Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Emperor Jimmu

Emperor Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan, a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu and of the storm god Susanoo. According to ancient chronicle of legends, the Nihon Shoki, Emperor Jimmu was born on February 13, 711 BCE. In those chronicles he became ruler in 660 BCE and ruled until he died at age 126 in 585 BCE. 


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Monday, February 12, 2024

Lincoln and Darwin Anniversary

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were both born 215 years ago, on February 12, 1809. ... This composite picture from the internet made me wonder how tall Darwin was. He was about 6 feet tall, although he stooped as he grew older. Lincoln was 6' 4". They never met but by the 1860s they both certainly had worldwide fame.



"Rhapsody in Blue" Centennial

George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" premiered on February 12, 1924 at Aeolian Hall in New York. The conductor was Paul Whiteman, the popular bandleader who had also commissioned the work. Gershwin himself played the piano, and Ross Gorman played the clarinet. The piece was orchestrated by  Ferde Grofé, who is also known for his own "Grand Canyon Suite."

Here's an article that I found. https://www.npr.org/2024/02/12/1230433015/rhapsody-in-blue-gershwin-centennial-jazz-classical?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=classical&utm_term=music&utm_content=20240212&fbclid=IwAR3MIjsYapQ8GPasnEiffJBApNQqFl_jB7_c2-2K-Vtu3HlolZ4WNnQMEIo

A friend shared two other articles: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/26/arts/music/george-gershwin-rhapsody-in-blue.html?searchResultPosition=2&fbclid=IwAR2Wc_o0SK4VaOASAFTjlY5Bsr5qN3JIVP6WgoYP7JPpwUbVE4HMcYpe5Qo

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/opinion/rhapsody-in-blue-defense.html?fbclid=IwAR3ftSE2jl5ZiUA9S9C2d8DjDX2ZCirVUj0d0f387oYQ93aGziYUQDF11fE




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Tuesday, February 6, 2024

de Candolle and Nature


Born February 4, 1778, Augustin Pyramus de Candolle was a Swiss botanist who documented hundreds of plant families and created a new system of plant classification. He contributed to the fields of botany, phytogeography, agronomy, paleontology, and others. He wrote of "Nature's war, which later influenced Darwin's idea of natural selection. de Candolle suggested that plants have internal biological "clocks." He also observed the phenomenon of what later was called convergent evolution--creatures without common ancestry develop similar traits within their shared ecological niches.






Saturday, February 3, 2024

Hutchinson's Massachusetts History

Thomas Hutchinson (1711-1780) was the Royal governor of Massachusetts from 1758 to 1774. He was a polarizing figure, loyal to both Massachusetts and to Great Britain on the eve of the Revolution. Here is his two-volume, “History of the Colony of Massachusets-Bay, from the First Settlement Thereof in 1928, Until Its Incorporation with the Colony of Plimouth, Province of Main, &c. By the Charter of King William and Queen Mary, in 1691.” The third volume is “A Collection of Corginal Papers Relative to the History of the Colony of Massachusets-Bay”. Some of my ancestors settled in Massachusetts in the 1630s. One ancestor was on the Mayflower. 




 

 


 

Old Highway Bridge

I love old highway alignments: pavement and bridges that were abandoned when a new alignment was constructed. If you come into Highland, Illinois on U.S. 40 from the east, and if you're able to slow down and look through the trees at Lakeside Drive, you'll see this c. 1920 bridge and an early pavement that the modern U.S. 40 (just to the right in this picture) replaced. Route 40 across Illinois was called State Route 11 in 1918-1926 and was part of the transcontinental National Old Trails Highway. I took this picture in 2018. 


 

"The Day the Music Died"

"The day the music died" was 65 years ago today. 

Back in the late '90s, there was an interesting show on VH-1 about "The Day the Music Died." I think it's on YouTube now. The "Winter Dance Party" was a series of midwestern concerts, so that rural and small town kids could enjoy these music stars in person. But there were very long bus trips in winter weather between concerts. So, a frustrated Buddy Holly chartered a plane for himself and two of his band members to get to the next gig early. Big Bopper had the flu and asked Holly's bassist Waylon Jennings to give up his seat for him, and Ritchie Valens made a coin toss with guitarist Tommy Allsup and got on the plane instead. Of course, all three musicians and the pilot were killed in the early morning of February 3, 1959. Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie" really brought their memory back permanently into popular consciousness.


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