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dwellordream · 3 years ago

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“Much of Victorian girlhood can be explained in the context of a lowering age of menarche among daughters of the urban bourgeoisie. Adults often denied the earlier maturing of their daughters, or worried about it and attempted to fend it off obliquely with a prolonged campaign against precociousness, leaving girls ignorant and alarmed at the arrival of menarche.

The pioneer woman physician Elizabeth Blackwell in 1852 was an early and unusually outspoken observer of the trend toward the earlier maturing of girls. In the middle of a long tract advocating more vigorous physical education for girls, Blackwell buried an empirical observation about the different ages at which menarche was occurring: ‘‘The growth of the generative organs is greatly influenced by the place of residence, whether town or country, and by the habits of different classes of society.’’

She noted the earliest arrival of menarche ‘‘in the wealthy classes,’’ followed by those ‘‘amongst the laboring population of towns,’’ with the lowest rate of all to be found ‘‘amongst the inhabitants of the mountain districts.’’ Blackwell’s demographic observation came to a point: ‘‘It was observed in the same city, that in the children of the wealthy classes, this period was more than a year in advance of the lower classes.’’ Blackwell’s impressionistic observation that wealthy girls were menstruating as much as a year before the working class remained just that for much of the rest of the century. Her insight was reflected in oblique debates about precociousness as a defining and disturbing trait of the modern girl.

Nearly a half-century later, Helen P. Kennedy interviewed 125 high school girls as part of a study of the effects of education on reproductive health, providing some data to substantiate Blackwell’s hunch. In asking her sample about their menstrual histories, she discovered a discrepancy between her findings and medical wisdom. She noted that among her population of high school girls (then seventeen years old) the average age of first menstruation was 13.72 years of age. She observed, ‘‘This is nearly a year younger than the age given by Playfair, Lusk and other obstetricians,’’ which was closer to fifteen.

Late-century physicians did not have the empirical evidence to keep up with the declining age of menarche resulting from improved standards of living. When they did offer advice they were off by at least a year. Historians have estimated that age at menarche declined at the rapid rate of one year every thirty years over the late nineteenth century, a trend which would accord with Blackwell’s observation and Kennedy’s findings. Extrapolating back from trends in the United States, one might conjecture that just past the age of fifteen was normative for 1850, fourteen for 1880, and thirteen for 1910.

(Despite recent attention in the press, the trend has virtually stopped over the past few decades as prosperity is distributed more broadly through all socio- economic groups.) Some parents maintained an ideal of sixteen for the age of puberty through the late nineteenth century, however, while physicians announced a mean of fifteen. In fact, the daughters of the bourgeoisie were likely to reach menarche at the age of fourteen and younger—and to confront that fact with little preparation.

This scientific confusion about the age of menarche both reflected and fed an anxiety about what it might mean that girls were maturing earlier, and especially that urban girls with advantages were growing up fastest of all. Elizabeth Blackwell decried the declining age of menarche, arguing that it was a ‘‘premature development’’ resulting from ‘‘rich food, luxurious habits, mental stimulus, novel reading, late hours, and over-heated apartments.’’ She urged families to throw their influence against the tide of precociousness, a phenomenon that Blackwell felt was reversible.

Her proposed solution was exercise, in which she early elaborated an insight known today to athletes around the world: ‘‘The physical education of the body, its perfectly healthy development, delays the period of puberty, and . . . a true education in which all the bodily powers were strengthened as well as the mental and moral ones, would be the most effectual means of outrooting this evil.’’ She argued that the evil of early menarche resulted from ‘‘a diseased mind in a diseased body.’’ When Helen Kennedy discovered that girls were maturing a year earlier than the doctors were predicting, she too knew just what had to be responsible: city life. She noted that ‘‘the mode of life’’ brought about early menstruation ‘‘appearing earlier in girls living in cities than those living in the country.’’ Commentators observed that modernity was responsible for the moral crisis represented by early menstruation.

Fears of precocious sexuality in girls often made parents and advisers reluctant to broach the subject of menarche until it was too late. When they did get around to discussing reproductive physiology, they presented the subject in the rhetoric of romantic mystification. As scientific moderns, we blame Victorian mothers and advice givers for their failure to provide straight talk to girls. Yet the Victorian romanticization of the female body conveyed significantly more respect, if not more information, than often misogynist premodern visions of the female body. Especially in contrast to earlier notions of the differences between women and men, which saw women as inferior and imperfectly developed men, the nineteenth-century’s romantic explanations of female physiology had much to recommend them.

Enlightenment, scientific and popular thought in western Europe agreed that men and women represented different stages in development along a similar trajectory. Female reproductive anatomy, with organs inside the pelvic area, were simply less advanced than male reproductive organs, which had descended outside. The difference between the two sexes was a difference not in kind but in evolution. (Indeed, medical drawings of the different sexes virtually mirror each other.) In this ‘‘one-sex’’ model, women and men shared sexual appetite, and the sexual climax of both was necessary for conception to take place. As befit the more primitive sex, women lacked reason, strength, and self-control. In this premodern vision, women’s sexual anatomy and reproductive function marked their incompleteness. Menstruation was a shameful marker of that imperfection.

The empiricism of the Enlightenment broke down cosmic and scientific typologies of all kinds, including the notion of men and women’s reproductive similarity. Revolutionary thinking of the late eighteenth century introduced a new model of sex difference which argued ‘‘incommensurability’’— that men and women were fundamentally different, that there were not only two sexes but two different orders of being. Women’s greater attendance at church and special responsibility for family life allowed for a new understanding of sex differences which celebrated not only differences of physiology but differences of temperament and morality. Women’s moral superiority came coupled with new ideas about female sexuality. Women were no longer defined by their carnality, their inability to control their passions, but rather by their relative ‘‘passionlessness.’’

The discovery that female orgasm was not necessary for conception meant that women might be different beings than men, less subject to impulse and desire rather than more so. Under this new two-sex model, women were men’s equals but occupied a separate sphere, defined by their moral and spiritual superiority, though not their intellectual preeminence. The language with which advisers attempted to explain puberty to American girls adopted a reverence deriving from this relatively new notion of the sacredness of female reproduction.

…In a maternalist culture, which raised daughters to be wives and mothers, there seems to have been considerable silence and indirection between mothers and daughters on the central facts of puberty. Such anecdotal and social science evidence as we have documents that ignorance. The British physician Edward Tilt, writing of the late nineteenth century, noted that a quarter of his female patients had been left totally ignorant of the menstrual cycle so that ‘‘when their first menstruation occurred, many were frightened, screamed, or even went into fits. Some thought themselves wounded and frantically tried to wash the blood away.’’

The statistics of Kennedy’s interviews suggest that a similar percentage of American girls confronted menstruation with no preparation. Kennedy was shocked at the ignorance which she discovered, a finding she expressed in the language of Victorianism. Thirty-six of her population she said ‘‘had passed into womanhood with no knowledge whatever, from a proper source, of all that makes them women.’’ This group had received no instruction from their mothers at all, and another thirty-nine indicated they had not ‘‘talked fully.’’ Fewer than half of her sample had talked ‘‘freely,’’ a finding which Kennedy described as ‘‘criminal ignorance.’’ (About a half had fully discussed the issue, and another quarter had ‘‘talked in a constrained way.’’) Looking at this same period, the historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg has concluded that girls’ knowledge about menstruation declined in the late nineteenth century before going up again in the twentieth century in response to new mandates to scientific mothering.

This is not to say that girls were well instructed in less-privileged circumstances with less domestic privacy. There’s evidence that in rural America and on the frontier, too, in the nineteenth century, parents went to some lengths to conceal the details of childbirth, for one, from daughters. Robert Clark’s depiction of farm girl Ada Harris’s 1873 diary when she was thirteen records her responses to her mother’s morning sickness before the birth of her last child. ‘‘We were all scart,’’ Ada’s diary reported. Clark observes: ‘‘The part of her that was still a child did not know, and none of the grown-ups told her, that her mother was pregnant with the last of her babies, who would be born in July.’’

Similarly, Mabel Barbee Lee’s account of growing up on the frontier includes a wrenching banishment from home upon her mother’s mysterious ‘‘sickness’’; only after the fact did she discover that her departure had allowed for the birth of her brother. Farm life likely did not make parents more com- municative and direct with children. Yet it may well have allowed for the kind of informal education by observation that over the centuries has inculcated children into ‘‘the way things are.’’

In the bourgeois home of the city, animal functions moved behind doors in conjunction with a new imperative to communicate within the Enlightenment family. The need to talk in an uplifting manner about a shameful subject produced a rhetoric of excruciating indirection on the ‘‘facts of life.’’ Elias notes the increasing intensity of familial relations themselves as both incentive and impediment to open communication. Increasing social constraints on discussions of sexuality in the public world (as represented by the passage in 1873 of the Comstock laws barring ‘‘obscenity’’ in the U.S. mails) made it the parents’ responsibility to provide sex education; yet in Elias’s words, ‘‘the manifold love relationships between mother, father and child tend to increase resistance to speaking about these questions.’’

The indirection began with the advice writers. Marion Harland (aka Mary Virginia Terhune) endorsed the reverential language which contributed to the mystification of the subject. She sensibly urged mothers to teach their daughters not to hate their sex, ‘‘but to reverence ‘The Temple of the Body,’’’ and offered her book as a remedy for all women, whom she described as ‘‘a mighty class of human beings.’’ She urged them not to consider ‘‘the holiest mysteries of their natures an unclean thing,’’ nor to hold ‘‘carelessly the sublimest possibilities of their kind.’’ Yet when it came right down to it, she could do scarcely better than anyone else. ‘‘When Mamie approaches you with the inevitable—and, I submit, perfectly natural and proper—questionings about the Unknown Country peopled by unborn infants, tell her that God sends them to the earth in charge of His holy angels; that since babies must have fathers to work for them abroad, and mothers to tend them at home, He waits until after marriage before He gives them.’’

Perhaps realizing how unsatisfactory an explanation this might seem, she suggested a posture of finality so as to discourage further questions: ‘‘Say it so simply and solemnly as to calm curiosity.’’ A few pages on, she returned to the ‘‘facts of life,’’ this time providing a more biological accounting with medical terminology. She suggested that parents literally begin with a treatise on botany—‘‘I know of none better than Gray’s ‘How Plants Grow,’—and read with her of the beautiful laws of fructification and reproduction.’’ She then recommended a fairly straightforward accounting of ovarian function, with reference to ‘‘periodical flow,’’ and so on.

Even Mary Virginia Terhune balked at the next step, though. After urging her pupils not to be afraid to thus label ova or eggs, she proceeded to reveal her own sticking point. How did this explain life? ‘‘From these, by some mysterious law of the loving oneness of the married state, are evolved the germs of living human beings.’’ After this brave foray, she proceeded to congratu- late herself—and her class of maternal tutees. ‘‘That is the plain truth—and all of it! What a thing of purity is it beside the trickeries of ribald-mongers, the meretricious maunderings of sensational fiction; the phantoms created in the imaginations of timid school-children by hints and double-entendre, and midnight confabulation upon themes which any girl who cherishes a spark of moral decency would blush to speak of by daylight!’’ This bravest of declarations left ‘‘mysterious law’’ and ‘‘loving oneness’’ at the heart of the matter.

…If Victorians were loath to anticipate and educate girls about the particulars of sexuality and reproduction, they were not so hesitant to spell out the appropriate conduct for a girl once her ‘‘monthlies’’ had begun. Good health demanded regular exercise before and after—though not during—menstrual periods. It was Annie Winsor’s father, a country physician, to whom she addressed her questions about menstrual health in writing when she was away from home. (Presumably her father represented ‘‘the age of science’’ she would refer to in contrast to her mystifying mother.) Earlier, such knowledge would undoubtedly have been the province of women rather than doctors.

Frederick Winsor’s instructions to ‘‘My Nannie girl’’ included reassurance about sleeping posture (‘‘suit yourself’’) and washing. (In suggesting sponging during the menses itself, he was modifying—slightly—a myth that girls should not bathe during their periods.) Following the concerns of the time about prolapsed uterus, he instructed his daughter that if she jumped from a fence with knees bent ‘‘so that they may ‘give’ a little and not [inflict] a shock stiffly to the trunk, [it] will do the pelvic organs no harm,’’ while cautioning, ‘‘Of course at the time of monthly illness . . . you will not be climbing fences etc.’’

Annie wrote to her father again, perhaps the next year, about mountain climbing (protecting her letter from her home family’s reading with the heading ‘‘Professional private’’). She had hiked up ‘‘Mt. Willard on the fifth day of my monthly turn when I generally do as I like.’’ She noted that the flow picked up a bit but assured him, ‘‘I felt all the better for my walk.’’ She then asked for advice on her plan to climb the more demanding Mount Lafayette. This seemed extreme to her father, who advised against the climb ‘‘unless you are assured that it is not severe for a woman.’’ Frederick Winsor, like the other physicians of the era, assumed authority over the subject of girls’ menstruation, and counseled in particular against jarring, sudden motion as threatening to the organs’ delicate maturation.

Thus Sally Dana reported having been told by a doctor that ‘‘I must not run up stairs fast because . . . it was bad for girls of my age but that I might run down stairs as fast as I wanted to.’’ Ohio school boards too worried about sending high school girls up and down stairs ‘‘as a menace to normal functional development’’ and proposed installing elevators or building schools no more than two stories high. Girls were warned off tennis but encouraged to play ‘‘baddledore’’ (akin to badminton), ‘‘a very nice game for girls.’’ The protective sentiments of Victorian experts were perhaps best embodied in the publication in 1904 of G. Stanley Hall’s magnum opus Adolescence, in which this important psychologist and theorist extended Victorian thinking about the needs of the maturing girl.

Hall imagined an ideal calendar in which maturing girls would follow their own biological clock, ideally ‘‘lying fallow’’ for about a quarter of the time. In urging girls to regard their fecundity with reverence, he commended the practice of isolation during menarche, as practiced by other cultures in the tepee or the grot. His corollary for Western society was the Sabbath. ‘‘The time may come when we must even change the divisions of Sabbaths per year for woman, leaving to man his week and giving to her the same number of Sabbaths per year, but in groups of four successive days per month.’’ This plan he promoted as a strategy for helping menstrual cycles to be ‘‘well established and normal.’’

…When Helen Kennedy interviewed students in 1896, there seemed to be less ‘‘lying fallow,’’ at least among eighteen-year-olds. About two-thirds of the students she interviewed ‘‘made no change in their habits,’’ with the remain- ing third keeping ‘‘quieter, avoiding all violent exercise, and taking rest the first day or two if it were possible.’’ Going to high school sometimes made such rest impossible, but Kennedy was pleased to report the general health of her cohort. Kennedy did raise one cause for concern. She observed disapprovingly that one-half of her sample recklessly took ‘‘violent exercise’’ during menstruation—dancing, riding horseback, or skating, ‘‘as if nothing unusual were the matter.’’”

- Jane H. Hunter, “Interiors: Bodies, Souls, Moods.” in How Young Ladies Became Girls: The Victorian Origins of American Girlhood

#victorian #gender #menstruation #history #american #jane h. hunter #how young ladies became girls

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heartxshaped-bruises · 6 years ago

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what is your soul type?

TAGGED BY: snatched from dash TAGGING: @vitrexanima @ask-thedepressedkidatthetable @formuseskies @brokenblondeprincess @almostthesurvivor @xeffie-thredsonx @exs-et-ohs @gentlegently @geakwrites @poppixs

✧･ﾟAbel St. John >> Leader

It would be hard to imagine you being anything but the leader in any group. In fact, taking any kind of subservient role may feel demeaning to you. As a Leader type, you have a natural air of authority, and a charisma that makes you stand out in a crowd. (Think how out of place Elvis might have appeared if he’d stood in the background playing saxophone instead of being the front man.)

You bring to this life an innate wisdom, which is why people will look to you for advice. You may sometimes make decisions on your own without thinking to involve others, and once you’ve made up your mind, you may be reluctant to change it. This may work in an emergency, but in other circumstances it can give the impression that you are arrogant or condescending.

It can be hard to find good role models, given the scarcity of Leader types, but you can always refer to history to see how individuals such as Alexander the Great and John F. Kennedy used their leadership skills. Not every Leader becomes a president, of course, and many end up in humbler circumstances. You can always recognize Leaders by their inner confidence and occasionally by their coterie of followers or assistants.

✧･Davey Detten >> Performer

Performers are outgoing, charming people with a strong sense of fun. Because of their desire to communicate, they tend to be more talkative than many other soul types. If you are a Performer type, you’ll tend to be good with words and perhaps even show a dramatic flair when it comes to expressing yourself. You will generally feel comfortable being the focus of attention and may dress or behave in a way that attracts attention to you.

Your passionate nature and tendency to express strong emotions may make you appear a little volatile to more down-to-earth types. A caricature of this type would be an entertainer like Jim Carrey or Joan Rivers—both of whom share the Performer’s love of hamming it up.

More than any other type, the Performer needs the approval of others. You need to be told when you’ve done a good job. Speaking of jobs, you may find it unbearable to spend eight hours a day in a solitary cubicle—your need to connect with others is too strong. You may go out of the way to make your job fun or to entertain those around you just to keep things amusing.

#★ ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴ: ᴀʙᴇʟ ꜱᴛ. ᴊᴏʜɴ #★ ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴ: ᴅᴀᴠᴇʏ ᴅᴇᴛᴛᴇɴ #[ well -- that's freakin' accurate ]

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strideofpride · 3 years ago

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Jewish anon - ahh ty for the tv recommendations. I always find it weird that shows can have loads of Jewish Jewish anon here! Thanks for those tv recommendations. I always find it weird how a show can have a bunch of jewish writers and/or cast members but somehow still not really feel Jewish or be reluctant to dig into the Judaism of any canon Jewish characters. What do you think that is? Sorry for such a serious question.

I think they tone it down because the larger audience (as well as certain studio execs) is still anti-Semitic. It was only as recently as the 90s that I believe it was Brandon Tartikoff at NBC who said re: Seinfeld that “people didn’t want to see Jews, mustaches, or people from New York” or that Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson were asked by CBS to make Mr. Sheffield British because they didn’t think the audience would root for Fran if she was up against “real Americans”.

There’s also the larger pattern and issue of when they do tell stories centering Jews, they frequently cast goyim to play them (Mrs. Maisel, the RBG movie, the scrapped Joan Rivers project). Sarah Silverman had a really great speech about all of that and what it says that she, an actual Jewish woman, doesn’t get asked to play those parts but the “cunty boss” instead.

The whole Jews in Hollywood thing is just complicated overall. Of course, Jews don’t control Hollywood (if we did, Mel Gibson certainly wouldn’t be getting work) but Jews did have a very large part in the founding of the entertainment business (there was actually just a recent controversy of the Academy Museum minimizing this history). Joe Kennedy (JFK’s dad) even got involved in the movie business in the 20s because he wanted to take the movie business away from the Jews (I believe he said something much more anti-Semitic of course). But I think those Jewish studio heads often downplayed their heritage due to anti-Semitism.

And of course they were trying to assimilate as well. Jews spent much of the 20th century trying to "become more American", yiddish practically being a dead language at this point. That blends into our works as well; so many classic Christmas songs were written by Jews because of this very reason, trying to assimilate.

I don't know, I probably just did a very bad job explaining this, it's all very surface level reading of some really complex topics but I'll just leave it at this: pretty much every major American art form was shaped heavily by Jews: movies, TV, Broadway, comic books. So the fact that we still don't often get to see ourselves represented in those art forms is depressing as fuck.

(Only other Jews can add on to this post please)

#this is bad anon i'm sorry #anti semites will be blocked like always #anonymous #strideofprideanswers

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vxnomouspoxson-archived · 7 years ago

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Ernessa Matthews

Four Temperaments: Sanguine | Melancholic | Choleric | Phlegmatic

Your temperament is sanguine. The sanguine temperament is fundamentally spontaneous and pleasure-seeking; sanguine people are sociable and charismatic. They tend to enjoy social gatherings, making new friends and tend to be boisterous. They are usually quite creative and often daydream. However, some alone time is crucial for those of this temperament. Sanguine can also mean sensitive, compassionate and thoughtful. Sanguine personalities generally struggle with following tasks all the way through, are chronically late, and tend to be forgetful and sometimes a little sarcastic. Often, when they pursue a new hobby, they lose interest as soon as it ceases to be engaging or fun. They are very much people persons. They are talkative and not shy. Sanguines generally have an almost shameless nature, certain that what they are doing is right. They have no lack of confidence.

Hawthorn - The Illusionist May 13 - June 9 Hawthorn signs in Celtic tree astrology are not at all what they appear to be. Outwardly, they appear to be a certain persona, while on the inside Hawthorn's are quite different. They put the term "never judge a book by its cover" to the test. They live seemingly average lives while on the inside they carry fiery passions and inexhaustible creative flame. They are well adjusted and can adapt to most life situations well - making themselves content and comforting others at the same time. You are naturally curious, and have an interest in a broad range of topics. You are an excellent listener, and people seek you out as an outlet to release their burdens. You have a healthy sense of humor, and have a clear understanding of irony. You tend to see the big picture, and have amazing insight - although you typically won't give yourself enough credit for your observations. Hawthorn signs match up nicely with Ash and Rowan's

Performer Performers are outgoing, charming people with a strong sense of fun. Because of their desire to communicate, they tend to be more talkative than many other soul types. If you are a Performer type, you’ll tend to be good with words and perhaps even show a dramatic flair when it comes to expressing yourself. You will generally feel comfortable being the focus of attention and may dress or behave in a way that attracts attention to you.

Leader

Hogwarts House: Gryffindor | Hufflepuff | Ravenclaw | Slytherin

Badger Characteristics: Smallish - Patriotic - Protective - Passionate - Blunt - Aggressive

Life Path Number: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 22

People with a Life Path 3 are the most artistic in the bunch. You find ways of creating the most beautiful things in this world such as art, music, literature, etc. You breathe life into culture, and make it seem so simple because of your natural gift for expression. This explains why the entertainment industry is chock full of Life Path 3's. Noteworthy examples include: Chris Rock, Jackie Chan, Jamie Foxx, Nelly Furtado, Snoop Dogg, and Rihanna to name a few. Your mindset will do well by ignoring any cynics or defeatists you may come across. Stay headstrong with your creative outlet & true to you goals, and they will often pay off personally, financially, or both. All Life Path 3's tend to enjoy life and all that they can get out of it. The extraverted 3's love being in the spotlight and showing off their talent. On the other hand, introverted 3's lean more toward solitary creative pursuits that can garner them a following without being in the spotlight, such as an artist or writer.

Brain Lateralization Test: Left 34% | Right 72%

Right brain dominant individuals are more visual and intuitive. They are better at summarizing multiple points, picking up on what’s not said, visualizing things, and making things up. They can lack attention to detail, directness, organization, and the ability to explain their ideas verbally, leaving them unable to communicate effectively.

Tagged by: @ericbrandonrp

#• I am made out of stars and nightmares and blood off all that I killed • — headcanons

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thekennedyclan · 8 years ago

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What are some of the best Kennedy documents/films/biographies? I'd really love to learn more about the clan 😊

Hi there ! Sorry for my (very) late reply, I’m the worst - I see a message and then I forget all about it :(

Okay so here’s a list of my favorite stuff (**will update) :

Biographies

- The Joan Kennedy Story : Living with the Kennedys, by Marcia Chellis (1985) : Marcia was Joan’s personal assistant for 2-3 years, starting in 1979. They went through the 1980 presidential campaign together. I know Joan felt betrayed by the book saying : “I tried to talk her out of it three years ago when she told me the notes she took on the 1980 campaign would be used in a book. I told her I felt so betrayed. I think it’s a real breach of confidentiality” - but I gotta say, it’s really great if you want to feel like an insider. It’s a must-read, in my opinion. But I don’t agree with how she did all of this - Joan was her friend and she trusted her but she ended up betraying her for money… yeah. - Jackie, Ethel, Joan : The Women of Camelot, by J. Randy Taraborrelli (2000) : “Three women who married into America’s royal family and became forever linked in legend. Set against the panorama of explosive American history, this unique story offers a rarely-seen look at the relationship shared among the three women – during the Camelot years and beyond. Whether dealing with their husbands’ blatant infidelities, stumping for their many political campaigns, touring the world to promote their family’s legacy, raising their children, or confronting death, the Kennedy wives did it all with grace, style and dignity”- The Kennedy Women : The Saga of an American Family, by Laurence Leamer (1994). 800-page book with rather tiny writing, but it goes back to the Kennedy’s ancestors and talks about every single Kennedy woman. - After Camelot : A Personal History of the Kennedy Family – 1968 to the Present, by J. Randy Taraborrelli (2012) : Taraborrelli’s books tend to be a bit on the gossipy side, but I kinda like his style lol plus he does A LOT of research for his books (the source notes are always like, 40 pages long). The book is divided into the following parts : The lengthy an detailed tome is divided into the following parts: Jackie, Eunice, Sarge, Ted, Ethel, Jackie/Ari/The Lawfords, Sargent Tries Again, The Third Generation In Trouble, Poor Ari, Rosemary and Rose, Shriver for President, Ted’s 1980 campaign, David’s Story, Kennedy Upheaval, Caroline/John/Maurice, William Kennedy Smith and the Palm Beach Scandal, Kennedy Wives Old and New, Jackie: Her Final Years, John and Carolyn, Michael’s Story, A Peaceful Time, Camelot Loses its Prince, Transitions, and Looking Ahead. - Peter Lawford : The Man Who Kept the secrets, by James Spada (1991). (See the review that I made about a week ago). - Joan : The Reluctant Kennedy, by Lester David (1974) : It’s really interesting because he interviewed her a lot for it and you can learn about her childhood, her girlhood, etc. It’s really the only book that is strictly dedicated to her (well Marcia Chellis’ book kinda is too, but it’s more like a tell all, not a biography and it only talks about Joan’s life from 1979 to 1983). The only thing is that since the book was published in the 70s, it doesn’t cover the rest of Joan’s life. - The Other Mrs. Kennedy : Ethel Skakel Kennedy - An American Drama of Power, Privilege, and Politics, by Jerry Oppenheimer (1994). I didn’t think I’d be into this book at first, since I’ve never been particularly interested in Ethel. But it really is a page turner. - The Last Brother, by Joe McGinnis (1993). Excellent book about Ted. I really enjoyed the fact that there is no ass kissing at all (compared to the ‘Last Lion’, published by the Boston Globe). It really reveals the dysfunctionality of the family. I also like how he analyzes Ted, he’s very interesting, psychologically-speaking, cause he was trapped from the beginning: someone (…Joe Kennedy) chose a life path for him and that was it. The Washington Post trashed the book but don’t listen to them lol- The Kennedy Curse, by Edward Klein. (2003)

Documentaries/Movies/Series

- The Kennedys (2011). Watch here : http://www.watchfree.to/watch-27654b-The-Kennedys-tv-show-online-free-putlocker.html#close-modal - I’m currently rewatching it actually. It’s 8 episodes and it starts with JFK’s election and ends with JFK’s assassination. Greg Kinnear is excellent as JFK, and so is Barry Pepper as Bobby. As for Katie Holmes, sometimes she’s good and sometimes it’s a bit cringy (like when she tries to imitate Jackie’s soft, breathy voice). The new series, The Kennedys : After Camelot (which covers from 1964 to the 1990s I believe), based on J. Randy Taraborrelli’s book, will start in April on Reelz

-The JFK collection– 8 mini movies by the History channel (2013). Disc One contains three films. “JFK: A Personal Story Part 1”, JFK: A Personal Story Part 2 and “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis”. Disc Two contains four films “John F. Kennedy, Jr.: The Death of an American Prince”, “Joseph Kennedy, Sr.: Father of an American Dynasty”,“Robert F. Kennedy: His Many Sides” and “Ted Kennedy: Tragedy, Scandal, and Redemption” is the story of the life of the youngest Kennedy son, his scandals, and his life in politics. Disc Three contains the last film of the series, “JFK: Three Shots that Changed America.” **I’m afraid you’ll have to buy it, but I got it for pretty cheap on Ebay

- The Lost Kennedy Home Movies (2011).

#ragstocadillacs #Ask #Answer #Books #Documentaries #Recommendations #The Kennedys #Kennedy #Jackie Kennedy #Jacqueline Kennedy #JFK #John F. Kennedy #Movie #Film #Ethel Kennedy #Ted Kennedy #Edward M. Kennedy #joan bennett kennedy #joan kennedy

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resonations · 8 years ago

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THE ‘SOUL TYPE’ QUIZ

tagged by: @merakiis & @faillte // thanks a bunch !! : *** tagging: @airsft / @placaebic , @fragilefated , @hiiyaku / @killrball , @aeniiigma , @rosideae , @lindoboy , @ anyone else feel free to steal it !! again if you do it, tag me !!

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PERFORMER ( 13 )

performers are outgoing, charming people with a strong sense of fun. because of their desire to communicate, they tend to be more talkative than many other soul types. if you are a performer type, you’ll tend to be good with words and perhaps even show a dramatic flair when it comes to expressing yourself. you will generally feel comfortable being the focus of attention and may dress or behave in a way that attracts attention to you.

your passionate nature and tendency to express strong emotions may make you appear a little volatile to more down-to-earth types. a caricature of this type would be an entertainer like jim carrey or joan rivers—both of whom share the performer’s love of hamming it up.

more than any other type, the performer needs the approval of others. you need to be told when you’ve done a good job. speaking of jobs, you may find it unbearable to spend eight hours a day in a solitary cubicle—your need to connect with others is too strong. you may go out of the way to make your job fun or to entertain those around you just to keep things amusing.

LEADER ( 13 )

it would be hard to imagine you being anything but the leader in any group. in fact, taking any kind of subservient role may feel demeaning to you. as a leader type, you have a natural air of authority, and a charisma that makes you stand out in a crowd. ( think how out of place elvis might have appeared if he’d stood in the background playing saxophone instead of being the front man. )

you bring to this life an innate wisdom, which is why people will look to you for advice. you may sometimes make decisions on your own without thinking to involve others, and once you’ve made up your mind, you may be reluctant to change it. this may work in an emergency, but in other circumstances it can give the impression that you are arrogant or condescending.

it can be hard to find good role models, given the scarcity of leader types, but you can always refer to history to see how individuals such as alexander the great and john f. kennedy used their leadership skills. not every leader becomes a president, of course, and many end up in humbler circumstances. you can always recognize leaders by their inner confidence and occasionally by their coterie of followers or assistants.

second highest score(s): HUNTER ( 12 ).

#░ ┆❛ a step into your labyrinth. ( ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴ. )#// long post #this only became super long bc the scores were tied skfdjhk

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todaynewsstories · 6 years ago

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Tony award-winning U.S. playwright Neil Simon dies at 91

(Reuters) – U.S. playwright Neil Simon, who became one of Broadway’s most prolific and popular playwrights as he combined humor, drama and introspection in works such as “The Odd Couple,” “The Goodbye Girl” and “Lost in Yonkers,” died on Sunday at the age of 91, his representatives said.

Simon died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City of complications from pneumonia, Broadway theater representatives DKC/O&M said in a statement on Sunday. Simon was admitted to the hospital a few days ago and the pneumonia was in his lungs, Simon’s longtime publicist Bill Evans said in a Sunday phone interview. Evans said he gave Simon a kidney in 2004.

“It was wonderful to be in his life and for him to be in my life,” Evans said, calling Simon a major figure in American culture. “It has been so great to be part of all of it.”

Simon drew on his tumultuous New York Jewish upbringing in many of his works.

A new Simon play almost every theatrical season was a Broadway staple from 1960 through the mid-1990s, placing him in the ranks of America’s top playwrights. He wrote more than 40 plays that were funny, moving and immensely popular – sometimes shifting from slapstick to melodrama with the turn of a phrase.

At one point he had a record four plays running simultaneously on Broadway.

Simon was called “not just a show business success but an institution” by one New York critic. While his voice and comedy were decidedly East Coast and often reflected an ethnic Jewish experience, Simon’s works played to packed houses around the world.

He won Tony Awards for “The Odd Couple,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Lost in Yonkers” and a fourth for his overall contribution to American theater. He was nominated for 13 other Tonys.

“Lost in Yonkers” (1990), a painfully funny story about the relationship between an abusive mother and her grown children, also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1991.

Simon’s childhood was marred by the breakup of his parents. At first he was reluctant to draw on that pain, fearing it would make his plays too dark.

Later in his career he would use his own painful experiences, such as in the semi-biographical “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” to give his work more depth.

But being entertaining was his primary goal.

“When I was a kid, I climbed up on a stone ledge to watch an outdoor movie of Charlie Chaplin,” Simon once told Life magazine. “I laughed so hard I fell off, cut my head open and was taken to the doctor, bleeding and laughing.

“… My idea of the ultimate achievement in a comedy is to make a whole audience fall onto the floor, writhing and laughing so hard that some of them pass out.”

Simon’s plays made him a wealthy man and many were turned into films, which made him even wealthier and earned him four Academy Award nominations. Among his works appearing on movie screens were “Barefoot in the Park,” “Plaza Suite,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Broadway Bound.” “The Odd Couple” was even made into a successful television sitcom.

Early Simon works were sometimes deemed too sentimental or commercial by critics but as his career entered its third decade, the plays grew more serious, more mature. Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote of “Biloxi Blues” (1985) that Simon “at last begins to examine himself honestly, without compromises, and as a result is his most persuasively serious effort.”

Marvin Neil Simon was born on July 4, 1927, in the New York City borough of the Bronx, son of Irving, a garment salesman, and Mamie Simon.

After attending New York University and the University of Denver and serving in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, Simon and his mentor, older brother Danny Simon, worked together in the 1940s writing comedy sketches for radio performer Goodman Ace.

Simon and Danny, whose living arrangements once inspired Neil’s “The Odd Couple,” then moved to television, working with such popular entertainers as Sid Caesar, Phil Silver and Jackie Gleason, and with other writers including Mel Brooks and Woody Allen.

FILE PHOTO: Playwright Neil Simon arrives for a program honoring him as the 2006 Mark Twain Prize recipient at the Kennedy Center in Washington October 15, 2006. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

But Simon did not like television work and in 1960 came up with “Come Blow Your Horn,” which became a modest Broadway hit. It was followed by “Barefoot in the Park” in 1963, which ran for more than 1,500 performances. Simon would go on to dominate the 1960s with “The Odd Couple,” “Sweet Charity,” “Plaza Suite” and “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers.”

In the ‘70s he turned out “The Prisoner of Second Avenue,” “The Sunshine Boys” and “California Suite” while his ‘80s works included “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” Biloxi Blues,” “Broadway Bound” and “Rumors.” Simon continued into the next decade with “Lost in Yonkers,” “Jake’s Women,” “The Goodbye Girl” and “Laughter on the 23rd Floor.”

His semi-autobiographical trilogy – “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Broadway Bound – was a fixture on Broadway in the 1980s.

CREATIVE ‘PINBALL MACHINE’

Simon once compared his own creative process to a pinball machine, such as when he was writing “Lost in Yonkers.” The creative concept, he said, began “to move circuitously around in my brain, bouncing off one neuron to another, like a pinball that hits every number of the board repeatedly, rolls down, hits the flippers and goes bouncing back up for another go at every bell-ringing number again.”

Simon’s plays were usually set in New York with characters whose problems were similar to those experienced by Simon.

“Chapter Two,” for example, dealt with a writer whose first wife had died, trying to open himself to love a new woman. Simon’s wife of 20 years, Joan Baim, died of cancer in 1973, after which he married actress Marsha Mason, who starred in the 1979 film version of “Chapter Two.” Mason also won an Oscar for 1977’s “The Goodbye Girl,” another Simon play he adapted for the screen.

Simon received Kennedy Center honors in 1995 from President Bill Clinton for his contribution to the arts and to popular culture in the 20th century.

“He challenges us and himself never to take ourselves too seriously,” Clinton said in presenting the award. “Thank you for the wit and the wisdom.”

Simon was married five times, twice to actress Diane Lander. He is survived by wife Elaine Joyce and his three daughters from different marriages, Evans said.

FILE PHOTO: Screenwriter Neil Simon at the Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood, California April 6, 1998. REUTERS/Fred Prouser/File Photo

Reporting by Bill Trott; Additional reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago and Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by Diane Craft and Lisa Shumaker

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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newsintodays-blog · 6 years ago

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Tony award-winning U.S. playwright Neil Simon dies at 91

New Post has been published on http://newsintoday.info/2018/08/26/tony-award-winning-u-s-playwright-neil-simon-dies-at-91-2/

Tony award-winning U.S. playwright Neil Simon dies at 91

“It was wonderful to be in his life and for him to be in my life,” Evans said, calling Simon a major figure in American culture. “It has been so great to be part of all of it.”

Simon drew on his tumultuous New York Jewish upbringing in many of his works.

At one point he had a record four plays running simultaneously on Broadway.

He won Tony Awards for “The Odd Couple,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Lost in Yonkers” and a fourth for his overall contribution to American theater. He was nominated for 13 other Tonys.

“Lost in Yonkers” (1990), a painfully funny story about the relationship between an abusive mother and her grown children, also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1991.

Simon’s childhood was marred by the breakup of his parents. At first he was reluctant to draw on that pain, fearing it would make his plays too dark.

Later in his career he would use his own painful experiences, such as in the semi-biographical “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” to give his work more depth.

But being entertaining was his primary goal.

“… My idea of the ultimate achievement in a comedy is to make a whole audience fall onto the floor, writhing and laughing so hard that some of them pass out.”

Marvin Neil Simon was born on July 4, 1927, in the New York City borough of the Bronx, son of Irving, a garment salesman, and Mamie Simon.

FILE PHOTO: Playwright Neil Simon arrives for a program honoring him as the 2006 Mark Twain Prize recipient at the Kennedy Center in Washington October 15, 2006. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

His semi-autobiographical trilogy – “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Broadway Bound – was a fixture on Broadway in the 1980s.

CREATIVE ‘PINBALL MACHINE’

Simon’s plays were usually set in New York with characters whose problems were similar to those experienced by Simon.

Simon received Kennedy Center honors in 1995 from President Bill Clinton for his contribution to the arts and to popular culture in the 20th century.

“He challenges us and himself never to take ourselves too seriously,” Clinton said in presenting the award. “Thank you for the wit and the wisdom.”

Simon was married five times, twice to actress Diane Lander. He is survived by wife Elaine Joyce and his three daughters from different marriages, Evans said.

FILE PHOTO: Screenwriter Neil Simon at the Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood, California April 6, 1998. REUTERS/Fred Prouser/File Photo

Reporting by Bill Trott; Additional reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago and Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by Diane Craft and Lisa Shumaker

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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tedkennedyswife · 7 years ago

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1957, “The portrait submitted to model agency head Candy Jones by Joan Bennett’s father, who thought his daughter had a modeling career potential”(scanned from ‘Joan, the reluctant Kennedy’, 1974)

#Scan #1950s #1957 #joan kennedy #joan bennett kennedy #Young #Portrait

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maxwellyjordan · 7 years ago

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Friday round-up

Court-watchers continue to parse Wednesday’s oral argument in Trump v. Hawaii, a challenge to the latest version of the Trump administration’s entry ban. Steven Mazie covers “this showdown over presidential power” for The Economist. At Constitution Daily, Lyle Denniston reports that “[w]hile the religion question did come up Wednesday, it drew notably less discussion than the immigration law dispute.” At CNN, Joan Biskupic observes that “[a]s much as the justices invoked hypotheticals featuring made-up out of control candidates, or as Justice Elena Kagan put it, ‘an out-of-the-box kind of president,’ the justices also had in mind future real presidents and the power of the office.” Analysis of the ban comes from Rebecca Sigmund at Ogletree Deakins. The New York Times podcast The Daily features a discussion of the argument with Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak. In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Dana Milbank posits that “Wednesday’s Supreme Court argument about the travel ban on certain majority-Muslim nations probably wouldn’t have happened at all if the ban hadn’t been issued by President Trump.” At Balkinization, Marty Lederman explains “why this is not a case in which the courts are being asked, as Justice Kennedy put it, to review a presidential judgment about ‘whether or not there is … a national exigency.’”

At the Associated Press, Mark Sherman and Jessica Gresko note that the Supreme Court “moved very quickly to post a link to an audio recording of arguments over President Donald Trump’s travel ban”; they suggest that the court’s reluctance to provide live audio or grant same-day-audio requests more often may stem from the justices’ belief “that allowing prompt and frequent audio release will be another step down the slippery slope toward cameras in the courtroom.” At Reason’s Volokh Conspiracy blog, Jonathan Adler speculates that “some on the Court [may] fear that releasing same-day audio would encourage advocates (or even justices) to grandstand during oral arguments in the hopes of influencing evening newscasts,” but goes on to remark that [“i]f same-day audio of Trump v. Hawaii can be released without negative incident, I think we can handle same-day audio of cases about the interstices of the Armed Career Criminal Act or ERISA.”

In an op-ed for Bloomberg, Joe Nocera argues that this week’s decision in Oil States Energy Services v. Greene’s Energy Group, in which the justices held that the inter-partes-review process for evaluating the validity of existing patents does not violate the Constitution, “is a reminder of just what a mess the patent system has become.” At Techdirt, Mike Masnick calls the decision “is a big and important win, protecting everyone from bad patents.” [Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, is among the counsel on an amicus brief in support of the petitioner in this case.]

Briefly:

For the South China Morning Post, Robert Delaney reports that the court’s decision in Animal Science Products v. Hebei Welcome Pharmaceutical Co., which was argued on Tuesday, “could ultimately determine how much latitude US courts will have to question representations by foreign governments about their own laws.”

At Rewire’s Boom! Lawyered podcast, Jessica Mason Pieklo and Imani Gandy point out that “[w]hen it comes to favorites on the Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gets a lot of love,” but go on to “explain why someone else is deserving of the same—and possibly even more—love: Justice Sonia Sotomayor.”

In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Richard Pildes explains why partisan gerrymandering, a practice challenged in two pending Supreme Court cases, “today is far more extreme and pervasive than in the past.”

Richard Hasen discusses his new book about “the influence and legacy of Justice Scalia” on a Bloomberg

In the most recent episode of the Heritage Foundation’s SCOTUS 101 podcast, Elizabeth Slattery and Tiffany Bates “discuss a SCOTUS haiku, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein’s SCOTUS debut, and recent opinions” and “[l]aw professor Josh Blackman joins the ladies to talk about the travel ban oral argument and meeting Lin-Manuel Miranda at SCOTUS.”

A new episode of Counting to 5 (podcast) looks at “three new opinions in argued cases and one newly granted case for next term.”

At The National Law Journal, Tony Mauro notes that “[i]t is relatively rare for U.S. Supreme Court justices to mention an amicus curiae brief during oral argument,” and “a justice will [almost never] identify the brief by the name of the lawyer who wrote it,” but that’s what happened in Wednesday’s travel-ban argument when Justice Stephen Breyer asked the solicitor general “about ‘families in the Lisa Blatt brief’ who were trying to get to the United States for medical treatment and other reasons but were turned away.”

In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Jack Phillips, the baker whose refusal to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple took him to the Supreme Court this term in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, wonders whether, “when the dust settles,” “this big, diverse country of ours [will] still have room for me and the millions of others who share my beliefs about marriage.”

We rely on our readers to send us links for our round-up. If you have or know of a recent (published in the last two or three days) article, post, podcast, or op-ed relating to the Supreme Court that you’d like us to consider for inclusion in the round-up, please send it to roundup [at] scotusblog.com. Thank you!

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#law #justice

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todaynewsstories · 6 years ago

Text

Tony award-winning U.S. playwright Neil Simon dies at 91: NYT

FILE PHOTO: Playwright Neil Simon arrives for a program honoring him as the 2006 Mark Twain Prize recipient at the Kennedy Center in Washington October 15, 2006. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Simon drew on his tumultuous New York Jewish upbringing in many of his works.

At one point he had a record four plays running simultaneously on Broadway.

He won Tony Awards for “The Odd Couple,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Lost in Yonkers” and a fourth for his overall contribution to American theater. He was nominated for 13 other Tonys.

“Lost in Yonkers” (1990), a painfully funny story about the relationship between an abusive mother and her grown children, also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1991.

Simon’s childhood was marred by the breakup of his parents. At first he was reluctant to draw on that pain, fearing it would make his plays too dark.

Later in his career he would use his own painful experiences, such as in the semi-biographical “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” to give his work more depth.

But being entertaining was his primary goal.

“… My idea of the ultimate achievement in a comedy is to make a whole audience fall onto the floor, writhing and laughing so hard that some of them pass out.”

FILE PHOTO: Screenwriter Neil Simon at the Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood, California April 6, 1998. REUTERS/Fred Prouser/File Photo

Marvin Neil Simon was born on July 4, 1927, in the New York City borough of the Bronx, son of Irving, a garment salesman, and Mamie Simon.

But Simon did not like television work and in 1960 came up with “Come Blow Your Horn,” which became a modest Broadway hit. It was followed by “Barefoot in the Park” in 1963, which ran for more than 1,500 performances. Simon would go on to dominate the 1960s with “The Odd Couple,” “Sweety Charity,” “Plaza Suite” and “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers.”

His semi-autobiographical trilogy – “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Broadway Bound – was a fixture on Broadway in the 1980s.

CREATIVE ‘PINBALL MACHINE’

Simon’s plays were usually set in New York with characters whose problems were similar to those experienced by Simon.

Simon received Kennedy Center honors in 1995 from President Bill Clinton for his contribution to the arts and to popular culture in the 20th century.

“He challenges us and himself never to take ourselves too seriously,” Clinton said in presenting the award. “Thank you for the wit and the wisdom.”

Simon was married five times, twice to actress Diane Lander. He is survived by wife Elaine Joyce and his three daughters from different marriages, the Times reported.

Reporting by Bill Trott; Additional reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago; Editing by Diane Craft and Lisa Shumaker

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source link

The post Tony award-winning U.S. playwright Neil Simon dies at 91: NYT appeared first on Today News Stories.

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newsintodays-blog · 6 years ago

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Tony award-winning U.S. playwright Neil Simon dies at 91: NYT

New Post has been published on http://newsintoday.info/2018/08/26/tony-award-winning-u-s-playwright-neil-simon-dies-at-91-nyt/