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Vol. IV, No. 11, 3 November 2002

A Missive of Irregular Frequency and Questionable Worth

WATCH OUT FOR THOSE MODIFIERS

Former athletes who, in their follow-on careers as sportscasters, usually providing "color", are not known for their prowess with the English language. "Bucket Head" Tim McCarver is no exception. He has been providing the "color" in the coverage of the World Series. During one of the games he allowed as how he had had a discussion with one of the players from The Dominican Republic. The subject was the poor conditions under which so many Caribbean players had to play the game when young. Bats were sometimes made from shovel handles, or worse. Gloves were often made from the most unlikely of materials such as paper milk cartons. A short clip was presented showing how it was done. Then he announced with some authority that gloves were also made from "bags of empty cement." 

Now, think about that for a while.    

THE REAL SKINNY ON THE STATUE OF LIBERTY

§ The above photo of Liberty was taken in Paris in 1878.

I know you have for some time wanted to know the real skinny about the origin of the Statue of Liberty, so here it is.   

A few weeks ago, The History Channel presented a program on the building of the Suez Canal. It is a fascinating piece of history. In a nut shell, the potential value of such a canal has been known since antiquity. Bits and pieces have been attempted by several Pharaohs, the Greeks and Romans since ancient times. In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte had the area surveyed and was erroneously informed by his engineers that the head of the Red Sea, at high tide, was 10 meters (32 1/2 feet) higher than the Mediterranean, at low tide, and, therefore, a canal would be too difficult. Later on, French diplomat and engineer Ferdinand Marie Vicomte de-Lesseps found that the two were at essentially the same level and, in 1854, signed a concession with the Egyptian government to dig the canal. The actual digging began in 1859. More than 2.4 million Egyptian and other Near Eastern and Mediterranean workers were used - at a cost of 125,000 lives and a lot more money than Egypt could afford. It was opened to navigation in 1869 with a big celebration.* Verdi was to have finished Aida and directed its first production in Cairo in honor of the occasion. Unfortunately it wasn't finished in time and wasn't introduced there until 1871.

* Turn up the volume and go to: http://www.maylin.net/Fireworks.html to see and hear some of the actual fireworks featured at that celebration. Yeh!!

In honor of the opening of the canal, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, a French sculptor, had conceived of and was under contract to the Egyptian government to build a new "Wonder of the World" on the order of the Colossus of Rhodes, the huge bronze statue that once stood at the entrance to harbor on the Greek island of Rhodes before an earthquake took it down. The new "Wonder" was a statue of a lady holding a lamp high above her head and was intended to stand in Port Said at the entrance to the Suez Canal, "lighting the way to Asia." Unfortunately, about 4 years into the digging of the canal, Egypt's Viceroy Mohammed Said Pasha reneged on the deal, deciding that Egypt couldn't afford the statue - and shortly died. The country was rapidly going bankrupt. So the French switched to "Plan B." In 1865, about two years after the Said Pasha turned it down, Bartholdi and Edouard-Rene de Laboulaye, proposed that "Liberty Enlightening the World," should be given to the United States as a symbol of our alliance with France during the American Revolution. In 1956 its name was changed to "Statue of Liberty."

Now, to confuse the issue, an MIT website dealing with important historic inventions** reports that, in 1871, on a trip to the United States to gin up support for the idea of giving the statue to the United States, Bartholdi "finished his first sketches for a colossal statue" for New York's harbor - that's right, his first sketches. That's about eight years after Said Pasha turned it down. It would appear that the statue was already under construction. 

In the Britannica there's no mention of the statue being originally intended for the Suez Canal. I couldn't find one in any other reference dealing centrally with the Statue of Liberty - only in a few references dealing with the Suez Canal. So, who are you going to believe? Is this a case of political correctness?

** http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/inventorsI-Q/liberty.html. 

NOTHING LIKE A GOOD DRINK OF WATER
In my evil youth, by brother and I frequently spent our Summers with my Aunt Nettie and Uncle Ralph on their farm near Brighton, Illinois. This was in the 1930s and things were pretty primitive, especially on farms. No central heat, no running water. Heat came from pot bellied stoves and the kitchen range, all fueled with firewood. I do not remember any coal, but I do remember a huge pile of firewood behind the granary. Water was taken with a hand-pump from a well, about 50 feet from the back door. A tin cup for community use was permanently hung on the pump. The water was absolutely delicious. I was convinced that it was because of the tin cup - and water hasn't tasted as good since. That is, until about 5 years ago. That's when I carefully removed the burrs from around the inside of the open end of a No. 2 salmon can and after thoroughly washing it with soap, rinsing with baking soda and lots of water, it became my private drinking cup. Now water tastes good again. 

Go to Mrs. Evil's Recipe for November: Coconut Crème Brulée

See you at the next rest stop.

Dr. Evil

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