Infamous Trade Day

  On this day in 1920, the Boston Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees -- probably the worst baseball trade ever made! The Yankees, who had never won a pennant before, became perennial American League and World Series champions. The Red Sox did not win another World Series until 2004.  
George Herman Ruth (1895 - 1948) made his major league baseball debut on July 11, 1914 .  He remained a major league force to be reckoned with until his final appearance on May 30, 1935.  In 1935 he was elected into the Major League Hall of Fame.

He was a seven time World Series champion (1915, 1916, 1918, 1923, 1927, 1928 and 1932).  In 1923, Babe Ruth also was named the American League MVP.  His # 3 jersey was retired by the New York Yankees in 1948.

It's "Tom Thumb Day" !!

The tale of Tom Thumb is the first English fairy tale in print. The earliest surviving text is a 40-page booklet printed in London for Thomas Langley in 1621 entitled The History of Tom Thumbe, the Little, for his small stature surnamed, King Arthur's Dwarfe: whose Life and adventures contained many strange and wonderfull accidents, published for the delight of merry Time-spenders. The author is presumed to be Londoner Richard Johnson (1579–1659?) because his initials appear on the last page. The only known copy is in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.

Tom was already a traditional folk character when the booklet was printed.   In his Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), Reginald Scot listed Tom among witches, dwarfs, elves, fairies, giants, and other supernatural folk as those used by servant maids to frighten children.

Tom was mentioned by James Field in 1611 in Coryat's Crudities: "Tom Thunbe is dumbe, untill the pudding creepe, in which he was intomb'd, then out doth peepe." The incident of the pudding was the most popular in connection with the character. It is alluded to in Ben Johnson's masque of the Fortunate Isles: "Thomas Thumb in a pudding fat, with Doctor Rat."

Tom's tale was reprinted countless times in Britain, and was being sold in America as early as 1686. In 1630 a metrical version entitled Tom Thumbe, His Life and Death: Wherein is declared many Maruailous Acts of Manhood, full of wonder, and strange merriments: Which little Knight liued in King Arthurs time, and famous in the Court of Great Brittaine was published. The book was reprinted many times, and, about 1700, two more parts were added to the first. The three parts were reprinted many times.

In 1711 William Wagstaffe published A Comment upon The History of Tom Thumbe. In 1730 English dramatist Henry Fielding used Tom Thumb as the central figure of a play by that name, which he rewrote in 1731 as The Tragedy of Tragedies, or the History of Tom Thumb the Great. A farcical take on the legend, the play is filled with 18th century political and literary satire and is intended as a parody of heroic tragedies. The title of "The Great" may be intended as a reference to the politician Sir Robert Walpole, himself often called "The Great." Henry Fielding's tragedy Tom Thumb was the basis for an opera constructed by Kane O'Hara.

Fielding's Tom is cast as a mighty, although tiny, warrior and conqueror of giants, as well as the object of desire for many of the ladies at court. The plot is largely concerned with the various love triangles between the characters, who include the Princess Huncamunca, the giantess Glumdalca, and Queen Dollalolla (Arthur's wife in this version). Matters are complicated when Arthur awards Tom the hand of Huncamunca in marriage which results in Dollalolla and the jealous Grizzle seeking revenge. Eventually, Tom dies when swallowed by a cow, but his ghost returns. At the conclusion, Tom's ghost is killed by Grizzle and most of the cast kill each other in duels or take their own lives in grief.

In the middle 18th century books began appearing specifically for children, and Tom was cited as the author of titles such as Tommy Thumb's Song Book (1744) and Tommy Thumb's Little Story Book (c. 1760). Tom's story was originally intended for adults but by the middle-19th century it was relegated to the nursery.

Richard Johnson's The History of Tom Thumbe of 1621 tells that in the days of King Arthur, old Thomas of the Mountain, a plowman and a member of the King's Council, wants nothing more than a son, even if he is no bigger than his thumb. He sends his wife to consult with Merlin and in three months time she gives birth to the diminutive Tom Thumb. The "Queene of Fayres" and her attendants act as midwives. She provides Tom with an oak leaf hat, a shirt of cobweb, a doublet of thistledown, stockings of apple rind, and shoes of mouse's skin.

Tom cheats at games with other boys, and, because of his many tricks, the boys will not associate with him. Tom retaliates by using magic to hang his mother's pots and glasses from a sunbeam, and, when his fellows try the same, their pots and glasses fall and are broken. Thereafter, Tom stays home under his mother's supervision. At Christmas, she makes puddings, but Tom falls into the batter, and is boiled into one of them. When a tinker comes begging, Tom's mother inadvertently gives him the pudding containing her son. The tinker farts while crossing a stile but Tom calls out about the farting and the frightened tinker drops the pudding. Tom eats himself free and returns home to tell his mother and father of his adventure.

His mother thereafter keeps a closer watch upon him, but one day he accompanies her to the field to milk the cows. He sits under a thistle but a red cow swallows him. The cow is given a laxative and Tom passes from her in a "cowturd". He is taken home and cleaned. Another day, he accompanies his father for the seed sowing and rides in the horse's ear. Tom is set down in the field to play the scarecrow but a raven carries him away. His parents search for him but are unable to find him.
The raven drops Tom at the castle of a giant  The cruel giant swallows the tiny boy like a pill. Tom thrashes about so much in the giant's stomach that he is vomited into the sea. There, he is eaten once more, this time by a fish, which is caught for King Arthur's supper. The cook is astonished to see the little man emerge from the fish. Tom then becomes King Arthur's Dwarf.

Tom becomes a favourite at court, especially among the ladies. There is revelry; Tom joins the jousting and dances in the palm of a Maid of Honour. He goes home briefly to see his parents, taking some money from the treasury with the king's permission, then returns to court. The Queene of Fayres finds him asleep on a rose and leaves him several gifts: an enchanted hat of knowledge, a ring of invisibility, a shape-changing girdle, and shoes to take him anywhere in a moment.

Tom falls seriously ill when a lady blows her nose, but is cured by the physician to King Twaddell of the Pygmies. He takes a rides in his walnut shell coach and meets Garagantua. Each boasts of his many powers, but when Garagantua threatens to harm Tom, he is cast under an enchantment and Tom hurries home to safety. King Arthur listens with amazement to Tom's many adventures. Richard Johnson's 1621 narrative ends here but he promised his readers a sequel that has never been found, if published at all. In 1630 a metrical version in three parts was published that continues Tom's adventures.

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy is 61 today!

Sixty one years ago today, The Andrews Sisters first recorded the popular World War II novelty song,  Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy  which was featured the same year in the movie comedy "Buck Privates," starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Bette Midler also scored a hit with the tune, offered in her 1972 debut album, "The Divine Miss M."

“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”, a wartime radio song about a virtuoso trumpet player, was a major hit for the Andrews Sisters and an iconic World War II tune.

The song was written by Don Raye and Hughie Prince, and was recorded at Decca’s Hollywood studios on January 2, 1941, nearly a year before the United States entered World War II but after the start of a peacetime draft to expand the armed forces in anticipation of American involvement. 

 The Andrews Sisters introduced the song in the 1941 Abbott and Costello film Buck Privates, which was in production when they made the record. “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song.

The song is ranked #6 on Songs of the Century.

It is closely based on an earlier Raye-Prince hit, “Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar,” which is about a virtuoso boogie-woogie piano player.

According to the lyrics of the song, a renown Illinois street musician is drafted into the U.S. Army during the Wartime Draft imposed by the Roosevelt Administration. In addition to being famous, the bugler was the “top man at his craft,” but the Army had little use for his talents and he was reduced to blowing the wake up call (Reveille) in the morning. This caused the musician to become dejected: “It really brought him down, because he couldn’t jam.” The commanding officer took note of the blues man’s blues and went out and conscripted more musicians to assemble a band to keep the bugler company.

http://youtu.be/2pfCFU3Mqww

Happy 2012 to Everyone!

A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I've played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year.



~Edgar Guest

Happy Thanksgiving To All !

While many of my readers are preparing a holiday dinner or traveling to relatives' homes, I'm  at work - caring for my oncology patients and their families.

I am happy to spend my holiday with these very special folks.  No turkey dinner can make me feel as fulfilled as caring for my patients.

It is a privilege to be able to be a blessing to those who bless me far more than I can ever bless them.

  I am thankful for the opportunity to have a job on the oncology unit every day ... and especially on this day when we all pause to reflect upon the many blessings we've received.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my friends and family!

Presidential Pardons for Turkeys

At approximately 11:00 this morning, two 19 week old, 45 pound turkeys received an official Presidential pardon!  Liberty and Peace were pardoned by President Obama in what some believe to be a long-standing tradition.....

But....
Have you ever wondered who started the practice of pardoning turkeys?   And when?  And most of all, WHY?

Every year I watch the news clips that bring a bright spot to the usually gloomy reports.  And, every year I tell myself that I'm going to look into the history of such a thing. But, I never do -- well, I never did until today!


I did some snooping around on the internet and came up with a few fun facts - trivia mostly - but not a sound accounting of the history of the Presidential Pardon of the Thanksgiving Turkey. 


If you have one of those inquiring minds that wants to know, here's what I did find:


1.  Turkeys presented for pardoning come from the National Turkey Federation which has provided turkeys to the White House since the 1940's but the Presidential pardon did not start back in the '40's.

2.  Harry Truman is credited with being the first President to officially pardon a turkey but the Truman Library has no official documentation of such an event.  It has been said that the turkey Truman pardoned was for Christmas, not Thanksgiving -- AND that the Trumans ate him!


3.  Others tell a story from Abraham Lincoln's days where he interrupted a cabinet meeting to call a halt to a possible "turkey execution" in the kitchen.   The turkey had been befriended by Lincoln's son.  Again, there is no official documentation to substantiate the tale.

4.  In 1963, just a week before his assassination, John F. Kennedy announced that he wouldn't eat the turkey and suggested that they "just keep him". 

5.  Ronald Regan joked with reporters about pardoning a turkey named Charlie while fielding questions of a more serious nature about the Iran Contra affair.


6.  President George H W Bush was the first to officially pardon a turkey in 1989

With the questions who and when essentially answered, some might have moved on... but there was still no answer to the "why" of it.... nor could I find any no matter how hard I looked!  And then, I wondered  what happens to those pardoned turkeys... I was able to uncover some details to anwer that question:

Many of the earlier ones were sent to a petting zoo in Virginia until 2004.  From 2005 to 2009, the turkeys went to Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California where they were the grand marshalls of the Thanksgiving Day parades.  After the parade, they took up residence at Disneyland's Big Thunder Ranch.  The 2010 and 2011 Obama turkeys have been sent to George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate. 





 

The Queen of Probing Prompts

Readers who know me fairly well already know that I love quotes!  They also know that for several years now, I've been crafting the weekly writing prompts for Story Circle Network's Internet Chapter.  That means that for years, I've been on the search for inspiring quotes by women, for women... and then incorporating some writing prompts to coincide with the quotes. 

For the past ten weeks, I've been facilitating a co-ed writing group at church. With all of my years' experience with Story Circle Network, I am quite comfortable with the idea of helping others find ways to tell their own stories.  The real challenge came when I had to switch my focus from "for women" to "for co-ed groups."  I hoped that I'd be able to come up with prompts that were meaningful... prompts that would help writers begin to craft their own personal stories.  I knew what sorts of prompts work well for women.  But could I come up with prompts that would work just as well for men and women? 

The writing group at church has gone on hiatus for the holidays.  Its members have expressed the desire to keep writing and to come together again after the first of the year.  This pleases me to no end!

On our final session before the hiatus, one of the members gave me a new nickname - one that has me smiling every time I think of it... one that is definitely fitting... one that proves that I did my job and did it well since it was given to me by the man in the group!

 And so, dear readers, this and every subsequent blog post is being written by "The Queen of Probing Prompts."   Stay tuned for more blog posts - and perhaps more probing prompts in the days and weeks ahead!