The Grant Birthplace in Point
Pleasant, Ohio was the birthplace of President Ulysses
S. Grant, who was born there in 1822. The home was built in 1817, and in 1821 Jesse
Root Grant wed Hannah Simpson Grant (Ulysses’s parents) and they moved into the
home where they paid $2 a month rent. This was the home of the future
president for the first 18 months of his life.
Ulysses S. Grant, named by his parents Hiram Ulysses Grant, was born
April 27, 1822, in the clapboard home. The
house where Grant was born was not recognized as a noteworthy building until
after Grant’s death in 1885. Soon after
that, the little home was lifted from its foundation and moved by boat to
Cincinnati for public exhibition. From
1885 to 1896 the home was on the move across the state and the nation for
expositions, state fairs, and other events
Between 1896 and 1936 it sat on the Ohio State Fairgrounds, sheltered in
a limestone and glass pavilion. After 50
years on the road, in 1935, the Clermont County legislators and the Ohio
Historical Society secured the passage of an act authorizing the Society to
move the building back to its Point Pleasant original location. It was moved and dedicated in 1936. See picture of the birthplace at http://afkgeocaching.com/us-grant-birthplace/ Sandbags placed in the attic helped save the
house from being swept into the river during the flood of 1937.
The Ohio River Great Flood of January 1937 surpassed all previous floods during
the 175 years of civilized occupancy of the lower Ohio Valley. Much of the excessive rains across the lower
Ohio Valley came in the 11 day period from January 13-24. Over 16 inches of rain fell along and south of
the Ohio River from Cairo, Illinois to Louisville. In Louisville, the river rose 6.3 feet on the
21st of the month. See pictures and
statistics at http://www.weather.gov/media/lmk/pdf/posters/GreatFlood1937_Poster.pdf
Ulysses S. Grant was a very accomplished painter and
paid a lot of attention to detail. While
he was a cadet at West Point, he completed many paintings and sketches which
still survive. Though self-effacing,
Grant was proud of his ability to paint, and as President spoke of the
satisfaction he derived from producing something "artistic." In the 1870's, he told his neighbor, George
Childs, that he had liked painting and drawing while he was at West Point. Grant always used watercolors in his work. Many of his works are privately owned and
there are several others on display in museums.
http://www.granthomepage.com/grantartist.htm See also http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/grant/section2.rhtml
All Those Techies Who Predicted the Demise of the
Public Library Were Wrong Americans still love
libraries more than any other public institution by Wayne Wiegand Indisputable fact--Americans love their public
libraries. Evidence to support this
statement abounds. A 2013 report by the
Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project noted that in the
previous decade “every other major institution (government, churches, banks,
corporations) has fallen in public esteem except libraries, the military, and
first responders.” The study also found
that 91% of those surveyed over sixteen years old said libraries are “very” or
“somewhat” important to their communities, and 98% identified their public
library experience as “very” or “mostly positive.” Another Pew study found 94% of parents
believe libraries are important for their children; 84% said because libraries
develop a love of reading and books. Although
in the 1980s many evangelists of information technology predicted the demise of
public libraries by the turn of the century, they’ve been proven wrong.
Poetry quiz What poems contain these lines: "the shot heard round the
world" "My candle burns at both ends" "They
danced by the light of the moon" "Home is the sailor, home from sea" "raisin in the sun" "Poetry arrived in search of
me" "I saw above me that
endless skyway"
Paul Dessau uses magazine shreds to create his
pieces. However, they are often so
expertly applied to the canvas that they look like acrylic paintings. Paul's artist statement touts: “The need for resource and
energy sustainability along with the re-use of obsolete manufactured goods has
inspired me to create collages from recycled magazine shreds. Furthermore, such collages should celebrate
the leaders and trailblazers from our past as well as current people following
their example. This combination of
sustainability and leadership, past and present is the driving inspiration
behind my collage portraits.” Modern art can be a sum of all past art and this
is true of Paul Dessau's art. Each piece
incorporates elements of Renaissance traditional perspective as well as cubism
and abstract expressionism.” In
addition to being a collage artist, Paul has a Master's Degree in Mechanical
Engineering, hand-crafts and constructs pipe organs, and other musical
instruments. He also serves as Vice
President of Education for Empire Toastmasters and has achieved the highest award
available in Toastmasters, the Distinguished Toastmaster award. http://yubanet.com/regional/Local-Artist-Places-High-at-7th-Annual-Lottery-for-the-Arts.php#.VbTgvPlVhBc
Chocolate Garbanzo Bean Cake
http://www.food.com/recipe/chocolate-garbanzo-bean-cake-360396 Add grated apple or orange juice and zest http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2011/10/apple-and-garbanzo-cake-2.html
The Library of Babel as Seen from Within by Jonathan Basile Reproducing Borges’s imaginary library
online. Since I first read it in a
high school Spanish class, I’ve been fascinated by the theory of language
implicit in Borges’s “The Library of
Babel.” The story describes a
universal library containing, in 410-page volumes, every possible permutation
of twenty-two letters, spaces, commas, and periods—every book that’s ever been
written and every book that ever could be, drowned out by endless pages of
gibberish. Its librarians are addicted
to the search for certain master texts, the complete catalog of the library, or
the future history of one’s own life, but their quest inevitably ends in
failure, despair, even suicide. Perhaps
I was obsessed by the same desire for revelation, or haunted by the same
subversion of all rational pursuit. In
either case, fifteen years later the idea came to me one night of using the
vast calculative capacities of a computer to re-create the Library of Babel as
a Web site. For those interested in
experiencing the futile hope of Borges’s bibliotecarios, I’ve made libraryofbabel.info, which now contains anything we ever
have written or ever will write, including these sentences I struggle to
compose now. http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/07/23/the-library-of-babel-as-seen-from-within/ Jonathan Basile is a
fiction writer and computer programmer. He
created an onlineuniversal
library and universal image archive.
Alphabet Inc--Google's new parent company--will
make the tech giant's activities "cleaner and more accountable", said
its chief executive (and one of Google's original founders) Larry Page in an
August 10, 2015 blog post "G is for Google" http://googleblog.blogspot.in/. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33862367 See also http://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2015/0811/A-is-for-Alphabet-B-is-for-But-it-s-still-Google-video
The 2015
Perseid meteor shower will peak on August 11, 12 and 13. A new moon on August 14, 2015 will create
perfect conditions for watching the meteor shower. The Perseids can be seen in the Northern
Hemisphere. Look between the radiant,
which will be in the north-east part of the sky and the zenith (the point in
sky directly above you). See a
table for best viewing times at http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/perseid.html
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1336
August 12, 2015 On this date in 1851, Isaac
Singer was granted a patent
for his sewing
machine. On this date in 1898, the Hawaiian
flag was lowered from ʻIolani
Palace in an elaborate
annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty
from the Republic of Hawaii to the United
States.
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