Sunday
Feb. 28, 1999
The Tap of Angry Reins
Poem: "The Tap of Angry Reins" by Walter McDonald, from COUNTING SURVIVORS (University of Pittsburgh Press).
In 1986, Sweden's Prime Minister, Olof Palme, was assassinated while walking home from a movie in Stockholm with his wife.
It's the birthday of cancer researcher DENIS BURKITT, born in Northern Ireland in 1911. It was Dr. Burkitt who changed the way many people eat when he discovered that a diet of too much sugar and not enough high-fiber foods like bran and vegetables was causing colon cancer.
It's the birthday in London, 1909, of poet STEPHEN SPENDER. He witnessed both world wars and the Spanish Civil War in the 30s and much of his poetry is about war.
It's the birthday in 1894 of writer BEN HECHT, born in New York but brought up in Racine, Wisconsin. He is best known for his play in 1928 that made his name, "The Front Page."
It's the birthday in 1797, in Buckland, Massachusetts, of MARY LYON, the pioneer in women's education who founded Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which became Mount Holyoke College.
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®