Although the apple has long been associated with the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, it is not mentioned in the Bible as the fruit Eve shared with Adam. Some speculation has a peach, pomegranate, fig, quince, pear, coco de mer, or mushroom as the offending food.
Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth was the most successful novelist of the 19th century. She was forced to take up writing for publication after he husband abandoned her and her two children. Her works were all in the vein of sentimental novels popular at the time and her work has mostly been forgotten, but she has been rediscovered by feminist critics because of her positive female characters.
She also was a friend of Harriet Beecher Stowe, and shared writing support.
The E.D.E.N. stood for Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte. Her most successful book was The Hidden Hand. Its heroine was Capitola Black.
Before writing Emma, British author Jane Austen (whose 250th birthday was Tuesday) wrote, “I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” The novel was published in Dec. 1815, and was her last novel published in her lifetime.
Clueless, a 1995 loose adaptation of the novel Emma, set in Beverly Hills, CA, was written and directed by Amy Heckerling and stars Alicia Silverstone as Cher Horowitz in the “Emma” role.
Beverly Hills, CA, was begun as a subdivision of Los Angeles in the early 1900s. It was one of many all-white planned communities in the area, and Jews were also prohibited from owning or renting property. The city was incorporated in 1914; it was named after Beverly Farms in Beverly, Massachusetts.
Today, the city’s size is 5.71 square miles, and the population is just over 32,000. It is entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles.
There were 62 nuclear-powered fast attack submarines of the USS Los Angeles class commissioned into service in the US Navy, the first of them, the class ship, in 1976. Some 23 of the class remain in service, the newest of which, USS Cheyenne, was commissioned in 1996.
“Boomers” and “bombers” are two nicknames for ballistic missile submarines for the US Navy and the British Royal Navy, respectively. The US currently has 14 boomers in service. They are the Ohio-class submarines.
Former NFL quarterback Norman J “Boomer” Esiason got his nickname before being born: His mother Irene, reacting to his constant kicking in the womb, called him “Boomer,” and he has kept the name since.
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s nickname among his friends was “Sam”; Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s was “Cump.”
Tecumseh Products is a Michigan-based manufacturer of compressors for refrigeration and air conditioning systems. Founded in 1931 as a compressor maker, Tecumseh (which took its name from the city of Tecumseh, Michigan, where it was headquartered) entered the small gasoline engine market in the 1950s; those small engines became the company’s best-known line, being used in numerous consumer products such as lawn mowers, snowblowers, chainsaws, and minibikes.
In 2008, Tecumseh exited the small engine category, but continues to produce compressors.
Barack Obama was elected President of the United States on November 4, 2008. In his speech at Grant Park in Chicago that night, he said, “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our Founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer… To those who would tear the world down: we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright: tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.”
A great day for our country.
Grant Park in Chicago was originally Lake Park from the mid-19th century when the city was founded. In 1901 it was renamed to honor the 18th President. Today, most of the park sits on landfill created from the rubble of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
There have been three different Chicago-based professional sports teams which have gone by the name of “Chicago Fire,” in homage to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871:
- A team in the World Football League (a short-lived rival to the National Football League), which played in that league’s inaugural season of 1974, before folding
- A team in the minor-league American Football Association, which played for one season (1981), advancing to that league’s championship game, before disbanding
- A team in Major League Soccer, which was founded in 1998, and continues to play today (though with a slight rebranding to “Chicago Fire FC” in 2020)
In addition, Chicago Fire is also the name of a procedural television drama, depicting members of the Chicago Fire Department, which has aired on NBC since 2012.
[Not in play]
When I was in the 6th grade I attended Outdoor School in the PNW. One of the campfire songs I learned was about the great Chicago fire:
Late last night, when we were all in bed
Old Lady Leary left a lantern in the shed
And when the cow kicked it over
She winked her eye and said
‘There’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight’
[Not in play, as well]
I learned that from other kids in my childhood, too! ISTR it was very popular among the troops in the Spanish-American War.
The Great Fire of London in September 1666 lasted for 3 days and destroyed at least 15% of the city’s housing, over 60 churches, and the medieval Old St. Paul’s Cathedral. Estimates of the death toll at that time were only in the single figures. Some modern historians argue that there must have been at least a thousand deaths, with many bodies reduced to skeletal fragments in the firestorm, and others dying of exposure after the fire.
The great British architect Sir Christopher Wren designed 51 churches for those portions of London burned during the Great Fire of 1666, including a new St. Paul’s Cathedral, completed in 1710, which stands to this day. Just 23 of his other post-1666 churches remain in the city.
The song “Feed the Birds,” from the movie Mary Poppins, in which Mary sings about the Bird Woman of St. Paul’s, and in which she implores the children to pay tuppence for a bagful of crumbs, was Walt Disney’s favorite Sherman Brothers song. They performed the song in 2001 at the dedication of the “Partners” statue in Disneyland.
Jane Darwell’s porrtrayal of the Bird Woman in Mary Poppins was her last role. She was eighty-four years old,retired from acting, and living in the Motion Picture Country Home when Walt Disney wanted to cast her as the Bird Woman in Mary Poppins. Disney made the trip to the retirement home personally to entice her to take the part, and when she agreed to take the role he had a portion of the St. Paul Cathedral steps set transported to the retirement home so that she did not have to leave the residence to film her scenes.
-“BB”-