Goodbye...for now

I began this blog on November 16, 2020, and now comes the time to bring it to an end. Or at least put it on hiatus. November 16, 2021, is the day we are moving out of our apartment and heading for Indiana where we have purchased a home near Fort Wayne. As you might imagine, things are pretty busy around here and trying to bring the blog up to exactly a year is unmanageable.

I’ve written three pieces each week and have covered a lot of territory – music, literature, poetry, art, the Bible, and much more. I’ve enjoyed doing it and have discovered things I never knew before. 

Will I return after our move is complete and we’ve settled into our new digs? Quite frankly, not a lot of people read this blog and I’m not sure it’s worth all the work to please myself. I’ll take the whole thing under consideration. In the meantime, you can always go back and check out the posts you might have missed that look interesting just by clicking on a month and scrolling around.

Thank you to the few of you who have been faithful readers. I appreciate your interest. So long and thanks for all the fish. 

 

St. Jude

Back on March 29, 2021, I wrote about St Jude, talking about the book Jude by Liz Trotta. His feast day is tomorrow, October 28. There’s little I can add about him so let’s pray this popular pray to him.

“O most holy apostle, Saint Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the Church honoreth and invoketh thee universally, as the patron of hopeless cases, and of things almost despaired of. Pray for me, who am so miserable. Make use, I implore thee, of that particular privilege accorded to thee, to bring visible and speedy help where help was almost despaired of. Come to mine assistance in this great need, that I may receive the consolation and succor of Heaven in all my necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, particularly (here make your request) and that I may praise God with thee and all the elect throughout eternity. I promise thee, O blessed Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor, to always honor thee as my special and powerful patron, and to gratefully encourage devotion to thee. Amen.”

 

On this day in history...

Let’s check in and see what happened on this day in history.

 

1400: Death of Geoffrey Chaucer.

1415: Battle of Agincourt – Henry V’s forces defeat French army

1621: Governor Bradford bans sports on Christmas day in the Plymouth Colony. Good thing the NBA wasn’t around.

1760: George III becomes king in England. Hilarity ensues.

1764: John Adams marries Abigail Smith.

1780: John Hancock becomes the first governor of Massachusetts. So there.

1825: Birth of Johann Strauss Jr.

1838: Birth of French composer Georges Bizet.

1854: The Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War.

1875: The first performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1^st Piano Concerto.

1881: Birth of Pablo Picasso.

1888: Birth of Richard Byrd, polar explorer.

1902: Birth of Henry Steele Commager, American historian (Civil War).

1906: Georges Clemenceau becomes Prime Minister of France.

1911: London’s last horse-drawn omnibus takes its last run.

1912: Birth of Minnie Pearl.

1919: Birth of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, last Shah of Iran.

1921: Death of Bat Masterson.

1928: Birth of Jeanne Cooper (The Young and the Restless) and Marion Ross (Happy Days).

1932: Mussolini says he’ll be dictator for 30 years. He only made it for another 11.

1955: Tappan sells its 1^st microwave oven.

1962: John Steinbeck wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1964: The Rolling Stones appear on the Ed Sullivan show for the first time.

1978: John Carpenter’s “Halloween” is released.

1980: Death of Virgil Fox, premier organist.

1986: Death of Forrest Tucker (F Troop).

1987: Minnesota Twins win their first World Series championship.

1992: Death of Roger Miller (King of the Road).

1993: Death of Vincent Price.

2001: Windows XP becomes available.

2015: Lewis Hamilton wins the US F1 Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas. Yesterday he lost to Max Verstappen.

 

American Popular Song 6

Begin the Beguine by Cole Porter is a difficult song to sing with accompaniment. Without it would be next to impossible. Except for Sammy Davis Jr. It’s not exactly acapella because it does have a drum accompaniment, but of course that wouldn’t give him any clue as to the tune. Yet, this extraordinarily talented man sang it perfectly. 

Porter wrote the song in 1935 and it was introduced by June Knight in the Broadway show Jubilee. Probably the most famous version was recorded by Artie Shaw and his orchestra in 1938. Other great singers such as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald also had hits with it. 

So, what is a beguine? It’s a music and dance form like a slow rumba. Alec Wilder talks about Porter’s version in his book American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900 – 1950 (see my post of October 13) saying “a maverick, an unprecedented experiment and one which, to this day, after hearing it hundreds of times, I cannot sing or whistle or play from start to finish without the printed music.” But Sammy Davis Jr did and here he is singing Begin the Beguine from his album Sammy Davis Jr Sings “What Kind of Fool Am I” and Other Show Stoppers. Enjoy!

Shakespeare's Sonnets: XVI

This poem seems to be a continuation or in the same vein as Sonnet XV, but by the middle of the poem, the poet decides that he really can’t immortalize the young man and goes back to encouraging him to marry and have children to carry on his name and memory.

Sonnet XVI

But wherefore do not you a mightier way

Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time?

And fortify yourself in your decay

With means more blessed than my barren rhyme?

Now stand you on the top of happy hours,

And many maiden gardens, yet unset,

With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers,

Much liker than your painted counterfeit:

So should the lines of life that life repair,

Which this, Time’s pencil, or my pupil pen,

Neither in inward worth nor outward fair,

Can make you live yourself in eyes of men.

                To give away yourself, keeps yourself still,

                And you must live, drawn by your own sweet skill.

 

St Luke

St Luke – the beloved physician – was the author of one of the three synoptic gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, a first-hand account as he traveled with St Paul during many of his journeys. October 18 is his feast day.

St Luke’s gospel is the only one to tell the details of the Annunciation and the Nativity. It is thought that he spoke with the Blessed Virgin Mary because this part of his gospel has a more Aramaic tone, the language she would have spoken. Here are the beautiful words from the angel Gabriel, “Hail, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee” and Elizabeth’s greeting “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” We read about the journey to Bethlehem and the angels’ visit to the shepherds proclaiming the good news, the presentation of the infant in the temple, and finding the child Jesus teaching in the temple. It’s such a joy to learn about the earliest days of Jesus.

The Acts of the Apostles tells us about what happened during the travels of the Apostles, the conversions of the Gentiles, Stephen the first martyr, and Pentecost. St Luke was the last of the disciples to stand with St Paul before his (Paul’s) martyrdom and leaves us a wonderful account of the history of the earliest days of the Church. St Luke is the patron saint of physicians and surgeons. St Luke, pray for us.

St Teresa of Avila

Today is the feast day of St Teresa of Avila (1515 – 1582). Beatified in 1614 by Pope Paul V, she was canonized in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV. In 1970 Pope Paul VI declared Teresa and St Catherine of Siena doctors of the Church, the first two women to be so named.

St Teresa was instrumental in reforming the Carmelite order and started many convents. Her focus was on mental prayer and she wrote several books including an autobiography, Interior Castle, and The Way of Perfection. Teresa said, “Contemplative prayer, in my opinion is nothing other than a close sharing between friends. It means frequently taking time to be alone with Him whom we know loves us.”

St Teresa, pray for us. Help us to make time for Jesus and to cultivate a friendship with Him as you did.