Trying To Remember
by Eric Nixon

Trying to remember
The great idea I had
That I came up with
Just yesterday
But sadly, sitting here
Under the ornate tin ceiling
Of the busy cafe
With the sound and smell
Of jaunty piano music
Swirling together in concert
With the thick layering
Of freshly ground coffee
Punctuated by the occasional
Clattering of plates
And the steady background
Droning of scattered conversation
Inside
While I look out the window
At the passing traffic on Route 9
And the billowy greens
Of the maple trees across the street
Swaying in the breezy late-day winds
Looking picture-perfect
With the help of the low-lying sun
Brightly-lit light green
Contrasting nicely
With the shadowy side of each branch
Deeply-dark emerald
And all of a sudden
I realize I don't care
About what I've forgotten
Since I've gotten
So much more
From my minutes
Of being lost in thought


Eric Nixon, “Trying To Remember” from Equidistant 2018 Poetry Collection.  Copyright © 2019 Double Yolk Press. (buy now)

Cartoon sex symbol Betty Boop made her debut on this date in 1930. She appeared in a Max Fleischer short called "Dizzy Dishes," and she was a real dog. She'd been created as a counterpart to Bimbo, a little hound who was Fleischer Studios' answer to Disney's Mickey Mouse. Bimbo needed a girlfriend, so Fleischer drew a sexy French poodle. Eventually, her floppy ears evolved into hoop earrings, and Betty became a human, rather than a canine, flapper.

For her first four years Betty Boop cartoons were pretty racy. But in 1934 the Motion Picture Production Code went into effect. Betty's skirts got longer, her neckline got higher, and she lost her trademark garter. Her storylines were also toned down and aimed toward a more juvenile audience. The studio received many complaints and Betty's popularity began to wane. Her series ended in 1939.

Today is the birthday of science fiction author Daniel Keyes (books by this author), born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1927. He wrote and edited some pulp sci-fi and horror magazines and comics throughout the 1950s. In 1958 he wrote a short story called "Flowers for Algernon" about a laboratory mouse named Algernon whose intelligence is surgically enhanced. The story is narrated by Charlie Gordon, a janitor with an IQ of 68 who is the first human test subject. It was a story that had been stewing in Keyes' mind for several years. His parents had pressured him to go into medicine, even though he wanted to be a writer. As he struggled with the difficult coursework he wondered if it was possible to become smarter. And he became aware of the problems faced by the mentally disabled when he taught English to a class of special-needs students.

"Flowers for Algernon" won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1960. Keyes later expanded the story into a novel by the same name, and though publishers wanted him to change the ending so that Charlie lived happily ever after, he resisted. The novel kept its original ending: Algernon the mouse dies, and Charlie, who becomes a tormented genius for a while, eventually loses his artificially enhanced intelligence and ends up in a home for disabled adults. The book is written as a series of Charlie's journal entries and ends with a poorly spelled request for the reader to leave flowers on Algernon's grave. The novel was published in 1966 and has never been out of print. It's been adapted for stage, screen, and TV several times, including the feature film Charly (1968), for which Cliff Robertson won a Best Actor Oscar.

It’s the birthday of Smokey Bear, who on this day in 1944 debuted as the spokesman for fire prevention and has since become the star of the longest-running public service announcement campaign in United States history. His name was inspired by "Smokey" Joe Martin, a New York City Fire Department hero.

During World War II, with so many experienced firefighters and able-bodied men overseas, the U.S. Forest Service decided it needed a campaign to convince ordinary citizens to play a role in fire safety. In 1950 the advertising image took the form of a real bear after fire crews in New Mexico rescued a singed black bear cub who had survived a wildfire.

Smokey Bear lived out the rest of his life at the National Zoo, where he received so many letters – more than 13,000 a week – that the Postal Service in 1965 gave him his own ZIP code: 20252. It is still in use today.

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

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