I like Ike

Magnet #1320 - I Like Ike

So funny, without meaning to, last weekend, both my sisters and my parents from DC/NC and I from NY converged on the snowbound Pennsylvania - without meaning to. But we didn't meet up.

They headed to Gettysburg, while my friend and I went to Tannersville.

What kills me is that my friends and I have specifically gone to visit Gettysburg many, many years ago. But how is it, that we didn't stop by the Dwight D. Eisenhower National Historic Site nearby!?! For shame!

Looks like we definitely have to plan a trip back there. Especially since we went long before they re-did the Gettysburg experience. Before, we just drove around the sites, walked the streets of the small town, bought a copy of John Jakes' North and South, and that's pretty much it

But, I do love this magnet my sisters bought me, because I do, in fact, like Ike. When I was little, my dad and I did a research project together (I can't remember if it was for fun, or for school) where I learned all of the five-star generals of World War II, and their backgrounds. There's Ike, MacArthur, Marshall, Arnold, and then Bradley.

So that's why I nearly wanted to jump out a window when one of my 20somethings here in the office said, "Wait. President Eisenhower was a WWII general?"

I cringed at my desk, and without turning around, I said quietly, how do you not know this, (kid with political science background)? He said something akin to, I don't know all those historical facts!

Headdesk.

Old Rough and Ready

Magnet #1307 - Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)

Our 12th president, Zachary Taylor, had no political experience when he was elected. He was basically elected for being a war hero, having served in the military for 40 years, in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, the Second Seminole War, and the Mexican-American War.

But here's something. Ya'll know how I love my American presidents, and that every once in a while, I can whip out a little-known fact or two. (Millard Fillmore being the 13th president is not one.)

So, I dunno how I'm just now finding out that Taylor, the 40-year warhorse known as Old Rough and Ready, served only a 16-month term, because he was supposedly felled by cholera...

Contracted from eating a bowl of cherries and drinking a pitcher of iced milk.

Out of time and dress

Magnet #1302 - Lady with reticule

I was totally born in the wrong time period. I can't exactly tell when in history I should have been born, but I know this isn't it. Sorta.

It kinda changes depending on the romance novel or television show I'm watching. Like, could I have worn a dress like this, with its bustle and the longish train, plus a bonnet and reticule?

Or am I more of a poodle skirt chick?

Or leggings and oversized shirts?

Who knows.

I just know I love, love, love this dress. Possibly because it's blue and white and everything in my closet is basically the same color scheme. But mostly because can you imagine the time it took to get into and out of the dress?

Makes you realize there's no way all those historical romance love scenes could have been as sexy and rushed (or not, depending on the hero, I guess) in real life. Musta taken hours just to get out of this outfit.

And forget about evening trysts out in the orangeries or darkened quiet gardens!

Elvis and the Hell on Wheels boys

Magnet #1271 - Hell on Wheels Elvis

So when I bought this magnet down the street at Ricky's, ya'll know I was thinking, holy moly, Elvis in uniform!!!

I mean, c'mon, ya'll know I love a cuteboy in uniform. That it's Elvis makes it all the more awesome. Man, can young Elvis wear a uniform.

Then I thought, nope, someone totally photoshopped this image, only because the patch looks a little off. But, it's real.

During his time in the service, Elvis was assigned the 2nd Armored Division, Hell on Wheels, out of Fort Hood, so called because Brigadier General George S. Patton was watching maneuvers in WWII and said they'd be Hell on Wheels in battle.

Today in 1977, Elvis died at a very young 42. He'd have been 76, had he lived. I saw this morning that Doris Day in her 80s is putting out another album this year trying to make a come back, which makes me wonder whether or not Elvis would still be putting out music today.

My guess is hell yeah, and he totally would have been earning that Hell on Wheels moniker in a totally different field of battle.

Those are some biiiiig shoes...

Magnet #1267 - John Quincy Adams

Our sixth president had a lot of living up to, to do, methinks. I mean, when your pops is like the 2nd president ever, of the United States, yeah, those are some big shoes to fill.

But, John Quincy Adams (1825-1829) did it, serving as the 8th U.S. Secretary of State, US Ambassador to the UK, Russia, Prussia and the Netherlands, US House Representative from 3 different districts, and as US Senator from Massachusetts.

Whew.

Meanwhile, I just picked this magnet because the other day, I saw an @PeterSokolowski video that finally explains (at least for me) why we Americans have our own spellings that differ from the original English spellings.

Turns out it was Noah Webster of Merriam-Webster who gave America our own language. I won't lie, even after having spent a few years editing and converting British spelling to American spelling in romance and science-fiction books, I hadn't a clue about Webster's contribution.

Take a look:


Why the tie back to JQ? Only because it was at the Adamses library that I saw one of the original first editions of Merriam-Webster, and man I would have loved to rifle through that tome.

Yes. I'm a dork at heart. What? You couldn't tell after 1,267 magnets?

I have seen the future

Magnet #1243 - Elizabeth Taylor

Ok, folks. Tonight I've seen the future, and I'm not sure if I'm ready for it.

I'm using this Elizabeth Taylor magnet from my Union Square magnetdude, because she was British-American, of the 20th Century's Golden Age, and because with only five years separating them, she kind of reminds me of the woman I met tonight in a random West Side bar.

So yesterday, I wrote that "I am woman, hear me roar" post. You know, the one about having no other master than me.

Today, I met my future sitting in a bar built in 1868. Early for drinks with some pals, I made friends with this older lady sitting next to me. After telling me the history of the bar (sound familiar?), she moved on to telling me she was born in 1927 in Rockland County, and she's lived in NYC ever since.

Her relatives on both sides of her family came over on the Mayflower (in 1620!, she said). Both were from England - on her mother's side, they just didn't like England. And on her father's side, well, he was the King's Taster - the dude who didn't die from tasting the king's meal before he ate it. To hear her tell it, her family was English through and through. (Nothing she could do about it, she said, it wasn't her fault.)

My God, the life this woman has lived.

She basically grew up in New York City - lived through the Depression (her older brothers were all born in the 1920s as well) and remembered Pearl Harbor.

She spent 18 years living and working on Broadway as a dancer, working with the likes of Bob Fosse and other greats.

She spent 2 years straight going to every 2nd night of every Broadway show, free for this newspaper she worked for, seeing the likes of Laurence Olivier staring right at her in the audience.

She lived in a Hell's Kitchen (before it was called Hell's Kitchen) railroad apartment for $200 for 50 (not 1-5, young lady, 5-0!) years, her rent never going above $400 (big deal!, she said).

Finally, her friends insisted that she move to an assisted living home near the bar we were at, where she hates it. Not only does she hate having helpers she doesn't need, but she's surrounded by folks who've never traveled and seen and done the things she has. (I always traveled, because I had money and I could. They didn't! Now they know nothing of the world and other cultures!, she said.)

She insisted that she would never marry. She didn't. She insisted that she would never have kids. She didn't. Even when the guys promised they wouldn't have to have kids, she said, hell no, not for me, move on!

Seriously - if you know me at all, you've heard me claim the exact same things. And, if you know me at all, you know this extremely personal question did not come easy for me. I asked her straight out if she ever regretted never getting married or having kids.

She looked me straight in the eye and goes, "Hell. No." To which I replied, "Hell. Yes. Thank you."

She relented a bit, and said "Now, that's me. You have to decide for yourself." And I said, "No, I'm in agreement." She asked how old I was, replying, You're just a baby!, when I told her.

On the one hand, she's right. On the other, it was like God sat her right next to me to give me an idea of what my life would be in the next 40-50 years.

She was a tough old broad, right down to complaining about the Irish bar we were in (it's Irish bar food, what the hell do you expect?), and it was kind of ridiculous seeing her having to repeat things for me to hear.

But honestly, ya'll. I can't imagine living my life almost twice over to get to her ripe old age of 84. Jeez.

It's one of my favorite things, listening to older generations tell their fantastic stories. I probably could have chatted her up all night, except sadly, after telling me everything I mentioned above, she then started telling me about her family coming over on the Mayflower, like she hadn't just talked to me for the last 20 minutes. Sigh. Sad.

Still, she was absolutely amazing, and I was kind of sad to join my friends. I did start to worry that she'd escaped from the old folks home down the block...but since she knew the bartenders, too, I figured she'd be ok.

So I'm sharing her stories with you guys - after such a great conversation, I couldn't just let her memories fade away!

Joy, what was it like for the Bicentennial?

Magnet #1228 - Gerald Ford (1974-1977)

Save the World Couple and DCsis have come up with several games lately to not-so-politely remind me of my ever-advancing age.

The first game they came up with was, are you older than [insert celebrity name here]? Or [insert other celebrity name here]?

And once answered, gales of laughter ensue.

The other game, is to randomly ask me questions of a historical nature. Such as:

Joy, what was it like for the Bicentennial?

The answer is:

I.

Don't.

KNOW.

I was just a toddler when all that stuff happened, I swear! And, I'm young enough to have had the United States Bicentennial in my own history books, so that's something.

I will say that I bet that the American Bicentennial project would have been the most awesome thing ever to work on workwise. Apparently, back in 1966 they were thinking it'd be ginormous one-city celebration (in one of our founding cities), but by the time I was born (shortly thereafter), they decided to create the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration, and help steer local events. Which makes more sense in hindsight, America created the way she was.

And so began the onslaught of Bicentennial products, packages, events and marketing all over the place, and when the big day came, tons of celebrations all over America. Apparently, they also flooded the airwaves with coverage by the likes of Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, and Ed McMahon. I mean, even Paul Anka had a special.

So that's why I picked Gerald Ford for today's Fourth of July holiday. He was the sitting president during the Bicentennial celebration - lighting a third lantern at the Old North Church in Boston, in honor of America's third century.

To steal one of my friend's Facebook posts, "For 235, America looks pretty good."

Happy birthday, America!

And thanks, England "for letting us have it, coz we wanted it so much."

"British Culture with an American Accent"

Magnet #1200 - Agecroft Hall

BBC-America's @anglophenia, one of my favorite blogs, did a great series of US/UK culture comparison posts last week that had me giggling in more or less agreement:

• Five Great American Things the British Ruined
• Five Great American Things the British Improved
• Five Great British Things the Americans Ruined
• Five Great British Things the Americans Improved

Loved this series, because it's one of those fun debates that are never-ending, depending on who you're talking to.

What's that have to do with today's magnet from my sisters and BIL, you ask?

Well, Agecroft Hall is a Tudor manor sitting on the James River riverbank in Richmond, Virginia. But we're not talking architecturally-speaking Tudor, like that house in Salisbury, NC, that my sister loves that was built in the last 50 years.

No, it's an authentic Tudor-era manor built in the 1400s, that some wealthy American dude from Virginia bought at auction in the 1920s.

And then had it shipped over from its original foundation in Lancashire, England.

I mean, it's common practice for folks to go abroad and have stuff shipped back. It happens all the time, right? A statue or ceiling frieze here, a mantelpiece or a chapel there. And, while I understand it's not the entire estate, it's still a vast majority of the original estate that was purchased and moved.

We're talking someone had to dismantle it, crate it up, ship it across the Atlantic, uncrate it and rebuild a whole manor house. Jeepers.

I can't tell if this is another Great British Thing an American Ruined. Ultimately, I'm torn.

There's a part of me that's glad someone saved it from disrepair, and stopped it from becoming just another set of ruins in England. A part of me that's glad more generations are able to enjoy and learn about the Tudor era, and not have to travel to England to do it, if they can't get there.

But there's another part of me (the part of me that wishes the Met's Temple of Dendur were in its original setting, rather than sitting in a glass-enclosed atrium on the Upper East Side of New York City, and thinks that the Elgin marbles should go back to Greece) that thinks it's such a shame that some American stunted 500 years of history, and replanted it elsewhere.

A friend said something the other week about loving standing on well-worn marble steps. It's true. I'm always saying, one of my favorite things to do is to step where history happened, to walk where so many other feet have walked.

So it begs the question, does it physically matter where on Earth those stairs are, or just that they still exist 500 years later for more people to walk upon?

Rufus. Really?

Magnet #1154 - William II (r. 1087-1100)

Oh, I sooooo need to get home to the rest of my magnet collection, I'm down to 25 in the photobucket collection and not an ounce of inspiration to use any of them. So this William II magnet will have to suffice.

This time next week, I will likely be ensconced on a sofa in Queens (natch), awaiting the wedding of another royal William - hopefully eating some scones and clotted cream (though, I'm betting Zabar's will be sold out by the time I get home).

So what's this I hear that if/when Prince William takes over, he gets to pick his official name? That it can be any combination of his full name - Prince William Arthur Philip Louis?

I mean, it's probably easiest to go with King William V, right? But, how much fun would that be, picking out your name? (I'd totally be Queen Joy. C'mon, that's nice!) But, it'd be fun to have a King Artie? King Phil? King Bill? King Lou? Oh, the possibilities abound.

Anyway, this William reigned for only 13 years before being killed in a hunting accident in the New Forest. But, apparently, he was known as William Rufus, a nickname given to him because of his ruddy complexion and blond hair. According to reports, he had an outspoken personality, didn't get along with the Church, and had to fight conspiracies left and right to keep his throne.

Hmmm...that sounds like a dozen other monarchs we've run across, no?

The shot heard round the world

Magnet #1152 - Minute Man National Historical Park

Massachusetts is one of those places with history lurking around every corner - our U.S. history. And I love it.

Seriously, I could probably spend months in this state and never run out of things to do, places to see, history to learn. One roadtrip, we managed to find Louisa May Alcott's house, drive near Walden pond, and drop by the Minute Man National Historical Park.

Ya'll know how I feel about walking where history took place, and North Bridge and the surrounding parkland is one of those places.

It was here, on April 19th, 1775, that the conflict between the British government and the colonists came to a head and according to Emerson's account, the first shots were fired and heard around the world.

Wow. I was totally gonna do the whole history lesson, but have I got something better. Someone's actually recorded the National Park Service ranger talk! Annnnd ya'll know I love my park rangers...

Part 1:

Minute Man National Park Battle Road Trail Walk Part 1 from Frank Breen on Vimeo.

Part 2:

Minute Man National Park Battle Road Trail Walk Part 2 from Frank Breen on Vimeo.

Keeping score with The Kennedys

Magnet #1136 - Damn straight I keep score

Wait. Doesn't everyone?

I just liked this Anne Taintor magnet when I picked it up a few weeks ago. This chick looks hella ticked off.

It's actually the feeling I've had the whole night watching The Kennedys on Reelz Channel. For whatever reason, it's becoming pretty clear early on that this production about the Kennedy dynasty has decided it wants to keep highlighting all the indiscretions of the Kennedy boys, father and sons.

I love historical miniseries, so I was actually looking forward to the miniseries when I first heard about it. Admittedly, it was mostly because I could see Katie Holmes as Jackie Kennedy pretty easily. And it was her first TV role in a very long time. (What? Ya'll know I'm a sucker for Dawson's Creek.)

I was disappointed once the Real!Kennedys managed to get the show pulled from the History Channel, but it was pretty obvious that the controversy was going to generate even more public interest in seeing it. You knew some channel would pick it up, despite all the bad reviews from the tv critics who had already received their screeners.

I was glad when Reelz Channel picked it up - at least then we'd get to gauge for ourselves what the hubbub was all about. Of course, like many other people I hadn't a clue what Reelz was, much less watched a single show on it. And from what I could gather from Twitter following the #TheKennedys stream, a lot of folks were having trouble even finding the network.

Still, they made a pretty smart decision to buy such a controversial miniseries, introducing themselves to totally new set of audiences.

As far as The Kennedys itself? The Twitter stream proves once again how baffling it is for people to all be watching the same exact show on television, and have completely opposing viewpoints on what they've seen. One Tweet would be positive and the next would say the exact opposite, and so on. @Kennedysmovie, producer/director @joncassar, and even @reelzchannel have been fantastic all night, monitoring and responding to the hashtags, so that's a big win for their social media campaign.

For me, other than the seeming salaciousness of the Kennedy boys, which I don't really doubt, but that I don't really need to see in something that some people will take as fact, The Kennedys is ok entertainment. I can definitely see why it shouldn't have been on History - too bad they didn't figure that out before it was too late.

Tom Wilkinson and Barry Pepper are amazing to watch as Big Joe and Bobby Kennedy. Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes are simply doppelgangers for JFK and Jackie. I think it's unfair to judge the actors so early on, but I will say that except for Barry Pepper, the Kennedy accents are all over the place.

Production-wise, the overall production design is great. And Jackie Kennedy's costumes are simply gorgeous.

The story itself is a little slow, but I find myself learning little nuggets of history here and there, which is cool. If you're only half paying attention, though the timejumps can be a little disorienting.

Overall, hopefully it picks up soon. We're at Hour #2, and I'm a little worried at how I'll feel having sat through Hours #3-8 by next Sunday night at this time.

Wait. Did I mention Jackie Kennedy's costumes are gorgeous? I'll just concentrate on that for now. That, and figuring out what other shows Reelz Channel has on its dockets.

Stand for something*

Magnet #1098 - Malcolm X

I missed using this magnet on the 21st, the 46th anniversary of the day Malcolm X was killed. I'll be the first to admit to not knowing as much as I probably should about the man, or what he stood for.

What little I know is from History channel, summarized here: that he was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of a Baptist minister who himself was killed when Malcolm was only six. From there, the boy was raised in and out of the system, until finally he ended up in jail at 21 for burglary.

There, he learned of Elijah Muhammad and the teachings of the Nation of Islam, a black nationalist group, changing his name to Malcolm X in honor of his stolen African identity. He became a full-on minister of the Nation of Islam, taking a harder, more aggressive line in the fight for civil rights.

Eventually the Nation of Islam forced him out, as his influence grew, and he went on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He came back as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, forming the Organization of Afro-American Unity, in support of black identity. A year later, he was dead, shot down by members of the Nation of Islam, a shocking end to a life of conviction.

And that's what little I know, paraphrased from the History channel. Incidentally, this is why I can't watch any of their shows or documentaries. I end up repeating every little thing I've just learned. But, thanks for the lesson, History!

He was an intense man, for sure - you can see it just in this rather striking iconic image on this magnet. It's why I picked it up in the first place. I debated ever magnetblogging such a controversial figure - after all, this is just a magnetblog. But, once I read a little about him, I wanted to.

It's weird, you know, history is chock full of good men and bad men and everything in between, and you can read text after text, attend lecture after lecture, to learn and understand what each person believes and what course they followed. In the end though, regardless of how you feel about anyone's politics or tactics, you do have to respect a man who believed in what he stood for, and had the courage to not only defend, but fight for it.


*"If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything."

- Malcolm X

King Billy

Magnet #1078 - William III (r. 1689 - 1702)

Won't lie, I don't even want to cover all of the meaning of William III on the throne, but my photobucket bin of readily available magnets will start wearing pretty thin while I'm here in NC unexpectedly.

Ya'll know what I'll never understand? Titles. Like, I never really understood them in the corporate world - how some people vy for better titles, versus having a better salary, or why some people think that whatever's after the comma defines you as a person somehow.

I guess we're all a little guilty of it at some point or another. But I think it might be worse for the royals, since you know, from birth, they come with these humongous titles that mean something on some paper somewhere, and oh, by the way have whole countries of people depending on them.

Take William III. His father, William II, died of smallpox eight days before Tripp was born, making Tripp Sovereign Prince of Orange directly from birth. Seriously. He came out of the womb, and bam! he was head of the Principality of Orange in Southern France. I mean, he was born in The Hague in the Dutch Republic, and responsible for something along the Rhone!

Which brings me to the other thing that always baffles me when I think about it. The royal network across Europe, how they end up ruling bits and pieces of other countries throughout Europe. Oh, I know they marry into it, they're appointed, they conquer it, they're born into it, whatever, but it always makes me laugh when I see or hear it in the movies...oh, and by the way, I may be King of England, but that bit of France, that bit of Holland, and maybe some of that bit in North America and Australia, and maybe a bit of Mars and Venus, are mine, too.

So, William III of *that* William and Mary ended up in the end, "By the Grace of God, King and Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Stadholther of the Republic of the 7 United Netherlands, Prince of Orange, Count of Nassau, Defenders of the Faith, etc."

First, what's the "etc" stand for?

Second, how'd he put all that on a business card?

"Remember. Only YOU can prevent wildfires!"*

Magnet #1063 - Smokey's Office

Since the 1940s, Smokey Bear has been the spokesbear for preventing forest fires in America. Thousands of leaflets, posters, radio, print, tv and onlines, he's still one of our most recognized advertising - and government- icons. Talk about a campaign with legs!

And with the Ad Council and several other partner organization's help, he's still fighting the good fight at his website, still trying to help educate people on the importance of preserving our nation's forests.

My sister got me this magnet from the U.S. Forest Service, just off the Mall in DC. Of course, I've now visited the exhibit twice myself. Yes. Twice. Within a month.

What? Ya'll know I love bears.

And, even though animatronics freak me out like no one's business, I love visiting Smokey Bear's office!

*Smokey says his original "Remember. Only YOU can prevent forest fires." in the video I took, because according to the ranger on staff, it's the 1930s or 40s in his office. The Forestry Service changed over to preventing wildfires in 2001, in an effort to include forest, wild, and brushfires.

"Issued by Woolworth"

Magnet #1062 - Social Security

My friends bought this magnet for me, an old ad and/or poster for the introduction of Social Security back in the late 1930s. Thanks! And, since I'm in DC this week, I figure I'd use a government-y magnet.

The Social Security Administration had several precursors in many ways, shapes and forms, but it wasn't until FDR announced his intention to Congress in 1934 to create a Social Security program that it became an official government agency.

It's pretty cool, if you think about it, how such an administration - no matter how you feel about it politically or socially - can manage to just launch itself, and still be around to this day. It's stuff we take for granted here in the U.S., our ability to create (relatively) stable administrations/offices for the public good, and keep them up and running.

Mind you, there was probably a ton of work to be done to get Social Security launched, and I bet a ton of things went into action the day that FDR said, let's do this. A year later, when FDR signed the Social Security Act into law, that's when the real work began.

Man, I would love to have seen the implementation and marketing plans for this project. They would need 100% awareness, and just think about it - a country in disarray from the Depression, millions out of work, and suddenly, it's about assigning, tracking and paying out Social Security numbers to every citizen in the United States. The United States! Whoa!

According to the SSA, the first number was assigned a New Rochelle, NY, resident, a Mr. John David Sweeney, Jr. But, funnily enough, his number wasn't the lowest number ever - a lady from New Hampshire - Grace Dorothy Owen - had SSN: 001-01-0001. Come on, I would totally play those numbers in the PowerBall lottery.

But, here's something even funnier on the SSA site.

A few years later, folks were still applying for SSNs and cards, and this wallet manufacturer wanted to show how SS cards could fit into their wallets. So they printed up some sample SS cards (no, really, it said "specimen" on it) to stick into the wallets, and went about their merry way, distributing them to Woolworth's and other department stores.

Sounds all well and good, right? I mean, even now, we all get those wallets with fake John/Jane Doe credit cards included.

Yep. Would have been ok, except that some whiz kid from the wallet manufacturer decided to use a real SSN from a real individual - his secretary, Mrs. Hilda Schrader Whitcher, SSN: 078-05-1120.

Um, what?

Turns out - in what I can only believe is proof positive that all my government clients aren't wrong for overthinking the simplest of things when it comes to the American public - some people who bought the wallet started using Hilda's number as their own! Seriously.

And I'm not talking just one or two silly people. Apparently in 1943, as many as 5,755 people were using that number. Almost 6,000 people!

Of course, the SSA folks had to cancel the number, and publicize that it was an invalid number.

And yet, even through 1977, a dozen people were still using Hilda's number that was "issued by Woolworth."

Good grief.

Living Memorial

Magnet #1061 - United States Holocaust Museum

When I was in high school, our band made a stop at Dachau Concentration Camp. Like most band trips, it had been a barrel of laughs, up until that day's tour, when we suddenly all the lessons we'd learned from books and lectures about the Holocaust became very, very real.

When they built the United States Holocaust Museum in DC, I put off going.* Put it off, in that way that you know you should do something, but you know it will make you sad, and really, who actively runs into that situation? But you know you must eventually do it, because it's something that you just must do.

I finally went late last year, and am convinced that it's something everyone must do at least once. Sad though it is, the museum itself is truly an amazing experience, one that's made all the more real by the footage, the artifacts, the castings, the stories, the exhibit design, and especially the stark museum design.

You start from the top floor, where the films and exhibits explain how Hitler and the Third Reich came to power, the beginnings of Antisemitism, and with each passing picture and caption, the groundwork is laid toward one of the biggest tragedies in human history.

Just before the end of the upper level, you're faced with the question...when all the build-up was happening and (judging by the newspaper headlines of the day) America knew about it, then why didn't we do anything? There's a multimedia room with several carrels that explain America's response, but even if you sit there and watch each video, there's no real answer to be had.

As you leave the upper floor, you pass through one of my favorite (dubious word, I know) sections of the museum is the Yaffa Eliach Shtetl Collection's Tower of Faces on this magnet. It's a three-story tower of photographs taken from 1890 to 1941, of everyday ordinary Jews from a town called Eishishok (now in Lithuania). Looking up and down at all the photos, they're all strangers. Just seeing their faces and both somber and happy poses, though, it hits home that these people could easily be folks you know. But you don't know them - because as you find out in the later floor, 900 years of a rich Jewish history in Eishishok were wiped out in the space of two days.

The next floors retrace the steps of what they call the Final Solution to the Jewish Question, the stories of the ghettos and containment, until finally you enter into the concentration camp exhibit halls. If the horrific feelings of what happened so long ago haven't come back to haunt you by this point, stand in the musty, darkened railcar for just a minute. Or, really, even just a few seconds.

Throughout the exhibit halls, there are fairly high walls that shield the monitors showing the most graphic of footage, of the abuse, the violence, the experiments, etc. The concrete walls are there to protect young kids and presumably anyone of any age who doesn't want to see the footage.

For me, there was a strange dissonance here, the need to want to physically pull away the young prying eyes from the footage, coupled with the need to make sure they watched, if only to make sure their generations didn't follow in these sad footsteps.

That's the nature of this museum. By the time you get to the Last Chapters of Liberation and the trials, you've learned more than you ever wanted to know about the evils of mankind. And that's good. The learning, that is. It's no longer some ethereal lesson you've had to memorize for an AP test or pop quiz. No longer something far away in some book you read long ago.

It happened, and the takeaway from the museum is to honor the memories of those millions and millions lost by learning from it, and not letting it happen again.




*Oddly, my reluctance to write this magnetpost is kind of why I put off writing this rather sobering blogpost for a week.

Ships in the night

Magnet #1056 - Seaport Museum

This past weekend, I visited the Seaport Museum to catch the last days of the Alfred Stieglitz exhibition, which I'll magnetblog as soon as I run and get that Camera Work magnet from the Met's Stieglitz exhibition tomorrow. Loved this museum.

Yes, yes, it's possible that I might love every museum in the world, but I really enjoyed my visit! The Stieglitz exhibition was superdupercool, but I was truly blown away by the DECOdence S.S. Normandie exhibit.

Before I get to the Normandie though, can I just say? I had the Coolest. Evening. Ever.

Today was the second-ever Royal Rendezvous in New York Harbor - all three ships of the Cunard Fleet met this evening near the Statue of Liberty...and made fireworks!

It was superdamn cool standing that the bottom of Manhattan island, seeing the three giant ships in the harbor, each like floating cities of light, each dwarfing the Statue of Liberty. They all poot-pooted their horns, and then paraded one after the other past Lady Liberty.

First, we saw Queen Mary 2 come into the harbor. She's the largest of the fleet, and can handle 2,620 passengers and 1,253 crew. And dudes. Dudes! She came about right there in the harbor, as if she were Pacey's tiny True Love, rather than her 203 feet tall, 1,132 feet long and 150,000 tons! After she turned downstream, she was followed by Queen Victoria, and then Queen Elizabeth, all while the fireworks broke through the skies.

It was awesome standing on the esplanade watching these giant ships go by. Of course, it was 19 degrees, and I may never get feeling back in my fingers and toes, and my nose may have hypothermia, but it was worth it.

I've never before wanted to take a cruise before, but I've decided, if I ever do, I will totally sail either the Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth or Queen Victoria. Talk about seaworthy!

But back to the French ocean liner, Normandie. At the time she sailed, she was the largest and the fastest ship in existence. And one of the most opulent ships ever seen. Kind of funny, given that she was christened during the Depression. When the war came, the French moored her in NY to be retooled into a troopship. Alas, she came to a fiery end through a bizarre construction accident. There's no doubt that had she made it through the war, that she would have seen many more years of service.

The DECOdence exhibit gives you a good background on the ship's history, how the French government heavily subsidized the building of her, the marketing and PR blitz it went through. Plus, it also gives you a guided tour of the ship, her luxurious features and amenities, the glorious art deco design by the likes of Lalique and other designers of the day. They have a ton of artifacts to look at, matched up with fantastic giant images that makes you feel like you're right there in the Grand Salon.

I swear, going through the exhibit makes you crazy, thinking of how wonderful it would have been to travel aboard the Normandie.

Mind you, I'd only accept first class passage. The better to meet Cary Grant, don'tcha know.

Designing tomorrow

Magnet #1046 - Chicago World's Fair

Three. That's how many times I went through the Designing Tomorrow: America's World's Fairs of the 1930s exhibit at the National Building Museum in DC.

The first time I went through in just over an hour, a tiny bit rushed, only because I was in rush to get to through the gift shop to buy this magnet and then join the hour-long docent tour through the exhibit. A week later, I ended up spending two hours wandering through the eight halls or so, reading the fine print.

I swear, if I didn't start recognizing the volunteers manning the exhibit and the security guards and the guys behind the store register, I probably would have gone a couple more times.

There's some sort of magic surrounding World's Fairs that I've never been able to figure out - most likely, it's a sense of nostalgia, having been to the Knoxville '82 fair twice and then New Orleans fair in '84. But nostalgia's not the only reason, because ya'll know how I love heading out to Queens to see the old structures, buildings, and markers of the 39/40 and 64/65 fairs held there. So much fun.

What I didn't realize was that the 39/40 New York fair was just one of six World's Fairs held across the nation in the 30s, the others being Chicago's A Century of Progress International Exposition (1933–34), San Diego's California Pacific International Exposition (1935-36), Dallas' Texas Centennial Exposition (1936), Cleveland's Great Lakes Exposition (1936-37), and San Francisco's Golden Gate International Exposition (1939-40).

And the Designing Tomorrow exhibit (and accompanying blog) was just amazing, delving into each fair, the exhibitors, but mostly the design components - architecture and building materials, lighting and landscape, transportation and innovation, etc. The breadth and depth of the exhibit is truly remarkable.

My only complaint is that most of the oldies (and me) were bending down too far (indeed, on my haunches a lot, I was) to read the incredibly fine-print captions in like 8-point type (for some of them). But I didn't want to miss an inch of what they had to teach me!

Besides those captions, the exhibit itself is fabulously art deco-ily designed, coupled with giant sweeping images of each fair, gorgeous posters and wall hangings, great artifacts, displays, and videos.

I totally got lost in the wonder of all the fairs, and the 1930s walking through the halls. I loved it. But, I'm sad there's not a Designing Tomorrow catalog, because I would have totally bought one, or two.

When you go see the exhibit for yourself (as you must), definitely spend as much time as you can roaming through it - by yourself, and then take the really good docent tour. For example, without that tour, I never would have known that the first year of the Chicago fair, all the buildings were multicolored, as this magnet suggests. People didn't take to the garish technicolor(y) approach, and so the next year, they painted everything white...which is why Erik Larson's book is not called The Devil in the Multicolored City. Neat, huh.

Anyway, when you're done with the World's Fair exhibit (and the Palladio one and the Lego one and the others), go spend as much time as you can at the museum gift shop...it's one of my faves in DC, and just in general. Fantastic book section, incredibly dangerous for me and my wallet, so I have to avoid it.

They do have a good World's Fair tchotcke section, where I bought a few stickers to turn into magnets...at $10 for two, I couldn't justify (or pick between) all three sets. Hence the stickers, annnnnd maybe one additional one.

So yeah. In all, I'll eventually have seven magnets for one exhibit. Huh.

That New Year's Resolution to take it easy on the magnets is working out so far, I guess. Oops.

Snake in the grass

Magnet #1023 - American Rattlesnake

Got this magnet as part of my Alexander Hamilton exhibit magnet set from the New-York Historical Society.

It's a British political cartoon attributed to James Gillray in the 1780s, just after two British armies had surrendered to the colonies - General Burgoyne at Saratoga in 1777 and General Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781.

Two things I didn't know until this year: First, those failed peace talks I mentioned before, between the colonies and the Brits, peace talks that took place on Staten Island at the Conference House. Second, that not all Brits wanted to keep our little colonies. That's what this cartoon suggests, that they wouldn't win.

You can't read the full piece, here, but the original cartoon includes the following narrative:

“Britons within the Yankeean Plains,
Mind how ye March & Trench,
The Serpent in the Congress reigns,
As well as in the French.”

There's also a sign on the snake's tail, mentioning an apartment for rent for military folks.

And then the actual snake says, "Two British Armies I have thus Burgoyn’d, And room for more I’ve got behind.”

Oddly, for me, the snake this small looks a lot more dreadful, than it does up close. Though, when you see the image all blown up (page 15 of this PDF), you can see the snark drawn right on the snake's face.

For time and the world do not stand still.*

Magnet #1004 - John F. Kennedy

Where were you forty-seven years ago today?

It's definitely one of those days that a few generations can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news about John F. Kennedy being shot in Dallas.

It would be a good decade before I was born, so all I have is the legacy of his presidency and the tragic story of his assassination. And several magnets...including this one, from Pomegranate.

It looks like some folks are planning on educating a whole new generation about the JFK legacy, with a January 2011 launch of JFK50 - currently a launch page announcing an innovative community website dedicated to celebrating the 50th anniversary of his presidency.

I'm not gonna lie, the hopeful tone of the video and the content just made me all teary - especially within the context of today's turbulent times, and how far (or how little) we've come in the last 50 years.

Nice job, JFK50.


*For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

- John F. Kennedy