Manceeeeeeep

Showing posts with label Founding Fathers. Show all posts

yankee doodle dandy

Katharine Houghton Hepburn

born Hartford, Connecticut May 12, 1907

died at her home at the river's mouth, in the Borough of Fenwick, Old Saybrook, June 29, 2003

family summer home at the mouth of the river, where it meets Long Island Sound,

within sight of the town's Saybrook Lighthouse.

Could she be THE quintessential all- encompassing American Beauty?

Woman?

Yankee doodle?

graduated Bryn Mawr College in 1928

where she, drank, smoked, skinny dipped

independent
modern
feisty

"In some ways I've lived my life as a man, made my own decisions.

I've been as terrified as the next person, but you've got to keep a-going; you've got to dream."

"In the beginning I had money; I wasn't a poor little thing.

I don't know what I would have done if I'd had to come to New York

and get a job as a waiter or something like that.

I think I'm a success, but I had every advantage; I should have been ".

"I think every actress in the world looked up to her with a kind of reverence and a sense of, 'Oh boy, if only I could be like her. We never looked at her with envy or jealousy because she worked with such grace and wit and charm. You only wish that one day you could be like her"- Elizabeth Taylor

Hepburn and Taylor on the set of Suddenly Last Summer

"I strike people as peculiar in some way,
although I don't quite understand why.

Of course, I have an angular face, an angular body and,
I suppose,
an angular personality,
which jabs into people."

1928 she married Ludlow Ogden Smith, a member of a wealthy Pennsylvania family.

She immediately made him change his name to S. Ogden Ludlow
She was a divorcee, the Mexican sort, by 1934

"I would have been terrified alone in New York City,

"We bought this house in '31, & then the minute I won the Academy Award,

I got rid of Luddy."

"I always wanted to be a movie actress. I thought it was very romantic.
And it was."

After box office flops KH headed to Broadway for PHILADELPHIA STORY, a bonafide hit, created especially for her for-she acquired the film rights & sold them to MGM, one of its biggest hits of 1940-with the help of her X Howard Hughes. She was in control of her own career.

the one she loved the most

Hepburn, who was wearing heels when she met Tracy said,

"I'm afraid I'm too tall for you, Mr. Tracy."

Joseph Mankiewicz retorted, "Don't worry, he'll soon cut you down to size."

"If you always do what interests you at least one person will be pleased."

"I wear my sort of clothes to save me the trouble of deciding which clothes to wear."

"My greatest strength is common sense,

I am really a standard brand like Campbell's tomato soup or Baker's chocolate."

"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get -

only with what you are expecting to give -
which is everything."

"If you survive long enough you're revered- rather like an old building."

I think she was just ahead,
way ahead, of her time.

next- Kate decorates!
.

I dreamed...

“What have been its fruits?

More or less in all places,

pride and indolence in the clergy,

ignorance and servility in the laity,

in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.”

James Madison on Christianity

James Madison

image from here

Last night I dreamed the Bible was being rewritten- though it has been done with this venerable book time and again- I thought why? Is it possible the next text the Texas Board of Education will "work" on is this one. Though the Bible is subject to vast interpretation-why not narrow that now so it will state Christian Conservative values? Surely the founding fathers of that great book meant it- their way. No? OF course there are always a couple of crackpots in any text where a number of writers exist.

Can these educators undertake such a task? eradicate the Radicals? Problems arise.
read Jesus the radical pastor.org here

Christ before Caiaphas by Giotto

image from wikipedia

The Texas Board of Education is rewriting American History. What will be taught in the classroom? The Gospel according to Texas? The powerful influence of this board reverberates through the country- Texas buys lots of TexT books- publishers will look to the Texas standards for guidance in content, vomitously creating a poisonous rippling effect. The board, whose members are elected, has influence beyond Texas because the state is one of the largest buyers of textbooks. In the digital age, however, that influence has diminished as technological advances have made it possible for publishers to tailor books to individual states. the TIMES here

Cynthia Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond who is a strict constitutionalist and thinks the nation was founded on Christian beliefs, managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. (Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term “separation between church and state.”)

Our guys signing the Declaration surrounded by red curtains

There is a reason for those swags and sweeping gestures of grandeur in the Founding Father's portraits.

“The Enlightenment was not the only philosophy on which these revolutions were based,” Ms. Dunbar said. NYTIMES here

the Artist in his Library

Charles Wilson Peale here

GW here

“For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens . . . while every one shall sit under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.” GW

Dr. McLeroy, a dentist by training, pushed through a change to the teaching of the civil rights movement to ensure that students study the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the nonviolent approach of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also made sure that textbooks would mention the votes in Congress on civil rights legislation, which Republicans supported.
“Republicans need a little credit for that,” he said. “I think it’s going to surprise some students.” from the NYTIMES here

I can see these curtains closing.

urban dictionary here

Letters in response to the NY Times article by Russell Shorto here

remember Jefferson? Jefferson who? go ask Texas

.
Gone?

image of the Jefferson Memorial here

"Its soul, its climate, its equality, liberty, laws, people, and manners.

My god! how little do my countrymen

know what precious blessings they are in possession of,

and which no other people on earth enjoy!"

image from the Library of Congress

HOW CHRISTIAN WERE THE FOUNDING FATHERS? NYTIMES MAGAZINE HERE , A MUST READ

The Texas Board of Education has removed Thomas Jefferson and the influence of the Enlightenment from the Texas curriculum, "replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin."

from AP reporter April Castro
AUSTIN, Texas — A far-right faction of the Texas State Board of Education succeeded Friday in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade.
Teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state. Curriculum standards also will describe the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic," and students will be required to study the decline in value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.
Following three days of impassioned and acrimonious debate, the board gave preliminary approval to the new standards with a 10-5 party line vote. A final vote is expected in May, after a public comment period that could produce additional amendments and arguments.- April Castro AP reporter

Board member Cynthia Dunbar wants to change a standard having students study the impact of Enlightenment ideas on political revolutions from 1750 to the present. She wants to drop the reference to Enlightenment ideas (replacing with “the writings of”) and to Thomas Jefferson. She adds Thomas Aquinas and others. Jefferson’s ideas, she argues, were based on other political philosophers listed in the standards.

The board approves the amendment, taking Thomas Jefferson OUT of the world history standards.

Here is what the Library of Congress says about Jefferson’s influence: “Recognized in Europe as the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson quickly became a focal point or lightning rod for revolutionaries in Europe and the Americas.” The Library of Congress notes, in particular, Jefferson’s influence on revolutionaries in France (including on the Declaration of the Rights of Man), other European nations, South America and Haiti.

No Declaration of Independence?
Gone

image from here

University of Virginia ?

Non existent?

University of Virginia image from here

Enlighten the people generally, and
tyranny and oppressions of the body
and mind will vanish like the evil spirits
at the dawn of the day.
Thomas Jefferson

No West?

Gone

there goes Texas-

image of the West here

Gone?

image of Jefferson's first sketch of Monticello here

No Enlightenment?

Gone

Monticello Library image from here

Jefferson- to ENLIGHTENED for TEXAS? Can you imagine life without his influences? America without his influence? Texas can-

image of Mount Rushmore here

JEFFERSON and the ENLIGHTENMENT here

TFN Blogging about the Social Studies Debate here

Jefferson here

the Founding Fathers give Good Design

George Washington in the Rotunda North Carolina State Capitol from the Canova original

founding three: Good design
American Classicism
column, bust, living drapery