120510StraffNotes   EVENTS: Downingtown PA Click here  Click hereClick here ; Click here Click here     Click here 12/5   2:30PM   DelRossi's, Dublin, NH   Special reading from Milton's "Paradise Lost" with the Milton Ensemble mailto: Click here       BIRTHDAYS:   Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, Russian poet (Click here - 1873) There is a spell in autumn early, One all too brief, of an enchantment rare: The nights are radiant and pearly, The days, pellucid, crystal-clear. Where played the sickle and fell the corn, a mellow, A warm and breathless stillness reigns supreme; Spanning the brown and idle furrow, A dainty thread of cobweb gleams. The birds have flown, we hear no more their clamour, But winter's angry winds not soon will start to blow - Upon the empty fields there pours the azure glow Of skies that have not lost the warmth of summer. Click here Click here Christina Rossetti,  (1830 – Click here/1894)  English poet Click here                                                                       Click here O roses for the flush of youth,   And laurel for the perfect prime; But pluck an ivy branch for me   Grown old before my time.   O violets for the grave of youth,   And bay for those dead in their prime; Give me the withered leaves I chose   Before in the old time.   Click here Ellis Parker Butler, American author (Click here - 1937) Click here David Bomberg, English painter (1890 - 1957) Click here  (Lady Huxley) Juliette Baillot, Click here – author Click here Click here 1897-1977 American screenwriter, producer, and director Click here Walter Elias Disney, 1901 -  Chicago, animator (Mickey Mouse) Click here Click here 1901-76 German theoretical physicist Nobel Prize for Physics in 1932 ;created quantum mechanics. Click here Annie Green Nelson 1902. She was an African-American writer. Click here Otto Preminger, Click here -  Austria, director/producer (Laura, Exodus) Click here Click here 1910-99  American director and screenwriter Click here John A[lfred] Williams (1925) African American novelist, journalist, and biographer Click here Joan Didion (1934) U.S. writer  US novelist/journalist (Salvador) Click here Calvin Trillin (1935) New York author, columnist, and satirist Click here James Lee Burke, Click here -  American writer Click here Peter Pohl, 1940 - Swedish writer Click here Click here  (12/05/1941 – Click here/2007)  English writer Click here Morgan J. Freeman, 1969 - American film director Click here   PASSED Gerardus Mercator, Flemish philosopher/cartographer, Click here Click here Sir Click here, poet and miscellaneous writer, 1639 Click here Click here Phillis Wheatley (1784) 1st important black poet in America Click here Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart  (01/27/1756 – 1791)  Austrian composer Click here Friedrich Leopold Count Stolberg, German poet  1750- Click here    Click here Click here Alexandre Dumas Père  (07/24/1802 –1870)  French writer Click here Eliza Roxcy Snow, American[LDS] poet (1804-Click here) Click here Chief Gall, Sioux chief (1840-Click here  ) Click here Click here  (Click here/1862 – 1923)  French writer, politician Click here Claude Monet  (11/14/1840 –1926)  French painter Click here Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931)   , American poet   THIS section is a Christmas tree: Loaded with pretty toys for you. Behold the blocks, the Noah's arks, The popguns painted red and blue. No solemn pine-cone forest-fruit, But silver horns and candy sacks And many little tinsel hearts And cherubs pink, and jumping-jacks. For every child a gift, I hope. The doll upon the topmost bough Is mine. But all the rest are yours. And I will light the candles now.   Click here   Abanindranath Tagore, Indian writer (1871-1951) Click here Click here  (Click here/1910 – 12/05/1973)  English writer Click here Pietro Germi, actor/director (Serafino, Climax), 1974 Click here Robert Aldrich, dir/producer (Last Sunset), Click here Click here Robert Parrish, film director editor/actor (Casino Royale), 1995 Click here Gwen Harwood, Australian poet (1920-  1995) Click here Click here Last Meeting Shadows grazing eastward melt from their vast sun-driven flocks into consubstantial dusk. A snow wind flosses the bleak rocks, strips from the gums their rags of bark, and spins the coil of winter tight round our last meeting as we walk the littoral zone of day and night, light's turncoat margin: rocks and trees dissolve in nightfall-eddying waters; tumbling whorls of cloud disclose the cold eyes of the sea-god's daughters. We tread the wrack of grass that once a silver-bearded congregation whispered about our foolish love. Your voice in calm annunciation from the dry eminence of thought rings with astringent melancholy: 'Could hope recall, or wish prolong the vanished violence of folly? Minute by minute summer died; time's horny skeletons have built this reef on which our love lies wrecked. Our hearts drown in their cardinal guilt.'    The world, said Ludwig Wittgenstein, is everything that is the case. - The warmth of human lips and thighs; the lifeless cold of outer space; this windy darkness; Scorpio above, a watercourse of light; the piercing absence of one face withdrawn for ever from my sight.    Click here Daphne Fielding, socialite/writer, 1997 Click here Click here  (Click here/1923 –1999)  US writer Click here     SITES:   Click here Click here Click here Click here Click here Click here     HISTORY:   Click here 1734  -Click here publishes "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed"   Click here 1876 - Fire at Brooklyn Theater kills 295, trampled or burned to death Click here 1941 - US aircraft carrier Lexington/5 heavy cruisers leave Pearl Harbor Click here Click here 1967 - Benjamin Spock & Allen Ginsberg arrested protesting Vietnam war Click here Click here Click here   BONUS POEM: INFLUENCE.      The fervent, pale-faced Mother ere she sleep,      Looks out upon the zigzag-lighted square,      The beautiful bare trees, the blue night-air,      The revelation of the star-strewn deep,      World above world, and heaven over heaven.      Between the tree-tops and the skies, her sight      Rests on a steadfast, ruddy-shining light,      High in the tower, an earthly star of even.      Hers is the faith in saints' and angels' power,      And mediating love—she breathes a prayer      For yon tired watcher in the gray old tower.      He the shrewd, skeptic poet unaware      Feels comforted and stilled, and knows not whence      Falls this unwonted peace on heart and sense.                                                            Emma Lazarus     Click here