So, I know it doesn't mean all that much right now, today, here in the scramble, the tangle of the multi-faceted present tense, knowing that today's the anniversary of the births of soprano Jenny Lind, P.T. Barnum's "Swedish nightingale" (1820) & Geo. Westinghouse, the inventor, in 1846. I'm thinking that I when I cast a backward glance & find out that a pair of long-gone actresses (Carole Lombard & Janet Gaynor) once shared an Oct 6 birthday, back in a vanished world in which audiences would set aside their troubles to sit in the dark together, watching black & silver-white stories gleaming - well, these factoids lend meaning to the day. So here we are, sloshing through the latest in an exceedingly long line of days labeled 6th of October. Souls are stepping through the 6 Oct slot, onto time's conveyor belt, into the bodies of infants, whose dear ones, I hope, will make a cake for them. Some crackpot aunt will note - 'hey, you have the same birthday as Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian explorer who built & navigated a seagoing time machine. Isn't that neat? Maybe he was born on a day just like this, except it was in 1914 & everything in Europe had gone to hell, but still...'

Pudding Lane

So, do you care to know that the last queen of Hawaii was born on this day in history? Liliuokalani. 1838, the year that George Sand, a.k.a. Baroness Dudevant, won Chopin's love, the genius's dubious ardor. [Oh, do, if you haven't, see Impromptu, the glorious 1991 film re: their affair].. The soprano Jenny Lind, a.k.a. "Swedish Nightingale," made her debut in Stockholm that year - oh to be able to peer back in time, see the audience that night.....Lamplight on excited faces. Elaborately tied cravats. Satin slippers. Whisper rush & crackle of heavy silk & taffeta. Oh you know that the iron boot heel of the patriarchy was firmly planted on the necks of women & girls then. Ah well, those who had menfolk w/ deep pockets could console themselves by dressing up total doll-baby. The European dress styles were marvelously poofy-foufy. Note the horrid [except for Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy] 1940 film version of Pride & Prejudice. Don't even ask why the Bennet ladies were dressed pretty much 1830s. Anachronism & ruffles.

No? Well then let me remind you that today's the anniversary of the surrender [long goddam horrid time coming] of the militarized, god help 'em, Japanese Empire. 1945.

No? Then I'll point out that it was in the wee-est hours of the 2nd of Sept. 1666 when a fire broke out in a bakery in Pudding Lane. The Great Fire of London had begun. Before it was over three days later - oh man, before the conflagration, the fiery hellish business, was over... not a scene I wish even to ponder.