Poo Poo Platter: Don Draper, meet David Sedaris, genius ad writer.

We started with                       HOPE AND CHANGE.

"Top of the world, Ma!  Top of the world!"

After the election, we got       RACE TO THE TOP, which, unfortunately, has been nothing but a race to fatten the bottom line of educational profiteers, as Gail Collins noted last Friday.  http://tinyurl.com/ceps977

Earlier in the year, we got    WIN THE FUTURE, which, say what you will about Sarah Palin, her "WTF is right" comment was not exactly off the mark. 

And now the Obama campaign announces its new campaign theme. 

Drum roll please:

                                           FORWARD.

Yes, boys and girls, that is to be the rallying cry.  The slogan that's going to rouse the base and persuade those all important "independents," otherwise known as the "undecided."  Call me underwhelmed--in more ways than one.  Still, while Mitt Romney, no stranger to a bicycle, has already begun backpedaling, it's hard to forget all the fun and frolic of the Republican primary.  

So it seems to me David Sedaris' binary analogy to the  undecided voter, "Would you rather have the chicken?" is just as pertinent as ever. If you haven't read the piece, you should do so right now, right here:  http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/10/27/081027sh_shouts_sedaris?currentPage=all  So you will understand when I suggest that maybe a better slogan might be:

                               DON'T FORGET THE GLASS.

Happy Birthday, Alice B. Toklas.

A rose may be a rose may be a rose, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein, but there was only one Alice B. Toklas, Stein's longtime companion, muse, editor, critic, cook and domestic helpmeet, who was born in San Francisco on this day in 1877.  She met Stein in Paris twenty years later, on the day she arrived in the city where they set up salon-keeping.

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas was actually Stein's memoir, published in 1933.  After Stein's death in 1946 Toklas began publishing; she needed the money.  Although the Stein estate included art by modernists like Picasso, the same sex relationship had no legal status, and Stein's relatives moved to claim the collection. 

In 1954, Toklas published The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook, which contained a recipe for hashish fudge, and thus the "Alice B. Toklas brownie" was born.  She published a second cookbook and her actual autobiography in 1963.  Still, she died in poverty in 1967 and was buried next to Stein in a Paris graveyard.

Andrea Weiss's Paris Was A Women, about the women of the Left Bank in the 20s, ends with a 1961 letter from Toklas to Janet Flanner, which itself ends with: 

...Paris and the French still seduce me.  Love love love Alice.

Mika Brzenski made out with Ed Henry, and her corsage got all, like, smushy, and then she and Andrea Mitchell sneaked out for a smoke and swore they'd be BFFs forever, and Jake Tapper and Brian Williams got into a shoving match about whose tweets were funniest, and Joe Scarborough was so like drunk on Jello-shooters he told everybody he was BFFs with George Clooney.

It's only a paper moon,

sailing over a cardboard sea.

But it wouldn't be make-believe

if you believed in me.

This year, American families are spending an eye-popping average of $1,000 per teen for prom--and, incredibly, poor families are spending even more, desperate, presumably, to make that one night as special as possible. 

And we know how it is, wanting those kids to have a great time.  After all, it's the one night of the year when reporters can pretend to be celebrities and celebrities can pretend to be politicians and the president can pretend he's a comedian.  And right about now, the kids are all making their way home.  Prom's over for the Washington correspondents.  Ah, but the memories.

"It's Only a Paper Moon" by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Billy Rose and E.Y. Harburg.

NEA Grants Explained.

While some have suggested that nature-loving Henry David Thoreau would be appalled to see the National Endowment for the Arts slash its funding for PBS series including "Great Performances" and "American Masters" in favor of the development of a video game which "simulates the environment and geography" of Walden Wood, others have heralded the bi-partisan composition of the NEA funding committee, which included 21-year-old Chet Haze, the Northwestern student/rapper son of actor Tom Hanks, and Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions.  The two were in complete agreement over the new allocations.

As for Great Performances opera, for example, they both summarized their feelings in one word: BORING.  Ballet and modern dance were also deemed BORING.  "Maybe if they did krumping," Haze pointed out, while Sessions suggested "a good twist competition would be nice."  When shown the list of groundbreaking writers, artists, scientists and others profiled on "American Masters," Haze suggested they "couldn't be all that important" since his father wasn't on the list, and Sessions noted, "I'm sure at least half those people were Communists."

Both dismissed the suggestion that the Walden game might run counter to Thoreau's advocacy of actual contact with nature.  "I bet this Thoreau guy, whoever he was, nowadays wouldn't want to hang around where you can't get cell reception," Haze said, while Sessions said, "I think this is a great idea.  We could make 3D game versions out of all of our national parks to preserve them for the public's enjoyment, then sell off the parks to pay down the national debt.  This is the kind of thinking we need more of in this country." 

Both expressed approval for the grant given to a writing program encouraging the composition of poetry through texting.  "Like when profs want you not to check your texts for like a whole fifty minutes, dude, that is so not cool," Haze said.  "Now I can get extra credit for rapping in class."  Sessions noted that the program should benefit the telecom industry, "important job creators."

NEA Spokesman opts
for "innovative and
youth-oriented" approach
in announcing PBS cuts.

Here's an NYTimes summary of who got and who didn't in the NEA grant-process.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/arts/federal-arts-endowment-sharply-cuts-pbs-grants.html

Happy Birthday Harper Lee!

Felicitations to Nelle Harper Lee, born on this day in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama, to Amasa Colman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee.

"Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand.  Courage is knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.  You rarely win, but sometimes you do."  --  Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird

Confidence Fairy found!

We're here on the site of Punxsatawney Phil's cave where there have now been sightings of the much vaunted Confidence Fairy, good news for those both here and abroad who have continued to insist that governmental budgets be slashed in the face of recession in order to "restore the confidence of the market."  Economist Paul Krugman has long derided the belief in the Confidence Fairy as wishful thinking, and indeed as of yesterday Great Britain's austerity budgeting had landed the country in a double-dip recession and today S&P downgraded Spain's debt once more http://tinyurl.com/7zm6l9j, all of which would seem to indicate that Krugman was right.

"Actually, I stuck my
head out a while ago
and saw those crappy
budgets and said, 'hey six
more years of recession.'"

But now that the Confidence Fairy has been sighted, slightly disheveled from living in a underground with Punxsatawney Phil, there's hope that he can be coaxed from his new living arrangements--or more accurately, evicted--by Phil himself, who says the Confidence Fairy hogs the television and doesn't clean up after himself.  

"As far as I'm concerned, the Republicans can have this Confidence Fairy," said Phil.   In the meantime, tv weatherman Phil Conners expressed wariness about how long the process could go on.  "Country after country after country--they never seem to learn.  We could be doing this forever."

Bet your bottom dollar.

Lila Crawford in NYTimes
photo.

What with Britain slipping into the first double-dip recession since the thirties, storm clouds hanging over Europe and America's economic malaise lingering and malingering--in short when we seem very close to reaching that bottom dollar-- what better time to announce, with fanfare on the Today Show this morning, the star for this fall's Broadway revival of "Annie."  The comic strip about the orphan with the oddly empty eyes premiered in the twenties; creator Harold Gray despised Roosevelt, the New Deal, labor unionists and Communists, who rotated with Nazis to play bad guy to the heroic and, not incidentally uber-rich, Daddy Warbucks and the plucky little orphan who never stooped to a "handout." 

The musical, more hard knocks than hard right, first opened in 1977, and has over the years starred a number of plucky young actresses, including Sarah Jessica Parker.  Here's a link to a New York Times article about a former Annie's 2006 documentary about her sister-Annies, who can, regardless of their feelings about the show, still sing their hearts out that "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow."  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/theater/09burt.html?pagewanted=all

Let your heart throb and your passions pulse tonight in honor of director Douglas Sirk, born on this day to Danish parents living in Germany in 1897.  Sirk's melodramas ranged from the star-crossed romances Magnificent Obsession and All that Heaven Allows starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson to the dark family drama Written on the Wind, also starring Hudson, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone and Lauren Bacall, to the Lana Turner vehicle, Imitation of Life, in which a mother and daughter are in love with the same man, a young African American woman "passes" for white to tragic consequences, and a woman actually dies of a broken heart.  Though Sirk was commercially successful, his critical reputation wasn't established until long after he had stopped making films.  Tarantino is a fan, and in 2002 Todd Haynes directed a full-length homage in his fever dream of a melodrama, Far from Heaven, in which he updated Sirk's themes to include repressed homosexuality and a star-crossed interracial romance.

Betty White wants Rupert Murdoch for NBC's "Off Their Rockers."

"The way he's been pranking Parliament with the whole 'I'm just a doddering old man' is a classic," said White, whose new show features senior citizens playing candid camera style pranks on young people.

Murdoch's appearance before Parliament in the hacking investigation went into its second day on Thursday.  The title of John Burns' NY Times piece is "Murdoch, Center Stage, Plays Powerless Broker." http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/world/europe/rupert-murdoch-testimony-leveson-inquiry.html?ref=europe

"On 'Off Their Rockers,' we had an old guy ask a young kid what it meant when a woman's 'carpet and drapes don't match,'" White said.  "I keep waiting for Rupert to pull out that line.  I tell you, he's a natural for this stuff."

Spoils of war.

On this day in 1915, Allied forces launched World War I's Gallipoli Campaign, an ill-fated  attempt to capture Istanbul, or as it was still known, Constantinople, a battle in which Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) suffered heavy casualties.  In 1981 Peter Weir made a movie inspired by the battle, Gallipoli, which starred a young Australian actor by the name of Mel Gibson.

Obviously, the Dorian Gray painting got sold at the yard sale when Mel's ex-wife cleaned out the attic.

  

After Milton Glaser appraisal, Donald Trump patents hair.

The story began when New York Magazine's "21 Questions" went to design legend Milton Glaser a few days ago, and while he had interesting things to say about several topics, his puzzlement over Donald Trump's hair is classic.  After noting Trump's magnificent ego, Glaser moved to the mane:

I can't figure out his hair. From the point of view of someone who is into art and form-making, I can't figure out the structure of it: where it's coming and where it's going. And then I also wonder, what does he think this object on his head achieves? It's just a great mystery.  

Photo of Glaser is from the article.  Here's the link:  http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/04/milton-glaser-21-questions.html

At this morning's press conference, Trump fired back.  "Of course, my hair is a mystery.  All great art is a mystery.  Glaser is good, I'll give him that, but he's no Thomas Kinkaide, God rest his soul.  And of course, Glaser is jealous.  That's why he wants to know how I do this."  Trump cited jealousy as the reason to apply for a patent.  "We realized a lot of other people are right this minute trying to copy my look.  Now that's not going to happen unless they pay up."  Trump's hair will also be trademarked and must be referred to as Donald Trump Top Hair^TM.

Got E. coli 0157:H7? (And other udderly true tales of scientitis.)

According to this week's print copy of The New Yorker, John Cusack's personal chef is reportedly forbidden to shop anywhere besides Rawesome, the raw food operation currently under investigation--raw milk advocates say harrassment--by the FDA.  The article, "Raw Deal," unfortunately behind a paywall, details the conflict between raw milk lovers, which now include chefs at Michelin-rated restaurants, and health inspectors.

It's easy to mock the raw milk lovers who like the flavor "which tends to be richer and sweeter, and, sometimes, to retain a whiff of the farm--the slightly discomfitting flavor known to connoisseurs as 'cow butt.'"  On the other hand, we've just witnessed the spectacle of "pink slime," legally bleached beef bits that grossed out so many people, the producers literally went out of business in a week.

The freedom to enjoy
 bouquet of cow butt?

Still, while raw milk advocates claim it can cure whatever ails you, even cancer, it is also an ideal growing material for salmonella, listeria and the deadly E. coli 0157:H7 responsible for the deaths of several children during the Jack in the Box hamburger outbreak.  Tea Partiers and libertarians are now taking up the cause of raw milk, calling it "Freedom Milk."   Also consider:

In today's USA TODAY, Vermont legislators are debating what to do about the "philosophical" exemptions allowing unvaccinated children to attend public school; kindergarteners' vaccination rates have dropped from 93% in 2005 to 83% in 2010.  http://tinyurl.com/7o4xypt

The Times reported last week about the Discovery Channel 7-hour series on the melting of the Polar Ice Cap, which did not once mention global warming's cause for fear viewers might get turned off. http://tinyurl.com/6t3yldh

And then, of course, there's the evergreen "never did come from no monkeys, dang you" anti-evolution revolt, now marketed, smartly, as "Intelligent Design." 

Is it distrust of science?  Distrust of government?  Or is it the fear that like the old Candid Camera line, some day, somehow, someone is going to come up to you and say, "Smile!  We've just made a monkey out of you!"

Robert Penn Warren:
April 24, 1905- Sept. 15, 1989

Have a whiskey, neat, today in honor of poet, novelist and literary critic Robert Penn Warren, who twice won the Pulitzer for his poetry and also won for his novel All the King's Men, and who was born on this day in 1905 in Guthrie, Kentucky.  Warren claimed he never meant for King's Men, about a Huey Long-like character named Willie Stark and his right-hand political operative, the former newspaper columnist Jack Burden, to be a "political novel," but perhaps the novel, with its poetic tone and philosophical bent, is a case of the "personal is political."

A member of the Fugitives poet group as well as the Southern Agrarians and a contributor to that group's famous "I'll Take My Stand," Warren was teaching at Louisiana State University during the years of Huey Long's rise and assassination. 

"Storytelling and copulation are the two chief forms of amusement in the South," Warren once said.  "They're inexpensive and easy to procure."

Columbia University to offer graduate course in Lena Dunham's "Girls."

"We thought 'Deconstructing Dunham' would be a timely addition to our curriculum," said the Columbia official in making the announcement, "given that the first two episodes have already inspired online dissertations marked by the sort of ecstatic examination, intense identification, signifier signalling, minutiae measuring and laudatory logorrhea that only a landmark work could elicit."

Can't afford Columbia?  Don't worry.  I'm kidding.  Don't have HBO where the series is airing?  You can watch the pilot on you tube.  So fire up your lap top.  No less than 1500 words. 

In honor of the Bard's birthday, some coined phrases for a fragile currency.

The crisis of the Euro in the coinage of Shakespeare, born on this day in 1616 at Stratford-Upon-Avon:





Once, the success of the Eurozone seemed a foregone conclusion, but today Europe is in a pickle with more than a few suggesting it's high time to say good riddance to the Euro.  Over the weekend, the IMF decided it was once more into the breach, and pledged more funds, but even as Ireland reported meeting 2011 austerity targets, Spain is teetering.  Unlike Greece, Spain and Ireland are both more sinned against than sinning, the victims of unscrupulous bankers and a housing bust.  Still, Angela Merkel insists on her pound of flesh, and Sarkozy, the man she's encouraged to screw his courage to the sticking place over austerity, has definitely seen better days.  Sark is considered too hot-blooded for some--Socialist Hollande came in first in this weekend's runoff--but the French who consider immigration the Devil incarnate gave right-winger Marine LePen a whopping percentage of the vote.  Is there rhyme or reason to the crisis?  Economists like Krugman say of Merkel's stubborn stinginess that way madness lies.  But honestly,  it's Greek to me, except it seems that if the Eurozone implodes, with one fell swoop any hopes for our own recovery could vanish into thin air. 

Is there "method to her madness"?
Or just meanness?

Will the French "send him packing"?

Countries saddled with impossible austerity goals; lenders stuck with unpaid debt.  Neither a borrower nor a lender be--in Europe's case, thereby hangs a tale.  And unfortunately, we may hang with it. 

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.

Shovel them under and let me work—

                                          I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg

And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.

Shovel them under and let me work.

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:

                                          What place is this?

                                          Where are we now?

                                          I am the grass.

                                          Let me work.

                                                                            --  Carl Sandburg

On this day in 1915, the German army launched its assault against French troops in Ypres, Belgium, using the brand new chemical warfare weapon:  chlorine gas.  By the end of the war, nearly half a million troops from both sides were injured by exposure to gas.

This morning the news is reporting that Iran is reverse engineering the U.S. drone it captured, and from the Washington Post just 4 days ago, this development about our newest nifty weapon:

The CIA is seeking authority to expand its covert drone campaign in Yemen by launching strikes against terrorism suspects even when it does not know the identities of those who could be killed, U.S. officials said.   http://tinyurl.com/7xv8mou

                                               I am the drone.
                                               Let me work.

Sleeveless pineapple elicits grapes of wrath.

Maybe the test-makers' intent was
to introduce more fruits and vegetables
into the children's thinking diet.
Perhaps Carrot Top can create
future test questions?

No kidding.  Now here's a real Race to the Top:  The New York Times reports of a standardized middle school test question about a pineapple that challenges a rabbit to a race that has elicited so much scorn and outrage the state has opted not to count the answer.  According to the Times, the question was adapted from a story by children's writer Daniel Pinkwater:

The crux of the passage is that the pineapple challenges the hare to a race, and the other animals are convinced the pineapple must have a trick up its sleeve and will win.  When the pineapple stands still, the animals eat it.  The moral of the story:  "Pineapples don't have sleeves."

Student were asked which animal in the story was the wisest and why did the animals eat the pineapple.  (The owl was the wisest, and the animals ate the pineapple because they were hungry.)

Pinkwater heard about the furor from ticked off students.  The writer "said he considered himself a nonsense writer, and the test-makers had taken his story far too seriously. 'Well give me a break,' he said.  'It's a nonsense story, and there isn't an option for a nonsense answer.'"

The test question has already been used in four other states as far back as 2007, which begs the question:  Who tests the tests?  Here's the link:  http://tinyurl.com/6rpse9d

Go and catch a falling star.

Should you not plan to creep from the comfort of your duvet, or den of iniquity, as the case may be, for the pre-dawn shower, here is a link to an audio recording of Richard Burton reading John Donne's "Go and Catch a Falling Star."  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiZygUSkMYw

Cherchez l'orang-outan.

According to History.com, on this day in 1840, "The Murders in Rue Morgue" was accepted for publication.  Edgar Allan Poe's tale of the detective Dupin and the murdered women and simian suspect set the stage for what was then the brand new mystery genre.  Less than a decade after the tale's publication, however, Poe, who had been struggling with alcoholism and penury, was discovered delirious (some have said face down in the gutter) on the streets of Baltimore and died in Washington College Hospital the next day.  Many theories have been put forward as to the cause of death; in 2008, the University of Maryland suggested it may have been rabies.  http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/news-releases-17.htm

Vatican grounds Sister Bertrille.

The Vatican today demanded that ABC cancel The Flying Nun sitcom, insisting it was disrepectful, Satanic and "liable to give those nuns ideas."  When informed the show had been off the air for more than 40 years, church officials insisted they were not out of touch.

Yes, I'm joking, but the Bishops weren't joking at all when they issued a report this week accusing leading American nuns of harboring "radical feminist ideas."   An archbishop and two bishops were sent to bring the wayward women to heel. 

Here's a Jezebel post on the subject just because I like to think of a bishop hissing the word "jezebel!"    http://tinyurl.com/bm4yvab

Here's Amy Davidson's not dissimilar take in the New Yorker:  http://tinyurl.com/bumpm39

And on WaPo's "She the People" blog, Melinda Henneberger notes that at the same moment the Vatican is chastising the nuns, the church is reconciling with the Society of St. Pius X with its Holocaust-denying bishop:  http://tinyurl.com/7wxuls4

Ted Nugent to deploy secret weapon in meeting with Secret Service.

After making some wackadoodle comments about himself and Barack Obama, Ted Nugent is supposed to get a visit from the Secret Service today.  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57415870-503544/secret-service-to-interview-ted-nugent/  .  The right-wing rocker isn't concerned, however, as he has enlisted his last remaining legal-age groupie, Wanda June Stomphoffer, to help him entertain the agents.

"Obviously, these dudes like to party," Nugent said.  "Sure, Wanda June may not look like she did in the old days, but I know how these guys like a freebie."

New bromance brewing: Rogen as Friedman, Apatow as Bloomberg

While the blogosphere has been contemptuous of Thomas Friedman's newest love letter to Michael Bloomberg, in which the New York Times columnist once again begs Bloomberg for the sake of his country to run for president so he can save us all (Dave Weigel here http://tinyurl.com/7uxq2wp and Jason Linkins here http://tinyurl.com/c39m5sb), at least one person has been inspired.  One Hollywood insider says Judd Apatow is already in talks to cast a new bromance based on the Friedman/Bloomberg crush.  In fact, Seth Rogen may have already signed on to play Friedman, while Apatow, who began his career as a standup comic, is considering taking on the mayor's role himself, since reportedly he's always "wanted to know what it's like to be worshipped like that."

"Of course, practically, politcally and realistically, Friedman's crush is ludicrous," the insider says.  "But as so many people have already pointed out, it's comedic gold.  And you know, it's got real heart, too.  Judd's already got the last scene written--Seth holding up a boom box outside the mayor's office, begging him to love the country the way Seth loves him.  It's real powerful stuff."


Here's the column that inspired it allhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/opinion/friedman-one-for-the-country.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss: 

The unbearable lightness of the eye poke.

I don't get the Three Stooges.  But I get that zillions of other people--guys especially--get the Three Stooges, and so I was pleased for them that the Farrelly Brothers' remake, or shall I say, their homage to Les Stooges, has made most critics slap-happy.  Even Richard Brody, writing on the New Yorker website, disses the movie with such seriousness that I can with a straight face cherry pick lines like these: 

"...something like the perfect auteurist film."

"...something of a semiotic dream..."

"There may not have been such an overtly pro-Catholic Hollywood movie since the heyday of John Ford."

"The Farrelly brothers have constructed, on the basis of a nostalgic update of a comic legend, an extraordinarily interesting personal credo."

"...irresistable critic bait..."

Indeed.  Must be the eye pokes.  Here's the link:  http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2012/04/stooge-struck.html

In the wake of GSA spending scandal, Congress commends Secret Service "Agent John" for frugality.

Just kidding.

But let's put this another way:  If two Secret Service agents were to make an advance trip to, say, middle America, and they were to go into an Applebee's for dinner, they might well order a Sizzling Cajun Steak & Shrimp entree at $13.99 each, followed by a Triple Chocolate Meltdown at $4.99 each.  Which brings us to a tab of $38.00 without drinks, tax, or God forbid, a tip.

Which brings us to the new revelation/allegation--which of course may or may not be true--that the payment dispute between the agent and the Colombian prostitute arose from the agent's assertion that since the prostitute had serviced two agents, they were entitled to a 2 for 1 special on the Sizzling Colombian Steak and Shrimp, and at least according to today's MSNBC report, the amount "Agent John" refused to pay, which caused the Triple Chocolate Meltdown, was somewhere between $40 and $60.  http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/17/11251326-nbc-prostitutes-50-fee-for-two-agents-triggered-secret-service-scandal?lite

Weighing Ezra Pound on the anniversary of his freedom.

Trite, yes, but a true dilemma nonetheless, since one can ignore neither the poet's contributions to modern literature nor the partisan's full-throated services to fascism and anti-semitism.  Besides his own poetry, his support to other writers was vital--he helped both Eliot and Joyce get published, and other writers he mentored make up a veritable who's who.  But his support for Axis powers was just as resolute; according to his own account, he begged the Italian authorities to let him make his infamous radio broacasts, in which he railed against the Allies and Jews in particular.

He had led a colorful life that included a youthful affair with Hilda Doolittle (the poet "H.D.") and fathering two children by two other women.  He moved to Italy in the twenties, and by the thirties was an ardent supporter of Hitler and Mussolini, unwavering to the very end.  Immediately after the war, he was charged with treason and interned at a camp in Pisa, in a 6' x 6' outdoor cell.  After several weeks, his mental health showed signs of deterioration and he was given regular quarters.  He began the "Pisan Cantos" at this time.

A few months later, Pound was transferred back to the States, and, represented by a lawyer, he was admitted to St. Elizabeth's mental hospital in Washington (where John Hinkley was also later sent).  After being declared mentally unfit to stand trial, he spent the next 12 years living in relative comfort, and he continued to work, completing the "Pisan Cantos" and translating other writings.  Meanwhile, a number of the world's most esteemed poets and novelists immediately and continually pressed for his release, awarding him the first Bollingen Prize for literature in 1948 in what some termed an attempt to pressure the government into releasing him, which it finally did, on this day in 1958, when he walked out a free man and returned to Italy where he would live for another 14 years.

Plot Spoiler.

Critics are unanimous about this year's Pulitzer fiction winner:

"If you read just one novel this year...it won't be a Pulitzer winner.  In fact if you read a hundred novels this year, none of them will be a Pulitzer-winner!"