“By the sound of the children you knew the calendar day. By their screams you knew what evening it was. You knew it was very late in the year. October. The last day of October, with white bone masks and cut pumpkins and the smell of dropped candle wax[…]He had never liked October. Ever since… Read More “He had never liked October…”🎃
The phrase “to be a Boswell/ someone’s Boswell” was inspired by the relationship between James Boswell and Samuel Johnson. Boswell’s “Life of Johnson” remains the most famous biography in any language, one of Western literature’s greatest achievements, unprecedented in its depth of research and its extensive use of private correspondence and conversation recorded on the… Read More Being a Boswell
James Boswell was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh on 29 October 1740. He became known for his friendship with writer Samuel Johnson and for the biography he wrote about him (“The Life of Samuel Johnson”, 1791) considered the greatest biography in the history of Western literatureFor long it was believed that… Read More Boswell and His Club
“Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.” American virologist and medical researcher Jonas Salk was born in New York City on 28 October 1914.In 1953 he announced he had successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease whichattacks the nervous system and can produce varying degrees of paralysis. Since… Read More Dr. Salk: Patents and Vaccines
Natalie Merchant provided the song Ophelia (see here) with a ”companion film” directed by Mark Seliger and Fred Woodward . It is a conceptual short film, a journey through the different characters she brings to life. She plays the various Ophelias portrayed in the song, those women who had the courage to question the patriarchal… Read More Natalie Merchant – Ophelia (Characters) 🎥
Natalie Merchant (born 26 October 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In this song she imagines many Ophelias living varied lives throughout history, even though the song really has nothing to do with Shakespeare’s heroine other than the sadness the name evokes. All of those women are portrayed in various times, with very dissimilar… Read More Ophelia 🎶
“L’homme est de glace aux vérités, il est de feu pour les mensonges.” – Jean de La Fontaine – Fables – Livre IX. “Man is ice to truth and fire to falsehood.” In one of the comments on Frost’s poem “Fire and Ice”, which you can read here, Pat wrote some lines that I liked… Read More Fire and Ice/II
Two girls discoverthe secret of lifein a sudden line ofpoetry. I who don’t know thesecret wrotethe line. Theytold me (through a third person)they had found itbut not what it wasnot even what line it was. No doubtby now, more than a weeklater, they have forgottenthe secret, the line, the name ofthe poem. I love themfor… Read More The Secret
Pictures of Autumn – Late October Listen, the damp leaves on the walks are blowingWith a ghost of sound;Is it a fog or is it a rain drippingFrom the low trees to the ground? If I had gone before, I could have rememberedLilacs and green after-noons of May;I chose to wait, I chose to hear… Read More “Pictures of Autumn” / 2
Fire and Ice Some say the world will end in fire,Some say in ice.From what I’ve tasted of desireI hold with those who favor fire.But if it had to perish twice,I think I know enough of hateTo say that for destruction iceIs also greatAnd would suffice. “Fire and Ice” is a popular symbolic poem by… Read More Fire and Ice
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