Here is your open thread for April 13, 2020. [Checks calendar. Curses softly under his breath.]
Today Yesterday was the 74th birthday of the Rev. Al Green.
The Battle of Bound Brook took place on April 13, 1777, a temporary setback in America’s war of independence. This was the battle that caused Washington and his army to retreat to the Watchung Hills, making camp in Washington Valley and using Washington Rock as a lookout post from which to keep an eye on the British. That’s all notable for me, in other words, because it’s the source of the names of several landmarks around where I grew up. (On a clear day, you can see New York City from Washington Rock, and they had those old coin-op binocular things for an even better view.) Plus also my dad was the township attorney for Bound Brook for more than 20 years. So.
The Colfax Massacre took place on April 13, 1873. It was Easter Sunday in Colfax, Louisiana. White people unwilling to accept the rebirth of liberty enshrined in the Reconstruction Amendments grabbed their guns and slaughtered more than 100 black Americans for the crime of winning fair elections. Nowadays, white people who hate liberty and the Reconstruction Amendments just vote for “the judges” — meaning Federalist Society judges who are sworn to restrict, erode, erase, and nullify the meaning of those amendments at every opportunity. For some reason, this antipathy to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments is referred to as being “pro-life.”
On April 13, 1958, at the height of the Cold War, the American pianist Van Cliburn won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. I wrote about Cliburn here — “Van Cliburn: Musical legend, faithful Baptist, gay man” — when he died in 2013.
April 13, 1970: “Houston, we have a problem.”
Guy Fawkes was born on April 13, 350 years ago. Project onto him what you will but remember, remember, he failed.
Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 277 years ago. He founded the University of Virginia and wrote Virginia’s statute on religious freedom. (Those are the only two accomplishments he said he hoped to be remembered for, perhaps revealing that even he realized that for all his brilliance, he was ultimately a frustrating and self-frustrating figure. Because he eloquently articulated that he knew better, and yet he didn’t. Ain’t that America.)
Butch Cassidy was born on April 13, 154 years ago. After escaping the Bolivian army in 1908, he and Harry and Etta moved to Australia where they enjoyed a long and happy life in quiet retirement.
Samuel Beckett was born 114 years ago today yesterday. “I can’t go on, I’ll go on.”
Eudora Welty was born 111 years ago today. This audio of her reading “Why I Live at the P.O.” is, sadly, a bit rushed, but Eudora Welty reading Eudora Welty is always a treat.
Madalyn Murray O’Hair was born 101 years ago. The religious liberty activist died in 1995 and, despite what you may have heard, she did not have a dramatic deathbed born-again conversion in which she proclaimed that white evangelicalism was the One True Faith and that white evangelicals were Right All Along and that she was Desperately Sorry To Have Ever Questioned The Best And Smartest and Goodest Good People Who Ever Lived.
Weirdly influential artist and massively counterproductive “evangelist” Jack Chick was born on April 13, 96 years ago. Here’s what I wrote after his death in 2016: “Haw haw haw.”
Stanley Donen was born the same day as Jack Chick. He created joyful, beautiful artworks that make people happy, thereby functioning as a kind of anti-Jack Chick who restored the cosmic balance.
April 13 is the birthday of Paul Sorvino (81), Ron Perlman (70), and Peabo Bryson (69).
CCM star turned right-wing raving loon Steve Camp turns 65 today.
My one non-evil senator, Bob Casey Jr., turns 60 today. For a U.S. senator, 60 is downright youthful.
Chess-master Garry Kasparov, humanity’s long-time representative against the machines, turns 57 today.
Delightfully odd acquired taste Nellie McKay turns 38. Here’s “Toto Dies.”
Talk amongst yourselves.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In