Today in History: March 28

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Saint Teresa of Avila was born on this date in 1515. A mystic, she experienced religious visions and what she called “divine joy” while painfully ill; she is the patron saint of those who suffer headaches and physical pain and those who are ridiculed for their piety. St. Teresa is depicted in many works of art, music, and literature, including Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s masterwork “Ecstasy of St. Teresa” in the Santa Maria della Vittoria church, carved 1647–52, pictured above.

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“Dearest, I feel certain I am going mad again.” Virginia Woolf wrote her last letter to her husband, wrote her last anything, and drowned herself in the River Ouse 75 years ago today. She was 59 and this was her third suicide attempt and letter. She was most likely bipolar and it had been an exhausting existence. “Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness,” she wrote Leonard Woolf. It is a stunning and simply heart-breaking statement that she hand-wrote (after the fold):
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On That Edge

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

I’m a damn sap.

Sometimes it’s the television ads. There are some that get me every time. “Aw, they’re getting a new kitten!” (Never mind what the ad is selling.) Or if a character in a movie—at any point in the movie—says something about wanting to “go home,” and at the end of the movie they walk through their front door and say they’re “home,” and the music swells and the credits start rolling, I’m a goner.
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Today in History: March 27

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Today is Easter Sunday. Above, part of “The Ascension of Christ” by Salvador Dalí (1958. Oil on canvas. Pérez Simón Collection).

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“The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash” aired on British television on this date in 1978. A parody of the history of The Beatles created by Eric Idle (Monty Python) and Neil Innes (Bonzo Dog Band), the film performed better in the ratings than it had a week earlier on American television, where it finished last for the night. Innes composed the songs with an intention to make them sound more Beatles-esque than Beatles … um, -ish … and was sued for copyright infringement by representatives of The Beatles. The film (below the fold):
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