Today is a daily-double day. Well, double birthday, anyway. Dorothy Parker satirical author, social critic, screenwriter, poet
and sharp-eyed, smart mouth, of
men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses fame, was born in West End, New Jersey. Date: 1893. She turned 70 in 1963 and quipped,
"If I had any decency I'd be dead. Most of my friends are."Science fiction great, author Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451) was also born today. In Waukegan, Ill. Date: 1920. "Librarians raised me. I don't believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don't have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn't go to college so I went to the library three days a week for ten years." It worked for him.
Happy Birthday, Ms. Parker and Mr. Bradbury.
Today in 1789, Fletcher Christian and his merry mutineers on board the H.M.S Bounty cast Captain Bligh and 18 of his crew adrift in a couple of lifeboats. The story will be told in 1932 by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall in a trilogy whose first book is MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY. Link to read an overview of the Voyage and the Mutiny.
My favorite Captain Bligh: Charles Laughton. No one in the world can say, "You traitorous dog," with quite the same snarling vituperation as Laughton. My favorite Fletcher Christian: oh, Clark Gable, hands down. As much as I adore Marlon Brando (at least in his early roles) he was not then nor would he ever be an 18th century man.
