The Guernica Bombing

The town of Guernica is in the Basque area of northern Spain. It has about 17,000 population today. During the Spanish Civil War, on April 26, 1937, the Nazi Luftwaffe and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria bombed Guernica at the request of Francisco Franco, who wanted to overthrow the Basque government. The bombing went on for three hours. Although casualty figures differ, the official Basque figures were 1,654 civilians killed. The horror became the subject of Picasso's famous painting "Guernica". I've read that it is a huge painting--about 11 feet by 25 feet--now on display in Madrid. The painting is one of the greatest pieces of anti-war art.

both pictures copied under fair use principles. 

Remembering Rodney King

During his arrest in March 1991 for DUI, following a high speed chase, Rodney King was severely beaten by LAPD officers. An uninvolved bystander recorded the beating and sent the footage to a TV station. Outrage at the brutality of the beating led to public uproar. When a jury acquitted all four officers of assault, six days of rioting in L.A. followed. King made a plea for peace during the riots: "I just want to say – you know – can we, can we all get along? Can we, can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids?" King did receive a significant award from the city. He continued to struggle with alcohol and addiction. His daughter created a foundation to build bridges between the black community and the police--and his anxious words, asking for people to get along, have entered the culture. King was born on April 2, 1965. 

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Walter Bruegemann

Born in Nebraska on March 11, 1933, Walter Brueggemann was an influential Old Testament scholar and theologian who used the Hebrew prophetic tradition, and other biblical resources, to address issues like nationalism, consumerism, and militarism. The church must provide a counter-narrative to such forces, he argued. Among his degrees, he received his B.D. from Eden Theological Seminary in 1958. He returned to Eden as professor of Old Testament (1961–1986) and Dean (1968–1982). He was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1958. He wrote many books, many articles, and also commentaries on books of the Bible; for instance, I enjoy his commentary on Exodus in The New Interpreter's Bible. I've scarcely scratched the surface of his contributions to scholarship and to the greater church's ministry. Reading "An Introduction to the Old Testament" (2003), I enjoyed his comments about the work of Brevard S. Childs, whom I had for Old Testament in the late 1970s. Bruegemann came into the Webster Groves, MO Starbucks one time when he was in town, and I gushed my appreciation for his work and offered him my table, LOL. There's no shame in embarrassing yourself when you meet someone you admire, LOL. Brueggemann died last June. The theme of Eden's 2026 Spring Convocation is his life and legacy. 

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Happy Birthday, Shemp!

As a kid, I loved watching The Three Stooges on afternoon kid's TV! Shemp Howard (Samuel Horwitz) was born March 11, 1895! In 1923-1932, he performed with Moe and Larry. In 1932, he left and pursued a successful solo career. In 1946, when Curly's health caused him to drop out of the act, Shemp returned with Moe and Larry. He planned to stay only until Curly got better. But Curly died in 1952. Shemp remained with the act until his own death in 1955. Of the five Horwitz brothers, the first two were not in show business, Shemp was the third brother, Moe the fourth, and Curly the fifth.

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"The Red Balloon"

 The 34-minute French film, The Red Balloon (Le ballon rouge) premiered at Cannes on March 3, 1956. It was released in the U.S. on March 11, 1957. I remember watching it during the 1960s, at a summer Evans Public Library event for kids. The film is about a boy who has adventures with a sentient red balloon. Interesting to read that the Belleville and Ménilmontant areas of Paris, where the movie was filmed, declined in the 1960s and many locations were razed. So the film provides a visual record of those neighborhoods as they were.

Lorenzo De Ponte

"Don Giovanni, you invited me to sup with you, and I have come...." Born March 10, 1749, Lorenzo Da Ponte was a Venetian, later American, opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's greatest: The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte. Later in his career he was Columbia University's first professor of Italian literature. He died in New York and is buried there. You usually see the first picture in books. The second picture is interesting because it's by Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph and noted portrait painter.

Ferdinand and Isabella

  had a friend, of blessed memory, who was a Reform rabbi. He was pleased to visit the tomb of Ferdinand and Isabella and to cheerfully tell them, "You kicked the Jews out of Spain, but you're dead and we're still here!" (If you knew my friend's joie de vivre you'd recognize his humor.) Ferdinand II was King of Aragon from 1479 until his death in 1516. As the husband of Queen Isabella I of Castile, he was also King of Castile from 1475 to 1504 (as Ferdinand V). Thus, Ferdinand is the de facto first king of Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella's reign marks the beginning of Spain as a world power. The couple sponsored Christopher Columbus' voyage and began the Spanish colonization of the Americas. In the same year, 1492, they ordered Jews to be baptized and convert to Christianity or leave the country. They made the same order to Muslims. One of their children was Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII.  Ferdinand was born March 10, 1452.