Those who do not weep, do not see.  Victor Hugo   

Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (1802–1885) was a French Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician.  His most famous works are the novels The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862).  In France, Hugo is renowned for his poetry collections, such as Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles (The Legend of the Ages).  Hugo was at the forefront of the Romantic literary movement with his play Cromwell and drama Hernani.  His works have inspired music, both during his lifetime and after his death, including the opera Rigoletto and the musicals Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris.  He produced more than 4,000 drawings in his lifetime, and campaigned for social causes such as the abolition of capital punishment and slavery.  Although he was a committed royalist when young, Hugo's views changed as the decades passed, and he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, serving in politics as both deputy and senator.   His work touched upon most of the political and social issues and the artistic trends of his time.  His opposition to absolutism, and his literary stature, established him as a national hero.  Hugo died on 22 May 1885, aged 83.  He was given a state funeral in the Panthéon of Paris, which was attended by over two million people, the largest in French history.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hugo    

The enigmatic street artist Banksy has built a multimillion-dollar business empire as opaque as his identity, operating through a network of British companies while largely staying outside the traditional art market, according to corporate filings and interviews with art market insiders.  The sale of Banksy pieces has generated an estimated $248.8 million in secondary market sales since 2015, according to data from art market research firm ArtTactic.  The secondary market refers to the resale of artwork after its initial sale.  The artist himself receives only a small fraction from those sales, paid under a provision in UK law that entitles artists to royalties.  But sources say Banksy now conducts private sales for VIP collectors that may generate millions of dollars directly, Reuters learned.  Reuters identified seven companies that have been directly connected to Banksy over the years, and at least two additional firms that were connected to the artist by name or via his lawyers and accountants.  The centerpiece is the Pest Control Office, incorporated in 2008.  It serves as both the artist's authentication body and business operation.  Its parent company is Picturesonwalls Limited, which once operated a London gallery.  Today, most Banksys changing hands are sold through private collectors, galleries, and auction houses, without apparent direct involvement or financial participation by the artist.  “It’s very hard to buy a Banksy from Banksy,” explains art historian Ulrich Blanche.  Unless you’re one of a select group invited to one of the artist’s private sales.  In February 2024, Banksy held a secret exhibition in a Shoreditch basement, according to a collector who obtained photos from attendees.  The source shared some of the surreptitiously snapped photos with Reuters.  They included shots of previously unseen original Banksy works.  The event, held in a building on Hanbury Street, was open only to collectors invited directly by Pest Control.  Banksy has consistently used his art to fund charitable causes.  As his fame has grown, so too have the sums he raises.  Reuters could not confirm how much money the artist has donated.  In his book “Banksy:  The man behind the wall,” author Will Ellsworth-Jones notes that “there is no Banksy Foundation donating money publicly,” making it impossible to “give a complete picture of what he gives away.”  In September 2000, Banksy was shifting from painting freehand to using stencils, a method suited for repetition and speed.  But when he climbed up on a roof to have at the billboard, he painted freehand.  The half-finished image resembled a billboard Banksy saw in Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws.”  In his 2023 “Cut & Run” exhibition in Glasgow, the artist said the movie scene inspired him to get into graffiti.  In “Jaws,” someone doctored a tourism billboard depicting a woman on an inflatable raft in the sea. The vandal added a shark fin and gave the woman bulging eyes and a speech bubble:  “HELP!!! SHARK.”  Before his arrest, Banksy had lived for months at a time at the Carlton Arms Hotel, which over the years has let artists stay for free in return for decorating their rooms.  Archived pages of the hotel website indicate that in 1997, Banksy painted a mural at the hotel.  In 1999, the site shows, he finished an entire room, 5B.  The work looked nothing like the Banksys of today.  It was painted freehand, in a rainbow of colors.  The characters were cartoonish.  The hotel site attributed the works to “Robin Banks”–a play on “robbing banks,” later shortened to Banksy.  When Banksy was busted in 2000, he wasn’t on the New York Police Department’s radar, said Steve Mona, the now-retired lieutenant who ran the 75-member vandal squad back then.  The police had no idea they had nabbed “Banksy” because the artist had only recently begun employing the style and pseudonym that would make him famous.  Given Banksy’s celebrity, the name of the culprit now takes on significance.  The man who confessed was Robin Gunningham.    https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/global-art-banksy/   

Cyrus Stevens Avery (1871–1963) was a businessperson, oilman, and highway commissioner.  He created the U.S. Route 66 while being a member of the federal board appointed to create the Federal Highway System, then pushed for the establishment of the U.S. Highway 66 Association to pave and promote the highway.  As such, he is known as the "Father of Route 66".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Avery    

John Tracy Kidder (November 12, 1945–March 24, 2026) was an American writer of nonfiction books.  He received the Pulitzer Prize for his The Soul of a New Machine (1981), about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation.  Kidder received praise and awards for other works, including Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003), a biography of physician and anthropologist Paul Farmer, the founder of Partners in Health.  Kidder was considered a literary journalist because of the strong story line and personal voice in his writing.  He cited as his writing influences John McPhee, A. J. Liebling, and George Orwell.  In a 1984 interview he said, "McPhee has been my model. He's the most elegant of all the journalists writing today, I think."  Kidder attended Harvard University and University of Iowa.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy_Kidder 

March 25, 2026

Pyrrhic victory, a success that brings such significant harm to the victor that it differs little from defeat.  Although the triumphant party in a Pyrrhic victory is considered the overall winner, the costs incurred and their future repercussions diminish the sense of genuine success.  It is sometimes known as a hollow victory.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pyrrhic-victory   

Pyrrhus (319/318–272 BC) was a Greek king and statesman of the Hellenistic period.  He was king of the Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house, and later he became king (Malalas also called him toparch) of Epirus.  He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome, and had been regarded as one of the greatest generals of antiquity.  Several of his victorious battles caused him unacceptably heavy losses, from which the phrase "Pyrrhic victory" was coined.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhus_of_Epirus#   

The Battle of Agincourt was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War.  It took place on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) near Azincourt, in northern France. The unexpected victory of the vastly outnumbered English troops against the French army boosted English morale and prestige, crippled France, and started a new period of English dominance in the war.  That advantage lasted for 14 years, until England was defeated by France in 1429 during the Siege of Orléans.  After several decades of relative peace, the English had resumed the war in 1415 amid the failure of negotiations with the French.  In the ensuing campaign, many soldiers died from disease, and the English numbers dwindled; they tried to withdraw to English-held Calais but found their path blocked by a considerably larger French army.  Despite their numerical disadvantage, the battle ended in an overwhelming victory for the English.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt    

March 20 is UN French Language Day, one of six such days established by UNESCO to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity and to promote the equal use of its working languages.  The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (International Organization of the French-speaking World) was founded on this day in 1970.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/d%C3%A9tente#English    

While the Nordic countries have long dominated the World Happiness Report, 2026 brought one surprise.  For the first time in the report's 14-year history, a Latin American country made its way into the top five as Costa Rica continued its multi-year rise to fourth place, jumping from 23rd in 2023.  The rankings, produced annually by Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, are based on a three-year average of how residents in 140 countries rate their own lives alongside factors such as GDP, social support, life expectancy, perceived freedom, generosity and corruption.  For the second year in a row, no major English-speaking countries made the top 10, with Australia at 15th, the United States at 23rd, Canada at 25th and the UK at 29th.  See the list including #1 Finland, and #2 Iceland at https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260317-the-worlds-happiest-countries-for-2026   

March 20, 2026

Tana French (born 10 May 1973) is an American-Irish writer and theatrical actress.  She is a resident of Dublin, Ireland.  Her debut novel In the Woods (2007), a psychological mystery, won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards for best first novel.  The Independent has called her "the First Lady of Irish Crime".  Tana Elizabeth French was born in Burlington, Vermont to Elena Hvostoff-Lombardi and David French.  Her father was an economist who worked on resource management for the developing world, and she lived in numerous countries as a child, including Ireland, Italy, the United States and Malawi.   French attended Trinity College Dublin, and trained in acting.  She settled in Ireland and has lived in Dublin since 1990.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tana_French    

A dovecote or dovecot or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves.  Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn.  They generally contain pigeonholes for the birds to nest.  Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in the Middle East and Europe and were kept for their eggs and dung.  The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortress-like dovecotes of Upper Egypt and the domed dovecotes of Iran.  In these regions the droppings were used by farmers for fertilization.  Pigeon droppings were also used for leather tanning and making gunpowder.  In some cultures, particularly Medieval Europe, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law.  Only nobles had this special privilege, known as droit de colombier.  See many pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dovecote    

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States.  The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and the state of Delaware.  The mouth of the bay at its southern point is located between Cape Henry and Cape Charles.  With its northern portion in Maryland and the southern part in Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay is a very important feature for the ecology and economy of those two states, as well as others surrounding within its watershed.  More than 150 major rivers and streams flow into the bay's 64,299-square-mile drainage basin, which covers parts of six states (New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia) and all of Washington, D.C.   The bay is approximately 200 miles long from its northern headwaters in the Susquehanna River to its outlet in the Atlantic Ocean.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_Bay   

Dauber  noun

:  one that daubs something

:  old-fashioned : an unskillful painter

:  a device or marker used for applying daubs of paint or color

:   bingo dauber [=a colored marker used for highlighting the numbers on a bingo card]

DAUBER Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster  Thank you, reader.   

Toledo is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, of which it is also the county seat.  It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River.  Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in Ohio and 86th-most populous city in the U.S., with a population of 270,871 at the 2020 census.  The Toledo metropolitan area has an estimated 601,000 residents.  Toledo also serves as a major trade center for the Midwest; its port is the fifth-busiest on the Great Lakes.  The city was founded in 1833 on the west bank of the Maumee River and originally incorporated as part of the Michigan Territory.  It was re-founded in 1837 after the conclusion of the Toledo War, when it was incorporated in Ohio.  After the 1845 completion of the Miami and Erie Canal, Toledo grew quickly; it also benefited from its position on the railway line between New York City and Chicago.  The first of many glass manufacturers arrived in the 1880s, eventually earning Toledo its nickname as "The Glass City".  For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Toledo, Ohio.  The region was part of a larger area controlled by the historic tribes of the Wyandot and the people of the Council of Three Fires (Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa).  The French established trading posts in the area by 1680 to take advantage of the lucrative fur trade.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo,_Ohio 

March 17, 2026