Category Archives: On This Day

“Knowledge is a polite word for dead but not buried imagination…think twice before you think.” — E.E. Cummings

Posted on October 14, 2025 by sheila

It’s his birthday today. I responded to E.E. Cummings in a visceral way when I first had to read his stuff in high school. I didn’t know what it was all about, but I loved the syntax, the unmistakable look … Continue reading →

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“Where am I coming from? Where am I going? A fusillade of question marks.” — Ciarán Carson

Posted on October 9, 2025 by sheila

It’s Ciarán Carson’s birthday today. He died in 2019. Paul Muldoon’s name invariably comes up when Carson is mentioned (post about Muldoon here). They share similarities (Northern Irish settings/concerns, long chatty lines, postmodern accumulation of detail, the use of humor, … Continue reading →

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“I grew up believing that I was fundamentally powerless.” — Thom Yorke

Posted on October 7, 2025 by sheila

It’s his birthday today. My associative memories involving Radiohead are a little bit too intense and specific, and so I find it difficult to listen to them anymore. Some music is like that. It’s so associated with something specific you … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, On This Day | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

“I want to live, not pose!” — Carole Lombard

Posted on October 6, 2025 by sheila

It’s her birthday today. I wrote about her – in depth – the queen of screwballs, the screwball muse, taken from us way too soon – for my column at Liberties.     Thank you so much for stopping by. … Continue reading →

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“When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley

Posted on October 5, 2025 by sheila

“Memphis 1955 on Union Avenue Carl and Jerry and Charlie and Roy And Billy Riley too…” – Johnny Cash, “I Will Rock’n’Roll With You” “and Billy Riley too” …. Billy Lee Riley was always a little irritated to be an … Continue reading →

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“If someone spends his life writing the truth without caring for the consequences, he inevitably becomes a political authority in a totalitarian regime.” — Václav Havel

Posted on October 5, 2025 by sheila

“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” — Václav Havel Václav Havel, whose birthday … Continue reading →

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

“[At Swim-Two-Birds is] just the book to give to your sister, if she is a dirty, boozey girl.” – Dylan Thomas on Flann O’Brien’s masterpiece

Posted on October 5, 2025 by sheila

When a man sleeps, he is steeped and lost in a limp toneless happiness: awake he is restless, tortured by his body and the illusion of existence. Why have men spent the centuries seeking to overcome the awakened body? Put … Continue reading →

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“All my life I have been happiest when the folks watching me said to each other, `Look at the poor dope, wilya?” — Buster Keaton

Posted on October 4, 2025 by sheila

It’s Buster Keaton’s birthday today. As a small boy with a talent for acrobatics (and a high tolerance for pain), Keaton performed with his parents in a family act (an act notorious for its wild violence) before launching off on … Continue reading →

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

“That cat was royalty, man.” — Mick Jagger on Eddie Cochran

Posted on October 3, 2025 by sheila

It’s his birthday today. Eddie Cochran’s songs still get play everywhere, all the time, on the radio no less! 1950s hits still in rotation. Elvis’ 1950s hits aren’t still in rotation. The only ones you hear on the radio for … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, On This Day | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

“The problem with taking amps to a shop is that they come back sounding like another amp.” — Stevie Ray Vaughan

Posted on October 3, 2025 by sheila

It’s his birthday today. It’s a bonus he came along in an era of TV specials, and televised performances, and video-taped blah blah blah, because there are tons of live performance clips – and you can’t really get the totality … Continue reading →

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