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reetings from Australia.
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I am compelled to think that there is some thing in my writings more valuable, than in the productions of some people on whom you bestow warm eulogiums – I mean more mind – denominate it as you will – more observations of my own senses, more of the combining of my own imagination – the effusions of my own feelings and passions than the cold workings of the brain on the materials procured by the senses and imagination of other writers. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (who married the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley on December 30, 1816), to her father, William Godwin, September, 1796 I think you are doing up the Temperance business just right. But do not let the conservative element control. For instance, you must take Mrs Bloomer's suggestions with great caution, for she has not the spirit of the reformer. At the first woman's rights convention, but four years ago, she stood aloof and laughed at us. It was only with great effort and patience that she has been brought up to her present position. In her paper, she will not speak against the fugitive slave law, nor in her work to put down intemperance will she criticize the equivocal position of the church ... |
And now the reader asks, hadn't the man any
hobbies? Did he garden or play cards or shoot or hunt or fish? Not a bit
of it. He took a great deal of interest in small improvements to his
property, such as you may read about in Puck of Pook's Hill, but I
think that was mainly on account of the enjoyment he got from watching the
habits and customs of the English agricultural labourer, as set forth in
the same book. His sight was too bad to allow him to race over raspers in
the hunting-field or drop a dry fly over a rising trout: hence his
nick-name of Beetle in Stalky & Co. His only hobby was work. And like
Goethe's hero he toiled without haste and without rest. Look at a
collection of his works and you will get some idea of the urge that must
have driven him to keep working. At the age of forty he had written more
books than most men write in a lifetime, and not a line went into one of
those books that he did not verify. True, he did once describe the
Maribyrnong Plate as a steeplechase; but if he had had an Australian
turf-guide at hand, he would have corrected the error. I have already
quoted the Scotch engineer's objection to Kipling's description of the
destroyers lying in wait for their prey in the swirl of the reefs --
"and they drawing six feet forrard and nine feet aft." But did
not Shakespeare once locate a navy in Bohemia or some other inland
country. Apart from his literary work, he felt that the white man's burden
was laid on him to advocate in every way this bringing of the British
peoples under Empire council, with India as a sort of apprentice nation
until it learnt to govern itself. In view of what has happened lately, he
might have also questioned the ability of the white parts of the Empire to
govern themselves; but he said that, when the Australians grew up, and
when the young Africans forgot to be Dutch, there would be such an empire
as the world never saw. By wall of contribution to the debate, I suggested
that the Australians would always put Australia first, and that the young
Africans did not care a hoot about the Dutch -- they were Afrikanders
first, last, and all the time. But the only motherland he had known was
that "grim stepmother," India, and he could not conceive that
South Africans or Australians would study the interests of their own
territories when they might be partners in a great empire. One must
concede it to him that he took a large view.
Banjo Paterson
on Rudyard Kipling, English writer born on December 30, 1865
I was at the stadium
There were twenty thousand girls called their names out to me
Marie and Ruth but to tell you the truth
I didn't hear them I didn't see
I let my eyes rise to the big tower clock
and I heard those bells chimin' in my heart
going ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong.
ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong
counting the time, then you came to my room
and you whispered to me and we took the big plunge
and oh. you were so good, oh, you were so fine
and I gotta tell the world that I make her mine make her mine
make her mine make her mine make her mine make her mine
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria,
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria
and the tower bells chime, "ding dong" they chime
they're singing, "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine."
Patti Smith, American rock singer, born on December 30, 1946; 'Gloria (In excelsis deo)'
December 30 is the
364th day
of the year in the Gregorian calendar
(365th
in leap years), with 1 day remaining.
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Feast day of St Egwin of
Worcester
Egwin was a bishop who died at Evesham, England, in about
717; the story of his life bears some resemblance to that of St Adhelm.
He was possibly a member of
Mercian royal house, and thus a relative of King
Ethelred. Appointed
Bishop of Worcester in about 692, he founded a monastery at Evesham. This
came about when the Virgin
Mary was
seen first by a herdsman, Eof, or Eoves (who was shown where to site a
monastery), and then by Egwin himself in a meadow by the Avon River. The
place name Evesham derives from the herdsman's name.
Before setting out for Rome to defend himself again false accusations of strictness, he locked his feet in chains and threw the key into the River Avon. In Rome he went straight to the market and bought a salmon caught in the River Tiber. Miraculously, the key was in the belly of the fish.
The pope saw
this as a miracle proving St Egwin’s innocence. This is the story as it
is told in the chronicle of the abbey. William of Malmesbury says that the
fish leapt on board the ship on the saint's voyage. Another version says
that while Egwin prayed before the tomb of the Apostles, at Rome, one of
his servants brought him the key, which had been found in the maw of a
fish that had just been caught in the Tiber. Obviously all three versions
must be correct, and we in our ignorance can not fully comprehend, but
will in that blessed day when we rise in the air to meet Egwin and,
possibly, the salmon.
How Egwin got to
Rome with shackled feet is not known.
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Highly recommended:  The Winter Solstice A Keltelven Guide for
Celebrating the Winter Solstice  Land  Radio Ethiopia  Be A Goddess
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Photo of the day  10 Reasons to Abolish the IMF & World Bank
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The
Twelve Days of Christmas On the
fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Many sources say that the five golden rings (or gold rings) refer not to jewellery but to five Gold-ringed pheasants (Phasianus colchicus torquatus), thus the first seven gifts are fowl of one sort or another. Your almanackist would like to see a reliable source that confirms this theory. Feast day of St Anysia of
Salonika Feast day of St Donatus Feast day of St Exuperantius Feast day of St Felix I, Pope Feast day of St Honorius Feast day of St Liberius of Ravenna Feast day of St Marcellus
Feast day of Our Lady of Bethlehem Feast day of St Ralph of Vaucelles Feast day of St Raynerius of Aquila Feast day of St Venustian Birthday of Iman Reza, Iran Kwanzaa, African-American holiday (Dec 26 - Jan 1)
Year-end fire watch, Japan
The last two days of the calendar year in the lead up to O-Shogatsu, New Year, perhaps Japan’s most important holiday. Men gather at the chokai hall and sip tea and divide into teams to patrol the kami (upper) and shimo (lower) halves of the neighbourhood. In groups of five or six they carry flashlights and paper lanterns, as well as noisy clappers. They call out "Hi no yojin" - "Take care with fire!"
Rizal Day, Philippines
Guided By Voices Day in Chicago, Illinois
39 CE Titus (d. 81), the 10th Roman emperor (79 - 81), conqueror of Jerusalem 1819 Theodor Fontane (d. 1898), poet1865 Rudyard Kipling (d. 1936), Indian-born English novelist and poet, British imperialist celebrator-apologist, who wrote mainly of India; recipient Nobel Prize in literature 1907. Kipling visited Australia in 1891 (see November 14). 1869
Stephen
Leacock (d.
March 28,
1944), English-born
Canadian humorist (books Literary
Lapses; Nonsense Novels) 1879 Sri Ramana Maharshi (d. April 14, 1950), Hindu philosopher and yogi (Maharshi Research Institute) 1884 Hideki Tojo1897 Alfredo Bracchi, Italian author 1899 Helge Ingstad, Norwegian explorer, discoverer of the only confirmed Viking settlement in America (d. 2001) 1906
Sir Carol Reed (d. 1976), British film director (Kipps,
Odd
Man Out; The
Fallen Idol; The
Third Man; Our
Man in Havana; The
Agony and the Ecstasy; Oliver!).
In 1948, he married the actress Penelope
Dudley Ward, the elder daughter of Freda
Dudley Ward, who had been a mistress
of the Prince
of Wales, later Edward
VIII of the United Kingdom and Duke
of Windsor. They had one son, Max, and a nephew was the late
actor Oliver
Reed. 1910 Paul
Bowles 1911
Jeanette
Nolan 1914
Bert Parks 1917 Seymour Melman, industrial engineer 1920 1923
Sara Lidman 1928 Bo Diddley, American rhythm and blues singer and
guitarist 1934 Del
Shannon 1934 Joseph P Hoar, former commander of US Central Command 1937 (Noel) Paul Stookey, American folk music singer with Peter, Paul and Mary 1937 John Hartford 1942 Vladimir Bukovsky, author and civil rights activist 1942 Michael Nesmith, American singer,
musician (The Monkees) 1945 Davy Jones, singer (The Monkees)
1946
Patti Smith, American
singer/poet Smith is the daughter of an atheist father and a devout Jehovah's Witness mother, and these opposing influences have informed much of her work since. She has been called an early pioneer of punk rock, such as by allmusic's William Ruhlman, who said that it "isn't hard to make the case for Patti Smith as a punk rock progenitor based on Horses". That album fused rock and roll, early proto-punk rock with spoken poetry and is widely considered one the rock's greatest debuts.
heroine: the artist. the premier mistress writhing in a garden graced w/ highly polished blades of grass...release (ethiopium) is the drug... an animal howl says it all...notes pour into the caste of freedom...the freedom to be intense...to defy social order and break the slow kill monotony of censorship...to break from the long bonds of servitude-ruthless adoration of the celestial shepherd. let us celebrate our own flesh-to embrace not ones race mais the marathon-to never let go of this fiery sadness called desire. 1947 Jeff Lynne, rock singer-musician (ELO) 1956 Suzy Bogguss, country singer 1957 Matt Lauer, newscaster 1959 Tracey Ullman, British comedienne; The Simpsons began as a short clip on The Tracey Ullman Show 1961 Douglas Coupland, author 1965 Heidi Fleiss, celebrity prostitute 1973 Jason Behr, actor 1976 Meredith Monroe, actress 1980 Eliza Dushku, actress 1982 Kristin Kreuk,
actress Phew!!
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