Boston Marathon

Today is The Boston Marathon

Boston to Marathon is 41190.507 stadia, or 4,735 mi

On September 14, 1992, The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared the breakaway Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia to be illegal.  This is the Balkans here, and  a balkanized chunk thereof without much of a history of independent statehood.  Nonetheless, true to form it followed the rule that arbitrarily created and fused breakaway nouveau political entities refuse and meet with force if necessary any attempts by ethnic or political factions therein to form smaller breakaway nouveau political entities.  This pattern is also almost invariably supported by the larger international community, which is theoretically supportive of plebiscites but in reality has no fondness whatsoever for same.  That this generally causes no cognitive dissonance supports the theory that the whole idea and process of the formation and dissolution of nation states does not involve cognition

On this day in history:

1741 – George Frideric Handel completed his Messiah.
1752 – The British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar
1812 – The French Grande Armée entered Moscow. 
1814 – Francis Scott Key. wrote "Defence of Fort McHenry" aka the US National Anthem.
1917 – The Russian Empire was officially replaced by the Russian Republic.
1959 – The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashed onto the Moon
1960 – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded.
1960 – The CIA backed coup by Mobutu Sese Seko in the Congo
1969 – The US Selective Service selected September 14 as the First Draft Lottery date.
1984 – Joe Kittinger became the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic 
1985 – Penang Bridge, connecting the island of Penang to the mainland, opened to traffic.
1992 – The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared the breakaway Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia to be illegal.
2000 – Micro$oft released Windows Me widely considered to be the worst os of all time
2015 – The first observation of gravitational waves was made but not announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations until February 11,  2016

Born this day in:

1713 – Johann Kies, astronomer and mathematician
1769 – Alexander von Humboldt, geographer and explorer
1804 – John Gould, ornithologist and illustrator
1816 – Mary Hall Barrett Adams, book editor and letter writer
1843 – Lola Rodríguez de Tió, poet, abolitionist, and women's rights activist
1857 – Julia Platt, embryologist and politician
1860 – Hamlin Garland, novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer
1867 – Charles Dana Gibson, illustrator
1868 – Théodore Botrel, singer, songwriter, poet, and playwright
1879 – Margaret Sanger, nurse and activist
1883 – Richard Gerstl, painter and illustrator
1909 – Peter Scott, ornithologist, painter, and sailor (
1915 – John Dobson, astronomer and author, designed the Dobsonian telescope 
1916 – Eric Bentley, singer, playwright, and critic
1918 – Cachao López, bassist and composer
1920 – Alberto Calderón,  mathematician and academic
1928 – Jay Cameron, reed player and saxophonist
1934 – Sarah Kofman, philosopher and academic
1934 – Kate Millett, author and activist
1934 – Don Walser, singer, songwriter and, guitarist
1936 – Ferid Murad, physician and pharmacologist
1936 – Lucas Samaras, painter and photographer
1937 – Renzo Piano, architect and engineer
1941 – Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, civil rights activist
1941 – Alberto Naranjo, drummer, composer, and bandleader
1941 – Alex St. Clair, guitarist and songwriter
1942 – Oliver Lake, saxophonist, flute player, and composer
1942 – Roger Lyons, trade union leader
1943 – Irwin Goodman, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1943 – Marcos Valle, singer, songwriter, pianist, and producer
1947 – Jon Bauman, singer
1948 – Marc Reisner, environmentalist and author
1949 – Steve Gaines, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1949 – Ed King, guitarist and songwriter
1949 – Tommy Seebach, singer, songwriter, pianist, and producer
1949 – Fred "Sonic" Smith, guitarist and songwriter
1949 – Eikichi Yazawa, singer, songwriter
1950 – Paul Kossoff, guitarist, and songwriter
1950 – John Steptoe, author and illustrator
1954 – Barry Cowsill, singer, songwriter, keyboard player, and producer
1955 – William Jackson, harp player and composer
1958 – Arlindo Cruz, singer and songwriter
1958 – Beth Nielsen Chapman, singer and songwriter
1959 – John Berry, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1967 – John Power, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1970 – Craig Montoya, singer, songwriter, and bass player
1970 – Mark Webber, guitarist
1971 – Jeff Loomis, guitarist and songwriter
1971 – Andre Matos, singer, songwriter, and pianist

Died this day in:

There have been daring people in the world who claimed that Cooper could write English, but they are all dead now -- all dead but Lounsbury. I don't remember that Lounsbury makes the claim in so many words, still he makes it, for he says that "Deerslayer" is a "pure work of art." Pure, in that connection, means faultless -- faultless in all details -- and language is a detail. If Mr. Lounsbury had only compared Cooper's English with the English he writes himself -- but it is plain that he didn't; and so it is likely that he imagines until this day that Cooper's is as clean and compact as his own. Now I feel sure, deep down in my heart, that Cooper wrote about the poorest English that exists in our language, and that the English of "Deerslayer" is the very worst that even Cooper ever wrote.

I may be mistaken, but it does seem to me that "Deerslayer" is not a work of art in any sense; it does seem to me that it is destitute of every detail that goes to the making of a work of art; in truth, it seems to me that "Deerslayer" is just simply a literary delirium tremens.

A work of art? It has no invention; it has no order, system, sequence, or result; it has no lifelikeness, no thrill, no stir, no seeming of reality; its characters are confusedly drawn, and by their acts and words they prove that they are not the sort of people the author claims that they are; its humor is pathetic; its pathos is funny; its conversations are -- oh! indescribable; its love-scenes odious; its English a crime against the language.

Counting these out, what is left is Art. I think we must all admit that.

Mark Twain on James Fenimore Cooper,  from Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses by Mark Twain, a true joy to read, which may be found here: https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/offense.html  as well as a great follow-up essay here: http://strangebeautiful.com/other-texts/twain-coopers-prose-style.pdf 

1321 – Dante Alighieri, writer

1712 – Giovanni Domenico Cassini, mathematician, astronomer, and engineer

1715 – Dom Pérignon, monk and priest
1851 – James Fenimore Cooper, novelist, short story writer, and historian
1927 – Isadora Duncan, dancer and choreographer
1981 – Furry Lewis, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1989 – Pérez Prado, singer, songwriter, pianist and band leader
2015 – Martin Kearns, drummer

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Boston Marathon Day
Eat a Hoagie Day
Gobstopper Day
National Cream-Filled Donut Day

Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies