Falmanac: The Fallston Almanac of American History
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(LoC) - Journalist, short-story writer, and novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was born on August 8, 1896, in Washington, D.C. Rawlings is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Yearling (1938), the story of young Jody Baxter's coming of age in the big scrub country which is now the Ocala National Forest in Florida. Continued
Photo: Florida, sunset on the Ocklawaha [i.e. Oklawaha], Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942, photographer.
(Errol Morris) - I was talking to Ricky Jay about lying and deception. I had an example from the Bible, specifically about Jacob and his 12 sons. ... Ricky interrupted: “Which one? Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Napthali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulon, Joseph or Benjamin?”
“Uh . . . Joseph.” Continued
Photo: Library of Congress
Photo: Some drunk with a cat (Library of Congress).
(boingboing) - Beautiful, somber new Radiohead single available for download on their website.
Titled Harry Patch (In Memory Of), the song is a tribute to the oldest surviving Tommy who fought in World War I. Harry Patch was 111 years old when he died on July 25th, 2009. He fought in one of the grimmest battles of the war, the Battle of Passchendaele, where over 325,000 Allied casualties occurred and over, 260,000 Germans. The 99 day battle from July 31st 1917 to November 6th 1917, saw an average of 3,000 British troops killed, wounded, or captured daily. (By contrast, in Iraq, 3,650 US troops have died and approximately 26,000 have been wounded). Continued
(Aegis) - Several historic tanks, guns and other artillery pieces housed at the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum since the 1940s are officially bidding farewell to Aberdeen Proving Ground.
On Monday, museum staff began the first phase of moving many of the artifacts to Fort Lee, Va., where the Ordnance Museum will eventually be reconstituted as a fully indoors museum. Continued
Richard Bennett (August 6, 1609 - April 12, 1675) was an English Colonial Governor of Virginia.
Born in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, Bennett served as governor from April 30, 1652, until March 2, 1655. His uncle, Edward Bennett, was a wealthy merchant from London and one of the few Puritan members of the Virginia Company, who had traveled to Virginia Colony in 1621 and settled in Warrascoyack. Richard Bennett followed his uncle there as a representative of his business interests, and quickly rose to prominence, serving in the House of Burgesses in 1629 and 1631 and becoming a leader of the small Puritan community south of the James River, taking them from Warrasquyoake to Nansemond beginning in 1635. He was a member of the Governor Francis Wyatt's Council in 1639-42. In 1648, he fled to Anne Arundel, Maryland. Continued
(NYTimes) - ... Researchers from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William & Mary say that large experimental reefs created five years ago are now home to more than 180 million native oysters. That is still a far cry from the late 1880s, when the bay held billions of the oysters, Crassostrea virginica, and watermen harvested about 25 million bushels annually. But more larvae have been settling on the new reefs every year, the researchers said. Continued
(Wikipedia) - Andrew Hamilton (c. 1676 – August 4, 1741) was a Scottish lawyer in Colonial America, best known for his legal victory on behalf of printer and newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger.
... Hamilton and his son James were among the founders of Lancaster, which became the fourth county in the province of Pennsylvania in 1729. The community was located on a 500-acre tract owned by Hamilton, on which he laid out Lancaster Townstead around 1730. By 1734, James, now proprietor of Lancaster town, won a seat in the Assembly and became the political leader of the county, and in 1742, secured the original charter of government, which gave the settlement the status of borough (this charter can be found today in the city clerk’s office). Continued
(Michiko Kakutani) - ... “Inherent Vice” not only reminds us how rooted Mr. Pynchon’s authorial vision is in the ’60s and ’70s, but it also demystifies his work, underscoring the similarities that his narratives — which mix high and low cultural allusions, silly pranks and gnomic historical references, mischievous puns, surreal dreamlike sequences and a playful sense of the absurd — share with the work of artists like Bob Dylan, Ken Kesey, Jack Kerouac and even Richard Brautigan. Continued
(Wikipedia) - Erik Darling (September 25, 1933 – August 3, 2008) was an American songwriter and a folk music artist. He was an important influence on the folk scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Darling was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Inspired by the folk music group The Weavers, in the '50s, he formed The Tunetellers, later called The Tarriers with actor/singer Alan Arkin. Continued
(NYTBR) - ... If, like me, you were still playing Space Invaders and admiring your Styx posters in 1979, then it may come as a surprise to find out just how weird a time it was. Three Mile Island had recently melted down. Skylab was hurtling toward a helpless Earth. Throngs of young men were rioting against disco. And gas lines in the sweltering heat were testing the national character, which is what ultimately prompted Carter to ascend his Maryland mountaintop and look deep into the nation’s soul. Continued
(Wikipedia) - Mary Hamman (2 August 1907 – 18 November 1984) was an American writer and editor. She was an editor for Pictorial Review, Good Housekeeping, Mademoiselle, the modern living editor for LIFE, editor in chief for Bride & Home.
She was born in Baltimore, Maryland a daughter of Johns Hopkins clinician Dr. Louis Hamman. Her move to Manhattan was during prohibition which fueled many stories.
She was one of a "trio of formidable and colorful women" the other two being: Mary Letherbee, movie editor; and Sally Kirkland, fashion editor. Continued
Fortunately our country always manages to survive patriots like you. - Advise & Consent
