tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-185511392024-03-21T15:04:48.415-04:00Heavens to MergatroydHeavens to Mergatroyd, the website and blog of Nancy McClernan, playwright, egalitarian, and advocate for civil and human rights. Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4531125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-38464436216413173382024-03-21T15:04:00.001-04:002024-03-21T15:04:07.421-04:00Orchid update ~ eight flowersThis last one appeared a month after the seventh flower. d = getDate();
document.write(d);
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-2295907839236806652024-03-16T22:35:00.002-04:002024-03-16T22:39:38.279-04:00The Civil War - but with catsI found this funny graphic at the Library of Congress website recently and then, coincidentally a couple of days later at the Library Company of Philadelphia.It's called "The Question Settled" and the cat on the right represents the South - or to be exact "Jeff" as in Jefferson Davis, the white cat represents the North as indicated by "Old Abe" on his collar, and the cat on the left has a ribbon Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-35404025708289915342024-03-07T21:22:00.006-05:002024-03-16T09:59:05.295-04:00Getting Right with LincolnInitially I called my play about the friendship between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass THE LINCOLN-DOUGLASS DEBATES but decided to change it to GETTING RIGHT WITH LINCOLN.The first title was a response to the Republican party's shameful abuse of the memory of Douglass, specifically when a Republican state senator of Virginia, in the early days of the ongoing campaign by the Republican Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-30656577594610421842024-03-06T11:52:00.001-05:002024-03-06T11:52:12.805-05:00Sassy LincolnWhile doing research for my Lincoln play, I found this photo of Lincoln. It seems more dynamic than most of them - he doesn't look so much like his monument here, more like a guy who's about to say something - probably tell a funny story. It almost looks like he's winking but I think more likely his eyelid just drooped like that. d = getDate();
document.write(d);
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-51201555888903637462024-02-16T17:12:00.006-05:002024-02-16T17:12:52.202-05:00Orchid ~ all seven flowers d = getDate();
document.write(d);
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-81675886164851644042024-02-09T14:47:00.001-05:002024-02-09T14:47:02.385-05:00Orchid update ~ six d = getDate();
document.write(d);
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-6629595842428124422024-02-06T01:14:00.002-05:002024-02-06T01:14:10.594-05:00Orchid update ~ five blossoms d = getDate();
document.write(d);
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-22521564467779180412024-01-28T12:34:00.007-05:002024-01-28T12:34:41.967-05:00Lennon & McCartneyI don't know who took this photo or when it was taken (1962?) but this might be my favorite Lennon-McCartney photo of all time. d = getDate();
document.write(d);
My friend Rosemary took this photo last week in Slovenia.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-41589854560672110792024-01-26T11:33:00.002-05:002024-01-26T17:32:54.798-05:00Orchid update - three blossoms d = getDate();
document.write(d);
CloseupUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-84743866830325133752024-01-22T12:46:00.004-05:002024-01-22T12:46:46.282-05:00Orchid update d = getDate();
document.write(d);
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-23557595624802940762024-01-19T12:23:00.002-05:002024-01-19T12:23:53.576-05:00OrchidMy orchid bloomed!I bought this orchid plant two years ago and it was tiny. When it was delivered it was already blooming.Last year it did not bloom again, but kept growing, so I repotted it and then in December I noticed the green stem shooting up and now - voila!Closeup! d = getDate();
document.write(d);
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-52751923706865931982024-01-11T19:26:00.011-05:002024-01-18T14:59:39.906-05:00Tales of the Lincoln White HouseHell-catLincoln and two non-hell catsAI generated imageSatan's daughterHigh-strungDemandingImpulsiveNatural born thiefCrazyShrewishTermegantHot-temperedImperiousStingyHer Satanic MajestyThese are some of the many many unflattering things that people who knew Mary Lincoln had to say about her. The only unalloyed positive that most people could say about Mary was that she spurred Lincoln onto Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-76931521027197005372024-01-09T19:36:00.001-05:002024-01-09T19:36:08.276-05:00David Blight on Trump and the "Lost Cause" d = getDate();
document.write(d);
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-63678763976511752772023-12-30T21:00:00.003-05:002023-12-30T21:00:48.085-05:00The return of the lonely New Year's Eve writerThis cover art from the New Yorker, from 1996, always spoke to me.So I was excited to see that this year, twenty-eight years later, the New Yorker has another variation on the theme of lonely writer on New Year's Eve. d = getDate();
document.write(d);
The first one is slightly less forlorn because the apparently hard-boiled dame in the foreground has a soulmate, a mug in an undershirt in the Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-77966714696133366322023-12-14T23:18:00.004-05:002023-12-14T23:18:34.952-05:00Murderbot's coming to a screen near you!It was announced today:It’s a big day for a certain Murderbot who just wants to watch its soaps. Apple TV+ has announced that it’s adapting Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries series, with Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood, The Northman) on board as executive producer and to star as the titular Murderbot. The scripts for the ten-episode season have already been written (before the Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-17511867162596925142023-11-21T20:34:00.007-05:002024-01-19T12:33:02.227-05:00My art is in the Brooklyn MuseumI attended two art schools: the Philadelphia College of Art (now called the University of the Arts) for a year on a scholarship, and I went to random classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts off and on between 1981 and 1988. Back then, before I switched to being a writer, I dreamed of one day having my artwork exhibited in a museum.I never dreamed that it would happen via my FactsheetUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-16519879682151532772023-10-31T22:00:00.001-04:002023-10-31T22:00:22.669-04:00Weird Barbie for HalloweenMy friend Renee doing a great job rocking the Weird Barbie vibe. d = getDate();
document.write(d);
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-15446600588691937422023-10-15T17:13:00.003-04:002023-10-15T17:50:09.060-04:00I am a god unto the antsI am a god unto the ants.With a tiny effort I couldlift the bottle cap, that is nowblocking their procession and whichthey must manuever around, thusmaking all those lives easier.Or I could crush them underfooteven without knowing I have,while wearing these heavy workboots.Smiling on the obliviousI hurry on my own business. ~ N. G. McClernan d = getDate();
document.write(d);
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-26105552101076857262023-10-03T00:34:00.005-04:002023-10-04T14:15:42.069-04:00Here is my Valadon exhibitionWhen I was in France last March, I made a trip to the Georges Pompidou Center specifically to see work by Suzanne Valadon - and they had nothing! d = getDate();
document.write(d);
I was like Où sont-ils, les tableaux ? All these paintings by Suzanne Valadon are supposed to be here!Turns out they had removed all her paintings in preparation for a big exhibition of her work. But by the time the Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-49729466356427450952023-09-23T02:50:00.006-04:002023-10-15T17:54:12.659-04:00Autumn ~ the best seasonIn the autumn night, Breaking intoA pleasant chat.Changed the red color,Fallen on the tofu,The leaf of the light crimson maple.The upper reaches hereAnd the lower of the river.The friend for the moon.Drinking the morning green tea,The monk is calm.The flowers of chrysanthemum.Haiku by Matsuo Bashō d = getDate();
document.write(d);
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-85137710464688254402023-09-07T00:00:00.001-04:002023-09-07T00:00:00.146-04:00Remembering Earl Rich 26 years laterIt's been 26 years since Earl Rich died. He was only 32, just a month shy of 33. He would be 58 now. I can't imagine it.This is him in Valley Forge, 1995. d = getDate();
document.write(d);
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-18455699680259190782023-08-30T14:20:00.004-04:002023-08-30T14:20:41.828-04:00"THE FOREIGNER" by MattelIn France, all Barbies are Proust BarbieWell it's been said that the French are pretentious while at the same time taking silly things - like Jerry Lewis - too seriously. d = getDate();
document.write(d);
And no better example of this can be found than in the latest edition of the French magazine L'Obs. They ran an opinion piece on the movie "Barbie" that manages to mention the Bible, Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-69873425111231578152023-08-03T00:00:00.001-04:002023-08-03T00:00:00.172-04:00La chambre bleue - happy centennialOne of Suzanne Valadon's most celebrated paintings, The Blue Room (La chamber bleue) was painted in 1923, so it's one hundred years old now. Wikipedia has a very good entry about the piece: d = getDate();
document.write(d);
In contrast to Valadon's depiction of the female form, artists such as Titian, Ingres, and Manet depicted female nudes with idealized womanly features. For example, theUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-25169421788238840322023-07-23T23:10:00.006-04:002023-07-23T23:11:40.266-04:00Barbenheimer! d = getDate();
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18551139.post-5659443447309474992023-07-12T00:32:00.002-04:002023-07-12T00:32:18.190-04:00Murderbot speaks!I'm a big fan of the sci-fi series Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, and equally a fan of the voice actor who reads her books for audio, Kevin R. Free. So I was excited to find an interview, albeit brief, with Free on NPR.Free talks about Murderbot here as well.The cover for the next book in the series is out - but the book won't come out until November. *sigh* d = getDate();
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com