Captain James Cook, explorer, was born on October 27, 1728, in a small village near Middlesbrough, Yorkshire. His discoveries included the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). He famously vowed, “to sail ‘as far as I think it possible for man to go.'”
On his third trip to Hawaii he was killed in an argument with the native people. And that was about as far as he could go.
This is a Maori tattoo similar to the tattoo style noted by and commented on by Capt. Cook when he traveled in Polynesia.
Happy Birthday to Publius Vergilius Maro, born this day in 70 BC in Lombardy, Italy. Virgil Reference (That’s Virgil in the middle up above between Clio and Melpomene)
Virgil is also characterized by having his nose missing in many of his portraits –
a coincidence? – maybe not . . .
No, no. Not this Fay Ray . . .
This Fay Wray – who was born on September 15 in 1907. Although best known for her role in King Kong, Miss Ray had a career in film and television that spanned 57 years.
She appeared other films such as The Countess of Monte Cristo, Doctor X, and The Most Dangerous Game, and on television in shows such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Perry Mason, and Playhouse 90.
Fay Wray died quietly in her sleep on August 8, 2004. She was 96 years old. Two days after her death, the lights of the Empire State Building were extinguished for 15 minutes in her memory.
Of course, someone is sporting a tattoo of this lovely lady . . .
Credit: Wikipedia
Oliver Hazard Perry, the Hero of Lake Erie, was born August 23, 1785 in Rhode Island. His family, on both sides, included a long line of accomplished naval men.
During the War of 1812 against Britain, Perry supervised the building of a fleet at Erie, Pennsylvania, at the age of 27. He lead American forces in a decisive naval victory at the Battle of Lake Erie, receiving a Congressional Gold Medal and the Thanks of Congress. His leadership materially aided the successful outcomes of all nine Lake Erie military campaign victories, and the fleet victory was a turning point in the battle for the west in the War of 1812. He is remembered for the words on his battle flag, “Don’t Give Up the Ship” and his message to General William Henry Harrison which reads in part, “We have met the enemy and they are ours; …” (Wikipedia)
Perry’s Victory and International Peace Monument at
Put-in-Bay, Ohio on South Bass Island.
Perry’s career began when he was 12 when he sailed to the West Indies with his father, who was a ship’s captain. He was appointed a midshipman in the US Navy when he was 13 years old. He first experienced combat at age 15 off the coast of Haiti.
Perry’s life was cut short at age 34 when he died on his birthday after contracting yellow fever while on a trip to South America. In spite of that, Perry was a popular figure with many ships named in his honor, many memorials and monuments – particularly in Rhode Island and around Lake Erie – named for him, and many places across the country bearing his name.
Perry Victory
Battle of Lake Erie
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
– Robert A. Heinlein, born today in 1907.
Rockwell Kent, born June 21, 1882
Rockwell Kent, artist, author, and political activist, had a long and varied career. During his lifetime, he worked as an architectural draftsman, illustrator, printmaker, painter, lobsterman, ship’s carpenter, and dairy farmer. Born in Tarrytown Heights, New York, he lived in Maine, Newfoundland, Alaska, Greenland, and the Adirondacks and explored the waters around Tierra del Fuego in a small boat. Kent’s paintings, lithographs, and woodcuts often portrayed the bleak and rugged aspects of nature; a reflection of his life in harsh climates.
Kent had an unusually long and thorough training as an artist. He was a student at the Horace Mann School in New York City and subsequently studied architecture at Columbia University, toward the end of which he felt a strong inclination toward painting and took up the study of art under William Merritt Chase at the Shinnecock Hills School. He studied later at the New York School, under Robert Henri and Kenneth Hayes Miller, and finally as an apprentice to Abbott Thayer at Dublin, New Hampshire. Henri encouraged him to go to Monhegan Island where Kent painted on his own. He was absorbed in the awesome power of the environment; nature’s timeless energy and contrasting forces influenced his work throughout his lifetime. His early and lasting relationship with the sea was portrayed again and again in his work.
Biography from The Plattsburgh State Art Museum.
Today is Limerick Day, the birthday of Edward Lear (1812) who popularized this poetic form, although limericks have been traced back to the 16th century.
Lear was also an author, illustrator, artist and musician. He was the youngest surviving of twenty-one children and, although he suffered from a variety of physical afflictions, remained productive throughout his life. Skilled as a draftsman, he began selling his drawings to support himself as early as sixteen years of age. (Wikipedia)
Lear’s painting of Butrinto, Albania
Limerick expert Don Marquis identified three types of limericks: “limericks to be told when ladies are present; limericks to be told when ladies are absent but clergymen are present; and LIMERICKS.”
I do have a book of the naughty ones, but here are a few limericks which can be told when ladies and clergy are present:
There once was a lady, Ilene,
Who lived on distilled kerosene,
But she started absorbin’
A new hydrocarbon
and since then she’d never benzene.
There once was a lady from Hyde,
Who ate a green apple and died,
While her lover lamented,
The apple fermented,
and made cider inside her inside.
The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I’ve seen
So seldom are clean
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.
Since it is tattoo Tuesday, here is a tattoo depicting Lear’s poem about the Owl and the Pussycat.
Harry Houdini (Erik Weisz), whose reputation as a sensational and enduring illusionist and stunt performer persists to this day, was born on March 24, 1874.
In 2002 a U.S postage stamp honoring Harry Houdini was issued. Under UV light, you can see Houdini wrapped in chains. Under normal light, he escapes his bonds!
Stamp Information Credit: magictricks.com
Houdini’s image is a popular one among tattoo artists:
February 10 marks the 189th birthday of Samuel Plimsoll an English politician and social reformer. He is best noted for the eponimous Plimsoll Line on merchant vessels – a line that indicate the maximum safe draft (and minimum freeboard) under various operating conditions.
Also a name for what I call sneakers:
[The name Plimsoll for rubber-soled canvas shoes] derived, according to Nicholette Jones’ book The Plimsoll Sensation, because the coloured horizontal band joining the upper to the sole resembled the Plimsoll line on a ship’s hull, or because, just like the Plimsoll line on a ship, if water got above the line of the rubber sole, the wearer would get wet.
Today is the birthday of Ray Mala, an Alaskan actor, director and cinematographer.
Mala was born Ray Wise in the small village of Candle, Alaska to a Russian Jewish immigrant father and a Native Alaskan mother. He was born during a unique period in Alaskan history. At that time Alaska was still a territory of the United States and still a mystery to many Americans. In 1921 an explorer named Captain Frank Kleinschmidt went to Alaska on an expedition to film a picture called Primitive Love in which Mala makes his film debut at age 14. Not only does Mala act in front of the camera but he serves as a cameraman as well for the picture. From here young Mala accompanied Knud Rasmussen, the Danish Arctic explorer and writer on his trip called The Great Sled Journey from 1921 to 1924 to collect and describe Inuit songs and legends as the official cameraman.
Ray Mala (December 27, 1906 – September 23, 1952) was the first Native American movie star and the most prolific film actor Alaska has thus far produced. Mala was recently named a “Top Ten Alaskan” by TIME Magazine. He starred in MGM’s Academy Award-winning Eskimo. Wikipedia
Firearms, fibers, any news or behaviors that make me say, "hmm, let me take another look at this."
I still miss my man, but my aim is getting better.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 