On the Home Front
Feb. 8th, 2023 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxkloreI am very far behind on things, but here’s a bit of a catch-up. My trip to Tucson this past weekend will get its own post.
First, a reminder from the Shameless Self-Promotion Department. You can get tickets to the on-line Fractured Fairy Tales show I am part of tomorrow night at the Better Said Than Done website until February 12th and will get a month to watch the recording if you can’t make it live. The story I am going to be telling is one of my most popular, so you don’t want to miss this!
Celebrity Death Watch: Charles Kimbrough was an actor, who got his start on Broadway but is probably best known for playing Jim Dial on Murphy Brown. Wally Campo was an actor, whose work included narrating the original (non-musical) movie Little Shop of Horrors. Carl Hahn was the chairman of Volkswagen. Jonathan Raban was a travel writer. Sal Bando was a Hall of Fame baseball player. Ted Bell was a suspense novelist. Victor Navasky was a magazine novelist, best known for writing about the Hollywood blacklist. Top Topham was a guitarist for The Yardbirds. Tom Verlaine was the lead guitarist and singer for the band Television. Bob Born was the president of Just Born, the candy company responsible for Peeps (invented by his father) and Hot Tamales. Bobby Hull was a Hall of Fame hockey player with the Chicago Blackhawks and other teams. Charles Silverstein wrote The Joy of Gay Sex. Charlie Thomas sang with The Drifters. Pervez Musharraf was the president of Pakistan from 2001-2008. David Harris was an anti-Vietnam war activist and was married to Joan Baez for 7 years.
David Crosby was a singer and songwriter. I know I went to a CSN concert at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley somewhere around 1982 or so, but I don’t remember the actual details.
Cindy Williams played Shirley in the TV show Laverne and Shirley, as well as appearing in several movies.
Lisa Loring played Wednesday Addams on The Addams Family.
Barrett Strong was a singer and songwriter. The songs he co-wrote with Norman Whitfield include several of the greatest Motown hits, such as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Just My Imagination.”
Paco Rabanne was a fashion designer. He was well-known for modernistic designs, including the costumes for the movie Barbarella, but I particularly remember his men’s fragrance.
Storyteller Death Watch: Tom Weakley was a storyteller from Vermont. I was privileged to see him perform a couple of times. He had a wonderful story about the origins of the word "Yankee." And his version of The Two Pickpockets included the lovely detail of a pickpocket going over the border to Canada but having to steal 25% more to break even.
Ingrid Nixon and Shackleton: I forgot to mention last time that I’d gone to Ingrid Nixon’s virtual storytelling show about Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance expedition. As someone with a long-standing interest in polar exploration, I thought she did a good job of telling the story and emphasizing his leadership. She also included a song that some of the men had written about Frank Wild (who was left to manage the group on Elephant Island while Shackleton went with 5 other men to South Georgia to seek rescue). Overall, it made for a very entertaining evening.
I still think, however, that Douglas Mawson’s story is a better one for sheer ability to survive. For those who are not familiar with it, both of his companions died, he lost half his sled, had to climb out of a crevasse he fell into, and made it back to his hut just in time to see his ship pulling out, forcing him to spend another winter on his own.
Jewish Barbados: I went to a virtual talk last Tuesday about Jewish Barbados. The speaker, Neal Rechtman, was an American who moved to Barbados when Trump was elected. He said he chose Barbados after looking for somewhere in the Caribbean that had both a synagogue and a bridge club. Anyway, much of the talk was focused on the Nidra Israel Synagogue, which was first built in 1664, but rebuilt in 1834 after a major hurricane. The early community consisted of Sephardic Jews who left Recife, Brazil in 1654 when the Portuguese captured it from the Dutch and brought the Inquisition. There were approximately 300 settlers who came on three ships of the Dutch East India Company, out of 44 ships. (Another 40+ ships went to other places, including Charleston, South Carolina, New York, and Amsterdam.) Oliver Cromwell allowed them to come to the British colony because his wars were financed by Jewish bankers in Amsterdam. The Jewish community jumpstarted the sugar industry and those ships brought the equipment needed for sugar cane processing, as well as slaves. The 1831 hurricane destroyed the synagogue and, while the 50 remaining families rebuilt the synagogue, the community dwindled rapidly and only 2 Jews were left by 1921. The synagogue became a law library and was rescued from destruction in the 1980’s, when it was turned over to the Barbados National Trust. The synagogue and cemetery were restored completely by 1987, using the original architecture’s drawings and records, along with money raised by the descendants of Ashkenazi Jews who fled the Nazis in the 1930’s.
The other interesting story he told had to do with why Rabbi Hayim Isaac Carregal’s portrait hangs at the Sterling Library at Yale. In short, Rabbi Carregal taught Hebrew to Ezra Stiles, the Protestant minister who became president of Yale in the
1780’s.
Things Disappear: I spent an hour searching for the headphone adapter for my phone, with no success. Of course, it turned out to be in pocketbook all along.
I have still not, however, found out what happened to a metal rail from a hanging file folder which flew off somewhere when I opened the folder. It must be somewhere in my bedroom, but it has become completely invisible.
Sigh: The cruise I was supposed to take in April has been canceled. I am still sorting out my options.
First, a reminder from the Shameless Self-Promotion Department. You can get tickets to the on-line Fractured Fairy Tales show I am part of tomorrow night at the Better Said Than Done website until February 12th and will get a month to watch the recording if you can’t make it live. The story I am going to be telling is one of my most popular, so you don’t want to miss this!
Celebrity Death Watch: Charles Kimbrough was an actor, who got his start on Broadway but is probably best known for playing Jim Dial on Murphy Brown. Wally Campo was an actor, whose work included narrating the original (non-musical) movie Little Shop of Horrors. Carl Hahn was the chairman of Volkswagen. Jonathan Raban was a travel writer. Sal Bando was a Hall of Fame baseball player. Ted Bell was a suspense novelist. Victor Navasky was a magazine novelist, best known for writing about the Hollywood blacklist. Top Topham was a guitarist for The Yardbirds. Tom Verlaine was the lead guitarist and singer for the band Television. Bob Born was the president of Just Born, the candy company responsible for Peeps (invented by his father) and Hot Tamales. Bobby Hull was a Hall of Fame hockey player with the Chicago Blackhawks and other teams. Charles Silverstein wrote The Joy of Gay Sex. Charlie Thomas sang with The Drifters. Pervez Musharraf was the president of Pakistan from 2001-2008. David Harris was an anti-Vietnam war activist and was married to Joan Baez for 7 years.
David Crosby was a singer and songwriter. I know I went to a CSN concert at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley somewhere around 1982 or so, but I don’t remember the actual details.
Cindy Williams played Shirley in the TV show Laverne and Shirley, as well as appearing in several movies.
Lisa Loring played Wednesday Addams on The Addams Family.
Barrett Strong was a singer and songwriter. The songs he co-wrote with Norman Whitfield include several of the greatest Motown hits, such as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Just My Imagination.”
Paco Rabanne was a fashion designer. He was well-known for modernistic designs, including the costumes for the movie Barbarella, but I particularly remember his men’s fragrance.
Storyteller Death Watch: Tom Weakley was a storyteller from Vermont. I was privileged to see him perform a couple of times. He had a wonderful story about the origins of the word "Yankee." And his version of The Two Pickpockets included the lovely detail of a pickpocket going over the border to Canada but having to steal 25% more to break even.
Ingrid Nixon and Shackleton: I forgot to mention last time that I’d gone to Ingrid Nixon’s virtual storytelling show about Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance expedition. As someone with a long-standing interest in polar exploration, I thought she did a good job of telling the story and emphasizing his leadership. She also included a song that some of the men had written about Frank Wild (who was left to manage the group on Elephant Island while Shackleton went with 5 other men to South Georgia to seek rescue). Overall, it made for a very entertaining evening.
I still think, however, that Douglas Mawson’s story is a better one for sheer ability to survive. For those who are not familiar with it, both of his companions died, he lost half his sled, had to climb out of a crevasse he fell into, and made it back to his hut just in time to see his ship pulling out, forcing him to spend another winter on his own.
Jewish Barbados: I went to a virtual talk last Tuesday about Jewish Barbados. The speaker, Neal Rechtman, was an American who moved to Barbados when Trump was elected. He said he chose Barbados after looking for somewhere in the Caribbean that had both a synagogue and a bridge club. Anyway, much of the talk was focused on the Nidra Israel Synagogue, which was first built in 1664, but rebuilt in 1834 after a major hurricane. The early community consisted of Sephardic Jews who left Recife, Brazil in 1654 when the Portuguese captured it from the Dutch and brought the Inquisition. There were approximately 300 settlers who came on three ships of the Dutch East India Company, out of 44 ships. (Another 40+ ships went to other places, including Charleston, South Carolina, New York, and Amsterdam.) Oliver Cromwell allowed them to come to the British colony because his wars were financed by Jewish bankers in Amsterdam. The Jewish community jumpstarted the sugar industry and those ships brought the equipment needed for sugar cane processing, as well as slaves. The 1831 hurricane destroyed the synagogue and, while the 50 remaining families rebuilt the synagogue, the community dwindled rapidly and only 2 Jews were left by 1921. The synagogue became a law library and was rescued from destruction in the 1980’s, when it was turned over to the Barbados National Trust. The synagogue and cemetery were restored completely by 1987, using the original architecture’s drawings and records, along with money raised by the descendants of Ashkenazi Jews who fled the Nazis in the 1930’s.
The other interesting story he told had to do with why Rabbi Hayim Isaac Carregal’s portrait hangs at the Sterling Library at Yale. In short, Rabbi Carregal taught Hebrew to Ezra Stiles, the Protestant minister who became president of Yale in the
1780’s.
Things Disappear: I spent an hour searching for the headphone adapter for my phone, with no success. Of course, it turned out to be in pocketbook all along.
I have still not, however, found out what happened to a metal rail from a hanging file folder which flew off somewhere when I opened the folder. It must be somewhere in my bedroom, but it has become completely invisible.
Sigh: The cruise I was supposed to take in April has been canceled. I am still sorting out my options.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-09 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-10 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-10 12:37 pm (UTC)I don't know why, but this made me laugh out loud. Sounds like a man who knows what he likes, I guess.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-10 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-13 02:38 pm (UTC)