Friday

Nov. 14, 1997

Within a Stone's Throw of Greatness

by Henry Taylor

FRIDAY 11/14

Today's Reading: "Within a Stone's Throw of Greatness" by Henry Taylor from UNDERSTANDING FICTION: POEMS, 1986-1996, published by Louisiana State University Press (1996).

In 1963 Iceland got a new island when a volcano pushed its way up out of the sea five miles off the southern coast.

In 1961 President Kennedy increased the number of American 'advisors' in South Vietnam from 1,000 to 16,000.

The BBC's predecessor, called 2LO London, broadcast its first radio program, consisting of a news bulletin and a weather report.

NEW YORK TIMES journalist Harrison Sallisbury, who helped launch the Op-Ed page, was born in Minneapolis in 1908.

Children's writer Astrid Lindgren, author of PIPPI LANGSTRUMP, was born in Vimmerby, Sweden, in 1907.

Silent film star Louise Brooks, whose look became the symbol of the 1920s flapper, was born in Cherryvale, Kansas, in 1906.

Composer Aaron Copland ("Billy the Kid," "Rodeo," "Appalachian Spring") was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1900.

Nationalist leader Jawaharala Nehru was born in Allahabad, India, in 1889.

Herman Melville's novel MOBY DICK, based on a whale named Mocha Dick who reportedly wrecked seven ships and killed at least 30 men, was published in New York in 1851.

Impressionist painter Claude Monet was born in Paris in 1840.

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

 

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