Pompeii ruin reveals the ancient culture and civilization

These two photos are posted by my nephew from the Pompeii ruin; I am adding the ancient culture and civilization through Will Durant’s writings (from his Caesar and Christ—Vol. III of the Story of Civilization).

Will Durant wrote about Pompeii,

“Pompeii was partly destroyed by an earthquake in A.D. 63 and was being rebuilt when Vesuvius destroyed it again.  On August 24, A.D. 79, the volcano exploded and hurled dust and rock high into the air amid clouds of smoke and flashes if flame.  A heavy rainfall turned the erupted matter into a torrent of mud and stone, which in six hours covered Pompeii and Herculaneum to a depth of eight or ten feet. . . . The exhuming of Pompeii began in 1749 and has gone on at intervals since.  Today most of the ancient town has been uncovered and has revealed so many houses, objects, and inscriptions that in some ways we know ancient Pompeii better than ancient Rome.”

“The art recovered from Pompeii or near it suggests that not only the aristocrats of the villas, but the merchants of the city enjoyed the cultural accessories of life.  A private library unearthed at Herculaneum had 1756 volumes of rolls. . . . Many dwellings had excellent sculptures, and the forum contained 150 statues.  In the Temple of Jupiter a head of the god was found which Pheidias himself might have carved. . . . In the Temple of Apollo was a statue of Diana. . . . In one Herculanean villa enough first-class bronzes were found to fill a famous room at the Naples Museum.  Presumably the masterpieces in this collection—the Resting Mercury, the Narcissus or Dionysus, the Drunken Satyr, and the Dancing Faun—were of Greek origin or workmanship; they reveal the skillful technique, and the shameless joy in the healthy body, characteristic of Praxitelean art.”

“His [Emperor Titus’] misfortunes were disasters which he could have little control.  A three-day fire in the year 79 destroyed many important buildings, including again the Temple of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; in the same year Vesuvius buried Pompeii and thousands of Italians; and a year later Rome was stricken with a plague more deadly than any her history had yet recorded.”

In the section of Rome and its art Durant wrote,

“The most powerful of all the pictures recovered from these ruins is the Medea found at Herculaneum [buried along wit Pompeii in AD 79], and preserved in the Naples Museum—a brooding woman, magnificently draped, meditating the murder of her children; apparently this is a copy of the painting for which Caesar paid the artist, Timomachus of Byzantium, forty talents ($144,000).”

Where to bury Richard III? That is the question

There is an article that begins at the front page of today’s (January 19) Wall Street Journal, “Bones of contention: If the skeleton is Richard III, where to bury it?”

Before Richard III said “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!” (his last words in Shakespeare’s Richard III), he also said heading to his last battle at Bosworth, in which Shakespeare’s great grand father participated,

“March on, Join bravely, Let us to it pell mell [disorderly, confused]

If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.”

Richard III himself didn’t even know where he was going, heaven or hell? Neither do we.

I had a few posts on this topic a few months ago, “Was Richard III an evil monster or a victim of Thomas More’s and Shakespeare’s pens?

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2012/09/was-richard-iii-evil-monster-or-victim.html 

and “Shakespeare copied Thomas More’s and improved upon it”

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2012/10/shakespeare-copied-thomas-mores-and.html

This is the topic few would be interested and understandably few, if none, would read my posts.  But, I take comfort in that the “amazon.com computer” must have read them, as I soon received the emails from amazon.com recommending Paul Murray Kendall’s Richard the Third (see photo), which was published in 1955.  I never looked for books about Richard III on amazon.com site (although I did look for Shakespeare’s Henry VI books).  amazon.com didn’t succeed entirely as I checked out the book from Waynesburg University library and didn’t buy it.

Galileo’s dropping ball at Pisa Leaning Tower is a “legend” and an anecdote

My cousin posted this photo of Pisa Leaning Tower at Facebook from the Leaning Tower.  Here is my comment: 

I thought you would stand slanting 3.99 degrees in line with the Tower.

Did you stand at the spot where Galileo stood dropping the ball to conduct his experiment on the velocity of falling objects?  Will Durant tells the “legend” as an anecdote in his The Age of Reason Begins (Vol. VII of The Story of Civilization).

The story first appeared in an early biography of Galileo, written by his friend Vincenzo Viviani in 1654 (12 years after Galileo’s death),

“. . . repeated experiments from the height of the Campanile of Pisa in the presence of the other teachers and philosophers, and the whole assembly of students . . .”

Durant had his doubt, he wrote,

“Galileo himself nowhere mentions the Pisa experiment in his extant writings; neither is it mentioned by two of his contemporaries who in 1612 and 1641 reported their own experiments in dropping objects of diverse weight from the top of the Leaning Tower.  Viviani’s story has been rejected as a legend by some scholars in Germany and America.”

Santa Maria del Fiore: the Mother of the dome

My nephew posted this photo of Santa Maria del Fiore from Florence, Italy.

The story of Santa Maria del Fiore began in 1296.  It was only so called after 1412, though. The dome came from Brunellesco who marveled at the dome of Agrippa’s Pantheon in Rome and “conceived the idea of crowning with such a dome the unfinished cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in the city of his birth [so Brunellesco is a native of Florence]”.

“When Michelangelo, a century later, planned the dome of St, Peter’s, and was told that he had an opportunity to surpass Brunellesco’s, he answered: ‘I will make a sister dome, larger, but not more beautiful’ [great man often is also humble]. The lordly colorful cupola still dominates, for leagues around, the panorama of a red-roofed Florence nestling like a bed of roses in the lap of the Tuscan hills.”

After reading Will Durant’s the Story of Civilization, I think it is safe to say that the dome of Pantheon is “the Mother of the dome”—to that of Santa Maria del Fiore, St. Peter’s and the Capitol at Washington D.C.

The everlasting Patheon

This photo of Pantheon was posted by my nephew from Pantheon.

Will Durant wrote in his Caesar and Christ (Volume 3 of the Story of the Civilization),

“At the top of the dome an opening (the oculus, or ‘eye’), twenty-six feet in diameter, gave the interior its sole and sufficient illumination. From this majestic dome, the largest in history, an architectural lineage descends through Byzantine and Romanesque variations to the dome of St. Peter’s, and to that of the Capitol in Washington.”

The pantheon you saw is not the original one; it is the one rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian nearly 2000 years ago.  Agrippa (son-in-law of Emperor Augustus) built a temple to Venus and Mars (before the Christ), which was rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian.  Its portico still bears the words, “M. AGRIPPA . . . FECIT”.

Durant wrote, “Like Leonardo he [Agrippa] was a scientist, an engineer, an inventor of military projectiles, and an artist.  His early death at the age of fifty (12 B.C.) was among the many sorrows that darkened the later years of Augustus, who had given him his daughter Julia in marriage, and had hoped to bequeath the Empire to him as the man best fitted to govern it honestly and well.”

The Renaissance masterpieces one may miss in Rome and Florence

One may not see all the masterpieces of Italian Renaissance art even if one goes to Rome and Florence.  Some are in private collection. A December 21, 2012 Wall Street Journal article (Christie’s Tests China’s Appetite for Renaissance Art), using Sandro Botticelli’s “Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist” to test the appetite for the Renaissance art for the new rich in China.

Botticelli's "Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist"

Head of a Young Apostle

One may recall the Sotheby’s auction of Raphael’s “Head of a Young Apostle” sold at $47.8 million in 1996 (?).  When you tour the Raphael's Room at Vatican City, you may try to figure out how much money the pope can fetch if Sotheby's can hand a hand on them.  Of course, we know they are priceless!

Sotheby's auction of Raphael's "Head of a Young Apostle"

Do not despair for those who’re going to Florence, you will still see Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” at Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It was commissioned by Lorenzo de Medici (is it stretched too far to say Florence and Medici are synonymous?).  This is how Will Durant described “The Birth of Venus”.

“A demur nude rises from a godden shell in the sea, using her long blonde tresses as the only fig leaf at hand; on her right winged zephyrs blow her to the shore; on her left a pretty maid (Simonetta?), clad in a gown of flowered white, offers the goddess a mantle to enhance her loveliness.  The painting is a masterpiece of grace, in which design and composition are everything, color is subordinate, realism is ignored, and everything is directed to evoking an ethereal fancy through the flowing rhythm of the line.  Botticelli had taken the theme from a passage in Politian’s La giostra. . . .”

I believe Bill Gates collected some of the art works of Michelangelo or Da Vinci.

Michelangelo’s David-Apollo is at the National Gallery of Art

David-Apollo (from WSJ)

For those who’re going to Florence Italy, they’ll miss Michelangelo’s mysterious unfinished David-Apollo at the National Museum of Bargello at Florence as it is being displayed at the National Gallery of Art at Washington, D.C., kicking off the nationwide celebration 2013 —The Year of Italian Culture.

However, they’ll be more than compensated by seeing many of the Renaissance work, not only of Michelangelo, but also of the likes of Da Vinci, Raphael and Titian.  They’ll marvel at Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and indulge the feminine tenderness walking through Raphael’s Room. Like Westminster Abbey, the Basilica of St. Peter or all those Renaissance masterpieces are not just made by stone and marble, they are made up by words and history.  I am jealous; I can always take comfort in reading Will Durant’s The Renaissance (Vol. V of The Story of Civilization)

An article in today’s (Jan. 10) Wall Street Journal (“An Incomplete Mystery”) mentions that Michelangelo is supposed to have said that he simply “carved away everything that wasn’t the sculpture.” That’s all there is to it.

The similarity between FDR and Lincoln

The other day Janice tested me a question about Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (I passed the test) and yesterday I received from a friend a page of stamps commemorating the 150^th year of Emancipation Proclamation.  It came with a note saying “I saw these stamps and thought of you and Lincoln!”  How about that, I and Lincoln, in the same sentence; that is quite a compliment.  Thanks!

“It was New Year Day afternoon when the Secretary of State, Seward, and his son brought the draft for Lincoln to sign, Lincoln said, “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper.  But I have been receiving calls and shaking hands since nice o’clock this morning, till my arm is stiff and numb.  Now this signature is one that will be closely examined, and if they find my hand trembled they will say, ‘he had some compunctions.’ But, anyway, it is going to be done.”  (From Carl Sandburg’s Abraham Lincoln.)

If Lincoln had his way, he would demolish the slavery institution the day he took the Presidency.  If FDR had his way, America would enter the war at least one year and half before the Pearl Harbor attack and war would end earlier and less Americans would die.

How Lincoln handled the slavery issue and how FDR managed the public sentiment of isolationism and appeasement toward Hitler’s Nazi revealed their political skill and savvy.

My letter-to-the-editor of “Abe Lincoln was not an abolitionist” touches this topic,

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2011/03/lincoln-was-not-abolitionist-my-letter.html

I’ll write a post telling why FDR hated Charles Lindbergh and Joseph Kennedy (JFK’s father).

“Blood thinners to dissolve the blood clot” ??

Of the many misunderstandings of medicine, nothing is more prevalent than using “blood thinners to dissolve the blood clot”.

Blood thinners (anti-coagulants) are to prevent blood from further forming the clots.  Our body natural defense mechanism will take of the existing blood clots; it will be absorbed/dissolved itself as time goes by.  Or the collateral circulation will be formed (the new veins may form bypassing the clots not dissolved completely).  We tend not to give credit where it’s due to our natural body defense.

We do have agents to dissolve the blood clots; the process is called thrombolysis.  From what I read or heard, Hillary Clinton was not given such a treatment; not clinically indicated.

The following is an Associated Press dispatch in the Wall Street Journal on January 3.

But Wall Street Journal is not alone in saying “treated with blood thinner to dissolve the blood clot”.  Virtually all the major news agency (not only in the U.S. but in the world), without exceptions, gave the same report.

USA Today:

“Doctors had been treating Clinton with blood thinners to dissolve a clot in a vein that runs through the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear.”

Yahoo News:

“Her doctors say blood thinners are being used to dissolve the clot”

ABC News:

“Her doctors say blood thinners are being used to dissolve the clot”

NBC News:

“Doctors had been treating Clinton with blood thinners to dissolve a clot in a vein that runs through the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear.”

Throwing coins in the Fountain of Dreams — Trevi Fountain

This is also from the same article in a book of The Best Travel Writing from The New York Times: Italy.

“Before you leave Rome — if you really must leave — remember to toss a coin in the Trevi Fountain. . . It ensures that you will come back.”  (Legend had it that tossing two additional coins will supposedly bring the promise of love and marriage with an Italian.  So, count your coins carefully.)

The fountain was built between 1699 and 1751, inspired by sea and Roman Mythology.  The central figures are Neptune, flanked by two Tritons, one trying to manage a wild seahorse, the other tamed one, contrasting the mood of the sea.  One can this fountain in the movies, the like of “Three Coins in a Fountain”, “Roman Holiday” and Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”.

For those who’re going to Rome

I usually do not read travel book unless there is a good travel writing.  The following is an excerpt from an article in a book of The Best Travel Writing from The New York Times: Italy.

“John Keats died in a house at the foot of the Spanish Steps.  James Joyce spent one winter of his discontent on the banks of the Tiber.  Rome’s streets and Vatican have been trod by Robert Adam, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Thackeray, Hans Christian Andersen, Lizst, Buffalo Bill, Queen Christina of Sweden, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rubens, Stendhal, even the pope-baiting poet, John Milton (he attended theatrical performances in the palace of the Barberini popes surrounded by red-robed cardinals).  And the sad-faced Sigmund Freud, for many of his last years, wrote about “going home to Rome . . .” Romans can better explain what he meant than most Freudians can!  The truth is that all these people, as you, could feel at home in Rome.  For Rome is not Italian.  It is uniquely itself. And universal.”

We certainly can add Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charles Dickens to the list.  If you know the above-mentioned people or better yet read what they wrote about Rome, then you’ll be well prepared for the trip to Rome, whichever way you take; all roads lead to Rome. And when in Rome do as Romans do; don’t act as if you’re a tourist.

(The photo shows The Piazza di Spagna and The Spanish Steps, in which one will find the Keats memorial house.)

Hyde Park on Hudson (Series No. 6): an affectionate and caring, but not sexual relationship

The relationship between FDR and Daisy was an affectionate and caring one; I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I am afraid it may portray or suggest a sexual one, given the fact that it carries an R rating. If so, it doesn’t do justice to FDR and Daisy.

FDR did have an affair with Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd in 1916-1918 (That will be another post).  They began to see each other again after 1941, not often though, at times through the arrangement of Anna, FDR’s only daughter.  I may be of the opinion of Arthur Schlesinger (the same guy who interviewed Jacqueline Kennedy shortly after JFK’s assassination) who once said, “If Lucy Mercer in any way helped Franklin Roosevelt sustain the frightful burden of leadership in the Second World War, the nation has good reason to be grateful to her.” But I refuse to go along with those who say it was a ‘beautiful’ affair, as there is no such a thing.  A cheating heart is a cheating heart.

My opinion is formed from reading the books of Closest Companion (which is based on Daisy’s diaries and the 38 FDR’s letters written to her), FDR and Lucy: Lovers and Friends, and The Roosevelt Cousins and the FDR biographies written after 1991.

 

FDR went to the Little White House in Warm Springs (in George; FDR initially went there for the good therapeutic effect of the spring to his polio) during the 1944 Thanksgiving holiday.  The ever busy Eleanor didn’t go with him; she felt it is quite OK as Daisy Suckley and Laura “Polly” Delano, the two unmarried distant cousins were going with FDR.  And Eleanor knew they will provide all the care and company FDR needed.  Eleanor called these two cousins “the handmaidens”.

These two cousins and Lucy Mercer were with FDR on his last visit to the Warm Springs when he died on April 12, 1945.  FDR died as a happy man as the women he enjoyed company and affection were with him.

But, if you’re like Oscar Wilde, “Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship,” then I may have to try harder to convince you .

Lessons learned from Secretary of State’s cerebral venous and dural sinus vein thrombosis

Days before the Secretary of State — Hillary Clinton — was to testify at the Benghazi fiasco hearing last month, news came out that she suffered from a cerebral concussion from a fainting and fall, which was in turn from a bad case of intestinal flu.

The media almost immediately began to make nasty comments saying she faked illness to avoid testifying at the Benghazi hearing.

Now they all know how wrong they are!  Their humors are bad taste at best, their jeers are ill-conceived, insensitive, and immoral in making fun on one who is potentially seriously ill.

The cerebral venous and dural sinus vein thrombosis is extremely rare.  In large teaching hospitals, only 5 to 10 patients with cerebral vein thrombosis (CVT) are admitted yearly.  The diagnosis of which is quite challenging, especially before the era of MRI/MRA.

Her recent fall and head injury is a precipitating factor and her history of prior blood clot (which suggests she may be relatively prothrombotic) in 1990s makes her more vulnerable for this rare event.

An undiagnosed and untreated transverse sinus vein thrombosis (which is most likely what she has — blood clot in one of the large veins in the space between the brain and the skull) will lead to increased venous pressure, impaired cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) absorption and elevated intracranial pressure and cerebral dysfunction and can be potentially fatal.

Her doctors must have been vigilant in watching over her.  To pick up thing so rare is not easy.  The doctors stride not to miss anything that can be potentially serious if undiagnosed and untreated, however rare it may be.

She is now in good hands and complete recovery is expected.  Kudos to her doctors at the New York – Presbyterian Hospital (Columbia U). Unfortunately the press may never learn and will continue to prejudge.

Hyde Park on Hudson (Series No. 5): The first date of FDR and Churchill at Newfoundland

One may not see the scenes (in the movie) of the “first date” of FDR and Churchill in Newfoundland in August 1941, nearly 4 months before the Pearl Harbor.  But, it should be in it for not only is it historically important, but also reveals Daisy is indeed a close confidante of FDR.

The U.S. was still a neutral, non-belligerent country at the time of this ‘date’.  FDR went to sea fishing (as far as the press was concerned) in S.S. Augusta, escorted by many destroyers.  He didn’t even tell his Secretary of State or even his wife, Eleanor, that he was going to meet with Churchill.  And yet he wrote a 3 ½ pages letter to Daisy, telling her all the details.

FDR’s letter written on S.S. Augusta (August 5, 1941),

“. . . Even at my ripe old age I feel a thrill in making a get-away — especially from the American press. . . We had a ‘dress rehearsal’ conference including Gen. [George] Marshall, Gen. [Henry] Arnold, Ad. [Harold] Stark, Ad. [Ernest] King.  All set for the Big Day tomorrow.  I wish you could see this scene.  By the way don’t ever given any times or places or names or numbers of ships! . . . “

“Sat. Aug 9 — The huge new H.M.S. Prince of Wales came up . . . Winston Churchill came on board the Augusta at 11, accompanied by . . . Churchill stayed on board & lunched with me alone.  He is a tremendously vital person & in many ways is an English Mayor [Fiorello] LaGuardia! [the short, chesty, voluble chief executive of New York City].  Don’t say I said so! I like him — & lunching alone broke the ice both ways.”

“Sun. August 10 — This A.M. at 10:30 I crossed to the deck of the destroyer, went alongside the Prince of Wales, was received with ‘honors’, . . . & then the service was held — 300 men from our ships had come over for it — A British & an American chaplain did the prayers, Capt Leach [of the Prince of Wales] read the lesson — and then we were all photographed — front, sides & rear!  Next I inspected the P. of W. in my chair, then sherry in the Ward Room & then a ‘beautiful’ lunch of about 40 — Toasts followed by two speeches.”

 It was said that during the service Churchill was weeping and took a handkerchief from his pocket when they were singing the hymn of “Onward, Christian Soldiers” (Onward, Christian Soldiers, marching as to war, / With the cross of Jesus going on before. . . .) The other hymns sung were “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” and the Navy hymn “For Those in Peril on the Sea”.  

“Every word seemed to stir the heart,” Churchill wrote later, “and none who took part in it will forget the spectacle presented.  It was a great hour to live.”

Most of those singing and praying with Roosevelt and Churchill would have only 3 months to live.  When the First Sea Lord called Churchill notifying him that both the Prince of Wales and the Repulse have been sunk by the Japanese on their way to Singapore (shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack).  Churchill wrote, “I was thankful to be alone.  In all the war I never received a more direct shock.”

After the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse and the fall of Singapore, FDR wrote to Churchill (2/18/1942), “I want you to know that I think of you often and I know you will not hesitate to ask me if there is anything you think I can do. . . (the letter ended with) “Do let me hear from you.”

 When FDR and Churchill first met at S.S. Augusta, “At last we have gotten together,” said Roosevelt.

“We have,” Churchill replied as they shook hands.  It was FDR’s idea that they met this time.  If you know who were in the meeting you would appreciate the importance of this meeting.  Harry Hopkins and Lord William Beaverbrook [British minister of supply] were also there.

At the end of the meeting the Atlantic Charter was announced to the world.  Almost the whole world was kept in the dark until then, but not Daisy.

Hyde Park on Hudson (Series No. 4): The royal visit at Hyde Park

I am glad the June 1939 Royal visit to Hyde Park on the eve of the War is part of the movie.  It may be treated in a lighthearted way.  But, it was of tremendous significance politically and historically.   While visiting Canada in September 1938, FDR learned that George VI and Queen of England will visit Canada in the summer of 1939.  FDR seized this opportunity to invite the King and Queen to extend the visit to the States.

It is well known that Churchill was almost ‘alone’ for at least seven years warning the British government and public the menace and evil of the Nazi until the War came in September 1939.  FDR, facing a public sentiment of isolationism and appeasement and an unwilling-to-fight Congress, was walking on the thin ice.  He spared no effort in directing and preparing the Americans for the inevitable — thing only one with keen foresight can see.

On his 1941 July 4^th talk, FDR told the American people solemnly “that the United States will never survive as a happy and fertile oasis of liberty surrounded by a cruel desert of dictatorship.”

FDR planned the visit to ensure the King’s success in winning the admiration, sympathy and support of American people and in fostering the stronger Anglo-American tie and alliance.  I am hoping the movie goers get the idea.

Daisy also attended the ‘picnic’ at Hyde Park.  FDR’s mother was horrified that FDR served King and Queen hot dogs; Daisy wrote that “The King asked for the second one.”

 

FDR liked to drive his specially designed (by himself) car, using his arms/hands only.  “I was never so frightened in my life,” said Queen Elizabeth after riding with FDR to Top Cottage at Hyde Park.

FDR also took King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to George Washington's home, Mt. Vernon (see photo left); he did it again with Winston Churchill on 1942 New Year Day.

FDR was equally hospitable to the European royal family fleeing the Nazi.  We read in Daisy’s diary (5/11/1942), “Pres. is fond of Crown Prince Olaf & specially Martha whom he calls “Godchild.”  FDR adopted her three children as his godchildren. Whenever she was eager to reach her exiled husband, Crown Prince Olaf, in England, it was the President who personally put through the calls.

We read in Daisy’s diary (5/30/1942), “He is having a hectic month! He has to find summer places for Queen Wilhelmina and Princess Juliana [of the Netherlands] & Princess Martha, & this next week Peter of Yugoslavia & the King of Greece and the Duke of Windsor are all coming to Washington.”  FDR spent a great deal of time taking care of the personal problems of the royalty.

Hyde Park on Hudson (Series No. 3): The movie may have exploited “Our Hill” theme/scene

Based on Daisy’s diary, her relationship with FDR might reach a turning point one day in September 1935. That day FDR took Daisy for a long drive through the winding beautiful country road along Hudson River, stopping at the peak that Daisy had named Our Hill.

Nobody knows or will ever know what happened in the car parked on the hilltop that afternoon, but, I think, the movie takes advantage of it, making a scene that makes the movie an R rating (children under 17 require accompanying adult).  The exchanged letters and her diaries became more intimate.  FDR called it the beginning of “a voyage” 3 years later.

Daisy clipped a poem (Eros—god of love in Greek mythology) from the newspaper and pasted in her diary that day.

That same day FDR tried to persuade Daisy to take a train across the country to dedicate Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam, nears Las Vegas).  Daisy reluctantly turned him down.  But, then she wrote FDR a letter, saying,

“Do you realize the amount of will-power that was necessary to refuse a certain invitation this past week? A slightly righteous feeling, I find, give no satisfaction whatever — only irritation! . . . After much deep thought, I have come to the very definite conclusion that OUR HILL is, quite without exception, the nicest Hill in Dutchess County! The only problem remaining is as to how it should be spelled.  Just plain OUR-HILL, or OURHILL, or Owahill, or even OW-WA-HILL!”