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For Your Listening Pleasure

Sep22

Kiddie Records.

“Kiddie Records Weekly is a three year project celebrating the golden age of children’s records. This brief but prolific period spanned from the mid forties through the early fifties, producing a wealth of all-time classics. Many of these recordings were extravagant Hollywood productions on major record labels and featured big time celebrities and composers.
Over the years, these forgotten treasures have slipped off the radar and now stand on the brink of extinction. Our mission is to give them a new lease on life by sharing them with today’s generation of online listeners. Each recording has been carefully transferred from the original 78s and encoded to MP3 format for you to download and enjoy. You’ll find a new addition every week, all year long.”

Singing Science Records.
From the creator of the webpage:

“When I was a kid my parents got this six-LP set of science-themed folk songs for my sister and me. They were produced in the late 1950s / early 1960s by Hy Zaret (William Stirrat) and Lou Singer. . . .The Singing Science lyrics were very Atomic Age, while the tunes were generally riffs on popular or genre music of the time. We played them incessantly.
In February 1998 I found the LPs in my parents’ basement. I cleaned them up, played them one last time on an old turntable, and burned them onto a set of three CD-R discs. In December 1999 I read the songs back off the CDs and encoded them into MP3, so now you can hear them on the web.

I already told you about LibriVox, a site which “provides free audiobooks from the public domain.” You can download these mp3 files of books (and poems) into your computer or iPod, or you can listen at the website. I’m enjoying it immensely.

American Rhetoric is a website with a “database of 5000+ full text, audio and video (streaming) versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events, and a declaration or two.” I’ll be visiting this website frequently this year as I teach US History and American Literature at our homeschool co-op.

The Genevan Psalter. This webpage includes versified psalms in English and midi files to listen to the original (used in Calvin’sGeneva) melodies.

Isn’t the internet wonderful?

Ana Iris Medina, d. 9/11/2001

Sep11

AnaMedinaAna Iris Medina had 10 (or maybe 14?) brothers and sisters and consequently, a huge family, in New York and Puerto Rico. She was 39 years old when she died on this date five years ago as she began her day’s work at Aon Consulting, an insurance company, on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center. She left behind an eleven year old son, Leonardo Acosta, and her 87 year old mother, Monserrate Acosta. Ana was the caretaker for both of them.

On September 25, 200l, The Village Voice listed Ana Medina as “missing.” Her relatives were still looking for her, hoping that she might be still alive. They told newspaper reporters that she had a “pedicure with a mint-green color and white designs” and that she loved to watch her son play baseball. She also liked salsa music and dancing. By October 6th, Ana’s 40th birthday, her family knew that she would not be found in a hospital somewhere; she died in the World Trade Center. The family gathered to remember her at the small Pentecostal church she attended.

I found this note at legacy.com:

February 28, 2002
Dear Mom
hi its your son leony.I have benn very loney with out you.It has been a little strange that youre not with us anymore.You will always and truly in my heart.
Leonardo Acosta (Brooklyn, NY )

Leonardo Acosta would be sixteen years old by now. I imagine he’s still missing his mom.

Today is fifth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center towers in New York City and on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. I thought it was important to remember those who lost their lives to some men’s misguided and evil sense of religious or cultural duty. You can click on the image to read more tributes to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born July 6th

Jul6

Cheryl Harness, b.1951. Author and illustrator of many children’s biographies and books about American historical events, including Three Young Pilgrims, Young John Quincy, Young Abe Lincoln, and The Remarkable Benjamin Franklin. I’m telling you these are beautifully illustrated books, and Ms. Harness tells a good story, too.

Nancy Reagan, b. 1921.

George W. Bush, b. 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

Isn’t it rather funny that Nancy Reagan and President Bush have the same birthdate?

Isaac’s Storm by Eric Larson

Jun1

“As we watched from the porch were amazed and delighted to see the water from the Gulf flowing down the street. ‘Good,’ we thought, ‘there would be no need to walk the few blocks to play at the beach, it was right at our front gate.'”


The deadliest hurricane in U.S. history was not the one that hit New Orleans last year. It was the Galveston hurricane of September 8,1900; author Eric Larson calls it “Isaac’s Storm.” (Hurricanes did not begin receiving official names from the U.S. Weather Bureau until the late 1940’s.) Isaac Cline was the chief weatherman for the U.S. Weather Bureau on Galveston Island in the year of the hurricane.

This history is not the best organized one I’ve ever read. The narrative skips back forth from Thursday to Saturday to Friday and back again. However, I did learn some fascinating facts about the Galveston Hurricane and about Isaac Cline:

1) Before being sent to Galveston, Isaac Cline was stationed at Fort Concho in West Texas, a fact which is of interest to me because I was born and grew up in San Angelo, Texas, the town that formed in the shadow of Fort Concho.

2) On Galveston Island at least 6000 people died in the hurricane, possibly as many as 10,000. Records were not carefully kept, and the dead had to be buried or burned rather quickly to prevent disease.

3) In 1891 Isaac Cline wrote that “[t]he coast of Texas is according to the general laws of the motion of the atmosphere exempt from West India hurricanes and the two which have reached it followed an abnormal path which can only be attributed to causes known in meteorology as accidental.” The two hurricanes of which he wrote struck Indianola, Texas in 1875 and again in 1886. After the second hurricane, the town was abandoned.

4) After the Indianola hurricanes, the residents of Galveston did make plans to build a seawall, but it was never built—until after 1900.

5) The storm surge in 1900 covered the island with water, uprooted trees, toppled houses, and carried masses of debris that did as much damage as the water itself.

6) Isaac Cline’s pregnant wife, Cora, died in the hurricane, and Cline’s brother, Joseph, who also worked for the Weather Bureau, became estranged from Isaac apparently as a result of the events of that day.

The most interesting aspect of the story was the failure of the U.S. Weather Service to warn Galveston of the approaching hurricane. Weather forecasting methods were not as sophisticated or accurate as they are now, but other problems included a rivalry between the U.S. Weather Bureau in Cuba and Cuban weather forecasters and a reluctance to frighten the public with possibly false alarms. In fact weather forecasters were not even allowed to use the word “hurricane” in their forecasts without permission from Washington. This failure followed upon the the failure of the weather service to warn the public of the Blizzard of 1888 and both caused people to further lose faith in the ability of the weather service to predict storms and precipitated changes in the organization and leadership of the weather bureau in order to improve its performance.

Nevertheless, we are dealing with some of the same problems today. When is it prudent and/or necessary to tell the people of a large metropolitan area to evacuate in the face of a possible hurricane? How accurately, even now, is it possible to predict the path of such a hurricane? Can we trust the instructions given by government bureaucrats, or should we trust our own judgment? Even as the freeways backed up and became impassable in Houston before Rita, we were being told not to leave yet, but rather to wait until the next day. Was this advice, heeded by hardly anyone, good or bad? Would it really be possible to evacuate Galveston Island and the coastal areas behind the Island and up towards Houston in the face of a major storm? Would people listen to evacuation notices, or was Rita the “false alarm” that would cause people to stay home and take their chances rather than face gridlock and dehydration and gas lines on the freeways again?

Lots of unanswered questions even 100 years after the Galveston Hurricane that practically destroyed that city once. By the way, hurricane season in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico officially begins today.

Random Thoughts on LOST, the TV Show

May25

WARNING: Spoilers ahead. If you have not seen the final episode of LOST, the second season, you may want to skip this post.

Now that we (and the scriptwriters) have all summer to think about the two seasons of LOST that have already aired, and we can, at our leisure, predict, criticize, praise, and analyze, I have a few random questions and ideas and observations on LOST, the only TV show worth watching* for the Semicolon family.

1. I re-watched the pilot last week with Engineer Husband, who has yet to understand the attraction although we continue to have hope that he will become as addicted as the rest of us, and I noticed that several threads have been dropped, so to speak. What explanation have we gotten for the polar bears? Another Dharma experiment gone awry? Also the possible hallucinations that various of the islanders have seen? Jack’s father? The beautiful horse that Kate saw? Were Charlie’s hallucinations drug induced? And what’s happened to Rousseau? And how did that slave ship get to the island, and why was it full of dynamite? What happened to the Dharma people who were on the island before the plane crash and before Desmond got there?

2. Were all the characters on LOST running away from something or else looking for something in Australia before their plane crash? Jack was looking for his father; Sawyer was gunning for his father’s betrayer. Hurley was looking for the origin and meaning of the numbers; Charlie’s trying for a Driveshaft comeback. Locke wanted to prove he was a man (??) or something, to go on an adventure. Kate and Anna Lucia were both running from the law. Jin and Sun were trying to escape, Jin from Sun’s father and Sun from Jin and her father. Rose and Bernard were looking for miraculous healing. Sayid was looking for his lost love. Boone went looking for Shannon, and Shannon was running from herself. Michael was, of course, looking for his boy. I’m not clear on why Eko was in Australia, and is Claire the only main character who actually lived in Australia in the first place?

3. The finale episode reminded me of the first few chapters of Genesis. Did Eko believe that God had commanded him to push that button, that it would be sin not to push the button? Locke says that the button is meaningless, and he has Desmond going along with him until the end. Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that if they did they would surely die. Eko says he is absolutely sure that if they don’t push the button they will all die. Locke/Satan says they will not surely die, but rather they will become like gods, knowing freedom.

4. However, are all the supernatural elements in the story –the healings, the dreams, the ties between all the characters– going to be explained in the end as scientific, natural phenomena? I certainly hope not. If LOST is just a story about a big evil multi-national corporation and a rich manipulative daddy who wants to protect his daughter from a poverty-stricken jailbird, then it’s not that interesting anymore. The spiritual themes are what give it depth. On the other hand, all the emphasis on Fate as the moving force behind the events on LOST is dissatisfying, too. I don’t believe in Fate, and I don’t see how such an impersonal force could produce such intensely personal stories.

5. Are the LOST people going to change, be redeemed in religious terms? Locke said, before he lost his own faith, that they all had a second chance on the island, a chance to make things right. Will Charlie really stay an ex-addict? Can Sawyer ever be anything but a con-man? Is Kate a heartless murderer? Has Jack forgiven his father? Will Eko build his church?

6. Should the people behind this show wrap everything up next season? Can the excellence be maintained through more than three seasons, or will it disintegrate into a series of soap opera episodes in which resolution is promised, but ever really delivered?

7. I love the literary references in LOST. The Dharma film was hidden behind The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Henry the Other was reading The Brothers Karamazov (given to him by Locke), entirely appropriate for this show with its themes of sin and redemption and the father-son relationship. Sawyer, of all people, is the big reader in the bunch, reading whatever he can find from the plane’s wreckage. He’s been seen reading A Wrinkle in TIme by one of my favorite authors, Madeleine L’Engle, and Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret by one of my least favorite authors, Judy Blume. The question in the latter title seems appropriate for the LOST survivors. Sawyer also read Watership Down in one of the episodes, and if you know that story, it’s all about survival and leadership and defending a group against its enemies. in the finale, Desmond’s is devoted to Dickens, saying that he’s read everything the man wrote, except for the book he saving to read just before he dies, Our Mutual Friend. That’s a book I haven’t read, so can anyone tell me what significance it might have to Desmond or to the world of LOST?

It’s about time television offered something fun and significant and thought-provoking. I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed a TV show as much as this one. If you’ve not seen the show, I recommend you get the DVD’s and watch*. Thank you Mr. Abrams and Mr. Lindelof.

LOST quiz, emphasizing spiritual and Biblical themes in the first two seasons of LOST.

*Not for children. There’s a lot of violence, somewhat graphically displayed, and there’s enough sexual content to make me uncomfortable. I wish the writers had been confident enough to leave out the sexual content, at least on screen, but that would require a level of restraint that is not to be found these days in Hollywood.

Summer Reading Challenge

May24

I’m quite fond of setting goals and making lists and formulating plans —even though I don’t follow through very well. So when I found Amanda’s Summer Reading Challenge, I joined up immediately. Here are my summer reading goals:

1. Read 10 Newbery Award or Newbery Honor books that I’ve not read before.

2. Re-read five books from my (college) Advanced Reading Survey course, and post about them here.

3. Read as many of the books that I bought at the used book sale as I can.

4. Read at least three of the books from the list I gave my AP US history students, three that I’ve not already read. Here’s the list I gave my students. They’re supposed to choose one to read over the summer.

Foster, Genevieve. The World of Columbus and Sons.
Bradford, William. The History of Plymouth Plantation.
Edwards, Jonathan. Personal Narrative.
Forbes, Esther. Paul Revere and the World He Lived In.
Marrin, Albert. The War for Independence.
Bowen, Carolyn Drinker. Miracle in Philadelphia
Ambrose, Stephen. Undaunted Courage.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America
Ambrose, Stephen. Nothing Like It In the World.
Douglass, Frederick. Life of an American Slave.
Blumberg, Rhoda. Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun.
McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom.
Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels.
Oates, Stephen B. With Malice Toward None.
Stone, Irving. Men To Match My Mountains.
Addams, Jane. Twenty Years at Hull House.
Riis, Jacob. How the Other Half Lives.
Strasser, Susan. Never Done.
Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery.
Terkel. Studs. Hard Times.
Ambrose, Stephen, Band of Brothers.
Houston, Jeanne. Farewell to Manzanar
Williams, Juan. Eyes on the Prize.
Haley, Alex. The Autobiography of Malcom X.
Kennedy, John F. Profiles in Courage.
Lewis, Anthony. Gideon’s Trumpet.
Colson, Chuck. Born Again.
Bernstein, Carl and Robert Woodward. All the President’s Men.

I’ve already read the ones in bold print. Any suggestions for which US history books I should start with? Do you have any suggestions for which Newbery Award books I should not miss? I’ve actually read a lot of those.

If you’re having trouble setting your own reading goals for the summer, Amanda also has a few suggestions for you.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born April 27th

Apr27

Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, b. 1791. With funding from the U.S. government, he constructed the first telegraph line in the US between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore Maryland. The first message sent on this telegraph line on May 24, 1844 by Morse himself was, “What hath God wrought?” (Can you imagine the furor over such a “religious” message nowadays, government funded, no less?)

Bemelmans, Ludwig, b. 1898. We like Madeline. “She was not afraid of mice–she loved winter, snow, and ice. To the tiger in the zoo, Madeline just said, ‘Pooh-pooh.’” She’s definitely a positive role model––brave, bold, and adventurous. Mr. Bemelmans was born in Austria.

Lanz, Walter, b. 1900. Animator and creator of Woody the Woodpecker.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born February 16th

Feb16

Henry Adams, b. 1838. He was the grandson of one president and the great-grandson of another. Numbered among his many friends were Lincoln’s private secretary John Hay, Henry Cabot Lodge, Theodore Roosevelt, geologist Clarence King, Senators Lucius Lamar and James Cameron, artist John La Farge, and writer Edith Wharton. His most famous work was an autobiography written in third person, The Education of Henry Adams. (online here) He also wrote and published many books about his extensive travels and about history.

The difference is slight, to the influence of an author, whether he is read by five hundred readers, or by five hundred thousand; if he can select the five hundred, he reaches the five hundred thousand.

I’m sure mine are the most discerning and influential readers in the blogosphere. Just not sure where all that influence is headed.

The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin

Jan28

“Januray 12, 1888, began as an unseasonably warm morning aacross Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Minnesota, the weather so mild that children walked to school without coats and gloves. But that afternoon, without warning, the atmosphere suddenly, violently changed. One moment the air was calm; the next the sky exploded in a raging chaos of horizontal snow and hurricane-force winds. Temperatures plunged as an unprecedented cold front ripped through the center of the continent.
By Friday morning, January 13, some five hundred people lay dead on the drifted prairie, many of them children who had perished on their way home from country schools.”


The Children’s Blizzard was both fascinating and disturbing. I’ve never lived “up North.” Reading Little House on the Prairie books is the extent of my exposure to blizzards and the like. So reading about the horrible possibilities inherent in an American plains blizzard was eye-opening. Did you know:

that in a particularly bad snowstorm something can occur called St. Elmo’s fire or point discharge, manifested as sparks of static electricity rippling through the air that discharge into the nearest conductor? Human bodies make great conductors.

that what “windchill factor” really means is that the actual temperature, say 25 degrees, is not indicative of how fast you’ll freeze to death? “If the wind is blowing at 30 miles an hour, the exposed parts of your body are losing heat at the same rate that they would if the temperature were in fact 8 degrees.”

that some people just before they freeze to death throw off all their clothes and remove any wraps from their necks? It’s called “paradoxical undressing”.

that sometimes people who survive for hours in below freezing temperatures, die of a heaert attack when they are moved? The heart has gone into a kind of suspended animation and can’t stand the shock of movement and renewed circulation.

There’s lots more: chapters about weather and what causes a blizzard like that of January 12, 1888, chapters that explain the abilities and the limitations of weather forecasters in the late 1800’s, and stories. Laskin follows the stories of five families who suffered, some more and some less, in the terrible blizzard of 1888. Most of those he tells about were immigrant families recently moved here from Germany or Ukraine or Scandinavia. He also explains why these immigrant families, although they were used to cold and freezing temperatures, were completely unprepared for an American prairie blizzard.

One interesting contrast that Laskin touches on came to my mind early in my reading. How do you think people in 1888 reacted to a disaster of this magnitude?

“Today a “surprise” storm that killed over two hundred people would instigate a fierce outcry in the press, vigorous official handwringing, and a flood of reports by every government agency remotely involved, starting with the National Weather Service.”

Oh, yes, and this little observation was written pre-Katrina. I could add that the politicians would be clamoring to offer compensation to any who had suffered in the storm, and the Democrats would imply that the entire storm and its death toll were somehow George Bush’s fault. The newspapers would be investigating what went wrong, and sinister conspiracy theories would run rampant over the internet.

In 1888, however, people called the blizzard “an act of God,” not in the sense of blaming God, but in a sense of acceptance that bad things happen and that the weather is no respecter of persons. The journalists found heros and heroines to write about, people who survived or rescued others, and the newspapers collected funds to distribute to some of the survivors of the storm and to the families of those who died. Only one person left the Army Signal Corps (the government agency responsible at that time for forecasting the weather) in the storm’s aftermath, and that one man simply resigned and went back to his regular army job. For better or for worse, my, how times have changed.

All my friends up North should find this book to be riveting. I think this book would be excellent as the basis for a homeschool unit study combining history, geography, human physiology, and meteorology for those children who are old enough to handle the somewhat gory details. The lesson, of course: don’t be caught out on the prairie in a blizzard. I don’t expect to get caught in any snowstorms myself, but still as a piece of American history, I was engrossed by the story of the storm that became known as “The Schoolchildren’s Blizzard.”