February 16th

Today is the birthday

… of Richard Ford. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist is 67.

When he was a boy, his mother told him that their neighbor across the street was a writer. He wasn’t really sure what that meant, but he could tell it was something important from the way she said it. It turned out that neighbor was Eudora Welty. Ford went to the same elementary school as Welty, and they even had some of the same teachers. But he didn’t meet her until many years later.

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

… of LeVar Burton. Kunta Kinte is 54.

… of Ice-T. Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is 53. His real name is Tracy Marrow and his son is Tracy Marrow Jr., not Ice-T Jr.

… of John McEnroe. The tennis hall-of-famer is 52.

… of Jerome Bettis. “The Bus” is 39.

Edgar Bergen was born on this date in 1903.

Born in Decatur, Michigan in 1903, Edgar Bergen developed a talent for ventriloquism at a young age. When Bergen asked a local carpenter to create a dummy, the wisecracking Charlie McCarthy was born. The duo began their career as talent show headliners, performing in Chicago while Bergen attended Northwestern University. Bergen eventually left Northwestern to concentrate on performing, but Charlie received an honorary degree from the school in 1938, a “Master of Innuendo and Snappy Comebacks.”

Bergen and McCarthy made their radio debut on Rudy Vallee’s Royal Gelatin Hour in 1936 and were an instant success. In 1937, they were given their own show for Chase & Sanborn. Almost immediately, The Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show became one of radio’s highest-rated programs, a distinction it enjoyed until it left the air in 1956.

During the show’s two decades on the air, Bergen added new characters to the show, including the slow-witted Mortimer Snerd and the man-hungry spinster Effie Klinker. Today, Charlie McCarthy, Mortimer Snerd and Effie Klinker are on permanent display at the Radio Hall of Fame.

Edgar Bergen died on October 1, 1978.

Radio Hall of Fame

Henry Adams was born on this date in 1838. Adams was the son of Charles Francis Adams (Lincoln’s ambassador to Great Britain), grandson of John Quincy Adams and great-grandson of John Adams. After serving as his father’s secretary in England, Henry decided on a life as a journalist and historian, writing histories of the Jefferson and Madison administrations but being best known perhaps for his autobiographical The Education of Henry Adams (1907), which won a Pulitzer Prize and remains highly regarded. Adams died in 1918.

Today’s Photo

That’s Cleopatra VII depicted on a coin at the time of her reign as queen of Egypt, 51-30 B.C. (she co-ruled with her brothers and son Caesarion, but was effectively in charge from 47-30). I’ve concluded from Stacy Schiff’s biography that, unlike Roman woman of the time, Cleopatra was educated, strong-willed and independent, and it was those characteristics, rather than pure beauty that was her great appeal. The coin would substantiate that. (Roman noble woman did not even have their own names: Julius Caesar’s two sisters were both named Julia, Octavian’s sister was Octavia.)

The Macedonian Greeks ruled Egypt from Alexander’s conquest in 332 B.C. until Cleopatra’s death 302 years later. Alexander’s lifelong friend Ptolemy I Soter was given control of Egypt when Alexander died in 323; he made it into an independent Ptolemaic kingdom in 305.

Cleopatra VII had four children, a boy with Julius Caesar; then with Mark Antony, boy and girl twins and another son. The fathers acknowledged the children, but Cleopatra was never married to Caesar, and not married to Antony under Roman law. (A Roman could not marry a foreigner.) Antony’s divorced wife, the sister of Octavian (Caesar Augustus), raised Cleopatra’s three surviving children. Caesar’s son, 17 by then, was murdered by Octavian’s command in 30 B.C.

She was the wealthiest individual in the Mediterranean world at the time; one of the wealthiest ever (an estimated $100 billion). Alexandria was the largest, most cosmopolitan and attractive city during her reign, far out-shadowing Rome, whose time was to come, and Athens, whose time had passed. It too captured the hearts and minds of many Romans.

Oh, and it’s highly unlikely that Cleopatra’s suicide was from snakebite.

Remember the Maine

The American battleship Maine exploded in Havana Harbor 113 years ago today; 266 of the 350 men on board were killed. A torpedo was blamed, the news media hyperventilated, and by April the peace-loving Americans had declared war on Spain. When the war ended, Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam belonged to the U.S.

It’s now believed the explosion was the result of a fire in a coal bunker on board the ship; that is, a self-inflicted accident.

News media leading us to war with erroneous information about weapons and attacks. At least that could happen today.

Redux post of the day

I saw Inception the other evening. As the token woman on the team, they have Ellen Page. I think she was the architect.

Anyway, that brings us to today’s redux post, from three years ago.

What with the pregnancy featured in the movie Juno, as a public service to my seven readers NewMexiKen is going to answer some common pregnancy-related questions.

Q: I’m two months pregnant now. When will my baby move?
A: With any luck, right after he finishes college.

Q: Do I have to have a baby shower?
A: Not if you change the baby’s diaper very quickly.

Q: When is the best time to get an epidural?
A: Right after you find out you’re pregnant.

Best line of the day

“But the most important thing, I think, is that when you’ve found a partner, you should take the time to kiss them often. We should all be kissing more. For the important relationships in our lives, it matters tremendously.”

Kissing scientist Sheril Kirshenbaum quoted in an interview with The Book Bench: Ask an Academic, Valentine’s Edition: The Kiss : The New Yorker.

Best line of the day

“She seemed determined to conjure a display so stunning it would propel Plutarch to Shakespearean heights, as it would elicit from Shakespeare his richest poetry. And she succeeded. In the annals of indelible entrances—the wooden horse into Troy; Christ into Jerusalem; Benjamin Franklin into Philadelphia; Henry IV, Charles Lindbergh, Charles DeGaulle, into Paris; Howard Carter into King Tut’s tomb; the Beatles onto Ed Sullivan’s stage—Cleopatra’s alone lifts off the page in iridescent color, amid inexhaustible, expensive clouds of incense, a sensational, simultaneous assault on every sense.”

From Stacy Schiff’s fascinating biography of Cleopatra. She is describing the queen of Egypt’s arrival at Tarsus in the late summer of 41 B.C. to meet Mark Antony.

As Plutarch told the story 1900 years ago:

She had faith in her own attractions, which, having formerly recommended her to Caesar and the young Pompey, she did not doubt might prove yet more successful with Antony. Their acquaintance was with her when a girl, young, and ignorant of the world, but she was to meet Antony in the time of life when women’s beauty is most splendid, and their intellects are in full maturity. She made great preparations for her journey, of money, gifts, and ornaments of value, such as so wealthy a kingdom might afford, but she brought with her her surest hopes in her own magic arts and charms.

…she came sailing up the river Cydnus in a barge with gilded stern and outspread sails of purple, while oars of silver beat time to the music of flutes and fifes and harps. She herself lay all along, under a canopy of cloth of gold, dressed as Venus in a picture, and beautiful young boys, like painted Cupids, stood on each side to fan her. Her maids were dressed like Sea Nymphs and Graces, some steering at the rudder, some working at the ropes.

…perfumes diffused themselves from the vessel to the shore, which was covered with multitudes, part following the galley up the river on either bank, part running out of the city to see the sight. The market place was quite emptied, and Antony at last was left alone sitting upon the tribunal; while the word went .through all the multitude, that Venus was come to feast with Bacchus for the common good of Asia.

On her arrival, Antony sent to invite her to supper. She thought it fitter he should come to her; so, willing to show his good humor and courtesy, he complied, and went. He found the preparations to receive him magnificent beyond expression, but nothing so admirable as the great number of lights; for on a sudden there was let down altogether so great a number of branches with lights in them so ingeniously disposed, some in squares, and some in circles, that the whole thing was a spectacle that has seldom been equaled for beauty.

It has been estimated that in modern terms, Cleopatra’s wealth was around $100 billion. She was 27 when she met Mark Antony. He was 42.

Valentine Babies

Hugh Downs is 90. Downs was the host of The Today Show from 1962-1971; before that he was Jack Paar’s sidekick on The Tonight Show from 1957-1962. He also hosted the NBC daytime quiz show Concentration from 1958-1969. That’s right, at one point he was doing all three. And even before all that he was the announcer for Kukla, Fran and Ollie, one of television’s earliest hits beginning on NBC in 1949. And many other shows.

The Bradys’ mom and stepmom, Florence Henderson, is 77.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is 69.

Carl Bernstein of Woodward and Bernstein is 67.

Magician-comedian Teller is 63. Raymond Joseph Teller was his given name, but Teller is now in fact his legal name. He is one of just a few Americans with one name on his passport (according to Wikipedia).

Michael Doucet of Beausoleil is 60.

Meg Tilly is 51.

Jack Benny was born as Benjamin Kubelsky on this date in 1894. In The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, the entry for The Jack Benny Program on radio runs for eight pages. And then he was on television. Truly one of the great stars of the mid-20th century.

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes was born on Valentine’s Day in 1913. Hayes coached The Ohio State University football team from 1951–1978. During the 1978 Gator Bowl, Hayes punched Clemson’s Charlie Bauman after Bauman intercepted an Ohio State pass. Hayes then abused an official and had to be physically restrained, attacking even his own player. He was ejected from the game and fired the next day.

Valentine, You Slay Me

It was on this date in 1929 that the Valentine’s Day Massacre took place in Chicago. Here is the beginning of the news report in The New York Times:

Chicago, Feb. 14 — Chicago gangland leaders observed Valentine’s Day with machine guns and a stream of bullets and as a result seven members of the George (Bugs) Moran-Dean O’Banion, North Side Gang are dead in the most cold-blooded gang massacre in the history of this city’s underworld.

The seven gang warriors were trapped in a beer-distributors’ rendezvous at 2,122 North Clark Street, lined up against the wall by four men, two of whom were in police uniforms, and executed with the precision of a firing squad.

The killings have stunned the citizenry of Chicago as well as the Police Department, and while tonight there was no solution, the one outstanding cause was illicit liquor traffic.

Additional background from This Day in History:

Capone was in Florida in February 1929 when he gave the go-ahead for the assassination of Bugs Moran. On February 13, a bootlegger called Moran and offered to sell him a truckload of high quality whiskey at a low price. Moran took the bait and the next morning pulled up to the delivery location where he was to meet several associates and purchase the whisky. He was running a little late, and just as he was pulling up to the garage he saw what looked like two policemen and two detectives get out of an unmarked car and head to the door. Thinking he had nearly avoided being caught in a police raid, Moran drove off. The four men, however, were Capone’s assassins, and they were only entering the building before Moran’s arrival because they had mistaken one of the seven men inside for the boss himself.

Wearing their stolen police uniforms and heavily armed, Capone’s henchmen surprised Moran’s men, who agreed to line up against the wall. Thinking they had fallen prey to a routine police raid, they allowed themselves to be disarmed. A moment later, they were gunned down in a hail of shotgun and submachine-gun fire. Six were killed instantly, and the seventh survived for less than an hour.

Moran survived until 1957. Capone died in 1947. Prohibition ended in 1932.

Best line of the day

CINCINNATI … – An Ohio man today claimed that he had heard of the musical performer Esperanza Spalding, who won the Best Newcomer award at the Grammys last night.

Tracy Klugian, 24, became the first person in the United States to say he had heard of the musical artist, besides Ms. Spalding’s family and, presumably, Ms. Spalding herself.

There’s more on this story from the Borowitz Report.

How come?

How come when you go out to a really fine restaurant — you know, the kind that has a prix fixe for Valentine’s Day — and you get several courses, and the first course is soup, that all you really want after that is more soup?

(Roasted apple and cauliflower bisque, if you must know.)

February 13th

In addition to Chuck Yeager mentioned just below, today is the birthday

… of Kim Novak. Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton (Vertigo) and Madge Owens (Picnic) is 78.

… of George Segal. Jack Gallo (Just Shoot Me) and Nick (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) is 77.

… of Carol Lynley. Nonnie Parry (The Poseidon Adventure) and Janet Willard (Blue Denim) is 69.

… of Peter Tork of the Monkees. He’s 69.

… of Jerry Springer. He’s 67.

… of Stockard Channing. Abbey Bartlet (West Wing) and Louisa (‘Ouisa’) Kittredge (Six Degrees of Separation) is 67.

… of Mike Krzyzewski. The Duke coach is 64 today.

… of Peter Gabriel. He’s 61.

… of Randy Moss. Done it seems at 34.

American Gothic

William Shockley, who shared in a Nobel Prize for Physics for his role in creating the transistor, was born on this date in 1910. The transistor is the component on which the electronic age is based — we call them semi-conductors and you’re using a whole lot of them to create this page. Shockley earned even more fame for arguing for genetic differences among races — at one point calling for monetary awards if the “genetically disadvantaged” voluntarily underwent sterilization.

Pauline Frederick, the first woman to be a major correspondent for network news, was born on this date in 1908. (She died in 1990.) Frederick was the first woman to win the Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.

Grant Wood was born on this date in 1891. That’s his “American Gothic.”

The Right Stuff

Glamorous GlennisThe first person to break the sound barrier is 88 today.

Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, with two ribs broken two nights before in a drunken horseback ride. He reached a speed of 700 miles per hour, or Mach 1.06, at an altitude of 43,000 feet. The plane, Glamorous Glennis, is hanging from the Air & Space Museum ceiling. Glennis was Mrs. Yeager.

Yeager told his story in Popular Mechanics in 1987. Good reading.

Yeager is the basis for the character played by Sam Shepard in The Right Stuff. Glennis was played by Barbara Hershey.

In his wonderful book The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe explains that West Virginian Yeager is the reason why all airline pilots talk with a drawl — to be like Yeager, “the most righteous of all the posessors of the right stuff.”