| Accrual
by Rose McLarney Text of this poem not available (only audio permission granted) “Accrual” by Rose McLarney from Forage. Penguin Books © 2019. Audio used with permission of the author. (buy now) On this date in 1792, George Washington established the United States Post Office Department. Provision for a postmaster general — at a salary of $1,000 per annum — had been made by the Second Continental Congress in 1775, but there had been an attempt to organize mail delivery as early as 1639, when Richard Fairbanks' Boston tavern served as a central mail repository. The Continental Congress named Benjamin Franklin the first postmaster general; he held the position for a little more than a year, and the modern post office traces its method of operation directly to the system he set up. It's the birthday of photographer Ansel Adams (works by this artist), born in San Francisco, California (1902). He spent a lot of time wandering in the wild places of the San Francisco area, hiking on the dunes or exploring Lobos Creek. When he was a teenager, he went to Yosemite National Park and took his first photographs with a Kodak Box Brownie camera. He persuaded the owner of a photo-finishing plant to take him on as a darkroom apprentice. Every summer he traveled to Yosemite, trying to take better and better photos. Looking out at the mountains, he said, "The silver light turned every blade of grass and every particle of sand into a luminous metallic splendor." He wanted to take photos that captured every blade of grass and particle of sand in perfect focus. He served on the Sierra Club's board of directors for almost 40 years, and he allowed his photographs to be reprinted in calendars and books, hoping they would inspire people to protect wilderness areas. He died in 1984, and Congress approved the creation of Ansel Adams Wilderness, which preserved more than 200,000 acres of land near Yosemite. It's the birthday of singer-songwriter Kurt Cobain (works by this artist), born in Hoquiam, Washington (1967). Three weeks before his high school graduation, he dropped out, got a job as a janitor, and started playing in local rock bands. He eventually settled on one band, and they saved up $606 dollars to record their first album, Bleach (1989), under the name Nirvana. People liked it, and the group signed to a major label for their next album, Nevermind (1991), which has sold more than 26 million copies. Kurt Cobain became a celebrity, which he hated. He became addicted to heroin, and in 1994, he committed suicide at his home in Seattle. It's the birthday of the filmmaker Robert Altman (works by this artist), born in Kansas City, Missouri (1925). He was a bomber pilot during World War II. When he came home from the war, he had no idea what to do, so he started making movies. He worked on industrial films for corporations in Kansas City, and then he made his own movie, a teen drama called The Delinquents (1957), and then a biographical film, The James Dean Story (1956). He got noticed in Hollywood, and he began writing and directing TV shows. He developed a new style of dialogue. He put a microphone and a camera on each of the actors in a scene, and he encouraged them to improvise dialogue and to interrupt each other and have more than one conversation at once. The first film where he tried out this new style was about a group of military surgeons in the Korean War. That was M*A*S*H (1970), and it was one of the highest-grossing movies of the year. Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® | 