Sunday

May 11, 1997

Sonnet

by Robert Hass

SUNDAY 5/11

Today's Reading:"Sonnet" by Robert Hass from SUN UNDER WOOD, published by Ecco Press.

Today is Mother's Day, first observed back in 1907 at the request of Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia.

The Magnolia Blossom Festival takes place today in Magnolia, Arkansas

Today is the birthday of writer Stanley Elkin, author of 17 books including GEORGE MILLS (1993). He was born in Brooklyn, New York, 1930.

It's the birthday in Far Rockaway, New York, 1918, of theoretical physicist Richard Phillips Feynman, whose most innovative work was the development of the "Feynman diagrams" of particle behavior, a practical way to diagram the interactions of particles.

It's the birthday of writer Mari Sandoz, whose Great Plains series of books includes the classic biography, CRAZY HORSE. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, in 1894.

Today is the birthday of Irving Berlin, born in Russia in 1888. His family came to the United States when he was five years old and settled on New York's Lower east Side. Among the 1,500 songs he wrote are: "Blue Skies," "Easter Parade," "White Christmas," "God Bless America," and "There's No Business Like Show Business."

Jazz cornetist and bandleader "King" Joseph Oliver was born on this day in Abend, Louisiana, in 1885. He died in obscurity while working as a poolroom marker in New York City in 1938.

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

 

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