According to the Writer’s Almanac: It’s the birthday of novelist Joseph Heller (books by this author), born in Brooklyn (1923) and best known for the novel Catch-22 (1961), about an American bombardier named John Yossarian. During World War II, Yossarian …
We Want a Sustainable Civilization, But There’s a Catch Read More »
Here’s a quote from today’s edition of The Writer’s Almanac that I hope readers will find relevant: Today is the birthday of … pioneering broadcast journalist Fred W. Friendly (pictured)….a large persuasive man, with strongly held opinions, (who) frequently butted heads with the …
According to the Writer’s Almanac, it was on this day in 1897 that the first comic strip appeared in a newspaper. Why is that worth mentioning here? It was a new dimension, a new modality to our civilization’s capacity for …
Everything New Seemed Impossible—Until It Existed Read More »
Today we celebrate the 180th birthday of one of the true child prodigies in the history of humankind, Camille Saint-Saens (pictured), which gives me the opportunity to tell a story I heard when I was young. Saint-Saens gave a recital when …
Those looking for an uplifting experience can find one in today’s “poem for today” at the Writer’s Almanac. Not to oversimplify the complex morass we have before ourselves on planet Earth, but we seem to be caught in a struggle …
It’s the birthday of anthropologist Louis Leakey. From the Writer’s Almanac: In 1948, Leakey and his wife found one of the earliest fossil ape skulls ever discovered; it was between 25 and 40 million years old. It is now believed …
It’s the 202nd birthday of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (pictured). He’s best known as the first existentialist philosopher, but he was also active in many other fields, including the writing of fiction. According to the Writer’s Almanac: He published many …
Here’s a blurb from the Writer’s Almanac: It’s the birthday of Horace Mann, born in Franklin, Massachusetts (1796). He was the first great American advocate of public education. He believed that, in a democratic society, education should be free and …
From the Writer’s Almanac: It was on this day in 1633 that Galileo Galilei was put on trial by the Inquisition, for supporting the theory that the Earth revolves around the sun. In late April 1633, Galileo agreed to plead …
On the surface, this post is almost 100% off-subject, though I know readers who enjoy a good story will appreciate the Writer’s Almanac’s blurb on today’s 67th anniversary of the opening of “ A Streetcar Named Desire” on Broadway. For some …
