Notes and Quotes

Bits and pieces that strike the fancy of a history-minded feminist.

[femilogue]

Happy Birthday, Eleanor Roosevelt!

Follow the link to read about what ER hoped her legacy to be.

"There is no doubt that we women must lead the way in setting new standards of what is really valuable in life.…"

[femilogue]

Born October 6, 1917: Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977), civil rights activist best known for desegregating the Mississippi Democratic Party.

[obitoftheday]

Obit of the Day: Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit

Cosmo Allegretti was a busy man on Captain Kangaroo. The puppeteer and performer was the creator and voice of Bob Keeshan’s cloth nemesis Mr. Moose, and his silent sidekick Bunny Rabbit. He also performed as Dancing Bear and Grandfather Clock. He was even the artist for the Captain’s Magic Drawing Board. Add to that occasional appearances as Dennis the Painter, and Mr. Allegretti was on the show as often as Bob Keeshan’s red-coated Captain.

Mr. Allegretti was a set painter by trade but became a puppeteer when producers of Captain Kangaroo were unhappy with a puppet designed for the show. He offered to create a new one - and a career was born.

Cosmo Allegretti, who also performed on Broadway and in several films, died on July 26, 2013 at the age of 86.

Note: Mr. Moose is in the Smithsonian Institution.

Sources: Today.com, IMDB.com, Wikipedia, LA Times, and UPI.com

(Video of Bob Keeshan as Captain Kangaroo with Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit - both performed by Cosmo Allegretti, is copyright of CBS and courtesy of Jim5150jvc on YouTube)

Also of interest my historical post on Captain Kangaroo from 2012. 

You can also check out:

Jane Henson - Co-creator of the Muppets

Jerry Nelson - Voice of The Count

Mr. Rogers

[prochoiceamerica]

Just a few ways that Perry and his allies have cheated and changed the rules to achieve their goals of restricting the rights of women and ending abortion in Texas:

They’ve gerrymandered districts creating an unfair advantage for anti-choice extremists. They even tried to gerrymander Wendy Davis out of her district.

They couldn’t pass their bill under normal state government rules, so they demanded a special session – that has weaker rules

When they didn’t like the legally-mandated public testimony, they shut down the conversation, robbing Texas women of their right to speak out.

On the night Wendy Davis defeated their legislation, they flat out lied about the time of the vote. They had to admit they cheated and voided the vote.

Please REBLOG and spread the word. Cheaters never win.

[femilogue]

Happy Birthday, USA!

Don't forget the Ladies!

[femilogue]

 “Hard work is the only formula for any achievement.”

Born July 2, 1861: Grace Raymond Hebard (1861–1936), civil engineer, professor, historian, librarian, suffragist, biographer, and chronicler of the West and woman suffrage. Also, a tennis champ! Hebard was a woman of many firsts, including the first woman to pass the Wyoming bar and practice before the state supreme court.

[femilogue]

Born June 25,1874: Rose Cecil O’Neill (1874–1944), magazine illustrator, artist, writer, and businesswoman who created—and made a fortune from—the Kewpies.

[lipstick-feminists]

In the study individual men and women were asked to give a speech in front of a panel of six strangers. For some there was a picture of Bill Clinton on the back wall and for others there was a picture of Hillary. Overall the men spoke longer and were judged as better speakers than the women, except for the group of ladies who spoke while looking into Hillary’s baby blues. That group blew the men out of the water as far as the length of their speeches and overall confidence and success in conveying their ideas publicly.

The conclusion researchers drew from this study was that when women are exposed to powerful female role models in leadership positions they gained instant boosts in confidence and the ability to achieve at high levels. ”Female political role models can inspire women and help them cope with stressful situations that they encounter in their careers, such as public speaking,” the authors of the study wrote. ”A lack of female powerful role models leads to a vicious circle, because if women fail to take leadership positions, they also fail to provide role models for junior women to follow.”

[femilogue]

Born this day in 1880: AGNES NESTOR (1880–1948), labor leader and social reformer known especially for her role in unionizing women workers.

[life]

Happy birthday, Margaret Bourke-White. Here, we look back at her breathtaking legacy.

[femilogue]

The excerpt below is from the social satire Pink and White Tyranny, by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896), author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, who was born June 14, 1811.

“The babe is self in another form. It is so interwoven and identified with the mother's life, that she passes by almost insensible gradations from herself to it; and day by day the distinctive love of self wanes as the child-love waxes….”

[femilogue]

Born June 12, 1892: avante-garde writer Djuna Barnes.

SUICIDE

Corpse A

THEY brought her in, a shattered small

Cocoon,

With a little bruised body like

A startled moon;

And all the subtle symphonies of her

A twilight rune.

  Corpse B

THEY gave her hurried shoves this way

And that.

Her body shock-abbreviated

As a city cat.

She lay out listlessly like some small mug

Of beer gone flat.

[femilogue]

Born June 11, 1860: MARY JANE RATHBUN, (1860–1943), eminent marine zoologist, known for establishing the basic taxonomic information on Crustacea (and a self-taught woman!).

[womenrockscience]

[blackfemalecoders]

“Without Women, Computing as We Know It Would Not Exist.”

[drziggystardust]

Re-Blog Forever!

[mirandaadria]

Fuck. Yes.

[explore-blog]

Henri-Frédéric Amiel

[femilogue]

The thing to realize is that your life belongs to you. It’s short and precious and the less time you spend anxiously cogitating over major life decisions the more time you’ll have to feel anxious about the actual results of those major life decisions. And that’s where the real action is.

Steve Almond (WBUR Cognoscenti June 3, 2013)

[femilogue]

Born June 3, 1946: Sally J. Priesand (b. 1946), the first woman in the U.S. to be ordained a rabbi.