Friday, June 21, 2013


Three notable features in the Bronx:  only waterfall in New York City, only native forest left in New York City, and the Hall of Fame of Great Americans.  Source:  Entombed, a novel by Linda Fairstein  See also:  http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/bronxpark/highlights/11414 

The Hall of Fame of Great Americans at Bronx Community College, the original "Hall of Fame" in this country, is a New York landmark institution founded in 1900 to honor prominent Americans who had a significant impact on this nation's history.  Built on the crest of the highest point in New York City in a sweeping semicircular Neo-Classical arc, it provides a panorama across the Harlem River to the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park and beyond to the Palisades.  The principal feature of the Hall of Fame is its 630-foot open-air Colonnade, which houses the bronze portrait busts of the honorees.  Designed by the celebrated architect Stanford White and financed by a gift from Mrs. Finley J. Shepard (Helen Gould) to New York University, the Hall of Fame was formally dedicated on May 30, 1901.  The Colonnade was designed with niches to accommodate 102 sculptured works and currently houses the busts and commemorative plaques of 98 of the 102 honorees elected since 1900.  The 98 bronze busts that line the Colonnade are original works by distinguished American sculptors.  The bronze tablets recessed in the wall beneath the busts carry inscriptions of significant statements made by the men and women honored.  In the first half of the twentieth century, there was no higher honor in America than to be made a "Hall of Famer" - in “The Wizard of Oz” Dorothy is told by the Munchkins that "You will be a bust, be a bust, be a bust in the Hall of Fame!"  Recently it has reappeared as a movie college setting, standing in for Princeton in "The Good Shepherd" and MIT in "A Beautiful Mind".  http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/they-live-forevermore
dgar Allan Poe
Find bust of poet, critic and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) sculpted by Daniel Chester French in the Hall of Fame of great Americans at:  http://www.bcc.cuny.edu/halloffame/onlinetour/browse.cfm?StartRow=93&BrowserStartRow=6  Click on home to find entire list of Hall of Fame honorees and take an online tour. 
Contact information:  2183 University Ave, New York, NY 10453   (718) 289-5910

The word "plumber" dates from the Roman Empire.  In Roman times lead was known as plumbum in Latin (hence the abbreviation of 'Pb' for lead on the periodic table of the elements).  Roman roofs used lead in conduits and drain pipes and some were also covered with lead, lead was also used for piping and for making baths.   A person with expertise in working with lead was first known as a Plumbarius which was later shortened to plumber.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumber

The count of the known dispersed holdings of the French dealer and collector Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939) has just increased by one. Group of Trees, 1890, a watercolour by Paul Cézanne, has surfaced at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.   No claimants have come forward during the past 50 years, Marc Mayer, the director of the National Gallery of Canada, says.  Pressure to determine the owner of the Cézanne could be building—and so could the resources to help do so.  In March, Canada assumed the leadership of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, a group devoted to honouring victims of the Nazis. Canadian museums have petitioned for increased funds for provenance research.  In April, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts returned Gerrit van Honthorst’s The Duet, 1624, once the property of Catherine the Great, which Nazis seized from the home of the German collector Bruno Spiro.  The potential value of Group of Trees could hasten the assignment of legal title to the work, which the Ottawa Citizen calls the “orphaned Cézanne”.  At the height of the market in 2007, Cezanne’s watercolour Still-life with Green Melon, 1902-06, sold for $25.5m, a record for a work on paper by the artist at auction.  David D'Arcy  http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Orphaned-Czanne-watercolour-surfaces-in-Ottawa/29761

Since 1988, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has used its list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places to raise awareness about the threats facing some of the nation's greatest treasures.  The list, which has identified 242 sites to date, has been so successful in galvanizing preservation efforts that only a handful of sites have been lost.  Explore the 2013 list and link to past lists at:   http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/11-most-endangered/

June 19, 2013  Alice Munro has won this year’s Trillium Book Award in English-language for Dear Life:  Stories, a collection of tales set in the countryside and towns around Lake Huron. 
One of Canada’s most acclaimed writers and celebrated worldwide for her short fiction, Munro lives in Ontario and British Columbia.  The Trillium Book Award in French-language went to Paul Savoie, for Bleu bémol, a work inspired by music, while this year’s English-language winner of the Trillium Book Award for Poetry is Matthew Tierney for Probably Inevitable.  The winner for the Trillium Book Award for Children’s Literature in French-language is Claude Forand for Un moine trop bavard.  Previous winners have included Margaret Atwood, Austin Clarke, Thomas King, Michael Ondaatje, Andrée Lacelle and François Paré. 
http://canadianonlinenews.net/2013/06/19/alice-munro-wins-ontarios-trillium-book-award/

June 19, 2013  Kim Thompson, co-publisher of Seattle-based publisher Fantagraphics Books-- known for celebrated alternative comics, graphic novels and comic strip anthologies--has died.
He was 56.  Fantagraphics Books has been publishing alternative comics and graphic novels since 1976.  Many of its titles are some of the best known among readers and collectors of graphic novels and books with works like "Love and Rockets" by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez; Daniel Clowes' "Ghost World" and the "Acme Novelty Library."  http://www.pantagraph.com/entertainment/alternative-comic-books-co-publisher-dies/article_74554a29-919a-548c-832d-239daa455932.html
 
Author Vince Flynn fought for life as tenaciously as the characters he created, but closed the final chapter with peaceful surrender on June 19, 2013.  Vince was born April 6, 1966 in St. Paul.  He proudly graduated from The Saint Thomas Academy and he earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of St. Thomas in 1988.  Vince will be missed by his large extended family, millions of loyal fans, and his friends in the publishing industry.  During his distinguished but all-too-short career Vince published 14 action-packed thrillers which soared to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List (preceded by 69 rejection letters, all of which he saved).   http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/startribune/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=165447260#fbLoggedOut 

June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.  In the Northern Hemisphere, meteorological Summer begins on 20 June.  In the Southern Hemisphere, meteorological Winter begins on this date.  Events: 
1214 – The University of Oxford receives its charter.
1787Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention to call the government the United States.
1895 – The Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, is officially opened.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_20

June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.  On non-leap years (until 2039), this day marks the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere, and is the day of the year with the most hours of daylight in the northern hemisphere and the least hours of daylight in the southern hemisphere.  Events: 
1749Halifax, Nova Scotia, is founded.
1898 – The United States captures Guam from Spain.
1970Penn Central declares Section 77 bankruptcy, largest ever US corporate bankruptcy up to this date.
2006Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix & Hydra.
2009Greenland assumes self-rule.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_21
 
June 21, 2013  More than 20,000 people descended on Stonehenge to greet the sunrise on the longest day of the year.  Cloudy skies prevented the gathering of pagans, druids and partygoers, from basking in the sun as they marked the summer solstice.  The celebrations came ahead of a 'historic moment' in the ancient Wiltshire site's £27million transformation, where a nearby road will be closed and grassed over to restore one of the key approaches to the stones.  See pictures at:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2345638/Summer-Solstice-2013-Revellers-rise-dawn-celebrate-drumming-dancing.html

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