Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/dekalb-got-no-bone-557743.html
ReplyDeleteThe above is a link to my most recent column in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. I had fun writing it.
Ahh, summer. Thanks for posting that.
ReplyDeleteLocation, location, location. Here in the Bay Area we've had a slow start to summer, and right now it's so foggy I can't even see City Hall, a mere eight blocks down the street.
ReplyDeleteI like to float above the weather in those empyrean realms where Henry James will long be telling Edith Wharton,approximately, "Summer afternoon...summer afternoon, the two most beautiful words in the English language."
Speaking of Henry James:
ReplyDeletehttp://travel.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/travel/27James.html
Fascinating poll on the presidents:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.siena.edu/uploadedfiles/home/parents_and_community/community_page/sri/independent_research/Presidents%20Release_2010_final.pdf
Another (non-American) meander: The novelist Beryl Bainbridge died on Thursday. She was the only writer I ever met who actually ended up under the table when she drank. Until then, I always thought that was just a cliche.
ReplyDeleteHa! Reminds me of Dorothy Parker at a party drinking until she wound up under...the host.
ReplyDeleteNow _that's_ funny!
ReplyDeleteDorothy Parker and I share a birthday. She was also born in Long Branch (West End section), NJ.
ReplyDeleteHow very cool, marti! My daughter got Toni Morrison, Yoko Ono, John Travolta, John Hughes, Vanna White, Regina Spektor, Dr. Dre and Princess Christina of the Netherlands--she noted the latter because her new boyfriend's mom is Dutch. (They're planning a Europe trip next summer between h.s. & college--serious saving up has begun.) Needless to say, we're paying more attention to the World Cup than ever before at our house.
ReplyDelete(All I got was the atomic test bomb & the launching of the moon shot.)
That's quite an impressive list of birthdays you all have! I just checked. All I get is Chastity Bono (not even Moon Zappa!).
ReplyDeleteI get Ronald Regan,Babe Ruth and Bob Marley.
ReplyDeleteAvrds,at least you are the only one who has a co birthday person that has changed it's sex.
ReplyDeleteJust my luck!
ReplyDeleteIf anyone wants a good laugh, he or she should check in on the Am History forum at Melba. Weezo is trying to defend her polls and Maddy has jumped making up her usual fascinating details that seem to live only in her head.
ReplyDeleteY'know, I think a lot of what maddy posts is true. Embellished, yes, but most folks embroider a bit on the net. She is an old lady, older than me even, and has had plenty of time to do a lot of living. It's no wonder weezo hates her; a sourer, less satisfied little person I've rarely seen. Her life seems to have been miserable; maddy's richnness of experience, true or not, clearly is a great trial for her.
ReplyDeleteI agree, although I have a hard time following her circular reminiscing at times. No, most of the time. I picture her as a little old lady in a rocking chair, knitting up her literary memories into great, slightly obscure tapestries.
ReplyDeleteShe should be writing her memoirs, instead of writing these elliptical posts. She knows a lot about California writers during the 60s that no one would know unless they were part of that group. Like the poet George Hitchcock's nickname, which even I can't remember now, but she routinely referred to him that way.
In MAD fashion:
I once attended a dinner party with Rexroth in the early 1970s, organized by Hitchcock, when I was a student of his. I often wonder if I could have met her then....!
As for Weezo, she does not like it unless she is always the center of attention. So she throws things a lot to get it. Very sad, when you think about it. Don't know how in the world she ever landed at the NY Times to begin with.
She came in through the education forum.Another place she thinks she's some sort of visonary expert.I get a kick out of her constanly shilling her website and the History pros she is"pals" with in Virginia.But when Robert and others took her to task for books like 1491 and Kurlansky's books which are great reads but not researched History Books in the classic sense she lashed out as saying real historians were a stuffy bunch of pipe smokers.There is no reason to her and the stuff on the Jews in WW2 was downright off the wall.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to let you all know that the network has spread on the news of Goliard's passing.Whit put it on her facebook page today and Rodney saw it.I also heard from Frank Gado ,Valle Inclan,Sarah Plum, Teddy who passed it on to Peter Dale,Nnyhav,Edward Hausman/Esav Benyamin as he's known on his Urban Poetry Blog.He was at our NYCity dinner that night and I can't recall his forum tag.Nnyhav was also at the dinner as was the young Japanese/American girl who posted in the American History forum,tag also forgotten and of course Goliard.I found out from Art's NY friends that Cafe De Bruxelles where we had our dinner had a fire in March and is not reopening.
ReplyDeleteI think her tag was Yuni but not sure.
ReplyDeleteI like Maddy in small doses. Like you say Carol, I imagine she knew some, if not all the persons she mentions, but over the years the details have overlapped and become mixed in her mind. It is too bad she lets herself get carried away in these arguments, especially with someone as bullheaded as weezo.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, there is no way to control Maddy, and as far as I can recall never actually read any one of the books under discussion, and would take a discussion off tangent in a heartbeat. This was why I didn't invite her.
Sorry to hear about Goliard. I really enjoyed his range of knowledge and wit. Nice to see you are keeping in touch with the old gang, bosox, at least the New York folks.
ReplyDelete"This was why I didn't invite her."
ReplyDeleteFor which we are all grateful I'm sure.