Texas & The West
We’ve traveled through Kansas and Oklahoma in our sojourn west, and I’m sure a few Texans are wondering when we’re going to give a tip of the ten gallon to the Lone Star State where The Stars at Night are Big and Bright. (Sorry, couldn’t resist. Did you know there are 100++ songs devoted to Texas? from Abilene to Amarillo, Big D to Brownsville, Galveston to La Grange, Luckenbach to San Antonio…Texans love to sing about their state!). There’s just so much to see and do there. If ever you find yourself in Texas, I’d strongly recommend a road trip of this fantastic state. Some...
Read MoreThe Prairie
The Prairie “… a region so quiet and pristine that we have the sense of being the first human beings ever to set foot in it. We fall silent ourselves in its midst, as if conversation in a place of such primeval solitude would be like talking in church.” Jim Fergus, The Wild Girl We began our cross country junket in Kansas, and as we trek across the prairie, we soon encounter cowboys for this is their terrain, filled with long dusty days and cool starlit nights. Often filled with songs around the campfire… “Where the leather is scarred, there is a great story to tell.” Jimmy Tart...
Read MoreKansas & Missouri – America’s Heartland
In this land of plenty we have extoled the beauty of the “fruited plain” and now turn our attention to the grandeur of the “amber waves of grain”. Note the golden wheat featured on the prairie in this souvenir hankie, along with pioneers traveling the Santa Fe Trail, a miniscule oil well (gushing, no less!) and domed state capitol. Also note the American Flag at 12 o’clock marking the geographic center of the U.S. We are indeed in the “heartland” of America. As discussed in our New York blog, these delicately embroidered hankies were never utilitarian, but strictly for collecting and were...
Read MoreNew Orleans
It’s no surprise that a city as diverse in culture, cuisine and citizenry requires multiple monikers to capture is magic. New Orleans is known by turns as “The Big Easy’, The Birthplace of Jazz”, “The Little Paris of the New World”, “Mardi Gras City” and “The City that Care Forgot”. The current favorite sobriquet? – “The Big Easy”. In the early 1900’s New Orleans had a dance hall named The Big Easy, but it wasn’t until 70 years later, when Betty Guillaud, columnist for the Times-Picayune used the term to compare New York (The Big Apple) to New Orleans (The Big Easy) that the name took...
Read MoreSan Francisco II
“Leaving San Francisco is like saying goodbye to an old sweetheart. You want to linger as long as possible.” Walter Cronkite And linger we shall…with so many marvels to explore, the city requires an extended visit. In San Francisco I we found handkerchiefs that were virtual tourist guides, amassing dozens of highlights on a single canvas. The colorful compilation below has so much to say it has to start listing locations! Note the Fog is featured in its own special corner. Truly the mercurial mists are part and parcel of the city’s character, as so many visitors have declared. “We’ve never...
Read MoreSan Francisco I
“San Francisco, open your Golden Gate You’ll let no stranger wait outside your door San Francisco, here is your wanderin’ one Saying I’ll wander no more.” From the 1936 movie “San Francisco” music by Bronislaw Kaper and Walter Lurmann, lyrics by Gus Kahn Trying to describe the magic of San Francisco is impossible, as her features and flavors are endless and ever changing. We encountered this same conundrum when attempting to showcase New York; some places are simply beyond description. To keep the locals happy, however, we’ll do a quick fly-over before moving on. From the Golden Gate Bridge...
Read MoreArtist’s View of New York
“London is satisfied, Paris is resigned, but New York is always hopeful. Always it believes that something good is about to come off, and it must hurry to meet it.” Dorothy Parker Just hearing the words New York conjures up more images than the mind can hold – from Wall Street to Park Avenue, Broadway to Central Park – the people, the pace, the passion – it’s all overwhelming. How could anyone attempt to capture the magic of the Big Apple in a simple handkerchief? Yet a select few have managed to portray the crackle and pop, the magnetism that is “the City”. Artists Carl Tait and Tammis...
Read MoreNew York, New York
“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.” Tom Wolfe From the Statue of Liberty to the Brooklyn Bridge, the Flatiron Building to the Staten Island Ferry, Times Square to Grand Central Station, The Empire State Building to Rockefeller Center…my, oh my… Washington Park to Central Park, St. Patrick’s Cathedral to the Ground Zero Memorial, from outdoor movies to outdoor murals, to ice skating in Central Park… if you can’t find it in New York… it probably doesn’t exist. Where else can you find a Christmas tree 100 feet tall topped by a...
Read More1939 New York World’s Fair
“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.” Tom Wolfe The 1939-40 World’s Fair celebrated the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington, which took place in New York City, the original first capital of the nation. Declared “everyman’s fair” it was designed to “show the most promising developments of production, service and social factors of the present day.” From this arose the slogan “Building the World of Tomorrow.” Covering 1,216 acres in Flushing Meadows, the fair stretched for 3.5 miles. On opening day, 206,000...
Read MoreHollywood Stars
Having recently featured heavenly stars as viewed by astrologers, we now turn our attention to stars as viewed by Hollywood. It’s an apt analogy, since MGM used to boast their studio contained “More stars than there are in the heavens.” Three MGM stars – Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy appeared together in the top grossing movie of 1936, San Francisco. In the movie, Blackie Norton (Gable), a Barbary Coast saloonkeeper hires impoverished but talented singer Mary Blake (MacDonald) to sing in his Paradise Club, and soon falls in love with her. Mary’s skill is quickly...
Read MoreSpace Travel
HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON JULY 1969, A.D. WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND (Plaque left on the Moon by Apollo 11 astronauts) Since time began, man has looked to the heavens in wonder, attempting to master the secrets of the universe. As we discovered in Take Flight, once man mastered the rudiments of air travel, he forevermore strove to fly higher, further, faster. Few could conceptualize what lay beyond the Milky Way, but imaginations soared, assisted by sci-fi writers – Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, etc., television shows – the Outer...
Read MoreTaking Flight
“Nothing will ever equal that moment of joyous excitement which filled my whole being when I felt myself flying away from the earth. It was not mere pleasure; it was perfect bliss.” Jacques Charles (Said after making man’s first ascent by hydrogen balloon in 1783) These delightful dirigibles evoke the action adventure movie Around the World in 80 Days. Winning five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, it piqued the imagination of all who have ever dreamt of flying. In the film, Londoner Pileas Fogg wagers £20,000 (£1.6 million today) that he can circumnavigate the...
Read MoreFan Fandango
On a par with handkerchief flirting, we present the fluttering fan. It provides a perfect foil from whence the shy can seek shelter and the ardent arouse passion. From coquette to vixen, ingénue to vamp, a huntress skilled at the game of flirting can drop her prey with a flick of the wrist. “The eyes are one of the most powerful tools a wom an can have. With one look, she can relay the most intimate message. After the connection is made, words cease to exist.” Jennifer Salaiz (The lady in gold is from a Russian website and I apologize, but I do not read Russian, so cannot give an...
Read MoreChicago World’s Fair
“Big-shot town, small-shot town, jet-propelled old-fashioned town, by old-world hands with new-world tools built into a place whose heartbeat carries farther than its shout, whose whispering in the night sounds less hollow than its roistering noontime laugh: they have built a heavy-shouldered laughter here who went to work too young.” Nelson Algren, Chicago: City on the Make If you read our earlier missive on Chicago you learned about a town that began as a desolate fur trading outpost in the 1800’s which grew to become a city of industry, the nation’s railroad hub, and cradle of...
Read MoreChicago
Oh Chicago, where to begin? Trying to describe the city is akin to eating an elephant in one bite – overwhelming and impossible. Chicago has been called audacious, gritty, tenacious, and rugged, as well as heroic, epic, splendid, and irresistible. Poet Carl Sandburg captured her synergy best in his poem Chicago, when he claimed the ‘City of Big Shoulders’ is “a chant of defiance…defiance of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Berlin and Rome. The poem sort of says “Maybe we ain’t got culture, but we’re eatin’ regular.” Hmmmm. I take umbrage...
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