THREE EVENTS: December 3 & 4  Franklin, NH  7:30 p.m. At The Historic Franklin  Opera House A Good Ol' Burlesque Show-  A Musical Comedy Revue  In The Vaudeville Style ; 316 Central Street, Franklin, Call The Box Office at 603-934-1901 or Online at  Click here   7:30 pm – First Unitarian-Universalist Society, Exeter – First Friday Coffeehouse – Feature Ryan Judd  followed by open mike (Bob Moore, 642-4648 or Click here)   12/3   3-4PM   Art Gallery, New England College, Henniker, NH   Students from Maura McNeil's poetry Workshops will read mailto: mmcneil.nec.edu        BIRTHDAYS: Luigi Pulci, Italian poet, 1431, Click here Gilbert Stuart, Click here - US, portrait painter (painted Washington) Click here Click here, (1766 – 08/19/1823)  English writer /poet Click here Click here Mary Lamb (1763) Eng writer/ co-author   Helen           High-born Helen, round your dwelling           These twenty years I've paced in vain:         Haughty beauty, thy lover's duty           Hath been to glory in his pain.         High-born Helen, plainly telling           Stories of thy cold disdain;         I starve, I die, now you comply,           And I no longer can complain.         These twenty years I've lived on tears.           Dwelling for ever on a frown;         On sighs I've fed, your scorn my bread;           I perish now you kind are grown.         Can I, who loved my beloved           But for the scorn "was in her eye,"         Can I be moved for my beloved,           When she "returns me sigh for sigh?"         In stately pride, by my bed-side,           High-born Helen's portrait's hung;         Deaf to my praise, my mournful lays           Are nightly to the portrait sung.         To that I weep, nor ever sleep,           Complaining all night long to her—         Helen, grown old, no longer cold,           Said, "you to all men I prefer."                                                                           (Summer, 1800. Text of 1818) Click here Sir Rowland Hill  (1795 – 08/27/1879)  English clergyman, writer  introduced 1st adhesive postage stamp (1840) Click here France Preseren  1800 Slovenian poet (Krst pri Savici) Click here Click here Click here  Poet   (1803) Click here Cleveland Abbe, Click here- US, meteorologist (Father of Weather Bureau) Click here Click here (1858) Eng poet Click here Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), [Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski], Polish-born English writer Click here Oliver Herford  (1863 – 07/05/1935)  British-born US writer, artist Click here Max Meldrum, Scottish-born Australian painter 1875 - 1955) Click here John Urzidil, 1896 - Austria/US writer (Die erbeuteten Frauen) Click here Kate O'Brien  1897  Irish writer (Without My Cloak) Click here Nigel M Balchin, [Mark Spade], 1908 -  English author (Business for Pleasure) Click here Dana Suesse, Click here - songwriter (You Ought to be in Pictures) Click here Jean-Luc Godard   (12/03/1930 – )  French director Click here Mel Smith, 1952 -  author (Morons From Outer Space) Click here Mark Salzman  (1959), US novelist and memoirist Click here Andrew Stanton, 1965 - American animator Click here   PASSED:   Jacques Sarazin, Click here  French sculptor/painter Click here Clara Reeve, Click here English author (old English baron), Click here Giovanni Belzoni, explorer of Egyptian antiquities, 1823, Click here John Flaxman, sculptor, 1826, London; Click here Robert Montgomery, poet, 1855 Click here Christian Rauch, Ger. sculptor, 1857, Click here Afanasy Fet, Russian poet 1820-1892 Click here Click here (1894) Click here Click here Pierre A Renoir, French painter/sculptor, Click here Click here Frank E Gannett, newspaper publisher, Click here Click here Virginia Lacy Jones, US librarian/presidents advisor, Click here Click here Lewis Thomas  (11/25/1913 –1993)  US physician, writer Click here Hoyt Curtin, American songwriter 1922-2000 Click here Gwendolyn Brooks  (06/07/1917 –2000)  US writer Click here Click here                               A Sunset of the City Already I am no longer looked at with lechery or love. My daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls, Are gone from the house. My husband and lovers are pleasant or somewhat polite And night is night. It is a real chill out, The genuine thing. I am not deceived, I do not think it is still summer Because sun stays and birds continue to sing. It is summer-gone that I see, it is summer-gone. The sweet flowers indrying and dying down, The grasses forgetting their blaze and consenting to brown. It is a real chill out. The fall crisp comes I am aware there is winter to heed. There is no warm house That is fitted with my need. I am cold in this cold house this house Whose washed echoes are tremulous down lost halls. I am a woman, and dusty, standing among new affairs. I am a woman who hurries through her prayers. Tin intimations of a quiet core to be my Desert and my dear relief Come: there shall be such islanding from grief, And small communion with the master shore. Twang they. And I incline this ear to tin, Consult a dual dilemma. Whether to dry In humming pallor or to leap and die. Somebody muffed it?? Somebody wanted to joke.   Click here Click here   SITES: Click here Click here Click here Click here Click here       HISTORY:      Click here - Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England, from Colombia Click here Click here - After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic. Click here Click here Click here - Tennessee Williams' "Streetcar Named Desire," premieres in NYC Click here Click here Click here 1979 - Christies auctions a thimble for a record $18,400 Click here   BONUS POEM: Click here Did you choose the journey, friend? No, nor I; But to make it cheerfully, Let us try. When the day is dark, I pray, Sing a song to cheer the way, For tomorrow we will be One day nearer to the sea. Did you choose the journey, friend? No, nor I; But we know the end will come By and by. All today we bear the load Up the weary winding road, But tomorrow we may be At the Inn in company.     The Independent                                                      Ruth Sterry