12th of December

"Be regular and orderly in your life so that you might be violent and original in your work." Gustave Flaubert, b. on Frank Sinatra's birthday, did he but know it, in 1821. Later on, in the spring of 1880, he kicked the bucket on Harry Truman's birthday, just for you to know.

'Twas on this day, many of you may know that a vision of the Virgin, 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' appeared in in the vicinity of Mexico City in 1531. It's the anniversary of the birth of a long-gone statesman, John Jay (1745) and the abolitionist & orator, Wm. Lloyd Garrison (1805)Edvard Munch, the painter (1863), Edward G. Robinson (1893) & J. Bruce Ismay (1862)exec of the White Star line, notorious for not having gone down w/ his 'unsinkable' ship, in the spring of 1912, It's a deathday shared by such actors as Talullah Bankhead (1968), Douglas Fairbanks (1939), & Anne Baxter (1985), the "Eve" of whom the great film was "All About."

The 12th of December was special to me because it was on that date, in 1968, that my validation-starved, deeply dorky 17-year-old self was inducted into my high school's chapter of the Nat'l Honor Society. The actress Celeste Holm, who was so delightful in All About Eve, once said, "We live by encouragement & die w/o it - slowly, sadly, angrily.' ...at many a place of employment, if one is fortunate enough to have one. I had had one since the fall of 1982, at Current, Inc. in Colorado Springs. I worked so hard there and was such a fool, back in the days before I gave up men forever. By the 12th of December, 1989, Ms. Holm's words were all too relevant. No one wants to be deemed animate office furniture, however useful. So I turned in my notice. Never a regret in all these years, but gosh that was a great job while it lasted. All of those people I worked w/ there, as far as I know, it's over for all of them now. Wasn't there a Merle Haggard song about nothing being so insecure as a secure job? Oh baby.