🔆“Trust is the first step to love.”🔆“If there were a being in the world whose eyes could look into other people’s hearts, very few men or women would be able to face up to it.”🔆“Beauty doesn’t need ornaments. Softness can’t bear the weight of ornaments.” Premchand, Indian novelist and poet (31 July 1880-1936) 🔆”La fiducia… Read More Trust, Truth, Trinkets
💙 A warm greeting and a hug to all my friends 💙 Today in particular, because 30th July marks the International Day of Friendship, established by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2011 – although some nations celebrate it on different dates. The General Assembly recognizing the importance of friendship as the simplest… Read More 🎗️Friendship🎗️
On 29 July 1947, ENIAC, the world’s first digital computer, was reactivated after a memory upgrade.ENIAC, short for “Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer”, was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, developed for the U.S. Army and completed in 1945.In 1946, it was shut down for a refurbishment and a memory upgrade, and it was… Read More Computers
Gerard Manley Hopkins (born on 28 July 1844) was an English poet and Jesuit priest whose posthumous fame placed him among the best Victorian poets. None of his poems were published during his lifetime. In a period of traditional verse. he was an innovator in prosody (especially as regards his “sprung rhythm”, based on the… Read More Pied Beauty
On 13 February 1748, Lady Lovibond, a three mast legendary schooner, wrecked on the Goodwin Sands, off the Kent coast of south-east England. (see here) Exactly fifty years later , on 13 February 1798, the captain of the ship “Edenbridge” recorded in his logbook that he nearly collided with a three-masted schooner and also reported… Read More The Ghost Ship at the Sandbar/2
Tennyson‘s poem “Crossing the Bar” (here) was about a shoal, and one of the most notorious sandbanks is Goodwin Sands, a line of shoals at the entrance to the Strait of Dover from the North Sea, off the Kent coast. It is one of the most dangerous passages in the English Channel, often the scene… Read More The Ghost Ship at the Sandbar/1
Eric Hoffer (born on 25 July 1902 –1983) was an American self-educated moral and social philosopher who, despite rising to fame, continued to work as a longshoreman until retiring ( see here) Three quotes “The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people… Read More Hoffer & Power
Henley’s poem “Margaritae Sorori” (see here) about the longing for a peaceful end is reminiscent of Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”. Alfred Lord Tennyson, who was Britain’s poet laureate for much of Queen Victoria’s reign, wrote this poem in 1889, three years before his death.It is believed that the poet composed it while at sea, crossing… Read More Crossing the Bar
William Ernest Henley‘s poem “Invictus” (here) insists on individual strength and unwavering resilience in the face of adversity. Even the loss of his five-year-old daughter Margaret, despite being a deeply traumatising event, did not truly dampen his outlook on life as a whole. The following lesser-known poem, instead, evokes the acceptance of death and dying,… Read More W. E. Henley: “Margaritae Sorori”
A Child,Curious and innocent,Slips from his Nurse, and rejoicingLoses himself in the Fair. Thro’ the jostle and dinWandering, he revels,Dreaming, desiring, possessing;Till, of a suddenTired and afraid, he beholdsThe sordid assemblageJust as it is; and he runsWith a sob to his Nurse(Lighting at last on him),And in her motherly bosomCries him to sleep. Thus thro’… Read More W. E. Henley: “A Child”
words and music and stories 