THE 200TH BIRTHDAY OF HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW AND ELIZABETH TAYLOR TURNS 75

Today is the 200th birthday of one of the finest American poets of all time. His name is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. What an incredible poet. Of course my favorite is "Paul Revere's Ride" and the famous line "One if by land and two if by sea" Longfellow was such an admired figure in the United States during his life, that his 7oth birthday in 1877 took on the air of a national holiday, with parades, speeches, and the reading of his poetry. He had become one of the first American celebrities, and was widely versatile poetry.His work was immensely popular during his time and is still today, although some modern critics consider him too sentimental. His poetry is based on familiar and easily understood themes with simple, clear, and flowing language. His poetry created an audience in America and contributed to creating American mythology
Longfellow's poem "Christmas Bells" is the basis for the Christmas carol "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day".Longfellow's home in Cambridge, the Longfellow National Historic Site, is a U.S. National Historic Site, National Historic Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Place . A two-thirds scale replica was built in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Minniehaha Park in 1906 and once served as a centerpiece for a local zoo. Today is also an historic day as the elder George Bush declared in 1991 that the war had been won in Kuwait and that Saddam and the Iraq army had been totally defeated. Well, too bad we didn't finish the job back then. Today is also Elizabeth Taylor's 75th birthday. A true Hollywood legend is she. Had a very close call at work last night as a gun was pulled on us at work. The thief stole a fifteen hundred dollar camera and a two hundred dollar spotting scope. He got away and the manager (who had not seen the gun pulled) followed him out to get the camera. The thief fired a shot and missed her-- but not by much and then escaped. The police were at the store the rest of the evening and we closed early. Never a dull moment. Earlier in the day, a customer had been waiting for a DVD transfer and was going to wait in his car eating his lunch, waiting for the job to be finished-- we talked him out of it-- saying that he be much better off enjoying his lunch relaxing in a nearby restaurant. Good thing he didn't-- a city utility truck came along and plowed into it. Had the customer remained in his car, he most certainly would have been killed right in front of our store! Crazy! Crazy day! I'm certain God was watching over all of us!