Sunday

Mar. 12, 2000

A Bestiary (excerpts: "Herring," "Lion," and "Wolf")

by Kenneth Rexroth

Broadcast Date: SUNDAY: March 12, 2000

Poems: "Herring," "Lion," and "Wolf," selected verses from "A Bestiary" by Kenneth Rexroth from his Selected Poems (New Directions).

It was on this day in 1994 that the CHURCH OF ENGLAND ORDAINED ITS FIRST WOMEN PRIESTS, 32 of them in a ceremony at Bristol Cathedral, ending a tradition of male priests going back more than 450 years.

It's the birthday today of writer JACK KEROUAC, born 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts, author of a series of autobiographical novels which made him a leading figure in the "Beat Generation" of poets and writers based in New York and San Francisco in the 1950s.

The GIRL SCOUTS OF AMERICA were founded on this day in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia, by Juliette Gordon Low. She organized the first troop with 18 girls and at their first meeting they learned to tie knots, played tennis, and were taught the Girl Scout laws.

It was on this day in 1901 that the steel magnate ANDREW CARNEGIE gave New York City 5.2 million dollars to construct 65 branch libraries. He had just sold his Carnegie steel company for 250 million dollars and decided to retire to devote himself to charity work, and later gave money to create more than 1700 libraries all over the United States and in Britain.

It's the birthday, in 1890, of ballet dancer VASLAV NIJINKSY, born in Kiev. He was the principle dancer in the Ballets Russes, taking Paris by storm with his incredible leaping abilities in his first performance in 1909. He later danced the leading roles in the premiers of Les Sylphides and Scheherazade.

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

 

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