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The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas

Baby Precious Always Shines: Selected Love Notes Between Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas

Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein

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By Gertrude
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Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein and Company

Three Lives
By Gertrude Stein

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Simone Weil

Golden Bough
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Eight Sabbats for Witches

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A Year of Holidays in the Pagan
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Wheel of the Year

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Be A Goddess

The Five Biggest Lies Bush
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The Oxford Dictionary of Saints

Lucifer Ascending: The
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Cassell's Dictionary of Superstitions

The Book of Saints

The Encyclopedia of Saints

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By Alfred McCoy

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What
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How
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Pagan
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For
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Crimes Against Nature : How George W Bush and His Corporate
Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy
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The Price of Loyalty

The
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A
Question of Torture
By Alfred McCoy

When Corporations Rule the World

Alternatives to Economic Globalization

Feminism Without Borders

The Skeptic's Dictionary

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

365 Goddess

Adventures in a TV Nation
Michael
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Drawing Down the Moon

Globalization/Anti-Globalization

Body Wisdom

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Setsubun
(Japan), festival of the goddess Amaterasu
Wikipedia
tells us: In Japan,
Setsubun is the day before the beginning of each season.
The name literally means 'division of season'. Usually the
term refers to the
Spring Setsubun, properly called Risshun,
celebrated annually on February 3 (associated with the Lunar
New Year).
Spring Setsubun is traditionally celebrated by the
head of the household throwing pan-heated soybeans
out the door, while chanting "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!".
The literal meaning of the words is "Demons out! Luck in!"
– the beans are thought to symbolically purify the home. In the Heian
era, a famous Buddhist
monk
was said to have driven away Oni
(demons
or evil spirits) by throwing beans.
At Buddhist
temples and Shinto
shrines all over the country, there are celebrations for Setsubun.
Priests and invited guests will throw roasted soy beans (some
wrapped in gold or silver foil), small envelopes with money, sweets,
candies and other prizes. In some bigger shrines, even celebrities
and sumo
wrestlers will join. Many people will come, and the event turns
wild, with everyone pushing and shoving to get the gifts tossed from
above.
Families will also put up small decorations
of fish heads and holly
leaves on their house entrances so that bad spirits will not enter.
People also eat the same amount of soy beans as their age, plus one
for bringing good luck for the year to come.
It is customary to eat uncut maki-zushi
on Setsubun while facing the yearly lucky compass direction,
determined by the zodiac symbol of that year. Charts are published
and occasionally packaged with uncut maki-zushi during
February.
"This Japanese holiday marks the official end of winter, and is the last remnant of the old Japanese festival calendar, before it was Westernized and New Year's Day moved to January 1st. The name means 'season-boundary.'
"On this last day of the year, the male head of the household went around the house scattering roasted soybeans, one for each year in the life of each family member. Meanwhile his family chants Fuku wa uchi, oni wa soto! 'In with good luck, out with demons!'
"In public ceremonies, celebrities throw beans off balconies of shrines and other important buildings. They are trying to hit the demons and all the misfortunes they represent.
"Why beans? Perhaps, suggests Rufus, because the word mame means both bean and good health. An ancient Japanese health charm is to eat a roasted soybean for every year of your age."
Anneli
Rufus, The
World Holiday Book, Harper San Francisco 1994
Source:
School of the Seasons
Photos
of Narita-san Setsubun Festival in Chiba
Setsubun
(Bean Throwing Festival)
Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days Festivals
in Japan
Amaterasu
From
Wikipedia:
Amaterasu (Amaterasu-ōmikami; Ōhiru-menomuchi-no-kami) is in
Japanese mythology, a
sun goddess, and perhaps the most
important
Shinto deity (kami). She was born
from the left eye of
Izanagi as he purified himself in a river,
and went on to become the ruler of the Higher Celestial Plane
(Takamagahara) and was also considered to be directly linked in
lineage to the
Imperial Household of Japan and the
Emperor, who were considered descendants of the kami
themselves.
First
week of February,
Easter Island festival
Men
participate in a decathlon of swimming, reed rafting, and a running
race around and across the crater lake of the extinct volcano Rano
Raraku, home of the famed Giant Statues (Moai).
Rapa Nui, known also as Easter Island (Spanish Isla
de Pascua) is an
island in the south Pacific
Ocean, west and
slightly north of Santiago,
Chile and
part of the territory of Chile (Valparaíso Region).
It has a population of only about 2,000 locals ... and an unknown number
of ethnographers.
The
small (119 sq km, or
46 sq mi), isolated island (about 2,000
kilometres from the next nearest inhabited island) is famous for its
numerous mysterious stone statues (moai)
located along the coastlines. It is home of the only written
language of Oceania, a hieroglyphic script known as Rongorongo, which has never been deciphered
despite the work of generations of linguists.
More at
Wilson's Almanac Scriptorium Rapa Nui page
Lesser
Eleusinian Mysteries, ancient Greece (Feb 1 - 3)
Festival of the Lęnaia to Dionysus,
god of wine and pleasure, ancient Greece (c. Jan 28 - Feb 5)
Festivals in ancient Greece
Day of Remembrance for Oleg the Prophet
(Visionary)
"The Varangian's
(Viking's) king was a good example of the Rus-Viking. His history is
very instructive, yet at the same time mysterious. Volhv of Kiev (a
pagan wizard) prophecied to Oleg that his horse would die in battle
but afterward he would also be killed. He triumphed under the
Byzantines, and after his final battle, his shield was hung on the
Gate of Tsargrad in Constantinople."
Source: Slavic
Pagan Kalendar
Powamu Festival
(for the Hopi Sky Father)
In Hopi
mythology, during the Powamu ceremony,
Ahöl Mana goes
with Ahöla as he
visits various kivas and ceremonial houses. On these visits Ahöl
Mana carries a tray with various kinds of seeds.
Iroquois
Midwinter Festival (Jan 30 - Feb 8)
Feast day of St Aelred
Feast day of St Berlinda of
Meerbeke
Feast day of St Caellainn
Feast day of St Claudine
Thevenet
Feast day of St Felix
Feast day of St Ignatius of
Africa
Feast day of St Laurentius
Feast day of St Lawrence
the Illuminator
Feast day of St Margaret of
England
Feast
day of Our Lady of the
Purification, Santo Amaro, Brazil (Feb 1 - 4)
Feast day of St Remedius
Feast day of St Trifone
Feast day of St Werburg of
Mercia (Wereburge of
Chester)
This early Anglo-Saxon saint (d. February 3, 699)
was involved with the establishment
of the first nunneries in England. Pious; numerous miracles.
"She died at Trentham, on the 3rd of February, 699, having
declared in her will that her body should be buried at Hanbury; when
the people of Trentham attempted to detain it by force, those of
Hanbury were aided by a miracle in obtaining possession of it, and
carried it for interment to their church" (Robert Chambers).
Later the remains were taken to Chester, where she became the
patroness. When a village was on fire, prayers to the saint and the
monks carrying her shrine into the flaming streets stopped the fire.
More
Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints
Horaiji
Dengaku Matsuri,
Horai,
Japan
Held at Horaiji Temple, Aichi
Prefecture, a very famous temple of the Shingon sect. Legend says
demons guard the local mountains, and gave their lives to protect them.
Costumes of red, black and blue represent the demons. Degaku dancers
ring a bell and dance. A huge rice cake is offered at the altar.
Mando-E, or Lantern-Lighting Ceremony, Nara, Japan
Held at Kasuga Shrine, Nara
Prefecture.
The shrine has three thousand
lanterns, which are all lit to welcome Spring. The spectacle lights
the way for visits from departed spirits.
Shiwasu Matsuri, Mikado Jinja, Nango,
Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan (Jan 20 - Feb 20)
Owase Yaya
Matsuri (Shouting Festival), Japan (Feb 1 - 8)
Sounkyo Ice Festival, Sounkyo Onsen (spa),
Hokkaido, Japan (Jan 29 - Mar 5)
Boy
Scout Sunday, USA,
around now
Heroes' Day, Mozambique
Four
Chaplains Day, USA
The Four Chaplains were four US Army chaplains who were killed in
action when the USAT
Dorchester
was hit by a torpedo and sank on February 3, 1943. They helped other
soldiers board lifeboats and gave up their life jackets when the
supply ran out.
Martyrs' Day,
Săo Tomé and Príncipe


1809
Felix
Mendelssohn Bartholdy, German composer (Midsummer Night's Dream overture; Scotch Symphony) (d. 1847)
1811 Horace Greeley (d. 1872), American journalist,
editor, publisher
1821 Elizabeth Blackwell (d. 1910), first female
physician in the United States
1830
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
(Lord Salisbury; d. August 22, 1903).
Also known as Lord Robert Cecil (before
1865) and Viscount Cranborne
(1865 - '68). British
statesman and Prime
Minister.
1874
Gertrude Stein,
rather self-engaged American author, lover of Alice B Toklas
and mentor to the 'Lost Generation'
of writers in Paris after World War I
(Three
Lives; Paris,
France; The
Autobiography of Alice B Toklas) (d. 1946)
She boasted:
"I have been the creative literary mind of the century", but
Clifton Fadiman was less kind:
"A past master in making nothing
happen very slowly".
More
1883 Clarence
Mulford, American writer who created
Hopalong Cassidy
1894 Norman Rockwell (d. 1978), American artist,
illustrator
1904
Pretty Boy Floyd (d. 1934), gangster
1907
James A Michener (d. 1997), American author (Hawaii; Tales
of the South Pacific, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1947).
Memorable for massive, detailed novels, many of which were almost
mass produced, with a team of assistants and researchers.
More
1909
Simone Weil
(pronounced 'vey';
d. August 24, 1943),
French writer, philosopher, anarcho-syndicalist, published posthumously (Waiting for God; The Need for Roots). Among
her many intellectual and spiritual influences were
Plato, the
New Testament,
the Bhagavad
Gita, and
Karl Marx.
André Gide, the
Nobel Prize-winning French author, called her
"the saint of all outsiders".
"Despite her rapturous love of Jesus
Christ, she never ceased to study the truths of the religions of
the East. She stayed outside of any church, but her passionate
need to share the sufferings of others led her to fight with the
anarchists in the Spanish Civil War, to work as a field hand and
an unskilled laborer, and ultimately to die in England at the
age of 34 from tuberculosis complicated by her refusing to eat
more than Hitler's rations allotted to her countrymen in
occupied France. Seven people attended her funeral. After her
death writers as diverse as T.S. Eliot and Albert Camus declared
her one of our century's foremost thinkers."
Source: The
Daily Bleed
More
1918 Joey Bishop, American comedian
1921 Dr
Ralph
Asher Alpher (d.
August 12,
2007), American
cosmologist, best known for his
1948
prediction,
along with
George Gamow, of residual
cosmic microwave background radiation
(CMB) from the
Big Bang
1926
Shelley Berman, American comedian
1944 Dave
Davies, musician (The
Kinks), brother of Ray Davies
1950
Morgan Fairchild, actress
1971 Sarah
Kane (d. 1999), playwright1971
Hong Seok-cheon, South Korean actor
1974
Miriam Yeung, Hong Kong actress
1974
Elisa Donovan, American actress
1976
Isla Fisher, Australian actress
1977
Daddy Yankee, Puerto Rican musician
1978
Adrian R'Mante, American actor
1980
Sarah Lewitinn, American writer
1982
Jessica Harp, American singer (The
Wreckers)
1989
Ryne Sanborn, American actor
Phew!!
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Diabetes Sunday

February
2
Imbolc
2
Candlemas
3
Carrot Cake Day
3
Artist Day
3
Wedding Ring Day
4
Homemade Soup Day
4
Halfway Point Of Winter
4
Thank A Mailperson Day
4
Bald Eagle Day (Utah)
5
Super Sunday
5
Primrose Day
5
Chocolate Fondue Day
6
Reggae Day
7
Send A Card To A Friend Day
8
Smile Day
8
Laugh And Grow Rich Day
8
Boy Scout Day
8
Rebel Day
9
Weather Day
9
Toothache Day
9
Pizza Pie Day
10
Umbrella Day
11
Make A New Friend Day
11
Thomas Edison Day
11
Grandmother Achievement Day
12
Chocolate Day
12
Lantern Festival
13
I Value Our Friendship Day
13
Dream Of Your Sweetheart Day
13
Clean Out Your Computer Day
14
Valentine's Day
14
Hug Day
14
Heart To Heart Day
14
Have A Heart Day
15
Thanks For A Great Valentine's Day
15
Burger Lovers' Day
15
Flag Day (Canada)
15
Jewelry Day
15
Gumdrop Day
18
Thumb Appreciation Day
18
Pluto Day
19
Chocolate Mint Day
19
Temporary Insanity Day
19
Solar System Day
20
Presidents' Day (USA)
20
Love Your Pet Day
20
Cherry Pie Day
21
Directory Day
...
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Events
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3114 BCE Reciprocal date for Mayan
Creation, the laying out of the ecliptic. (See also our article on the 2012
calendar convergence.)
1014
Death of Sweyn I of
Denmark ('Forkbeard'; b. c. 960)
who succeeded his father Harold
I 'Blĺtand' (Bluetooth) as king of Denmark,
probably in late 986
or early 987.
1468
The father of printing, Johann Gutenberg of
Germany (born c. 1398), died in poverty and
obscurity.
"Did you know that
it was inevitable that medieval manuscripts were taller than they were wide?
This was due to the logic of folding rectangular vellum (animal skins), or parchment,
to produce hand-made manuscripts. The resulting shape was always
rectangular. With the invention of paper, bookmakers naturally followed the
age-old tradition. Books are still taller than they are wide because monks
more than half a millennium ago used natural vellum …" Source
1488 Bartholomeu
Diaz of Portugal
landed in Mossel
Bay after rounding the Cape
of Good Hope at the tip of Africa, becoming the first known European to travel
this far south.
1573 Sir Francis
Drake, from the top of a tree in Panama, first sighted the Pacific.
"Elizabeth
Sydenham, wife of Sir Francis Drake, advised that
her husband had been killed by the Spaniards, was on her way
to marry another man when a bolt of lightning struck the ground
at her very feet. Elizabeth
interpreted it as a sign that her
husband was still alive and called off the wedding. Later
Sir Francis returned from his naval
expedition...alive and well." Source
1690 The first paper money issued in America was printed by Anglo
colonists to pay soldiers in the war against Quebec.
1730 The London Daily Advertiser published the first
stock exchange quotations.
1743
USA: Philadelphia
established a 'pesthouse' to quarantine immigrants.
1783 American Revolutionary War: Spain recognised United
States independence.
1787 Shays'
Rebellion was crushed, ending an uprising that would prompt negotiations that
would result in the drafting of the Constitution of the United States.
1788 The first Christian service was held at
Sydney Cove, in what is
now known as Australia (formerly Terra Australis, New Holland, then the colony
of New South Wales). The Rev.
Richard Johnson preached in the open air on a text
from Psalm 116.
1809 Illinois
Territory was created.
1815 The
first commercial cheese
factory was founded (Switzerland).
1867 Prince
Mutshuhito became Emperor Meiji of Japan.
1870 The
15th Amendment
to the United States Constitution was passed.
1877
Chopsticks, a piece
of music composed by Euphemia Bell, 16, under the pseudonym of Arthur de Lull,
was registered at the British Museum. (Other sources give her surname as Allen,
or Alten.)
The tune's title has nothing to do with oriental eating utensils – Euphemia
advised pianists to play it with their hands turned sideways, using chopping
motions.
1900 USA: Gubernatorial candidate
William Goebels was
assassinated in Frankfort,
Kentucky. Former-Secretary of State,
Caleb Powers, was later found guilty in a conspiracy to kill Goebels.
1910 USA: Mary Harris
'Mother' Jones addressed
Milwaukee brewery workers. Mother Jones spent two months working alongside women
bottle-washers in one of the breweries during a period when she was not on the
United Mine Workers payroll. Her report on their working conditions went like
this:
"Condemned to slave daily in the wash-room in
wet shoes and wet clothes, surrounded with foul-mouthed, brutal foremen …
the poor girls work in the vile smell of sour beer, lifting cases of empty and
full bottles weighing from 100 to 150 pounds, in their wet shoes and rags, for
they cannot buy clothes on the pittance doled out to them. . . . Rheumatism is
one of the chronic ailments and is closely followed by consumption . . . An
illustration of what these girls must submit to, one about to become a mother
told me with tears in her eyes that every other day a depraved specimen of
mankind took delight in measuring her girth and passing comments."
Source: The Daily Bleed
Early
progressives in the Book of Days
1913 The 16th Amendment to the
United States Constitution was ratified, authorizing the Federal government
to impose and collect income tax.
1915
Malawi's national
hero Reverend John
Chilembwe (b. 1860s) was killed by officials. He was an orthodox
Baptist
educator and a early figure in resistance to colonialism
in Nyasaland,
now Malawi. Today John Chilembwe is celebrated as a hero for
independence, and John Chilembwe Day is observed annually on January
15 in Malawi.
On January
23, 1915
Chilembwe staged an uprising: he and 200 followers attacked local
plantations that they considered to be oppressing African workers.
They killed three white plantation staff, including Livingstone,
whom they beheaded. Several African workers were also killed, but
they did not harm any women. When the uprising failed to gain local
support, Chilembwe tried to flee to Mozambique; however he was
killed on this day. The colonial officials also killed a number of
his followers.
Malawi did not gain independence until 1964.
Source: Wikipedia
1916 Parliament buildings in Ottawa,
Canada were
burned down.
1917 World War I:
The United
States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany a day
after Germany announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine
warfare. The threat to American shipping was a main cause of the USA's entry
into WWI.
1919 The League
of Nations held its first meeting in Paris, chaired by US president Woodrow
Wilson.
1931 Some
258 people died in New Zealand's
worst natural disaster, the Napier
earthquake.
1941 World War
II: The Nazis
forcibly restored Pierre Laval to office in occupied Vichy, France.
1944 United
States troops captured the Marshall
Islands.
1945 World War
II: Russia
agreed to enter the Pacific Theatre conflict against Japan.
1954 Queen Elizabeth II and Prince
Philip arrived in Sydney on the
first visit of a reigning monarch to Australia. Huge, adulatory crowds turned out
to see them.
1959 News of the February 2
plane crash near Mason City,
Iowa, USA that killed Buddy Holly,
22, Ritchie
Valens, 17, and The Big Bopper (JP Richardson), 29, became widely known. This date became known as 'The Day The Music Died'.
Coroner's investigation
Air crash, Feb. 3, 1959
SW1/4 Section 18, Lincoln Twp.
Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Jiles P. Richardson, Charles Holley, Richard Valenzuela and Roger A. Peterson,
pilot of the plane were killed in the crash of a chartered airplane when it fell
within minutes of takeoff from the Mason City Airport. The three passengers were
members of a troupe of entertainers who appeared at the Surf Ballroom at Clear
Lake, Iowa, the evening of February 2, 1959, bound for Fargo, N.D. and was
headed northwest from the airport at the time of the crash in a stubble field,
51/2 miles north of Clear Lake, Iowa. The plane was discovered about 9:00 A.M.,
February 3, 1959, when Mr. H.J. Dwyer, owner of the crashed plane, made aerial
search because he had received no word from Peterson since his takeoff …
Source
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singing "This'll be the day that I die,
This'll be the day that I die."
"One of Holly's hits was 'That'll be the Day'; the chorus contains the
line 'That'll be the day that I die'".
Annotated
American Pie
The day the music died Wilson's
Almanac Book of Days hip list
1966 The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft
made the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
1967
Ronald Ryan (b.
1925) was executed at
Pentridge
Prison, Victoria, Australia and his body buried in an unmarked grave. The
killing of Ryan, who was probably not guilty, caused such outrage in the land that
no Australian has been killed by Australian lawyers or politicians since – not
officially, anyway. Within twenty years, capital punishment was abolished federally
and in all State and territory jurisdictions.
In 1967, Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in
Australia, was killed by the State. It was a killing that helped the Premier of
the State of Victoria,
Henry Bolte, win an
election, but it split the community deeply, such that no politician or judge
ever again dared take anyone's life. Bolte brushed aside all protests, appeals
and petitions, including one signed by seven of the jurors who sat on the Ryan
case.
The judge, who had to impose a mandatory death penalty,
was summoned by the Premier, who was soon to go before the electorate. Bolte
asked the judge if there was any chance Ryan might have been innocent. The
judge, who, despite the evidence, believed Ryan guilty, could have won a State reprieve by telling a
white lie, but as a Roman Catholic, he felt he could not tell a mistruth to the premier. He
thought it more ethical, rather, to allow a man to be hanged by the neck until
dead. Years later, the troubled judge
said on TV that he prayed to Ryan each night. I wrote
a poem about it because I think this incident says a lot about people and
belief.
'I
could not tell a lie'
By Pip Wilson
(Based on an anecdote; avowedly a true story)
The judge sat through the weeks of trial
and sentenced Ryan to hang.
Premier Bolte sent for him
and asked him if this man,
this Ronald Ryan was truly guilty,
or was there "some way out,
with the election coming up and all" –
said the judge, "No reasonable doubt".
So Ronald Ryan's neck was stretched;
the judge spoke to the press:
"I could not tell a lie", he said
"I'm of the faith" he stressed.
And further pressed on how he felt,
said the judge, "Ryan had the right
to absolution, he's now in heaven.
I pray to him each night."
At 8:00 am Ryan fell through the trapdoor and died on the same gallows as Ned Kelly. Ronald Ryan is buried in quicklime within the grounds of Pentridge Prison. His family are forbidden to visit the unmarked grave.
On November
28, 2005 on ABC Radio National, elderly Judge
Philip Opas, who was
Ronald Ryan's lawyer to the end, stated that he still firmly
believes that Ryan was innocent.
"Because I’m 88 years of age, I haven’t
got long to go and I feel that I let Ryan down. I can’t help
feeling that. It’s been on my conscience now for nearly 40 years
and it will never disappear. He’s a man that I came to like. He
never pretended to be anything but what he was, a battler. He
affected almost everybody that knew him and Father Brosnan who
accompanied him to the gallows, he also believes he was
innocent. I still have recurring nightmares. I’m not joking
about that, you don’t joke about that. I can see in my mind the
pantomime going on in the death cell as he’s being manacled and
led out to the gallows and I became friendly afterwards with
three people who were present at the hanging ... The last thing
Ryan did was write me a letter. I never got it but Father
Brosnan who accompanied him to the gallows told me what was in
it. Obviously somebody stole it. It was full of gratitude to me
and it expressed the wish that I attend his hanging as he wanted
to see as the last vision on earth, the face of a friend ... To
my surprise when I arrived in Melbourne I was met with a battery
of cameras and TV interviewers and I heard he was going to hang
the next day. And the first thing that happened when I got to my
chambers: the phone rang, I picked up and there was a tearful
girl at the other end said, 'You’ve got to save my Daddy,
they’re going to hang him in the morning.' ... I think she was
about 13 and she rang me several times after the hanging just to
get some comfort from me, I think. I needed more comforting than
she did by then. However, that didn’t put me in much of a frame
of mind to make an urgent plea before Justice Stark claiming,
'What was the indecent haste to hang this man because we had
some possibility of further evidence', but he was not prepared
to grant any further extension of the hanging ... I left the bar
as a result of it. It changed my life ... I think he was
convicted before the jury got into the box ... I can only quote
from what an eminent judge in America said. He said that our
emotions may cry for vengeance in the wake of a horrible crime
but we know that killing the criminal cannot undo the crime,
will not prevent similar crimes, doesn’t benefit the victim,
destroys human life and brutalises society. If we are to still
violence, we must cherish life. Executions cheapen life and I’ve
come to adopt those words as my mantra and to say now, 'Life is
precious and who are we to play God and say somebody no matter
what they’ve done deserves to be put to death.'"
Dr Philip Opas, QC, who defended Ronald Ryan and believed him
innocent
Listen
(requires
RealAudio)
– extraordinary interview with two elderly men. One is a
journalist who witnessed the last execution in Australia. The
other is Judge Opas.
Innocent of murder?
'Ryan was innocent': lawyer
Ronald Ryan was innocent, says accomplice
1969 In Cairo, Yasser Arafat was appointed Palestinian Liberation Organization
leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
1970 Police in Britain seized Andy
Warhol's film Flesh on grounds of obscenity.
1988 Iran-Contra Affair: The United States House of
Representatives rejected President Ronald
Reagan's request for $36.25 million to aid Nicaraguan Contras.
1989
After a stroke,
PW Botha
resigned party leadership and the presidency of South
Africa.
1989 Generalissimo
Alfredo Stroessner, the dictator of Paraguay for
35 years, was ousted by a coup.
Tomorrow: Giambattista Della Porta, Italian magus
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Pilgrims celebrate after helping to evacuate
an older fellow traveller
in the city of Mena during the third day of hajj in Saudi Arabia.
Photo: Reuters

Wikipedia
and David Brown's prodigious Daily Bleed
are both excellent resources that aid my research.
I frequently make use of their generously liberal 'fair use', 'copyleft'
and 'anti-copyright' policies, with much gratitude.
© My own copyright
policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply.
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