Sunday

Feb. 15, 1998

The Bare Arms of Trees

by John Tagliabue

SUNDAY 2/15

Today's Reading: "The Bare Arms of Trees" by John Tagliabue from POEMS, published by Harper & Bros. (1959).

It's the birthday of cartoonist MATT GROENING, born in Portland, Oregon in 1954, best known for The Simpsons, which he launched in 1990 C the first prime time TV cartoon since the 60s

The Broadway and Hollywood composer HAROLD ARLEN was born on this day in 1905, in Buffalo, New York. He wrote over 500 songs, including "Stormy Weather," "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea," "Get Happy," and "Blues in the Night."

Suffragist SUSAN B. ANTHONY was born on this day in Adams, Massachusetts, 1820. In 1872 she led a group of women to the polls in Rochester to vote. She was arrested and lost the trial but refused to pay the fine, and started lecturing across the States and then in London and Berlin for women's suffrage. She died in 1906, 14 years before the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote

The founder of the Steinway Piano Company, HENRY STEINWAY, was born on this day in 1797, in Braunschweig, Germany. He started making pianos in Germany in 1835, and emigrated to New York in 1849 and set up shop. The Steinway piano was better than its competitors primarily because it was stronger. Earlier piano frames had been made of wood, and Steinway introduced an improved cast-iron frame that allowed for more tension on the strings and a bigger sound

GALILEO was born on this date in 1564 in Pisa, Italy, the first to use the telescope to study the heavens. In one 4-month period in 1610 he announced that the surface of the moon was pocked, not smooth; that the Milky Way was a collection of stars; that Jupiter had moons, Venus different phases, and the sun spots. This last discovery led him to trouble. Because the sun spots appeared to move, that proved the Copernican Theory C that the earth revolves around the sun, not vice-versa. The Pope forced him to recant that position and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest

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

 

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