Cambridge as I know (我所知道的康橋): We visited the Eagle Pub

It has been more than five months since we came back from the London-Paris trip, and yet I still haven’t finished the writing yet.  Today (February 28) in 1953 Francis Crick went to the Eagle Pub to announce that he and James Watson have discovered “the secret of life”.  The plaque seems to indicate that both Watson and Crick were there to make the announcement.  In his The Double Helix, Watson wrote, “. . . Thus I felt slightly queasy when at lunch Francis winged into the Eagle to tell everyone within hearing distance that we had found the secret of life.”  (Watson was much more conservative than Crick was.)  The plaque was unveiled by Watson on April 25, 2003, though.

The Eagle Pub was close to The Cavendish Lab where Watson and Crick worked, and they hanged out here quite often; so the Pub can boast their contribution to the discovery of the DNA structure.  The history of Eagle Pub is traced back to Corpus Christie College (Miao-Chih’s college) in 1525; the college was founded in 1352 and is also nearby.

Today is the time to post some of the photos we took in front of the Eagle Pub on September 22, 2014.  This should be in the series of Cambridge as I know (我所知道的康橋).

800th anniversary of Magna Carta

Buckingham Palace had a reception celebrating the 800^th anniversary of Magna Carta yesterday (Feb. 23).  The photo shows the Queen was inspecting it.  We did it while in London last September.  The link is to the post in my blog.

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/search?q=magna

The four original 1215 copies were displayed together at the British Library for one day, 3 February 2015, to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta.

 

 

A few stories of the Battle of Verdun

Today (Feb. 21) in 1916 German launched the battle of Verdun, which has a series of famous fortresses in France.  When it ended nearly 10 months later French forces prevailed and German forces fell back to the positions where it began before the battle.  The cost was nearly one million casualties both sides combined.  The village of Vaux changed hands thirteen times in March 1916.

General Philippe Petain was made famous during this battle.  Four days (2/25/1916) after German attacked, the strategically important Fort Douaumont fell to the German forces.  At this crucial moment General Petain took charge and gave the famous order “They shall not pass” (“Ils ne passeront pas!”), according to Martin Gilbert’s The First World War.

However, this famous order was generally attributed to General Robert Nivelle, who replaced General Petain half way through the battle.  If this were true, then even the top-rated historian like Martin Gilbert might not get everything right.

“They shall not pass” (“Ils ne passeront pas!”) is an order as famous as MacArthur’s “I shall return” proclaiming during WWII.

Petain met Hitler in 10/1940

When France fell in June 1940, Petain headed the Vichy government that cooperated with Nazi Germany.  Petain should never have grown old; at which time he was already 84-year-old.  He was tried and sentenced to death after the war, but General (then President) de Gaulle commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.

Many of the battles during the WWI are named after the rivers, such as Oise, Meuse, Somme, Marne, Aisne.  The war gave these rivers a ‘doleful fame”.   The Battle of Verdun was fought along River Meuse.

Charles de Gaule was taken by German force as a prisoner-of-war during the Battle of Verdun.  Many attempts to escape failed and he was released at the end of the war.

The characteristic of the Battle of Verdun was not unique for the WWI:  Like many other battles, it marked the war of stalemate and attrition.

Feel good listening to sad music

I have been pondering why I always feel good listening to the sad music; the sadder the music the happier I feel.  I am certainly not alone, although some cannot stand it.

This is not a morbid sentiment.  One of my theories is that I pursue all things beautiful in life and sad music is beautiful.

I recently listened to a BBC Radio program by articulate Helena Merriman, “sad music” and fell in love with it; I have spent “hours” listening to it.  Spending 18 minutes listening to it, it will be well worth your while.

"Sad music" (by Helena Merriman); http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02hl73g

Helena Merriman

A researcher/professor in the University of Ohio said, during an interview by Helena Merriman, that prolactin (secreted by pituitary gland) is the key to explain why listening to sad music makes one feel good.  He said listening to the sad music causes the surge of prolactin secretion in some people, thus is responsible for the comforting feeling.

It makes sense to me, but I will have my reservation (I am not sold) until I read it in a peer-review medical journal.  Increased prolactin is seen in cases of pregnancy, nipple stimulation, stress or a pituitary tumor called prolactinoma.

Dopamine inhibits prolactin secretion.  Many psychotropic drugs that suppress dopamine production will in turn lead to increased prolactin secretion as the dopamine-inhibition is removed.

After listening to the Sad Music program, Janice put together all the songs mentioned in a playlist in YouTube.  In the interest of the time, I will just show you two songs.

“Neria” by Oliver Mtukudzi (the beloved Zimbabwe musician).  I don’t understand the lyrics, but it doesn’t matter.  Sad music speaks cross-culture, international, and universal language.  This gloomy, doleful song evokes sensuous, soothing and comforting emotion in me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhXGyer-cIg&index=9&list=PL1pV-etUiF5TP89bSO-z_s9H3wUjsPtTa

 

“Spiegel im Spiegel” composed by Avo Pӓrt. This ten-minute of simple, seemingly repeating, melancholic, heart-wrenching music will take you to heaven or hell, depending on the level of your prolactin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ6Mzvh3XCc&index=16&list=PL1pV-etUiF5TP89bSO-z_s9H3wUjsPtTa

 

I still think I like sad music simply because it is beautiful; my theory is not without merit.  When you are down or shut in like the poor souls in Boston or Connecticut, listen to the sad music, it will make you feel better, better than a good cry.

(When you go to the YouTube to listen either Neria or Spiegel im Spiegel, you’ll see the entire list of music mentioned in the program, “Sad Music – The Why factor” on the right hand column that was put together by our daughter, Janice)

Why read World War I? Mark Twain’s War Prayer

I wrote this yesterday and on purposely not posted, lest I would be criticized talking about war, not love, on Valentine Day.  Love was in the air and permeated Facebook; one couldn’t click or scroll without reading a love message.

Why read World War I? The answer is to understand the story of civilization of the 20^th century.  It is safe to say that without World War I there wouldn’t have World War II, and that WWII is literary the extension of WWI with a lull of 20-21 years.

One needs to know WWI to understand the collapse of Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire (and the demise of Tsar), the German Empire (and the exile of the Kaiser) and Austro-Hungary Empire.  With the break out of WWI, there went the beautiful Belle Epoque (beautiful era).

The tragedy is that WWI is unnecessary and totally preventable.  It is the arrogance, greed and impetuosity of the emperor, the king, the Kaiser, and the Tsar, who was less guilty, though.

The mass of both Entente (Britain, France, and Russia) and Central Powers (Austro-Hungary, Germany) were consumed by nationalistic and patriotic pathos, making the events all the more tragic; human folly led to the enormous suffering.  The whole country was in delirious excitement and intoxication when the world war came.  No better term than a Chinese phrase, 如醉如狂, to describe the sad scene.

Last September we took the Eurostar train from St.Pancras International station in London to Gare du Nord station in Paris. If we were in Gare du Nord at the outbreak of war we would see the soldiers departing “the train slowly steamed out of the station.  At that moment, quite spontaneously, like a smouldering fire suddenly erupting into roaring flames, an immense clamour, arose as the Marseillaise burst from a thousand throats, . . . The women were throwing kisses and heaped flowers on our convey.”

We walked from the Place de la Concorde along the famous Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomph the last day of our visit to Paris.  We would watch a French cavalry regiment march “very smartly” around the square had we visited the Place de la Concorde almost exactly 100 years earlier and “when artillery passed, the guns were festooned with flowers and women jumped on the limbers to kiss the men.”

The air in St. Petersburg was no less excited and exalted; the crowd knelt and sang the Russian national anthem when the Tsar appeared on the balcony.  Little did anyone know that the Tsar and his family would meet their fate under the hands of the Bolshevik four years later.

The Kaiser addressed to the exuberant and tumultuous crowd from his palace balcony and his pastor led a huge congregation in the recitation of Psalm 130.  The enthusiastic Hitler was among the crowd.

 “It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing. ..”

This is how Mark Twain’s War Prayer satire begins, click this link http://warprayer.org/ to read it.

The War Prayer was never published in Twain’s life time, as he couldn’t find any publisher or magazine to publish it.  Unpatriotic is un-American!  That was the mood of the nation then.  In a letter to a friend in 1905, Twain wrote, “I don’t think the prayer will be published in my time, none but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.”

Twain wrote the war prayer at the end of American Philippine War; unfortunately the Europeans didn’t have the chance to read it before the Great War as it was not published until 1923.

The World War I shouldn’t have happened and the World War II should be fought at all costs.  That will be another post.

Revision is the best way, if not the only way, to make writings better

Reading the Today section of the Observer-Reporter last night, I put together Churchill’s sayings on bombing German cities in haste; it was meant to show Churchill’s skill in writing or talking.  I should have used the title as “Churchill on bombing German cities: a poetic justice”.

W.B. Yeats wrote and rewrote his poems and essays all the time.  He even attempted to rewrite his letters before being published if he got the chance; in a letter to his publisher, he wrote, “. . . if your are going to publish any more letters of mine, please let me see them first, I may even, in defiance of all right conduct, improve them.”

Hemingway revised the ending (the last page) of A Farewell to Arms (his World War I experience) 47 times.  He once said it had been rewritten “39 times before I was satisfied.”  After 30 times I bet he himself lost counts.  When asked the reason for writing so many endings, he responded: “Getting the words right”.

I read A Farewell to Arms twice, but couldn’t finish watching the movie.  I watched the movie For Whom the Bell Tolls many times, but never read the book.

Do not procrastinate if you need to write something as you will need time to revise to improve it.  If Yeats and Hemingway had to do it, you, too.  Revision is the best way, if not the only way, to make it better.

Churchill on bombing of the German cities: a poetic justice

Today (Feb. 13) in 1945 Allied planes began bombing the German city of the beautiful and cultured Dresden.  I am not going to talk about the necessity or even the morality of this bombing.  Instead let’s hear what Church said about the bombing of the German cities.

After watching a film of the bomb damage done to Germany in the evening of June 27, 1943, Churchill said “Are we beasts? Are we taking this too far?”

the bombed Dresden

FDR and Churchill had a joint press conference at Washington DC on 5/25/1943, during which Churchill said the bombing “was the weapon these people chose to subjugate the world.  This was the weapon with which they struck at Pearl Harbour.  This was the weapon with which they boasted─the German  boasted─they would terrorize all the countries of the world.  And it is an example of poetic justice that this should be the weapon in which they should find themselves most out-matched and first out-matched in the ensuing struggle.”

Churchill later said something similar in the House of Commons around Feb. 20, 1944, “The air power was the weapon which both the marauding States selected as their main tool of conquest.  This was the sphere in which they were to triumph.  This was the method by which the nations were to be subjugated to their rule.  I shall not moralise further than to say that there is a strange, stern justice in the long swing of events.”

Churchill once said “If Londoners could not take safely to their beds, neither would Berliners.  It is the only thing they understand.”

After Luftwaffe destroyed Coventry in November 1940, Churchill told Portal to draw up a plan “for the most destructive possible bombing attack against a selective German town.”  Churchill's goal for 1941 was “to bomb every Han corner of Europe”.

Poppies in Flanders Fields and in the Tower of London (and in our yard)

I am writing “Why read WWI?”, but I will post this first as I never finished writing about our London/Paris trip.  Before the trip Tuner alerted us the poppies we’ll see in the Tower of London.

2014 was the 100^th anniversary of the First World War.  There were 888,246 (British dead) ceramic poppies in a powerful display of “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” in the Tower of London.

“Remembrance poppies” came from a poem written by a Canadian surgeon, John McCrae in May 1915, during the second Battle of Ypres. Flanders Field is in the border between Belgium and France.

There were many versions of stories as to under what circumstance he wrote this poem.  According to Martin Gilbert’s The First World War, McGrae was a 42-year-old Canadian doctor, “an author of a book on pathology, he had volunteered as a gunner on the outbreak of war [August 1914], but then transferred to the Royal Canadian Medical Corps.  After two days surrounded by the human wreckage of the German attack, he wrote one of the most frequently quoted English-language poems of the war.”

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Reading this poem, I always listen to my favorite song of “Green Green Grass of Home” again.  Please go to a post in my blog (posted 6/1/2010) in which you can listen to this song sung by Joan Baez and Tom Jones.  The following link is “Listening to green green grass of home on Memorial Day”.

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2010/09/listening-to-green-green-grass-of-home.html