Thursday, February 28, 2013
MLK
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
Life.com
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
At his home in Palm Springs, McQueen practices his aim before heading out for a shooting session in the desert: http://ti.me/YAda4n
(John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
At his home in Palm Springs, McQueen practices his aim before heading out for a shooting session in the desert: http://ti.me/YAda4n
(John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Canopic Jar
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Life.com
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
South African gold miners, photographed more than a mile underground, 1950: http://ti.me/YZJ9Lo
(Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
(Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
The Ann Morgan Story
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
Ann Morgan with her companion Ann Dike while rebuilding France after the war. Ann Morgan was a renegrade woman of strength who gave back. She actually drove supplies around to the devastated people. Few women had licences then.
Chateau Blerancourt. Franco American Museo. Ann Morgan's home.Madison Cox gardens. Exhibit of Ann Morgan's photos at the Morgan library.
American Friends of Blerancourt
Anne Morgan, born July 25, 1873, was the youngest daughter of the wealthy financier John Pierpont Morgan and as such was the favored travel companion of both her parents. Since they normally did not travel together, Anne crossed the Atlantic quite a number of times, often twice a year. She was however never the image of a dutiful unmarried younger daughter. She probably had more of her father’s manner and temperament than either of her sisters; tall, stylish with a prominent nose and strong chin, she weighed in around 170 pounds. Although she dressed extremely well, neither she nor indeed her family had much in common with the social milieu of Edith Wharton or indeed of Mrs. Astor. Above all Anne Morgan was stubborn and an organizer.
Her interest in women’s organization began very early. In 1902, when she was not yet thirty, the New York Times reported her visit to Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago, the first of the American settlement houses, and it is not by chance that many essential elements of that experience were later incorporated into the relief operations in Picardie. Hull House was almost exclusively run by women who lived amongst the people they aimed to help. Anne Morgan’s own life in New York revolved around the conviction that women could organize as well as men. One of her first projects was a lunch-room for workers in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Her committee hoped to convince the Navy that providing an economical but substantial mid-day meal at low cost could break even – the Navy was not convinced. Another was a residence for young women without family working in New York. The Colony Club, which she helped found, was to be not only a club for women – equivalent to those for men – but a women’s project, organized and executed by women. It was during this project that Anne met Elsie de Wolfe and Elisabeth Marbury who would later be instrumental in her fundraising efforts for aid to the French.
In 1905, while in Paris, she had what must have been a turning-point conversation with her father which ended her life as his traveling companion. He left the following morning for Aix with his usual entourage, but without Anne. We can only guess his mood.
In 1906 she did not go abroad with him but later with her mother, and then did not return to New York, staying on instead with her two new friends in Versailles at Villa Trianon, which belonged to Elisabeth. It was the beginning of independence.
In 1914, when Germany invaded Belgium and Luxembourg, the women were vacationing in the Savoie; Elisabeth returned to New York, but Elsie and Anne remained in Paris and, after a horrifying visit in September to the Marne battlefields, decided to dedicate themselves to the Allied cause. For the next few years Anne sailed back and forth across the Atlantic for new reasons – to exercise her recognized capacity to raise money and organize support.
In 1915, after studying British women’s organizations, she established with Isabel Lathrop the American Fund for French Wounded (AFFW) to provide medical supplies to French hospitals and send parcels to wounded soldiers. It was composed mostly of women, all volunteers. Returning to France, Anne and Elsie converted the Villa Trianon into a convalescent home for soldiers and the following July traveled to the Somme and Verdun to personally check on the delivery of American donations to the front-line hospitals. They were beginning to attract a cadre of women who felt themselves too confined by society to philanthropic roles and wanted to take a more active part in the war. In the fall, back in New York, Anne was joined by Anne Murray Dike, a doctor, in the establishment of a Civilian Division of the AFFW to assist the civil population in the front-line areas. This group was officially recognized by the French government along with the American Red Cross and an office in Paris was established. General Pétain’s headquarters were in Compiègne, and, believing it was imperative that Picardie be repopulated and rebuilt as quickly as possible, he placed the new arrivals under Army jurisdiction and housed them in barracks set up among the remains of the Château of Blérancourt.
The women set to work immediately to assist local families and returning refugees, who were horrified by the almost total destruction of the region but amazed to see these ladies in uniform, driving their own cars. The Division imported and distributed food, clothing, medicine and the utensils of daily living, followed by agricultural equipment and even domestic animals. Cows were housed in one of the pavilions of the Château to provide a supply of fresh milk; incubators were set up to raise chickens. Volunteers continued to arrive and began to train adults and children for the future. Boys learned carpentry, women and girls food canning and basic hygiene, taught by the nurses from the dispensaries they had created. In January 1918 a second center was opened in Soissons and two months later they had resettled 2300 people in some 60 communities, living at least partly autonomously.
In March, however, a new German offensive aimed at dividing the allied forces before the expected arrival of the US troops wiped out the reconstruction effort, and the Army had to ask the AFFW to use their trucks to again evacuate the civilian population.
By this time it was clear that care of the wounded and reconstruction were different operations, and the Civilian Wing of AFFW was divided, forming a new organization, the Committee for Devastated France (CARD), which would have offices in New York, chapters across the US and a solid money-raising operation to support the work in France. Anne Morgan, a strong believer in communication, was instrumental in the publication of a weekly bulletin, “Under Two Flags”, to keep the supporters at home informed. She also commissioned photographs and films now deposited in the Museum at Blérancourt that brought to life the numerous activities undertaken during the war by the AFFW and CARD.
With Picardie still occupied, the volunteers moved progressively to the west into the Aisne, relocating several times, finally as far away as Senlis. They now had a new agreement with the American Women’s Hospital to supply doctors for a medical unit to serve the population and in the end also the war wounded. On July 14, for the first time CARD canteens were serving American soldiers. By the end of summer, with the advance of the US troops, they were back in Picardie. On November 4, CARD became an association d’utilité publique, and on November 11 the Armistice was signed. The next phase was ready to begin.
In 1917-18 there had been only some 17 volunteers in the Civilian Division of AFFW. By 1923 over 350 women had served with CARD, usually for periods of about six months. With the funds raised it was now possible to employ needed professional skills: doctors, nurses, construction workers (both French and American), then later, librarians and sports directors.
After the allied offensive liberated Château-Thierry in August 1918, CARD established a center there near a unit of the American Women’s Hospital (AWH) with whom they collaborated in sending mobile medical units into any parts of the Aisne to the north that they could reach. It was the time of the typhoid outbreak and the 1918 influenza; there was much to do. By the beginning of February 1919 both CARD and the Hospital #1 of the AWH were preparing to return to Blérancourt.
Now everything began on a new scale. The program of visiting nurses was expanded creating five centers from which many smaller villages could be served. The Committee’s nurses were largely recruited from the Florence Nightingale School in Bordeaux, ensuring that they had an academic background as well as practical experience. The goal was to make of each of these centers a complete social organism with low cost stores, clinics, and libraries. Children’s programs with lessons in domestic skills as well as carpentry and construction were combined with sports programs.
Many of these efforts were based on ideas already developed in America. Some of these adapted well to the French situation, some less easily. However, the cooperation with the local administrations and other relief organizations was generally excellent. To assist with the formation of agricultural cooperatives, the Committee purchased 25 Ford tractors, which were lent or rented to them and eventually either sold or distributed to individual farmers. The same was true for the cooperative formed to rebuild houses to which the Committee loaned funds; these debts were repaid as more government subsidies became available. The rapidity and success of the fundraising in the U. S. was clearly of paramount importance, frequently allowing projects to begin before any war reparation funds were available from Paris. The Blérancourt workshop eventually became a private construction company under French-American management, which continued to function into the fifties. By 1920 a public relations office was part of the organization, including photographers and a film unit; the following year two films were shown at the Paris premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid with Chaplin himself present.
Some projects left permanent traces, others faded. The visiting nurse services throughout Picardie are active today under local administration but still are remembered as a contribution initiated by CARD. The Picardie experience with children’s libraries was repeated in Paris and has exerted a significant influence throughout the country. Public lending libraries in France today reflect the energy of CARD’s efforts in Picardie. American librarians in the tradition of Andrew Carnegie were brought in and French librarians sent to study in the U.S. The French tradition of libraries as resources for scholars was considerably enhanced by this exchange. Scout camps were less successful. The Anglo-Saxon tradition of scouting did not sit well with the French personality, nor did it take into account the religious divisions within France. And, Miss Morgan and her collaborators did not always tread lightly.
In 1919, Anne Morgan bought the estate of Blérancourt. Only two pavilions remained of the original chateau built in 1612 by architect Salomon de Brosse, and Anne Morgan lived in one. The other was transformed into a museum dedicated to French-American history and inaugurated in 1930, one year after the death of Ann Murray Dike. Anne Morgan bequeathed the entire estate to the French people and it became the Musée national de la coopération franco-américain, Château de Blérancourt.
Yet Blérancourt remained Anne Morgan’s place to the end. In 1938, she financed the renovation of the small museum devoted to the life of the American volunteers during World War I. When the Second World War broke out, Anne Morgan was there. In 1940, as Germany invaded Belgium, Blérancourt became a center for the refugees. Thanks to the intervention of Anne Morgan, Blérancourt was transformed once more into a regional center providing medical care. In 1948 Eleanor Roosevelt came to visit Blérancourt and was impressed by what she saw and heard about the work of the American women.
After 1948, Anne Morgan remained in America; she died from a heart attack on January 29, 1952 at Mount Kisco in New York State. However, in Picardie the memory of CARD and the American girls in their cars is still very lively, and the figure of Anne Morgan looms considerably larger there today than it probably does at home in the U.S.
The Château de Blérancourt and its Franco-American museum remain as Anne Morgan’s great legacy. What began as a project to help a small region in France cope during the war, became much more . . .
The Franco-American museum of the Château of Blérancourt
A museum of two countries, growing friendships lasting more than a lifetime.
Ann Morgan with her companion Ann Dike while rebuilding France after the war. Ann Morgan was a renegrade woman of strength who gave back. She actually drove supplies around to the devastated people. Few women had licences then.
Chateau Blerancourt. Franco American Museo. Ann Morgan's home.Madison Cox gardens. Exhibit of Ann Morgan's photos at the Morgan library.
American Friends of Blerancourt
Anne Morgan, born July 25, 1873, was the youngest daughter of the wealthy financier John Pierpont Morgan and as such was the favored travel companion of both her parents. Since they normally did not travel together, Anne crossed the Atlantic quite a number of times, often twice a year. She was however never the image of a dutiful unmarried younger daughter. She probably had more of her father’s manner and temperament than either of her sisters; tall, stylish with a prominent nose and strong chin, she weighed in around 170 pounds. Although she dressed extremely well, neither she nor indeed her family had much in common with the social milieu of Edith Wharton or indeed of Mrs. Astor. Above all Anne Morgan was stubborn and an organizer.
Her interest in women’s organization began very early. In 1902, when she was not yet thirty, the New York Times reported her visit to Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago, the first of the American settlement houses, and it is not by chance that many essential elements of that experience were later incorporated into the relief operations in Picardie. Hull House was almost exclusively run by women who lived amongst the people they aimed to help. Anne Morgan’s own life in New York revolved around the conviction that women could organize as well as men. One of her first projects was a lunch-room for workers in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Her committee hoped to convince the Navy that providing an economical but substantial mid-day meal at low cost could break even – the Navy was not convinced. Another was a residence for young women without family working in New York. The Colony Club, which she helped found, was to be not only a club for women – equivalent to those for men – but a women’s project, organized and executed by women. It was during this project that Anne met Elsie de Wolfe and Elisabeth Marbury who would later be instrumental in her fundraising efforts for aid to the French.
In 1905, while in Paris, she had what must have been a turning-point conversation with her father which ended her life as his traveling companion. He left the following morning for Aix with his usual entourage, but without Anne. We can only guess his mood.
In 1906 she did not go abroad with him but later with her mother, and then did not return to New York, staying on instead with her two new friends in Versailles at Villa Trianon, which belonged to Elisabeth. It was the beginning of independence.
In 1914, when Germany invaded Belgium and Luxembourg, the women were vacationing in the Savoie; Elisabeth returned to New York, but Elsie and Anne remained in Paris and, after a horrifying visit in September to the Marne battlefields, decided to dedicate themselves to the Allied cause. For the next few years Anne sailed back and forth across the Atlantic for new reasons – to exercise her recognized capacity to raise money and organize support.
In 1915, after studying British women’s organizations, she established with Isabel Lathrop the American Fund for French Wounded (AFFW) to provide medical supplies to French hospitals and send parcels to wounded soldiers. It was composed mostly of women, all volunteers. Returning to France, Anne and Elsie converted the Villa Trianon into a convalescent home for soldiers and the following July traveled to the Somme and Verdun to personally check on the delivery of American donations to the front-line hospitals. They were beginning to attract a cadre of women who felt themselves too confined by society to philanthropic roles and wanted to take a more active part in the war. In the fall, back in New York, Anne was joined by Anne Murray Dike, a doctor, in the establishment of a Civilian Division of the AFFW to assist the civil population in the front-line areas. This group was officially recognized by the French government along with the American Red Cross and an office in Paris was established. General Pétain’s headquarters were in Compiègne, and, believing it was imperative that Picardie be repopulated and rebuilt as quickly as possible, he placed the new arrivals under Army jurisdiction and housed them in barracks set up among the remains of the Château of Blérancourt.The women set to work immediately to assist local families and returning refugees, who were horrified by the almost total destruction of the region but amazed to see these ladies in uniform, driving their own cars. The Division imported and distributed food, clothing, medicine and the utensils of daily living, followed by agricultural equipment and even domestic animals. Cows were housed in one of the pavilions of the Château to provide a supply of fresh milk; incubators were set up to raise chickens. Volunteers continued to arrive and began to train adults and children for the future. Boys learned carpentry, women and girls food canning and basic hygiene, taught by the nurses from the dispensaries they had created. In January 1918 a second center was opened in Soissons and two months later they had resettled 2300 people in some 60 communities, living at least partly autonomously.In March, however, a new German offensive aimed at dividing the allied forces before the expected arrival of the US troops wiped out the reconstruction effort, and the Army had to ask the AFFW to use their trucks to again evacuate the civilian population.
By this time it was clear that care of the wounded and reconstruction were different operations, and the Civilian Wing of AFFW was divided, forming a new organization, the Committee for Devastated France (CARD), which would have offices in New York, chapters across the US and a solid money-raising operation to support the work in France. Anne Morgan, a strong believer in communication, was instrumental in the publication of a weekly bulletin, “Under Two Flags”, to keep the supporters at home informed. She also commissioned photographs and films now deposited in the Museum at Blérancourt that brought to life the numerous activities undertaken during the war by the AFFW and CARD.
With Picardie still occupied, the volunteers moved progressively to the west into the Aisne, relocating several times, finally as far away as Senlis. They now had a new agreement with the American Women’s Hospital to supply doctors for a medical unit to serve the population and in the end also the war wounded. On July 14, for the first time CARD canteens were serving American soldiers. By the end of summer, with the advance of the US troops, they were back in Picardie. On November 4, CARD became an association d’utilité publique, and on November 11 the Armistice was signed. The next phase was ready to begin.In 1917-18 there had been only some 17 volunteers in the Civilian Division of AFFW. By 1923 over 350 women had served with CARD, usually for periods of about six months. With the funds raised it was now possible to employ needed professional skills: doctors, nurses, construction workers (both French and American), then later, librarians and sports directors.
After the allied offensive liberated Château-Thierry in August 1918, CARD established a center there near a unit of the American Women’s Hospital (AWH) with whom they collaborated in sending mobile medical units into any parts of the Aisne to the north that they could reach. It was the time of the typhoid outbreak and the 1918 influenza; there was much to do. By the beginning of February 1919 both CARD and the Hospital #1 of the AWH were preparing to return to Blérancourt.
Now everything began on a new scale. The program of visiting nurses was expanded creating five centers from which many smaller villages could be served. The Committee’s nurses were largely recruited from the Florence Nightingale School in Bordeaux, ensuring that they had an academic background as well as practical experience. The goal was to make of each of these centers a complete social organism with low cost stores, clinics, and libraries. Children’s programs with lessons in domestic skills as well as carpentry and construction were combined with sports programs.Many of these efforts were based on ideas already developed in America. Some of these adapted well to the French situation, some less easily. However, the cooperation with the local administrations and other relief organizations was generally excellent. To assist with the formation of agricultural cooperatives, the Committee purchased 25 Ford tractors, which were lent or rented to them and eventually either sold or distributed to individual farmers. The same was true for the cooperative formed to rebuild houses to which the Committee loaned funds; these debts were repaid as more government subsidies became available. The rapidity and success of the fundraising in the U. S. was clearly of paramount importance, frequently allowing projects to begin before any war reparation funds were available from Paris. The Blérancourt workshop eventually became a private construction company under French-American management, which continued to function into the fifties. By 1920 a public relations office was part of the organization, including photographers and a film unit; the following year two films were shown at the Paris premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid with Chaplin himself present.
Some projects left permanent traces, others faded. The visiting nurse services throughout Picardie are active today under local administration but still are remembered as a contribution initiated by CARD. The Picardie experience with children’s libraries was repeated in Paris and has exerted a significant influence throughout the country. Public lending libraries in France today reflect the energy of CARD’s efforts in Picardie. American librarians in the tradition of Andrew Carnegie were brought in and French librarians sent to study in the U.S. The French tradition of libraries as resources for scholars was considerably enhanced by this exchange. Scout camps were less successful. The Anglo-Saxon tradition of scouting did not sit well with the French personality, nor did it take into account the religious divisions within France. And, Miss Morgan and her collaborators did not always tread lightly.In 1919, Anne Morgan bought the estate of Blérancourt. Only two pavilions remained of the original chateau built in 1612 by architect Salomon de Brosse, and Anne Morgan lived in one. The other was transformed into a museum dedicated to French-American history and inaugurated in 1930, one year after the death of Ann Murray Dike. Anne Morgan bequeathed the entire estate to the French people and it became the Musée national de la coopération franco-américain, Château de Blérancourt.
Yet Blérancourt remained Anne Morgan’s place to the end. In 1938, she financed the renovation of the small museum devoted to the life of the American volunteers during World War I. When the Second World War broke out, Anne Morgan was there. In 1940, as Germany invaded Belgium, Blérancourt became a center for the refugees. Thanks to the intervention of Anne Morgan, Blérancourt was transformed once more into a regional center providing medical care. In 1948 Eleanor Roosevelt came to visit Blérancourt and was impressed by what she saw and heard about the work of the American women. After 1948, Anne Morgan remained in America; she died from a heart attack on January 29, 1952 at Mount Kisco in New York State. However, in Picardie the memory of CARD and the American girls in their cars is still very lively, and the figure of Anne Morgan looms considerably larger there today than it probably does at home in the U.S.
The Château de Blérancourt and its Franco-American museum remain as Anne Morgan’s great legacy. What began as a project to help a small region in France cope during the war, became much more . . .
The Franco-American museum of the Château of Blérancourt
A museum of two countries, growing friendships lasting more than a lifetime.
Life as an Amoeba
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
SLIDESHOW http://www.livescience.com/27506-cambrian-creatures-primitive-sea-life-from-the-cambrian-era.html
SLIDESHOW http://www.livescience.com/27506-cambrian-creatures-primitive-sea-life-from-the-cambrian-era.html
Stephen Spender
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul’s history
Through corridors of light, where the hours are suns,
... Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,
Should tell of the Spirit, clothed from head to foot in song.
And who hoarded from the Spring branches
The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.
What is precious, is never to forget
The essential delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs
Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth.
Never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light
Nor its grave evening demand for love.
Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother
With noise and fog, the flowering of the spirit.
Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields,
See how these names are fêted by the waving grass
And by the streamers of white cloud
And whispers of wind in the listening sky.
The names of those who in their lives fought for life,
Who wore at their hearts the fire’s centre.
Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun
And left the vivid air signed with their honour.
Stephen Spender, born 28 February 1909.
English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work. He was appointed the seventeenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the United States Library of Congress in 1965.
I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul’s history
Through corridors of light, where the hours are suns,
... Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,
Should tell of the Spirit, clothed from head to foot in song.
And who hoarded from the Spring branches
The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.
What is precious, is never to forget
The essential delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs
Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth.
Never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light
Nor its grave evening demand for love.
Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother
With noise and fog, the flowering of the spirit.
Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields,
See how these names are fêted by the waving grass
And by the streamers of white cloud
And whispers of wind in the listening sky.
The names of those who in their lives fought for life,
Who wore at their hearts the fire’s centre.
Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun
And left the vivid air signed with their honour.
Stephen Spender, born 28 February 1909.
English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work. He was appointed the seventeenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the United States Library of Congress in 1965.
Confederate Flags of the United States
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
![(M) How many people have you seen flying the flag at the bottom, without actually knowing what it means? Thanks to @[114270361928171:274:Americans Against The Republican Party] for finding this.
Posted on the @[177486166274:274:Being Liberal] fan page.](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sakHT1uV7SyEEI4mwDmwm5zO383OGsGFJxoc3_lp-ylgT27H5zgNky7D6mnbji1japlWqewiQ-MAx9HCL-QODWWv-x6fvjLNOdKX6dV_ZP8Hj0hjnC6Zytu2wiveAswcM-WQhzXx04_f9Q0nqMMkiGoA9BkuSHE8so2sTgJcfuT4WQ=s0-d)
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Celebrating Julia Child
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
See three full episodes of Julia Child's "The French Chef" out of the vault to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the show's premiere: http://to.pbs.org/VbkFj3
Hepburn
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
Born on May 12, 1907 to a freethinking family, Katharine’s parents encouraged her to speak her mind and embrace her independence. Her mother, Katharine Marie Houghton, fought for women’s rights as a suffragette and her father, Dr. Thomas Norval Hepburn, was one of the first to begin educating the public on sexual health and safety. Thanks to her upbringing, Katharine was very aware of social issues. In fact, one of her first acting performances was given in the spirit of charity. As a child, she and her 5 siblings put on a neighborhood performance. They sent the profits to benefit Navajo children living in New Mexico.
Upon graduating from Bryn Mawr College in 1928, Katherine immediately embarked on her journey into an acting career. She received rave reviews for her role on Broadway as an Amazon queen in The Warrior’s Husband, which caught the attention of a scout from RKO Radio Pictures. In 1932, Katharine starred in her first big screen role opposite John Barrymore in A Bill of Divorcement. RKO, pleased with the reviews of her performance, offered her a long-term studio contract. Katharine’s career was on an upward trajectory; the following year, she won her first Oscar award for her role in the film Morning Glory. Katharine’s upbringing helped to shape some of her most memorable qualities as an actress. In particular, Katharine was admired for her confidence, intelligence, and unwillingness to conform to Hollywood stereotypes. She didn’t feel it was necessary to wear makeup; she often wore pants instead of the feminine dresses that were considered more “suitable” at the time. At one point, studio executives became dismayed by Katharine’s somewhat masculine attire. They ordered a member of RKO’s costume department to remove a pair of pants from her dressing room. Katharine stomped around set in her underwear to protest.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Katharine’s career spanned over 50 years, both on screen and stage. In addition to her 4 Oscar wins, she received 8 additional Academy Award nominations. She also won an Emmy for her role in the television film Love Among the Ruins. Her career was marked by a long-term love affair, both onscreen and off, with actor Spencer Tracey (another Oscar record holder, tied with Laurence Olivier, for most nominations in the Leading Actor category). Katharine and Spencer starred in 9 films together. Though they never wed, their relationship lasted 27 years until his death in 1967. Katharine’s last film with Spencer was Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner; the role won her a second Oscar. She later won a third and fourth Oscar for The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond.
At the age of 96, Katherine passed away in the same Connecticut house where she grew up. Though she may no longer be with us, her film legacy will certainly outlive us all. In honor of Katherine, I recently decided to try out her recipe for brownies. You may gasp when you read the ingredients: lots of butter, lots of sugar, and only a tiny bit of flour. This lack of flour was apparently Katharine’s secret to great brownies. The recipe comes from a letter to the editor of the New York Times on July 6, 2003. In the letter, Hepburn’s New York neighbor Heather Henderson recalled her first memorable meeting with Katharine. At the time, Heather was threatening to quit her studies at Bryn Mawr, Katharine’s alma mater. Heather’s father, who had noticed that Katharine lived nearby, slipped a letter into her mail slot, begging her to talk some sense into his daughter. Katharine called Heather at 7:30am the next morning and lectured her on the stupidity of her decision. The two arranged to meet for tea. Katharine convinced Heather to stick it out at Bryn Mawr. This began a series of casual meetings between Katharine and the Henderson family.
One day, Heather’s father heard that Katharine had been in a car accident and was recovering. He stopped by her place to bring her a batch of brownies. Hepburn tasted them and balked. “Too much flour! And don’t overbake them! They should be moist, not cakey!” As always, Katharine was opinionated and brutally honest. She rattled off her own brownie recipe while Heather’s father scribbled notes. The recipe appears below, with a few of my own notes in the baking instructions.
Heather took away three pieces of advice from her acquaintance with Katharine Hepburn:
Enjoy this simple and sweet treat in honor of Katharine Hepburn and her impressive Oscar legacy.
Upon graduating from Bryn Mawr College in 1928, Katherine immediately embarked on her journey into an acting career. She received rave reviews for her role on Broadway as an Amazon queen in The Warrior’s Husband, which caught the attention of a scout from RKO Radio Pictures. In 1932, Katharine starred in her first big screen role opposite John Barrymore in A Bill of Divorcement. RKO, pleased with the reviews of her performance, offered her a long-term studio contract. Katharine’s career was on an upward trajectory; the following year, she won her first Oscar award for her role in the film Morning Glory. Katharine’s upbringing helped to shape some of her most memorable qualities as an actress. In particular, Katharine was admired for her confidence, intelligence, and unwillingness to conform to Hollywood stereotypes. She didn’t feel it was necessary to wear makeup; she often wore pants instead of the feminine dresses that were considered more “suitable” at the time. At one point, studio executives became dismayed by Katharine’s somewhat masculine attire. They ordered a member of RKO’s costume department to remove a pair of pants from her dressing room. Katharine stomped around set in her underwear to protest.
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey in State of the Union.
Katharine’s career spanned over 50 years, both on screen and stage. In addition to her 4 Oscar wins, she received 8 additional Academy Award nominations. She also won an Emmy for her role in the television film Love Among the Ruins. Her career was marked by a long-term love affair, both onscreen and off, with actor Spencer Tracey (another Oscar record holder, tied with Laurence Olivier, for most nominations in the Leading Actor category). Katharine and Spencer starred in 9 films together. Though they never wed, their relationship lasted 27 years until his death in 1967. Katharine’s last film with Spencer was Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner; the role won her a second Oscar. She later won a third and fourth Oscar for The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond.
At the age of 96, Katherine passed away in the same Connecticut house where she grew up. Though she may no longer be with us, her film legacy will certainly outlive us all. In honor of Katherine, I recently decided to try out her recipe for brownies. You may gasp when you read the ingredients: lots of butter, lots of sugar, and only a tiny bit of flour. This lack of flour was apparently Katharine’s secret to great brownies. The recipe comes from a letter to the editor of the New York Times on July 6, 2003. In the letter, Hepburn’s New York neighbor Heather Henderson recalled her first memorable meeting with Katharine. At the time, Heather was threatening to quit her studies at Bryn Mawr, Katharine’s alma mater. Heather’s father, who had noticed that Katharine lived nearby, slipped a letter into her mail slot, begging her to talk some sense into his daughter. Katharine called Heather at 7:30am the next morning and lectured her on the stupidity of her decision. The two arranged to meet for tea. Katharine convinced Heather to stick it out at Bryn Mawr. This began a series of casual meetings between Katharine and the Henderson family.
One day, Heather’s father heard that Katharine had been in a car accident and was recovering. He stopped by her place to bring her a batch of brownies. Hepburn tasted them and balked. “Too much flour! And don’t overbake them! They should be moist, not cakey!” As always, Katharine was opinionated and brutally honest. She rattled off her own brownie recipe while Heather’s father scribbled notes. The recipe appears below, with a few of my own notes in the baking instructions.
Heather took away three pieces of advice from her acquaintance with Katharine Hepburn:
- Never quit.
- Be yourself.
- Don’t put too much flour in your brownies.
Enjoy this simple and sweet treat in honor of Katharine Hepburn and her impressive Oscar legacy.
Katharine Hepburn’s Brownies
Enjoy this simple and sweet treat in honor of Katharine Hepburn and her impressive Oscar legacy. Get Katherine's essential baking tip in a full post on The History Kitchen blog. The recipe comes from a letter to the editor of the New York Times on July 6, 2003.
Ingredients
- ½ cup cocoa or 2 squares (2 oz.) unsweetened baker's chocolate
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Pinch of salt
- 1 cup roughly chopped walnuts or pecans
Directions
- Melt butter with the cocoa or chocolate together in a heavy saucepan over medium low, whisking constantly till blended. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and walnuts. Mix well. Pour into a well buttered 8-inch square baking pan. Bake at 325 degrees for about 40 minutes till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely and cut into squares. These brownies are very fudgy and may be somewhat difficult to slice cleanly; use a sharp knife and a spatula to help them loosen from the baking dish.
Tips/Techniques
You will also need a 8x8 inch baking dish.Kellogg
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
February 26, 1852: Birthday of the Inventor of Corn Flakes!
On FEBRUARY 26 in 1852, John H. Kellogg, the inventor of corn flakes, was born in Battle Creek, Michigan.
As a physician in a Seventh Day Adventist sanitarium, John Kellogg worked with his brother Will Keith Kellogg to develop cereal products for his patients. With these innovative products, the brothers co-founded a business to get their products on the market. Unfortunately, the brothers broke business ties due to management and personal disputes.
Learn more about the history of cereal with PBS Food
On FEBRUARY 26 in 1852, John H. Kellogg, the inventor of corn flakes, was born in Battle Creek, Michigan.
As a physician in a Seventh Day Adventist sanitarium, John Kellogg worked with his brother Will Keith Kellogg to develop cereal products for his patients. With these innovative products, the brothers co-founded a business to get their products on the market. Unfortunately, the brothers broke business ties due to management and personal disputes.
Learn more about the history of cereal with PBS Food
Rise of Ancient Peruvian Civilization Was Powered by Agriculture
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
A new research by an international team of archaeologists provides convincing evidence that the earliest civilization of South America relied heavily on agriculture – specifically the large-scale production of maize (Zea mays).
For decades, researchers have debated whether the people who lived on or near the Pacific coast of Peru during the Late Archaic period (3000-1800 BC). subsisted primarily on fish or whether maize was cultivated and used as a regular part of their diets.
The new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses microscopic evidence from pollen records, coprolites and stone-tool residues to demonstrate that maize was widely grown, intensively processed and constituted a primary component of the early Peruvians’ diet.
“This new body of evidence demonstrates quite clearly that the very earliest emergence of civilization in South America was indeed based on agriculture as in the other great civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China,” said study lead author Dr Jonathan Haas of the Field Museum.
The team focused on sites in the desert valleys of Pativilca and Fortaleza north of Lima where broad botanical evidence pointed to the extensive production, processing and consumption of maize. They studied a total of 13 sites. The two most extensively studied sites were Caballete and the site of Huaricanga.
The archaeologists targeted several areas at the sites including residences, trash pits, ceremonial rooms, and campsites. A total of 212 radiocarbon dates were obtained in the course of all the excavations. Macroscopic remains of maize (kernels, leaves, stalks, and cobs) were rare.
However, the team looked deeper and found an abundance of microscopic evidence of maize in various forms in the excavations. One of the clearest markers was the abundance of maize pollen in the prehistoric soil samples. While maize is grown in the area today, they were able to rule out modern day contamination because modern maize pollen grains are larger and turn dark red when stain is applied. Also, modern soil samples consistently contain pollen from the Australian Pine (Casuarinaceae Casuarina), a plant which is an invasive species from Australia never found in prehistoric samples.
Of the 126 soil samples analyzed, 61 contained Z. mays pollen. This is consistent with the percentage of maize pollen found in pollen analyses from sites in other parts of the world where maize is a major crop and constitutes the primary source of calories in the diet.
The team also analyzed residues on stone tools used for cutting, scraping, pounding, and grinding. The tools were examined for evidence of plant residues, particularly starch grains and phytoliths (plant silica bodies). Of the 14 stone tools analyzed, 11 had maize starch grains on the working surfaces and two had maize phytoliths.
The researchers concluded that the prevalence of maize in multiple contexts and in multiple sites indicates this domesticated food crop was grown widely in the area and constituted a major portion of the local diet, and it was not used just on ceremonial occasions. The study ultimately confirms the importance of agriculture in providing a strong economic base for the rise of complex, centralized societies in the emergence of the world’s civilizations.
A new research by an international team of archaeologists provides convincing evidence that the earliest civilization of South America relied heavily on agriculture – specifically the large-scale production of maize (Zea mays).
Zea mays (Franz Eugen Köhler)
For decades, researchers have debated whether the people who lived on or near the Pacific coast of Peru during the Late Archaic period (3000-1800 BC). subsisted primarily on fish or whether maize was cultivated and used as a regular part of their diets.
The new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses microscopic evidence from pollen records, coprolites and stone-tool residues to demonstrate that maize was widely grown, intensively processed and constituted a primary component of the early Peruvians’ diet.
“This new body of evidence demonstrates quite clearly that the very earliest emergence of civilization in South America was indeed based on agriculture as in the other great civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China,” said study lead author Dr Jonathan Haas of the Field Museum.
The team focused on sites in the desert valleys of Pativilca and Fortaleza north of Lima where broad botanical evidence pointed to the extensive production, processing and consumption of maize. They studied a total of 13 sites. The two most extensively studied sites were Caballete and the site of Huaricanga.
The archaeologists targeted several areas at the sites including residences, trash pits, ceremonial rooms, and campsites. A total of 212 radiocarbon dates were obtained in the course of all the excavations. Macroscopic remains of maize (kernels, leaves, stalks, and cobs) were rare.
However, the team looked deeper and found an abundance of microscopic evidence of maize in various forms in the excavations. One of the clearest markers was the abundance of maize pollen in the prehistoric soil samples. While maize is grown in the area today, they were able to rule out modern day contamination because modern maize pollen grains are larger and turn dark red when stain is applied. Also, modern soil samples consistently contain pollen from the Australian Pine (Casuarinaceae Casuarina), a plant which is an invasive species from Australia never found in prehistoric samples.
Of the 126 soil samples analyzed, 61 contained Z. mays pollen. This is consistent with the percentage of maize pollen found in pollen analyses from sites in other parts of the world where maize is a major crop and constitutes the primary source of calories in the diet.
The team also analyzed residues on stone tools used for cutting, scraping, pounding, and grinding. The tools were examined for evidence of plant residues, particularly starch grains and phytoliths (plant silica bodies). Of the 14 stone tools analyzed, 11 had maize starch grains on the working surfaces and two had maize phytoliths.
The researchers concluded that the prevalence of maize in multiple contexts and in multiple sites indicates this domesticated food crop was grown widely in the area and constituted a major portion of the local diet, and it was not used just on ceremonial occasions. The study ultimately confirms the importance of agriculture in providing a strong economic base for the rise of complex, centralized societies in the emergence of the world’s civilizations.
Elizabeth Taylor
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
Her deep violet eyes and ability to bring men to their knees, a collection of jewelry to rival a royal makes summing up Elizabeth Taylor as a mere "actress" silly.
Elizabeth Taylor was a force to be reckoned with. Born with an innate confidence that allowed her, at age 12, to stun the nation with her performance in "National Velvet."
In an effort to rebrand herself for adult roles, in later years Taylor lowered her necklines and raised eyebrows. It was a confident, decidedly mature kind of sex appeal. She never seemed a victim of the male gaze, instead, she possessed and controlled her sex appeal. Her reinvention reached its pinnacle in her role as Maggie in 1958's "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof." Her image, clad in a silk nightgown reclined on her bed should be as iconic as Marilyn Monroe's "The Seven Year Itch."
Many think of Taylor in 1963's "Cleopatra." The movie where she fell in love with Richard Burton, viewers can feel the tension between the two. It was also the movie that seemingly set Taylor's makeup style for the next decade. The dramatic eyeliner and pastel shadow would be her go-to look as she sampled the styles of the 60s, eventually settling on caftans.
The 70s and 80s saw Taylor married multiple times but her true love affair became jewelry. She said that the acquisition of bling was not so much a hobby but fate. "My mother says I didn't open my eyes for eight days after I was born, but when I did, the first thing I saw was an engagement ring," she says. "I was hooked."
It's hard to find a photo where Taylor isn't wearing a stunning rock. Her image became intertwined with lavish jewelry, she named her perfume "White Diamonds." She was the first celebrity to venture out into the world of fragrance and one of the first to advertise a fragrance through commercials. The commercial occasionally still airs although Taylor died in 2011.
Elizabeth Taylor was a force to be reckoned with. Born with an innate confidence that allowed her, at age 12, to stun the nation with her performance in "National Velvet."
In an effort to rebrand herself for adult roles, in later years Taylor lowered her necklines and raised eyebrows. It was a confident, decidedly mature kind of sex appeal. She never seemed a victim of the male gaze, instead, she possessed and controlled her sex appeal. Her reinvention reached its pinnacle in her role as Maggie in 1958's "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof." Her image, clad in a silk nightgown reclined on her bed should be as iconic as Marilyn Monroe's "The Seven Year Itch."
Many think of Taylor in 1963's "Cleopatra." The movie where she fell in love with Richard Burton, viewers can feel the tension between the two. It was also the movie that seemingly set Taylor's makeup style for the next decade. The dramatic eyeliner and pastel shadow would be her go-to look as she sampled the styles of the 60s, eventually settling on caftans.
The 70s and 80s saw Taylor married multiple times but her true love affair became jewelry. She said that the acquisition of bling was not so much a hobby but fate. "My mother says I didn't open my eyes for eight days after I was born, but when I did, the first thing I saw was an engagement ring," she says. "I was hooked."
It's hard to find a photo where Taylor isn't wearing a stunning rock. Her image became intertwined with lavish jewelry, she named her perfume "White Diamonds." She was the first celebrity to venture out into the world of fragrance and one of the first to advertise a fragrance through commercials. The commercial occasionally still airs although Taylor died in 2011.
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Elizabeth Taylor style evolution http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/elizabeth-taylor-style-evolution_n_2769447.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008#slide=2158523
Life.com
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
Earliest Christians
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
Who Was Betty Crocker?
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
On her website The History Kitchen, Tori Avey explores the story behind the food – why we eat what we eat, how the recipes of different cultures have evolved, and how yesterday’s food can inspire us in the kitchen today. Learn more about the History Kitchen.
Before Betty Crocker was synonymous with boxed cake mix and canned frosting, she was a “kitchen confidante,” a maternal and guiding presence in kitchens across America. She was the “Dear Abby” of cooking, a woman people could trust with their most frustrating kitchen woes. She had answers to the questions that plagued so many home cooks—questions like, “Why won’t my cake rise?” or “Do you have a great recipe for blueberry pie?” or “How can I make my pancakes fluffy?” Betty was there to answer all of these questions and more. She encouraged women to get in the kitchen and try something new. Home cooks could take comfort in the fact that when problems arose, Betty would be there to help them along the way.
Surprising, then, that Betty Crocker isn’t actually a real person. She is the brainchild of an advertising campaign developed by the Washburn-Crosby Company, a flour milling company started in the late 1800’s that eventually became General Mills. Gold Medal Flour, a product of Washburn-Crosby, helped to kick-start Betty’s career. She was “born” in 1921, when an ad for Gold Medal Flour was placed in the Saturday Evening Post. The ad featured a puzzle of a quaint main street scene. Contestants were encouraged to complete the puzzle and send it in for the prize of a pincushion in the shape of a sack of Gold Medal Flour. The response was overwhelming; around 30,000 completed puzzles flooded the Washburn-Crosby offices. Many of the completed puzzles were accompanied by letters filled with baking questions and concerns, something the Washburn-Crosby Company hadn’t anticipated. Previously, the company’s small advertising department had dealt with customer mail and questions. The department manager, Samuel Gale, and his all-male staff would consult the women of the Gold Medal Home Service staff with customers’ baking and cooking questions. Gale never felt completely comfortable signing his name to this advice, as he suspected that women would rather hear from other women who knew their way around a kitchen. The pile of questions pouring in from the puzzle contest reinforced the need for a female cooking authority, somebody who could gracefully answer any kitchen questions that customers might have. The department’s answer to this issue was to invent a female chief of correspondence, a fictitious woman they named “Betty Crocker.”
The last name, Crocker, came from the recently retired director of Washburn-Crosby, William G. Crocker. Betty was chosen as a first name for its wholesome, cheerful sound. Samuel Gale asked the female employees of Washburn-Crosby to submit what they thought should be used as Betty Crocker’s personal signature. The winning signature was penned by a secretary named Florence Lindeberg. Her Betty Crocker signature was used at the closing of each response to all letters regarding baking, cooking and domestic advice.
In 1924, Betty went from signing letters to having a real voice when Washburn-Crosby began airing a cooking radio show, the Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air, first on Minneapolis radio station WCCO and then nationwide. The first voice of Betty Crocker belonged to a home economist named Marjorie Child Husted, the writer and host of the show. In 1951, Washburn-Crosby put a face to the name and the voice when they hired actress Adelaide Hawley to act as Betty on television. Hawley was the first of many women to play the Betty Crocker role.
The face of Betty Crocker in print ads and on product labels has been depicted by various artists since the 1920s. In 1936, Neysa McMein created the first official portrait of Betty, a composite painting that blended the facial features of the female staff in Washburn-Crosby’s home service department. This portrait of Betty would be used for over 20 years; it was especially fitting, considering the women of Washburn-Crosby collectively had a hand in Betty’s success. Since 1955, Betty’s image has been updated seven times. In 1965, she was drawn with a slight resemblance to former First Lady Jackie Kennedy. Despite the periodic changes, she never appeared to age much…in fact, a woman’s magazine pointed out that she seemed to remain an “ageless 32.” For her 75th anniversary in 1996, painter John Stuart Ingle gave her an olive skin tone that could belong to a wide range of ethnicities. Ingle created this version of Betty by digitally morphing photographs of 75 women that General Mills felt embodied “the characteristics of Betty Crocker.”
Betty Crocker’s first namesake grocery item was a soup mix, which became available in 1941. Her famous cake mix appeared on store shelves in 1947, and the bestselling Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book was published in 1950. It is still being sold today, millions of copies later, under the title The Betty Crocker Cookbook. In an effort to keep Betty current, she also has a website that features recipes, advice, gifts and more. The current red signature Betty Crocker spoon logo was first used on products in 1954. Today, we can find Betty Crocker pamphlet-style cookbooks in grocery checkout lanes across the country.
It is safe to say that Betty Crocker has become more than just a household name. In 1945, Fortune magazine declared her the second most popular woman in America, the first being Eleanor Roosevelt. Betty Crocker products are now sold worldwide… and it all started with a puzzle and a pincushion.
http://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/who-was-betty-crocker/
Betty Crocker, 1936-1969
Surprising, then, that Betty Crocker isn’t actually a real person. She is the brainchild of an advertising campaign developed by the Washburn-Crosby Company, a flour milling company started in the late 1800’s that eventually became General Mills. Gold Medal Flour, a product of Washburn-Crosby, helped to kick-start Betty’s career. She was “born” in 1921, when an ad for Gold Medal Flour was placed in the Saturday Evening Post. The ad featured a puzzle of a quaint main street scene. Contestants were encouraged to complete the puzzle and send it in for the prize of a pincushion in the shape of a sack of Gold Medal Flour. The response was overwhelming; around 30,000 completed puzzles flooded the Washburn-Crosby offices. Many of the completed puzzles were accompanied by letters filled with baking questions and concerns, something the Washburn-Crosby Company hadn’t anticipated. Previously, the company’s small advertising department had dealt with customer mail and questions. The department manager, Samuel Gale, and his all-male staff would consult the women of the Gold Medal Home Service staff with customers’ baking and cooking questions. Gale never felt completely comfortable signing his name to this advice, as he suspected that women would rather hear from other women who knew their way around a kitchen. The pile of questions pouring in from the puzzle contest reinforced the need for a female cooking authority, somebody who could gracefully answer any kitchen questions that customers might have. The department’s answer to this issue was to invent a female chief of correspondence, a fictitious woman they named “Betty Crocker.”
The last name, Crocker, came from the recently retired director of Washburn-Crosby, William G. Crocker. Betty was chosen as a first name for its wholesome, cheerful sound. Samuel Gale asked the female employees of Washburn-Crosby to submit what they thought should be used as Betty Crocker’s personal signature. The winning signature was penned by a secretary named Florence Lindeberg. Her Betty Crocker signature was used at the closing of each response to all letters regarding baking, cooking and domestic advice.
In 1924, Betty went from signing letters to having a real voice when Washburn-Crosby began airing a cooking radio show, the Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air, first on Minneapolis radio station WCCO and then nationwide. The first voice of Betty Crocker belonged to a home economist named Marjorie Child Husted, the writer and host of the show. In 1951, Washburn-Crosby put a face to the name and the voice when they hired actress Adelaide Hawley to act as Betty on television. Hawley was the first of many women to play the Betty Crocker role.
Betty Crocker, 1972-1996
Betty Crocker’s first namesake grocery item was a soup mix, which became available in 1941. Her famous cake mix appeared on store shelves in 1947, and the bestselling Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book was published in 1950. It is still being sold today, millions of copies later, under the title The Betty Crocker Cookbook. In an effort to keep Betty current, she also has a website that features recipes, advice, gifts and more. The current red signature Betty Crocker spoon logo was first used on products in 1954. Today, we can find Betty Crocker pamphlet-style cookbooks in grocery checkout lanes across the country.
It is safe to say that Betty Crocker has become more than just a household name. In 1945, Fortune magazine declared her the second most popular woman in America, the first being Eleanor Roosevelt. Betty Crocker products are now sold worldwide… and it all started with a puzzle and a pincushion.
http://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/who-was-betty-crocker/
John Steinbeck
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
“It has always seemed strange to me...The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.”
- John Steinbeck, born 27 February 1902.
American writer widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952) and the novella Of Mice and Men (1937). He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.
“It has always seemed strange to me...The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.”
- John Steinbeck, born 27 February 1902.
American writer widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952) and the novella Of Mice and Men (1937). He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.
Einstein
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
![(M) A great quotation from @[107572265932578:274:Albert Einstein].
Posted on the @[177486166274:274:Being Liberal] fan page.](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uQEEzLaopivhlz1_ayfh4ywfbIGfVztCwokzuIRjBkWQnsnb3h2mF5LgRNIw8y-HRHbEmnGrWoFYMDcXhCm1_vTeRgv4gMTN0h540iy4s7Cmi1X_XHNu0GB6_FFM19Jddtqu5xzb3A_Y2EnXGzHuon1qDelxBRfELPpLi2wBdVXaR9=s0-d)
Search for Yeti
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
This Foreign Service memo treats a science-fictional subject—the existence of the Yeti, or the Abominable Snowman—with utmost bureaucratic seriousness. Titled “Regulations Governing Mountain Climbing Expeditions in Nepal—Relating to Yeti,” it was issued from the American Embassy in Kathmandu on November 30, 1959.
The memo came at the end of a decade of strenuous Yeti-hunting. This Outside Magazine timeline of Yeti hunts tells the story in compact form. In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Everest, and reported seeing large tracks. In 1954, the Daily Mail (UK) funded a sixteen-week “Snowman Expedition” to Everest to look for clues. (The newspaper is still on the case today.) And in the late 1950s, American oil millionaire and cryptozoology enthusiast Tom Slick—whose colorful life, as Badass Digest points out, should definitely be made into a movie—bankrolled a number of Himalayan expeditions in search of the creature.
Did the U.S. government believe in the Yeti, as some cryptozoologists took the memo to mean? The memo stipulated three rules: Yeti hunters must pay the Nepalese government for a permit; hunters can photograph, but not kill, any Yeti that surfaces, and must turn any photographs or captured Yeti over to Nepali officials; and new findings need to be filtered through Nepalese channels before going public.
These regulations were actually first issued by the government of Nepal in 1957. The U.S. established diplomatic relations with Nepal in 1947, and the embassy had just opened in 1959, when the memo was written. The Yeti presence in a State Department document does not prove that the U.S. believed in the Snowmen. Rather, by reprinting the Nepalese government’s regulations, the embassy could show Nepal that the U.S. respected its sovereignty, even in the matter of hypothetical hairy beasts.
Thanks to Mark Murphy of the National Archives.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Pamphlet of Free
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
Cell-dinosaur
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
Europe After War
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
VE Day may have been a time of global celebration at the end of the Second World War, but it also laid bare the scale of devastation across the war zone that was Europe.
These photographs from May 1945 show how the landscape of Germany was scarred with bomb craters and ruined buildings, with huge refugee camps set up across the countryside.
The astonishing images are the product of the Allied 'trolley missions', attempts to catalogue the damage done by British bombers over the previous six years.
The missions were initially restricted to Allied-controlled areas, as they began before the official end of the War, but soon extended out to Eastern Europe.
For many of the crew it was the first time they had flown in the aircraft they had been working on for years.
The missions were intended to allow both pilots and ground crew to survey the work they had done and take a close look at the effect of the bombing raids which had forced Germany into submission by 1945.
Thankfully for later generations, the photographers on board took their duties seriously and captured dozens of images of German cities pocked with craters.
The human cost of warfare is also shown by vistas of prisoner-of-war camps made up of hundreds of tents housing those who were captured while fighting.
In total, more than 30,000 people were invited on trolley missions to survey post-War Germany.
While most of the expeditions went off without a hitch, some airmen reported their planes being pelted by stones by German children, while others were disciplined for 'buzzing' people on the ground.
One landmark which especially stuck in the mind of the personnel who carried out the mission was Cologne Cathedral, which stood out in the middle of a ruined landscape.
VE Day may have been a time of global celebration at the end of the Second World War, but it also laid bare the scale of devastation across the war zone that was Europe.
These photographs from May 1945 show how the landscape of Germany was scarred with bomb craters and ruined buildings, with huge refugee camps set up across the countryside.
The astonishing images are the product of the Allied 'trolley missions', attempts to catalogue the damage done by British bombers over the previous six years.
Destruction: This picture of Cologne around the time of VE Day shows how most of the city was nearly flattened apart from its iconic cathedral
Raid: The main bridge in the town of Remagen, which was disabled by Allied bombing missions earlier in the Second World War
Attack: A unique photograph of Cologne taken from the side of a bomber during a 'trolley mission' at the end of the War
Suffering: One of the areas photographed by the trolley missions was the prisoner-of-war camp in Germany
Craters: The landscape around this factory came under heavy bombardment, leading to pockmarks all across it
Target: This railyard shows how inaccurate 1940s bombing techniques were, with few missiles striking the facility itself and most landing nearby
Strategic: The railroad bridge running across the centre of Cologne collapsed into the river thanks to Allied bombing attacks
Flattened: The RAF's bombing raids in German were intended to flatten the country's infrastructure and demoralise its people
Evocative: While most of Europe was happily celebrating VE Day, areas which were bombed out were still lamenting the destruction
Rural: The scene on the outskirts of Bremen - a hint at the economic damage which would require years of rebuilding in Germany
Excitement: The missions were designed as a way for RAF ground crew to see the effects of their efforts throughout the War
The missions were intended to allow both pilots and ground crew to survey the work they had done and take a close look at the effect of the bombing raids which had forced Germany into submission by 1945.
Thankfully for later generations, the photographers on board took their duties seriously and captured dozens of images of German cities pocked with craters.
The human cost of warfare is also shown by vistas of prisoner-of-war camps made up of hundreds of tents housing those who were captured while fighting.
Wasteland: Parts of Germany were left almost uninhabitable in the wake of frequent RAF raids
Shells: Whole neighbourhoods were devastated and abandoned in the aftermath of the fighting
Trouble: In some urban areas the RAF planes had stones thrown at them by angry German youths
City: Dortmund shown after the end of the Second World War on another 'trolley mission' launched by Allied troops
Damage: Part of the city of Cologne including a public park which became a bomb site and a centuries-old Prussian fort, top right
Camp: Another POW area, where conditions in the damp weather could get so bad that many inmates who had survived the fighting died there instead
In total, more than 30,000 people were invited on trolley missions to survey post-War Germany.
While most of the expeditions went off without a hitch, some airmen reported their planes being pelted by stones by German children, while others were disciplined for 'buzzing' people on the ground.
One landmark which especially stuck in the mind of the personnel who carried out the mission was Cologne Cathedral, which stood out in the middle of a ruined landscape.
Striking: Many of the Allied troops were particularly moved by the sight of Cologne Cathedral, which was mostly unharmed
Surveillance: A photograph of post-War Hamburg taken from an RAF plane surveying the damage
Neutral: This image shows Belgium, which was officially out of the firing line but became caught up in the effects of the Second World War
Industrial: Factories in the Ruhr Valley, which were targeted because of their importance to the German war effort
Defence: This picture shows the Westwall, a line of anti-tank defences snaking across the border between Germany and France
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