My mind, and the places it goes

Today is the 70th anniversary of the Cocoanut Grove fire, the deadliest nightclub fire in US history. A new group, the Cocoanut Grove Coalition, has set up a website with significant historical information on the fire and the aftermath.

The Boston Fire Historical Society has an extensive collection of information, as does the Boston Public Library. The BPL's collection includes witness statements released by the Boston Police Department.

The Cocoanut Grove fire has always fascinated me. It had significant impact on Boston as a city and on how fires are handled around the country. From the Grove fire came new building safety codes, new techniques for treating burn victims, and many other small changes that have made their way into our daily lives. I'm not 100% sure why the fire has fascinated me so, but I am interested in Boston history, especially the history of the period from the 30-50 years before I was born.

Based on the suggestion of a friend on Google+, I started looking on the 1940 Census pages for various addresses that are important in my life. One I couldn't find at all -- the town in which I grew up does not even seem to be on the census. But I did find our current home, and I discovered that in 1940 the residents were a woman and her female partner (that's how she's described on the Census form). They were in their mid-60s, and they had lived there since at least 1935.

-- This morning, when mabfan and I headed out to work (the first time I'd been out in daylight since Saturday afternoon), we saw a large tree in front of one of our across-the-street neighbors had been felled quite impressively by the storm. It didn't look like there was any damage to the house itself, which is good.

-- We have the best friends. During our power outage yesterday, friends who had power offered us the use of their home if we needed to decamp due to an extended power outage. Later (before the power was back), they brought us a pizza for dinner, since they live closer to the kosher pizza source and were able to get to us (we have no car and the T was offline all day, so we were stranded even after the storm had abated).

-- To their credit, the T was up and running this morning and the commute was straightforward. Those on the Green Line D were more out of luck, but that's not atypical due to the abundance of trees lining the D line tracks.

-- This morning, coworkers were greeting each other with queries of how they had weathered the storm. Some are still without power, but mostly folks seem to have come through the storm pretty well.

-- After a brief walk to the post office, I'm pondering a "historical plaques" photo essay based just on what I find walking within a couple blocks of my office.

-- Years ago, osewalrus shared his chemistry-based explanation of the kosher laws, using "milchigons," "fleishigons," and "treifons." Today I learned about something that fits perfectly into the schema: lardons. (Yeah, most people probably already knew about this; I'm kosher-from-birth, so what do I know from pig fat?)

Back in July, I posted about finding Ruth Greenglass' obituary in the Boston Globe. The obituary referenced The Brother, a biography of David Greenglass, husband of Ruth Greenglass and brother of Ethel Rosenberg. Since I have an interest in the history of the atomic bomb, I figured this book would be right up my alley.

And I was correct. Based on his interviews with David Greenglass and other people involved with the trial and execution of the Rosenbergs, papers and interviews of people who were at Los Alamos with David Greenglass, and many other sources, Roberts weaves a fascinating story of a man, his questionable decisions, his familial disfunction, and the social and historical ramifications thereof.

Highly recommended.

Today is the birthday of:
-- Me
-- Naveen Andrews
-- Joshua Malina
-- Jim Carrey
-- Muhammad Ali
-- James Earl Jones
-- Betty White
-- Some claim today as the birthday of Joshua A. Norton, first and only emperor of the United States
-- Al Capone
-- Benjamin Franklin

Among the events that occurred on this day:
-- 1919: Ignace Jan Paderewski becomes the first premier of the newly created republic of Poland
-- 1950: The Great Brinks Robbery - 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car in Boston, MA.
-- 1966: A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 jet tanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea.
-- 1971: The Baltimore Colts (now the Indianapolis Colts) beat the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 in Superbowl V.
-- 1977: Gary Gilmore put to death.
-- 1991: Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning. Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.
-- 2006: California executes Clarence Ray Allen, the oldest man on the state's Death Row.


Natural disasters seem to occur on this date:

-- 1994: A magnitude 6.7 earthquake occurs in Northridge, California
-- 1995: A magnitude 7.3 earthquake near Kobe, Japan
-- 2002: Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.

(source for much of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_17)

This week, Yom Yerushalayim.

Today is the 28th of the month of Iyar. On this day, we commemorate the reunification of the city of Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) following the Six-Day War.

From the time of the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 until June 1967, Jerusalem was a divided city. On 7 June 1967, the 28th of Iyar 5727, Israeli Defense Forces captuerd the eastern half of Jerusalem, leading to the reunification of the city.

Yom Yerushalayim is the most recent holiday added to the Jewish calendar. It is a day of minor religious observance:

Following the model of Yom Ha'atzmaut, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel has decided that this day should also be marked with the recital of Hallel (psalms of praise), and with the lengthier version of Psukei d'Zimra (the psalms in the earlier part of the morning service). It is quite clear that ultra-Orthodox Jews, in Israel and abroad, have not accepted Yom Yerushalayim, but it is not clear how many Orthodox Jews chant the Hallel psalms on this day.

(from MyJewishLearning.com)

Jerusalem has been central to Jewish belief and practice for much longer than 39 years, however. As far back as the time of King David, the city has been the focus of our prayers. It is remembered in song and story, in psalm and piyut. We remember the beauty of the city and we mourn its loss and the loss of the Beit HaMikdash.

Psalm 137 recalls Jerusalem after the beginning of the Babylonian Exile. From this psalm, we have the following, sung by many right before Birkat HaMazon (the blessing after a meal) on Shabbat afternoon:

Im eshkachech Yerushalayim
Tishkach yemini
Tidbak l'shoni l'chiki
Im lo ezkereichi
Im lo a'aleh et Yerushalayim
Al rosh simchati

If I forget you, oh Jerusalem
May my right hand forget [its skill]
Let my tongue stick to my mouth
If I do not raise you up
Above my greatest joy

Shabbat shalom.

Tomorrow, mabfan and I will be attending the reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Old State House. Anyone who plans to join us, please leave a comment here or send me e-mail at gnomi [at] sff [dot] net.

We will be departing from the Outbound entrance to the Park Street Station T stop at 9:30 AM.

My cell phone number is available upon request by e-mail.