Tuesday, August 19, 2008

[1785 - Seth Thomas, clock maker, born in Wolcott, Connecticut]

[1812 - USS Constitution defeats HMS Guerriere in sea battle]

[1870 - Bernard (Mannes) Baruch, financier, statesman, presidential advisor, born in Camden, South Carolina]

[1871 - Orville Wright, aviator, born in Dayton, Ohio]

[1902 - Ogden Nash, poet, born in Rye, New York]

[1903 - James Gould Cozzens, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, born in Chicago]

[1909 - First race is held at Indianapolis 500 Speedway]

[1915 - Ring Lardner Jr. (Ringgold Wilmer Lardner, Jr.), Academy Award-winning screenwriter, born in Chicago]

[1916 - Marie Wilson, actress, born in Anaheim, California]

[1921 - Gene Roddenberry, executive producer Star Trek, born in El Paso, Texas]

[1929 - Sergei P. Diaghilev, founder Ballets Russes, dies at age 57]

[1931 - Willie Shoemaker, jockey, born in Fabens, Texas]

Owed to Ogden Nash

Most say Ogden Nash was a comic poet.
Just read him and you will surely know it.
Now, was he a comic who set his work to verse,
Or a poet with a vision of a world perverse?

He is gone now; he no Baby-boomer.
But his writings preserve his sense of humor.
Who cares if his verse took liberties with meter.
He would see Bush has the brains of a Wal-Mart Greeter.

Gently he wrote of animals and children.
He described them in ways that with whimsy filled them.
He spoke to us of the cow and the camel.
With imagination that was untrammel.

William's Whimsical Words:

I admit that you are more clever than I.
You will never be mistaken for a Ham from Rye.
I salute you, dear Ogden, in your sleep,
And pray this won't make you Nash your teeth.

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