Birthday Book Bash (part 2) and... Belafonte

This past weekend we went out to dinner with our good friends in delayed celebration of my Birthday last  month. Their travels (to Bordeaux and Normandy) and some health issues in the extended family accounted for the delay. Along with a superb Osso Bucco for dinner, I also enjoyed the birthday gifts. Being fellow history buffs, theior finds are always interesting! And then there was the 2 bottles of Bordeaux they brought back for me, but that's another subject...

I'm rather interested to read this one, both as Gunpowder figures large in the transition in warfare from the Late Medieval period, through the Renaissance and then the "Horse and Musket" era, and because my original major was Chemistry, and chemists love things that go "BOOM!"... at least in a controlled fashion!

The same friends saw my post on the Battle of the Hydaspes, and figured I needed some additional reference materials for Alexander and his times! 

Actually rather complimentary rather than duplicative!

They also volunteer at the local library, and scour the donations of used books for Napoleonic themes, and pass them along top me. I really need to retire to have time to read all this great stuff!

The Hero of Trafalgar... who was not always that circumspect about when to run his own "cannon" out! :-)

I read this morning that Harry Belafonte passed away last night at the age of 96. I had occasion to meet Mr. Belafonte and his wife back in 1975. It was just before the start of the Fall Semester, and my freind Tom and I were in the dorms well before most other students, because we both played in the UConn Marching Band, and all band members were expected to report about a week before the start of classes for preseason music and drill practice. We lived a couple of doors apart on the same floor of  Ellsworth Hall. Anyway, I Tom and I were in his dorm room, shooting the breeze after band practice. As usual, it was hot in early September, so we had to room's window and door open to keep some airflow going. Anyway, in walked Mr. and Mrs. Belafonte. who, like many other parents in September, were helping their son move into his new dorm room, which was near to both of ours. They were genuinely lovely people, and we answered many of their questions about campus and UConn in general. Tom, however, was mortified afterwards, because he had been in a somewhat silly mood, and had popped a set of Mickey Mouse ears on his head right before this, and thus the entire conversation took place with same as his chapeau! I wish I could speak well of his son, but as a college student he was a waste of tuition. I don't think he ever said a word to any of us.  He never went to class, played his expensive stereo system most of the day and late into the night, and far to loud; to this day I cannot stand the sound of his favorite song at the time. "What a Difference a Day Makes"!  His poor roommate was a defensive back on the football team, and a heck of a nice guy, actually.  Steve had a concussion every Sunday and was usually in a daze after the game on Saturday; even way back then they made him stop playing for medical reasons at the end of the season. Anyway, Harry's son flunked out, unsurprisingly, at the end of the semester. Tom and I, who both wound up graduating summa cum laude, had little sympathy, except for his Dad, who was strikingly handsome and had a charming personality. I understand his son subsequently had a successful career as a music producer ("it's who you know, not what you know .." is proven true once again!)

We actually used one of Harry's more famous songs, "Day-O" ("The Banana Boat Song") as the basis of the long running skit the Staff did at the Scout Camp that I worked at for 4 summers. Most of us knew Harry from his music and acting careers, but he was a long time civil rights activist, and close freind of Sidney Potier and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. He continued to support civil rights, both here and around the world, throughout his life, and and supported LGBTQ causes as part of that commitment. He was one of the good ones. I'm happy to have made his acquaintance, even very briefly, nearly 50 years ago. 

"Mary's Boy Child" - music, lyrics, and performance by Harry Belafonte

"Jamaica Farewell", Harry Belafonte, Ed Sullivan Show, 1956

"Day-O"