6, 2010, he recorded his 400th career victory with a 35–21 victory over Northwestern. Facing a 21–0 deficit, Penn State scored 35 unanswered points, tying Paterno’s largest comeback victory as a coach.  The 2009 season was Paterno’s 44th as head coach of the Nittany Lions, passing Amos Alonzo Stagg for the most years as head coach at a single institution in Division I. In 2009 Paterno was named to Sporting News’ list of the 50 greatest coaches of all time (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, college basketball, and college football). He is listed in position 13. On October 29, 2011, Paterno recorded his 409th career victory with a 10–7 victory over Illinois. Facing a 7–3 deficit, Penn State drove 86 yards on their final drive to score a touchdown. A missed 42-yard field goal by Illinois which would have sent the game to overtime secured Paterno’s 409th victory. With this victory, Paterno passed Eddie Robinson to become the winningest head coach in Division I college football. He trails the leader, John Gagliardi of Division III Saint John’s University (Minnesota), by 73 wins. Paterno holds more bowl victories (24) than any coach in history. He also tops the list of bowl appearances with 37. He has a bowl record of 24 wins, 12 losses, and 1 tie following a defeat in the 2011 Outback Bowl. Paterno is the only coach with the distinction of having won each of the current four major bowls—Rose, Orange, Fiesta, and Sugar—as well as the Cotton Bowl Classic, at least once. Under Paterno, Penn State won at least three bowl games each decade since 1970. On November 5, 2011, former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was arrested on 40 counts relating to sexual abuse of eight young boys over a 15-year period, including alleged incidents that occurred at Penn State. A 2011 grand jury investigation reported that then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary told Paterno in 2002 that he had seen Sandusky abusing a 10-year-old boy in Penn State football’s shower facilities. According to the report, Paterno notified Athletic Director Tim Curley the next day about the incident, and later notified Gary Schultz, director of business and finance, who oversaw the University Police. Prosecutors have stated that Paterno was not accused of any wrongdoing, as he fulfilled his legal obligation to report the incident to his immediate supervisor, Curley. However, he was harshly criticized for not reporting the incident to police himself, or at least seeing to it that it was reported, as many have concluded from the facts that are currently known. On the night of November 8, hundreds of students gathered in front on Paterno’s home in support of the coach. Paterno thanked the crowd and announced the following day that he would retire at the end of the season. Later that evening, however, the Board of Trustees voted to relieve him of his coaching duties effective immediately. On January 12, the board of trustees announced that Paterno would remain a tenured member of the Penn State faculty even though he was no longer a coach, and Penn State was to honor his contract as if he retired at the end of the season. The details of his retirement were still being finalized when he died (2012): “You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That’s the mark of a true professional.”

Today we honor Saint Agnes, Virgin and Martyr (died c. 304). Today is the Fourth Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, with the overall theme for 2012 being “We will all be changed by the Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. 1 Cor 15:51-58); for today, we highlight Changed by the Lord’s Victory over Evil. 

Born about 291, according to legend the Prefect Sempronius wished today’s Saint (who was 12 or 13) to marry his son; she did not want to marry but wanted to have God in her life, and on Agnes’ refusal he condemned her to death. As Roman law did not permit the execution of virgins, Sempronius had a naked Agnes dragged through the streets to a brothel. As she prayed, her hair grew and covered her body. It was also said that all of the men who attempted to rape her were immediately struck blind. When led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the bundle of wood would not burn, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and beheaded her, or, in some other texts, stabbed her in the throat. It is also said that the blood of Agnes poured to the stadium floor where other Christians soaked up the blood with cloths. Her story was well known in ancient Christianity; an early account of her death, stressing her steadfastness and virginity, but not stressing the legendary features of the tradition, was given by Saint Ambrose (died 397). In modern times, on this feast day two lambs are brought from the Trappist abbey of Tre Fontane in Rome to the Pope to be blessed. On Holy Thursday these lambs will be shorn, and from their wool will be woven the pallium which the pope gives to a newly consecrated metropolitan archbishop as a sign of his jurisdiction and his union with the pope.Today is the Fourth Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity;  For today, we highlight Changed by the Lord’s Victory over Evil, and we pray, “Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You for Your victory over evil and division. We praise You for Your sacrifice and Your resurrection that conquer death. Help us in our everyday struggle against all adversity. May the Holy Spirit give us strength and wisdom so that, following You, we may overcome evil with good, and division with reconciliation. Amen.”

When I woke up, I was aware that my earliest call-in at the casino (on January 21, 2011) dropped off; I now have only one call-in at work, from back in May. Michelle was not at home (she spent the night elsewhere); we put the root crystals that we had bought yesterday down the sewer pipes to keep the tree roots at bay, and headed off to work with my copy of Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese to lend to my friend and co-worker Christine. Along the way I did my Devotional Reading. Once at work, I spent my eight hours being the relief dealer for Pai-Gow, Mini-Baccarat, and (at various times) Let It Ride and Blackjack; Richard started out on Pai-Gow, then when they closed his table, he was on Blackjack, then ended the day on Let It Ride. On my breaks I posted my Daily Update for yesterday, January 20, 2012.

Once home from work I set up my medications for next week (no prescriptions to renew) and ate my lunch salad while reading the paper; meanwhile, Richard paid the bills (our paychecks hit the bank). I then headed off to the Adoration Chapel for my Weekly Hour of Eucharistic Adoration, during which I read the January 16 – 23, 2012 issue of my Jesuit America magazine and started reading the January / February 2012 issue of The Bible Today. Back home, I checked out my various sites of interest on the Internet and read in By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions by Richard Cohen. Michelle came home, and indicated that she did not want to talk. At 5:00 pm Richard and I went out to eat dinner at Nick’s on Second Street; we had not been there since the Wedding Rehearsal Dinner in December 2010. (I don’t know why it’s been so long; the food is very good, although the service is a tad spotty.) We got home at 5:45 pm, and I set to work on today’s Daily Update. Once I finish, it’s off to my bath.

Tomorrow is Sunday; work, followed by Weekly Computer Maintenance. And I hope at some point we return to winter-like temperatures; it has been unseasonably warm in SouthWestCentral Louisiana, with the temperature today reaching 81°. (Our average high for January 21 is 60°.)

Our Parting Quote upon this Saturday afternoon comes to us from Paul Quarrington, Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator. Born in 1953 in Toronto, Ontario, he went to the University of Toronto but dropped out after less than two years of study. He began writing novels in 1978 while working as the bass player for the group Joe Hall and the Continental Drift and as the guitar accompanist for Cathy Stewart, a Canadian singer who was popular at the time. His first notable novel was King Leary, published in 1987, which received the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 1988, the same year that Whale Music was published. In 1988 he published his first non-fiction work, Hometown Heroes: On the Road with Canada’s National Hockey Team. Quarrington was an influential figure in Canadian literature, not only as an author, but also through his participation in teaching (Humber College and University of Toronto), publishing circles, organizations and events. He won the Genie Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1991 for Perfectly Normal, a comedy that combined ice hockey and grand opera. Quarrington’s adaptation, with director Richard J. Lewis, of Whale Music was nominated for numerous Genie Awards, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, in 1994. Actor Maury Chaykin won best actor for his portrayal of the drug-addled Desmond Howl. Quarrington collaborated with the band Rheostatics on the Whale Music film soundtrack, including a songwriting credit on the band’s most successful hit single, “Claire”. He was also the lead singer/guitarist for the blues/roots/country ensemble Porkbelly Futures. Their first CD, Way Past Midnight, was released in late 2005 by Wildflower Records (owned by singer Judy Collins) and spent six months on the “Americana” charts. Their second CD, Porkbelly Futures, was released by Cordova Bay Entertainment Group in April 2008. It contained many of Quarrington’s original compositions. His novel The Ravine was published in March 2008. Quarrington also worked in the television industry, acting as writer and/or producer on such shows as Due South, Power Play and Moose TV, the latter winning Best Comedy from the CFTPA Indie Awards 2008. He participated in the collaborative “Canadian Songbook” tour in 2008 with Murray McLauchlan, Stephen Fearing and Catherine MacLellan. Even after being diagnosed with lung cancer in May 2009, Quarrington continued his plans to embark on various concert tours with Porkbelly Futures, while continuing to produce his own solo CD and the Porkbellys third release; complete his non-fiction memoir Cigar Box Banjo: Notes on Life and Music (2010), deliver multiple screenplays for episodes of a television series for Shaftesbury Films (Notes on Euphoria) as well as give generously on camera as the featured subject of a documentary film initiated by he and colleague Judith Keenan; the film, Paul Quarrington: Life in Music, is an adaptation tied to his written memoir. In 2009 the Writers’ Trust of Canada awarded Quarrington its Matt Cohen Prize for a distinguished lifetime contribution to Canadian literature. At the time of his death Quarrington had completed a short film adaptation of The Ravine and was collaborating on a television series adaptation of that novel, which he claimed to be semi-autobiographical (died 2010): “[The Ravine' s] about a writer who squanders his talents in television, drinks too much, screws around and ruins his marriage. The reason it’s ‘semi-autobiographical’ is the guy’s name is ‘Phil’.”

Today we honor Saint Fabian, Pope and Martyr (died c.250), and Saint Sebastian, Martyr (died 288). Today is the Third Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, with the overall theme for theme for 2012 “We will all be changed by the Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. 1 Cor 15:51-58); today we highlight Changed by the Suffering Servant. And since today is the Third Friday in January, today is also the date of the Louisiana celebration of Arbor Day. And starting at sunset tonight is the Eve of Saint Agnes, when according to an old folk superstition a girl could see her future husband if she performed certain rites before going to sleep this night.

Turning first to Saint Fabian, he was a layman and farmer when he came into Rome on a day when a new pope was to be elected. A dove flew into the building where Fabian was observing the deadlocked election proceedings and settled on his head; the gathered clergy and laity took this as a sign that Fabian had been anointed, and he was chosen Pope by acclamation. As Pope, he sent Saint Dionysius and other missionaries to Gaul and condemned the heresies of Privatus. He was martyred in the persecutions of Decius; his relics are long gone, but the stone that covered his grave is still in the catacombs of Saint Callistus in Rome. We also honor Saint Sebastian, Martyr (died 288), one of the Saints whose story owes much to legend. Born about 256 in Narbonne, Gaul (part of modern France), he was the son of a wealthy Roman family and educated in Milan. He became an Officer of the Imperial Roman army, and captain of the guard, thus becoming a favorite of Diocletian. During Diocletian’s persecution of the Christians, Sebastian visited them in prison, bringing supplies and comfort. He is reported to have healed the wife of a brother soldier by making the Sign of the Cross over her, and converted soldiers and a governor to Christianity. Charged as a Christian, Sebastian was tied to a tree, shot with arrows, and left for dead. He survived, recovered, and returned to preach to Diocletian. The emperor then had him beaten to death. During the 14th century, the random nature of infection with the Black Death caused people to liken the plague to their villages being shot by an army of nature’s archers. In desperation, they prayed for the intercession of a saint associated with archers, and Saint Sebastian became associated with the plague. He is also the Patron Saint of  athletes and police officers. Turning to the Third Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, for today we highlight Changed by the Suffering Servant, and we pray, “God of consolation, you have transformed the shame of the cross into a sign of victory. Grant that we may be united around the Cross of your Son to worship Him for the mercy offered through his suffering. May the Holy Spirit open our eyes and our hearts, so that we may help those who suffer to experience your closeness. ; You who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.” Since today is the Third Friday in January, today is also the date of the Louisiana celebration of Arbor Day. Each state has its own date, in accordance with local growing seasons; if you click on the national Arbor Day site and go waaay down to the bottom of the page, you can click on “your state” to find out your local Arbor Day celebration. The National Date is the Fourth Friday in April, by which time all of our Louisiana trees have already budded out, bloomed, and done whatever else trees do in late spring. And starting at sunset tonight is the Eve of Saint Agnes. There was a folk superstition that a girl could see her future husband in a dream if she performed certain rites on the eve of St. Agnes; she was to go to bed without any supper, undress herself so that she was completely naked without looking behind her, and lie on her bed with her hands under the pillow and looking up to the heavens. Then her future husband would appear in her dream, kiss her, and feast with her. In 1819 English poet John Keats wrote his long poem The Eve of St. Agnes (published 1820), based on this superstition; the poem begins, “ST. AGNES’ Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was! / The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold.”

On Thursday night I got a text message from Michelle telling me she would be coming in late tonight with a lot of her stuff. Also, our LSU Women’s Basketball team lost their game with #9 Tennessee by the score of 56 to 65.

When we woke up for work, Michelle was sleeping on the couch; when we left the house to go to work, we noticed stuff of hers on the back porch, and her car was full of stuff. As usual, I did my Devotional Reading on the way to work. Once at work, I spent my eight hours dealing Mississippi Stud, with Richard at the next table dealing Three Card Poker. We also got the word that we are no longer to wear our Coushatta Casino Resort football jerseys to work on Sundays.

On our way home from work I read the January 16, 2012 issue of Sports Illustrated, and finished reading the January, 2012 issue of National Geographic. We stopped at Oil X-Press so that they could do the radiator flush and put antifreeze in Richard’s truck, and stopped at the hardware store for root crystal stuff (to put down our sewer pipes to keep tree roots out). Once home, I ate my lunch salad and read the paper; then I took a nap until Saturday.

Our Friday Parting Quote comes to us from Etta James, American singer. Born as Jamesetta Hawkins in 1938 in Los Angeles, California, to a 14-year-old mother, her father is unknown, but possibly was Rudolf “Minnesota Fats” Wanderone.
James lived with a series of caregivers, and received her first professional vocal training at the age of five from James Earle Hines, musical director of the Echoes of Eden choir, at the St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles. In 1950 her mother took her to the Fillmore district in San Francisco. Within a couple of years James began listening to doo-wop and was inspired to form a girl group called the Creolettes (due to the members’ light skinned complexions). The 14-year-old girls met musician Johnny Otis, who took the group under his wing, helping them sign to Modern Records and changing their name from the Creolettes to the Peaches; he also gave the singer her stage name, reversing Jamesetta into Etta James. Their song “Dance with Me, Henry” (originally “Roll With Me, Henry” but changed to avoid censorship due to the subtle title) was released in 1955. In February of that year the song reached number one on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Tracks chart, and its success gave the group an opening spot on Little Richard’s national tour. James reportedly went steady with B.B. King when she was 16, and she believed the hit single “Sweet Sixteen” by B.B. King was about her. While on tour with Richard, pop singer Georgia Gibbs angered James by recording her version of “Dance with Me, Henry”, which was released under the title “The Wallflower” and became a crossover hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100. After leaving the Peaches, James had another R&B hit with “Good Rockin’ Daddy”, but struggled with follow-ups. When her contract with Modern came up in 1960 she decided to sign with Leonard Chess’ namesake label, Chess Records, and shortly afterwards got involved in a relationship with singer Harvey Fuqua, founder of the doo-wop group The Moonglows. James
had her first hit singles with Chess Records under duets with Fuqua, including “If I Can’t Have You” and “Spoonful”. Her first solo hit was the doo-wop styled rhythm and blues number, “All I Could Do Was Cry”, becoming a number two R&B hit. Leonard Chess had envisioned James as a classic ballad stylist who had potential to cross over to the pop charts and soon surrounded the singer with violins and other string instruments. The first string-laden ballad James recorded was “My Dearest Darling”, which peaked in the top five of the R&B chart. James was notable singing background vocals on label mate Chuck Berry’s “Back in the USA”. Her debut album, At Last!, was released in late 1960 and was noted for its varied choice in music from jazz standards to blues numbers to doo-wop and R&B. The album also included James’ future classic “I Just Want to Make Love to You” and “A Sunday Kind of Love”. In early 1961 James released what became her signature song, “At Last”, which reached number two on the R&B chart and number 47 on the Billboard Hot 100. Though the song wasn’t as successful as expected, it has become the most remembered version of the song. James followed that up with “Trust in Me”, which also included string instruments. Later that same year James released a second studio album, The Second Time Around. The album took the same direction as her previous album, covering many jazz and pop standards, and using strings on many of the songs spawning two hit singles, “The Fool That I Am” and “Don’t Cry Baby”. James started adding gospel elements in her music the following year releasing “Something’s Got a Hold on Me”, which peaked at number four on the R&B chart and was also a top 40 pop hit. That success was quickly followed by “Stop the Wedding”, which reached number six on the R&B charts and also had gospel elements. In 1963 she had another major hit with “Pushover” and released the live album Etta James Rocks the House, which was recorded at the New Era Club in Nashville, Tennessee. After a couple years scoring minor hits James’ career started to suffer after 1965. After a period of isolation, she returned to recording in 1967 and reemerged with more ballsy R&B numbers thanks to her recording at the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama releasing her comeback hit “Tell Mama”, which was co-written by Clarence Carter and reached number ten R&B and number twenty three pop. An album of the same name was also released that year and included her take of Otis Redding’s “Security”. The B-side of “Tell Mama” was “I’d Rather Go Blind”, which became a blues classic in its own right and was recorded by many other artists. Following this success James became an on-demand concert performer though she never again reached the heyday of her early-to-mid 1960s success. Though James continued to record for Chess, she was devastated by the death of Chess founder Leonard Chess in 1969. She continued to chart in the R&B Top 40 in the early 1970s with singles such as “Losers Weepers” (1970) and “I Found a Love” (1972). James ventured into rock and funk with the release of her self-titled album in 1973 with production from famed rock producer Gabriel Mekler, who had worked with Steppenwolf and Janis Joplin, who had admired James and had covered “Tell Mama” in concert. The album, known for its mixtures of musical styles, was nominated for a Grammy Award. The album didn’t produce any major hits, neither did the follow-up, Out On the Street Again, in 1974, though like Etta James before it, the album was also critically acclaimed. James continued to record for Chess releasing two more albums in 1978, Etta Is Betta Than Evah and Deep in the Night, which saw the singer incorporating more rock-based music in her repertoire. That same year, James was the opening act for The Rolling Stones and also performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Following this brief success, however, she left Chess Records and didn’t record for another ten years as she struggled with drug addiction and alcoholism for the better part of a decade. Though she continued to perform, little was heard of Etta James until 1987 when she was seen performing “Rock & Roll Music” with Chuck Berry on his Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll documentary. In 1989 James signed with Island Records and released the albums Seven Year Itch and Stickin’ to My Guns, produced by Barry Beckett and recorded at FAME Studios. James participated with rap singer Def Jef for the song “Droppin’ Rhymes on Drums”, which mixed James’ jazz vocals with hip-hop. In 1992 James released The Right Time produced by Jerry Wexler on Elektra Records and the following year she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She signed with Private Music Records in 1993 and recorded the Billie Holiday tribute album. Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday. The album later set a trend for James’ music to incorporate more jazz elements. The album won James her first Grammy Awards for best jazz vocal performance in 1994. In 1995 she released the David Ritz-co authored autobiography A Rage to Survive and recorded the album Time After Time. Three years later she issued the Christmas album Etta James Christmas in 1998. By the mid-1990s, James’ earlier classic music was included in commercials including, most notably, “I Just Wanna Make Love to You”. Due to exposure of the song in a UK commercial, the song reached the top ten of the UK charts in 1996. Continuing to record for Private Music, she released the blues album Matriarch of the Blues in 2000, which had James returning to her R&B roots. In 2001 she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the latter for her contributions to the developments of both rock and roll music and rockabilly. In 2003 she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Her 2004 release, Blue Gardenia, returned James to a jazz music style. James’ final album for Private Music, Let’s Roll, was released in 2005 and won James a Grammy for best contemporary blues album. In 2004 Rolling Stone Magazine ranked her #62 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2008 James was portrayed by Beyoncé Knowles in the film Cadillac Records loosely based on the rise and fall of James’ label of 18 years, Chess Records, and how label founder and producer Leonard Chess helped the career of James and other label mates, though it was noted that James was successful prior to her signing with Chess Records. Though James and Knowles were later seen at a red carpet event following the film’s release embracing each other, James expressed her displeasure with Knowles at a Seattle concert in January 2009, a few days after Knowles sang her song, “At Last”, at the first inaugural ball for Barack Obama. James later said that her remarks about Knowles were a joke but admitted she was hurt that she was not invited to sing her song and that she could’ve performed it better. In April 2009 the 71-year-old James made her final television appearance performing “At Last” during an appearance on Dancing with the Stars. In May 2009 James received the Soul/Blues Female Artist of the Year award from the Blues Foundation, the ninth time James had won the award. James carried on touring but by 2010 had to cancel concert dates to her gradually failing health after it was revealed that she was suffering from dementia and leukemia. In November 2011 James released her final album, The Dreamer, which was critically acclaimed upon its release. James announced via her manager’s statement that this would be her final album (died 2012): “I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture.”

Today is the Second Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, with the overall theme theme for 2012 is “We will all be changed by the Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. 1 Cor 15:51-58), and for today we highlight Changed through Patient Waiting for the Lord. In the world of history, on this date in 1917 German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sent a telegram to Mexico proposing a German-Mexican alliance against the United States, with eventual bad consequences for Germany.

Our emphasis on this Second Day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is Changed through Patient Waiting for the Lord; we pray, “Faithful God, you are true to your word in every age. May we, like Jesus, have patience and trust in your steadfast love. Enlighten us by your Holy Spirit that we may not obstruct the fullness of your justice by our own hasty judgements, but rather discern your wisdom and love in all things. ; You who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.” Turning to 1917 and German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann, he sent the telegram in anticipation of the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare by the German Empire on February 1, an act which German chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg feared would draw the neutral United States into war on the side of the Allies. The telegram instructed the German ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt, that if the United States appeared likely to enter the war he was to approach the Mexican government with a proposal for military alliance. He was to offer Mexico material aid in the reclamation of territory lost during the Mexican-American War, specifically the American states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Eckardt was also instructed to urge Mexico to help broker an alliance between Germany and Japan. The Zimmermann Telegram was intercepted and decoded by the British cryptographers of Room 40; the revelation of its contents in the American press on March 1 caused public outrage that contributed to the United States’ declaration of war against Germany and its allies on April 6.

I woke up at 9:00 am today; my first order of business was to start my laundry, then I read the morning papers while eating my breakfast toast. I then retreated to the computer and did some more Advance Daily Update Drafts, so that I am set through next Wednesday; then I did my Devotional Reading.

At 11:45 am Richard and I left the house; our first stop was at the Hit-n-Run convenience store so that I could get my Powerball and Louisiana Lotto lottery tickets for Saturday night’s drawing. We then went to Wal-Mart to get my salad supplies, cat food, and the stuff Richard needed to cook dinner for tonight. We then went to Jimbo’s; to my surprise, Richard had us go through the drive-through, rather than eating inside. We arrived home at 1:00 pm and ate our lunch from Jimbo’s; I then finished my laundry, ironed my casino shirts, washed my hat (Woolite, air dry), and fixed my lunch salads for tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday. I then went to the computer to get started on today’s Daily Update, then took a half hour to read some more in By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions by Richard Cohen. After Jeopardy! Richard and I settled down to have chicken and sausuage jambalaya with black-eyed peas over rice. And after I finish this Daily Update and my dinner, I will take a bath and read the next chapter in The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany by Susannah Heschel, which I want to have finished by next Tuesday so that I can take it down to the library on Wednesday and return it and pay the fine (it was due yesterday; being an Inter-Library Loan book, I can’t renew it). I will then read a couple of short stories in The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain Edited by Charles Neider.

Tomorrow we return to work; in the afternoon I hope that I will be motivated enough to spread papers all around me on the bed and thus do the filing of papers.

This Thursday Afternoon our Parting Quote comes to us from Suzanne Pleshette, American actress. Born in 1937 in Brooklyn Heights, New York City, she graduated from Manhattan’s High School of Performing Arts and then attended Syracuse University for one semester before transferring to Finch College. She began her career as a stage actress, making her Broadway debut in Meyer Levin’s 1957 play Compulsion, adapted from his 1956 novel inspired by the Leopold and Loeb kidnapping and murder case. Two years later she was featured in the comedy Golden Fleecing starring Tom Poston, who eventually would become her third husband. That same year, she was one of two finalists for the role of Louise/Gypsy in the original production of Gypsy. In February 1961, she replaced Anne Bancroft opposite 14-year-old Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker. Pleshette’s first television role was in the episode “Night Rescue” (December 5, 1957) of the CBS adventure/drama series Harbourmaster, starring Barry Sullivan and Paul Burke. Her movie credits include The Geisha Boy, Rome Adventure (the lead actor was Troy Donahue, who became her first husband in 1964, for eight months), Fate Is the Hunter, and Youngblood Hawke, but she was most recognized at that time for her role of schoolteacher Annie Hayworth opposite Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic suspense film The Birds. Her early television appearances included Playhouse 90, Have Gun – Will Travel, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Channing, Ben Casey, Naked City, Wagon Train, and Dr. Kildare, for which she was nominated for her first Emmy Award. She guest-starred more than once as different characters in Route 66, The Fugitive, The Invaders, The F.B.I., and The Name of the Game. In 1968 she married Texas oilman Tom Gallagher. Pleshette was one of the stars of the popular CBS sitcom The Bob Newhart Show (1972–1978) for all six seasons, and was nominated twice for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She reprised her role of Emily Hartley in the memorable final episode of a subsequent comedy series, Newhart (which had Tom Poston as a main character), in which viewers discovered that the entire series had been a dream of Bob Newhart when he awakens next to Pleshette in the bedroom set from The Bob Newhart Show. Her 1984 situation comedy, Suzanne Pleshette is Maggie Briggs, was cancelled after seven episodes. In 1989 she played the role of Christine Broderick in the NBC drama, Nightingales, which only lasted one season. In 1990 Pleshette portrayed Manhattan hotelier Leona Helmsley in the television movie Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean, which garnered her Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations. In addition, she starred opposite Hal Linden in the 1994 sitcom The Boys Are Back. Her second husband died in 2000, and in 2001, she married Tom Poston. She had a recurring role in Good Morning, Miami, as Mark Feuerstein’s grandmother Claire Arnold, played the mother of Katey Sagal’s character in the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter following John Ritter’s death, and appeared as the estranged mother of Megan Mullally’s character Karen Walker in three episodes of Will & Grace., which was her last role. On August 11, 2006, her agent announced that Pleshette was being treated for lung cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She was later hospitalized for a pulmonary infection and developed pneumonia, causing her to be hospitalized for an extended period. She received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television on January 31, 2008, on what would have been her 71st birthday (died 2008): “I don’t sit around and wait for great parts. I’m an actress, and I love being one, and I’ll probably be doing it till I’m 72, standing around the back lot doing Gunsmoke.”

Today begins the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity; the overall theme for 2012 is “We will all be changed by the Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. 1 Cor 15:51-58), and today we highlight Changed by the Servant Christ. 

The celebration of this week began in 1908 as the Octave of Christian Unity, and focused on prayer for church unity. The dates of the week were proposed by Father Paul Wattson, cofounder of the Graymoor Franciscan Friars in England. He conceived of the week beginning on the Feast of the Confession of Peter, the Protestant variant of the ancient Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, on January 18, and concluding with the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul on January 25. Pope Pius X officially blessed the concept, and Pope Benedict XV “encouraged its observance throughout the entire Roman Catholic Church.” The theme for 2012 is “We will all be changed by the Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. 1 Cor 15:51-58), and each day of the Week highlights a different aspect of how we can be witnesses. For today, we highlight Changed by the Servant Christ, and we pray, “Almighty and eternal God, by travelling the royal road of service your Son leads us from the arrogance of our disobedience to humility of heart. Unite us to one another by your Holy Spirit, so that through service to our sisters and brothers, Your true countenance may be revealed; You, who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.”

I was very tired upon coming home from Lafayette last night, so vowed to sleep as late as my body wanted to today; consequently, I do not apologize or feel any shame for not having wakened up until 11:30 this morning. I read the morning paper, then Richard and I left the house at 1:00 pm to eat Chinese at Peking. Upon returning home, I did my Daily Update for yesterday, January 17, 2012, then did Advance Daily Update Drafts through next Sunday, then did my Daily Devotional reading. After we watched Jeopardy! Richard and I headed out, first stopping so that I could get my Powerball and Louisiana Lotto lottery tickets for tonight’s drawing. (Since Saturday, the price of Powerball tickets has gone up from $1 to $2; on the plus sides, my chances of winning the full jackpot have improved from 1 in 195,249,054 to 1 in 175, 223, 510.) We drove to Ville Platte looking for a restuarant one of our co-workers told us about, but, not finding it, we came back to town and ate lunch at D. C.’s Sports Bar and Steakhouse. We got home at 7:30 pm, and once I finish tonight’s Daily Update I will take a hot bath and read. (I am very much enjoying my latest book that I am reading, By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions by Richard Cohen.)

Tomorrow I will be doing my laundry and filing of papers, and otherwise being productive; I should be, since I effectlvely had a low-impact day today.

Our Parting Quote this Wednesday evening comes from Sargent Shriver, American politician. Born as Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr. in 1915 in Westminster, Maryland, he attended high school in New Milford, Connecticut; he was in the school’s baseball, basketball, and football team, became the editor of the school’s newspaper, and participated in choral and debating clubs. After he graduated in 1934 Shriver spent the summer in Germany as part of the Experiment in International Living, returning in the fall of 1934 to enter Yale University. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1938, having been a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Phi chapter) and the Scroll and Key Society. He was chairman of the Yale Daily News. Shriver then attended Yale Law School, earning an LL.B. degree in 1941. An early opponent of American involvement in World War II, Shriver was a founding member of the America First Committee, an organization started in 1940 by a group of Yale law students, also including future U.S. President Gerald Ford and Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, that tried to keep the United States out of the European war. Nevertheless Shriver volunteered for the United States Navy before the attack on Pearl Harbor, saying he had a duty to serve his country even if he disagreed with its policies. He spent five years on active duty, mostly in the South Pacific, serving aboard the USS South Dakota (BB-57), reaching the rank of lieutenant (O-3). He was awarded a Purple Heart for shrapnel wounds he received during the bombardment of Guadalcanal. Shriver’s relationship with the Kennedy family began shortly after his discharge, when the family patriarch Joseph Kennedy, Sr. hired him to manage the Merchandise Mart, part of Kennedy’s business empire, in Chicago, Illinois. After a seven-year courtship, Shriver married Eunice Kennedy, a sister of then-Senator John F. Kennedy, on May 23, 1953 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City; the life-long marriage produced five children. A devout Catholic, Shriver attended daily Mass and always carried a rosary of well-worn wooden beads. When John F. Kennedy ran for president, Shriver worked as a political and organization coordinator in the Wisconsin and West Virginia primaries. During Kennedy’s presidential term, Shriver founded and served as the first director of the Peace Corps. After Kennedy’s assassination, Shriver continued to serve as Director of the Peace Corps and served as Special Assistant to President Lyndon Johnson. Under Johnson, he created the Office of Economic Opportunity with William B. Mullins and served as its first Director. He was known as the “architect” of the Johnson administration’s “War on Poverty”, and founded numerous social programs and organizations, including Head Start, VISTA, Job Corps, Community Action, Upward Bound, Foster Grandparents, Legal Services, the National Clearinghouse for Legal Services (now the Shriver Center), Indian and Migrant Opportunities and Neighborhood Health Services, in addition to directing the Peace Corps. Shriver served as U.S. Ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970, becoming a quasi-celebrity among the French for bringing what Time magazine called “a rare and welcome panache” to the normally sedate world of international diplomacy.politics. He was associated with the Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson law firm in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in international law and foreign affairs, beginning in 1971. Shriver returned to elective politics in 1972, when George McGovern chose him as his Vice Presidential running mate after McGovern’s first pick, Thomas Eagleton, resigned from the Democratic ticket following revelations of past mental health treatments. The McGovern-Shriver ticket lost to Republican incumbents Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. Shriver unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for President in 1976. His candidacy was short and he returned to private life, continuing his association with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. In 1981 Shriver was appointed to the Rockefeller University Council, an organization devoted exclusively to research and graduate education in the biomedical and related sciences. In 1984 he was elected President of Special Olympics (which had been founded in 1968 by his wife) by the Board of Directors; as President, he directed the operation and international development of sports programs around the world. He retired from his law firm in 1986, and in 1990 he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Special Olympics. In 1993 Shriver received the Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom From Want Award. On August 8, 1994 Shriver received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor, from President Bill Clinton. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2003. In January 2008 a documentary film about Shriver aired on PBS, titled American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver. In August 2009 he attended the funeral of both his wife and of his brother-in-law Edward Kennedy (died 2011): “Do the job first. Worry about the clearance later.”

Today we honor Saint Anthony, Abbot (died 356). 

Born about 251 in Heracleus, Egypt, the parents of today’s Saint died when he was about 20; Anthony insured that his sister completed her education, then he sold his house, furniture, and the land he owned, gave the proceeds to the poor, joined the anchorites who lived nearby, and moved into an empty sepulchre. At age 35 he moved to the desert to live alone; he lived 20 years in an abandoned fort. Anthony barricaded the place for solitude, but admirers and would-be students broke in. He miraculously healed people and agreed to be the spiritual counselor of others. His recommendation was to base life on the Gospel. Word spread, and so many disciples arrived that Anthony founded two monasteries on the Nile, one at Pispir, and one at Arsinoe. Many of those who lived near him supported themselves by making baskets and brushes. Anthony briefly left his seclusion in 311, going to Alexandria, Egypt to fight Arianism, and to comfort the victims of the persecutions of Maximinus. At some point in his life, he met with his sister again. She, too, had withdrawn from the world, and directed a community of nuns. Anthony retired to the desert, living in a cave on Mount Colzim. Descriptions paint him as uniformly modest and courteous. His example led many to take up the monastic life, and to follow his way. Late in life Anthony became a close friend of Saint Paul the Hermit, and he buried the aged anchorite upon his death; he himself died at the age of 105. He is the Patron Saint of basket weavers, of gravediggers, and of swine and swineherds.

First, some backtracking; on Sunday night I ran the Weekly Virus Scan. On Monday, at work, I had my Annual Performance Review; I was happy with the raise I got, and Richard was unhappy that my raise was not high enough in his opinion. (Difference between the glass being half-full and the glass being half-empty, I suppose.) Finally, on Monday evening Richard brought in the flag I had put up for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, even though I had told him that I would bring it in Tuesday morning before we went to work.

On Tuesday I freshened up my casino shirt for the day, and Richard and I headed off to work, with me doing my Devotional Reading along the way. Once at work, Richard was the dealer on Mini-Baccarat; I was the relief dealer for Mini-Baccarat and Pai-Gow, and was also relieving a dealer who at various times was on a Blackjack table, was a Roulette Check Racker, and finally was on Mississippi Stud. On my last break I called the library, to see if they were still holding a book for me; they said that as the last date they were to hold it for me was January 15, they had returned it to the main library. (Drat; I was going to call them on the 15th, but didn’t, and when I tried calling on the 16th, they were closed for the holiday.) Shortly after we left the casino on our way home, I finished reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

We stopped at McDonald’s again to pick up our lunch on our way home from work; once home, I read the morning paper while eating my burger and fries, then took a nap from 12:30 pm to 4:00 pm. I then posted my book review for this weblog and for my Goodreads and Facebook accounts for Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. After printing out discussion questions for the book from LitLovers.com, I watched Jeopardy! with Richard, then left for Lafayette. I arrived at Barnes & Noble at 6:00 pm, did some looking around (Immaculée Ilibagiza, survivor of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, had just given a talk and was signing books), and at 7:00 pm we had our Third Tuesday Book Club meeting to discuss Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. We had a very good meeting, with about eight people in attendance; we also decided that since the Third Tuesday in February is Mardi Gras, we will instead have our Third Tuesday Book Club Meeting on the Second Tuesday of February to discuss The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton, which is February 14th. (This means that I will have to miss the Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club meeting to discuss The Children of Húrin by J. R. R. Tolkien, Edited by Christopher Tolkien, as that meeting is on the same day.) Upon leaving Barnes & Noble, I had a text message advising me that our LSU Men’s Basketball team beat Auburn by the score of 65 to 58 in Overtime. When I got home at 9:30 pm I was so tired I went straight to bed, joining Richard, who was already asleep.

Our Parting Quote this Tuesday evening comes to us from Don Kirshner, American song publisher and rock producer. Born as Donald Krishner in 1934 in The Bronx, New York, he attended Upsala College in East Orange, New Jersey. He achieved his first major success in the late 1950s and early 1960s as co-owner of the influential New York-based publishing company Aldon Music with partner Al Nevins, which had under contract at various times several of the most important songwriters of the so-called “Brill Building” school, including Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Jack Keller. As a producer-promoter, Kirshner was influential in starting off the career of singers and songwriters, including Bobby Darin (his high school classmate,with whom he collaborated on a number of advertising jingles and pop ditties, their first was called “Bubblegum Pop”), Neil Diamond, Carole King, and Sarah Dash of Labelle, as well as discovering the occasional rock act such as Kansas. Kirshner also had three record labels. The first was Chairman Records, a subsidiary of London Records. Although he was responsible for scores of hits in the 1960s, he was only to have one on the Chairman label, 1963′s “Martian Hop” by The Ran-Dells, which reached #16 nationally. Kirshner later had two other record labels, Calendar, which had early hits by The Archies and the Kirshner label, which had later hits by The Archies and Kansas. Calendar/Kirshner recordings were first distributed by RCA Records, then CBS Records. He was also involved in Dimension Records. He was described by contemporaries as playing only one instrument. the telephone, which he used throughout the day for business. In 1966 Kirshner was hired by the producers of The Monkees to provide hitworthy songs to accompany the television program, within a demanding schedule. Kirshner quickly corralled songwriting talent from his Brill Building stable of writers and musicians to create catchy, engaging tracks which the band could pretend to perform on the show. This move was not because of any lack of Monkee talent — Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork were already experienced musicians, and Davy Jones was an established musical performer; but as a working band they had little experience, and Micky Dolenz was completely new to drums — but to churn out ready-to-go recordings to give each new episode its own song. Each Monkee was retained for vocal duties, but they were not allowed to play on the records. The formula worked phenomenally well: the singles “Last Train to Clarksville” and “I’m a Believer” were hits, and the first two Monkees albums were produced and released in time to catch the initial wave of the television program’s popularity. Future Taj Mahal and John Lennon guitarist Jesse Ed Davis sat in on guitar. After a year, the Monkees wanted another chance to all play their own instruments on the records. They also wanted additional oversight into which songs would be released as singles. Further, when word belatedly came out that the band had not played on the first season’s songs, a controversy arose, and the public expressed a desire to hear the television stars perform their own music. The matter reached a breaking point over a disagreement regarding the Neil Diamond-penned “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” in early 1967. The song, released by Kirshner as a single without Columbia Pictures’ consent, led to his dismissal. The initial B-side was replaced with a Nesmith song, performed by the Monkees, and they performed on the next year’s recordings, featured in the show’s second season. Allegedly, Monkees record sales dropped by nearly half after Kirshner’s departure. Kirshner’s later venture was The Archies, an animated series where there were only the studio musicians to be managed. In the fall of 1972 Kirshner was asked by ABC Television to serve as executive producer and “creative consultant” for their new In Concert series, which aired every other week in the 11:30 p.m. slot normally showing The Dick Cavett Show. The following September, Kirshner left In Concert to produce and host his own syndicated weekly rock-concert program called Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. With its long-form live performances, as compared to rehearsed, often lip-synced performances that were the staple of earlier television shows like Shindig!, it was a new direction for pop music presentation. The program presented many of the most successful rock bands of the era, but what was consistent week-to-week was Kirshner’s deliberately flat delivery as the program host. In its final season Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert was mostly hosted by Kirshner’s son and daughter, whose delivery was the same as their father’s. The last show aired in 1981, the year that the MTV music video channel was launched. Kirshner’s wooden presentation style was later lampooned on Saturday Night Live by Paul Shaffer, most notably in Shaffer’s introduction of the Blues Brothers during the duo’s television debut. Shaffer and Kirshner worked together on the short-lived situation comedy A Year at the Top (1977), which Kirshner co-produced with Norman Lear, and in which Shaffer starred. For the next twenty years he was a staple on rock documentaries and rock retrospective shows. Kirshner received the 2007 Songwriters Hall of Fame Abe Olman Publishing Award. He was a creative consultant for Rockrena, a company founded by Jack Wishna, launching in 2011, to promote new music talent online (died 2011): “I can hear a kid hit a note and know if he has it or not.”

I finished this wonderful novel, set mostly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in a medical setting and told by one of two identical twins, just in time to discuss it at our Third Tuesday Book Club meeting tonight. The book contains love, war, tragedy, comedy, abandonment, and redemption, and I loved every moment of reading it.

In 1954 two identical twins are born in the Mission Hospital in Addis Abba (which is called the Missing Hospital by one and all); they are mirror image twins, and grow up at the mission. Their mother dies in childbirth, and their father abandons them by leaving Missing and never returning, so they are raised by the Indian gynecological and obstetrician surgeon at Missing. Growing up in a medical setting (all the poor of Addis Ababa come to their clinics), the twins witness the changes wrought in Ethiopia by coup and revolution. Born of an English father and an Indian mother, the twins, although born and raised at Missing, are considered to be foreigners by the general populace of Ethiopia, and most of the characters are in some sort of exile.

This was a stunning book, and hard for me to put down; the plot takes unexpected twists and turns, and does the unexpected with its characters, who remain totally in character. And I anticipate a good Book Club meeting tonight.