I’m ready for a three-day weekend and doubt anyone will be at a computer tomorrow, so today is the end of the blog week.
1. Yesterday was the anniversary of poor Hemingway shooting himself in Ketchum. The Writer’s Almanac (which I just discovered) had a bit on yesterday’s page about what may have motivated him–constant pain from a plane crash and elecrtroshock therapy, to name a couple. I just read a Ray Bradbury story about Hemingway getting to go back in time to “re-do” his death: “The Kilimanjaro Device,” excerpted here.
2. Celebrate the Fourth of July with a poem by Stephen Vincent Benet, “American Names“. It begins well, gets a little lost, and ends with a quote that inspired a book title. Here’s the beginning:
I have fallen in love with American names,
The sharp names that never get fat,
The snakeskin-titles of mining-claims,
The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine Hat,
Tucson and Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat.
3. Or you can celebrate by watching Yankee Doodle Dandy this weekend. Remember, “My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you.”