LEONARD 'CHICO' MARX, A CHAIN OF GAGS & SLAPSTICKS

Today, The Grandma has been watchong some classic films interpreted by Chico Marx, one of the Marx Brothers, who dies on a day like today in 1961.

Leonard 'Chico' Marx (March 22, 1887-October 11, 1961) was an American comedian, actor, and pianist. He was the oldest brother in the Marx Brothers comedy troupe, alongside his brothers Arthur ('Harpo'), Julius ('Groucho'), Milton ('Gummo'), and Herbert ('Zeppo'). His persona in the act was that of a charming, uneducated but crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat. On screen, Chico is often in alliance with Harpo, usually as partners in crime, and is also frequently seen trying to con or outfox Groucho.

Leonard was the oldest of the Marx Brothers to live past early childhood, the first-born being Manfred Marx who died in infancy. In addition to his work as a performer, he played an important role in the management and development of the act in its early years.

Marx was born in Manhattan, New York City, on March 22, 1887. His mother Miene ('Minnie') Marx (née Schoenberg) was from Dornum in East Frisia. Around 1880, the family emigrated to New York City. His father, Samuel ('Sam' or 'Frenchy'; born Simon) Marx, was a native of Mertzwiller, a small Alsatian village, and worked as a tailor. Minnie and Sam married on January 18, 1885. Their first child, Manfred, died of tuberculosis; Leonard was their second, and was followed in turn by Arthur, Julius, Milton, and Herbert.

By the age of nine, Leonard was a gambler, and by the age of eleven, he would stay out all night hustling pool. He lost his first job, in 1899, for playing craps on premises, and, in other jobs, would routinely gamble his money away on payday. In his mid-teens, with pressure from his parents to stop gambling, he left home, supporting himself by playing piano in nickelodeons and whorehouses. He also briefly toured with a circus as a wrestler, and later, a flyweight boxer.

By 1907, Chico was working at music publishing firm Shapiro, Bernstein & Co.. When the founder of that company, Maurice Shapiro, died in 1911, Chico quit immediately, convincing a young tenor, Aaron Gordon, to tour with him in vaudeville. At the time, there was a successful vaudeville act called The Two Funny Germans, starring Bill Gordon and Nick Marx; with Minnie's encouragement, Aaron Gordon and Chico Marx adopted Italian accents (Chico's reputedly based on that of his barber) and toured as Marx and Gordon. Gordon, who later said that he never saw a salary because Chico gambled away their earnings, left the act in the fall of that year.

It was during Chico's time in vaudeville that he acquired his nickname (during a card game). During Groucho's live performance at Carnegie Hall in 1972, he states that his brother got the name Chico because he was a chicken-chaser (early 20th century slang for womanizer). Chico's nickname was originally spelled Chicko. A typesetter accidentally omitted the k, so his name became Chico.

While the Marxes typically pronounced Chico as Chick-oh, others sometimes mistakenly pronounced it Cheek-oh. Numerous radio recordings from the 1940s exist in which announcers and fellow actors mispronounce the nickname, but Chico does not correct them. As late as the 1950s, Groucho used the wrong pronunciation for comedic effect. A guest on You Bet Your Life told the quizmaster she grew up around Chico, California, which is pronounced Cheek-oh. Groucho responded, I grew up around Chico myself. You aren't Gummo, are you? In most interviews, Groucho is heard correctly pronouncing it Chicko, as in an episode of The Dick Cavett Show with Groucho talking to Dan Rowan.

When they later made films, as manager, Chico negotiated with the studios to get the brothers a percentage of a film's gross receipts -the first deal of its kind in Hollywood which has become common practice today.

The Marx Brothers' film, A Night in Casablanca (1946), was produced after the team had officially retired and was made largely for Chico's financial benefit. Chico had filed for bankruptcy a few years prior. At around this time, the rest of the Marx brothers, finally aware of Chico's out-of-control gambling, took full control over his finances; they took all money away from Chico as he earned it and put him on an allowance to curb his constant betting and gambling. Chico stayed on the allowance until his death.

Through the 1950s, Chico occasionally appeared on a variety of television anthology shows and some television commercials, most notably with Harpo (and a cameo appearance by Groucho) in The Incredible Jewelry Robbery, a pantomime episode of General Electric Theater in 1959. This was the final appearance of the three Marx Brothers. Chico's last public appearance was in 1960, playing cards on the television show Championship Bridge. He and his partner lost the game.

As well as being a compulsive womanizer, Chico had a lifelong addiction to gambling. His favorite gambling pursuits were card games, horse racing, dog racing, and various sports betting. His addiction cost him millions of dollars by his own account.

Chico died at the age of 74 on October 11, 1961, at his Hollywood home. He was the eldest brother and the first to die and is entombed in the mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

More information: Factinate

 Who are you going to believe,

me or your own eyes?

Chico Marx

THE OUTER SPACE TREATY, INTERNATIONAL SPACE LAWS

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of her friend Joseph de Ca'th Lon, who has spent some days in England watching football matches.

Joseph loves Astronomy and they have been talking about the Outer Space Treaty, the multilateral treaty that forms the basis of international space law, that entered into force on a day like today in 1967.

The Outer Space Treaty, formally the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, is a multilateral treaty that forms the basis of international space law.

Negotiated and drafted under the auspices of the United Nations, it was opened for signature in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union on 27 January 1967, entering into force on 10 October 1967. As of May 2025, 117 countries are parties to the treaty -including all major spacefaring nations- and another 22 are signatories.

Key provisions of the treaty include prohibiting nuclear weapons in space; limiting the use of the Moon and all other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes; establishing that space shall be freely explored and used by all nations; and precluding any country from claiming sovereignty over outer space or any celestial body. Although it forbids establishing military bases, testing weapons and conducting military maneuvers on celestial bodies, the treaty does not expressly ban all military activities in space, nor the establishment of military space forces or the placement of conventional weapons in space.

The OST also declares that space is an area for free use and exploration by all and shall be the province of all mankind. Drawing heavily from the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, the Outer Space Treaty likewise focuses on regulating certain activities and preventing unrestricted competition that were thought might lead to conflict at that time. Consequently, it is largely silent or ambiguous on newly developed space activities such as lunar and asteroid mining.

OST was at the heart of a network of inter-state treaties and strategic power negotiations to achieve the best available conditions for nuclear weapons world security.

OST was the most important link in the chain of international legal arrangements for space from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s. The OST was followed by to four additional agreements, with varied levels of accession: the safe return of fallen astronauts (1967); liability for damages caused by spacecraft (1972); the registration of space vehicles (1976); and rules for activities on the Moon (1979).

As the first and most foundational legal instrument of space law, the Outer Space Treaty and its broader principles of promoting the civil and peaceful use of space continue to underpin multilateral initiatives in space, such as the International Space Station and the Artemis Program.

The Outer Space Treaty was spurred by the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in the 1950s, which could reach targets through outer space. The Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, in October 1957, followed by a subsequent arms race with the United States, hastened proposals to prohibit the use of outer space for military purposes. 

On 17 October 1963, the U.N. General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution prohibiting the introduction of weapons of mass destruction in outer space. Various proposals for an arms control treaty governing outer space were debated during a General Assembly session in December 1966, culminating in the drafting and adoption of the Outer Space Treaty the following January.

The Outer Space Treaty represents the basic legal framework of international space law. According to the U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the core principles of the treaty are:

-The exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind;

-Outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all states;

 -Outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means;

-States shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner;

-The Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes; prohibits their use for testing weapons of any kind, conducting military maneuvers, or establishing military bases, installations, and fortifications

-Astronauts shall be regarded as the envoys of mankind;

-States shall be responsible for national space activities whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental entities;

-States shall be liable for damage caused by their space objects; and

-States shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies.

Among its principles, it bars states party to the treaty from placing weapons of mass destruction in Earth orbit, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or otherwise stationing them in outer space. It specifically limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes, and expressly prohibits their use for testing weapons of any kind, conducting military maneuvers, or establishing military bases, installations, and fortifications (Article IV). However, the treaty does not prohibit the placement of conventional weapons in orbit, and thus some highly destructive attack tactics, such as kinetic bombardment, are still potentially allowable.

In addition, the treaty explicitly allows the use of military personnel and resources to support peaceful uses of space, mirroring a common practice permitted by the Antarctic Treaty regarding that continent. The treaty also states that the exploration of outer space shall be done to benefit all countries and that space shall be free for exploration and use by all the states.

Article II of the treaty explicitly forbids any government from appropriating a celestial body such as the Moon or a planet, whether by declaration, use, occupation, or any other means. However, the state that launches a space object, such as a satellite or space station, retains jurisdiction and control over that object; by extension, a state is also liable for damages caused by its space object.

As the first international legal instrument concerning space, the Outer Space Treaty is considered the cornerstone of space law. It was also the first major achievement of the United Nations in this area of law, following the adoption of the first U.N. General Assembly resolution on space in 1958, and the first meeting of the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) the subsequent year.

Within roughly a decade of the treaty's entry into force, several other treaties were brokered by the U.N. to further develop the legal framework for activities in space:

-Rescue Agreement (1968)

-Space Liability Convention (1972)

-Registration Convention (1976)

-Moon Treaty (1979)

With the exception of the Moon Treaty, to which only 18 nations are party, all other treaties on space law have been ratified by most major space-faring nations (namely those capable of orbital spaceflight).

COPUOS coordinates these treaties and other questions of space jurisdiction, aided by the U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs.

More information: UNOOSA

Space is big. 
You just won't believe how vastly, 
hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. 
I mean, you may think it's a long way down 
the road to the chemist's, 
but that's just peanuts to space.

Douglas Adams

DUBLIN & KINGSTOWN, THE FIRST PASSENGER RAILWAY

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the Irish first passenger railway, that was opened on a day like today in 1834. 

The Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR), which opened in 1834, was Ireland's first passenger railway. It linked Westland Row in Dublin with Kingstown Harbour (Dún Laoghaire) in County Dublin.

The D&KR was also notable for a number of other achievements besides being Ireland's first passenger railway: it operated an atmospheric railway for ten years; claimed the first use of a passenger tank engine; was the world's first commuter railway and was the first railway company to build its own locomotives.

On 30 June 1856, the Dublin and Wicklow Railway (D&WR) took over operation of the line from the D&KR with the D&KR continuing to lease out the line. The D&WR had formerly been known as the Waterford, Wicklow, Wexford and Dublin Railway (WWW&DR or 3WS). It changed its name to the Dublin Wicklow and Wexford Railway (DW&WR) in May 1860 and was ultimately renamed the Dublin and South Eastern Railway (D&SER) in 1907, a name which was retained until the amalgamation of the D&KR and D&SER with the Great Southern Railways on 1 January 1925.

As of 1974, its independent existence of over 90 years by a railway company was only exceeded in the British Isles by the Great Western Railway and the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway.

1817 had seen the beginning of the construction of a new harbour at Dunleary village that soon began to attract traffic due to silting problems elsewhere around Dublin Bay. The name Kingstown was adopted after King George IV departed from the harbour in 1821. Proposals for canal or rail infrastructure links to Dublin were variously proposed through to the 1830s. James Pim took the initiative and commissioned a plan by Alexander Nimmo which was supported by other businessmen and presented as a petition to the House of Commons on 28 February 1831 for a rail line from near Trinity College to the west pier at the Royal Harbour of Kingstown under a company to be known as the D&KR. A bill was presented and was progressing but was scuppered by a prorogation of parliament and an election. A fresh bill received royal assent on 6 September 1831 as the Dublin and Kingstown Railway Act 1831 (1 & 2 Will. 4. c. lxix).

A meeting of D&KR subscribers on 25 November 1831 at the Dublin Chamber of Commerce included the submission of a long report which indicated that Westland Row was to be the Dublin terminus and that the enterprise was initially to focus on passenger traffic with a high train frequency. Thomas Pim was appointed chairman. A key appointment was James Pim (Junior) as secretary and Murray notes his great natural ability, tact, energy, and a valuable business experience. James Pim was appointed Treasurer in May 1832 and effectively functioned as General Manager. The position of clerk/secretary was awarded to Thomas Fleming Bergin who with his engineering background effectively controlled the operation of the railway.

One of the earliest tests was with a horse pulling a single carriage carrying directors and friends on 31 July 1834; at that stage with only a single line laid throughout. The D&KR claimed that trials expected in September were delayed due to the risks to labourers still working on the line. The first recorded train with invited passengers on 4 October 1834 was hauled by the engine Vauxhall and ran as far as the Williamstown Martello Tower at what is now Blackrock Park before returning. 

The engine Hibernia on 9 October 1834 hauled another train of invited passengers composed of eight carriages and in this case traversed the whole length of the line and back. Plans were made to introduce a service on 22 October 1834 but storms and flooding damaged the line including wrecking the bridge over the River Dodder and this led to delays for repairs.

Newspaper advertisements of an hourly service and fares for one shilling, eight (old) pence and six pence for first, second and third class respectively indicated the service was to start on Wednesday 17 December 1834. At 9 o'clock on the appointed date the locomotive Hibernia departed with the first train of the day from Westland Row. Throughout the day a total of nine trains of between eight and nine carriages were run, all full to overflowing, and with a total of almost 5,000 fare paying passengers conveyed.

A timetabled regular service was introduced from January 1835.

More information: The Irish Times

The establishment of rail line and railway

network expansion has always been 

of prime importance.

Anurag Thakur

THIS IS THE ONE... BURN ME OUT OR BRING ME HOME

A girl consumed by fire
We all know her desire
From the plans that she has made

 

I have her on a promise
Immerse me in your splendour
All the plans that I have made

 

This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
She's waited for

 

This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
Oh, this is the one
This is the one
She's waited for

 

I'd like to leave the country
For a month of Sundays
Burn the town where I was born

 

If only she'd believe me
Bellona, belladonna
Burn me out or bring me home

 

And this is the one
This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
She's waited for

 

This is the one
This is the one
This is the one
Oh, this is the one
This is the one
I've waited for

 

Oh, this is the one
Oh, this is the one
This is the one
I've waited for

 

This is the one
Oh, this is the one
Oh, this is the one
This is the one
I've waited for

 

This is the one
This is the one
Oh, this is the one
This is the one
I've waited for

 

It may go right
But it might go wrong
This is the one
This is the one
She's waited for

 

And this is the one
This is the one
Oh, this is the one
This is the one
She's waited for

 

And this is the one
Oh, this is the one
Ah, this is the one
This is the one
I've waited for

 

 

I'd like to leave the country

For a month of Sundays
Burn the town where I was born

 

The Stone Roses 

'CAUSE LONDON IS DROWNIN' AND I LIVE BY THE RIVER

London calling to the faraway towns
Now war is declared and battle come down
London calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard, ya boys and girls
London calling, now don't look to us
Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust
London calling, see we ain't got no swing
Except for the ring of that truncheon thing

The ice age is comin', the sun's zoomin' in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growin' thin
Engines stop runnin', but I have no fear
'Cause London is drownin' and I live by the river

(London calling) to the imitation zone
Forget it, brother, you can go it alone
London calling to the zombies of death
Quit holdin' out and draw another breath
London calling and I don't wanna shout
But while we were talking, I saw you noddin' out
London calling, see we ain't got no Hyde
'Cept for that one with the yellowy eyes

The ice age is comin', the sun's zoomin' in
Engines stop runnin', the wheat is growin' thin
A nuclear error, but I have no fear
'Cause London is drownin' and I, I live by the river

The ice age is coming, the sun's zoomin' in
Engines stop running, the wheat is growin' thin
A nuclear error, but I have no fear
'Cause London is drowning, an' I, I live by the river

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh, ooh
Now get this

(London calling) Yes, I was there, too
And you know what they said? Well, some of it was true
(London calling) At the top of the dial
And after all this, won't you give me a smile?
(London calling)

I never felt so much alike, alike, alike

And after all this, won't you give me a smile?

Bruce Springsteen/The Clash

ANNIE ERNAUX, THE FRENCH NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

Today, The Grandma has read some works written by Annie Ernaux, the French writer awarded with the Nobel Prize on a day like today in 2022.

Annie Thérèse Blanche Ernaux (born 1 September 1940) is a French writer who was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory. Her literary work, mostly autobiographical, maintains close links with sociology.

Ernaux was born in Lillebonne in Normandy, France, and grew up in nearby Yvetot, where her parents, Blanche (Dumenil) and Alphonse Duchesne, ran a café and grocery in a working-class part of town.

In 1960, she travelled to London, England, where she worked as an au pair, an experience she would later relate in 2016's Mémoire de fille. Upon returning to France, she studied at the universities of Rouen and then Bordeaux, qualified as a schoolteacher, and earned a higher degree in modern literature in 1971. She worked for a time on a thesis project, unfinished, on Pierre de Marivaux.

In the early 1970s, Ernaux taught at a lycée in Bonneville, Haute-Savoie, at the college of Évire in Annecy-le-Vieux, then in Pontoise, before joining the National Centre for Distance Education, where she was employed for 23 years.

Ernaux started her literary career in 1974 with Les Armoires vides, an autobiographical novel. In 1984, she won the Renaudot Prize for another of her works La Place, an autobiographical narrative focusing on her relationship with her father and her experiences growing up in a small town in France, and her subsequent process of moving into adulthood and away from her parents' place and her class of origin.

Early in her career, Ernaux turned from fiction to focus on autobiography. Her work combines historic and individual experiences. She charts her parents' social progression (La Place, La Honte), her teenage years (Ce qu'ils disent ou rien), her marriage (La Femme gelée), her passionate affair with an Eastern European man (Passion simple), her abortion (L'Événement), Alzheimer's disease (Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit), the death of her mother (Une femme), and breast cancer (L'usage de la photo). Ernaux also wrote L'écriture comme un couteau with Frédéric-Yves Jeannet.

A Woman's Story, A Man's Place, and Simple Passion were recognised as The New York Times Notable Books, and A Woman's Story was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Shame was named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998, I Remain in Darkness a Top Memoir of 1999 by The Washington Post, and The Possession was listed as a Top Ten Book of 2008 by More magazine.

Ernaux's 2008 historical memoir Les Années, well received by French critics, is considered by many to be her magnum opus. In this book, Ernaux writes about herself in the third person ('elle', or 'she' in English) for the first time, providing a vivid look at French society just after the Second World War until the early 2000s. It is the story of a woman and of the evolving society she lived in. The Years won the 2008 Prix François-Mauriac de la région Aquitaine, the 2008 Marguerite Duras Prize, the 2008 Prix de la langue française, the 2009 Télégramme Readers Prize, and the 2016 Strega European Prize. Translated by Alison L. Strayer, The Years was a finalist for the 31st Annual French-American Foundation Translation Prize, was nominated for the International Booker Prize in 2019, and won the 2019 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. Her popularity in anglophone countries increased sharply after The Years was shortlisted for the International Booker.

On 6 October 2022, it was announced that Ernaux would be awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory. Ernaux is the 16th French writer, and the first Frenchwoman, to receive the literature prize. 

Many of Ernaux's works have been translated into English and published by Fitzcarraldo Editions and Seven Stories Press. Ernaux is one of the seven founding authors from whom the latter Press takes its name.

More information: The White Review

  

Sometimes I wonder if the purpose of my writing 
is to find out whether other people have done 
or felt the same things or, if not, 
for them to consider experiencing 
such things as normal. 
Maybe I would also like them to live out 
these very emotions in turn,
 forgetting that they had once read 
about them somewhere.

Annie Ernaux

JARROW MARCH, AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT & POVERTY

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Jarrow March, the protest against the unemployment and poverty that started on a day like today in 1936.

The Jarrow March of 5-31 October 1936, also known as the Jarrow Crusade, was an organised protest against the unemployment and poverty suffered in the English town of Jarrow during the 1930s. 

Around 200 men, or Crusaders as they preferred to be called, marched from Jarrow to London, carrying a petition to the British government requesting the re-establishment of industry in the town following the closure in 1934 of its main employer, Palmer's shipyard. The petition was received by the House of Commons but not debated, and the march produced few immediate results. The Jarrovians went home believing that they had failed.

Jarrow had been a settlement since at least the 8th century. In the early 19th century, a coal industry developed before the establishment of the shipyard in 1851. Over the following 80 years, more than 1,000 ships were launched in Jarrow. 

In the 1920s, a combination of mismanagement and changed world trade conditions following the First World War brought a decline that led eventually to the yard's closure. Plans for its replacement by a modern steelworks plant were frustrated by opposition from the British Iron and Steel Federation, an employers' organisation with its own plans for the industry. The failure of the steelworks plan, and the lack of any prospect of large-scale employment in the town, were the final factors that led to the decision to march.

Marches of the unemployed to London, termed hunger marches, had taken place since the early 1920s, mainly organised by the National Unemployed Workers' Movement (NUWM), a communist-led body. For fear of being associated with communist agitation, the Labour Party and Trades Union Congress (TUC) leaderships stood aloof from these marches. They exercised the same policy of detachment towards the Jarrow March, which was organised by the borough council with the support of all sections of the town but without any connection with the NUWM. During their journey the Jarrow marchers received sustenance and hospitality from local branches of all the main political parties, and were given a broad public welcome on their arrival in London.

Despite the initial sense of failure among the marchers, in subsequent years, the Jarrow March became recognised by historians as a defining event of the 1930s. It helped to foster the change in attitudes that prepared the way to social reform measures after the Second World War, which their proponents thought would improve working conditions. The town holds numerous memorials to the march. Re-enactments celebrated the 50th and 75th anniversaries, in both cases invoking the spirit of Jarrow in their campaigns against unemployment. In contrast to the Labour Party's coldness in 1936, the post-war party leadership adopted the march as a metaphor for governmental callousness and working-class fortitude.

In the period immediately after the end of the First World War, Britain's economy enjoyed a brief boom. Businesses rushed to replenish stocks and re-establish peacetime conditions of trade and, while prices rose rapidly, wages rose faster and unemployment was negligible. By April 1920 this boom had given way to Britain's first post-war slump, which ushered in an era of high unemployment. Britain's adoption of generally deflationary economic policies, including a return to the gold standard in 1925, helped to ensure that the percentage of the workforce without jobs remained at around 10% for the rest of the 1920s and beyond, well above the normal pre-war levels. During the world recession that began in 1929 and lasted until 1932, the percentage of unemployed peaked at 22%, representing more than 3 million workers.

Unemployment was particularly heavy in Britain's traditional staple export industries -coal mining, shipbuilding, iron and steel and textiles- all of which were in a slow decline from their Victorian heyday. Because of the concentration of these industries in the north of England, in Scotland and in Wales, the percentage of unemployed persons in these regions was significantly higher, sometimes more than double, than in the south throughout the interwar period. The decline of these industries helped to create pockets of long-term unemployment outside the normal cyclical variations. Some workers had no work for years.

Jarrow, situated on the River Tyne in County Durham, northern England, entered British history in the 8th century, as the home of Bede, the early Christian monk and scholar. After Bede, little changed in the remote rural community for a thousand years, although his monastery was dissolved under Henry VIII in the 16th century. The discovery of coal in the 17th century led to major changes. Mining on an industrial scale began in the early 1800s, resulting in the population of Jarrow more than doubling between 1801 and 1821 to around 3,500, largely from the influx of mineworkers.

The town's years as a coalfield were unhappy. Living conditions in many of the hastily erected cottages were insanitary, lacking water and drainage. There was a serious outbreak of cholera in Jarrow and northeast England in the winter of 1831-32, as part of an epidemic that spread from Europe and resulted in more than 200 deaths in Newcastle alone. Relations in Jarrow between employer and employee were poor; workers were held by the bond system whereby they were tied to a particular employer for a year, whether or not that employer could provide work.

Working conditions in the mines were dangerous: there were explosions in 1826, 1828 and 1845, each with large loss of life. Attempts by workers to organise into a trade union were fiercely opposed by the employers. Miners conducted lengthy strikes in 1832 and 1844, each ending when hunger forced them back to work. After the easier seams of coal were exhausted, the Jarrow pits became less profitable, and in 1851 the owners abandoned them altogether.

More information: Heritage Calling

 

The power of protest depends not only 

on how many turn out, but also on what legislative, 

judicial, and civil society institutions 
exist to enact the will of those marching in the streets.

 

Cynthia P. Schneider

ANNE RICE, GOTHIC & BIBLE FICTION FROM NEW ORLEANS

Today, Joseph de Ca'th Lon is in New Orleans, Lousiana. He has some business to do in this incredible and magic city, and he has been talking with The Grandma about this wonderful place where Anne Rice was born on a day like today in 1941.

Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; October 4, 1941-December 11, 2021) was an American author of Gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Bible fiction. 

She is best known for writing The Vampire Chronicles. She later adapted the first volume in the series into a commercially successful eponymous film, Interview with the Vampire (1994).

Born in New Orleans, Rice spent much of her early life in the city before moving to Texas, and later to San Francisco. She was raised in an observant Catholic family but became an agnostic as a young adult. She began her professional writing career with the publication of Interview with the Vampire (1976), while living in California, and began writing sequels to the novel in the 1980s.

In the mid-2000s, following a publicized return to Catholicism, she published the novels Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, fictionalized accounts of certain incidents in the life of Jesus. Several years later she distanced herself from organized Christianity, while remaining devoted to Jesus. She later considered herself a secular humanist.

Rice's books have sold over 100 million copies, making her one of the best-selling authors of modern times. While reaction to her early works was initially mixed, she gained a better reception with critics in the 1980s. Her writing style and the literary content of her works have been analyzed by literary commentators. She was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years, from 1961 until his death at age 60. She and Stan had two children, Michele, who died of leukemia at age five, and Christopher, who is also an author.

Rice also wrote books such as The Feast of All Saints (adapted for television in 2001) and Servant of the Bones, which formed the basis of a 2011 comic book miniseries. Several books from The Vampire Chronicles have been adapted as comics and manga by various publishers. She authored erotic fiction under the pen names Anne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure, including Exit to Eden, which was later adapted into a 1994 film.

Born in New Orleans on October 4, 1941, Howard Allen Frances O'Brien was the second of four daughters of parents of Irish Catholic descent, Howard O'Brien (1917-1991) and Katherine "Kay" Allen O'Brien (1908-1956). Her father, a naval veteran of World War II and lifelong resident of New Orleans, worked as a personnel executive for the U.S. Postal Service and authored one novel, The Impulsive Imp, which was published posthumously. Her older sister, Alice Borchardt, later became an author of fantasy and historical romance novels.

Graduating from Richardson High in 1959, Rice completed her first year at Texas Woman's University in Denton and transferred to North Texas State College for her second year. She dropped out when she ran out of money and was unable to find employment. Soon after, she moved to San Francisco and stayed with the family of a friend until she found work as an insurance claims processor.

The Rices moved back to San Francisco in 1962, experiencing the birth of the hippie movement firsthand as they lived in the Haight-Ashbury district, Berkeley, and later the Castro District.

Rice cited Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, John Milton, Ernest Hemingway, William Shakespeare, the Brontë sisters, Jean-Paul Sartre, Henry James, Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Rider Haggard, and Stephen King as influences on her work.

In 1973, while still grieving the loss of her daughter (1966-1972), Rice took a previously written short story and turned it into her first novel, the bestselling Interview with the Vampire.

Following the publication of Interview with the Vampire, while living in California, Rice wrote two historical novels, The Feast of All Saints and Cry to Heaven, along with three erotic novels (The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty's Punishment, and Beauty's Release) under the pseudonym A. N. Roquelaure, and two more under the pseudonym Anne Rampling (Exit to Eden and Belinda).

Rice then returned to the vampire genre with The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned, her bestselling sequels to Interview with the Vampire.

Shortly after her June 1988 return to New Orleans, Rice penned The Witching Hour as an expression of her joy at coming home. Rice also continued her Vampire Chronicles series, which later grew to encompass ten novels, and followed up on The Witching Hour with Lasher and Taltos, completing the Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy. She also published Violin, a tale of a ghostly haunting, in 1997. Rice appeared on an episode of The Real World: New Orleans that aired in 2000.

Rice began another series called Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, published in 2005, chronicling the life of Jesus. After moving to Rancho Mirage, California in 2006, Rice wrote a second volume Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, published in March 2008, and was working on a third Christ the Lord: Kingdom of Heaven in November 2008. She also wrote the first two books in her Songs of the Seraphim series, Angel Time and Of Love and Evil, and her memoir Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession.

On March 9, 2014, Rice announced on her son Christopher's radio show, The Dinner Party with Christopher Rice and Eric Shaw Quinn, that she had completed another book in the Vampire Chronicles, titled, Prince Lestat, a "true sequel" to Queen of the Damned. 

In 2015, a sequel to the Sleeping Beauty trilogy, Beauty's Kingdom, was released.

Rice died in Rancho Mirage, California, on December 11, 2021, at the age of 80.

More information: Anne Rice

 

The thing should have plot and character, 
beginning, middle and end. 
Arouse pity and then have a catharsis. 
Those were the best principles I was ever taught.

Anne Rice

3 D'OCTUBRE DE 2017, TOT DEPÈN DE TU I DE CADASCÚ

Sàpigues company,
tu que ets conscient
que no tot és por,
que no tot és plany,
que no tot són crits
i ràbies i cops.
Ni desig d’amor
ni amor compartit.

Cal pensar també
i molt aviat
en aprendre bé,
amb vocació
i aplicadament,
un ofici clar,
un treball decent.

Company, cal servir
segons els teus dons,
sense vanitat.
Si no, què seràs?
Un número més,
un paràsit més,
una nosa més.

Si no vols ser esclau
del podrit diner,
del poder d'un sol
o el poder de molts,
fes-te abans esclau
de les teves mans
i del teu cervell,
a profit de tu,
a profit dels teus,
a profit de tots.

Tot depèn de tu
i de cadascú.

Tot depèn de tu
i de cadascú.

Pere Quart

JANE MORRIS GOODALL, SCIENTIST & CONSERVATIONIST

Today, The Grandma has received terrible news. Yesterday, Jane Goodall, the English primatologist and anthropologist, passed away leaving an incredible scientific and human legacy. She wants to remember her and her work. 

Dame Jane Morris Goodall, 3 April 1934, formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-
Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist.

Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her over 55-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees since she first went to Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania in 1960. 

She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots programme, and she has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues. She has served on the board of the Nonhuman Rights Project since its founding in 1996. In April 2002, she was named a UN Messenger of Peace. 

More information: The Jane Goodall Institute

Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born in 1934 in Hampstead, to Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall, a businessman, and Margaret Myfanwe Joseph, a novelist who wrote under the name Vanne Morris-Goodall.

As a child, as an alternative to a teddy bear her father gave Goodall a stuffed chimpanzee named Jubilee, and she has said her fondness for this figure started her early love of animals, commenting that My mother's friends were horrified by this toy, thinking it would frighten me and give me nightmares. Today, Jubilee still sits on Goodall's dresser in London.

Goodall had always been passionate about animals and Africa, which brought her to the farm of a friend in the Kenya highlands in 1957. From there, she obtained work as a secretary, and acting on her friend's advice, she telephoned Louis Leakey, the notable Kenyan archaeologist and palaeontologist, with no other thought than to make an appointment to discuss animals.  

Leakey, believing that the study of existing great apes could provide indications of the behaviour of early hominids, was looking for a chimpanzee researcher, though he kept the idea to himself. Instead, he proposed that Goodall work for him as a secretary. After obtaining approval from his wife Mary Leakey, Louis sent Goodall to Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where he laid out his plans.

 

More information: My Life with the Wild Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall

In 1958, Leakey sent Goodall to London to study primate behaviour with Osman Hill and primate anatomy with John Napier. Leakey raised funds, and on 14 July 1960, Goodall went to Gombe Stream National Park, becoming the first of what would come to be called The Trimates. She was accompanied by her mother, whose presence was necessary to satisfy the requirements of David Anstey, chief warden, who was concerned for their safety; Tanzania was Tanganyika at that time and a British protectorate.

Leakey arranged funding and in 1962, he sent Goodall, who had no degree, to Cambridge University. She went to Newnham College, and obtained a PhD degree in ethology. 

She became the eighth person to be allowed to study for a PhD there without first having obtained a BA or BSc. Her thesis was completed in 1965 under the tutorship of Robert Hinde, titled Behaviour of free-living chimpanzees, detailing her first five years of study at the Gombe Reserve.

Goodall is best known for her study of chimpanzee social and family life. She began studying the Kasakela chimpanzee community in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, in 1960. Without collegiate training directing her research, Goodall observed things that strict scientific doctrines may have overlooked. Instead of numbering the chimpanzees she observed, she gave them names such as Fifi and David Greybeard, and observed them to have unique and individual personalities, an unconventional idea at the time. 

More information: British Council

She found that, it isn't only human beings who have personality, who are capable of rational thought and emotions like joy and sorrow. She also observed behaviours such as hugs, kisses, pats on the back, and even tickling, what we consider human actions. 

Goodall insists that these gestures are evidence of the close, supportive, affectionate bonds that develop between family members and other individuals within a community, which can persist throughout a life span of more than 50 years. 

These findings suggest that similarities between humans and chimpanzees exist in more than genes alone, but can be seen in emotion, intelligence, and family and social relationships.

Goodall's research at Gombe Stream is best known to the scientific community for challenging two long-standing beliefs of the day: that only humans could construct and use tools, and that chimpanzees were vegetarians. 

More information: National Geographic

While observing one chimpanzee feeding at a termite mound, she watched him repeatedly place stalks of grass into termite holes, then remove them from the hole covered with clinging termites, effectively fishing for termites. The chimps would also take twigs from trees and strip off the leaves to make the twig more effective, a form of object modification which is the rudimentary beginnings of toolmaking. Humans had long distinguished ourselves from the rest of the animal kingdom as Man the Toolmaker. 

In response to Goodall's revolutionary findings, Louis Leakey wrote, We must now redefine man, redefine tool, or accept chimpanzees as human!

In 1977, Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which supports the Gombe research, and she is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. 

With nineteen offices around the world, the JGI is widely recognised for community-centred conservation and development programs in Africa. Its global youth program, Roots & Shoots began in 1991 when a group of 16 local teenagers met with Goodall on her back porch in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. They were eager to discuss a range of problems they knew about from first-hand experience that caused them deep concern. The organisation now has over 10,000 groups in over 100 countries.

Goodall credits the 1986 Understanding Chimpanzees conference, hosted by the Chicago Academy of Sciences, with shifting her focus from observation of chimpanzees to a broader and more intense concern with animal-human conservation. She is the former president of Advocates for Animals, an organisation based in Edinburgh, Scotland, that campaigns against the use of animals in medical research, zoos, farming and sport.

More information: Wanderlust

 

 

Chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans 

have been living for hundreds of thousands of years 

in their forest, living fantastic lives, 

never overpopulating, never destroying the forest.

I would say that they have been 

in a way more successful 

than us as far as being in harmony 

with the environment. 

Jane Goodall

1 D'OCTUBRE DE 2017, ASSUMIRÀS LA VEU D'UN POBLE

Assumiràs la veu d'un poble
i serà la veu del teu poble
i seràs, per a sempre, poble,
i patiràs i esperaràs,
i aniràs sempre entre la pols,
et seguirà una polseguera.

I tindràs fam i tindràs set,
no podràs escriure els poemes
i callaràs tota la nit
mentre dormen les teues gents,
i tu sols estaràs despert,
i tu estaràs despert per tots.

No t'han parit per a dormir:
et pariren per a vetlar
en la llarga nit del teu poble.
Tu seràs la paraula viva,
la paraula viva i amarga.

Ja no existiran les paraules
sinó l'home assumint la pena
del seu poble, i és un silenci.
Deixaràs de comptar les síl·labes,
de fer-te el nus de la corbata:
seràs un poble, caminant
entre una amarga polseguera.

Assumiràs la veu d'un poble
i serà la veu del teu poble
i seràs, per a sempre, poble,
i patiràs i esperaràs,
i aniràs sempre entre la pols,
et seguirà una polseguera.

Vicent Andrés Esteller

I JUST WANNA SEE YOU SMILE, COME ON DREAM BABY...

Dream baby dream
Dream baby dream
Dream baby dream
Come on and dream baby dream
Come on and dream baby dream

We gotta keep the light burning
Come on, we gotta keep the light burning
Come on, we gotta keep the light burning
Come on, we gotta keep the light burning
Come on and dream baby dream

Gotta keep the fire burning
Come on, we gotta keep the fire burning
Come on, we gotta keep the fire burning
Come on and dream baby dream

Come open up your heart
Come on and open up your heart
Come on and open up your heart
Come on dream on, dream baby dream

Come on and open up your heart
Come on and open up your hearts
Come on and open up your hearts
Come on dream on, dream baby dream

Come on, we gotta keep on dreaming
Come on, we gotta keep on dreaming
Come on, we gotta keep on dreaming
Come on dream on, dream baby dream

Come on darling and dry your eyes
Come on baby and dry your eyes
Come on baby and dry your eyes
Come on dream on, dream baby dream

Yeah I just wanna see you smile
Now I just wanna see you smile
Yeah I just wanna see you smile
Come on dream on, dream baby dream

Come on and open up your hearts
Come on and open up your hearts
Come on and open up your hearts
Come on dream on, dream baby dream

Yeah I just wanna see you smile
And I just wanna see you smile
Yeah I just wanna see you smile
Come on dream on, dream baby dream

Yeah I just wanna see you smile
Yeah I just wanna see you smile
Yeah I just wanna see you smile
Come on dream on, dream baby dream

Come on and open up your heart
Come on and open up your heart
Come on and open up your heart
Come on dream on, dream baby dream

Come on dream on, dream on baby
Come on dream on, dream on baby
Come on dream on, dream on baby
Come on dream on, dream baby dream

Talk about a dream, try to make it real.

Bruce Springsteen

DÉCINES-CHARPIEU, GRAND LARGE & CANAL DE JONAGE

Yesterday, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma visited Décines-Charpieu, the town where the Groupama Stadium is located. 

They were accompanied by The Little Prince and Antoine, two old friends.

They visited an impressive place called Grand Large, where they sailed by boat along the Jonage Canal and enjoyed wonderful natural views. 

On the way back, they rode by bike and discovered a fantastic route to finish off tasting some incredible ice cream in a wonderful natural setting. It was a very nice last activity before heading to Lyon airport where the flight to Barcelona was waiting for them. 

It is the third time in the last month that they have visited this wonderful region, but they know that it will not be the last because they have someone very important here who they will visit whenever they have the chance.

Décines-Charpieu is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in central-eastern France. The name of the city is often shortened and simply called Décines.

The centre of Décines is located southwest of the Grand-Large reservoir. The commune is divided in two by the Canal de Jonage, a deviation of the Rhône, on which the reservoir was formed. 

The centre of Lyon is located 12 km west. The surrounding communes are Chassieu, Bron, Vaulx-en-Velin and Meyzieu.

Décines-Charpieu left the department of Isère and joined the department of Rhône on 21 February 1968 to become a member of the Urban Community of Lyon per 1 January 1969. On 1 January 2015, it administratively left the department of Rhône to join the newly-formed Metropolis of Lyon.

Décines-Charpieu is served by Lyon tramway Lines 3 and 7.

More information: Ville de Décines-Charpieu

The Grand-Large reservoir, commonly called Le Grand Large, is an artificial lake along the Jonage Canal, a lake shared between the French communes of Décines-Charpieu and Meyzieu, in eastern Lyon.

The Jonage Canal was built using a dike along the hillside.

Near Décines-Charpieu and Meyzieu, the dike extends away from the hillside to create the Grand-Large Reservoir, which contains a large water reserve for the Cusset hydroelectric power plant in Villeurbanne.

The Société lyonnaise des forces motrices du Rhône was formed following a concession application granted on July 9, 1892, for the 19-kilometer-long Jonage Canal, which supplies the Cusset hydroelectric power plant. Between 1892 and 1899, the vocation of the upper Rhône shifted to electricity generation: the Jonage Canal was dug with the Grand Large, on the Vaulx-en-Velin side, to supply water to the Cusset plant, which was then the most powerful hydroelectric power plant in Europe. The unsinkable dike along Boulevard Laurent Bonnevay was built.

More information: Visitons Lyon

The Jonage Canal, commissioned in 1897, is the prototype for hydroelectric development on the Rhône, a model that would be adopted downstream of Lyon, taking into account the threefold imperative of electricity production, navigation, and river regulation.

Its average depth is 1.6 m, with a maximum depth of 3.7 m.

The Jonage Canal is a diversion of the Rhône River built to supply the Cusset hydroelectric plant in Villeurbanne, as well as to ensure the continuity of navigation upstream from Lyon.

The Vieux Rhône flows into the canal in the Vaulx-en-Velin area before it re-merges with the Rhône, joining the Miribel Canal on the border between Vaulx-en-Velin and Villeurbanne.

The Jonage Canal is an example of hydroelectric developments on the Rhône. Construction began in 1894 and was completed in 1899. The project had a threefold objective: to generate electricity for mass electrification, to improve navigation, and to supply water. Up to 3,000 people worked on this project.

It was built using a dike on the hillside in the municipalities of Jonage, Meyzieu, Décines-Charpieu, Vaulx-en-Velin, and Villeurbanne. Its construction disrupted the natural course of the Rize River. Its maximum flow rate during floods was 2,500 m3/s. The canal was 18.850 km long.

In its middle, the dike moves away from the hill to create the Grand Large basin, which was originally intended to serve as a compensating basin. It regulates the volume of water downstream to ensure the operation of the Cusset hydroelectric plant. The Herbens spillway evacuates water in the event of overflow.

More information: All Trails

I thank you God for this most amazing day, 
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, 
and for the blue dream of sky 
and for everything which is natural, 
which is infinite, which is yes.

E. E. Cummings

PARC OLYMPIQUE LYONNAIS AKA GROUPAMA STADIUM

Yesterday, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma enjoyed the French classic  in Lyon. It was an exciting match, and they could see old friends and remember old times. The match finished 6-1, and the local team offerred a good second half.

They could see the Northern Star again, and it was very funny and amazing to live this event with the local supporters who are very nice and created a great atmosphere.

Once again, thanks to all people who have helped them during this weekend. They are making great friends in this beautiful place, and they will continue enjoying their company in a closer future.

The main values of sport are respect, integrity, equality, humility, courage, fair play and teamwork, and they are very pleased to say that our Northern Star accomplish all of them with a great professionality and commitment in her new team that plays in a wonderful and very comfortable stadium, Groupama Stadium.

Parc Olympique Lyonnais, known for sponsorship reasons as Groupama Stadium, is a 59,186-seat stadium in Décines-Charpieu, in the Metropolis of Lyon. 

The home of French football club Olympique Lyonnais (OL) and Olympique Lyonnes, it replaced their previous stadium, the Stade de Gerland, in January 2016. The Stade de Gerland became the home of Lyon OU Rugby. It is the third largest stadium in France, behind Stade de France in Saint-Denis (Paris) and Orange Velodrome in Marseille.

The stadium was a host of UEFA Euro 2016, and was also chosen to stage the 2017 Coupe de la Ligue Final and the 2018 UEFA Europa League Final, in addition to the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup and football at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Outside football, the ground has also held rugby union and ice hockey matches, as well as musical concerts.

Olympique Lyonnais played their first game in the new stadium on 9 January 2016, winning 4-1 against Troyes in Ligue 1; Alexandre Lacazette scored the first goal at the ground.

In November 2009, the French Football Federation chose Parc Olympique Lyonnais one of the twelve stadiums to be used in the country's bidding for UEFA Euro 2016. It hosted six games at the tournament, including the hosts' 2-1 win over the Republic of Ireland in the last 16, and eventual champions Portugal's 2-0 win over Wales in the semi-finals.

In September 2016, the new stadium was chosen as the host of the 2017 Coupe de la Ligue Final, the first time that the final had been hosted outside the Paris area. Paris Saint-Germain won 4-1 against Monaco. 

On 9 December 2016, UEFA announced that Parc OL had been chosen to host the 2018 UEFA Europa League Final on 16 May 2018.

Parc OL was one of nine stadiums hosting matches at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, staging the semi-finals and the final.

11 matches, 5 men's and 6 women's, were hosted in the stadium during the 2024 Summer Olympics.

The record league attendance at the Parc OL is 58,230 during a fixture against Paris Saint-Germain in the 2022-23 Ligue 1 season, and the record European league attendance is 58,018 during a fixture against Manchester United in the 2024–25 Europa League season.

The venue hosted an outdoor Ligue Magnus ice hockey game between Lyon and Grenoble on 30 December 2016. In that game, Grenoble defeated Lyon 5-2; the attendance at that game was 25,142, which turned out to be the all-time record attendance for an ice hockey game in France.

Parc Olympique Lyonnais hosted the finals of rugby union's European Rugby Champions Cup and European Rugby Challenge Cup in 2016. It was one of nine venues chosen for France's hosting of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

The stadium will also host the match between France and England on the final weekend of the 2024 Six Nations on 16 March 2024; this is because the Stade de France in Saint-Denis is unavailable while it is being prepared for use in the 2024 Summer Olympics.

More information: Olympique Lyonnais

That's what defines the best athletes: 
being capable of showing up

year after year at the highest level. 

Ada Hegerberg