On This Day
1173 – The widow Stamira sacrifices herself in order to raise the siege of Ancona by the forces of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.[2][3][4][5]
Stamira (sometimes spelled Stamura) (date of birth unknown – Ancona, 1 September 1173) was, according to a long-standing tradition, a heroic self-sacrificing woman who saved the city of Ancona during the 1173 siege by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Her memory was later taken up prominently by Italian nationalism.
Read more ->
1561 – Entry of Mary, Queen of Scots into Edinburgh, a spectacular civic celebration for the Queen of Scotland, marred by religious controversy.[5]
On 19 August 1561, the 18 year old Mary, Queen of Scots returned to Scotland from France. On 2 September the town of Edinburgh organised a celebration of royal entry for her.[1]
Events
On the day, Mary rode from Holyrood Palace to Edinburgh Castle where she had dinner. After the meal, she went to the Castlehill on the High Street and joined an escort of 50 young men from Edinburgh who were dressed as “Moors”, a disguise representing African people with rings in their mouths and gilded chains about their necks and arms. The costumes of some of this “Convoy of Moors” were made of white taffeta.[2] Mary made her progress under a paill or canopy of purple velvet with gold fringes held up by twelve townsmen dressed in black velvet.[3]
At the Butter Tron (where dairy products were weighed for sale) at the head of the West Bow there was a pageant stage. A boy dressed as an angel emerged from a globe and gave her the keys to the town, a bible, and a psalter. At the Tolbooth, on a double stage, four damsels (male actors) represented Fortitude, Justice, Temperance, and Prudence. At the Cross, wine poured from a fountain, and four maidens performed an allegory.[4] At another stop at the Salt Tron a pageant representing the Scottish Reformation was abandoned in favour of the destruction of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.[5]
At the Netherbow, the boundary between Edinburgh and the Canongate, the queen was addressed by a dragon which was then burnt. At Holyrood Palace, a cartload of school children spoke in favour of the Reformation and sang a psalm.[6] A cupboard of gilt plate, bought by the town council from the Earl of Morton and Richard Maitland of Lethington, was presented to the queen in her outer chamber in Holyrood Palace, by the “honest men” who had carried and walked beside the canopy.[7]
The chronicle history of Scotland called the Diurnal of Occurrents describes the elaborate costume worn by some of the “Moors”; “their bodies and thighs covered with yellow taffeta, their arms and legs from the knee down bare, coloured with black, in manner of Moors, upon their heads black hats, and on their faces black visors (masks), in their mouths rings, garnished with countless precious stones, about their necks, legs, and arms “infynit” of chains of gold”.[8]
The English diplomat Thomas Randolph mentioned the substitution and negotiation of content alluding directly to the Scottish Reformation. John Knox wrote that Mary seemed dismissive when she was presented with the Bible in vernacular, and this is repeated in a chronicle attributed to the Catholic Lord Herries.[9] It is thought that the presentation of the triumph of the Reformation during the Entry was displeasing to the Catholic queen. A month later, after burgh council elections, she required the dismisal of the Provost and four bailies of the town council.[10] The new Provost, Thomas McCalzean, would prove to be a supporter of the queen.[11]
This Entry included features differing from other Edinburgh Entries, with no mention of a ceremony at the West Port, an actual entry to the town, and the presentation of the gilt plate within the royal palace. These differences may suggest interventions in the theatrical programme and conflict between civic and royal authority.[12]
Born On This Day
1876 – Harriet Shaw Weaver, English journalist and activist (d. 1961)
Harriet Shaw Weaver (1 September 1876 – 14 October 1961) was an English political activist and a magazine editor. She was a significant patron of Irish writer James Joyce.
Life
Harriet Shaw Weaver was born in Frodsham, Cheshire, the sixth of eight children of Frederic Poynton Weaver, a doctor, and Mary (née Wright) Weaver, a wealthy heiress. She was educated privately by a governess, Miss Marion Spooner, until 1894, initially in Cheshire and later in Hampstead. Her parents denied her wish to go to university. She decided to become a social worker. After attending a course on the economic basis of social relations at the London School of Economics she became involved in women’s suffrage and joined the Women’s Social and Political Union.[1][2]
In 1911 she began subscribing to The Freewoman: A Weekly Feminist Review, a radical periodical edited by Dora Marsden and Mary Gawthorpe. The following year its proprietors withdrew their support from it and Weaver stepped in to save it from financial ruin. In 1913 it was renamed The New Freewoman. Later that year at the suggestion of the magazine’s literary editor, Ezra Pound, the name was changed again to The Egoist. During the following years Weaver made more financial donations to the periodical, becoming more involved with its organisation and also becoming its editor.[1]
Ezra Pound was involved with finding new contributors and one of these was James Joyce. Weaver was convinced of his genius and started to support him, first by serialising A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in The Egoist in 1914. When Joyce could not find anyone to publish it as a book, Weaver set up the Egoist Press for this purpose at her own expense. Joyce’s Ulysses was then serialised in The Egoist but because of its controversial content it was rejected by all the printers approached by Weaver and she arranged for it to be printed abroad. Weaver continued to give considerable support to Joyce and his family (approaching a million pounds in 2019 money[3]), but following her reservations about his work that was to become Finnegans Wake, their relationship became strained and then virtually broken. However, on Joyce’s death, Weaver paid for his funeral and acted as his executor.[2]
In 1931 Weaver joined the Labour Party but then, having been influenced by reading Marx’s Das Kapital she joined the Communist Party in 1938. She was active in this organisation, taking part in demonstrations and selling copies of the Daily Worker. She also continued her allegiance to the memory of Joyce, acting as his literary executor and helping to compile The Letters of James Joyce. She died at her home near Saffron Walden in 1961, aged 85, leaving her collection of literary material to the British Library and to the National Book League.[2]
1908 – Ruth Bancroft, American landscape and garden designer (d. 2017)
Ruth Petersson Bancroft (September 2, 1908 – November 26, 2017) was the creator of the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, California.
A native of the Bay Area, Bancroft began the xeric garden in the 1950s on land originally purchased by Hubert Howe Bancroft, the grandfather of Ruth’s husband, Philip Bancroft. The garden became the first in the United States to be preserved by The Garden Conservancy[1] and has been open to the public since 1992.[2][3]
Read more ->
FYI
STORIES FROM NORTHERN CANADA AND ALASKA: Swimming in the Subarctic North
The Passive Voice: Stranger in Parodies: Weird Al and the Law of Musical Satire
The Passive Voice: Computer Programs for Authors
The Passive Voice, From The Paris Review: Motherhood at the End of the World
Brain Pickings by Maria Popova: Midweek pick-me-up: The secret portal to presence — Hermann Hesse on life’s “little joys” as an act of resistance to the cult of busyness
By Ashley Strickland, CNN, Space+Science: Say hello to handstanding spotted skunks, ‘the acrobats of the skunk world’
Sheldon Jackson Museum Artist Talk with Stacey Williams (Tlingit)
by LAM Webmaster on September 2nd, 2021 in Sheldon Jackson Museum, Events, Museums | Comments
Weaver Stacey Williams looks at a drawer of baskets at the Sheldon Jackson Museum.Sheldon Jackson Museum artist-in-residence Stacey Williams (Tlingit) will give an artist talk entitled, “From Fumbling Fingers to Graceful Basketry” on Saturday, September 11 at 3 pm.
The talk will focus on her experiences learning and teaching weaving techniques at the same time. While she was taking Northwest Coast weaving classes, her mentor often asked her to teach a skill she had just learned to reinforce her understanding.
From fumbling fingers to graceful basketry, listen to her story of how learning and teaching go together and how learning continues this cycle.
Attend the talk online through Zoom or in-person.
To attend via zoom, visit:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2294857244?pwd=bGo2WXlxaVpTZGoxREp1OUIra1pKZz09
Meeting ID: 229 485 7244
Passcode: FORMLINE
To attend in-person, please call the museum at (907) 747-8981. There are a limited number of seats available for the event, and a reservation is required.
The Sheldon Jackson Museum is open Tuesday-Saturday,10 am-4 pm. Admission is $9 for adults, $8 for ages 65+, and free for youth 18 and under or for Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum or Alaska State Museum members. The Sheldon Jackson Museum is compliant with state mandates pertaining to Alaska State Libraries, Archives, and Museums.
Media Contact:
Patience Frederiksen
Director, Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums
907.465.2911
patience.frederiksen@alaska.gov
lam.alaska.gov
James Clear: 3-2-1: Failure, mindset, and relationships
The Human Library launches in New York City
Eat Your Words from Edible Alaska: #13: Time for some fun·gi
Ideas
By mcorbin: Gopher-Proof Tomatoes
By BM Outdoors: Awesome Chicken Coop From (Almost) 100% Reused/Repurposed Materials
By Zerozero: How to Make Shroomies! – Cute Mushroom Figures (3D Printing/Tinkercad)
Recipes
By Lisa Kaminski, Taste of Home: We Made Dolly Parton’s Hearty Chicken and Dumplings
I Wash You Dry: Italian Beef and Rice Skillet
By Betty Crocker Kitchens: These Pies Are Made for Potlucks
DamnDelicious
RecipeTinEats
- Bruschetta summer pasta salad January 7, 2025This summer pasta salad is everything you want when it’s too hot to cook! Quick, nearly no cook (just boil pasta) and full of bright, fresh, bruschetta-inspired tomato flavours. Also – a useful tip for how to store basil that actually really, truly works! Bruschetta summer pasta salad Every Christmas break, I have intentions of... […]Nagi
- How to store basil January 7, 2025After trying every which way to store basil so it doesn’t turn brown within a day of buying it, I’ve finally learnt how to store basil so it stays perky, green and fresh for over a week. Just stick it in a jar of water and keep it on the counter. That’s right – not... […]Nagi
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for January 7 January 7, 2025Picture of the day Night view of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge from Buda Castle in Budapest, Hungary
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for January 6 January 6, 2025Picture of the day La Joven Madre by Arturo Michelena, 1889
E-book Deals:
The Book Junction: Where Readers Go To Discover Great New Fiction!
Mystery & Thriller Most Wanted
Book Blogs & Websites:
Welcome to the Stump the Bookseller blog!
Stump the Bookseller is a service offered by Loganberry Books to reconnect people to the books they love but can’t quite remember. In brief (for more detailed information see our About page), people can post their memories here, and the hivemind goes to work. After all, the collective mind of bibliophiles, readers, parents and librarians around the world is much better than just a few of us thinking. Together with these wonderful Stumper Magicians, we have a nearly 50% success rate in finding these long lost but treasured books. The more concrete the book description, the better the success rate, of course. It is a labor of love to keep it going, and there is a modest fee. Please see the How To page to find price information and details on how to submit your Book Stumper and payment.
Thanks to everyone involved to keep this forum going: our blogging team, the well-read Stumper Magicians, the many referrals, and of course to everyone who fondly remembers the wonder of books from their childhood and wants to share or revisit that wonder. Isn’t it amazing, the magic of a book?