I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — a collection known as the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition will be on display at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia through March 11th.
Northwest of Atlanta, GATIME MARCHES ON — the new president of Liberia, George Weah— an international soccer star come home, to a nation founded by freed slaves from the USA — has advocated eliminating a clause in the Constitution (dating back to 1847) that limits citizenship and property ownership only to black persons … believing that (in 2018) it hampers development, compared to neighboring countries like Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.
THURSDAY's CHILD is one of forty kittehs at a shelter in Bristol, England who are …. all black cats— because when the manager asks if prospective adopters are flexible about color, the response is a reverse-Henry Ford: “Yes, as long as it's not black”. She continues, “It's an increasing problem, it wasn't like this 20 years ago”.
All-black cats @ shelterHAIL and FAREWELL to a classic soul singer Dennis Edwards— who replaced David Ruffin in the Temptations in 1968 and sang lead on “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” — who has died, one day short of his 75th birthday.
xThe Economist dubbed her "Theresa Maybe" and said she should be given her walking-papers ... but only when the alternatives do not include "Boris Johnson, the chaotic foreign secretary, or Jacob Rees-Mogg, a neo-Victorian backbench novelty". https://t.co/3P0y9dvu0C
— Ed Tracey (@Ed_Tracey) February 2, 2018FOR ALL HIS FLAWS … seldom have I felt more encouraged by the (now-famous) Tweet sent the other night by James Comey… who reminded us that “not a lot of schools or streets are named … for Joe McCarthy”.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Camaro the Cat— a Nevada kitteh who fell out of a tree in the Truckee River and was feared lost … but the cat’s family found Camaro in a small mud hole.
Camaro the CatBRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
IF YOU ARE ON the “electric Twitter machine” (as Charlie Pierce refers to it) — this presidential historian is someone to follow. Not just for presidential politics … he has all sorts of historical documents and photos of note, and quite timely:
xNFL's Pete Rozelle hears from AFL counterpart Joe Foss, proposing confrontation that became Super Bowl, 1963: pic.twitter.com/lbaeqpgqav
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) February 4, 2018OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS? — two Indian-American graduates of Dartmouth College (but the similarities end there): right-wing pundit (and convicted felon) Dinesh D’Souza as well as former solicitor general (and Georgetown University law professor Neal Katyal (who appears regularly on MSNBC).
Dinesh D’Souza (born 1961) Neal Katyal (born 1970)...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… in a recent Top Comments diary, I noted that in 1939 the mother of the English-born film star/singer Jane Birkin was the first performer to sing the ballad A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. Someone else who was a noted early performer of that classic is an individual of whom Roger Waters of Pink Floyd (from The Wall) asked plaintively some forty years later …. “Vera — what has become of you?”
Well, next month the English singer Dame Vera Lynn will turn age 101: so she hasn’t gone anywhere. Yet the metaphor is apt, as she earned the title of “the Forces’ Sweetheart” during WW-II for British soldiers, singing songs of reuniting families torn apart by the war. And while she says the volume is nowhere near what it was “in the old days”: she reports that she still hears from soldiers in service overseas.
Born Vera Welch in March 1917 in East London, she began singing at age seven: as her family struggled financially (and her earnings went into the family coffers). She adopted her stage name Vera Lynn after her maternal grandmother at age eleven, released her first single at age nineteen and began singing in the Bert Ambrose big band. Hearing the news on the radio (in September 1939) of the beginning of WW-II, she expected to be working in a munitions factory very soon.
Instead, it truly launched her career. That year, she recorded two songs written by the English songwriting duo of Ross Parker-Hughie Charles: There’ll Always Be an England and what proved to be her best-loved song, We’ll Meet Again— which became quite popular with British troops (which was later the basis of a 1943 film that she acted in).
In 1941 she was offered a radio program called Sincerely Yours, sending messages to those fighting overseas. In addition, she wrote personal messages (on the back of portrait photos) to those serving .. and many of the wives and girlfriends of those who later saw them were convinced the messages were so personal….. she was accused of having affairs with men she had not met (with one wife even telephoning her in a rage).
Vera Lynn also visited hospitals in Britain and also in Egypt, India and Burma (where she performed concerts, as shown in the photo below).
Vera Lynn entertaining British troops during WW-IIAfter the war, she resumed her recording career with new material (although audiences at concerts often just clamored for the old hits). Auf Wiedersehn, Sweetheart in 1952 became the first single ever by a British performer to top the charts in the USA, and My Son, My Son reached #1 in Britain in 1954. She hosted a TV variety show in the 60’s-70’s, had a 1967 recording It Hurts to Say Goodbye reach the #7 on the US Easy Listening charts and in 1977 travelled to record the album Vera Lynn in Nashville.
Vera Lynn (circa 1962)Her last single was from 1982, I Love this Land— written by André Previn — that was released at the ends of the Falklands War. Her last public singing performance took place in 1995 (on the 50th anniversary of V-E Day) although ten years later at the age of eighty-eight she briefly accompanied other singers on “We’ll Meet Again”.
She released her autobiography Some Sunny Day in 2009, and that same year had a compilation album release The Best of Vera Lynn— outselling a Beatles compilation release and surpassing Bob Dylan as the oldest person to have a #1 in the UK. Just last year saw some of her old recorded vocals set to new digitally-recorded orchestral music in Vera Lynn 100— marking her 100th birthday — the first centenarian with an album in the charts.
She has numerous awards and distinctions, including an OBE and a DBE (from Queen Elizabeth) plus the British War Medal and Burma Star.
She has the distinction of being the only British musical figure with either a single or an album in the British charts over seven decades (1950’s — 2010’s). She also worked for causes: breast cancer, ex-servicemen and especially children’s cerebral palsy (establishing the Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity in 2001). And it is her charity work– not her wartime service – for which she wants to be remembered.
“I’d love it to be my legacy,” she says. “I’ve never considered my actions as courageous. I was just doing my job.”
In 2000, she was named the Briton who best exemplified the spirit of the 20th Century … and will celebrate her 101st birthday next month.
Vera Lynn (in recent years)The other song she is prominently known for is The White Cliffs of Dover— referring to the English port city of Dover. It, too, promises a better day after the fighting ends and became hugely successful. It was written in 1941 by two Englishmen … actually, two Americans. Walter Kent (1911-1994) composed the music (and who never saw the city of Dover until near his death) and the words were composed by Nat Burton (1901-1945) who also never visited England.
Perhaps the most discussed aspect of the song is the fact that bluebirds are native to the US (and not Europe) and most people simply chalk-it-up to being a factual error. Others believe it was a metaphor for the air force in blue… or even the underside of British fighter planes painted light blue (to match the sky).
Either way: Vera Lynn’s 1942 recording was one of the best-loved songs of WW-II … and sixty-seven years later in 2009, she sued the xenophobic British National Party (BNP) for using her recording of this song on an anti-immigration album … without permission, making it seem like she endorsed them.
The tune has been recorded by Connie Francis, Bing Crosby, Jim Reeves plus the Righteous Brothers (from 1965) … and below you can hear Vera Lynn’s version.
There'll be bluebirds over The white cliffs of Dover Tomorrow Just you wait and see
There'll be love and laughter And peace ever after Tomorrow When the world is free
The shepherd will tend his sheep The valley will bloom again And Jimmy will go to sleep In his own little room again
There'll be bluebirds over The white cliffs of Dover Tomorrow Just you wait and see
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