England and the Father of the Modern Olympics

Photo of bust of Baron Pierre de Coubertin at the Museum Colet in Barcelona, Spain courtesy 123rf.com

Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-937) was a French aristocrat, who chose as his occupation the life of an intellectual, became an educator and historian, and wrote on many topics including education, history, literature, and sociology.  He was profoundly impressed by the physical education opportunities in England, and helped to promote and expand them there, but was not successful in convincing France to do the same.  He romanticized Ancient Greece, and also had strong views about physical education and its effect on society.  All these interests, his theories about physical education, and his idealism caused him to want to revive the Olympic Games, to found the International Olympic Committee, and to take an active part in the administration of the beginning of the modern Olympic games.

The Pierre de Coubertin Medal, also known as The True Spirit of Sportsmanship Medal, is considered the highest award given at the modern Olympics, even higher than any gold medal.

There is a statue of him at the Gateway of Dreams in the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta.  There is also a statue of him where he was buried in Lausanne, the seat of the foundation of the modern Olympics; but as he desired, his heart was buried in a monument near the Olympia ruins, the site of the Ancient Greek Olympics.

For more information click here. and click here.  What did you learn today?

Why Male Cats Are Called Tomcats

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Male cats used to be called "rams" or "boars" until a popular novel was published in 1760 about a cat named Tom.  The Life and Adventures of a Cat has been attributed to the British author William Guthrie, but authorship hasn't been verified.  For more information click here.  For more terms relating to cats click here.

What did you learn today?

Fable Facts

Photo of Greek stamp depicting the Aesop's fable of the The Ass in The Lion's Skin and The Fox courtesy 123rf.com

Today's topic was requested by Isobel Keogh of Perth Scotland, @scots_perth on Twitter.

Fables are short stories that teach a lesson using animals or mythical creatures as the characters in the stories.  Aesop's Fables are arguably the best known fables in the western world, and have been translated into nearly every language.  Fables are found in nearly every culture inside and outside the western world, including Africa, Asia, Sumaria, India, and other countries.

What I didn't know about Aesop, the Ancient Greek writer of the eponymous fables, is that he was born into slavery and later granted freedom, most likely was of African decent, was said to have a speech impediment that was miraculously healed by a deity, was written about by Plato and Aristotle, and many people deny that he was an actual person.

There are many wonderful websites about fables.  Click here for an Aesop's Fables website that includes over 650 fables that are indexed and cross-referenced.  Click here for a website geared toward children that also includes fairy tales and nursery rhymes.

Thanks to Isobel Keogh of Perth Scotland, @scots_perth on Twitter, for today's topic!  What did you learn today?

Gorillas With Guns!

Photo of Six-Gun Gorilla courtesy simongurr.wordpress.com

Today's topic was requested by Mark Feldthusen from Copenhagen, Denmark, @feldthusen on Twitter.

In the 1930's there was a comic book character called Six-Gun Gorilla.  According to The Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes, this silverback gorilla escaped from a circus-train wreck, strapped on guns, and traversed the Old West seeking vengeance.  This character was featured in a British paper of that time, and has been a contemporary subject for artists who update or reinvent fictional characters in a British forum called Whitechapel.  For more information click here.

Thanks Mark Feldthusen from Copenhagen, @feldthusen on Twitter for today's topic!  What did you learn today?

Night Sounds: Katy-did-it!

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

Nights in the Southern United States are almost without exception filled with the sounds of insects enjoying the summer heat.  One of the most talked about, if not the most commonly heard, is the Katydid.  Last night I wondered how this bug, that is more closely related to the cricket than the grasshopper, got its name.  The general consensus is that its name "Katy-did" is the sound they make.  Click here to read an Appalachian folk-story of love & murder that resulted in the bugs identifying the murderer by exclaiming, "Katy-did-it!"

For more information click here and click here.  What did you learn today?

How The Heart Got Its Shape

The shape of the heart symbol, which symbolizes love, bears little resemblance to the human heart, so I wondered about the origin.  There are several different ideas about the origin of this symbol going back to anywhere from the 7th century BC up to the 17th century. 

One idea is the heart shape of the now-extenct silphium plant from North Africa was used for birth control in the 7th century BC, and so became associated with sex and then eventually love.

Another idea proposes that the heart-shaped ivy leaf used to decorate early Christian burial sites eventually evolved to represent human life, which was believed to be driven entirely by the heart.  The human heart was rarely seen due primarily to religious bans on autopsies and the fact that surgery as is known today did not exist.  The heart was believed to be not only the seat of life but also the seat of emotion, so the heart-shaped ivy leaf eventually became associated with the emotions of love.  Blood is red, so the monks who painted illuminations in manuscripts eventually painted the heart symbol red.

Yet another idea proposed is that 17th century Saint Mary Margaret saw the sacred heart in this shape in a dream or vision.

For more information click here and click here.  What did you learn today?

101st Birthday of NYPL

Photo of one of the NYPL lions, Patience and Fortitude, courtesy 123rf.com

101 years ago the New York Public Library was dedicated and opened for service.  At the time it was the largest completely marble structure in the U.S.A.  For more information click here.  What did you learn today? 

It's World Book Day!!

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

It's World Book Day, and there are lots of resources and give-aways at the World Book Day website!  For more information click here., and also here.

What did you learn today?

National Poetry Month!

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I love poetry, and I read a lot and memorize some.  I especially love 18th and 19th century poetry, although there are some 20th century poets I'm passionate about including Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.  One of my favorite books I own is World Poetry:  An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time.  So, I was especially happy to learn that April is National Poetry Month in the U.S., and has been so since 1996.  For more information click here.

Two of my favorite poems follow:

Solitude
by Alexander Pope, 1688-1744 (English)

Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
     In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire;
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
     In winter, fire.

Blest, who can unconcernedly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away
In health of body, peace of mind;
     Quiet by day.

Sounds sleep by night; study and ease
Together mixed, sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please
     With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die,
Steal from the world, and not a stone
     Tell where I lie.

Native Land
From The Lay of the Last Minstrel
by Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832 (Scottish)

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land?
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim--
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.

What did you learn today?

Robinson Crusoe in Real Life

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Three hundred and three years ago yesterday, on February 2, 1709, the sailor who was the inspiration for the book, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, was rescued from the island of Aguas Buenas off the coast of Chile.  Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk had been stranded for four years alone on that tropical island.  For more information, including how Selkirk might have survived on the island, click here.  I didn't know Robinson Crusoe was based on fact!

WHO Helped Fund the American Revolution ?!?!

Photo of oil painting of French author Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) by French artist Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766) courtesy Giraudon/Art Resource, New York, via EncyclopediaBritannica.com

I like Mozart's (1756-1791) operas, and think Beaumarchais's plays (from which the libretti for some of Mozart's operas are taken) are fabulous.  What I didn't know is that Beaumarchais "coordinated the initially secret French program to supply the nascent U.S. of A. with money and arms early in the Revolutionary War".  For more information click here.

What operas do you like?  (You may leave comments below.)

Christmas Poems

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Nearly everyone knows that most famous of Christmas poems, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, by Clement Clarke Moore (1779 - 1863).  Written in 1822, it's also known as A Visit from St. Nicholas.  Did you know that many poems have been written for Christmas?  Here's one I like that's new to me:

Christmas is a soft warm glow
Children playing in the snow
Decorations on the tree
Put on there by Mom and me
Candy canes red and white
A letter to Santa I did write
Sugar cookies in a row
Christmas is a soft warm glow.

I don't know who wrote this poem, but you can find this one and more written for children by going to this Christmas Poem website, (click here).  This website also has poems for lovers, funny poems, religious poems, and more.

One of the things I enjoy doing on Christmas Eve is reading Christmas poetry.  What do you enjoy doing on Christmas Eve?

Famous Author...& Billiards Player!

Photo courtesy Mark Twain Museum

Today is the birthday of Mark Twain (1835-1910), one of my favorite authors and "characters", as we would call him in The South.  One thing I didn't know about him was that he was an avid billiards player.

Can You Recite the Aeneid By Heart In Latin?

Photo:  Public Domain

James Garfield (1831-1881), 20th president of the United States of America, was a great intellect.  In addition to his accomplishments both greater and lesser, he could recite the entire Aenid by heart in Latin!

For more information, see the interview with Candice Millard about her book, Destiny of the Republic.

Tokyo Governor's Crazed Fruit

Photo courtesy of ProductWiki

Considered by some to be the Japanese equivalent of Rebel Without a Cause, Ko Nakahira's Crazed Fruit has long been one of my favorite movies (see View My Complete Profile near the bottom of this page).  It is a 1956 film based on the novel, Season of the Sun, by Ishahara Shintaro (born 1932), which won the Akutagawa Prize in 1955.  It is about the "Sun Tribe", which was a discontented-youth culture in 1950's Japan. 

What I didn't know was that one of the film's stars was the brother of Ishihara Shintaro, Ishihara Yujiro (1934-1987).  I also didn't know that Ishihara Yujiro became an icon of 1950's and 1960's Japanese films, and achieved a status in Japan much like that of James Dean in the United States.  I also didn't know that since 1999 Ishihara Shintaro has been governor of Tokyo.

Here's the Toronto Japanese Film Appreciation Pow-Wow blog about The Top Ten Films that Changed Japanese Cinema; Crazed Fruit is number six.

Here's an interview on FORA.tv with Donald Richie, writer, journalist, and a leading authority on Japanese films.