In this issue:
Today in History -- Aug 05
Re: OT: Charlotte Bronte book
about T. S. Eliot ...
about Victoriana in Washington in September ...
Today in History -- Aug 06
Re: Gaslight Digest V1 #87
Today in History -- Aug 07
a videotaper alert ...
Re: a videotaper alert ...
Today in History -- Aug 08
Re: Today in History -- Aug 08
Re: Today in History -- Aug 08
Today in History-- Aug 09
Re: Today in History-- Aug 09
Today in History -- Aug 10
Re: Today in History -- Aug 10
Go with the Flo
Troubled waters
CHAT: Tomorrow's eclipse
O/T: Bell Witch
Today in History -- Aug 11
Re: Today in History -- Aug 11
Re: Go with the Flo
Today in History -- Aug 12
Re: Today in History -- Aug 12
Today in History -- Aug 13
RE: Today in History -- Aug 13
Re: RE: Today in History -- Aug 13
Re: Troubled waters
O/T: ghost movie with no spoilers
Re: O/T: ghost movie with no spoilers
Today in History -- Aug 14
A Burning
-----------------------------THE POSTS-----------------------------
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 01:32:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Today in History -- Aug 05
Interesting things that happened August 5th:
Birthdays on this date:
In 1850 Guy de Maupassant (in France), writer
In 1876 Mary R. Beard, historian
In 1899 Conrad Aiken, American poet, short story writer, critic
In 1906 John Huston, film director, writer, actor
Events worth noting:
In 1846 Oregon country divided between US and Britain at 49th parallel.
In 1858 First transatlantic telegraph cable completed by Cyrus W. Field.
In 1861 To finance the war, the US Congress passes the first Income Tax law
(3% of incomes over $800).
In 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay, Alabama.
+ The spectrum of a comet observed for first time, by Giovanni Donati.
In 1884 Cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty laid.
In 1914 U.S. and Nicaragua sign treaty granting canal rights to US.
In 1921 First radio baseball broadcast Pirates-8, Phillies-0 (KDKA).
Bob C.
===0===
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 10:45:01 -0400 (EDT) From: MLKasputis(at)aol.com Subject: Re: OT: Charlotte Bronte book I've just finished...(when my computer took on a life of its own, sent that fragment and refused to do more until I spent some time tweaking its insides) The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte. Info from the dust jacket: " Noted Criminologist James Tully" takes historical facts and weaves a story oh so slowly to implicate Charlotte in the wholescale destruction of her family. A long stretch of setting aside credibility in the service of a novel. Skip this one. Marylou Kasputis
===0===
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 12:37:51 -0400 (EDT) From: "Peter E. Blau" <pblau(at)dgs.dgsys.com> Subject: about T. S. Eliot ... Kiwi noted the allusion to "The Musgrave Ritual" in T. S. Eliot's "Murder in the Cathedral". Eliot was indeed familiar with the Sherlock Holmes stories, and you'll find more allusions in "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats", in the poems "Macavity: The Mystery Cat" and "Gus: The Theater Cat". Eliot also wrote a interesting review of "The Complete Sherlock Holmes Stories" for The Criterion (Apr. 1929), and was a corresponding member of more than one Sherlockian society. || Peter E. Blau <pblau(at)dgs.dgsys.com> || || 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119 || || Washington, DC 20007-4830 || || (202-338-1808) ||
===0===
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 12:36:16 -0400 (EDT) From: "Peter E. Blau" <pblau(at)dgs.dgsys.com> Subject: about Victoriana in Washington in September ... THE ARTS OF THE BRITISH 1890S CONFERENCE WASHINGTON, DC, 10-12 SEPTEMBER 1999 Author Merlin Holland, the grandson of Oscar Wilde, will be the featured speaker at "The Arts of the British 1890s" conference to take place 10-12 September in Washington, DC. This interdisciplinary conference has been organized by the William Morris Society as a joint collaboration of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, the Georgetown University Department of English, and the National Gallery of Art in association with the Eighteen Nineties Society. All events are free and open to the public; no registration is necessary. Holland's keynote address, "From Madonna Lily to Green Carnation: Wildean Perspectives on the Arts of His Era," will take place on the evening of Friday, September 10th, at the Freer Gallery. A day of academic talks is scheduled for Saturday, September 11th, in the Bunn Auditorium, Inter-Cultural Center Building, on the Georgetown University campus. The subjects of the talks will include music, theater, poetry, fiction, book design, printmaking, photography, and Arts and Crafts furniture designs of the 1890s, with special attention to trans-Atlantic connections between British and American arts. The conference concludes at the National Gallery on Sunday, September 12th, with a lecture by Beardsley scholar Linda Zatlin, part of the Gallery's Sunday afternoon lecture series. In conjunction with the conference, there will be an exhibition of "British Printmakers of the 1890s" in the Fairchild Gallery, 5th floor of Lauinger Library, Georgetown University. Merlin Holland, Oscar Wilde's only grandson, spent a fragmented life in industry, publishing, and commerce before starting to write professionally at the age of 47. For the last twenty years he has been researching his grandfather's life and works, and now lectures and broadcasts regularly on Wilde. A journalist who lives in London with his wife and son, Holland is the author of The Wilde Album, recently published to wide acclaim in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States. His next two books--a complete edition of Wilde's letters and an analysis of what happened to his works and reputation in the twentieth century--will be published in 2000, the centenary of the writer's death. (After Wilde's conviction in 1895, his wife, Constance, and their sons were forced to change their name to Holland after being refused accommodation at a Swiss hotel. The family has never reverted to the name Wilde.) For full program details or information about related exhibitions visit the William Morris Home Page www.ccny.cuny.edu/wmorris/conference.htm e-mail to Mark Samuels Lasner, president of the William Morris Society in the US, at biblio(at)aol.com or contact the appropriate sponsors: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution (202) 357-2700 www.si.edu/asia Georgetown University Department of English (202) 687-7435 www.georgetown.edu National Gallery of Art (202) 737-4215 www.nga.gov || Peter E. Blau <pblau(at)dgs.dgsys.com> || || 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119 || || Washington, DC 20007-4830 || || (202-338-1808) ||
===0===
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 00:49:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Today in History -- Aug 06
Interesting things that happened August 6th:
Birthdays on this date:
In 1809 Alfred Lord Tennyson, poet laureate of England
In 1861 Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, second wife of Theodore Roosevelt
In 1881 Sir Alexander Fleming, cashed in on penicillin (Nobel 1954)
In 1883 Scott Nearing, American sociologist, pacifist, author
In 1906 Ken Strong, NFL, AFL halfback (Staten Island, NY Yanks, NY Giants)
In 1911 Lucille Ball (in New York, NY), comedian, actor
In 1917 Robert Mitchum, actor
Events worth noting:
In 1806 Holy Roman Empire ends. "it was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an
empire." -- Voltaire
In 1825 Bolivia gains independence from Spain (National Day).
In 1862 CSA ironclad "Arkansas" is badly damaged in Union attack.
In 1864 Ft. Powell, Mobile Bay, evacuated by Rebels.
In 1926 NY's Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim the English
Channel.
(She's a little out of our period but I thought I'd leave in Gertrude
Ederle. Swimming the Channel is an amazing feat for anyone, woman or man,
and due credit should be given when the chance arises.)
===0===
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 16:41:59 +0100 (GMT Daylight Time) From: Chris Willis <c.willis(at)bbk.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Gaslight Digest V1 #87 Blair Witch Project? So that's how he got elected! :-) ATB Chris
===0===
Date: Sat, 07 Aug 1999 00:33:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Today in History -- Aug 07
Interesting things that happened August 7th:
Birthdays on this date:
In 1876 Mata Hari, dancer, courtesan, spy
In 1886 Louis Alan Hazeltine, invented the neutrodyne circuit, making
commercial radio possible.
In 1903 Louis Leakey, anthropologist
In 1904 Ralph J. Bunche, a founder and diplomat of UN (Nobel 1950)
Events worth noting:
In 1807 First serviceable steamboat, the Cleremont, goes on first voyage.
In 1819 Battle of Boyac?; Bol?var defeats Spanish in Colombia.
In 1820 Potatoes first planted in Hawaii.
In 1882 Feud between the Hatfield family of southern West Virginia and the
McCoys of eastern Kentucky broke out. About 100 either killed or
wounded.
In 1888 Theophilus Van Kannel of Philadelphia receives a patent for his
revolving door -- described as a storm door structure.
In 1912 Progressive Party nominated Theodore Roosevelt for president.
===0===
Date: Sat, 07 Aug 1999 18:41:07 -0400 (EDT) From: "Peter E. Blau" <pblau(at)dgs.dgsys.com> Subject: a videotaper alert ... "FairyTale: A True Story" repeats on HBO cable at 8:00 am on Aug. 12, with Peter O'Toole (Arthur Conan Doyle) and Harvey Keitel (Harry Houdini) in an interesting film based on the story of the Cottingley fairies (in the film the photographs are fakes, but the fairies are real). || Peter E. Blau <pblau(at)dgs.dgsys.com> || || 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119 || || Washington, DC 20007-4830 || || (202-338-1808) ||
===0===
Date: Sat, 07 Aug 1999 20:03:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Re: a videotaper alert ...
And indeed the possibility that at least some of the fairies were real was
suggested by one of the girls as an old woman--after the confession that
the photos were fake.
I suppose it was too charming a fancy for even a very old woman to give
up.
Bob C.
On Sat, 7 Aug 1999, Peter E. Blau wrote:
> "FairyTale: A True Story" repeats on HBO cable at 8:00 am on Aug. 12, with
> Peter O'Toole (Arthur Conan Doyle) and Harvey Keitel (Harry Houdini) in an
> interesting film based on the story of the Cottingley fairies (in the film
> the photographs are fakes, but the fairies are real).
>
>
> || Peter E. Blau <pblau(at)dgs.dgsys.com> ||
> || 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119 ||
> || Washington, DC 20007-4830 ||
> || (202-338-1808) ||
>
>
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity
Whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if
there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy, meditate on these things
Philippians 4:8
rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
===0===
Date: Sun, 08 Aug 1999 00:27:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Today in History -- Aug 08
Interesting things that happened August 8th:
Birthdays on this date:
In 1879 Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary, peasant leader
In 1884 Sara Teasdale, poet
In 1902 Paul Dirac, British theoretical physicist
In 1908 Arthur Goldberg, former Supreme Court justice
In 1910 Sylvia Sidney, actor
In 1922 Rudi Gernreich, designed first women's topless swimsuit and the
miniskirt
(Note: Sylvia Sidney, a wonderful actress, just recently died. I'll
always remember her as Winnie Verlag in Hitchcock's production of _The
Secret Agent_, based on the novel by Conrad.)
Events worth noting:
In 1814 Peace negotiations begin in Ghent, Belgium.
In 1843 Natal (in South Africa) is made a British colony.
In 1860 The Queen of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) arrives in New York City,
the first queen to visit the United States.
In 1864 Red Cross Anniversary.
In 1900 First Davis Cup tennis matches, held in Boston. The U.S. defeats
Britain.
===0===
Date: Sat, 07 Aug 1999 21:37:32 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)alice.gloaming.com> Subject: Re: Today in History -- Aug 08 >(Note: Sylvia Sidney, a wonderful actress, just recently died. I'll >always remember her as Winnie Verlag in Hitchcock's production of And I'll also never forget her as "Juno" the ghost social worker in "Beetlejuice", a wonderful, acidic character part. Deborah Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
===0===
Date: Sun, 08 Aug 1999 01:59:32 -0400 (EDT) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Today in History -- Aug 08 Two other birthdays... Esther Morris, whose efforts got women the vote in Wyoming before they had it anywhere, born 1814. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, won the Pulitzer in 1939, for The Yearling, born 1896. best phoebe
===0===
Date: Mon, 09 Aug 1999 02:09:27 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Today in History-- Aug 09
Interesting things that happened August 9th:
Birthdays on this date:
In 1825 Elisha Ferry (R), governor of Wash. terr., state (1872-80, 1889-93)
In 1896 Jean Piaget, pioneer developmental psychologist
In 1897 Ralph Wyckoff, American pioneer in x-ray crystallography
In 1911 William A. Fowler, US astrophysicist (Nobel 1983)
In 1913 Herman Talmadge, Georgia Senator (D)
In 1919 Ralph Houk, baseball manager
Events that happened on this date:
In 1803 First horses arrive in Hawaii.
In 1842 The US-Canada border defined by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.
In 1848 Free-Soil Party nominates Martin Van Buren for president.
In 1849 Hungarian Republic crushed by Austria and Russia.
In 1854 Henry David Thoreau published `Walden'.
In 1862 Prelude to Second Manassas, Jackson is victorious at Battle of Cedar
Mountain, however Gen. Charles S. Winder is killed.
In 1902 Edward VII of England crowned after death of his mother Victoria.
(Note: Thoreau's _Walden_ was not a best seller on its first appearance.
In fact, Thoreau paid to have it published, and when it didn't move, the
printer wrote Thoreau and asked him to pick up the remaining volumes.
Thoreau made a note of the occasion in his journal in words to this
effect: "I now own a library of 900 books, over 700 of which I wrote
myself." I had never fully appreciated, before hearing about this
incident, that Thoreau had a sense of humor.
I hope some of my fellow Gaslighters took in at least one of the films
during AMC's John Ford weekend. At a 1973 AFI banquent held in Ford's
honor, someone told the well-known story of how Orson Welles learned to
make films--largely by studying the works of other film-makers. When asked
who he had learned most from and who he considered the true masters,
Welles replied, "The great masters of the American cinema are John
Ford...and John Ford...and John Ford." AMC ran a film of this banquent in
its entirety. It featured many stars--in the true sense of that
word--who came to do Ford homage: John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Charleton
Heston, Jack Lemmon, Maureen O'Hara, and as master of ceremonies, Danny
Kaye.) President Nixon and his wife Pat were there as well, the first time
an American president and first lady had ever attended an given by the
Hollywood film industry--at least that's what was said at the banquet.)
Bob C.
===0===
Date: Mon, 09 Aug 1999 07:21:10 -0400 (EDT) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Today in History-- Aug 09 Also born this day, Janie Porter Barrett, in 1865. One of those modest heroines... the daughter of former slaves, founded the Locust Street Social Settlement, the first community house in Virginia and one of the first for African-Americans. One thing I like about these "today" postings is that it gives us a chance to praise the bridge that passes us over. best phoebe
===0===
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 00:30:27 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Today in History -- Aug 10
Interesting things that happened August 10th:
Birthdays on this date:
In 1874 Herbert Hoover, 31st President (1929-1933)
In 1900 Norma Shearer
In 1910 Angus Campbell, psychologist, sociologist
In 1916 Noah Beery, Jr., actor (Tugboat Annie)
Events worth noting:
In 1809 Ecuador declares independence from Spain (National Day).
In 1821 Missouri becomes the 24th state.
In 1846 Smithsonian Institute established.
In 1861 Battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri.
In 1866 Transatlantic cable laid - President Buchanan speaks to Britain's
Queen Victoria.
===0===
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 07:08:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Today in History -- Aug 10 Two more birthdays of unsung heroines... In 1859, Anna J. Cooper, African-American educator and the first President of Freylinghuysen University... and 1894, Dorothy Jacobs Bellance, Latvian trade union organizer who started out as a hand button-hole sewer and became the only woman vice-president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Association. One of those jobs we don't think about -- sewing button-holes! best phoebe
===0===
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 15:15:51 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Go with the Flo
The site Retro Future has the following little article about Florence
Nightingale that I thought Gaslighters would find interesting.
I understand that our English cousins are consumed by eclipse mania.
Bob C.
Florence Nightingale and the Millennium Eclipse
One of the oddest bits of prophecy about 1999 originated from an unlikely
source: Florence Nightingale. Although better known for her pioneering
role in field of nursing, Nightingale also dabbled in some noteworthy?you
might even say clairvoyant?crystal-ball gazing.
One article in
particular, composed after the total solar eclipse in 1873, represents a
striking bit of prognostication. Written for Fraser's magazine, the
composition "What Will Be Our Religion in 1999?" featured uncanny musings
by the so-called "Lady with the Lamp" including cryptic references to
revolutions and world wars to come. "One thing is certain," Nightingale
writes at the beginning of the article, "none who now live will then be
living."
On that rather-ominous sounding note, the celebrated Victorian
reformer launches into a sweeping polemic that uses the 1999 solar eclipse
as the jumping off point for a series of penetrating observations.
Unquestionably, the most striking statement in the entire essay is
Nightingale's eerily prescient forecast that "great revolutions" may occur
in the 20th Century; in particular, that a war with "North Germany and
Italy against all comers" could transpire. Was a Nightingale a mystic? Or
was she just a keen observer with a peculiar gift for making foreboding
statements? Author Barbara Dossey leans toward the former. "Yes,
Nightingale was a profound mystic," Dossey claims, explaining, "She
received her first call from God at age 16."
In her biography, _Florence
Nightingale: Mystic, Visionary, Healer_, Dossey details Nightingale's
fascinating life, ?her service to the sick and the poor despite her own
wealthy background; the extraordinary ease she exhibited working in a
man's world; her determination to keep working despite crippling illness;
and her dogged belief in taking social action for the common good of all,
regardless of race, religion or color. She also looks at Nightingale's
mysticism. "Her God was not a white male who spoke only English," explains
Dossey, "but a Universal Truth permeating all the religions...spirituality
was the unifying force in her life. It infused every thing she thought and
did in her long life of 90 years."
Piety and false compassion are
thematic undercurrents in Nightingale's essay. "Before 1999 we may be left
without a Religion," she writes and then asks "shall it be backward, to
idolatry, superstition, and bigotry; or stand still at stupidity,
indifference, and hardening routine...or earthward...to trifling or
sensual amusements? At times, Nightingale sounds like a participant in
today's "culture wars," insisting, for example, that "freedom is not doing
as we like, not everybody following his or her own way...Self-control
gives 'freedom,' but a person who has no control (cannot) have freedom."
"It is no use talking about the 'kingdom of heaven within,'" she
continues, "if our home is a nest of jarring or thoughtless elements,
every member trying to do as he or she likes...to get all they can of
pleasure or amusement out of this poor earth, giving nothing back." At
times, Nightingale sounds discouraged. "Have you not the elements of an
awful future?" she asks, "Awful not merely in the sense of terrible, but
as big with the fate of awe-inspiring events?" But by the end of the essay
she strikes a redemptory note: "What 1999 will be, whether all these
things are the same then as now or worse, or better, depends, of
course...upon what we are doing now, or upon what we are not doing now."
Throughout the sometimes witty, sometimes profound essay, Nightingale
keeps asking: "What will this world be on August 11, 1999?" Finally, at
the end, she provides an answer: "What we have made it."
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity
Whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if
there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy, meditate on these things
Philippians 4:8
rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
===0===
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 19:25:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Troubled waters
Too many people. Go to the beach, to a national park, to any tourist
site and you will find it overcrowded. This is the situation in the US,
and perhaps the problem is growing. Here, for example, is a brief Reuters
story on how the English are trying to save Winnie the Pooh's bridge.
Appeal Goes Out To Save Winnie The Pooh's Bridge
LONDON (Reuters) - British officials are appealing to U.S. filmmakers
Disney to help save Winnie the Pooh's favorite bridge from collapse.
Crowds of Pooh fans from all over the world have worn out the old wooden
bridge in Ashdown Forest near Hartfield in southern England.
Bob C.
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity
Whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if
there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy, meditate on these things
Philippians 4:8
rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
===0===
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 19:58:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: CHAT: Tomorrow's eclipse
Tomorrow's solar eclipse will be visible mostly to inhabitants of Europe
and the Middle East, but it can be viewed--though at much lower ranges of
magnification--in the eastern US and Canada. At this site you will find a
table of US cities that will be noticeably affected:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/TSE1999/T99lookNA.html
I understand that in England 7,200 people per hour are arriving in
Cornwall to view this last eclipse of the century and indeed of the
millenium. I'm reminded of Mark Twain's _A Connecticut Yankee in King
Arthur's Court_ wherein the Yankee is saved from burning by pretending
to cause an eclipse, thus frightening the people and more importantly the
nobles, who make him the second most important man in the kingdom when
he "spares" them. (He had actually remembered that an eclipse had happened
just on that date in the 600s.) In real life, Christopher Columbus did
the same thing to the Indians of the Caribbean who were growing tired of
supplying Columbus and his crew with victuals. Columbus claimed it was a
sign of God's displeasure with them, and thereafter they continued to
cooperate with Columbus without trouble. By comparison to the Yankee,
Columbus was modest; Hank Morgan claims that _he_ is the cause of the
eclipse.
Bob C.
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity
Whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if
there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy, meditate on these things
Philippians 4:8
rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
===0===
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 22:32:10 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)alice.gloaming.com> Subject: O/T: Bell Witch This from Moonlit Road: >BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND: > >The Moonlit Road is bringing back the audio version of "The Bell Witch >Cave," based on the story of the most well known poltergeist in the >United States. Find out what happens when two teenagers search for >the witch in a remote Tennessee cave. > >You can find it now at: > >http://www.themoonlitroad.com/bellwitch/intro_bellwitch.html > >An MP3 version is also available. > >Many of you have written requesting this story due to the popularity >of "The Blair Witch Project". But there's one big difference between >the two "witches": > >The Bell Witch is real. Check out the website, they are preparing for a big Hallowe'en. Deborah Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
===0===
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 01:49:37 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu> Subject: Today in History -- Aug 11 Interesting things that happened August 11th: Birthdays on this date: In 1833 Robert Green Ingersol, American author, politician, agnostic In 1837 Sadi Carnot, engineer, French president (1887-94); assassinated In 1867 Joseph Weber, comedian (of Weber and Fields) In 1902 Lloyd Nolan, actor (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Peyton Place) Events worth noting: In 1835 George B. Airy begins 46-year reign as England's Astronomer Royal. In 1866 The world's first roller rink opens its doors, in Newport, R.I. In 1877 Asaph Hall discovers Mars' moon Deimos. In 1888 The California Theatre closed (now a Pac Tel Phone Store). In 1919 Green Bay Packers founded.
===0===
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 06:20:31 -0400 (EDT) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Today in History -- Aug 11 Ahhh, could we have been in Paris on this day in 1862 we would have witnessed Sarah Bernhardt's debut in Iphigenie! Wouldn't that have been fun??? Also -- born this day, in 1862 (it was a very good year!) Carrie Jacobs Bond, composer of pop music. Her 1910 hit "A Perfect Day" sold over five million copies in 60 different arrangements. Applauding, phoebe
===0===
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 13:10:10 -0600 (MDT) From: "p.h.wood" <woodph(at)freenet.edmonton.ab.ca> Subject: Re: Go with the Flo Bob Champ wrote, in his introduction to a fascinating note on a prescient article from over 120 years ago by Florence Nightingale: >> I understand that our English cousins are consumed by eclipse mania.<< Not only our English cousins. For examples of "eclipse mania", see inter alia, the <sci.astro> newsgroup, where Nostradamus, fundamentalist Protestantism and millenarian fantasies have cavorted in a catastrophist's gavotte. However, at 1.07 p.m. MDT I sit at my keyboard, the world still turns and the sun shines unextinguished, the total eclipse long over. Clearly Someone or Something has relented - or someone was mistaken in their translation of mediaeval French. Looking forward to reading the explanations on other newsgroups of What Went Wrong - the alternative meaning for the familiar acronym WWW - I remain, Peter Wood
===0===
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 01:26:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Today in History -- Aug 12
Interesting things that happened August 12th:
Birthdays on this date:
In 1862 Juluis Rosenwald, philanthropist
In 1866 Jacinto Benavente y Mart?nez, Spanish dramatist (Nobel 1922)
In 1876 Mary Roberts Rinehart, mystery writer
In 1880 Christy Mathewson, Hall of Fame baseball pitcher
In 1881 Cecil B. deMille, film director (directed God)
In 1887 Erwin Schr?dinger, Austrian physicist (had a cat)
In 1911 Mario Moreno, alias Cantinflas, Mexican entertainer
In 1912 Jane Wyatt (in Campgaw, NJ), actor (Spock's mother in "Star Trek")
In 1915 Alex Wojciechowicz, NFL center (Lions, Eagles)
In 1919 Michael Kidd, choreographer
Events worth noting:
In 1851 Issac Singer granted a patent for his sewing machine.
In 1862 Gen. John Hunt Morgan and his raiders capture Gallatin, TX.
In 1867 President A. Johnson defies Congress by suspending Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton.
In 1888 Bertha, wife of inventor Karl Benz, makes the first motor tour.
Without her husband's knowledge, she borrows one of his cars and
travels 180km to visit relatives for 5 days.
In 1898 Hawaii formally annexed to the U.S.
+ The peace protocol ending the Spanish-American War was signed.
In 1915 `Of Human Bondage,' by William Somerset Maugham, published.
===0===
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 08:19:33 -0400 (EDT) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Today in History -- Aug 12 Love your comments, Bob! Another birthday -- in 1859, Katherine Lee Bates who wrote the poem "America, the Beautiful." best phoebe
===0===
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 02:21:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Today in History -- Aug 13
Interesting things that happened August 13rd:
Birthdays on this date:
In 1655 Johann Christoph Denner, invented the clarinet
In 1814 Anders Jonas ?ngstr?m, physicist, founder of spectroscopy
In 1818 Lucy Stone, pioneer in Woman's Rights
In 1819 Sir George Gabriel Stokes, physicist, mathematician
In 1860 Annie Oakley, frontier woman
In 1899 Alfred Hitchcock, film director (Psycho, The Birds, etc.)
In 1902 Felix Wankel, German inventor (Wankel rotary-piston engine)
+ Regis Toomey, actor
In 1904 Charles (Buddy) Rodgers, actor
In 1908 Gene Raymond, actor
In 1909 John Beal, actor
In 1912 Ben Hogan, golfer
In 1918 Frederick Sanger, British chemist (Nobel 1958, 1980)
Events worth noting:
In 1831 Nat Turner leads uprising of slaves in Virginia.
In 1847 English astronomer J.R. Hind discovers asteroid Iris.
In 1876 Reciprocity Treaty between U.S. and Hawaii ratified.
I do object to Annie Oakley, one of the finest sharpshooters this country
has ever known, being identified only as a frontier woman. Not that there
is anything wrong with being a frontier woman, but that is not the first
thing that comes into a person's mind when her name is mentioned. It is
like identifying Shakespeare as a citizen of Stratford-on-Avon.
===0===
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 11:03:36 -0400 From: "Roberts, Leonard" <lroberts(at)email.uncc.edu> Subject: RE: Today in History -- Aug 13 In fact, if my memory is correct, Annie Oakley was born and raised in New Jersey. She became an expert shot by hunting small game to feed her mother and siblings. > I do object to Annie Oakley, one of the finest sharpshooters this country > has ever known, being identified only as a frontier woman. Not that there > is anything wrong with being a frontier woman, but that is not the first > thing that comes into a person's mind when her name is mentioned. It is > like identifying Shakespeare as a citizen of Stratford-on-Avon. >
===0===
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 08:24:30 -0700 From: Patricia Teter <PTeter(at)getty.edu> Subject: Re: RE: Today in History -- Aug 13 Happy Birthday Annie Oakley! Did Annie Oakley ever figure in the pulp western fiction (or pseudo history) written in the late 1800s? Does much of that genre survive, or is it rare these days? Patricia >>> "Roberts, Leonard" <lroberts(at)email.uncc.edu> 8/13/99 8:03:36 AM >>> In fact, if my memory is correct, Annie Oakley was born and raised in New Jersey. She became an expert shot by hunting small game to feed her mother and siblings. > I do object to Annie Oakley, one of the finest sharpshooters this country > has ever known, being identified only as a frontier woman. Not that there > is anything wrong with being a frontier woman, but that is not the first > thing that comes into a person's mind when her name is mentioned. It is > like identifying Shakespeare as a citizen of Stratford-on-Avon. >
===0===
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 10:48:05 -0500 (CDT) From: AJ Wright <MEDS002(at)UABDPO.DPO.UAB.EDU> Subject: Re: Troubled waters the problem is growing in US national parks is an understatement...you can spend hours just trying to find a parking place at Grand Canyon or Yellowstone ....aj wright
===0===
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 16:09:59 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)alice.gloaming.com> Subject: O/T: ghost movie with no spoilers I have to personally recommend "6th Sense" for ghost movie fans. I realize it's not Gaslight period but I recommend it because the story was so timeless and subtle that it could have easily been set in the 19th century and you would have had little problem with the period. It was nice to see a ghost movie that wasn't entirely negative and wasn't done with buckets of gore. Sometimes the old formulas work the best. For those disappointed with the remake of the "Haunting" you might like this. Dr. John Silence could have easily been on this case. Deborah Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
===0===
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 21:20:18 +0000 From: Marta Dawes <smdawes(at)home.com> Subject: Re: O/T: ghost movie with no spoilers It's an excellent movie; just saw it tonight. My husband was speechless through the whole thing and that doesn't usually happen. It's very nice to see Bruce Willis in a non-shoot-em'-up role. Marta Deborah McMillion Nering wrote: > > I have to personally recommend "6th Sense" for ghost movie fans. I > realize it's not Gaslight period but I recommend it because the story > was so timeless and subtle that it could have easily been set in the > 19th century and you would have had little problem with the period. > It was nice to see a ghost movie that wasn't entirely negative and > wasn't done with buckets of gore. Sometimes the old formulas work > the best. > > For those disappointed with the remake of the "Haunting" you might > like this. Dr. John Silence could have easily been on this case. > > Deborah > > Deborah McMillion > deborah(at)gloaming.com > http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
===0===
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1999 00:40:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Today in History -- Aug 14
Interesting things that happened August 14th:
Birthdays on this date:
In 1867 John Galsworthy (in England), author (Forsyte Saga) (Nobel 1932)
In 1901 Sir James Pitman, English educator, publisher, phonetic speller
In 1903 John Ringling North, circus director
Events worth noting:
In 1846 Henry David Thoreau jailed for tax resistance.
In 1848 The Oregon Territory established.
In 1880 Construction of Cologne Cathedral is completed.
In 1893 France issues first driving licenses, including a required test.
In 1900 International forces, including U.S. Marines, enter Beijing to put
down the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at ridding China of
foreigners.
In 1912 2,500 US marines invade Nicaragua; US remains until 1925.
In 1917 China declares war on Germany and Austria at start of WW I.
===0===
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1999 11:43:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: A Burning
The following book review, from the _Times_ of London, discusses an
incident of which I had not heard. It is an indication that the belief
in fairies had a darker side than most of us realize.
Bob C.
THE BURNING OF BRIDGET CLEARY
By Angela Bourke
On March 15, 1895, 26-year old Bridget Cleary was burned to death by her
husband Michael at Ballyvadlea in County Tipperary as 11 people looked on.
This killing, which became known as the Tipperary Horror, has been the object
of scary fascination ever since to Irish writers, most recently in Carlo
G?bler's terrifying novel The Cure.
Angela Bourke sets the Cleary murder in context among other events of that
fin-de-si?cle spring: the proposed Land Law (Ireland) Bill, the rumours
surrounding the illness of the English Prime Minister the Earl of Rosebery
and the trial of Oscar Wilde.
On the surface, Michael Cleary was the sort of man who looked fit to take his
place in a new, orderly post-famine Ireland, with its railways, its solid new
churches and its growing literacy. Cleary was a cooper; he could read and
write and lived with his wife in a newly built two-bedroom house. Bridget had
trained as a dressmaker in the nearby town of Clonmel, was pretty and well
dressed and earned good money from selling eggs.
But the surface was deceptive. When Bridget caught a chill that turned into a
fever Michael began to believe that his wife had been taken by the fairies
and a sickly impostor put in her place. Hence the "magic" herbs forcibly
administered to the sick woman and the holding her over the fire "to put the
fairies out".
Bourke advances another reason for Bridget's torture and the acquiescence of
those who witnessed it: Bridget had flaunted her sexuality and was
sharp-witted. Both these things would have been disapproved of and considered
dangerous in a patriarchal society.
The Tipperary Horror was made much of by opponents of Irish Home Rule. When
Cleary and his accomplices were tried and the associations with fairies and
witchcraft revealed, the editorials in English newspapers ranted against
proposals for "a peasant-elected Irish parliament". And the Irish were
categorised as not only hopelessly fey and superstitious but brutish and
ignorant. That Wilde, an Irishman, was on trial at the same time for sexual
misdemeanours did not help the cause of home rule.
Bourke is a powerful narrator, cleverly weaving together strands of history,
legend, politics and culture to show the uneasy atmosphere that characterised
late 19th-century Ireland, where the "impatient rationalism" of that
country's English rulers bumped painfully against the "hidden, nearby world
of the supernatural".
PENNY PERRICK
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity
Whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if
there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy, meditate on these things
Philippians 4:8
rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Next page: Ladies' Night at Finbar's Hotel Ed. Dermot Bolger
Arts (Mon - Fri) | Books (Sat) (Thu) | British News | Business | Court page |
Features (Mon - Fri) | Go (Sat) | Metro (Sat) | Obituaries | Interface (Wed)
| Opinion | Sport | Travel (Sat) (Thu) | Vision (Sat) | Weather | Weekend
(Sat) | Weekend Money (Sat) | World News
------------------------------
End of Gaslight Digest V1 #89
*****************************