26 June Day Book

Monday

26 June 2017

— A proper Danish summer morning in the low 60’s Fahrenheit

4: Augustus adopts Tiberius.

363: Roman Emperor Julian goes to his maker during the retreat from the Sasanian Empire. On the battlefield, his troops proclaim General Jovian his successor.

1409: Three major poobahbahs declared pope at the same time: Pope Alex V after the council of Pisa; Pope Gregory XII in Rome; Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.

1483: Richard III takes English reins.

1541: Francisco Pizarro bumped off by Diego de Almagro, the son of his former companion.

1718: Peter the Great sentences his son Alexei Petrovich to death for plotting against him, but Alex dies before Peter can kill him.

1740: War of Jenkins’ Ear, Spanish free blacks and Indians whip the Brits at the Siege of Fort Mose.

1870: Christmas declared a federal holiday in U.S. 

1906: Le Mans, first Grand Prix.

1918: Allied forces defeat the Germans at Belleau Wood.

1924: After 8 years, the U.S. leaves the Dominican Republic.

1927: Cyclone roller coaster opens at Coney Island.

1945: UN charte signed in San Francisco.

1948: First supply flights land in blockaded Berlin.

1948: Shirley Jackson’s Lottery published in The New Yorker.

1959: Ingmar Johansson TKO’s Floyd Patterson after two minutes at Yankee Stadium.

1963: JFK gives his Ich bin ein Berliner  speech. (Historical note: In Denmark, a berliner is a jelly doughnut.)

1997: U.S. Supreme Court rules Communications Decency Act violates First Amendment.

2000: Pope John Pail II reveals third secret of Fátima.

2003: U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional.

2013: U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 same sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under 14 Amendment.

Good Morning All,

Lowell and I drove up to Ann Arbor yesterday to have brunch with one of my old students and long-since friend, Maeve Sullivan, and her husband Scott. Maeve I’d seen a month ago in Denmark. Home to visit her folks, she’d come out to see the new house. We had lunch, which had included an Esther specialty: a halved avocado, lute-shaped, the sound hole filled with caviar and topped with a bit of sour cream. Maeve apologized and took a picture, saying she could not wait to astound and amaze her friends. After which, we repaired to chairs facing the south windows to enjoy the comings and goings of the birds and to chat away the afternoon.

Scott I had not seen in probably twenty years. He was looking in fine fettle, as dynamic and enthusiastic as ever. The two of them together are your veritable peas in the pod. Each, I am sure, would wear out a spouse with a normal energy level, but they seem so right for each other. As I have said in these pages more than once, it’s always a pleasure to see two people with the grit and grace of being and generosity of spirit to make such a success of sharing their lives. They made it look easy, which of course it is in one way, though any real relationship, any one worth having, anyway, still requires emotional courage and trust and sacrifice.

I had already thanked Lowell five or six times for taking the time out of his day to drive me up to Ann Arbor to have brunch with people he didn’t know. As it turned out, Scott and Lowell knew about forty of the same people from the art and music world in and around Detroit. So, I do believe Lowell had as good a time as I. And the Mimosa to go along with my blueberry waffles was pretty good, as well. 

Before coming back to Farmington, Lowell took me to the front steps of the University of Michigan Students' Union where President Kennedy announced the creation of the Peace Corps. 

I honest to God got a bit of a foot-tingle from standing on the exact spot where Jack stood, reminding me of the mild electric shock I got in Hannibal, MO, when I broke the law and lightly put my fingertips on the table where Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Anyway, I have attached a picture of the commemorative plaque. Unfortunately, two old duffers down on their luck were standing on either side of it, and we could not convince them to move out of the way.

Go Well and Stay Well,

Bhekaron