Bob & Cindy

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

 

Bob Marley and Cindy Breakspeare (Miss World 1976) who is the inspiration for his song

"Turn Your Lights Down Low"

A Short History of the Little Black Dress

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Its silhouette has changed over the years, but the LBD remains supremely chic.

The Birth of the LBD

Perhaps more than any other piece of clothing, the little black dress is, women have been told, the essential, the one that will take you practically anywhere. And perhaps more than any other designer, Coco Chanel was the one who made it ubiquitous. She did not invent the concept, of course, but according to Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life (by Justine Picardine, $40, amazon.com), “the little black dress was not formally identified as the shape of the future until 1926, when American Vogue published a drawing of a Chanel design.… It was an apparently simple yet elegant sheath, in black crêpe de Chine, with long, narrow sleeves, worn with a string of white pearls; and Vogue proved to be correct in the prediction that it would become a uniform.…” Contrast that description with these more elaborate dresses from 1925.

© Seeberger Freres, Hulton Archive, Getty1 Page 1 of 41

See the style evolution here: http://www.realsimple.com/beauty-fashion/clothing/dresses-skirts/little-black-dress-00000000046948/page2.html

pioneers of the alternative lifestyle

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Curated by Marie Lyn Bernard, also known as Riese, the pictures below show how the same sex community has evolved in more than a century.

The editor-in-chief of Autostraddle took it upon herself to research early images of same-sex couples, painstakingly looking through archives, websites, digital collections, and Tumblr sites alike.

She noted on her website that it was ‘impossible to verify the sexual orientation of some of the subjects of earlier photos’ that were sourced to Tumblr.
She said: ‘Some of these photos may just be of cross-dressers or super-close friends.’

Victorian romance: A couple from the 1890s gazes into each others' eyes

Jet setting: Neoclassical sculptor Edmonia 'Wildfire' Lewis, pictured in the 1880s, was an American-born artist who spent most of her time in a lesbian artists' community in Rome

Herstory: Charlotte Cushman and Matilda Hays, a couple pictured from the 1850s, left, and right, Anna Moor and Elsie Dale pose for a photograph in 1900

Just the two of us: Left, a young couple in the 1900s is seated in garden from the Powerhouse Museum Collection, and right, a couple from the 1920s wearing top hats and three-piece suits

The odd couples: Four couples of women pose for a photo, around 1910

Feeling friendly: Left, four women at the Dyke Lumber Company in 1925, and right, American blues singer Gladys Bentley poses with bandleader Willie Bryant in 1930 outside the Apollo Theater

Sock hop: Two seemingly gay couples from the 1950s pass the time outside a bank in Idaho

Author Kathryn Hulme and former nun Marie Louise Habets, pictured in 1956

Ooh la la: Guests at the bar of the Chez Moune nightclub, the longest-running lesbian club in Paris, pictured in the 1960s

All you need is love: An interracial couple embraced on June 27, 1971 as demonstrators gather for the second Gay Pride Parade in New York City, left; right, Gwenn Craig, from San Francisco, holds aloft a poster giving her sentiments during final session of Democratic Convention on August 14, 1984

Menacing: Three members of Lavender Menace at the Second Congress to Unite Women in New York in May of 1970

Clarification: A couple in the 1970s wore shirts portraying stereotypes during a protest

Lazy summer day: A Germantown couple on porch in 1977

TLC: Mariana Romo Carmona, left, helps girlfriend June Chan, right, with the mundane task of grooming

Promised: Marilyn Barnett, seen after a judge ruled that she had no right to a $500,000 beach house she claimed was promised to her by her former lover, tennis star Billie Jean King, in 1981

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210599/Evolution-community-One-womans-stunning-collection-lesbians-past-150-years.html#ixzz27z2lStN8

five recent archaeological finds

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception


With so much violent conflict in the world today, important archeological sites are in grave danger.

Timbuktu in Mal and Aleppo in Syria are home to rape, murder, war and political unrest.

Militant Ansar Dine Islamists linked to Al Qaeda are now in control of all of northern Mali and have reportedly vowed to destroy the storied mausoleums of Timbuktu, a cultural and intellectual center that played a huge role in the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Aleppo, a key site in the history of Christianity and well-traversed by people from many ancient civilizations, has seen weeks of fierce fighting between the forces of Syria President Bashar al-Assad and rebel fighters. The city’s Temple of the Storm God dates from the third to the second millennium BCE and is one of the oldest structures in the world — shelling and military helicopters now threaten its existence.

Timbuktu and Aleppo are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. So were the statues of Buddha of Bamiyan that were built in the early 6th century and destroyed with dynamite in March 2001 by the Taliban.

With this in mind, here are five recent archaeology finds that remind us why the study and preservation of the past matters more than ever in our digital age.

1. A 16th-Century Well Under a Retiree’s Living Room
Colin Steer started digging beneath the living room floor of the house he’d lived in for almost three decades in the UK. The floor had sunk and he was curious. After three days of digging down 17 feet, he found the shaft of a well that may date back to the 16th century.
As he says in the Telegraph, “I always wanted to dig it out to see if I could find a pot of gold at the bottom, so when I retired at the end of last year that’s what I started to do.”

2. A Well-Preserved Wooden Boat From Roman Times
Prior to the construction of a car park in the French Riviera city of Antibes, archaeologists discovered the well-preserved remains of a wooden hull from a shipwrecked boat that was probably a merchant ship in the 2nd or 3rd century, when Antibes was Antipolis and under Roman imperial rule.

Marks from saws and adzes can still be seen on the wood of the boat. Another small find gives us a snapshot into the people who built the ship, notes the Guardian:

The archaeologists have made some touching discoveries, including a little 15-centimetre brush that must have been dropped by a shipwright busy caulking the hull. It most likely fell through a gap between the floor of the hold and the outer shell, only to be discovered 19 centuries later.

It makes you wonder, did the shipwright go looking for his brush, never knowing that it would be found (intact!) millennia later?

3. Items From a Japanese Bathroom
There have been a number of reports about the debris cast into the ocean by the devastating March 2011 tsunami in Japan. Citizen scientists have been engaging in floating archaeology to sight and gather debris. 1,000 miles east of Japan in the Pacific Ocean, crew members of the Sea Dragon have found a 150-foot-section of a boat, a soccer ball, a volleyball and a Bridgestone tire marked with the words “made in Japan.”

Ken Campbell and two other professional sea kayakers started the Ikkatsu Project in May to examine the islands off the coast of Washington, whose cliffs are “virtually inaccessible” by foot. A pile of lumber yielded the “lid of a potty-training toilet, a laundry hamper, a bottle of cherry-flavored cough syrup, several brown glass bottles and pieces of a washing machine marked with Japanese characters” — perhaps from a bathroom that was washed out to sea by the tsunami?

4. A Medieval King’s Long-lost Grave Site
Wikipedia and the internet have given us the sense that “everything” is now available for us to know if we just go online. But there really is plenty about the past that we are yet ignorant about. A case in point is a recent find in Leicester in Britain. Archaeologists dug under a parking lot to find the very Greyfriars friary where King Richard III — the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty who was killed after two years on the throne — is thought to have been buried. Medieval window tracery, glazed floor tile fragments (perhaps part of the cloisters walk) and a section of wall have all been uncovered.
Richard III is the subject of a play by Shakespeare. His death in 1485, in the Battle of Bosworth Henry Tudor, was the decisive battle in the War of the Roses which is sometimes seen as marking the end of the Middle Ages.

5. Tools That Are Over 4,000 Years Old
University of Sheffield archaeologists recently found 4,200 year old obsidian tools in Tell Mozan, a site in Syria near its borders with Turkey and Iraq. Obsidian is naturally occurring volcanic glass and has been used for millennia to make stone tools; today, it is still used in scalpels for certain medical procedures. By examining the mineral composition of the obsidian, archaeologists were able to discover that the tools came from 200 kilometers away in eastern Turkey, revealing ancient trade routes and commercial interactions among ancient societies.

A comment from the leader of the research, Dr Ellery Frahm, shows how the study of the past can be valuable in the present and not only for our knowledge of historical events. As Dr. Frahm says:

The current situation in Syria is tragic and precarious. Because of both professional and personal interests, I follow developments in Syria closely. It can be so overwhelming and heartbreaking that I have to take a break from it, which, unlike the people who are living through the fighting, I have the luxury of doing. Whatever the future holds, there will be a lot of work to do there, both humanitarian and archaeological, and I’m very much interested in the interfaces between them. How can archaeology perhaps help Syria recover from this?

 

Ruins and tools lost long ago cannot speak. But what they can tell us — about our history, about the present day — more than merits preservation and study so one day we can indeed just go and read about such things online.


Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/5-reasons-archaeology.html#ixzz27yqRxOnE

The man who knew what women wanted

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

BBC1 will air a new program set around a great department store: Mr Selfridge on ITV1. It chronicles the story of the colourful, turbulent life of an  American retail genius who founded his store in 1909, based on the book Shopping, Seduction & Mr Selfridge by Lindy Woodhead.

Here  is  the story of an extraordinary man who created the retail experience known today.

Unique: With his waxed moustache and fastidious dress sense Harry Selfridge was the epitome of tradition

 

Harry Selfridge was unique. His waxed moustache and fastidious fashion was the epitome of tradition that empowered women by offering a new shopping experience.

A loving husband who adored his wife, he had cheated with a succession of stars, including the dancers Isadora Duncan and Anna Pavlova.

A true visionary, he enjoyed fabulous wealth but died virtually destitute. He was once mistaken for a tramp as he stood on Oxford Street gazing at the vast emporium that had once been his.

It had been a long journey from his humble beginnings in Ripon, Wisconsin, a remote hamlet, where he was born in 1858. Three years later, his shopkeeper father Robert fought in the Civil War, he survived the war but never returned, abandoning his wife Lois and three sons. She struggled on a teacher’s wage, and when her sons Charles and Robert died she focused all her love on Harry.

Lois drilled into him the importance of beautiful manners and studied appearance. Mother and son lived together until her death in 1924. Thanks to her, he understood women’s needs in a way few men could.

Harry left school at 14 to work for a bank and at 18 began working as a sock boy at a Chicago department store, Marshall Field & Coe. Within four years, he was assisting the general manager. Three years later, he had taken his job.

Field’s was Chicago’s most prestigious store but too formal for Harry. He was dubbed ‘Mile-A-Minute-Harry’ as he swept through making changes. Huge advances in dazzling technology helped. He installed dozens of phones; increased the lighting and even lit the beautiful window displays at night – a first for a Chicago store.

Thanks to Harry, Field’s offered flower-arranging classes, gave home-décor advice and introduced the idea of the wedding gift list, and set up a parcel and coat depositary for customers belongings before shopping.

He also created what was possibly the first US in-store restaurant, opened in 1890, Field’s Tea Room served ‘light luncheon’ dishes at tables bedecked with crisp linen, with a fresh rose in a crystal vase. Just 60 diners ate on the first day and within a year, it had over 1,500 covers daily.

In 1904 he set up a rival store in Chicago and sold it two years later for a quick profit. His wife, Rosalie, the daughter of a wealthy property investor, gave him her blessing to move to London to plan his dream store. She stayed in America with their four children.

Retail luxury: Harry Selfridge and his daughter Rosalie, named after her mother

 

He chose a site on Oxford Street and turned to Chicago’s supreme architect Daniel Burnham for an extraordinary design. Fifteen hundred workmen toiled all winter to build the immense steel-framed structure: a neo-classical façade fronted a modern masterwork that included seven miles of pressurised copper tubing in the fire-alarm system alone.

It was a marvel: nine Otis lifts; a state-of-the-art sprinkler system; thick concrete floors spanning an acre per level. It fell short of the eight storeys Harry had wanted. Planning restrictions  disallowed structures taller than St Paul’s but was still impressive  atfive floors, plus three basement levels and a roof terrace with a garden.
Selfridge & Co opened in 1909, on a wet March day: but inside all was warm and bright. More than 100 departments sold everything from swimsuits to sable coats, all exquisitely arranged in spacious surroundings. In no small way, Harry helped to liberate women. He gave them the freedom to shop un-chaperoned, the pleasure of lunch with a girlfriend in the safe haven of a store, and rare sensual delights and comforts, with music playing and the scent of perfume in the air. Aside from elegant restaurants, Selfridge & Co had a library, reading and writing rooms, a first-aid room, a silence room with soft furnishings, hairdressers and a manicure services.

Affair: Anna Pavlova, one of Harry's many lovers

Harry liked to say: ‘I helped emancipate women. I came along when they wanted to step out on their own. They came to the store and realised some of their dreams.’

For men or women, customer comfort was a priority. Believing shopping should be both a visual and tactile experience – not needing a sales clerk to open a cabinet – he put merchandise on low counter tops so people could feel and touch them.
 
The spirit of the age was on Harry’s side. He sold telephones, refrigerators, ice-making machines – even aeroplanes. He pioneered the celebrity appearance: world champion Freda Whittaker skated on the roof-top rink, while Wimbledon champion Suzanne Lenglen demonstrated her service on the roof-top court.

Television was demonstrated to the public for the first time at Selfridges in 1925 when Logie Baird brought in his odd-looking equipment that would dramatically change our lives in years to come.

Harry’s instinctive skill for enticing tourists meant that before long he could boast: ‘We are the third biggest tourist attraction in London after Buckingham Palace and the Tower.’

But Harry’s life outside of the store was very different. A friend said: ‘He was a genius from 9am until 5pm but a fool at the weekends.’ Although his wife eventually followed him to London, Harry enjoyed the company of some of the most renowned beauties of the day. A lover of celebrity, he courted the dancer Isadora Duncan, ballerina Anna Pavlova, author Elinor Glyn, Syrie Wellcome – the wife of pharmaceutical millionaire Henry Wellcome – and Lady Victoria Sackville.

From 1912, his grand amour – seemingly tolerated by the patient Rose – was the glittering chanteuse Gaby Deslys. He arranged a house for her in London and filled it with rugs, linen, silver, china and crystal from Selfridges.

Thanks to the commercial success of his store, he was able to make palatial residences his home: he leased Highcliffe Castle in Christchurch, Hampshire, as his country home and sprawling Lansdowne House as his town house.

Despite his philandering, Harry was devastated when Rose died in the post-war influenza pandemic. Several years later his mother died as well. Without these two women in his life Harry’s womanising and love of gambling spiralled out of control.

In 1921, when £500 was a very good annual salary, he lost £5,000 at casinos.
Now he turned to a new generation of willing showgirls including the Dolly Sisters, Jenny and Rose, a toxic pair who were also gambling addicts. The three would make frequent visits to the casinos in Nice. It is thought the girls spent £5 million of his fortune.

The store which bears his name: Harry was once mistaken for a tramp as he stood on Oxford Street gazing at the vast emporium that had been his life

 

As the world entered the Great Depression, he was woefully unprepared for the slump, by then over-extended and isolated by his own vanity. In 1939, at the age of 81, 30 years after building Selfridges, revolutionising London retailing and creating what would be known as the greatest shopping street in the world, Harry Selfridge was ousted from the store he had always thought of his own.

The man they used to call ‘the Earl of Oxford Street’, who had adored living in lavish houses that befitted a true merchant prince, was reduced to penury, living in a small rented flat in Putney with one of his daughters.

He was a genius from 9 to 5 - but a fool at weekends

In his final years, he would stand at his local bus stop on Putney High Street, searching for a 22 bus. Virtually deaf, his mind rambling, he hardly spoke. Still wearing curiously old-fashioned, formal clothing, his patent leather boots cracked and down-at-heel, he moved stiffly, aided by a Malacca cane.

On the bus, he would carefully count the pennies for his fare, buying a ticket to Hyde Park Corner, where he got off to wait for a 137, quietly telling the conductor: ‘Selfridges please.’

Lost in the memories of past glories, unrecognised, the old man would shuffle the length of the building, looking up to the roof as though searching for something. It was on one such occasion the police arrested him, suspecting he was a vagrant.
Harry died peacefully in his sleep on May 8, 1947. He was 89 years old. He was buried in a humble grave near his late wife and mother in a churchyard in Highcliffe. His family could not afford a headstone.

But his legacy remains. Harry said: ‘When I die, I want it said of me that I dignified and ennobled commerce.’ ITV’s new drama will remind us of how he did just that.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2210421/Mr-Selfridge-Extraordinary-story-retailing-visionary-revealed.html#ixzz27ybFvRKu

ex-slave's letter to his former master

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Dayton, Ohio,

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel PH Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir:

I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can.

I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harbouring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable.

Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbours told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy — the folks call her Mrs Anderson — and the children — Milly, Jane, and Grundy — go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated.

Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them coloured people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master.

Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future.

I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctors’ visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to.

Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V Winters, Esq, Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labours in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the labourer of his hire.
 

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve — and die, if it come to that — than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters.

You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the coloured children in your neighbourhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson.

The Munich Massacre

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception



The Munich Massacre refers to the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Bavaria, Germany when 11 Israeli Olympic Team members were taken hostage and killed by the Palestinian group Black September. Shortly after they took the hostages, they demanded that 234 prisoners be released from their Israeli jails. They also demanded for the release of the founders of the German Red Army Faction, who were in German prisons.

The terrorists were given logistical support by German neo-Nazis. Television crews filmed the whole situation throughout the days live. Consequently, the terrorists were able to watch the police prepare their attacks. Eventually the terrorists killed eleven Israeli athletes and coaches and a German police officer.

Five of the eight Black September members were killed by police during a failed rescue attempt. The three surviving terrorists were captured and later released by the German police after the Black September group hijacked an airliner.

Read more at http://www.omg-facts.com/History/The-Munich-Massacre-was-aired-live-by-TV/53722#aad5pk8be7g01VHd.99

MARY SEACOLE

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

MARY SEACOLE

 

AN AFRICAN-CARIBBEAN NURSE WHO SERVED WITH THE BRITISH ARMY DURING THE CRIMEAN WAR OF THE 1850s. 

 

A CONTEMPORARY OF FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.

Verifying Paul Bogle's photo

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Paul Bogle or Thomas Jennings?

Recently a story ran with the headline, 'The photo is Bogle's' (September 16), in which Joan Vacianna, president of the Jamaica Historical Society, outlined, "We wrote to the editor of JET and he replied, admitting that the photograph was that of Bogle and not of Jennings."

It is good news that the editor of JET magazine,  is qualified to verify that the photograph is in fact that of the Jamaican National Hero The Rt Excellent Paul Bogle.

The book, The Cross and the Machete, distributed in 2010, had included a photograph of Bogle but the author had been unaware of the controversy sorrounding the photo.

The photograph of Bogle should be patented to avoid unauthorized use of his image and disallow mistaken claims that it is of someone else. This vital part of Jamaican history should be protected.

The image of Bogle has already been devalued. Once on the local $2 note, it now graces the 10 cent coin which might be used to toss a coin, but if dropped, is rarely retrieved. The statue of Bogle has been defaced and removed from its once-prominent position in front of the historic Morant Bay courthouse, which was razed. Memorabilia of Bogle have slowly eroded and the issue of his likeness is an opportunity to restore historicity to Bogle's image.

The narrative of Bogle's photo in the National Library of Jamaica's file says, "W.G. Ogilvie, a member of the Jamaica Historical Society, has discovered a photograph which, although it has not been absolutely authenticated, appears genuine."  It should be possible to absolutely authenticate this photograph.
 
A narrative of this exciting photograph of Bogle should be commissioned because it bears great historical worth. The narrative should include the twist that Sir Roy Augier, a leading Caribbean historian, had been aware of the existence of the photograph at the Institute of Jamaica before it was known to be that of Bogle. The story should also include an explanation on why Edna Manley, sculptor of the Bogle statue, did not use this photograph in 1965 for creating the statue. In addition, the views of Dr. David Boxer, a leading art historian, should be consulted.

The narrative should outline that there is no difference between this photograph and the description of Bogle in the Colonial Standard of October 18, 1865, which described Bogle as, "a very black man, with shining skin, bearing heavy marks of smallpox on his face, and more especially on his nose; teeth good, large mouth with red, thick lips; about five feet eight inches in height, broad across the shoulders, carries himself indolently, and has no whiskers". This description was used to capture Bogle for the reward of £2,000.

Finally, the narrative of Bogle's photograph should include that after nearly 3,000 residents in St Thomas were killed, the homes in Stony Gut were destroyed and the chapel burnt to the ground, that this picture of Bogle had emerged.

This is a compelling story.

It is also remarkable that tintype photography, invented mere years before his death had come to Jamaica and that Bogle had spent the necessary hours to have his photograph taken in Kingston or St Thomas.

The Jamaica Historical Society were vigilant and should be commended for convincing the editor of JET magazine to verify that this photograph was indeed that of Bogle and not Jennings.

Moon River

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

"Moon River" music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny Mercer

Moon River, wider than a mile, I'm crossing you in style some day. Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker, wherever you're going I'm going your way. Two drifters off to see the world. There's such a lot of world to see. We're after the same rainbow's end-- waiting 'round the bend, my huckleberry friend, Moon River and me. © 1961 Paramount Music Corporation, ASCAP Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) Moon River - Breakfast at Tiffanys - YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7SI7N22k_A     Moon River composed by Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and Henry Mancini (music) in 1961, won that year's Academy Award for Best Original Song. Originally sung in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's by Audrey Hepburn, it has been covered by many other artists. The song also won the 1962 Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Moon River became the theme song for Andy Williams, who first recorded it in 1961 and performed it at the Academy Awards ceremonies in 1962. He sang the first eight bars at the beginning of his television show and also named his production company and venue in Branson, Missouri, after it. The success of the song was responsible for relaunching Mercer's career as a songwriter, which had stalled in the mid-1950s because rock and roll had replaced jazz standards as the popular music of the time. An inlet near Savannah, Georgia, Johnny Mercer's hometown, was named Moon River in honor of him and this song. The popularity of the song is such that it has been used as a test sample in a study on people's memories of popular songs. Andy Williams died Tuesday at the age of 84 after a battle with cancer. Fans around the world mourn the legendary singer by listening to his classics, none of which is more widely celebrated than "Moon River." Although he never released it as a single (his recording company thought "Moon River" was too confusing and old-fashioned for teens), the soft ballad skyrocketed him into the celebrity stratosphere. Williams' recording of "Moon River," released on the album Moon River and Other Great Movie Themes, led to NBC's 1962 premiere of "The Andy Williams Show," a weekly variety program, according to People magazine. The show stayed on the air until 1971 and subsequently returned as an annual Christmas special. The Iowa-born singer went on to enjoy immense fame and success, earning 17 gold and three platinum albums during his career. President Reagan dubbed him "a national treasure." Williams named his $12 million state-of-the-art theatre in Branson, Mo. in honour of the song. The Andy Williams Moon River Theatre opened its doors on May 1, 1991, and has welcomed the likes of Glen Campbell, Ann-Margret, Petula Clark and Charo. The theater won the 1992 Conservation Award for Developed Land Use from the State of Missouri, according to the bio. It is also the only theatre to be featured in Architectural Digest. He later opened a restaurant called "The Moon River Grill" in 2007. Williams' autobiography, titled “Moon River and Me,” was released in 2009 and rose to No. 10 on the Los Angeles Times Best-Seller List. Williams died at his home in Branson. He is survived by his wife, Debbie, and his three children from another relationship.   Andy Williams FILE - This Feb. 6, 2009 file photo shows Andy Williams arriving at the MusiCares Person of the Year tribute in Los Angeles. Williams, who had a string of gold albums and hosted several variety shows and specials such as, "The Andy Williams Show," died Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012, at his home in Branson, Missouri, following a yearlong battle with bladder cancer, his Los Angeles-based publicist, Paul Shefrin, said Wednesday. He was 84. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, file) Andy Williams - "Moon River" Singer (1927 - 2012) The beloved singer Andy Willimas passed away on September 25, 2012 at age 84. Best known for his signature song "Moon River" and his TV Specials featuring may other popular entertainers. Mr. Williams was married to French singer/actress Claudine Longet. The couple had 3 children. Andy Williams will always be remembered for his unique, gentle style. With 18 Gold and 3 Platinum albums, he remains one of the most successful recording artists ever. Another luminary of the entertainment world. He will be dearly missed. Many of Andy Williams' original vinyl records can be found on the Internet at Thursday's Golden Goodies, the vinyl lovers' candy store. FILE - In a May 12, 1961 file photo, Andy Williams performs a song on a television show. Emmy-winning TV host and "Moon River" crooner Williams died Tuesday night, Sept, 25, 2012 at his home in Branson, Mo., following a year-long battle with bladder cancer. He was 84. (AP Photo, File) Andy Williams In this Aug. 5, 1966 photo provided by the Las Vegas News Bureau, Andy Williams performs at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Andy Williams, whose hit recording "Moon River" and years of popular Christmas TV shows brought him fans the world over, died Tuesday night, Sept, 25, 2012 at his home in Branson, Mo., following a yearlong battle with bladder cancer. He was 84.(AP Photo/Las Vegas News Bureau) Andy Williams - Moon River 1960's performance Andy WIlliams singing "Moon River". Thank you Andy, for sharing your beautiful voice with us. You will be sorely missed x (1927-2012) Dedicated to Tabitha x Moon River - Breakfast at Tiffanys Audrey Hepburn Andy Williams FILE - This Aug. 30, 1974 file photo shows entertainer Andy Williams in New York. Williams, who had a string of gold albums and hosted several variety shows and specials such as, "The Andy Williams Show," died Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012, at his home in Branson, Missouri, following a yearlong battle with bladder cancer, his Los Angeles-based publicist, Paul Shefrin, said Wednesday. He was 84. (AP Photo/Jerry Mosey, file) Andy Williams, Claudine Longet FILE - In a Dec. 19, 1974 file photo, American singer Andy Williams and his wife Claudine Longet, shown upon arrival at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, for the Royal Charity World premiere of "The Man With the Golden Gun." Emmy-winning TV host and "Moon River" crooner Williams died Tuesday night, Sept, 25, 2012 at his home in Branson, Mo., following a year-long battle with bladder cancer. He was 84. (AP Photo/Press Association, File) Andy Williams FILE - This Feb. 23, 1978 file photo shows performer and host Andy Williams at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Williams, who had a string of gold albums and hosted several variety shows and specials like "The Andy Williams Show," died Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012, at his home in Branson, Missouri, following a yearlong battle with bladder cancer, his Los Angeles-based publicist, Paul Shefrin, said Wednesday. He was 84. (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon, file) Andy Williams - Moon River (Year 2011) By welcoming new year with Memory from Musical CATS & I Want You Back is simply not enough. Here i bring you, my faithful viewers, Andy Williams performing his latest Moon River hits for year 2011. Let's welcome this new year with peace around the world and of course, ANDY WILLIAMS. Enjoy folks. ;-) Andy Williams FILE - In this July 25, 2004 file photo, U.S. singer Andy Williams smiles as he speaks to reporters during his news conference at a Tokyo hotel. Emmy-winning TV host and "Moon River" crooner Williams died Tuesday night, Sept, 25, 2012 at his home in Branson, Mo., following a year-long battle with bladder cancer. He was 84. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File) R.I.P. TO THE GREATS!

Who Was Czar Nicholas II?

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

PHOTO CAPTION: The two cousins, Czar Nicholas II of Russia (left), wearing an English uniform, and King George V of England, in Russian regimentals, in England. It was a quaint courtesy observed among royal rulers of the time when visiting each other. (circa 1915)

(Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)

Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia, ascended to the throne following the death of his father in 1894. Woefully unprepared for such a role, Nicholas II has been characterized as a naïve and incompetent leader. At a time of enormous social and political change in his country, Nicholas held fast to outdated, autocratic policies and opposed reform of any kind. His inept handling of military matters and insensitivity to the needs of his people helped to fuel the 1917 Russian Revolution. Forced to abdicate in 1917, Nicholas went into exile with his wife and five children. After living more than a year under house arrest, the entire family was brutally executed in July 1918 by Bolshevik soldiers. Nicholas II was the last of the Romanov Dynasty, which had ruled Russia for 300 years.

Dates: May 18, 1868* -- July 17, 1918 Reign: 1894 – 1917Also Known As: Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov

Born Into the Romanov Dynasty

Nicholas II, born in Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg, Russia, was the first child of Alexander III and Marie Feodorovna (formerly Princess Dagmar of Denmark). Between 1869 and 1882, the royal couple had three more sons and two daughters. The second child, a boy, died in infancy. Nicholas and his siblings were closely related to other European royalty, including first cousins George V (future king of England) and Wilhelm II, the last kaiser (emperor) of Germany.

In 1881, Nicholas’ father, Alexander III, became czar (emperor) of Russia after his father, Alexander II, was killed by an assassin's bomb. Nicholas, at twelve, witnessed his grandfather's death when the czar, horribly maimed, was carried back to the palace. Upon his father's ascension to the throne, Nicholas became the tsesarevich (heir-apparent to the throne). Despite being raised in a palace, Nicholas and his siblings grew up in a strict, austere environment and enjoyed few luxuries. Alexander III lived simply, dressing as a peasant while at home and making his own coffee each morning. The children slept on cots and washed in cold water. Overall, however, Nicholas experienced a happy upbringing in the Romanov household.

The Young Tsesarevich

Educated by several tutors, Nicholas studied languages, history, and the sciences, as well as horsemanship, shooting, and even dancing. What he was not schooled in, unfortunately for Russia, was how to function as a monarch. Czar Alexander III, healthy and robust at six-foot-four, planned to rule for decades. He assumed there would be plenty of time to instruct Nicholas in how to run the empire.

At the age of nineteen, Nicholas joined an exclusive regiment of the Russian Army and also served in the horse artillery. The tsesarevich didn't actually participate in any serious military activities; these commissions were more akin to a finishing school for the upper class. Nicholas enjoyed his carefree lifestyle, taking advantage of the freedom to attend parties and balls with few responsibilities to weigh him down. Prompted by his parents, Nicholas embarked upon a royal grand tour, accompanied by his brother George. Departing Russia in 1890 and traveling by steamship and train, they visited the Middle East, India, China, and Japan. While visiting Japan, Nicholas survived an assassination attempt in 1891 when a Japanese man lunged at him, swinging a sword at his head. The attacker's motive was never determined. Although Nicholas suffered only a minor head wound, his concerned father ordered Nicholas home immediately.

Betrothal to Alix and the Death of the Czar

Nicholas first met Princess Alix of Hesse (daughter of a German duke and Queen Victoria's second daughter, Alice) in 1884 at the wedding of his uncle to Alix's sister, Elizabeth. Nicholas was sixteen and Alix twelve. They met again on several occasions over the years and Nicholas was adequately impressed to write in his diary that he dreamed of one day marrying Alix.
When Nicholas was in his mid-twenties and expected to seek a suitable wife from the nobility, he ended his relationship with a Russian ballerina and began to pursue Alix. Nicholas proposed to Alix in April 1894, but she didn't immediately accept.  A devout Lutheran, Alix was hesitant at first because marriage to a future czar meant that she must convert to the Russian Orthodox religion. After a day of contemplation and discussion with family members, she agreed to marry Nicholas. The couple soon became quite smitten with one another and looked forward to getting married the following year. Theirs would be a marriage of genuine love.Unfortunately, things changed drastically for the happy couple within months of their engagement. In September 1894, Czar Alexander became gravely ill with nephritis (an inflammation of the kidney). Despite a steady stream of doctors and priests who visited him, the czar died on November 1, 1894 at the age of 49. Twenty-six year old Nicholas reeled from both the grief of losing his father and the tremendous responsibility now placed upon his shoulders.

Czar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra

Nicholas, as the new czar, struggled to keep up with his duties, which began with planning his father's funeral. Inexperienced in planning such a grand-scale event, Nicholas received criticism on many fronts for the numerous details that were left undone.

On November 26, 1894, just 25 days after Czar Alexander’s death, the period of mourning was interrupted for a day so that Nicholas and Alix could marry. Princess Alix of Hesse, newly converted to Russian Orthodoxy, became Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The couple returned immediately to the palace after the ceremony; a wedding reception was deemed inappropriate during the mourning period.The royal couple moved into the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo just outside of St. Petersburg and within a few months learned they were expecting their first child. Daughter Olga was born in November 1895. (She would be followed by three more daughters: Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia. The long-anticipated male heir, Alexei, was born in 1904.) In May 1896, a year and a half after Czar Alexander died, Czar Nicholas’ long-awaited, lavish coronation ceremony finally took place. Unfortunately, a horrific incident occurred during one of the many public celebrations held in Nicholas’ honor. A stampede on the Khodynka Field in Moscow resulted in more than 1,400 deaths. Incredibly, Nicholas did not cancel the ensuing coronation balls and parties. The Russian people were appalled at Nicholas' handling of the incident, which made it appear that he cared little about his people.  By any account, Nicholas II had not begun his reign on a favorable note.

The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)

Nicholas, like many past and future Russian leaders, wanted to expand his country’s territory. Looking to the Far East, Nicholas saw potential in Port Arthur, a strategic warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean in southern Manchuria (northeastern China). By 1903, Russia’s occupation of Port Arthur angered the Japanese, who had themselves recently been pressured to relinquish the area. When Russia built its Trans-Siberian Railroad through part of Manchuria, the Japanese were further provoked.

Twice, Japan sent diplomats to Russia to negotiate the dispute; however, each time, they were sent home without being granted an audience with the czar, who viewed them with contempt.By February 1904, the Japanese had run out of patience. A Japanese fleet launched a surprise attack on Russian warships at Port Arthur, sinking two of the ships and blockading the harbor. Well-prepared Japanese troops also swarmed the Russian infantry at various points on land. Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, the Russians suffered one humiliating defeat after another, both on land and sea. Nicholas, who had never thought the Japanese would start a war, was forced to surrender to Japan in September 1905. Nicholas II became the first czar to lose a war to an Asian nation. An estimated 80,000 Russian soldiers lost their lives in a war that had revealed the czar's utter ineptitude at diplomacy and military affairs.

Bloody Sunday and the Revolution of 1905

By the winter of 1904, dissatisfaction among the working class in Russia had escalated to the point that numerous strikes were staged in St. Petersburg. Workers, who had hoped for a better future living in cities, instead faced long hours, poor wages, and inadequate housing. Many families went hungry on a regular basis and housing shortages were so severe, some laborers slept in shifts, sharing a bed with several others.

On January 22, 1905, tens of thousands of workers came together for a peaceful march to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. Organized by radical priest Georgy Gapon, protesters were forbidden to bring weapons; instead they carried religious icons and pictures of the royal family. Participants also brought with them a petition to present to the czar, stating their list of grievances and seeking his help.  Although the czar was not at the palace to receive the petition (he had been advised to stay away), thousands of soldiers awaited the crowd. Having been informed incorrectly that the protesters were there to harm the czar and destroy the palace, the soldiers fired into the mob, killing and wounding hundreds. The czar himself did not order the shootings, but he was held responsible. The unprovoked massacre, called Bloody Sunday, became the catalyst for further strikes and uprisings against the government, called the 1905 Russian Revolution. After a massive general strike brought much of Russia to a halt in October 1905, Nicholas was forced to finally respond to the protests. On October 30, 1905, the czar reluctantly issued the October Manifesto, which created a constitutional monarchy and an elected legislature, known as the Duma. Ever the autocrat, Nicholas made sure the powers of the Duma remained limited -- nearly half of the budget was exempted from their approval and they were not allowed to participate in foreign policy decisions. The czar also retained full veto power. The creation of the Duma appeased the Russian people in the short run, but Nicholas’ further blunders hardened his people’s hearts against him. *All dates according to modern Gregorian calendar, rather than the old Julian calendar used in Russia until 1918

Czar Nicholas II and his family.

(Photo by Imagno/Getty Images)

Alexandra and Rasputin

The royal family rejoiced at the birth of a male heir in 1904. Young Alexei seemed healthy at birth, but within a week, as the infant bled uncontrollably from his navel, it was clear that something was seriously wrong. Doctors diagnosed him with hemophilia, an incurable, inherited disease in which the blood does not clot properly. Even a seemingly minor injury could cause the young tsesarevich to bleed to death. His horrified parents kept the diagnosis a secret from all but the most immediate family. Empress Alexandra, fiercely protective of her son --and his secret -- isolated herself from the outside world. Desperate to find help for her son, she sought the help of various medical quacks and holy men.

One such "holy man," self-proclaimed faith healer Grigori Rasputin, first met the royal couple in 1905 and became a close, trusted advisor to the empress. Although rough in manner and unkempt in appearance, Rasputin gained the empress' trust with his uncanny ability to stop Alexei's bleeding during even the severest of episodes, merely by sitting and praying with him. Gradually, Rasputin became the empress' closest confidante, able to exert influence upon her regarding affairs of state. Alexandra, in turn, influenced her husband on matters of great importance based upon Rasputin's advice.  The empress' relationship with Rasputin was baffling to outsiders, who had no idea that the tsesarevich was ill.

World War I and the Murder of Rasputin

The June 1914 assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia set off a chain of events that culminated in World War I. That the assassin was a Serbian national led Austria to declare war on Serbia. Nicholas, with the backing of France, felt compelled to protect Serbia, a fellow Slavic nation. His mobilization of the Russian army in August 1914 helped to propel the conflict into a full-scale war, drawing Germany into the fray as an ally of Austria-Hungary.
In 1915, Nicholas made the calamitous decision to take personal command of the Russian army. Under the czar's poor military leadership, the ill-prepared Russian army was no match for the German infantry.  While Nicholas was away at war, he deputized his wife to oversee affairs of the empire. To the Russian people, however, this was a terrible decision. They viewed the empress as untrustworthy since she had come from Germany, Russia’s enemy in World War I. Adding to their mistrust, the empress relied heavily on the despised Rasputin to help her make policy decisions. Many government officials and family members saw the disastrous effect Rasputin was having on Alexandra and the country and believed he must be removed. Unfortunately, both Alexandra and Nicholas ignored their pleas to dismiss Rasputin.  With their grievances unheard, a group of angry conservatives soon took matters into their own hands. In a murder scenario that has become legendary, several members of the aristocracy --including a prince, an army officer, and a cousin of Nicholas -- succeeded, with some difficulty, in killing Rasputin in December 1916. Rasputin survived poisoning and multiple gunshot wounds, then finally succumbed after being bound and thrown into a river. The killers were quickly identified, but were not punished. Many looked upon them as heroes. Unfortunately, the murder of Rasputin was not enough to stem the tide of discontent.

The End of a Dynasty

The people of Russia had become increasingly angry with the government's indifference to their suffering. Wages had plummeted, inflation had risen, public services had all but ceased, and millions were being killed in a war they didn’t want.

In March 1917, 200,000 protesters converged in the capital city of Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) to protest the czar's policies. Nicholas ordered the army to subdue the crowd. By this point, however, most of the soldiers were sympathetic to the protesters' demands and thus just fired shots into the air or actually joined the ranks of the protesters. There were still a few commanders loyal to the czar who forced their soldiers to shoot into the crowd, killing several people. Not to be deterred, the protesters gained control of the city within days, during what came to be known as the February/March 1917 Russian Revolution. With Petrograd in the hands of revolutionaries, Nicholas had no choice but to abdicate the throne. Believing that he could somehow still save the dynasty, Nicholas II signed the abdication statement on March 15, 1917, making his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail, the new czar. The grand duke wisely declined the title, bringing the 304-year-old Romanov dynasty to an end. The provisional government allowed the royal family to stay in the palace at Tsarskoye Selo, under guard, while officials debated their fate.

Exile and Death of the Romanovs

When the provisional government became increasingly threatened by the Bolsheviks in the summer of 1917, worried government officials decided to secretly move Nicholas and his family to safety in western Siberia.

However, when the provisional government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks (led by Vladimir Lenin) during the October/November 1917 Russian Revolution, Nicholas and his family came under control of the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks relocated the Romanovs to Ekaterinaburg in the Ural Mountains in April 1918, ostensibly to await a public trial. Many opposed the Bolsheviks being in power; thus a civil war erupted between the Communist "Reds" and their opponents, the anti-Communist "Whites." These two groups fought for control of the country, as well as for custody of the Romanovs. When the White Army began to gain ground in its battle with the Bolsheviks and headed toward Ekaterinaburg in an effort to rescue the imperial family, the Bolsheviks made sure that rescue would never take place. Nicholas, his wife, and his five children were all awakened at 2:00 a.m. on July 17, 1918 and told to prepare for departure. They were gathered into a small room, where Bolshevik soldiers fired upon them. Nicholas and his wife were killed outright, but the others were not so fortunate. Soldiers used bayonets to carry out the remainder of the executions. The corpses were buried at two separate sites and were burned and covered with acid to prevent them from being identified. In 1991, the remains of nine bodies were excavated at Ekaterinaburg. Subsequent DNA testing confirmed them to be those of Nicholas, Alexandra, three of their daughters, and four of their servants. The second grave, containing the remains of Alexei and his sister Marie, was not discovered until 2007. The Romanov family's remains were reburied at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, the traditional burial place of the Romanovs.

Presidential Pups

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Former President Calvin Coolidge once said, “Any man who does not like dogs and want them about does not deserve to be in the White House,” and nearly every fellow commander in chief before and after him has taken such advice to heart. In fact, more dogs have taken up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue than presidents, first ladies and presidential children combined, with rough estimates reaching 250 pooches — or nearly 1,000, including family pets outside of elected terms as well. Take a look at the top 10 most famous first Fidos!



10. Skip Roosevelt
President Theodore Roosevelt had several dogs during his lifetime, including a bull terrier named Pete who notoriously chased the French ambassador through the White House and tore out the bottom of his trousers. However, it was Roosevelt’s mongrel Skip that not only earned a special place in his heart, but on the 26th president’s horse as well. Roosevelt would scoop up Skip and place the short-of-stature pooch on his saddle during hunting trips. Eventually, the pup learned how to jump up onto horses on his own, and was even spotted riding alone on the back of Roosevelt’s son’s pony!


9. Charlie Kennedy
The Kennedys were animal lovers through and through. Not only did they build a special play area on the White House lawn where the children could bond with family pets, but JFK was also the only president to formally request that his dogs greet him when he arrived home via helicopter. Though they would go on to own many pets, the Kennedys moved into the White House in 1961 with only Charlie by their side, a Welsh Terrier who loved to swim with the president. Charlie was also top priority in terms of safety, perhaps as Kennedy’s way of saying thanks to man’s best friend for providing great comfort and relief from the intense stress during the Cuban Missile Crisis.



8. Heidi Eisenhower
The “I Like Ike” slogan helped secure Dwight D. Eisenhower’s place as the 34th president of the United States, and while his dog Heidi was also definitely among his supporters, Heidi felt quite the opposite about Ike’s wife Mamie. The feisty Weimaraner would jump on Mrs. Eisenhower anytime she approached the president, and went on to demonstrate her disregard by “decorating” a diplomatic reception room rug worth $20,000. Mamie and the housekeeping staff spent the entire night trying to get the stain out to no avail, so both the rug and the dog were banished – one permanently, and the other until she learned how to mind her manners


7. Liberty Ford
Responding to the president’s special signal with a wag of the tail, Gerald Ford’s trusty Golden Retriever was known for her help in keeping Oval Office meetings short. Liberty’s other claim to fame involved an incident that nearly became a Secret Service crisis. One evening when Liberty’s regular caretaker was unavailable, the president offered to handle dog duty, which involved a late-night “business” trip to the South Lawn. When Ford took the dog out, he neglected to notify security, inadvertently locking the duo out of the White House until Ford was able to alert guards to let them back in




5. Him and Her Johnson
Though LBJ had many dogs before, during and after his White House tenure, Him and Her were the most famous of the bunch. This pair of beagles joined Johnson on the campaign trail in 1964. Though Johnson once drew criticism for his handling of the pups when he lifted Him by his ears while attempting to get the beagles to do a trick in front of a group on the White House lawn, the former president insisted he meant no harm. Him and Her were frequently photographed walking and playing with LBJ, and even made the cover of LIFE magazine.


4. Checkers Nixon
Checkers was a household name before the former president even stepped foot in the White House, thanks in large part to Nixon’s reference to his pooch during a 1952 speech in response to allegations of accepting illegal campaign contributions as the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The tactic worked, securing Nixon’s career (temporarily at least) as well as Checker’s notable place in history


2. Fala Roosevelt
FDR’s beloved Scottish Terrier was first named “Big Boy” but renamed “Murray the Outlaw of Falahill” (or “Fala” for short) after one of the former president’s Scottish ancestors. Fala traveled with his master constantly, both stateside and overseas, whether by train, car, or boat. One of the most famous trips, in 1944, to the Aleutian Islands created a flurry of rumors that Fala was accidentally left behind, prompting Republicans to accuse FDR of spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars in sending a destroyer back for the dog. The president defended his Scottie vehemently during what would become his famous “Fala speech” delivered to the Teamsters Union. The popular pup received thousands of fan letters and even needed a secretary to answer his mail. Most notably, Fala was the only presidential pet to be included in a national monument; a statue of the dog stands by his master’s side at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C


Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/top-10-presidential-pups.html#ixzz27iE8nccN

Nixon Was Pardoned 38 Years Ago - Was It The Right Thing To Do?

 

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Nearly forty years ago in a controversial exercise of executive authority, President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for any crimes he committed, encouraged or participated in related to the Watergate scandal. It was not popular at the time. Today, liberals feel the Nixon administration was given a free pass while conservatives hold fast to their resentment surrounding the impeachment proceedings well into the Clinton and Obama administrations. Eventually most politicians and the press came to see the pardon as the right and necessary thing to do, but is that a supportable conclusion?

Considering the zeal by which the current conservative leadership plays fast and lose with facts and rules and the persistence of the Nixonian Southern Strategy in American politics, that answer very well could be “no.”

The Watergate scandal was, after all, an election scandal, so it is necessary to examine its legacy through the lens of the campaign for power. President Nixon and his aides engaged in illegal wiretapping and other activities targeting the political opposition and then attempted to cover up and destroy any evidence of wrongdoing. Before impeachment proceedings would finish Nixon resigned the presidency.

By issuing the pardon before Nixon faced criminal prosecution, Ford sent a signal to new conservative leaders of the day that criminal accountability would be for show only. Among those who took notice were former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Now, it is impossible to trace the scandal of the Iraq War and the Bush administration and the hard right revolution directly to Ford’s pardon, but it does raise the question of what if. What if Richard Nixon had stood trial for his crimes and was ultimately convicted? Would Rumsfeld and Cheney have been so cavalier about cooking up a case for war thirty years later? Even if Nixon had not been convicted, would the possibility of a public trial be enough of a deterrent to keep partisans honest?

This is not just a legacy of putting aside justice for the “good of the nation” that the pardon endorses. Almost as famous as Watergate, Nixon’s Southern Strategy was a political strategy designed to wedge southern white male working-class resentment against blacks (and women) into political ascendancy. Without this southern strategy there would be no Tea Party. There would be no Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee or, any national Republican leader today.

Nor would there be a campaigning ethos defined by a willingness to say anything and do anything to get elected, and we know the effect of that legacy on our current political culture.

In a political climate described as “post-factual” perhaps none of this would have made much of a difference. Perhaps the pardon was the right thing to do. However it did not avoid attempts at future political trials like conservative impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton or most recently Attorney General Eric Holder. Nor did it squash the most cynical elements of the conservative movement that relies on latent racism and misogyny to stay in power. By that measure the pardon of Richard Nixon may have been the least effective, most self-serving use of executive power in the modern political age.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/nixons-pardon-and-the-depravity-of-modern-conservatism.html#ixzz27i87ahFk

Downton Abbey's Historic Narrative

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

They all seem jolly on television, forging friendships in the basement and occasionally nipping upstairs to lay the table or snuff out a candle.
But the truth of how most servants lived in Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century is a far cry from the soft-centred fiction portrayed in period dramas such as Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs and Gosford Park.

 Then and now: A young 'tweeny' maid, left, in 1920s Britain, and Downton Abbey's scullery maid Daisy, played by Sophie McShera.

As a rule, most servants did not work in stately homes filled with fellow workers and the camaraderie that eschews but usually as the lone member of staff in a middle class town house -and life for these people was lonely, dark and damp, according to a new BBC documentary series.

Servants: the True Story Of Life Below Stairs explores the reality of life as a servant in Britain from the Victorian era through the Second World War.
A century ago, 1.5 million British people worked as servants and in her three-part series, social historian Dr Pamela Cox - the great-granddaughter of servants - explains that life for these people was dramatically less 'cosy' than imagined in television period dramas.

The way we were: A British cook and Downton Abbey's cook Mrs Patmore, played by Lesley Nicol.

Dr Cox reveals that her own ancestors never enjoyed their time as servants as those in Downton Abbey seem to.

 

A GUIDE TO VICTORIAN SERVANTS

• The butler - in charge of the house, coachmen, footmen and wine cellar.
• The housekeeper - responsible for the housemaids and carried keys to the china and linen cupboards.
• The ladies maid - the mistress of the house's personal attendant, helping her dress and do her hair.
• The valet - the master's manservant, attending to his requests and preparing his clothes and shaving tools.
• The cook - ran the kitchen and larder, overseeing the kitchen, dairy and scullery maids.
• The governess - educated and cared for the children.
• The hallboy - worked 16-hour days, lighting all the lamps and candles and polishing the staff boots.
• The tweeny - in-between stairs maid earned £13 a year, worked seven days a week from 5am-10pm.

BBC

Thanks to the emergence of a new middle class, the majority of household staff worked as the sole  servant in a home.  Instead of partaking in a lively dinner after serving the family upstairs, these servants lived and ate alone in Britain's dark, damp, and dirty basement kitchens.

Servants in grand houses fared better.  Staff in stately homes were hidden from the 'polite' eyes of their masters with complex mazes of hidden passage ways throughout the home, helpful when trying to enforce complete segregation.

Moreover, strict servant hierarchy separated staff from each other.

Dr. Cox explains that in 1901 one in four people were domestic servants, mostly women, and were seldom seen as 'working-class heroes'.

Servants tended to work seven days a week, often from as early as 5am until as late as 10pm, for very little money.

And, unlike the kind and empathetic Crawley family of Downton Abbey, employers were unlikely to take pity on staff who were overworked, exhausted or ill - even if they were just children.

Servants: The True Story Of Life Below The Stairs starts on Friday on BBC2 at 9pm.

A maid's work: A 1920s maid and Downton Abbey's lady's maid Anna Bates, played by Joanne Froggatt

Domestic life: A gardener in Britain in the early twentieth century, left, and Downton Abbey's Mr Bates, right, Lord Grantham's former valet, played by Brendan Coyle.

A 1920s family with their solitary servant.

Downton Abbey's staff of twelve.

A group of women partake in garden tea in Edwardian Britain, served by a maid.

Downton Abbey portrays the life of a servant as completely endurable, even enjoyable, but in reality life below the stairs was often very lonely and pretty miserable.

Most servants in Britain were the only member of staff in the home, unlike in Downton Abbey where a staff of twelve runs the house.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2207935/Downton-Abbey-servants-New-BBC-series-Servants-The-True-Story-Life-Below-Stairs.html#ixzz27UgYmfsb
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