Two EVENTS:   Dec 2 Rochester 6:30 PM -9-ish .Writer's Night at Mel Flanagan's Irish Pub and Cafe .The feature performer is Doug Decker- a teacher, and a talented writer. Sign-ups 6:30 PM, and feature performer 7PM on the Cafe side of the restaurant…break,then, the open mic.  Mel provides complimentary coffee/tea and cookies for participants, and her regular menu is also available  (Pat O’Brien, 332-6357)   Dover, Dec 2, 7pm – 9pm Primal Tongue  Adelle's Coffeehouse, 3 Hale St, Dover, NH ; prose oriented reading night! ... contact Josiah at jeikelboom.osiail.com   Dec 2, Portsmouth: Best-selling author Stephen King will discuss his new book, Full Dark, No Stars. Tickets cost $27.99 and includes a copy of his book.E-mail RiverRun at riverrunking.gmail.com to purchase tickets. At 7 p.m., RiverRun Bookstore (603-431-2100; www.riverrunbookstore.com).   BIRTHDAYS: December 2 Francis Xavier Quadrio, Jesuit, and historical writer, 1695, http://www.manresa-sj.org/stamps/1_Xavier_3.htm Bertinazzi, Italian actor and writer (1710 - 1783) http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/66.92 Henry Gaily Knight, illustrator of architectural antiquities, 1786. http://www.rotherhamunofficial.co.uk/villages/woodsettsarea/firbeck-hall.html Georges Seurat  (1859 – 03/29/1891)  French artist http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/seurat/ Henry T. Burleigh 1866. African-American gospel singer and composer. http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/henry-burleigh-dedicated-gospel-performer Ruth Draper  (1884 – 12/30/1956)  English monologuist http://www.drapermonologues.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.introduction Nikos Kazantzakis   1885- 1957 Greek writer, whose works include essays, novels, poems, tragedies, travel books, and translations http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kazantza.htm http://grammar.about.com/od/shortpassagesforanalysis/a/Kazantzakis.htm [ESSAY FROM SKIP- If Tolkien got me thru the sixties then Nikos got me thru the seventies …] Charles Harris Wesley 1891. African-American historian, educator, and minister http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/charles-wesley-early-promoter-black-studies Wilfredo Lam 1902. He was an Afro-Cuban twentieth century artist. http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/wilfredo-lam-afro-cuban-art-extraordinaire Jon Silkin (1930) Brit Poet http://www.people.vcu.edu/~dlatane/silkin.html                                              A Daisy Look unoriginal Being numerous. They ask for attention With that gradated yellow swelling Of oily stamens. Petals focus them: The eye-lashes grow wide. Why should not one bring these to a funeral? And at night, like children, Without anxiety, their consciousness Shut with white petals; Blithe, individual. The unwearying, small sunflower Fills the grass With versions of one eye. A strength in the full look Candid, solid, glad. Domestic as milk. In multitudes, wait, Each, to be looked at, spoken to. They do not wither; Their going, a pressure Of elate sympathy Released from you. Rich up to the last interval With minute tubes of oil, pollen; Utterly without scent, for the eye, For the eye, simply. For the mind And its invisible organ, That feeling thing. http://www.people.vcu.edu/~dlatane/flower.html Brian Lumley, England, 1937 -  sci-fi author (Compleat Crow, Psychomech) http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/brian-lumley/  Penelope Spheeris, 1945 - American film director http://penelopespheeris.com/bio.html   T. Coraghessan Boyle, 1948 - American writer http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/b/t_coraghessan_boyle/index.html George Saunders, 1958 -  American writer http://www.iblist.com/author11967.htm Ann Patchett, 1963 -  American novelist http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/p/ann-patchett/       PASSED December 2 Pierre Paul Puget, French artist (1622-1694)  http://www.juggle.com/pierre-paul-puget Samuel Penhallow, English-born American colonist and historian (1665- 1726 ) http://www.penhallow.net/samuel.html Vincent Bourne, English classical scholar (1695- 1747) http://www.tastearts.com/food-poem-the-snail-a-translation-from-vincent-bourne-by-william-cowper/ Marquis de Sade  (06/02/1740 –1814)  French writer http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28718 http://www.neilschaeffer.com/sade/index.htm http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0211381/ Amelia Opie (1853) novelist http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poet/245.html Margit Kaffka,Hung.  writer, 1918 http://www.jstor.org/pss/2491932 http://mek.niif.hu/02000/02042/html/47.html Edmond Rostand, French poet and dramatist 1868- 1918 http://www.theatrehistory.com/french/rostand001.html http://www.literaturepost.com/authors/Rostand.html                                               Sol. By  CHANTECLER   O thou that driest the tears of the meanest among weeds   And dost of a dead flower make a living butterfly—   Thy miracle, wherever almond-trees   Shower down the wind their scented shreds,   Dead petals dancing in a living swarm—   I worship thee, O Sun! whose ample light,   Blessing every forehead, ripening every fruit,   Entering every flower and every hovel,   Pours itself forth and yet is never less,   Still spending and unspent—like mother's love!   I sing of thee, and will be thy high priest,   Who disdainest not to glass thy shining face   In the humble basin of blue suds,   Or see the lightning of thy last farewell   Reflected in an humble cottage pane!   http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10747/pg10747.html Nordahl Grieg, writer, 1943 http://www.jstor.org/pss/441443 Stephen Potter  (02/01/1900 –1969)  English writer http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0693355/ Romain Gary, Lithuanian-born French writer 1914- 1980 http://www.romaingary.org/ http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/32807.Romain_Gary Philip  Arthur Larkin (1922-85) English poet, novelist, and critic  http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/larkin.htm http://www.philiplarkin.com/biog.htm Aaron Copland  (11/14/1900 –1990)  US composer    http://www.incwell.com/Biographies/Copland.html Robertson Davies  (08/28/1913 –1995)  Canadian writer http://www.suite101.com/content/robertson-davies-a31910 Alan Davidson, British author  1924- 2003 http://rdeh.tripod.com/ Mona Van Duyn, American poet 1921-2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34049-2004Dec3.html     SITES: http://www.acousticspokenword.com/wordpress/ http://www.goodreads.com/quotes http://whatthecool.com/post/1133566884/desk-made-out-of-books http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~esincoff/poetry/jpoetry.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/12/best-picture-books-2010_n_781894.html#s180358 http://www.evergreenreview.com/100/poetry/ferlinghetti.html         HISTORY:   1805 - Napoleon defeats Russians & Austrians at Austerlitz http://austerlitzny.com/?p=125     1859 - John Brown, US abolitionist (Harpers Ferry), http://www.gdg.org/Research/Authored%20Items/benet.htm     1867 - In a New York City theater,  British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States. http://charlesdickenspage.com/america.html     1957 - Sam Cooke's "You Send Me" reaches #1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqzv1ZS6uZs     1988 - "Naked Gun" premieres, a movie based on TV's "Police Squad" http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7468301-actorcomedian-leslie-neilsen84-dies     BONUS POEM: First Poem for You   I like to touch your tattoos in complete darkness, when I can’t see them. I’m sure of where they are, know by heart the neat lines of lightning pulsing just above your nipple, can find, as if by instinct, the blue swirls of water on your shoulder where a serpent twists, facing a dragon. When I pull you   to me, taking you until we’re spent and quiet on the sheets, I love to kiss the pictures in your skin. They’ll last until you’re seared to ashes; whatever persists or turns to pain between us, they will still be there. Such permanence is terrifying. So I touch them in the dark; but touch them, trying.   by Kim Addonizio   http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=176985