The belated Medal of Honor award and the two half-sisters in Westminster Abbey

Alonzo Cushing

Yesterday (Nov. 6), President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor, posthumously, to Brevet Major Alonzo Cushing (a West Point graduate), 4th United States Artillery, for actions against the enemy while defending the Union position on Cemetery Ridge [of Gettysburg] against Pickett's Charge, July 3rd , 1863.

As President Obama said “it is never too late to do the right thing.”

The Medal of Honor was created during the Civil War; this savage war was fought among brothers.  It may not be a bad idea to honor the valor of the soldiers in Confederacy Army, although the South did have equivalent Southern Cross of Honor then.

 

While touring Westminster Abbey I read a quote in the tomb of Mary I and Elizabeth I; these two antagonistic half-sisters were buried together for a purpose.

 

“Remember before God all those who divided at the Reformation by different convictions laid down their lives for Christ and conscience' sake”

 

Elizabeth I and Mary I's grave

If one knows the stories of these two half-sisters; the quote will make more sense.  It is beyond the scope of this post.

 

Shall we say “Remember before God all those who divided at the Civil War by different convictions laid down their lives for Union and Confederacy' sake”?

 

 

NFL in London: How America invaded and conquered England

After visiting British Museum with Edwin we had dinner at China Town on September 28; we walked around to see the beauty of London at night.  We walked through the West End, which reminds me of Broadway in NYC; our initial plan to see a show here didn’t materialize.  Piccadilly Circus rivals the Times Square of NYC: colorful neon lights, hustle and bustle and probably never sleeps.  Here we saw the American flags and banners of NFL on Regent Street.

It took place the day before (9/27/14).  Regent Street in the heart of the city closed to traffic, British football fans celebrated “all things stars and stripes”; interviews with the football greats and legends, live music performance, food and drinks to kick off the NFL International Series Game.  Nearly 600,000 fans attended last year’s event.  Minnesota Vikings defeated Pittsburgh Steelers last year.
 
This is how America invaded and conquered England.  The day will come when NFL has a team in London.

 

Historic or literary Parliament?

I saw this painting in East Corridor of Westminster Hall (Parliament), next to the Great Hall, depicting a scene of plucking red and white roses in the Temple Garden.  The Temple Garden scene (Part I Henry VI, Act 2 Scene 4) was created by Shakespeare; most historians doubted that it actually happened.

The king maker, Earl of Warwick, dominates this conflict, and fittingly has the last lines of this famous scene.  The Wars of Roses were fought between family of Lancaster (red rose) and York (white rose).

Warwick
Will I upon thy party wear this rose.
And here I prophesy: this brawl to-day,
Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden,
Shall send between the red rose and the white
A thousand souls to death and deadly night.


Tudor Rose

Seeing this painting hanging in Parliament, I wonder whether Parliament prefers the literary flavor to the historical fact.  The only explanation is its symbolism of a unifying England.  It celebrates the Tudor dynasty with Henry Tudor (Henry VII, Lancaster--red rose, Henry VIII's father) marrying Elizabeth (daughter of Yorkist King Edward IV--white rose).  The Tudor rose contains the red of Lancaster and the white of York representing the union.

I am thinking about having some white roses in our garden, which has red ones now, so I can call it Temple Garden.

Magna Carta: Why visiting British Library ?

Bernard Shaw liked to say he got his education at the British Museum, so did Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Lenin and  Dr. Sun Yat-Sun also spent lots of time studying in The British Museum while exiling in London.  Does the Museum regret educating Lenin and Carl Marx like Harvard would Yamamoto?  I used to wonder how can one get an “education” in a museum, then I always forgot that “the library department” of the British Museum is as old as the museum itself that had a beginning in 1753.

Magna Carta

The British Library moved out of British Museum in 1980s, we saw this plaque saying it was unveiled by Prince of Wales on 12/7/1982; that was Prince Charles.

Our hotel is just five-minute walk from the library.  We didn’t want to “waste” our time in the library while in London; but it is on our “Must Visit” list.  It is the original copy of Magna Carta that brought us there.

Jefferson also went to see the original copy of Magna Carta in the British Museum (in the “library department” of the museum then) in 1786.  One can imagine Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, must be very emotional seeing the Magna Carta, the document that leads to the constitutional monarchy, giving people liberty and birth of early democracy.  It was signed by King John in 1215.

There are four surviving copies of the Magna Carta.  Janice saw one of them in the Museum of Fine Art at Boston before our trip to London.  She said the one we saw at British Library is much more legible, indeed more legible than the copy I got from internet (no photo is allowed in the British Library).  The Magna Carta was no longer on display there when I went to Boston for a meeting about 2 weeks ago, although we did see a special Goya exhibition.

(The following photos are taken in the British Museum.)

Congratulations to a New York City marathon runner

Congratulations to Janice who was one of the 50,881 TCS New York City Marathon runners from all over the world today.  She has run many half marathons in many cities; this is her second NYC marathon and finished it in flying colors.

Joy was the cheerleader-in-chief and did a fantastic job; we monitored online and cheered from the distance.  The two photos were taken before the marathon running.

Lady Ottoline Morrell: the literary hostess whose house we came across

While walking from our hotel in the King Cross St. Pancras international station area in London to British Museum on September 28, we came across this house in Gower Street.  This is the house Lady Ottoline Morrell, the most famous literary hostess, lived.

It was such a pleasant surprise; it took me back to five or six years ago for one year everything I read was by ones in Bloomsbury Group, the likes of T.S. Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, W.B. Yeats, Aldous Huxley, and Lytton Strachey.  They all frequented the houses of Lady Ottoline Morrell, either at Gower Street or at Garsington Manor, near Oxford University.

Can you find anyone who can boast three Noble laureates in literature as her frequent guests and intimate friends?  W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot and Bertrand Russell.  Unfortunately she didn’t live to see Eliot and Russell to get their Nobel glory.  I bet Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence may also become a laureate had they lived long enough.



Ottoline in 1912

John Maynard Keynes (also a frequent guest) was certainly a Nobel Prize contender in Economics had it been available in his days.  He died in 1946 and the Economics prize only began in 1969.

Even the future king (George VI, Duke of York then) dropped by to mingle with the intellectuals and the prominent literary figures.

The story of Lady Ottoline and D.H. Lawrence is worth reading; next post.

(Photos credits: Lady Ottoline's Album--many photos were taken by Ottoline)

D.H. Lawrence