Saturday

Feb. 14, 1998

Loathsomeness

by Robert Herrick

As If a Phantom Caressed Me

by Walt Whitman

SATURDAY 2/14

Today's Reading: "Loathsomeness" by Robert Herrick and "As If a Phantom Caressed Me" by Walt Whitman.

It's VALENTINE'S DAY, named for the third-century priest who was martyred in Rome, and for the medieval belief that birds choose their mates on this date. The early 17th-century British poet, John Donne, calls to the saint in this poem: "Hail, Bishop Valentine! whose day this is; All the air is thy diocese, And all the chirping choristers And other birds are thy parishioners!"

Today also marks the anniversary of the 1944 Dresden fire bombing C when 2,000 British and U.S. bombers turned one of Germany's most picturesque cities into rubble. Dresden had been considered a "safe" area, a city of 17th- and 18th-century architecture with no industries, and it was filled with refugees at the time

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST opened on this day in London's St. James Theater in 1895. Its subtitle is A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

JACK BENNY was born on this day in Chicago, 1894. He was on network radio from 1932 to 1955, Sunday nights at seven, nearly every week sawing through "Love in Bloom" on his violin, but never finishing the tune

It's the birthday in Portland, Maine, 1877, of electrical engineer GREENLEAF WHITTIER PICKARD who invented the "crystal detector" C a device used in early radios to receive the signal

It's the birthday of the inventor of the typewriter, CHRISTOPHER SHOLES, born in 1819 outside of Mooresburg, Pennsylvania. He got a patent for the typewriter in June, 1868, and five years later sold the rights to the Remington Arms Company

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

 

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  • “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
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