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Sartre Wins & Rejects Nobel Prize & Birthdays for Dr. Timothy Leary, Derek Jacobi, Franz Liszt & Catherine Deneuve

10/22/2013

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Jean Paul Sartre
When someone rejects the Nobel Prize in Literature, as Sartre did on this day in 1964, I'm reminded of the last scene of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler after she has committed suicide:  "People say things like that. People don't do things like that."  But then what else can you expect from an existentialist philosopher who wrote Being and Nothingness, No Exit, What is Literature?, and reminded us that "You can always say No." Here he explains why he said No to a prize coveted by so many others.

Derek Jacobi
And as long as we're talking existentialism, why not revisit this stunning performance of the ultimate existential soliloquy, Hamlet's "To be or not to be, by Derek Jacobi, born this day in 1938.

Timothy Leary

Also born this day was Dr. Timothy Leary, who was fired from Harvard University in the 1960's for taking LSD and giving it to some of his students.  Neither he nor the horrid interviewer in this next clip come off very well, nor does Art Linkletter, whose daughter committed suicide after taking drugs, but it gives some idea of the controversy Leary generated during his lifetime (1920-1996) If you're interested in a more balanced account of what happened at Harvard, you can find Andrew Weil's 1963 Look Magazine article here.

Picture
Franz Liszt

Today is also the birthday of composer, Franz Liszt, whose virtuosity as a performer and composer established him as one of the greats.  If you don't know his work, Google him.  You won't be sorry.  But be careful, his technique is sometimes as dizzying as LSD :))

Picture
Catherine Deneuve

And finally for today, the lovely Catherine Deneuve. Born this day 70 years ago, she seems more beautiful than ever.  The photo above is from Belle Du Jour. 

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    Hi... ​     

    I'm a storyteller whose background includes talk radio, newspapers and TV news. I've hosted a morning-drive classical music program on the California coast and published nationally in Reader's Digest, the Christian Science Monitor, and Playboy. I've won awards for my journalism and my fiction.  One of my essays even made it into an anthology for college English courses. For real?  Yes, for real.

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    I like big books and I cannot lie.  Miles and Monk I cannot deny.

    I take Mozart with my coffee and drink red wine at night.  When you read my stories, you make me feel alright :))

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  • Blog
  • Bio
  • Short Stories
    • Night of the Golden Ghetto
    • Black Bucks Coffee
    • The Shape-up
    • Slurred
  • Popular Posts
  • Contact
  • Acknowledgements