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 Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous holiday weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism— the story of two of the 20th century’s most iconic artists (through their works and photographs) — will open next week at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma and run through September 11th.
YOUR WEEKEND READS are these twin essays by the nonpareil Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland on Boris Johnson: an earlier one about his contempt for the rule of law… the second after the Tories lost two by-elections.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Max the Cat— an English kitteh who helps a sixteen year-old cope with autism, epilepsy and more (alerting her family when she needs help) and is a finalist in the UK’s National Cat Awards in August.
THE WORLD’S DEEPEST SHIPWRECK ever located found by explorers — a WW-II U.S. Navy destroyer escort sank by a Japanese battleship off the Philippines in 1944 — at a depth of just over four miles.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Comet the Cat— a Nevada kitteh who is a 1-in-3,000 chance (a male tortoiseshell) and was recently adopted.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary — after a largely horrible week — with some summer vignettes: family pets with people names, the president of the community college which I attended who was so enigmatic that a student asked to meet him (to see if he was real) and a Rocky & Bullwinkle promo commercial stirring-up memories today.
OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS?— Radio host Howard Stern and Italian pianist and composer Giovanni Allevi.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… in preparing for Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh next month — and if you plan on attending, I hope we have a chance to meet — I’m looking back at some old photos. Some of the prior attendees are no longer of this Earth: and two in particular that I miss were Cedwyn (whom many veteran readers will recall) and kjoftherock, less well-known, both of whom settled in the Portland, Oregon area. It may have been at Netroots Nation 2009 in Pittsburgh that I met both … and thus, a dozen years later they deserve a remembrance.
Cedwyn (given name Terry Thompson) was an original Earth Mother …. and had a smile that never quit (I wondered if she had a coat hanger in her mouth). Many others noted that her first word upon seeing some she recognized was “Squee!”.
Usually I recall how I met people attending Netroots Nation (I have attended about ¾ of the in-person gatherings over the years). For Cedwyn, I have no idea how we met — and in this (grainy) photo, one sees the dichotomy of her and this mild-mannered accountant … yet we became fast friends. She had a way of doing that, didn’t she?
Alas, she died in January, 2015 of disseminated cancer— having gone to stay with family in North Carolina for her final days — and I am happy to learn that many in this community went to visit her in that time, receiving a quilt and all.
When I advised kjoftherock— given name Karen Johnson — that Cedwyn had left Portland, she was dismayed … no chance to say goodbye (as Cedwyn left, having said nothing to her).
Karen was a Southern California (Anaheim?) native and did artwork (under the Odd Girl name) and while I did not get to know her as well as Cedwyn … she was a confidant and loved the blues even more than I did. Alas, in November 2018 she died of lung cancer … surgery using a gamma knife was unsuccessful.
Although neither was a native — here is my tribute to both: the New Riders song Portland Woman (which Karen smiled when I mentioned the song to her once).