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Today in History, from the Library of Congress American Memory, we celebrate the Fourth of July. PBS.org offers a comprehensive history of Independence Day at A Capitol Fourth, America’s Independence Day Celebration including the history and music of the celebration, the history of Old  Glory and the National Mall, and lots of links to significant people, places, monuments, and museums of our shared American history. Check it out. Here is a link to local San Francisco Bay Area Fourth of July Events.

Speaking of local, did you know the annual Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival held in San Francisco’s  Golden Gate Park in August brings more than $67 million  to the local economy, including over 750 jobs.  See San Francisco State University Professor Patrick Tierney’s study.  Tierney is chair of the Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism at SFSU.

And. . . a music-based  curriculum, Academic Music, designed by SFSU researchers Susan Courey and Endre Balogh, is helping children understand fractions.  See  the findings of the six-week trial run at Palo Alto’s Hoover Elementary School in the journal Educational Studies in Mathematics. Look out Kahn Academy! Both of these SFSU studies were highlighted in the SF State Magazine Spring/Summer 2012 edition.

Finally, artist and SFSU Alum Steven J. Backman  used 30,000 toothpicks in his 13-foot long replica of the Golden Gate Bridge. Now on display at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

Graphic courtesy Flickr Creative Commons License by Citoyendu Monde Inc.

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• Life on The Gate: Working on the Golden Gate Bridge 1933-37
• Western Neighborhoods Project
• Great Minds  Thinking Differently

You know how every so often I run across a rare batch of Romanov family photos I've never seen and go berserk? It's just as good when it happens in my own family. Behold, from the back of Grandma's closet:

Before I burrow into the Cave of Revision, may I draw your attention to the fact that Miep Gies, the last surviving member of the team that aided the Frank family in hiding, celebrates her 100th birthday today?

Mrs. Gies found Anne Frank's diary after the Secret Annex was raided by the Gestapo in August of 1944, and kept it -- unread -- until news of Anne's death was confirmed. 

In light of the history behind my WIP, when I look at the four presidential daughters - Jenna and Barbara Bush and Sasha and Malia Obama - I can't help but think...

90-odd years ago, the Bolshevik party achieved regime change by gunning down a man, his wife, their son and four daughters, and four staff members in a cellar in Siberia. Today in America, the Democratic party did it with music, poetry, and prayer. No matter what you think about this president or the last one, that's the kind of change we can all take pride in.

Back in the day, when World War I was still known as the Great War, the 11th of November was called Armistice Day. 

Heh. I never would have remembered this if Felicity of lookbooks hadn't just reminded me.

That little scamp happens to be my grandma, probably longabout 1925. Her mother made that coat and hat - blue to match her eyes, and trimmed with gray rabbit fur.


By the 1940's she'd grown up and gotten a job at Imlay City's dimestore, allowing Grandpa to boast forevermore, "I Found a Million Dollar Baby in a Five and Ten Cent Store."


Lucky for me, she also grew up into an I Love Lucy fan. It's taken a couple years of Monday nights, but we're on our second tour through all nine seasons. (With a little Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, and Bette Davis thrown in for variety.) Here's to plenty more Mondays!

Cover illustration for the Dutch Volkskrant Banen magazine.

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