Tuesday

May 2, 2000

903 I hide myself within my flower,

by Emily Dickinson

Come slowly, Eden

by Emily Dickinson

Broadcast Date: TUESDAY: May 2, 2000

Poems: "I hide myself within my flower," and "Come slowly, Eden," by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886).

It's the birthday of portrait and fashion photographer PHILIPPE HALSMAN, born in Riga, Latvia (1906). He took photos for Vogue and for Life.

It's the birthday of singer and actor BING CROSBY, born in Tacoma, Washington (1904). His hit song "White Christmas" (1942), was the biggest-selling single ever.

It's the birthday of baby-doctor BENJAMIN SPOCK, born in New Haven, Connecticut (1903).

It's the birthday of journalist and author W(ilbur) J(oseph) CASH, born in Gaffney, South Carolina (1900) best known for a single book, The Mind of the South (1941). The year of its publication was tumultuous for Cash. He completed the book in July of 1940; in December he married; the book came out in February; in short order its critical acclaim won him a Guggenheim Fellowship, on which he went to Mexico to begin a novel about the South. Once there, however, he became so severely ill, mentally and physically, that in July he hanged himself in a Mexico City hotel room.

It's the birthday of lyricist LORE NZ HART, born in New York City (1895). At the age of 23 he met composer Richard Rodgers. In the course of 25 years, they wrote at least a thousand songs together, including "The Lady Is a Tramp," "My Funny Valentine," and "Bewitched, bothered and bewildered." A gay man in a world that had not begun to accept gay men, he drank himself to death at 48 years old.

It's the birthday of parliamentary-procedure expert HENRY MARTYN ROBERT, born in Robertville, South Carolina (1837) author of Robert's Rules of Order (1876). While stationed in New Bedford, in 1862, he had to preside over a meeting at his church—and the meeting got out of hand. Frustrated that he could find no set of parliamentary rules to keep the next meeting from growing so rowdy, he wrote his own code. The book took him over a dozen years to complete. It is still the final word in settling procedural squabbles.

On this day in 1611, THE KING JAMES BIBLE WAS PUBLISHED after the English monarch appointed a committee of scholars to produce an English translation. The result is still known to many, in Britain, as the Authorized Version. The loss of its quiet eloquence is lamented by many who feel subjected to less poetic, more 'accessible' versions of the scriptures. Compare, for example, line 4 of Psalm 23:

King James version: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

A modern 'revised' version, from the New Jerusalem Bible (1990): "Even were I to walk in a ravine as dark as death, I should fear no danger, for you are at my side. Your staff and your crook are there to soothe me."

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

 

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