“Nobody has seen a communist in over a decade.”
– Former President Bill “Puff Daddy” Clinton, mocking Republicans for failing to reprimand Rep. Allen West, R-FL, when he charged that as many as 80 Democrats in Congress are members of the Communist Party.
I have to agree. I haven’t seen a communist since I got laid off from a major bank in 2001.
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Natasha Trethewey has reacted humbly to her selection as the 19th Poet Laureate for the U.S. Library of Congress, even though she’s unintentionally broken the mold. At 46, she’s the youngest U.S. Poet Laureate and, as a native of Gulfport, Mississippi, she’s only the second one from the South. Poetry often has been considered the ugly stepchild of the literary world; no one wants to deal with it unless it’s absolutely necessary. But, Trethewey approaches the craft “without preaching,” said James Billington, the Librarian of Congress.
Trethewey has attained some significant accomplishments, notably receiving the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for her collection “Native Guard.” She is the author of two prior poetry collections, “Domestic Work,” (2000) and “Bellocq’s Ophelia” (2002), and the 2010 nonfiction book, “Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.” Another collection of poetry, “Thrall,” is set to be published later this year.
“I’m still a little in disbelief,” Trethewey told the New York Times this week, before her selection had been publicly announced.
Trethewey discovered her poetic muse after a brutal personal tragedy. While still a college alpahmore, her stepfather killed her mother. Trethewey started writing poems “as a response to that great loss.”
Trethewey, who is currently Mississippi’s poet laureate, will serve the term as U.S. poet laureate concurrently. She has elected to live and work in Washington from January through May of 2013, becoming the first U.S. poet laureate to choose to work in the Poets Room at the Library of Congress during her term.
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Albert Kahn was a French-born banker and philanthropist who amassed a collection of color photographs produced in the early 1900’s, when color photography was rare and expensive. He used his fortune to commission individual photographers to travel to more than 50 countries around the world and capture their unique cultures on film. Kahn’s gallery of over 72,000 autochromes remained mostly hidden until recently, when the BBC embarked on an ambitious project to bring them into the public domain. These particular photographs were taken in Mongolia in 1913.
A hunter near Urga
A woman sentenced to starvation death
Badamdorj in vicinity of the Yellow Palace, Urga
Carriage of Stefan Passe between Kykhta and Urga
Lama
Lamas at the Yellow Palace
Married woman in Urga
Outside Urga, the capital city
Mongolian yurtas, large round tents with vertical walls and conical roofs
Street in Urga
Stupas, dome-shaped monuments used to house Buddhist relics, in Urga
Buddhist temple in Urga
Triumphal Gates of the Yellow Palace in Urga
Two Buryat riders in Troitskosavske
Two Cossack soldiers in Urga
Urga
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Former First Lady Barbara Pierce Bush is 87.
Actor – comedian Jerry Stiller (Seinfeld, The King of Queens, Hairspray, Tattingers) is 85.
Comedienne – author Joan Rivers (Joan Alexandra Molinsky) is 79.
Actor Bernie Casey (Roots: The Next Generation, The Bay City Blues, In the Mouth of Madness, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Rent-A- Cop, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, Backfire) is 73.
Singer Nancy Sinatra (These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, Sugar Town, Somethin’ Stupid) is 72.
Singer Chuck Negron (Three Dog Night) is 70.
Actor – musician Don Grady (Agrati; My Three Sons, Mickey Mouse Club) is 68.
Singer – songwriter – guitarist Boz (William) Scaggs (Lowdown, Lido Shuffle, Miss Sun, Look What You’ve Done to Me) is 68.
Writer Sara Paretsky (Burn Marks, Killing Orders) is 65.
Actress Kathy Baker (Picket Fences, Edward Scissorhands, Mad Dog and Glory, The Right Stuff) is 62.
Singer Bonnie Tyler (Total Eclipse of the Heart, It’s a Heartache) is 61.
Actor Griffin Dunne (The Android Affair, Quiz Show, Love Matters, Straight Talk, Big Blue) is 57.
Actor – writer – producer – director Keenan Ivory Wayans (In Living Color, A Low Down Dirty Shame, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, Hollywood Shuffle) is 54.
Singer Mick ‘Red’ Hucknall (Simply Red) is 52.
Keyboardist Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran) is 50.
Actress Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife, ER, The Newton Boys) is 46.
Actor Dan Futterman (Judging Amy, The Fisher King, Big Girls Don’t Cry… They Get Even) is 45.
Actress Kelli Williams (The Practice, Zapped Again!, Switched at Birth) is 42.
Filed under Birthdays
632 – Mohammed, the founder of Islam, died in Medina, near present-day Saudi Arabia.
A folio from an early Quran, written in Kufic script (Abbasid period, 8th–9th century).
1783 – Iceland’s Laki Volcano erupted and spewed lava continuously for eight months. One of the most violent of volcanic eruptions ever recorded, it killed 9,350 people and caused a famine which lasted until 1790.
1786 – Commercial ice cream was manufactured for the first time in New York City.
1810 – Composer Robert Schumann (Symphonic Etudes, Fantasia in C Major, Concerto in a Minor) was born in Saxony, Germany.
1867 – Architect Frank Lloyd Wright (Pennsylvania’s Falling Water, NYC’s Guggenheim Museum) was born in Richland Center, WI.
1869 – Ives W. McGaffey of Chicago, IL, received a U.S. patent for the suction vacuum cleaner.
1874 – Chief Cochise, a leader of the Apache Indians, died on the Chiricahua Reservation in southeastern Arizona.
1966 – The American Football League and the National Football League announced they will merge.
1968 – James Earl Ray, the prime suspect in the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., was arrested in London.
Filed under History
Beginning this weekend, the North Texas Water Garden Society will stage their 21st annual “Tour of Ponds.” This is when various homeowners throughout the entire Dallas / Fort Worth metropolitan area present their decorative ponds for public viewing. Former Dallas City Councilman Ron Natinsky and his wife, Nancy, are among the homeowners. But, Ron Natinsky has done something different with his pond; it features a quarter-mile of train tracks winding through a scenic village and a large water garden highlighted by a stream, a bridge and glimmering koi fish. Some men – myself included – never grow up when it comes to model trains, cars and the like.
“We visited Switzerland and Germany and we saw these miniature villages,” explains Natinsky. “I had to have one. These were big, man-sized toy trains.”
These sets are known as G Scale to toy-train enthusiasts and are roughly one-twentieth actual size. When Natinsky began his train collection about eight years ago, they were not readily available in this area, so he brought engines and train cars back from Europe. Now several area retailers sell garden train supplies, as well as many online businesses.
The Natinskys have created a backyard village with surprising details. A doughnut shop has a police officer standing out front; a pair of sunbathers lounge under the protection of a dinosaur; and a miniature Love Field hangar is home to several airplanes. The area is kept in scale with dwarf vegetation such as mugo pines and dwarf yaupon hollies, Japanese maples and pomegranates. These are just a handful of photos of the Natinsky setup. Check out this 360 view. All photos by Lara Solt, Dallas Morning News staff photographer.
Ron and Nancy Natinsky oversee the garden railroad at their North Dallas home.
Several dwarf ornamental plants, including a pomegranate, landscape the area around the pond.
Ron Natinsky saw garden railroad setups in Europe and told his wife he had to have one for his own.
Ron Natinsky rearranges a miniature gas station in preparation for the pond tour on Saturday and Sunday.
The Natinskys’ address is one of more than 30 included in the North Texas Water Garden Society’s 21st annual event.
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Singer Tom Jones (It’s Not Unusual, She’s a Lady, What’s New Pussycat?, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, Without Love, Delilah, Love Me Tonight, Green Green Grass of Home, Sex Bomb) is 72.
Poet Nikki Giovanni (The Women and the Men, My House) is 69.
Actor Ken Osmond (Leave It to Beaver, High School U.S.A.) is 69.
Actor Liam Neeson (Excalibur, The Dead Pool, Ethan Frome, Schindler’s List, Rob Roy) is 60.
Singer – songwriter – guitarist – music producer Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson; I Wanna be Your Lover, When Doves Cry, Let’s Go Crazy, Purple Rain, Raspberry Beret, Kiss) is 54.
Actress Gia Carides (Primary Colors, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, A Secret Affair) is 48.
Guitarist David M. Navarro (Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers) is 45.
Hockey player Mike Modano (Minnesota North Stars, Dallas Stars) is 42.
Tennis champion Anna Kournikova is 31.
Filed under Birthdays
1848 – Artist Paul Gaugin (The Yellow Christ, Where Do We Come From? Where Are We? Where Are We Going?) was born in Paris.
1866 – Chief Seattle, for whom the Seattle, WA, is named, died in a nearby coastal village.
1909 – Physician Virginia Apgar, developed the Apgar Score System, a method of evaluating newborns’ need for medical care, was born in Westfield, NJ.
1913 – Hudson Stuck, an Alaskan missionary, led the first successful ascent of Mt. McKinley, the highest point on the North American continent.
1917 – Poet Gwendolyn Brooks (Annie Allen, We Real Cool, The Bean Eaters, Winnie, Coming Home) was born in Topeka, KS.
1917 – Dean Martin (Dino Paul Crocetti; singer: Memories are Made of This, Return to Me, Everybody Loves Somebody, The Door is Still Open to My Heart, Houston; actor: My Friend Irma, Hollywood or Bust, Airport) was born in Steubenville, OH.
1939 – King George VI became the first British monarch to visit the United States, when he and his wife, Elizabeth, crossed the U.S. – Canadian border at Niagara Falls, NY.
1942 – The 4-day “Battle of Midway” – one of the most decisive victories in the U.S. war against Japan – came to an end. But then, Japanese soldiers landed on and temporarily took control of the Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska, marking the only time foreign military personnel occupied U.S. territory during World War II. The Japanese killed 25 American troops in the initial assault, but the U.S. wouldn’t recapture the islands until the following year.
Filed under History
Chief Writing Wolf 
Quote of the Day
“Wouldn’t it be interesting to do a study between those that are on welfare and see how much and how often they read the Bible. You know, if Booker T. Washington is right that Christianity and reading the Bible increases your desires and therefore your ability for hard work; if we take that as an axiom, does that mean that the people who are getting government assistance spend nearly no time in the Bible, therefore have no desire, and therefore no ability for hard work? I could go a lot of places with this. I would love to see this proven out in some kind of sociological study, but it makes perfect sense.”
– David Barton, about a supposed connection linking welfare to failure to read the Bible.
Barton sits on the Texas State Board of Education as an alleged “expert” for the state’s social studies curriculum. That’s like saying Rick Santorum is an expert on birth control.
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Tagged as David Barton, revisionist history, stupid comments, Texas State Board of Education