Tomorrow
by Barbara Crooker

there will be sun, scalloped by clouds,
ushered in by a waterfall of birdsong.
It will be a temperate seventy-five, low
humidity. For twenty-four hours,
all politicians will be silent. Reality
programs will vanish from TV, replaced
by the “snow” that used to decorate
our screens when reception wasn’t
working. Soldiers will toss their weapons
in the grass. The oceans will stop
their inexorable rise. No one
will have to sit on a committee.
When twilight falls, the aurora borealis
will cut off cell phones, scramble the internet.
We’ll play flashlight tag, hide and seek,
decorate our hair with fireflies, spin
until we’re dizzy, collapse
on the dew-decked lawn and look up,
perhaps for the first time, to read the long lines
of cold code written in the stars….

"Tomorrow" by Barbara Crooker from Some Glad Morning. University of Pittsburgh Press © 2019. Aired by permission of University of Pittsburgh Press. (buy now)

It's the birthday of the man who said, "There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation," actor W.C. Fields, (books by this author) born William Dukenfield in Darby, Pennsylvania (1880). He also wrote screenplays, including for the films The Bank Dick (1940), Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), and You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939).

He ran away from home as a child, stole to survive, got in a lot of fistfights, and was arrested often. He was a fabulously skilled juggler, and at 14 he honed his juggling act and joined the carnival. He went from juggling to doing a witty comedic routine, and then to acting in films. Including films that he wrote: The Bank Dick (1940), Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), and You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (1939).

Toward the end of his life, his career fizzled out some — he gained a reputation for being extremely hard to work with, was passed over for some coveted movie roles, and his alcoholism was taking its toll. He died Christmas Day 1946.

It's the birthday of writer and revolutionary Thomas Paine, (books by this author) born in Thetford, England (1737). He's best known for writing “Common Sense” (1776), the pamphlet that convinced many Americans, including George Washington, to fight for independence from England. The original title Paine came up with for the pamphlet was “Plain Truth.”

It's the birthday of writer Anton Chekhov, (books by this author) born in Taganrog, Russia (1860). Chekhov is one of the inventors of the modern short story. His stories were usually short, full of passive characters, and without much of a plot. They didn't have big emotional climaxes, and they usually ended with a moment that revealed something about the main characters' lives.

His first play, The Seagull, opened in 1885. It got horrible reviews, and he walked out on it at intermission and vowed never to write another play. But two years later, it was produced again, this time to rave reviews. The success inspired him to go on to write the plays Three Sisters (1901), The Cherry Orchard (1904), and Uncle Vanya (1897), which are now considered classics.

Chekhov said, "Any idiot can face a crisis; it is this day-to-day living that wears you out."

On this day in 1996, the opera house La Fenice burned to the ground. Located in Venice, Italy, it was one of the most beautiful and important opera houses in the world, the site of premieres of many famous works. The name of the theater, in Italian, means "Phoenix" — the mythical bird that at the end of its life cycle burns itself down to ashes, regenerates, and is reborn as a young firebird to live again.

It wasn't the first time the theater had burned. It burned down in 1774, was rebuilt in 1792, destroyed by fire again in 1836, and restored the following year. In the mid-1800s, it hosted many of Verdi's premieres, including La Traviata, and for the next century and half it was a busy concert hall.

In 1996, it burned down completely. It was a big mystery; arson was suspected. In 2001 a Venetian court found two electricians guilty of setting the fire. They'd fallen behind on repair work that they had contracted to do, and they were facing big fines because of it. One of the electricians served a six-year sentence, and the other fled. That same year, 2001, reconstruction of La Fenice began. It was finished in 650 days.

The burning down and rebuilding of the theater in Venice, and the reactions of Venetians, are the subject of John Berendt's book The City of Falling Angels (2005), which was a New York Times No. 1 best-seller in 2005.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.^®

^