Category Archives: On This Day

“Horseman Pass By”: Happy Birthday, William Butler Yeats

Posted on June 13, 2013 by sheila

William Butler Yeats was born today in 1865. Yeats is a great poet and all that, but I grew up pretty much “over” him because he was omnipresent in our household. We were made to memorize his epitaph in order … Continue reading →

Posted in On This Day, writers | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Happy Birthday, Dean Martin

Posted on June 7, 2013 by sheila

From Dino, by Nick Tosches. Getting to the heart of it all, something I tried to do here, with Elvis. His schoolmates had never really known him. Even his loving family could not tell for sure what lay within this … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Music, On This Day | Tagged | 10 Comments

Happy Birthday, Gwendolyn Brooks

Posted on June 7, 2013 by sheila

I think I first encountered Gwendolyn Brooks’s stuff in Humanities in high school (her most famous is, perhaps, “We Real Cool”). We Real Cool The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk … Continue reading →

Posted in On This Day, writers | Tagged | Leave a comment

On This Day: June 6, 1944: “I Really Think I’m Too Young For This.”

Posted on June 6, 2013 by sheila

Sgt. Lee Pozek: “We yelled to the crew to take us in, we would rather fight than drown. As the ramp dropped we were hit by machine-gun and rifle fire. I yelled to get ready to swim and fight. We … Continue reading →

Posted in On This Day | Tagged , | 8 Comments

“She was quiet, too, I remember, like an animal is quiet, and I was like that too, survival tactics. She seemed smart, but not in an educated way, instinctively smart, nobody’s fool.” – John Strasberg on Marilyn Monroe

Posted on June 1, 2013 by sheila

In honor of Marilyn Monroe’s birthday, please go read the piece by Kim Morgan, which was the cover story this past December in Playboy. It’s a phenomenal piece of writing as well as analysis. Kim takes on all of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, On This Day | Tagged | 11 Comments

Happy Birthday, Niccolò Machiavelli: “Fear and the absence of hatred may go well together.”

Posted on May 3, 2013 by sheila

Niccolò Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy, May 3, 1469 We first had to read The Prince in high school. I remember it as drudgery. I flat out didn’t get it. I read it again a couple years later, and … Continue reading →

Posted in On This Day, writers | Tagged , | 2 Comments

On This Day: April 13, 1743

Posted on April 13, 2013 by sheila

Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia. James Parton: A gentleman of 32 who could calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, dance a minuet, and play the violin. From … Continue reading →

Posted in Founding Fathers, On This Day | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Happy Birthday, Marlon Brando: We Can Still Hear That Roar

Posted on April 3, 2013 by sheila

“You can’t always be a failure. Not and survive. Van Gogh! There’s an example of what can happen when a person never receives any recognition. You stop relating: it puts you outside. But I guess success does that, too. You … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, On This Day | Tagged | 10 Comments

Happy Birthday, Seán O’Casey

Posted on March 30, 2013 by sheila

Irish playwright Seán O’Casey was born on this day, in 1880. He was the first major Irish playwright to deal with slum life and the reality of the Dublin poor. He grew up working-class in a family of thirteen children. … Continue reading →

Posted in On This Day, Theatre | Tagged | 2 Comments

On This Day: March 28, 1941: “If anybody could have saved me it would have been you.”

Posted on March 28, 2013 by sheila

TO: LEONARD WOOLF Rodmell, Sussex Tuesday (18? March 1941) Dearest, I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, … Continue reading →

Posted in On This Day | Tagged | 7 Comments