Thursday

Jan. 20, 2000

Down on My Knees

by Ginger Andrews

Broadcast Date: THURSDAY: January 20, 2000

Poem: "Down On My Knees" by Ginger Andrews from An Honest Answer published by Story Line Press.

On this day in 1961 poet Robert Frost stood up to recite a poem for the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, as the younger New Englander had requested. Frost had planned to recite a new poem, called "Dedication," written especially for the occasion, but there were difficulties. He had typed the final version of the new work on a typewriter that had a dim ribbon; his 86-year-old eyes were weak; and, the night before the festivities, Washington was blanketed by a snowstorm—Inauguration Day was unusually bright with glare from all the snow. On the outdoor platform, the old poet couldn't make out his own dimly typed lines. So Robert Frost, 86 years old, gave up on his longer introductory poem and recited his well-known "The Gift Outright" by heart.

It's the birthday of filmmaker Federico Fellini, born Rimini, Italy (1920). His films include La Strada (1956), Nights of Cabiria [kah-BEER-ee-ah] (1957), 8 1/2 (1963), and Amarcord (1974).

It's the birthday of cartoonist Harold Lincoln Gray, born in Kankakee, Illinois (1894)—who drew 'Little Orphan Annie,' a 12-year-old girl with frizzy hair, saucer eyes, a dog named Sandy and as a friend the bald billionaire Daddy Warbucks. The strip first appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1924.

It's the birthday of novelist and essayist Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, born in Farso, Denmark (1873). He wrote a cycle of 7 novels called Den lange rejse (The Long Journey, 1908-22), tracing the rise of man from a half-animal in the forests of Jutland to the discovery of America by Columbus.

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

 

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