Just a few miles up the road from Monticello is James Monroe’s Highland, also known as Ash Lawn. I visited Tuesday afternoon after Monticello, taking a guided tour and walking around the property taking pictures.
The site is owned and operated by William & Mary University. Official website here. Monroe spent only part of his life here and the main house no longer stands, however the tour was immensely informative and it was well worth the trip.
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After completing my work commitment for the orthodontic conference in Washington, D.C., I took vacation time from work to visit several of the presidential homes in Virginia. I rented a car and stayed just outside Charlottesville.
First stop on Tuesday morning was Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. After taking the immensely informative mansion and slavery tours, I strolled the grounds and took some pictures. I also visited the gravesite of Jefferson and his family.
Of special note on Jefferson’s obelisk is the text he had written for his grave listing the accomplishments he was most proud of: his authorship of The Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and his founding of the University of Virginia. He considered these accomplishments even more important than having served as our nation’s third president.
Clicking on any of the pictures below will open them bigger:
This coming weekend is the American Association Orthodontists annual event in Washington. D.C., and I’m in town to cover the event for Dental Tribune. I came down on the train to a day early so that I could see “The Wiz” on Thursday night at Ford’s Theater with my friend Craig. He and I very much enjoyed the musical.
Before the show, we looked around a bit. The presidential box is adorned as it was on the night of April 14, 1865, when Lincoln was shot, with flags and a portrait of George Washington. There’s a museum in the basement. A few days later, after our work commitment, I returned to the Theater with my co-worker Kristine, and we attended their one-act play, “One Destiny,” about the events surrounding the assassination and how it affected the theater owner, the actors and many others.
Here are a few pictures. Click on any to open larger:
The first Broadway show I ever saw was “The Will Rogers Follies.” To this day the show remains one of my favorites, and I still play the original cast recording from time to time. It starred Keith Carradine in the title role. It also featured Cady Huffman, who would later go on to star as Ulla in “The Producers,” and the late great Dick Latessa, as Clement P. Rogers. The music was by Cy Coleman and the lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. This big, fun show also had cowboys and Indians, a bunch of cute dogs — and it featured the “special participation” of Gregory Peck as the legendary showman Florenz Zeigfeld, which was akin to the “voice of God.”
This would have been the fall of 1991, if I remember correctly. I was working as an editor at the Hudson Valley News in Newburgh, N.Y., at the time, and I had just completed a big project and my boss wanted to reward me by a trip to the big city to see a Broadway show. I stayed at the Milford Plaza, and I almost got mugged. A year later I had moved to my apartment in Manhattan, I had a new job working at National Jeweler, with offices in Times Square, right across the street from the Palace Theater. When my dad came to visit we went to see “Will Rogers Follies” together. It was still running, with Mac Davis in the lead role.
As president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis was under almost constant criticism from members of the rebel congress, from many of the newspapers in the South, and from his military. There were bread riots and protests over the draft. At one point, Arkansas even threatened to secede from the Confederacy! Davis had lots of trouble with his generals, but he worked the best with Robert E. Lee.
More facts about Jefferson Davis:
I’m not a huge fan of the Confederacy, and I think anyone who flies a Confederate flag today, in 2018, is a racist. But I wanted to read more about the Civil War. “Embattled Rebel: Jefferson David as Commander in Chief” by James M. McPherson was on the bargain table at Barnes and Noble, in hardcover, for six bucks. It’s by the same author as the book I completed immediately before this one, “Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief,” and I found it was an interesting follow up.
Rather than being a “cradle-to-grave” biography that I prefer reading, this book focuses almost exclusively on the war from the South’s perspective. There is not much about the upbringing of Jefferson Davis, his family life, his career leading up to the Civil war and what happened to him after. The author describes the immense disadvantages the South faced, and he describes the three times that the South came closest to winning the Civil War.
I’m managing editor of roots magazine (the r is intentionally lowercase) as part of my job at Dental Tribune.
This issue contains a letter and article I wrote as tribute the beloved Dr. Fred Weinstein, of Vancouver, British Columbia, who passed away recently. Dr. Fred was the editor in chief of roots, a dear friend, and I miss him so much.
If you click the pages they will open bigger and you can read the articles:
The complete issue is available on the Dental Tribune website here, but to get online access you have to subscribe.
Lincoln went through many generals in the first few years of the Civil War. Many frustrated him by. McClellan gave him the most trouble, with his constant delaying and complaining. But Grant didn’t complain or blame others.
In my goal to read at least one book about each president in order, I am about a third of the way through. Before I move on to Andrew Johnson, however, I wanted to read more about the Civil War. “Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief,” by James M. McPherson, focuses on Lincoln as a wartime president.
The Civil War encompassed the entire presidency of Abraham Lincoln. He was a hands-on military leader who got deep into planning, strategy and personnel decisions. He spent many long hours in the telegraph office, monitoring news from the battlefield. He visited troops in person, met with his generals at their camps, and he even participated in a few campaigns. He and Mary Todd often visited the wounded soldiers at military hospitals.
Thanks to Richard Dalglish for recommending that I add this to my reading list! I am glad I did!
For me, it’s always been an emotional experience to visit the Lincoln Memorial — and it will be even more so next time, now that I have read books about our 16th president. In my view, Lincoln was our nation’s greatest leader. Not only that, but he was one of the greatest persons ever to live.
The memorial houses the great marble statue of a seated Lincoln within a Greek temple, with his Gettysburg Address and portions of his Second Inaugural Address inscribed on either side of the interior. From the steps you can see the Washington Monument and the United States Capitol. It was dedicated on Memorial Day 1922, by then President Warren G. Harding and then Chief Justice (and former President) William Howard Taft. It’s been the site of countless political demonstrations over the years, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I have a dream” speech during the Civil Rights March in 1963.
This 50-page handbook, published by the National Park Service, is divided into three sections: An overview of the memorial, a brief biography of Lincoln, and a section about the how the monument itself was conceived and built. A map and historical photographs help tell the story.
Back in the early 1960s, the BBC had a regulation in place that restricted the number of records they were allowed to play. It was called “needle time,” and there was a limit. So they got recording artists to come in to the studio and actually perform live for radio broadcasts. The Rolling Stones, who got their start during this era as a cover band playing mainly Chicago blues, classic R&B — and even, yes, country music! — were cut out for this. On each visit the BBC wanted them to play at least three songs, sometimes as many as five, including their latest hit.
Released late last year, “ON AIR” is a two-CD collection of these in-studio recordings. Each one of the songs is the band actually playing live. And they are really good. My personal favorites include “Route 66,” “Down the Road Apiece” and “2120 South Michigan Avenue.”
But it gets even better, because this special collection also includes eight — yes, eight! — songs that the Stones had never officially put out on any studio album. These songs are:
Of course, a live version of “Crackin’ Up” is on Side 3 of the “Love You Live” album on the El Mocambo side. (What’s the the El Mocambo side, you ask? That’s a whole ’nother story.)
Up until now, you could only find these rare Stones songs on bootlegs with lousy sound quality. Now you can hear these songs as an official release, in really good audio. So if you want to have a complete collection of the Stones, “ON AIR” is a must. This is your chance to hear the lads at the height of their early prowess.
Thanks to the Seat Geek app, I got an orchestra seat to see Bernadette Peters and Victor Garber in “Hello Dolly!” tonight! She was amazing. So was everyone else in the show. Last May, I saw this same production with Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce. And in the 1990s I saw Carole Channing in a special 25th anniversary production. This is one of the best shows ever, and I am so very glad to have been able to see it so many times with such great talent.
