Neddy's Palaver

Who were Harry Thaw, Evelyn Nesbit and Stanford White?

I have been listening to an audio book of “Ragtime,” which I purchased because I have tickets to the play “Ragtime” that is scheduled for the Kennedy Center in May. Halfway through the book, I have decided that Evelyn Nesbit and Harry Thaw are featured characters that I should know more about. To learn more about them is quite easy, as, before reading “Ragtime” I had never heard anything of either of them; for all I knew, they were figments of the author’s imagination.

After the author’s coverage of Houdini, Teddy Roosevelt, Admiral Byrd, the famous psychiatrists Freud and Jung, I decided that murderer Harry Thaw, Gibson Girl Evelyn Nesbit and Evelyn’s lover Stanford White must have been historical characters. In 1906, Harry Thaw’s trial for the murder of White was labelled the “Trial of the Century.” Of course, OJ Simpson had not yet been born, and his trial for murder was fated for the end of the same century.

I find “Ragtime” interesting reading as it covers the historical events of my father’s boyhood. He was born 1901, and came to the U.S. as a teen. Also, my grandmother and my mother had grown up on a Virginia plantation of the family of another Gibson Girl, Irene Langhorne Gibson. I remember my grandmother recounting how she and her siblings played with the discarded drawings of Irene’s artist husband, Charles Dana Gibson. This is all doubly intriguing, as E.L. Doctorow links all of his historical characters with one another, and with his created characters, and I have found that my own family is linked to the very same people of his novel.

Well, back to “Ragtime” and Evelyn Nesbit, I finally Googled her this morning. (I’m not sure if “Google” the verb should be in caps or not.) She and her star-crossed lovers are in Wikipedia as real American characters and she even has her own web page: “The Story of Evelyn Nesbit.”

The image, Evelyn Nesbit, was originally uploaded by westiemom. It is posted here from Barneykin’s Flickr account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

To My Daughter-in-law, Diane, who turns thirty-three today, January 18th.

Happy Birthday Diane - May three be your lucky number, as in the third time is always a charm. Three times six equals eighteen, as in January 18th. Three is the first of four perfect numbers - 3, 7, 10 and 12. Three denotes divine perfection. Three is the number in the Godhead; three times the Seraphim cried “Holy, Holy, Holy” (Isaiah 6:3). All time is divided into three parts - Past, Present and Future. On telephone keypads, the “3″ key is also associated with the letters “D” for Diane. You were married in 2003 to a man with three names from a family of three boys. You have three children, a family of three girls. Two threes = 33. And … a tricycle always has three wheels.

Although I have not yet had opportunity to view it, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is now in the local movie theaters. I listened to the first half of the audio book for free this morning. It was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1922, in response to Mark Twain’s comment about the unfairness of youth coming at the beginning of life, and old age at the end. The venue is my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, described accurately as a “Southern” city.

The audio of the second half of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is not yet available at Librivox.org, but you may find the entire text of Fitzgerald’s work at Gutenberg.org (three fifths down the page), and probably at Stanza too if you want to download it to your iPod. See “Reading On My iPod Touch.” You can listen to the first half of the story right here, thanks to Librivox and computer technology. Give it a listen.

As to the movie - I just read a review, and apparently it has almost nothing in common with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story, except the title and the basic premise. REVIEW.

Here I am with my new iPhone that I just unwrapped on Christmas Day. Cliff purchased it at the Apple Store in Pentagon City, with the assurance that it was all set up and ready to use. No such luck!

Here it is on the 27th of December and I am still working to get it set up. Nothing is ever easy is it? Called AT&T and was told they were closed. Does that mean I am to be without a phone the entire weekend? Finally - the Apple Store where we purchased it, advised me to contact AT&T on my iPhone at “611!” Cool! That worked and I now have a working iPhone.

Part of the problem was ME! I had set the iPhone to transfer calls to my home phone. Then I forgot that I had done that. Embarrassing! Even if the iPhone didn’t work, the iPod part of the Apple iPhone was doing fine, as it downloaded my tunes, contacts and photographs from iTunes. Great! Then the nice lady at AT&T’s 611 number told me that the maps were the most fascinating thing to her. I tried them, and she is right. Absolutely too easy for words to describe. Of course, I already had that feature on my iPod Touch, but never used it, as when I need maps, I thought, was when away from home and no Internet connection. Now, supposedly, with the iPhone I am connected to the world at all times. At least, I hope that is the case. I guess I should go somewhere just to find out.

Well, I do need to get to my car and see if I can manage to get the BlueTooth enabled. It doesn’t look easy. The car manual has 25 pages instructing how to do it. I may have to take the iPhone and car to the dealership, but we shall see. Can a 67-year-old do this type of thing on her own?

Pavarotti singing on my TV in the background is the DVD that I received last Christmas, 2007. The Maestro is performing Christmas music at the cathedral in Montreal. Still haven’t found time to play my new DVD from Scotland - The Transatlantic Sessions. Perhaps I should stop blogging, Tweeting, Flickring, and Facebooking for a few minutes.

I wonder what AlphaInventions.com would think of all this. I cannot understand how it works either, but it does.

The image, Edna, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

I made this Christmas card using Picnik. My 2008 Christmas Card, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s FLICKR account.

My Christmas Gifts For You

Twas The Night Before Christmas read to you by Librivox.org.
• Saint Francis and the Creche
• Old Christmas Eve
• An American Christmas Carol
• Christmas Archives
• The Christmas Story
• Annie’s Wiseman Page
• A White House Christmas
  See the Barney Cam!
• A Swedish Merry Christmas
• A Victorian Christmas Scrapbook
• Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus
• “Old Christmas” by Washington Irving
• A Neddy Christmas

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

Remembering warmer days on the beach at Assateague Island, whilst hoping for warmer days to return again. Remembering days that will never come again, whilst I “shed a bitter tear.”

The sea was wet as wet could be,

The sands were dry as dry.

You could not see a cloud, because

No cloud was in the sky:

No birds were flying over head—

There were no birds to fly.

The Walrus and the Carpenter

Were walking close at hand;

They wept like anything to see

Such quantities of sand:

“If this were only cleared away,”

They said, “it WOULD be grand!”

“If seven maids with seven mops

Swept it for half a year,

Do you suppose,” the Walrus said,

“That they could get it clear?”

“I doubt it,” said the Carpenter,

And shed a bitter tear.

(”The Walrus and the Carpenter” from “Through the Looking Glass” by Lewis Carroll)

The image, Assateague Island, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s Flickr account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

Many people have done what this family has done; kept a photo journal by the year of their children as they are growing up: Diego (19/07/73) - Eli (06/01/76) - Martín (16/4/82) Fotos tomadas desde el ´83.

However, this incredible family has an outstanding record of each individual’s appearance for 29 years. No one in this perfect family seems to have gained weight, changed hairstyles, or even moved out of position during all that time. Incredible!

Diego and Susy began making their portraits on June 17th 1976, and are still continuing the family ritual. They say “we photograph ourselves to stop a fleeting moment, the arrow of time passing by.” For the first two years there were only two portraits, then in 1978 came a third portrait of Nicolas. The next year there was the addition of Matias. Eventually, Sabastian arrived and thenceforth there are five portraits for each year. “As Time Goes By”

The family that photo shoots together, stays together, … or so it seems.

Our Founding Father’s Fathers

The father of John Washington was a fifth son who became a clergyman and was later expelled from his parish as a royalist during the English Civil War. Taking note of his prospects in his home country, the parson’s son emigrated to colonial Virginia and there he was able to procure a landed estate of 6,000 acres, an achievement nigh impossible to someone of his station in the motherland.

Captain Lawrence Washington, a son of Colonel John, continued the family tradition of supporting the Crown by serving in high government positions in Virginia. He married Mildred Warner, granddaughter of a former acting governor of Virginia and a descendant of the medieval Lords Kyme. According to English peerage law her direct descendants were potential heirs to the Kyme title, which had fallen into disuse since 1381. George Washington was undoubtedly not aware of his access to a title of nobility.

When Captain Lawrence Washington died his son Augustine, future father of the first American president, was only three years old. Augustine’s mother, Mildred, as was customary in those times, promptly remarried, and with her new husband, returned the Washington children to England. Mildred soon died in childbirth and the guardianship of the three Washington orphans fell to their stepfather. This arrangement was contested in court and a cousin of the deceased Captain Lawrence Washington, John Washington, took over and returned to Virginia with the children.

When young George Washington was but eleven, his own father died. Augustine’s widow and children lived with various relatives, spending much time at the Mount Vernon estate that had been passed to George’s elder half-brother, Lawrence Washington, oldest son of Augustine. Lawrence was a worthy father figure for George, having been educated in England and possessed of graceful bearing. He had married a cousin of the Lords Fairfax family and his father-in-law Colonel William Fairfax was quite influential on the young George Washington. It was from links with the Fairfax family that George Washington was tasked as a surveyor of their lands in Virginia.

At the death of Lawrence the landed estate he had inherited from his father totaled more than 10,000 acres. After the deaths of Lawrence’s heirs, Mount Vernon eventually passed to the younger half-brother George Washington. In colonial Virginia the English system of entail was in effect which allowed estates to be kept whole by passing to a single heir. This system was abolished after the Revolution at the insistence of Thomas Jefferson.

Young Washington was ambitious and could have won appointment as a British naval officer through his contacts with nobleman Lord Fairfax, but his mother would have none of it. She was highly possessive of her son and her distress at his leaving her for abroad made English schooling and a hoped for naval career impossible for young George.

And the rest is history, as they say. The Washington Legacy Lives.

Navy Wife - The Toughest Job in the Navy

On 2 January 1991, while aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt during Operation Desert Storm, Captain ‘O.W.’ Wright wrote a poem about Navy wives entitled “Loving a Sailor”. The poem was published in the March 1991 issue of “The Virginian Pilot” newspaper and that same month his wife Doni recited it at her church and sent it to a few of her friends. In 1999, it was published in a Navy wives’ club newsletter, “The Mermaid”. Since then Captain Wright’s poem has traveled the highways and byways of the electronic universe, often without attribution, becoming known as “The Sailor’s Poem”.

Loving a Sailor is not always gay,
Loving him truly is a high price to pay.
Its being alone with nothing to hold,
its being young but feeling so old,
Its having him whisper his love for you,
its whispering back you love him 86 plus two.
There comes a kiss and a promise of more
as his ship slowly glides away from the shore. ~~Continued

Thanks to “Mudville Gazette’s Open Post”.