Saturday

May 2, 1998

The Reverie of Poor Susan

by William Wordsworth

SATURDAY 5/2

Today's Reading: "The Reverie of Poor Susan" by William Wordsworth.

Many SPRING FESTIVALS are beginning this month. This weekend near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the South Mountain Fairgrounds are holding the annual Apple Blossom Festival. In Dover, Ohio they've got the Dandelion May Fest, with a recipe contest and they'll be serving dandelion pizza, dandelion omelets and dandelion ice cream. In Lombard, Illinois it's Lilac Time, with Lilacia Park decked out in over eleven-hundred lilac bushes.

The first Saturday in May is also the traditional running of the KENTUCKY DERBY at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, the first jewel in the Triple Crown. This is the 124th Derby, followed by the Preakness in two weeks, and the Belmont Stakes in five weeks.

BING CROSBY was born on this day in 1903, in Tacoma, Washington. He went to college in Spokane to become a lawyer and was in his early 20s working part-time in a law office when he found out a local band needed a drummer. He signed up with them and started playing drums and singing at dances around town. He sold about 300 million records, and won the 1944 Oscar for best actor for playing a priest in the movie, "Going My Way." He was on radio and TV, and making films and records for nearly 50 years.

It's the birthday of Benjamin McLane Spock - DR. SPOCK - born in New Haven, Connecticut, 1902, who said, "Respect children because they're human beings and they deserve respect, and they'll grow up to be better people." After serving a two-year stint as a psychiatrist in the Navy, he came out in 1946 with The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care that broke new ground by telling parents to relax and enjoy their kids, show them more affection, be less rigid with feeding schedules, don't worry about spoiling them, and above all - he said - "Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do. What good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is usually best after all."

It's the birthday in New York, 1895, of lyricist LORENZ HART who was just 23 when he teamed up with Richard Rodgers and began turning out hit songs for Broadway like "Blue Moon," "My Funny Valentine," "I Wish I Were in Love Again," and about a thousand others. Rodgers was 16 when they met in Hart's house in New York; they hit it off right away and Rodgers said " In one afternoon I acquired a career, a partner, a best friend and a source of permanent irritation." Rodgers and Hart were together for 25 years.

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

 

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