The trio

I just today finished reading Leanda de Lisle's The Sisters Who Would Be Queen, a book about Ladies Jane, Katherine, and Mary Grey. It covers many of the same events as Allison Weir's The Children of Henry VIII, which I also read not too long ago. One difference is that Weir's book was focused on the Tudors proper. It was primarily about Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth. Lady Jane Grey was its fourth subject, as she undeniably had an effect on the aforementioned monarchs. Weir didn't really say anything of substance about Katherine or Mary, while de Lisle does.

Jane can still fairly be called the first among equals in this book's telling, exactly because she was the shortest lived of the sisters, or rather because of the reasons she died so young. She's a troubling figure in some ways. She was serious, humble given her social position, an avid reader. She was also, by any objective standard, a religious zealot. Her vision of Protestantism was markedly similar to what the Cromwells would promote the better part of a century later. Elizabeth I was no sweetheart, but she did bring some kind of religious equilibrium to England during her reign. It's hard to imagine Jane doing the same.

Even given more attention than I've seen them get before, it's harder to get a read on Katherine and Mary. Lady Katherine Grey could have potentially become queen if Elizabeth's bout of smallpox in 1562 had gone worse for her. And at that point it was pretty much Katherine's only hope for freedom. What kind of queen would she have been? Unlike her older sister she hadn't made any big political or theological statements. She loved her husband Edward (like bunnies, I tell you), she loved her two baby sons, and she loved dogs and monkeys. As queen she might have deferred to Edward, but even he was more of an upper class striver than an aspiring ruler.

Then there's Mary. Like Katherine, she had married without Elizabeth's knowledge or permission, and was punished for it. An odd match, as she was a borderline dwarf and husband Thomas Keyes was a borderline giant, but they seem to have clicked on some level. While she was at the top of the succession chart after Katherine's death, she plainly had no great interest in usurping the throne. Elizabeth eventually realized this and freed her. Sadly it wasn't too much later that she was struck down by the plague.

The book is a triumph for de Lisle. She makes her mostly lesser-known historical figures come to life.

Pet

 

It's called Cockatoo and Corks, dating from 1948. The artist is Joseph Cornell, who was from New York State. He specialized in these little boxed assemblages. This is a jaunty little interior. The bird is there, ready to greet you when you get home, and honestly a little overwhelming.

Now in stereotype

There's an extensive review here of the Censored Eleven. These are a selection of Looney Tunes shorts that have been officially kept out of sight. This is partly because of legal and rights issues, but also because their depiction of black characters is now an embarrassment. Remember, it was a less enlightened time, when the South was still segregated and Nazi apologists couldn't even write for the Jewish Chronicle.

While these particular cartoons seem to have been buried since before I was born, a couple nonetheless sound familiar. Familiar as types anyway. The syndication packages did include shorts featuring mammies and tours of "Darkest Africa." And needless to say, the less said about, say, Chinese characters the better.

Did these cartoons make me racist? No, and I doubt that by themselves they did so to any of my peers or the kids who had come before. As the song in South Pacific says, you have to be carefully taught. The animators, writers, and voice talent at Warner were entertainers, not careful teachers. If some of their entertainment doesn't pass muster now, that's just part of the win-loss ratio.

Also thanks to Coagulopath for providing a still from The Black and White Minstrel Show, a British variety series that was still running during the early years of my lifetime. The blackface on it is almost too divorced from reality to be offensive. Like, what are you supposed to be?

Little friends

In my judgment this is a fetching little puppet show. Despite the title they seem to be rod puppets rather than marionettes. They have a refreshing handmade quality, whatever you want to call them.

My French isn't good enough to tell what the kids are saying. Did you catch it?

Communiqués

Special election tomorrow to replace Representative David Cicilline, also the former Mayor of Providence. And you know what that means. Yes, at-home robocalls. Oh what a thrill. I've gotten two today on behalf of Democrat Gabe Amo and one on behalf of Republican Gerry Leonard.

In the Leonard call he talks about his 30 years in the US Marine Corps and promises to "fight extremists" and we get it already. One of the two for Gabe Amo features the voice of Barack Obama and I wonder if he actually recorded it or if they have an AI for that now.

Dogs and cats living together

My downstairs neighbor has a cat. A rather large tomcat, as I've seen, and one she dotes on. My other downstairs neighbor recently got a puppy. Small―at least so far―excitable and adorable. The cat must have at least heard the dog. How he's adjusting I'm not sure, but he will. Anyway, they both add something to the building's ambience. 

Like clockwork

One aspect of modernization is the increased interest in measuring time. While there's always been day and night, the four seasons, etc., a precise account of the time of day wasn't always a priority. Now we measure fractions of seconds. 

This transition isn't an unmixed blessing, but one has to appreciate the craftsmanship that has gone into clockmaking. The clock in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg (not Paris) is one example. The numerals are brightly done, and it comes with an astrolabe.

There's a legend that the clockmaker was blinded when his work was done to keep him from creating an equally stunning clock for someone else. The author of this article notes that the same story has attached itself to almost every European clock of note. Well, I can see why.