I have done my share of traveling, and in the course of my journeys I have visited some infamous places, including the Place de la Concorde, Omaha Beach, Ford’s Theater, and so on. The Place de la Concorde has a bloody history, but today is a lovely square in the heart of Paris. The beaches at Normandy were horrible for a day, but today are a beautiful, if solemn, landscape. Ford’s Theater and the Petersen House probably wouldn’t exist today if it weren’t for their tragic association with Lincoln. Everyone knows what those places are about.
On the south bank of the Chicago River there is a plaque describing the 1915 Eastland disaster. More than eight hundred people drowned right in the heart of the country’s second largest city, while people in skycrapers watched out their windows. But when I was watching a show at the Oriental Theater, which lies only a few blocks from the Chicago River, I saw no plaque commemorating the Iroquois Theater Fire. I had never heard of it. On this date in 1903, more than six hundred people burned to death in a terrible fire at 24 Randolf Street. The Oriental Theater now occupies that very spot. I suppose modern theatergoers would find it unsettling to imagine heaps of charred corpses while they tried to enjoy Wicked. Had I known that address’s tragic history, I would certainly have searched out all the emergency exits and fire extinguishers before the house lights dimmed.
We can visit Dealey Plaza or Whitechapel, understand their histories, and still not be too disturbed. But something about the Iroquois Theater Fire troubles me deeply.
Filed under: History, Travel on December 30th, 2009 | No Comments »
After months of delay, I have finally posted the final chapter of our Puerto Rico adventure. The best parts of the trip are included therein, including horseback riding, kayaking, and a journey to the center of the earth.
Filed under: Website on December 29th, 2009 | No Comments »
After four days and more than five hundred miles of driving, we’re back at home safe and sound. It was great seeing family.
Filed under: Special Occasions, Travel on December 28th, 2009 | No Comments »
Another Christmas Eve finds me in good health and reasonably good cheer. Last year, in writing about the dulled sensations Christmas inspires in an adult, I quoted Charles Dickens. I am not likely to do better any time soon. So, read it again. And God bless Us, Every One!
Filed under: Special Occasions on December 24th, 2009 | No Comments »
My last exam of the semester was yesterday at three o’clock. Age of Dryden and Pope was taught by Professor McCrea, with whom I have also taken Age of Johnson, the Eighteenth Century Novel, and Advanced Exposition. On the last day of each semester, before handing out the final examinations, he has told a story about his college days, and a French teacher who excused him from an exam that he really, really didn’t want to take. Then, with no attempt at artificial suspense, Professor McCrea announces that graduating seniors are excused. The proclamation has always prompted genuine surprise: those who are excused stand up and walk out of the room in triumph; those who are not groan audibly and proceed with their tests. I have always done well on his exams, but I was woefully unprepared yesterday, so I felt relieved beyond measure to be excused. But I also felt proud, because, after four semesters with him, it was my turn.
On my way out, we shook hands. I thanked him for four wonderful courses that have really changed the way I think and write. He returned the two essays I wrote for him this semester, and at the top of one was a note that, coming from him, I take to be a great honor.
In his Life of Johnson, James Boswell describes Dr. Johnson’s encounter with George III in his library. The King approached and asked Johnson if he was writing anything new, to which Johnson replied he was not, and that he “thought he had already done his part as a writer. ‘I should have thought so too, (said the King,) if you had not written so well’”. Johnson later told Boswell that “no man could have paid a handsomer compliment…. It was decisive”.
If I live to be a hundred I will still not write as well as Samuel Johnson. Even so, I can appreciate how it feels to receive praise from someone whose opinion matters. It is humbling.
Filed under: School on December 19th, 2009 | No Comments »