Page 20 - Boca Club News - January '22

Page 20, Boca Club News

The Arts

Book Review...“On This Date: From the Pilgrims to

Today, Discovering America One Day at a Time”

By Nils A, Shapiro of the United States” from he failed to secure the rights—held before a test audience
I am a book fanatic. Not only do I a 12-year-old boy is certain the first screening of his newly created character, Mortimer
admit it; I am proud of it! to start a buzz among your Mouse...later re-named Mickey.
Whenever I am out shopping, no guests when they realize Of the 366 true historical events related in these pages,
matter what kind of store I’m in—it the name of the young many are much more serious than the ones above, and all are
doesn’t have to be a bookshop—I am writer from his signature interesting and described concisely but in sufficient detail to
always on the alert to see if by chance at the end: Fidel Castro! be meaningful. Among them:
there are some special books being This month’s selection, On March 21st, 2006, a young soon-to-be-billionaire
offered for sale. I have been rewarded “On this Date,” is another Jack Dorsey pecked out “just setting up my twttr” as the first
more than once by such curiosity, and my home library is all “dipper”—one that message of what would become his new, world-changing
the richer for it—with a number of volumes that I refer to as will surely provide as Twitter technology.
a category of “dippers.” much entertainment as On August 10th, 1846, President James K. Polk signed
A “dipper” is a book that can be on any subject, and which education. And if you are into law the Smithsonian Institution Act that established what
does not have to be read from beginning to end. Instead, it anything like me I can is clearly our nation’s leading museum and repository of
can be opened (“dipped into”) to any page, any time, to find pretty much guarantee thousands of historical and scientific documents and artifacts,
interesting, worthwhile information. Very often, though not exactly how you are going including the original Declaration of Independence signed by
always, such books are presented in oversized, lavish formats to approach this book the moment you have it in your hands! our Founding Fathers and, hanging on a large wall, the actual
with many full-color photos of art, flowers, jewelry, fashion For each day of the year—from January 1st through Stars and Stripes—the very flag that inspired Francis Scott
or other beautiful objects, and are known in the publishing December 31st including February 29th for a 366-day Leap Key to write our national anthem when he saw it still flying
industry as “coffee table books” because they are displayed Year—award-winning author Carl M. Cannon relates an often on the flagpole above Fort McHenry. Yet the man whose
conspicuously by their owners as examples of their own little-known but fascinating event in American history that funding made the Smithsonian possible, James Smithson,
elegant taste. happened on that day during one of the years from Pilgrim never set foot in the United States! Born in France in 1765,
Apart from your personal enjoyment of such books, they times to the present day. Jacques-Louis Macie (who later moved to England and
serve as wonderful conversation starters when you have That is the concept of this book, a unique idea and an changed his name to Smithson) was born to an unwed mother,
guests in your home for dinner or any other occasion. For enormous challenge of research that only an author of never married nor had children of his own, but received a
example, I have in the past reviewed several such books in Cannon’s experience could have accomplished so brilliantly. large inheritance which eventually—after several odd twists
this column. He is the Washington Bureau Chief of RealClearPolitics of fate and coincidences of his last Will—became the basis
One of them is “Wise Trees,” which presents stunning and past recipient of the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for the Smithsonian’s funding.
photographs and stories of 80 historic trees from around for Distinguished Reporting and the Aldo Beckman Award, It was on September 21st, 1776 that Nathan Hale, a
the world. Imagine turning to page 20 and pointing out the two highest awards for White House coverage. He was Connecticut schoolteacher who had joined the Colonial
Isaac Newton’s Apple Tree, the Flower of Kent Apple still formerly a fellow-in-residence at Harvard University’s army at the start of the Revolution, was hanged by order of
producing fruit in this famous man’s descendants’ orchard Institute of Politics and a past president of the White House British General Howe after being sent by General George
at Lincolnshire, England, 500 years after he came up with Correspondents’ Association. Washington to spy on the enemy’s troop movements and then
his theory of gravity when an apple fell on his head as he sat Just as I believe you will do, I turned first to my birthday, been captured. Hale’s famous last words, “I only regret that
under that very same tree! I found this book in a furniture May 18th, and read what, to me, is a riotous one-page I have but one life to lose for my country,” has come down
store whose owner was using it as a “decoration” until I section, “Sister Act,” relating the day in 1926 when—after through the centuries as the epitome of patriotism.
convinced him to sell it to me. nationally famous, charismatic Pentecostal preacher Aimee I found “On This Date” in one of those giant membership
Another “dipper” I have reviewed in this column is Semple McPherson had gone mysteriously missing in Los warehouse stores that sell everything from barbecued
“Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Angeles—while grieving parishioners scoured the beach chickens and big screen TVs to vitamins and pajamas...plus
Deserving of a Wider Audience”–a big, heavy hard-cover fearing she had waded into the Pacific and been lost, two of two tables stacked with books for people like me.
collection of 340 reproductions of mostly handwritten them were reported that mid-May day as having drowned With these and hundreds more such stories, this collection
personal correspondences by such historic figures as Albert in the rescue effort. The “religious” leader was then spotted of American history is a real treat, and you can bet that it
Einstein, Mick Jagger, Charles Darwin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, weeks later some miles south of L.A. enjoying herself in the will be as much a conversation starter as the more lavish
Leonardo da Vinci, Mark Twain, Ronald Reagan, Benjamin company of a handsome married man! volumes—with each of your guests wondering about a
Franklin, Rudyard Kipling, John F. Kennedy, Iggy Pop, For fun, I next turned to my wife, Linda’s, birthday, May significant date of his or her birthday, anniversary or other
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jackie Robinson...and many others, often 15th, and discovered that it was the day in 1928 that Walt important day. All the more reason to look for special books
at critical moments in their lives. The handwritten note dated Disney—after having been furious that his original animated everywhere you go.
Nov. 6, 1940 addressed to “Mr. Franklin Roosevelt, President character, Oswald the Rabbit, was stolen from him because

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