from “Affairs in England,” Special Correspondence of the New York Daily Times, October 16, 1855
I came across this fascinating tidbit while searching the NYT archives for references to Crimean war photographer Roger Fenton.
vintage photo - chickens and cheap cigars
(via Confederate entrenchments near McCool’s [i.e. McCoull’s] house)
1,492 Union soldiers and an unknown number of Confederates were buried on the McCoull farm in Spotsylvania county. The sign reads “On fame’s eternal camping ground, their silent tents are spread. & glory guards with solemn round the bivouac of the dead.”
(via CONTENTdm Collection : Item Viewer)
President Taft was inducted as an honorary member of the Arctic Brotherhood in 1909. In addition to the title “Past Grand Arctic Chief,” he was gifted the photographed “robe of office made of purple velvet and trimmed with furs” (source: 1909 New York Times article).
“The only opening in the robe was at the neck, and after it had been put over the President’s head things seemed to get lost into a tangle, and the President was lost to view for two or three minutes.”
The first filly to win the Kentucky Derby was named Regret.
Today I watched Chungking Express. I saw this as a child and was thrilled to discover it’s just as magical as I remembered — and makes a lot more sense.
(Also Cocteau’s La Belle et La Bete, playing now. Essays to write means lots of movies.)
Sunday afternoon with Kieslowski’s Blue. I have not actually watched the Three Colors trilogy in years despite nodding to it often to describe film perfection. My opinion is unchanged.
(via qqqqqppppp)
Half the horses on our list of famous mounts (including those belonging to Robert E. Lee and Napoleon Bonaparte) are on display in museums!
Flappers at the Chicken Little Inn, circa 1926. From my Elizabeth Wells album.
By God
Sometimes by night I don’t know why
I awake thinking of prepositions.
Perhaps they are clues.
“Since by Man came Death.”
I am puzzled to hear that Man is the agent of Death.
Perhaps it means
Man was standing at the curb
and Death came by.
Once I had a dog
would go with anyone.
Perhaps listening for
little by little the first union.
-from Glass, Irony and God, Anne Carson
It’s something like 65 degrees of gorgeous outside today so naturally I am shunning it in favor of bed & this rather wonderful book.