Lenora Rogers's Blog, page 47
February 1, 2017
Washington’s presidency set standard for future US leaders
It’s inauguration day in the United States, and while there’s much wailing and gnashing of teeth regarding the man who will take office today, I prefer to believe that the presidency has an ennobling effect upon those who ascend to the office.
Certainly, the aura connected with the presidency, with its corps of staff and aides providing assistance, has great potential to provide a stabilizing influence on those elevated to the Oval Office.
The position can bestow...
January 31, 2017
The Princess in the tower, and the skeleton under the floorboards
The excellently named Sophia Dorothea was born in 1666 the only child of the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, who ruled the Celle portion of the Duchy of Brunswick. Sophia’s mother was the Dukes long standing mistress,Éléonore Marie d’Esmier d’Olbreuse.
Though Sophia’s parents were eventually married, in a morganatic marriage (meaning that due to her lower social rank, Eleonore would receive none of her husbands title or wealth- which seems totally fair) it was a scandalous start to...
Iconic Women in Art: Amrita Sher-Gil
On the 30th of January 1913, famous Indian painter Amrita Sher-Gil was born to a Hungarian Jewish opera singer mother and a Punjabi Sikh aristocrat father in Budapest, Hungary. She trained at an early age at Santa Annunziata art school in Florence, then at 16 in Paris at Grande Chaumière under Pierre Vaillant and Lucien Simon. Later at École des Beaux-Arts (1930–34), she became influenced by the modern painting of Cézanne and Gauguin, and was associated with artist friends and lo...
Track of the Day – STICKY BOYS ‘Good Morning Sunshine’
French rockers Sticky Boys have a brand new tune and video out right now, and the track is taken from the band’s new album ‘Calling The Devil’. It’s an awesome, rocking track, and you can pick up the album right now from Listenable Records:
Sticky Boys is one of those bands that is just so damn good at what they do, and so much fun to listen to: check them out for a dose of rowdy, raucous rock and roll!
Sticky Boys’ on Facebook / Twitter / official websit...
Indie pop, folk and opera, all in a days work for Kate Miller-Heidke.
If It Happened Yesterday, It's History
January 30, 2017
Review: “The Tank” by Nicola Lombardi
Hello Addicts,
Imagine you live in a world where any crime, from murder to having a difference of political opinion, is cause enough for lifetime incarceration? The governments which come to mind probably are Nazis, communists, and, to some people, the United States’ current political climate. Dystopian stories are some of the scariest ones you can read. True, there may not be blood, gore, monsters, or jump scares like the traditional horror stories utilize, but they de...
Colonial-era houses of Merrimac, Massachusetts
Merrimac sits on the Merrimack river abutting the southeastern border of New Hampshire. Settled by the English in 1638 as a part of Salisbury and later as a part of Amesbury around the village of Merrimacport, it was known throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as an agricultural and fishing community, with a small amount of shipbuilding. When Amesbury separated from Salisbury in 1666, Merrimac was referred to as the West Parish of Amesbury, or simply West A...
Sappho
Sappho was the original female singer-songwriter, an Ancient Greek Carol King or Joni Mitchell, whose songs were so memorable that people were still writing about them and passing them on centuries later.
Today her name is synonymous with lesbianism – indeed the very word ‘Lesbian’ comes from the name of the island where Sappho lived, Lesbos – due to the many lines of her poetry where she expresses strong, and sometimes sexual, feelings for other women. But there was more to Sappho than jus...
Saddling a Seat
There’s almost certainly a sort of Reinheitsgebot for chairmakers. If you don’t use hand tools at every stage, you receive one evil eye.
Truth is, lots of chairmakers I know use power tools at some stage of the process. Many use a band saw. Others use an angle grinder to roughly shape their seats. Many use electric lathes. And a few – gasp – use sandpaper.
Me, I’m indifferent to this claptrap. I like to use the tools I like to use. I avoid the tools I dislike. Simple.
So this...
January 26, 2017
Mrs. Coolidge and Baseball: A Love Affair
President and Mrs. Coolidge at a Washington Senators game.
Calvin Coolidge liked baseball so-so. But First Lady Grace Coolidge was a enthusiastic fan!
Coolidge the Indifferent Sport
Calvin Coolidge, so-so baseball enthusiast.
Calvin Coolidge was always a hard fellow to figure, unless, of course, you were a New Englander. Then he was easy to understand: Except for politics, he was not a joiner. And even in politics, his “joining” at best, was at arm’s length.
He...
