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 weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled Van Gogh and the Avant-Garde: the Modern Landscape— a look at Vincent van Gogh’s time on the outskirts of Paris from 1882 to 1890 — opens at the Art Institute of Chicago on May 14th through September 4th (and thus, will be on display during Netroots Nation).
YOUR WEEKEND READ is this essay in The American Prospect by Harold Meyerson, with some historical perspective on the writers strike.
THURSDAY's CHILDREN are named Poppy and Santos the Parent Cats— with Santos uncharacteristically staying close to their new three kittens, with the family keeping an eye on the situation (as male cats are unaccustomed to the role).
TRANSPORTATION NOTES— for years, stretch (modified) limousines were all the rage: first with the wealthy, then with teens going to the prom, bachelor and bachelorette parties until …. the 2008 financial crisis hit, along with the advent of Uber/Lyft and some deadly crashes (due to the modifications) that led to new safety regulations … which caused them to largely disappear.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Cleo the Cat— an English kitteh who likes to follow her neighbors, and so wears a tag indicating she has a home and not to be concerned.
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 with a look at the Wheel of Life— neither life-coaching material, nor Buddhist teachings — instead, how my parents (as well as my father's extended family) prepared myself and my siblings how to process death, considering it a-part-of-life, not a brick wall.
GRANDSON-GRANDFATHER?— two noted children’s authors: Caldecott award winner Mo Willems (Elephant and Piggie) and now a collaborator on a children’s opera (The Ice Cream Truck is Broken! & Other Emotional Arias) who lives today in western Massachusetts … and the late, great Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel (who was born in western Massachusetts).
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… social media noted earlier this week the seventy-seventh birthday anniversary of the late singer Lesley Gore— and it might do well to look at her last Top Ten hit (with far-reaching influence) from sixty years ago this coming December.
Up to that point: a seventeen year-old Lesley Gore had some hits with traditional pop (Judy’s Turn to Cryand her big hit It’s My Party). Her manager was Quincy Jones, who saw that as her natural lane to stardom.
Yet when he was brought a song (that was written for a different singer named Maureen Gray) … he immediately had the songwriters play You Don’t Own Me for Lesley Gore. She was impressed by the verses being in a minor key, with the chorus being in a major key. And even at that age, the words moved her.
What I always marvelled at was that the two songwriters … were male. And this was in 1963 (long before consciousness-raising was a subject broached in school).
David White died in 2019 at the age of seventy-nine, but John Madara (who will turn age eighty-seven later this month) says their intention was to write something different for women than the usual fluff. Also, John Madara noted his own involvement in the civil rights movement in his native Philadelphia, upset at the treatment of racial minorities (in particular) and unfairness (in general).
The song was released just a few weeks after the publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, laying the groundwork for the women’s movement later that decade. The song reached #2 in the charts (beaten-out only by I Want to Hold Your Hand) and has been recorded by everyone from Bette Midler to Joan Jett to Dusty Springfield to Ann Wilson (of Heart). It has also been featured in three feature films: The First Wives Club, Dirty Dancing and Hairspray and in 2017 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Lesley Gore re-recorded it in 2005, years after coming out as gay and she died in 2015 (from lung cancer, though she never smoked) at the age of sixty-eight.
Here is the original rendition.
You don't own me I'm not just one of your many toys You don't own me Don't say I can't go with other boys
And don't tell me what to do Don't tell me what to say And please, when I go out with you Don't put me on display 'cause
You don't own me Don't try to change me in any way You don't own me Don't tie me down 'cause I'd never stay
I don't tell you what to say I don't tell you what to do So just let me be myself That's all I ask of you
I'm young and I love to be young I'm free and I love to be free To live my life the way I want To say and do whatever I please