W hen you have consumed all the broth, run to the bed & jump between the prepared sheets, quickly take the clothespins & put one on each big toe. These clothespins must be worn all night, firmly pressed to the nails, at a 45 degree angle from the toes. This simple recipe guarantees good results, & normal people can proceed pleasantly from a kiss to strangulation, from rape to incest, etc., etc. Clothespeg Claes Oldenburg Recipes for more complicated cases, such as necrophilia, autophagia, tauromachia, alpinism, & others, can be found in a special volume in our collection of Discreetly Healthy Advice. — Remei Lissaraga Varo, (aka Remedios Varo) excerpt, "A Recipe: How to Produce Erotic Dreams" http://varoregistry.org/ | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remedios_Varo

FEBRUARY 23 — W. E. B. DUBOIS
Premier Black American activist, emancipationist, commie.

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Ancient Rome: TERMINALIA, feast of Terminus, the God of Boundaries.

Venice: PANCAKE DAY. Pancake tossing, pancake races. King Carnival is greeted with much ceremony. He is a very fat man, his straw body stuffed with explosives. He is burned at midnight.

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1395 -- Typographer/printer Johannes Gutenberg lives.


1633 -- Diarist Samuel Pepys lives, London. (Pronounced "peeps").



1669 -- Mummy May I?: Samuel Pepys visits Westminster Abbey. The body of Katherine of Valois, interred 200 years earlier, is on show to a privileged few. Pepys kisses her on the mouth: "This was my birthday, 36-years-old that I did first kiss a Queen."


1775 -- New Old World: Patrick Henry addresses a Virginia convention, uttering the admonition "Give me liberty, or give me death."


1820 -- England: Led by soldier seditionary Arthur Thistlewood, the Cato Street Conspirators plot to kill all the Cabinet ministers & bring back the heads of Lord Sidmouth & Castlereagh — though they fail, Cato Street is renamed Homer Street in order to efface the event from history.
Source: [Calendar Riots]


1821 -- British lyric poet John Keats, dies aged 25, of tuberculosis, in Rome. His tombstone reads: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."



1836 -- US: The siege of the Alamo begins.


1852 -- High Seas: 1,400-ton paddle-wheel steamer HMS Birkenhead runs aground on rocks near the Cape of Good Hope. As the ship began to sink, soldiers were ordered to stand in ranks on deck while women & children were loaded into lifeboats. Some 200 were saved by lifeboats & another 30-40 were pulled from the wreckage of boat, but 420 others died, almost all soldiers. This incident established the now traditional concepts of "women & children first" & "going down with the ship."



1868 -- US: William Edward Burghardt Dubois lives, Great Barrington, Massachusetts.



1879 -- Australian satirist, political cartoonist Norman Lindsay lives. Often censored by the wowsers for his big boobs & butts.

Daily Bleed Patron Saint November 29, 2005-2008
Australian fantasist cartoonist, art bohemian.

1882 -- B. Traven lives (1882?-1969), Poznañ, Poland. Anarchist author/novelist, aka Ret Marut, Hal Croves, Bruno Traven, Traven Torsvan, Otto Feige. Spent a portion of his life hiding his tracks, changing identity, country, & jobs.
Daily Bleed Patron Saint March 26. alt sp; Posnan, Posanie, Poznan, Posen

Marut/Traven published the anarchist Munich newspaper Der Ziegelbrenner (The Brickburner) between 1917 & 1921. With the proclamation of the Republic of Bavaria, April 7, 1919, Ret Marut worked with fellow anarchists Gustav Landauer & Erich Mühsam. His first novel The Death Ship appeared under the name B. Traven. The majority of Traven's novels, on the surface adventure books, reveal the sources & conditions which spark revolt: The Treasure of the Sierra Madres; Revolt of the Hanged; White Rose, etc. Extracts of Der Ziegelbrenner were published in French in 1994, as In the Freest State of the World.

1883 -- Karl Jaspers lives, Germany, existentialist philosopher.


1883 -- US: American Anti-Vivisection Society formed in Pennsylvania.


1883 -- Belgium: In Ganshoren, a bomb being carried by the French anarchists Antoine Cyvoct & Paul Metayer, accidentally explodes. Metayer dies tomorrow, refusing to reveal anything to the police about his activities. Cyvoct is extradited to France to be tried (wrongly, it appears) for the Bellcour attack in Lyon.
http://www.ephemanar.net/fevrier23.html


1885 -- England: John Lee, 'the man they couldn't hang', survives three attempts to hang him (for killing his boss) at Exeter Prison, when the trap fails to open. He is released from prison in 1917.
Source: [Calendar Riots]


1894 -- France: Henry Le Fèvre lives, Courbevoie, (d.1991). Vegetarian, pacifist, anarchist, & publisher of "Le Néo Naturien," «revue des idées philosophiques etnaturiennes».



1898 -- US: After scheduled visits to Baltimore & Washington, DC, Emma Goldman is invited to Pittsburgh & coal mining towns in western Pennsylvania by Carl Nold & Henry Bauer in association with the International Workingmen's Association (IWA).

Talks include "Patriotism," with specific reference to the miners shot by the police at Hazleton...

The young anarchist lass, later known as "Red Emma," suffers several "nervous attacks" from the rigors of continuous lecturing.

[Details / context]

1899 -- Erich Kästner (1899-1974) lives. German satirist/poet/novelist, whose military experiences made him pacifist & opponent of totalitarian systems. Best known for his children's books, but they were not popular among Nazis. Kästner wrote Emil & the Detectives (1929), The School of Dictators (1956), among others.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kastner.htm



1899 -- France: Émile Bauchet lives (1899-1973). Militant anarchist & pacifist. Sent to prison, despite the efforts of Louis Lecoin, Han Ryner & George Pioch. Member of the "Ligue Internationale des Combattants de la Paix.
[Details / context]



1901 -- Ivar Lo-Johansson (1901-1990) lives. Swedish author/social critic, recognized for his working class & landless peasant novels & short stories. His books include The Share Croppers (1936), Proletarians of the Earth (1941).
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ivarlo.htm


1903 -- France: Jean-Baptiste Clément (b.1836) dies, Paris. Communard, poet, singer & author of the famous song "The Time of Cherries."

... show details

Clement was several times sent to prison for his writings & lampoons. During the Paris Commune he ended upon May 28 as one of the last on the barricades, along with Varlin & Ferré. He was forced into hiding, taking refuge in England.

Condemned to death in absentia, he returned to France following the Amnesty of 1879. Clement became a socialist & trade union militant, active particularly in the Ardennes.

Clement's "The Time of Cherries," written in 1866, became the song of the Paris Commune & was dedicated to Louise Michel, who shared the last barricade with him.

Now has schools & a street in Paris named for him.

"Quand nous chanterons le temps des cerises Et gai rossignol et merle moqueur Seront tous en fête. Les belles auront la folie en tête Et les amoureux, du soleil au coeur! Quand nous chanterons le temps des cerises Sifflera bien mieux le merle moqueur! (...) — Jean-Baptiste Clément, "Le temps des Cerises." http://poesie.webnet.fr/lesgrandsclassiques/poemes/liste_auteurs_a.html http://www.ephemanar.net/fevrier23.html http://membres.multimania.fr/uscjodoigne/historique.htm http://www.wsm.ie/news_viewer/3136 findagrave.com/cgi-bin/famousSearch...first=jean&FSlast=clement

1903 -- Italy: Scontri a Petacciato (Campobasso) tra polizia e dimostranti che protestano contro il fiscalismo e la cattiva amministrazione : three morti e 30 feriti.
Source: [Crimini e Misfatti]


1904 -- Historian/journalist William L. Shirer (The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich) lives, Chicago.


1904 -- US: William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner begins publishing articles on the menace of Japanese laborers, leading to a resolution of the California Legislature that action be taken against their immigration.
Source: http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/sfh2.html

... show details

February 23, 1905(?) The San Francisco Chronicle front page headline reads: "The Japanese Invasion: The Problem of the Hour." This launches an unrelenting string of editorials against the Japanese which serve to kick the anti-Japanese movement into high gear.

[Sources]

1904 -- US: Back-to-the-Earth advocate Helen Nearing lives (1904-1995); with her husband, Scott, turned out at least 50 books that glorifying the back-to-the-land movement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_and_Scott_Nearing


1911 -- US: Commanche chieftain Quanah Parker dies.


1917 -- Russia: A strike begins among women textile workers in Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg). Demonstrations, which are virtually bread riots, spread throughout the city. The troops who crushed similar demonstrations in 1905 refuse to put down the uprising, & many join in by the end of the month, after three days of spontaneous demonstrations & a general strike.
http://www.reocities.com/~johngray/raclef.htm



1919 -- Portugal: A Batalha premiers, the second daily newspaper in the country, published by the anarco-sindicalista CGT (the General Confederation of Workers in Portugal, comprised of 150,000 workers). It prints 25,000 copies a day before being suppressed after the military coup d'etat of 1926. It reappears on April 25, 1974 (with the fall of the dictatorship), but never regaining the influence which it exerted in the Twenties.

http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/07ref.htm#25/1927
http://www.fdca.it/fdcapt/index.htm

1922 -- France: Henri Landru executed for having 11 wives. Merveille sans tête, a busy boy no more.


1934 -- US: First rocket air mail flight, Greenwood Lake, New York.


1936 -- Puerto Rico: Puerto Rico's US police chief, Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader E. Francic Riggs, is assassinated.

Puerto Rican Nationalists Hiram Rosado & Elias Beauchamp, in retaliation for the University Massacre (Masacre of Rio Piedras), kill Police Chief Riggs in San Juan. They are captured & killed in the police headquarters of Old San Juan.

Sources: http://www.spanamwar.com/SanJuan.htm
http://welcome.topuertorico.org/history.shtml

1940 -- US: Woody Guthrie writes "This Land is Your Land".

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This song is almost always sung as a patriotic song, which is why the last three stanzas are usually deleted. Most schoolchildren aren't even aware of their existence. Yet they are essential to Woody's meaning. This is not an ode to the US as a collective entity. It is an affirmation that the land is a sacred trust, whose purpose is the well-being of all its inhabitants. (Song in full in 'Show details')

... show details

This Land is Your Land (in D) Woody Guthrie CHORUS: This land is your land, this land is my land From California to the New York island From the Redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you & me CANADIAN CHORUS: This land is your land, this land is my land From Bonavista to Vancouver Island From the Arctic Circle to the Great Lake Waters This land was made for you & me SANIBEL CHORUS: This land is your land, this land is my land From California to Sanibel Island From the Redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you & me As I was walking that ribbon of highway I saw above me that endless skyway I saw below me that golden valley This land was made for you & me I roamed & rambled & followed my footsteps O'er the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts While all around me, a voice was saying This land was made for you & me When the sun came shining & I was strolling And the wheat fields waving & the dust clouds rolling As the fog was lifting, a voice was chanting This land was made for you & me As I went walking, I saw a sign there On the sign it said NO TRESPASSING But on the other side it didn't say nothing That side was made for you & me! In the squares of the city, in the shadow of the steeple In the relief office, I seen my people; As they stood there hungry I stood there asking, Is this land made for you & me? Nobody living can ever stop me As I go walking that freedom highway Nobody living can make me turn back This land was made for you & me

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1942 -- US: Japanese sub fires on an oil refinery in Ellwood, California.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/141359.stm


1945 -- Germany: Mass bombing of Pforzheim by the RAF.


1959 -- Luis Palés Matos dies. Important Puerto Rican lyric poet credited with creating the poetry genre known as Afro-Antillano which was vitriolically criticized by white, mainstream Puerto Rican intellectuals who viewed black issues as not being noteworthy or appropriate topics for high literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Pal%C3%A9s_Matos


1963 -- US: Bored stiff, Indiana repeals its ban on sex toys.


1965 -- Film comedian Stan Laurel dies.


1968 -- US: On or about this date, Timothy Leary evicted from Millbrook house.
http://www.leary.com/




1970 -- US: In a costume action by the Los Angeles Gay Liberation Front, his Holiness Pope Morris the First goes to First Congregational Church & tacks an invoice for 90 billion dollars on the door. The amount represents 10,000 dollars for each of the nine million known executions of gay people at the instigation of clergy.

... show details

The gay Pope declares (quote): "The Congregational or Puritan Church is particularly guilty. They murdered thousands of people for sodomy in New England during the 17th & 18th Centuries."

As he leaves the church, the Pope remarks (quote):

"I hope the straight Christians will pay their just bill & then learn a little bit about love — doing it in the missionary position all the time is a sin & an awful bore."

1971 -- US: Lt. William Calley confesses he directed a mass execution of South Vietnamese civilians at My Lai (see 16 March), & implicates his commanding officer, Capt. Ernest L. Medina, who he says issued the orders to murder. He has his wrists slapped & is sent home to sulk.
http://www.folkarchive.de/mylai1.html


1972 -- US: Angela Davis is released from prison (after 16 months). She goes on trial on the 28th.


1979 --

Spain: Eleven members of a libertarian group in Barcelona are busted, including two escapees from Carabanchel a year ago.
http://www.alasbarricadas.org/ateneovirtual/index.php?title=23_de_febrero son detenidxs en Barcelona un grupo de 11 libertarixs entre los que se encuentran dos fugados de Carabanchel un año antes

1981 -- US: "White Paper" on El Salvador issued by the State Department defending US intervention.


1982 -- Wales: The country becomes a nuclear-free zone.

1983 -- US: HomeSweetHome? Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces its intent to buy out & evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.

1984 -- US: Your Vote Counts?: "They tell me I'm the most powerful man in the world. I don't believe that. Over there in the White House someplace, there's a fellow that puts a piece of paper on my desk every day that tells me what I'm going to be doing every 15 minutes. He's the most powerful man in the world."

— Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Acting President Ronnie Reagan on an unidentified aide.
http://deoxy.org/reagan.htm

1987 -- Ian Shelton discovers supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud; first naked-eye supernova since 1604.




1989 -- US: Lt. Colonel Oliver North is on trial for illegally selling weapons to "moderate elements" in Iran (of all places!) so that unlimited funding would still be available for the CIA's illegal & undeclared war against Nicaragua; today federal prosecutor Walsh goes South, agrees to drop conspiracy charges against North.

... show details

It is clear that the intent of all parties involved in the litigation is to suppress information that might suggest, not to mention prove, just how deeply ex-President, ex-actor & FBI snitch Ronnie Reagan & President (ex-CIA head) Bush were involved in this subversion of the Constitution.

"Elsewhere in the U.S. writers famous & obscure rallied in support of Salman Rushdie, with some daring Iran to kill them along with the author of The Satanic Verses."

— Newspaper account

http://www.notbored.org/rushdie.html

1995 -- US: Two hundred high school students riot outside Patterson City Hall, New Jersey, in response to the shooting of a classmate by police.
Source: [Calendar Riots]


1998 -- A U.N.-brokered deal forces the US to reluctantly give up plans for a new series of military strikes against Iraq. Hey, no problem! Zoom forward to 2003, where White House WarHeads (Idealogous toxicanus) & Oil Barons plot First Strike scenarios.
http://www.markfiore.com/user/1/animation/232


1999 -- US: Federal authorities report that Jay Scott Ballinger of Indiana admits to burning as many as 50 churches in the last five years.


2006 -- Iraq: Over 100 people die in violence following yesterday's bombing of the Al Askari Mosque. Meanwhile, among other killings, 47 factory workers are forced off buses & shot at Nahrawan, & some 50 bullet-riddled bodies are found in Baghdad overnight.


3000 --

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when god decided to invent
everything he took one
breath bigger than a circustent
& everything began

when man determined to destroy
himself he picked the was
of shall & finding only why
smashed it into because

— e.e. cummings