Monday

Dec. 2, 1996

Scaffolding

by Seamus Heaney

MONDAY 12/2

Today's Reading:"Scaffolding" by Seamus Heaney from DEATH OF A NATURALIST, published by Faber and Faber.

It was on this day in 1954 that the U.S. Senate voted 67 to 22 to censure Senator Joseph McCarthy.

In 1942 the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was set off by a team of scientists at the University of Chicago, under the stands of the football stadium.

It's the birthday of inventor Peter Carl Goldmark, who developed the first color television system and the LP (Long-Playing) record. He was born in Budapest in 1906.

It's the birthday of Greek writer Nikos Kazanzakis (ZORBA THE GREEK; THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST), born in Crete, 1885.

It was on this day in 1867 that Charles Dickens gave his first reading in New York City.

It's the birthday of French painter Georges Seurat, the originator of Pointillism. He was born in Paris in 1859.

English book designer and binder Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson (DOVES BIBLE) was born on this day in Alnwick, England, 1840.

In 1823 on this day, President James Monroe set forth what would be called the Monroe Doctrine, telling European powers to keep their hands off both North and South America.

In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor at a ceremony in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

«

»

  • “Writers end up writing stories—or rather, stories' shadows—and they're grateful if they can, but it is not enough. Nothing the writer can do is ever enough” —Joy Williams
  • “I want to live other lives. I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get. Writing is my way of making other chances.” —Anne Tyler
  • “Writing is a performance, like singing an aria or dancing a jig” —Stephen Greenblatt
  • “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • “Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.” —John Edgar Wideman
  • “In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.” —Denise Levertov
  • “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Let's face it, writing is hell.” —William Styron
  • “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann
  • “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials.” —Paul Rudnick
  • “Writing is a failure. Writing is not only useless, it's spoiled paper.” —Padget Powell
  • “Writing is very hard work and knowing what you're doing the whole time.” —Shelby Foote
  • “I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.” —William Carlos Williams
  • “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.” —Iris Murdoch
  • “The less conscious one is of being ‘a writer,’ the better the writing.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is…that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is my dharma.” —Raja Rao
  • “Writing is a combination of intangible creative fantasy and appallingly hard work.” —Anthony Powell
  • “I think writing is, by definition, an optimistic act.” —Michael Cunningham
Current Faves - Learn more about poets featured frequently on the show