Happy Birthday, Mr Dickens

There is no shortage of online material for Charles Dickens enthusiasts for the natal day (& year) celebration. Those fortunate to live in London, should visit the Charles Dickens Museum. Online, they have a creative writing project for students. There are resource links for parents & teachers, as well. (The museum will close in April for renovations so plan accordingly.)

A new-to-us David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page looks excellent. So many links to good sites, synopses, illustration information, & much more. And, of course, Dickens 2012 is birthday central.

ciao-pip-pip-meow/GGCM

(photograph by Bob Penn)

Happy Birthday, Madiba!

Celebrate Nelson Mandela International Day by visiting the Mandela Foundation website. Find out what you can do to emulate a true hero & an inspiration every single day. Happy birthday!

ciao-meow/GGCM

(photograph by Alet van Huyssteen via Mandela Foundation)

Wish Audrey a Happy Birthday

It's Audrey Hepburn's birthday - she would have been 82 years old today. There's a contest on Just Being Audrey's Facebook page. Upload a photo or video of you dressed like AH or doing something appropriately AH, & win a copy of Just Being Audrey & a print illustration. Post by May 11, winners announced the 12th. There will be 5 winners.

Off to look at wardrobe options for Giulia.

ciao-darling-meow/GG Central

PS: Remember to check out illustrator Julia Denos' adorable The Cinnamon Rabbit.

(Funny Face still by Bill Avery via Audrey Hepburn-Annex)

Strawberry Fields Forever

Visit Imagine Peace & send your best wishes in honor of John's 70th birthday. Also, remember to play The Beatles (always!) & dance wildly like Giulia. (It helps.)   
ciao-peace-meow/GG & her editor

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

GG & her editor extend warmest best wishes, a lei, & a virtual slice o'cake to President Obama. We'd say "have a perfectly wonderful day" but we cannot work miracles, sir. GG hopes you have your favorite meal tonight (in Chicago), though.

ciao-aloha-meow/GG Central

From today's Writer's Almanac: Today is President Barack Obama's (books by this author) 49th birthday. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on this day in 1961, despite whatever you've heard of the contrary. He's the author of the New York Times best-selling books Dreams from My Father (1995) and The Audacity of Hope (2006).

[GG photo collage from many sources who are not very nice about baby or grown-up President Obama. (Shame on you!) So we'll attribute the family photos to "the Googley-tubes"]

Hemingway's Cats

Today is Ernest Hemingway's birthday & we're celebrating with a little tour down Key West way. GG is jealous of the cool lives these cats lead in the laid-back tropics (& of their lineage, of course). GG would dearly love extra "toes". (Her Nibs has been informed that it is an unattractive thing, envy. Didn't make an impression.)

Here's a terrific link to the Hemingway Home & Museum. There are photographs of the cats (there's even one named Audrey Hepburn), a live cat-cam, & explanations about the cats in the writer's life, how they are cared for now (they're quite well-off, thank you very much), & the history of cats on Key West.

The largest available archive of Hemingway material is at the JFK Presidential Library & Museum, here. You can read Hemingway's short story Cat in the Rain, here (a pdf download).

ciao-meow/GG's literary editor

[photographs of Hairy Truman via LA Times blog, Hemingway with kitten via JFK Library & Museum & Hemingway Home & Museum]

The Morning is Full

The morning is full of storm
in the heart of summer.

The clouds travel like white handkerchiefs of
goodbye,
the wind, travelling, waving them in its hands.

Pablo Neruda
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (translation by W.S. Merwin)

Happy birthday to Pablo Neruda from GG Central. Giulia seems to be feeling rather dramatic this morning. She's flung herself on the floor, sighing several times. We're pretty sure this has nothing to do with Pablo Neruda. Off to investigate.

ciao-sigh-meow/GG's editor

Giulia Geranium Turns Two!

Giulia seems unaware of this turning point because her to-do list consists of two items: causing trouble, being cute. However, her editor must search for photographs, beg for money for various causes, & generally make a pest of herself. Caught up short (again) this year, we turn to Hazel at The Clever Pup who created this marvellous multi-media geranium for GG's last birthday. We love it & are happy to show it today.

By the by, The Clever Pup has a terrific etsy shop, The Plum Plum (points if you can guess the name's provenance) with accompanying blog, here. We've purchased several things & are very pleased with them. Go for it--lovely work, excellent prices, made by an non-enslaved worker. What's not to like? (Really, if you think of a good reason, contact GG's editor on her blog.)

A donation to Darfur Peace & Development's Women's Center (the new baskets have arrived!) on behalf of Giulia's birthday would also be a fabulous tribute to the Royal Redhead.

ciao-mille-grazie-meow/GG Central

[image by Hazel Smith/all rights reserved/used with permission]

Dylan & Sylvia

Update: Illness continues, along with non-negotiable errands out in the rain. Not promising. Therefore, a little birthday repeat from the archives.(GG is not acting up at the moment -- as she was this day last year -- but she'll make up for it, no doubt.)

*********************

No, we're not morbid. Why do you ask? Because anyone who posts anything about Sylvia Plath must be: 1) morbid; 2) full of teen-age angst; 3) fill in the blank? Nah. We just like a lot of her work. We do wish that acolytes who seem to have read only The Bell Jar, Lady Lazarus, & Daddy would, uh, read more. And for heaven's sake, quit going on about Ted Hughes; read his poetry, too. Today, is also the natal day of the greatest Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.

GG is acting up, again. We throw up our hands. There is much interesting news, recipes, fashion, literary tales, newly-discovered blogs to mention. But no time. So here's a recipe for Welsh rarebit (not rabbit!) from the Joy of Cooking. (The cookbook was very important to Plath.) Additionally, here are two poems from each troubled, but honored, poet.

Cheers,
GG's poetry editor

[illustration via Vintage Holiday Crafts]

Happy Birthday to the Cleverest of Pups - Week's End

A brief break in zee hiatus to wish The Clever Pup's author a lovely birthday tomorrow, Friday, 26 June. We are so keen that you visit her that we're giving you the hint a day early. Go forth & learn to be clever (& give her your best wishes). Now. (GG is bossy, what can we say?)

a ciao-cheeky-happy-birthday-meow to Mme. Pup!

[Study of a girl with ringlets teaching her dog to sit up, 1930s / by Sam Hood/State Library of New South Wales archives]

Get your tootsie-frootsie ice cream here! (& a geranium from the Cleverest of Pups)

A huge thank you to The Clever Pup for not only a congratulations on our one-year achievement but original art! She has lifted our seriously sagging spirits after a long slog home. More on Mme Pup soon--when we can do her justice. But go, just go to her site. A fascinating (& of course, clever) experience awaits you. Merci, mille grazie, Pup!

For the uninitiated "tootsie-frootsie ice cream" is a famous line in A Day at the Races. It never fails to crack up GG's editor, even in these tough times. The sprinkled ice cream cone image is another gift, available to all bloggers, musicians, indies, non-profits, etc. Go here for professional D. Sharon Pruitt's flickr set for people like GG's editor! Here is her professional website, Pink Sherbet Photography.

un grand bisou! xo/GG Central

Giulia Geranium Turns One!

Well... officially created on 4 May 2008, a Sunday afternoon (In Defense of Hello Kitty); daily posts began in mid-July leading up to the Beijing Olympics (see all the Darfur postings). However, we did begin on 4 May '08, & posted in June, & July. GG's editor is, after all, a trained historian, reporter, (& other things, think nine lives) & nit-picky about (too much ). Due to some circumstances way beyond our control, we're not prepared with a great photo of GG, cakes, or anything close. A year ago, we thought for sure that we'd have a camera, full-time work, & a good Internet connection. What a year. (You can interpret that any which way you like!) [LIFE archival photograph credit]

GG's editor is away most of tomorrow (Monday) to have a stress-induced cracked tooth (I know!) tended to. GG will be pulling azalea blooms out of a pottery jug & watching a DVD. As usual, we ask you to visit Darfur Peace & Development Organization or any of the sites on this page. GG really loves Enough Project, too, because of the orange logos. But really, many wonderful people visit Giulia's site & a lot of them linked to us, so talk amongst yourselves.

We thank the many photographers & artists who have allowed us to use their original work here. You are wonderful & generous.

Have a great Monday & thanks for stopping by. Oh, & that defense of HK? Still forthcoming....masterpieces, they cannot be rushed.

a sheepish ciao-meow, GG's editor

Mr. Lincoln in our neighborhood...

Laboring under fear of power outage, this is necessarily short & scattered. Happy 200th birthday to our beloved 16th President. Yesterday, we picked up the special combined February Obama Inauguration celebration edition of the Voice (Takoma Park & Silver Spring, MD). (For those who live outside the DC-area, we should explain that for a gazillion years, snarky people who think themselves clever, have referred to this area as "the Berkeley of the East" (which isn't bothersome) but really bad, The People's Republic of Takoma Park. They include Silver Spring, particularly GG's neighborhood. As human rights workers, egad, the People's Republic? As in China? Boooooo.)

Anyway, in the Voice issue, there is wonderful article [a pdf file] by Jerry McCoy, tireless head of the Silver Spring Historical Society. Jerry has some wonderful SSHS information about Lincoln in GG's neighborhood. After all, we're only about 6 miles from the White House. There are some terrific illustrations & photos courtesy of SSHS & others. Meanwhile, today we intend to purchase our new Lincoln stamps. We figure the new Lincoln penny will make its way into our change purse eventually.

Reading anything by Walt Whitman would be a nice poetry tribute today--he loved Lincoln & after all, lived in DC & worked as a nurse here during the Civil War.

Also today is the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin--fascinating man. We cannot do him justice, but Adam Gopnik, New Yorker contributor & author pays tribute to both men in his new slim volume Angels & Ages: How Darwin & Lincoln Ushered in the Modern World. Here is a February Smithsonian magazine article adapted from the book.

ciao-meow,
GG's wind-blown editor

(GG photo collage from new USPS Lincoln postage stamps)

Happy Birthday to Oscar

Oscar Wilde was born this day in 1854 in Dublin. There are so many sites devoted to him but here are some good links. GG's editor has used an Oscar quote for her main email address for years. Everyone comments on it the first time they receive an email. It's quite clearly attributed to O.W. so we suppose the compliments concern our good taste & sense of humor. We accept the compliments but, really, how difficult is it to find a great Oscar quote? Have a great evening.

GG Central Mgmt.

Happy Birthday, Bon Anniversaire, Trina!

GG's editor wishes her very dear friend Trina, in Germany, a wonderful day & year. They were university students together in Strasbourg (let's not say how long ago) & share a birthday week. Above are Trina's darling pups, Rocky & Termi. We hear storiesa about their hijinks--quite a handful. GG would fit right in. A French-Italian redheaded cat with (real) German dachsunds? No problem. We are all friends, now.

xoxo, GG Central

Une femme d'un certain age

Well, no we didn't start out with their looks in the first place...but still...it gives one hope!

Bon weekend, nos amis.
xoxo, GG's editor

Do I dare to eat a peach?

GG acknowledges T.S. Eliot’s birthday today. After all, he did love cats. (The musical is certainly not his fault.) The poem is especially à propos as there is a natal day at GG Central soon.

Isabel's Birthday Berry Trifle

Happy Birthday, Bella Isabel!

It is just like our dear friend, the sophisticated September-born Isabel, to have berry trifle for her birthday instead of the expected. GG Central has about 5,000 pix of Isabel & wouldn't you know it, we're in the midst of a reorganization of all photos. (Out-of-date, slapdash collage will be replaced in a break with GGCM editorial policy.)

Also, we owe an apology to the lovely Imogen, Isabel's sister pictured in the Christmas photo, as her birthday was last week. GG's editor promises to get back up to speed as soon as possible. Meanwhile, a wonderful evening & weekend to Isabel, Imogen, & their parents K&J. We'll publish K's personal berry trifle recipe soon, along with an all-about-Nigella post.

xoxo, baci, & happy birthday, darlings!

GG & her overworked editor

Lily Grace & Lucy Hannah - Happy Birthday, Bon Anniversaire, Buon Compleanno!

Ciao-meow, bisou, baci!

GG Central

3rd Annual Julia Child Birthday Celebration - Champaign Taste Blog

Julia's celebration continues. GG's editor was mistaken about Champaign Taste blog--they did not have a recipe contest but rather a Third Annual Celebration of Julia's life (which is a much nicer idea, really) & it's a doozy. There are gorgeous, mouth-watering photographs of dishes prepared by several food bloggers.

Many thanks to Lisa, Champaign Taste's author for the sweet tribute. There are so many great recipes & pix on her site, that we'll just include the video of Julia making an omelette that we already planned (and is in Lisa's blog, as well) & leave the rest for another day. Julia's Vichyssoise recipe will be posted later this month or in early September to take advantage of the leek & potato harvest. Bon Appétit!

Bon weekend, amici...

GG