After janvier comes fevrier, non?

...and fevrier is almost upon us. But before janvier disappears completely, I take the time to remember that today, the 29th day of janvier, is (or was) my Aunt Marion’s birthday.

Aunt Marion was my mother’s older sister. Mama was the youngest of four children; she had two older brothers, and a sister who was eleven years her senior. Mama was born in 1910 and died in 1957. The brothers were born in 1907 and 1904. Aunt Marion, the eldest, was born in 1899 and died in 1987, if memory serves. All of them are gone now.

Somewhere along the way Aunt Marion stopped having birthdays. I remember that my mother passed her at some point.

Two of my most treasured childhood possessions were gifts from my Aunt Marion during two trips she made from Pennsylvania to Texas with my cousin Philip. One was a Brownie Hawkeye camera, a gift of seeing. The other was a three-speed portable turntable (33-1/3, 45, and 78 rpm) in a burgundy, simulated alligator-skin carrying case, a gift of hearing. Both of those trips, by the way, in 1948 and 1950, all the way from Philadelphia to Fort Worth, were by bus. Aunt Marion said when she arrived that she knew why they called the bus company Greyhound -- because you feel like a dog when you get off. I don’t need a calendar to know that January 29th was Aunt Marion’s birthday or that February 27th was Philip’s, or that April 10th was Mama’s and May 12th was Daddy’s.

Some things are forever emblazoned in my brain, and I couldn’t forget them if I tried. And even though the moving finger writes and having writ moves on, all my piety and wit cannot lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all my tears wash out a word of it.

Next time: Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.

Some things to know about January 28th

On this day in 98 A.D., Trajan succeeded his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor. Under his rule the Roman Empire would reach its maximum extent.

On this day in 814, Charlemagne died.

In 1225, Saint Thomas Aquinas was born.

In 1393, King Charles VI of France was nearly killed when several dancers’ costumes caught fire during a masquerade ball.

In 1547, King Henry VIII died and was succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Edward VI.

In 1754, Horace Walpole coined the word serendipity in a letter to Horace Mann.

In 1821, Alexander Island was discovered by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen. [Editor’s note. Wikipedia actually says Alexander Island was first discovered, which causes me to wonder how many times a thing can be discovered. --RWP]

In 1912, American painter Jackson Pollock was born. [Editor’s note. A shout-out here to New Zealand painter Katherine de Chevalle. Yo, Katherine! --RWP]

In 1956, Elvis Presley made his first U.S. television appearance.

In 1981, American actor Elijah Wood was born.

In 1986, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.

In 2002, Astrid Lindgren, the Swedish writer who created Pippi Longstocking, died.

It is Army Day in Armenia.

It is Data Privacy Day worldwide.

(Fossil Bluff Station, Alexander Island, which lies in the Bellingshausen Sea west of Palmer Land, Antarctic Peninsula, from which it is separated by Marguerite Bay and George VI Sound. 2004 photo by Apacheeng, public domain)

(Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who was actually Faddey Faddeyevich Bellinsgauzen (in the Cyrillic alphabet, Фаддей Фаддеевич Беллинсгаузен), a Russian admiral about whom you can read more here.

(2004 photo by Christian Koehn of Pippi Longstocking’s house, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license)

Why I love the internet

Today is the birthday of Paul the Octopus, who “was a common octopus from Weymouth, England. Paul lived in a tank at a commercial attraction, the Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany, and became internationally famous after his feeding behaviour was used to correctly predict the winner of each of the Germany national football team’s seven matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as well as the outcome of the final.” So says Wikipedia.

Here are some other interesting facts from the article:

1. For the mathemetically inclined:

“Assuming Paul’s predictions were no better than fair independent coin flips, the probability of at least 12 successful predictions from 14 attempts is p = 0.0065, or 0.65% (154 to 1). And the probability of his 8 successful World Cup predictions out of 8 attempts is 1/28 = 0.0039, or 0.39% (256 to 1).”

2. For the politically aware:

“Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized the reporting of Paul several times during a speech in Tehran, which took place in the weekend of 24–25 July 2010. Ahmadinejad accused the West of using the octopus to spread "western propaganda and superstition," and lamented western decadence.”

3. For the zoologically informed:

“Some other oracles did not fare so well in the World Cup. The animals at the Chemnitz Zoo in Germany were wrong on all of Germany’s group-stage games, with Leon the porcupine picking Australia, Petty the pygmy hippopotamus spurning Serbia’s apple-topped pile of hay, Jimmy the Peruvian guinea-pig and Anton the tamarin eating a raisin representing Ghana. Mani the Parakeet of Singapore,Octopus Pauline of Holland, Octopus Xiaoge of Qingdao China, Chimpanzee Pino and Red River Hog Apelsin in Tallinn zoo Estonia picked the Netherlands to win the final. Crocodile Harry of Australia picked Spain to win.”

On a sad note, Paul died in 2010.

In other interesting news, on this day in 1564 the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Tsardom of Russia in the Battle of Ula during the Livonian War, and in 1788 the British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sailed into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on the continent. This latter event is commemorated as Australia Day.

Happy Saturday, everyone.

An unexpected find

Here is a powerful performance of a powerful song from a slip of a girl.

It’s Bernadette Peters singing “Unexpected Song” by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber at Royal Festival Hall, London, in 2008 (5:19).

If you want to talk about Bernadette’s height (5 feet, 3 inches) or her age (she will be 65 on February 28, 2013) or the length of her career (five decades) or her powerful voice (she was 60 when she did this concert), be my guest.

If, after watching the video, you want to talk about anything else of Bernadette’s, please remember that this is a family-friendly blog and keep your observations to yourself.

You can read more about Bernadette Peters here.

(Peters on the Tim Conway Show, 1977)

Peaks and valleys

These are not the southern Appalachian Mountains of north Georgia, nor are they the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia (although they are definitely blue). They certainly are not the Alps or the Andes or the Rockies or even the Pyrenees.

They are Blogger’s way of telling a person how many times his or her blog was viewed each day.

Here are some real peaks and valleys for your viewing pleasure:

(Photo of Mont Blanc, October 2004, by Nathan, used in accordance with terms of the Free Art License)

Mont Blanc will get bigger if you click on it. You heard it here first.

My brain has been drained of things to blog about today.

You’ll just have to make do with this.

Whatever became of the Lees?

Here is “the rest of the story”:

George Washington Custis Lee, who was known as Custis, succeeded his father as president of Washington College (now Washington & Lee University), serving from 1871 until 1897. He never married and died in 1913.

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, who was known as Rooney, became a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1877 until 1891. He died in 1891.

Robert E. Lee Jr., who was known as Rob, became an author and recorded his memories of his family and life in Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee (1904). He died in 1914.

Eleanor Agnes Lee, who was known as Agnes, was considered her mother’s favorite daughter. She never married and died from typhoid fever in October 1873, at the age of 32.

Anne Carter Lee, who was known as Annie, also contracted typhoid fever and died in 1862 at the age of 23.

Mildred Childe Lee, who was known as Milly, never married and died in New Orleans in 1905.

Mary Custis Lee, who was known as Sister (at least to her siblings), never married and died in 1918.

According to a site about Arlington House that is maintained by the National Park Service, through Rooney and his younger brother Rob there are over twenty direct descendants of Mary and Robert E. Lee alive today.

You can find more fascinating information about each member of the Lee family there.

General Robert E. Lee (1807 - 1870)

Today is his birthday. He would have been 206.

Did you know that he was the son of Revolutionary War officer Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee III?

Did you know that he married the great-granddaughter of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, which made him the step-great-grandson-in-law of George Washington?

Did you know that he once served as Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York?

Did you know that he was offered command of both the Union and Confederate armies?

Did you know that after the war he became president of what is now called Washington and Lee University in Virginia?

Did you know that he and his wife, Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee, had three sons and four daughters (George Washington Custis Lee, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, Robert Edward Lee Jr., Mary Lee, Eleanor Agnes Lee, Anne Carter Lee, and Mildred Childe Lee)?

I didn’t think so.

(Mary Custis Lee with Robert E. Lee Jr., 1845)