A delightful Vernal Equinoctial (!) Celebration to all Ye Seekers of the Good News here at the Great Orange Website of DailyKos. Sweet Persephone (see photo, right; a quick biography of her AT THIS LINK) returns from the Underworld for her 6 month stay in the Overworld, calling for flowers to come forth, buds to come fifth, for the Earth to renew life and to let there be love and lovers.
Persephone of Greek myths summons her friends and peers, Eoster from the Germanic realm, Idun as part of the Norse pantheon, Beaivi among the Sami/Finns and Estonians, and Brigid for the Celtic peoples, to tread and lilt barefoot across meadows and woods and bring light, warmth, growth and new life.
There are Eoster’s eggs to be hunted (laid in her honor by hares that were once birds that attended her, and in spring remember how to produce eggs.) Beaivi brings more than new light above the Arctic Circle; she also brings sanity to the depressed and melancholy (like those with S.A.D.)
Flora of the Romans, Nu Yi of the Chinese, Chloris of the Greeks, Yhi of the Aboriginals; these and others perfume the air and delight the eyes by bringing forth flowers.
While not quite in that exalted company, this Daily Round Up is assembled by a slated swarm of writers and dedicated optimists, and yours truly, WineRev, is allowed once a month to sit in…….The Chair……..at……THE DESK, and play with all the buttons I want to. Then, after a fun morning, the charming GNR herself will appear, or Aunt Chloris from Switzerland---(now known as bedecked in flowers)----- will zoom in on a Zoom call, and say, “WineRev? Its time for lunch and time for you to turn over the Master Control Room of Good News-ery. Come along…..your turn will come around again soon enough…”
So before that happens, things have been happening of the Good News persuasion across the room, across the country and across the world, and THIS IS THE PLACE for you, yes YOU, to read about them, chuckle over them, add to them with your own finds on the Inter-Tubes, expand/expound/digress or skew off tangentially in comments, additions and merry making for the rest of us. (This place also welcomes those who would rather do the opposite of those acts: in-pand/ in-pound/ in-gress, mono-gress, con-gress or tri-gress, and even skew ON tangentially (or even co-secant-ly).
Have a read below, then make your additions and chuckles. (As is my custom, you will see I have sprinkled in the Good and the Goofy of March 20ths from prior years here and there for your perspective and puzzled looks……because that’s how the History Corner tracks a lot of days.)
March is observed in several countries as Women’s History Month (a quick rundown here) and Persephone has been adopted by many women as an icon for female empowerment.
Now many of you last month had many nice things to say about the President’s Day edition of the Round Up sprinkled with nuggets from the lives of those holders of the Office. So, in keeping with the women of history all the way to becoming goddesses, and in honor of all the goddesses of Spring, I bring you some selected bits about a couple of America’s First Ladies of the White House, and what some of them brought to the table for their husbands. (If you’d like more next month, let me know in the comments.)
Good News in Science and Engineering
Back in the 1970s NASA went Big and went Bold. They launched a pair of satellites named Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Voyager 1’s mission was to visit the Final Frontier of space, to seek out new stuff and new who-knows-what, and boldly go where no human gizmo had gone before.
Well Voyager 1 is out there….REALLY out there……like beyond the Solar System, 15 billion miles out there, and hauling along at a really honkin’ 38,000 mph. And the little chip set with the cozy little electrical circuitry has been keeping in touch with those sweet NASA people for decades. But recently, things went quiet, and NASA took a deep breath and somberly announced that the Memorial Service for Voyager 1 needed to be scheduled.
But the Good News Network is delighted to quote Mark Twain, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” THIS ARTICLE/DIARY says that maybe, just maybe, Voyager 1 still has Earth’s area code. Scratchy and static filled, with Cuneiform algorithms on clay tablets, there just may be contact still to be had. (Important Safety Note From all the Trekkies on Earth to NASA: if the restored signal calls itself “V-jer” and seems to have reversed course….do NOT answer the phone!)
Somewhat closer to home (like 15 billion miles closer), yet farther away in time, March 20ths have chipped in markers and moments of science and engineering. After all, the 1800 entry just ahead contributed to Voyager 1 too!
1800 On this day physicist Alessandro Volta of Italy writes a letter to Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society in London (a scientific panel) describing his work with electricity and his success in creating what he called “an electric pile.” Later, this was refined to “battery.” (Hey, your iPhone a little slow these days? Maybe you need a new “electric pile” :-)) As scientists have a nice habit of doing, the unit of electrical potential was named in his honor, the “volt.” (Oddly enough, the thing that spurred Volta on was a long running dispute with another Italian researcher, who claimed there was such a thing as “animal electricity.” Although proved wrong, Luigi Galvani contributed enough to science to have one of his processes named “galvanizing.”)
1845 Urumiah, Persia (now Iran) Birth of Lucy Myers Wright (Mitchell), archeologist. Born to American parents who were missionaries on station in Persia (pretty dang devout for sure!) Home schooled, she showed a gift for languages (a good thing for where Iran, Turkey and Iraq meet, and in the neighborhood of Azerbaijan) becoming fluent in French, German, Italian, Arabic and Syriac (!) Her gift with words led her into a life-time love of literature and also into archeology. Her mother brought her to the US during the Civil War and she attended Mt. Holyoke, but she did not earn a degree. Returned to Persia a few years later to be with her father, who died a year after her return. Married Samuel Mitchell, a scholar of languages and art, and they had a studious marriage. Returned to America around 1870 and in 1873 she published a 700-page work, “A History of Ancient Sculpture.” Became a standard in the field and turned heads everywhere: women in archeology were VERY rare, and Americans even rarer, so her reputation was polished by her unique life situation. (No word if Lucy & Sam knew Henry “Idaho” Jones, or his son Henry “Arizona” Jones, or grandson Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr……but all three of them would have read her book in 2nd-year archeology classes…..)
1917 Hoboken, New Jersey (Can anything good come out of Hoboken? YES!) Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-born engineer working for the Automatic Hook and Eye Co., received a patent for his “seper-able fastener”, a double set of tiny teeth facing each other with a triangular gizmo that meshed or unmeshed the teeth. Some early versions had appeared as early as 1893 but were commercial failures or were unreliable. The ‘zipper’ name was coined by B.F. Goodrich six years later, in 1923. They had licensed the design from Sundback and AHE & Co. and wanted to market it as a faster, better way of fastening on their brand of rubber galoshes……no more buckles, just ‘zip!’
First Lady Moment: Louisa Johnson (Adams) Born 1775 in London. From a wealthy family who sent her to a French convent school for 2 years when she was 6. Pulled her back to England when she was 8 because she became so fluent in French she was forgetting English. Excellent musician (voice, harp). When she was 19 (so 1794) she caught the eye of the American Consul to Holland, visiting England. John Quincy Adams proposed to her 2 years later. Due to a re-assignment they spent their first 2 married years at the Prussian Court in Berlin. (Since French was the “common language” of diplomats in Europe, she moved smoothly in those circles and helped her husband with his French as well.)
John Quincy and his English wife “returned” to America in 1801 when dad John Adams’ political opponent, Thomas Jefferson, became President. Introduced Louisa to her formidable mother-in-law, Abigail, and while there was some commuting between Massachusetts and Washington City, Louisa mostly spent the next several years in the Capital with her husband, the freshly-minted US Senator from Massachusetts. 3 children (all boys) in this passage.
In 1809 Senator Adams was appointed (by new President Madison) as Minister to Russia, and he, Louisa, and youngest son, 2-year-old (!) Charles Francis, sailed off (the 2 older boys stayed with Abigail and John for an extended grandparents visit.) 5 years later, Adams was hurriedly summoned to go to Ghent, Belgium, to help negotiate a US-British Peace Treaty to end the War of 1812. He sailed from St. Petersburg while arranging for Louisa and Charles to travel overland to join him. Louisa & the now 7-year-old spent 40 winter days (and nights) on the road by carriage (fitted with runners for the snow) crossing ice-bound rivers and skirting Napoleonic war battlefields (and no GPS or even reliable maps or road signs.) When mother and son reached France, French troops recognized the Russian markings and entourage and were ready to do harm to these enemy visitors (even if they were supposedly diplomatically safe.) Louisa heard their grousing and stepped out, beaming and carrying on in perfect French, calling the soldiers around her to join in popular songs hailing Napoleon and the glories of France. After several choruses and cheers, they decided she and her troupe were OK. (Made it to Ghent, followed by a 2 year posting in England, and Louisa could visit family and friends.)
8 years later, moved into the White House as First Lady. Raised silkworms in the gardens, harvested and used the silk in her own sewing. Louisa frequently provided the after-dinner entertainment at White House dinners by playing the harp, or piano, or singing while someone else played. She didn’t care for Washington’s stifling summers, so she spent those months each year near the New Jersey shore in the company of a number of other like-minded women. (They would alternate between rowing for pleasure, fishing, and “sea bathing” (swimming)……in the 1820s.)
After Adams’ Presidential term ended he (and she) returned to Washington as he served 9 terms in the US House (and apparently she kept up her summers away.)
(PS. Charles Francis Adams, having started in on diplomacy as a toddler, grew up to become American Minister/Ambassador to the UK during the Civil War. He seems to have inherited quite some family talents of negotiation, language fluency and tact: he kept England on the sidelines of official neutrality (despite a strong current of Southern sympathies in the UK). He defused the Mason & Slidell incident (which Britain was so annoyed about the Union Navy that several thousand troops were dispatched to British Canada as a sign of miffed-ness with the Lincoln Administration.) There was a good deal of work being done in a British shipyard building the world’s first-ever ocean-going ironclad, and rather openly to be sent to the Confederacy….but Adams managed to avert that challenge too (and the British Navy adopted the vessel for itself.)
Good News in Arts, Music and Literature
Thank you for reading along today in the Round Up……in English. It’s a compounded, confounded, complex, sometimes pasted together language, with “rules” for grammar and spelling and pronunciation that seem to be often more “exception” than “rule.” That’s what happens when you start off a language (Old English) with those Germanic Anglo-Saxons and Jutes of the 4th century. 200 years occupation by the Norse branch of the Germanic tongues (“Danelaw” on old maps; the ending -by (Natterby, Grimsby, Derby) all are Norse for “farm”.)
Then overlay it with a wave of Middle French starting in 1066 to cause Middle English to silence a lot of the Germanic gutturals while keeping them in spelling (all those “-ght” words where the “gh” is silent but used to be said like “ich” in modern German.) Then drop the distinction between formal and informal, silence another bunch of (French-based) words (the “ue” in colleague, grotesque, technique, prologue) but keep their spelling (“the final “e” is silent after a consonant but makes the vowel before it long”——Mrs. Scott, my 2nd grade teacher….)
And yet we can, and do, communicate, inspire, ask, persuade, propound, debate like everybody else does in their own way and their own tongue. This has been going on a LONG time. How long? Well THIS STORY from ancient Spain tells of archeologists finding some really early written language that is just this side of runes or hieroglyphics. (We are hoping this is one of the earliest versions of a daily Good news Round Up---pre-Internet, pre-printing press, pre-paper…….)
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”Its a big deal. Everybody will be there so look your best.”
Ever had that line delivered to you? Yep, we all have. And so there is plotting and arranging and ...and….and…. with only a short time to go, women know they have to build in time for make-up. And the purse always has a little something for touch-ups, right?
Now while make-up has lately ended up as a feature in the lives of women, that has not always been the case. There have been eras as well when men as well as women made some….. highlights. (E.g. Johnny Depp in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’) All sorts of eras have featured certain pigments and stuff for the face. Artists hired for portraits have often “enhanced” their patron’s looks (like adding a little rouge to those pasty cheeks on the canvas just recovering from a 6-week fever…..)
Now Smithsonian magazine posts THIS ARTICLE about a find in ancient Iran…..a carved tube of what surely would have been…..lipstick. 3500+ year old lipstick, mind you. Somewhat more likely to have been used by women of the era, but men and women both wore eye liners, cheek powders and something in the eyebrows. So maybe back then the real sharp fellows put a dab on in the powder room before rejoining his date at the dance…….(this particular find was a bold red, but apparently other shades were out there too. No word if a lipstick maker in those ancient languages was called a “revlon” or a “maybelline”, but work is continuing…..)
Now Art, music, dance and literature have been around as long as humans have been, and a few of these events and people were wise enough to be connected to earlier March 20ths.
1850 Baltimore. Edgar Alan Poe finishes his story and submits it this day to a publisher: “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, widely considered to be the 1st detective story.
1852 Boston. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” goes on sale. The best seller of the decade (in the North) it is roundly despised and condemned in the plantation South. In 1862, Stowe is in Washington and meets President Lincoln in the White House. He welcomes her with the words, “Here is the little lady whose little book started a great war.”
1863 Rio de Janiero, Brasil Birth of Ernesto Nazareth, composer and pianist. His mother got him started on piano, and even after she died (when he was 10) he kept on. His new tutor introduced him to Chopin’s work, and Nazareth adored it, inspiring him to write out his first work (for piano) at age 14. Supported himself for years playing theaters, music halls, balls, all the while turning out various works: tangos, polkas, waltzes, quadrilles (!), fox trots and romances, over 200 works lifetime. His skill at the piano finally got him into concert halls, and later a steady job playing regularly at the Mozart Club (!) of Rio. In the 1920s one of the first musicians featured on radio in the country. Sadly ended life in an asylum for depression but remembered fondly across South America.
First Lady moment:
Caroline Lavinia Scott (Harrison), born 1832 in Oxford, Ohio. One of 5 children (2 boys & 3 girls) but their father was a University professor and insisted all 5 children get an advanced education. Caroline graduated with a degree (!) in music and also took up painting (watercolors and then china painting) for the rest of her life. Met and married newly graduated lawyer Benjamin Harrison in her early 20s. He was on the stuffy side and took lawyering seriously, but “Carrie” kept him balanced with humor, dancing, and music. Harrison elected President in 1888 for 1 term. Caroline Harrison oversaw the first-ever installation of electricity in the White House, including light bulbs. (The President was dubious; he usually called for a servant to turn a light switch on or off so he wouldn’t be shocked or worse.)
While White House dinners continued as they always had since Martha Washington, there had been no dancing there since the prim Ms. James Polk in 1849. Caroline turned her back on that and held regular dances. Music was usually provided for these by the US Marine Corps Band (“The President’s Own”), under the baton of John Phillip Sousa. Caroline Harrison was also asked by nearby Johns Hopkins University to endorse fundraising for a new hospital wing. She did, but only after they promised to admit women to the medical program (and they did.)
The fledgling Daughters of the American Revolution (the DAR) found Caroline had had ancestors in the Revolution and asked her to not only join, but to become the group’s first-ever President. She agreed, and gave an Inaugural speech….which was recorded, the first-ever capture of a First Lady’s voice. (“Roll video,…..Fire Up pixels, ….Roll tape!…..Drop the needle on the vinyl…...give the wax cylinder a turn!”) Contracted tuberculosis and died at age 60 in the White House.
Good News in Society and Politics
If these next 2 stories would come to pass in the next year or so, an awful lot of us would feel like we are getting somewhere.
First, in another story out of Brazil apart from charming music, Fernando Haddad is the country’s Finance Minister and something of a host for a meeting of his compatriots of the G20 (a collection of 20 of the world’s largest economic powers that try to co-ordinate certain things.) One thing Brazil and at least 19 other countries in the world are up against are…...the Super Rich. Individuals who are the 1% of the 1% of the 1%. Guys (virtually always) who’s net worth can exceed the total GNP of any of several dozen countries in the UN. And WHY? What could all that wealth (and worse, even MORE of it) do for them?
Haddad says, “Nothing good.” Meanwhile, the rest of the human population could use a hand. So THIS STORY runs down a proposal from Haddad that the Big 20 co-ordinate TAXING the super rich in ways that will prevent them from hiding their money by moving it across borders regularly and secretly. Sounds good to me and a few other people I know…….in this solar system…….
Second, to actually get to what Haddad is proposing, the US will certainly need to be in on it. And to be in on it in a positive way, that would mean a Democratic President and Congress. Now 2024 sees another election year and the stakes are serious. If most people TAKE IT seriously, then democracy wins…..bigly. So, as always, how to get people to focus and take it seriously?
Well the Biden-Harris campaign has already raised a bunch of money. They are running ads and making speeches and funding all sorts of grassroots efforts. But breaking through the general inertia in the electorate is still a challenge. How to grab attention?
MSNBC gadfly Donny Deutsch has an idea I can agree with. IN THIS STORY and related video he outlines how he thinks the Democrats should run across the country in 2024: “Scare the s%*t out of everybody.” He says this is no time to be polite. Now Joseph Biden is not generally seen as a firebrand, but his “Dark Brandon” side seems to be getting more and more airtime. I could go with that…..how about you? What do you think?
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Third, let it also be noted that Joe Biden has had an excellent couple weeks, starting with a barnburner State of the Union Address that just by itself caused a surge in campaign donations. On the other side of the swamp, the scum splashing between Trump and Nikki Haley have wound down to a big nothing and Haley has “suspended her campaign.” But she had some notable donors backing her for her run, in ways and amounts DeSantis and others could not touch.
Now comes THIS JUICY STORY that the savvy Biden campaign is making a quiet but SERIOUS effort to attract several of Haley’s Big Money backers to send those Big Bucks to…...the Biden Campaign! (Hey, no harm in asking, right?) Another example of political savvy and behind-the-scenes technique by Biden, a man with decades of high-level political experience.
AND….its not just about Money. Yes, Trump has been “winning” those GQP primaries, and yet a persistent 25-45% of GQP voters (a fair measure of engaged voters paying attention and doing their civic duty---which we can respect) have been voting for someone ELSE. Here at the end, those voters have been backing Haley.
Well, the Biden campaign is not only cultivating some of Haley’s money sources. THIS PROVOCATIVE REPORT says in a key state like Ohio a fair percentage of Haley voters are willing to vote FOR BIDEN this fall. (And another mathematically significant slice say if Trump is the GQP nominee OR has been convicted of a felony, they will simply stay home and NOT VOTE. Hmmmmm…….)
Otherwise, March 20ths have seen all sorts of societal and politcal sorts of moments that could give you a fresh take on modern life:
1854 Ripon, Wisconsin The Whig party has collapsed over the issue of slavery (and “Uncle Toms’ Cabin” helped drive home the fracture.) An anti-immigrant party is also loose in the land (formally, The American Party, but remembered by history as the “Know Nothing” Party, as in members were instructed to keep things hidden from the press and others by answering all questions with the phrase, “I know nothing.” (“Hogan’s Heroes” Sgt. Schultz accent optional.) On this day a gathering of many former Whigs and other independents form the Republican Party. Their platform called for a trans-continental railroad, internal improvements, a protective tariff, and limiting slavery to its current states. The furious Southerners (largely Democrats) immediately accuse them of being a stalking horse for abolition.
1865 The state of Michigan, (MOST Appropriately!) recognizing the teamwork of returning soldiers from the Civil War, authorizes workers' cooperatives, a significant step toward UNIONS.
1928 Latrobe, PA (about 60 miles SE of Pittsburgh). Birth of the beloved Fred McFeely Rogers. A puppeteer, musician and children’s TV host. Started on TV in New York in 1951, but after 2 years returned to Pittsburgh, creating children’s programming (The Children’s Corner) for the Public Broadcasting station there. He took time out in the early 1960s to attend seminary and become an ordained Presbyterian minister. He returned to public television as “Mister Rogers” (starting in 1963) and in 1968 went national with “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood”….for the next 33 years.
1934 Florida To keep things interesting in spring training (and maybe to settle a few bets in the clubhouse) the Philadelphia A’s (way before Oakland) invite American all-round female super athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias to pitch an inning for them in a spring training exhibition game against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Didrikson Zaharias was a wonder woman of her time, female “athlete of the year” 5 times, in her 20s in track and field and in her 40s in golf. Also held the women’s record for throwing a regulation baseball: 296 feet. She pitched a hitless inning for the A’s. Cleary, she was in a league of her own……
1942 Western Pacific On personal orders from President Roosevelt (in order to save his military talent for the American cause in the Pacific), General Douglas MacArthur is successfully evacuated from the Philippines (that was falling to advancing Japanese troops.) He vows famously to the press, "I came through and I shall return."
1950 Oslo, Norway Dr. Ralph Bunche, for his work in trying to mediate the Israeli-Palestinian dispute in the Middle East (2 years after Israel becomes a state), receives the Nobel Peace Prize. 1st ever African American to receive a Nobel.
1985 Teller, Alaska This little town of 193 souls went bonkers in celebration today. Local woman Libby Riddles and her team of huskies this day covers 1135 miles of snow and ice ahead of everyone else. She and her dog team become the first woman musher ever to win the famous Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race. (Started back in 1925 as a vital shipment of diphtheria serum was needed in Nome to halt a deadly pandemic. A group of mushers made a 600+ mile run in five days and nights to save the entire community from a miserable death.)
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Well I hope that’s enough to turn your crank and light your fire for this Wednesday. Now its your turn in the comments below to add, amplify, correct, expand, digress and even sprinkle chuckles upon the other Good News that we each find and share…..for the sake of each other. Thank you one and all.
May all your news be Good, comforting and inspiring.
Shalom.
