1933: Events and Inventions

Nov6

January 30, 1933. Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany by President von Hindenburg. The Chancellor of Germany is the head of the government of Germany. According to the Weimar Constitution of 1919, the Chancellor is appointed by the President and responsible to Parliament. The 44-year old Hitler has come to power as the government and economic systems in Germany are on the verge of complete collapse.

January, 1933. The Spanish government authorizes martial law as political violence causes almost 100 deaths in Spain.

February 28, 1933. A mysterious fire burns down the Reichstag, the building that houses the German Parliament. Hitler accuses the communists of starting the fire and persuades President von Hindenburg to suspend all freedom of speech and assembly in Germany.

March 4, 1933. The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a disagreement over procedure; Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss becomes a virtual dictator of Austria.

March 22, 1933. Portugal’s new constitution gives the government the right to suspend all individual civil liberties. Antonio Oliveira Salazar rules Portugal as a dictator.

April 7, 1933. Beer is legalized in the United States, eight months before the full repeal of Prohibition in December.

August, 1933. Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi is released from a prison hospital in Poona after a five-day hunger strike.

October 17,1933. Albert Einstein arrives in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany; he accepts a position at Princeton University.

October, 1933. More than 9000 Arabs riot in protest against Jewish emigration to Palestine.

December, 1933. Happy days are here again! The end of Prohibition in the United States, as the 21st amendment is ratified by the final state to ratify, Utah.

1933: Arts and Entertainment

Nov6

German film star Marlene Dietrich, who now lives in Hollywood, has created a new fashion trend with her costume in the movie, Morocco—men’s clothing for women. In the movie she wears a man’s top hat and tails, and she often appears in public in men’s suit clothes, carrying a cane and smoking a cigarette. The Dietrich look, called “Dietrickery”, has caught on, especially among the rich and famous.

In March, the movie King Kong has actress Fay Wray playing opposite a giant gorilla, Knig Kong, who dangles her from the top of the Empire State Building.

In November, the new film version of Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women starring the fresh new actress Katharine Hepburn is released. Hepburn plays Jo, the tomboy protagonist of the novel.

Hit records of 1933:
“Sophisticated Lady” by Duke Ellington.
“Did You Ever See A Dream Walking?” by Eddy Duchin.
“We’re in the Money” by Dick Powell.
“Just An Echo In the Valley” by Bing Crosby; also version by Rudy Vallee.
“Lazy Bones” by Ted Lewis Band; also version by Don Redman’s Band.
“Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies Sing” by Ben Bernie.
“Night and Day” by Eddy Duchin.
“Shadow Waltz” by Bing Crosby.
“You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me” by Bing Crosby with Guy Lombardo’s Royal Canadians.
“Stormy Weather” by Ethel Waters

13 Observations, or Two Can Play at This Game

Nov6

13 Observations Made by Someone of No Importance Who has No Famous Pseudonym While Reading Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance.

1. If you work hard and become successful, the two are more likely to be related than your hair length and your height are likely to be related. In other words, hard work in a free society often leads to financial success or at least a certain amount of financial security. People who are giants never have long hair because they are giants.

2. There is no such thing as luck, or fortune defined as luck. If you have a fortune aka a Lot of Money, there’s a reason. Somebody worked for it. Or stole it.

3. “Money is like a child–rarely unaccompanied.” If you want someone else’s money (or child), you’ll have to wait until he’s not looking and take it. Or you could get him to sign it over in return for something you do for him. Like work or provide a service or product. Rumplestiltskin got a baby (almost) in return for work, spinning gold. If you can do that, you’ll probably earn a lot of money.

4. People who say money doesn’t matter are right in the sense that that it’s the stuff we use the money to symbolize that matters. But they’re also wrong, because we need money for the basic stuff of life: food, shelter, clothing, and books. Cake doesn’t matter.

5. Just because I didn’t do everything that’s involved in making the cake, but rather used my skills to barter for money that I used to purchase certain necessities for making the cake doesn’t mean it’s not my cake, made by the fruit of my labor. If others want a cake, they can make their own, buy their own, or quit yelling and ask nicely.

6. Safety nets made by governments spending money that is borrowed from other governments are not trustworthy, and I would only want to fall into one if the alternative was death on the sidewalk. I might die anyway.

7. If you sit and have a drink with someone who has a grievance, be prepared to have more than one drink. And prepare to be the one who pays for all the drinks.

8. As we all tell our children, life isn’t fair. So don’t go around asking anyone if it is.

9. People gathering in the streets feeling wronged tend to be loud, not because there’s a tall building in front of them, but because they are like children who think that if they shout loudly enough they’ll get what they want. Tantrums are not nice and are rarely effective if a real adult is in charge.

10. If the people shouting outside have no solution to the problem, then why don’t they grow up and quit shouting and let the adults inside the building get on with trying to solve the problem?

11. When a parent ignores a two year old who is throwing a tantrum, the two year old sometimes stops the nonsense. However, this technique may be less effective with adult tantrum-throwers. The story may have a very unhappy ending, but whose fault is that? The parent or the (twenty)two year old who never grew up?

12. If you have a large crowd shouting outside your building, someone needs to tell them to go home and go to bed.

13. Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler is a part of the 1%, which is probably why he’s observing from a discreet distance instead of going down to OWS and handing out a lot of cash. Or cake. Or both.

Saturday Review of Books: November 5, 2011

Nov4

â€œThe tale is told of how Erasmus, walking home on a foul night, glimpsed a tiny fragment of print in the mire. He bent down, seized upon it and lifted it to a flickering light with a cry of thankful joy. Here was a miracle.â€ ~George Steiner

If you’re not familiar with and linking to and perusing the Saturday Review of Books here at Semicolon, you’re missing out. Hereâ€™s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesnâ€™t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can just write your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where youâ€™ve written your book review. Donâ€™t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after youâ€™ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book youâ€™re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews theyâ€™re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

Small Acts of Amazing Courage by Gloria Whelan

Nov4

Cybils nominee: Middle Grade Fiction. Nominated by Rebecca Herman.

Small Acts of Amazing Courage takes place in a river town in southeastern India. It is 1919 and World War I has been over for six months. During the war, more than a million Indian men fought alongside the British. Rosalind’s father led a battalion of Indian soldiers, the Gurkha Rifles. Now that the war is over, the British in India have returned to their comfortable lives of servants and clubs. ~Author’s Note by Gloria Whelan

Rosalind is a well-written character. She’s fifteen years old and just independent enough to get into trouble, which of course is necessary for a good story, and yet she still respects her parents and wants to please them. Rosalind has ideas and adventures and, well, spunk.

The setting of the book, India, is almost another character in the story. India is portrayed as the anti-Britain: colorful, messy, dangerous, and full of life, while England is drab, gray, safe, and lifeless. Rosalind’s older brother died in England when he was sent there to go to school, but India is the place where Rosalind’s aunt begins to come alive for the first time in her repressed and circumscribed life.

From my reading of history, Ms. Whelan over-simplifies the politics and cultural encounters of the time period. Gandhi and his followers are, of course, the good guys, and anyone who questions the wisdom of Indian independence is a patronizing colonialist, overbearing and/or willfully ignorant. Rosalind’s father falls into this category, as do most of the British residents of the Raj, the British mandate in India.

And Hinduism is, as a matter of course, presented as an interesting and colorful set of stories and beliefs that enrich the lives of the Indian people and of those British people who are open-minded enough to listen. Multicultural PC aboundeth. Christianity is not mentioned, but it is implied that India is the best place, has the longest and wisest history, and worships the best gods of all. If only we could all just get along as they do in India! The only differences between Hindus and Muslims that are mentioned are related to dietary practice, and surely what we eat can’t be a huge obstacle to peace in an independent India.

But I nitpick, probably because I’ve been reading a lot about the time period. The book tells a good story in which personal freedom and national freedom are paralleled. If the narrative features political changes that are taking place in India at the time without including some of the problems that were inherent in those political changes, well, the book isn’t about the conflict between Hindus and Muslims. Nor is it about the poverty in India that is a direct result of some of the religious practices and beliefs of Hinduism. The story does include an episode that demonstrates the evils of the caste system and its effect on the Dalits of the time. And that little episode is left, without preaching, to speak for itself.

So, I leave the book to speak for itself. I enjoyed the story, but I also knew that there was more to be known and written about India and its culture and its independence movement than could be contained in this small book.

Ruby Lu, Star of the Show by Lenore Look

Nov4

Cybils nominee: Early chapter books. Nominated by Jeff Barger at NC Teacher Stuff.

I always think of Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary when I think of a dad-loses-his-job kind of book for primary age children. Ruby Lu, Star of the Show is a new entry in that particular category, for 21st century hard times, and it lives up to the high standard set by Ms. Cleary’s books of the 1970’s variety.

Ruby Lu is in third grade, and she’s a pistol. Whether she’s writing haiku (about her dog, Elvis) or worrying about Elvis being lonely at home or helping her dad in his job-hunting efforts, Ruby Lu is a star—a Chinese American, Spanish-learning, Haiku Heroine, dog training, hair cutting, hard working, list making, washing machine wearing, self-sacrificing center of attention and activity. Lenore Look has another (Alvin Ho is my hero!) winning character in Ruby Lu.

Here’s a Ruby Lu exclusive list on How to Survive Hard Times:

How to Survive Hard Times

1. Go to the library.
2. Check out books on dog training.
3. Do it yourself.
4. Start a business.
5. Sell something!
6. Make some money.
7. Scan some twenty-dollar bills.
8. Cut carefully.
9. Think positively.
10. Look alive.
11. Keep your head up.
12. Eat chocolate cake.
13. Listen to happy music.

I think #12 in particular is a great piece of advice for any times, although I take my chocolate straight, no chaser.

I tried to find some other parent unemployed books to recommend along with this one, but Ramona and Her Father plus books set during the Great Depression (Meet Kit An American Girl by Valerie Tripp, Blue Willow by Doris Gates, Nothing to Fear by Jackie French Koller) were all that I could come up with. Suggestions, anyone?

Unplanned by Abby Johnson

Nov3

Unplanned: The dramatic true story of a former Planned Parenthood leader’s eye-opening journey across the life line by Abby Johnson with Cindy Lambert.

Abby Johnson was the director of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas (home of Texas A&M and the Texas Aggies). She was committed to her work with Planned Parenthood because she truly believed that the services they provided helped women in crisis and had the long-term effect of making abortion less common by decreasing the incidence of unwanted pregnancies. She was idealistic, hard-working, and somewhat naive.

Then, in September 2009, Abby was called into an exam room at the Planned Prenthood clinic to help with an ultrasound-guided abortion. What she saw in the ultrasound picture changed her mind about abortion, about the pro-life movement, and ultimately about her own relationship with a loving God who loves Abby Johnson and the women who have abortions and the children who die in abortion clinics like Planned Parenthood every day.

One of the main things I got out of this book was not a change in my opinions about abortion; I know what I believe about the value of every human life. But I was so impressed by the loving persistence of the pro-life volunteers who loved and prayed for Abby Johnson for years before she finally saw the truth. I am so impatient. I have friends and family members who need to see God, who need to trust Jesus Christ, who need, and I have been praying for them and doing my best to love them as Christ loves me. But I am tired sometimes and discouraged. Will my loved ones ever see their needs and turn to a loving Saviour? How long, O Lord?

It took eight years for Abby Johnson to see the ugliness and greed behind her work at Planned Parenthood. Eight years. I have people I’ve been praying for only half that long, and it already feels like a lifetime. So, I learned from reading this book, something I already know: I can’t give up. Persistence, faith, love, and hope are gifts from the Holy Spirit indeed.

I am also moved to pray for Abby Johnson, whenever I think about her. It can’t be easy to have your life turned upside down, even when it’s God who does the turning.

My story is not neat and tidy, and it doesn’t come wrapped in easy answers. Oh, how we love to vilify our opponents—from both sides. How easy to assume that those on “our” side are right and wise and good; how those on “their” side are treacherous and foolish and deceptive. I have found right and good and wisdom on both sides. I have found foolishness and treachery and deception on both sides as well. I have experienced how good intentions can be warped into poor choices no matter what the side.

Don’t slam this book shut because of what I’ve just said. Read it for that very reason. Read it to understand the surprising hopes and motivations on the “other” side.~ Abby Johnson

Zapato Power: Freddie Ramos Zooms to the Rescue by Jacqueline Jules

Nov2

Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books. Nominated by the HappyNappy Bookseller.

Freddie Ramos looks like an average kid, but he’s actually a superhero with ZAPATO POWER that comes from his wristband controller and the special purple sneakers that he wears every day.

Zoom! Zoom! Zapato!

With that mantra and a press of the flashing button on his wristband, Freddie can “zoom out of the classroom in a cloud of smoke.” And then he’s off to do what superheroes do: save the school from a purple squirrel–or maybe save the squirrel from an angry principal?

If I were a school librarian (as I once was in another life), especially if I had Hispanic students in my school, but even if I didn’t, I’d snap up the books in this series for the easy reader shelf. I haven’t seen the first two books in the series, Freddie Ramos Takes Off and Freddie Ramos Springs into Action, but I’m guessing they’re as fun as this third one. First grade boys and girls should fall in love with Freddie. The book contains a very few Spanish words and phrases, which is a plus.

Freddie is a delight, and a really good superhero, too. He’s out to save the world, but he’s also a realist.

“Superheroes are supposed to work in secret. That’s why so many of them have masks. I didn’t have a mask, so I had to talk as fast as I could run. . . The principal marched me back to Mrs. Lane and told her to keep an eye on me. Secret superheroes don’t get much credit.”

I wish I had Zapato Power, even if I did have to keep it secret.

*This book is nominated for a Cybils Award, and I am a judge for the first round thereof. However, no one paid me any money, and nobody knows which books will get to be finalists or which ones will get the awards. In other words, this review reflects my opinion and Z-baby’s and nothing else.

1932: Events and Inventions

Nov2

March 1, 1932. Charles and Ann Lindbergh’s young son, Charles Jr., is discovered missing from his crib in the family home. Ten weeks after his abduction, Charles Jr. is found dead just a few miles from the Lindberghs’ home. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, who will be tried, convicted, and executed for the crime, proclaims his innocence to the end.

March 1, 1932. Japan proclaims Manchuria an independent state called Manchukuo and installs Manchu (Chinese) Emperor Puyi as puppet emperor. (Without the minerals and food supply obtained from their occupation of Manchuria, the Japanese probably could not have carried out their plan for conquest over Southeast Asia or taken the risk to attack Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December, 1941.)

May 16, 1932. Massive riots between Hindus and Muslims in Bombay leave thousands dead and injured.

May 20-21, 1932. U.S. aviator Amelia Earhardt becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

May 29, 1932. The first of approximately 15,000 World War I veterans arrive in Washington, D.C. demanding the immediate payment of their military bonus, becoming known as the Bonus Army. On July 28, U.S. Attorney General William D. Mitchell orders the veterans removed from all government property. Washington police meet with resistance, shots are fired and two veterans are wounded and later die. President Herbert Hoover then orders the army to clear the veterans’ campsite. Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur commands the infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks. The Bonus Army marchers with their wives and children are driven out, and their shelters and belongings burned.

June 15, 1932. War breaks out between the South American countries of Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the Gran Chaco, a forested plain between the two countries. Paraguay needs the resources from the Gran Chaco, grazing land and hardwood from the forests, and landlocked Bolivia needs access to the Gran Chaco in order to trade overseas. The war will last until 1935 and will be the bloodiest military conflict fought in South America in the twentieth century.

September 20, 1932. Mohandas Gandhi begins a six-day hunger strike in Poona prison. This fast was the start of a new campaign by Gandhi to improve the lives of the untouchables (Dalit), whom he named Harijans, the children of God.

November 8, 1932. Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected president of the United States. He promises to end the Great Depression with his “New Deal”, and he further promises that when he is president, “No American will starve.”

In 1932, unemployment in the US reaches between 25-33%—about 14 million people unemployed. A similar level of unemployment now affects Germany. The economic depression has spread worldwide.

1931: Arts and Entertainment

Oct31

In film, it is the Year of Horror. (Coincidentally, I am posting this on Halloween, 2011.)

In February, Hungarian-born actor Bela Lugosi stars as the vampire in the U.S. film, Dracula.

Frederic March wins an Academy Award for his portrayal of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:

And in November James Whale’s Frankenstein stars Boris Karloff as the monster from Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory.

Public Enemy with James Cagney, also released in 1931, presents another kind of horror. Cagney stars as gangster Tom Powers.

Happy Halloween from 1931!