Monday, February 7, 2005

Spotlight
Novelists Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), and Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) were all born on this date. The British writer, Dickens, wrote of life in Victorian England; Wilder based her books on what it was like to grow up on the American frontier; and Lewis satirized the middle-class American lifestyle of the 1920s.

Quote
"When audiences come to see us authors lecture, it is largely in the hope that we'll be funnier to look at than to read." -- Sinclair Lewis

Word of the day
satire -- a literary or creative work that serves to ridicule or make fun of human follies. (© )

Today's News

• Patriots -- win 3rd Super Bowl in 4 years (story)
• 'Team America' -- N Korea wants movie banned (story)
• Mardi Gras -- early start in Iraq by La. National Guard (story)

Today's History

• The Beatles -- arrived in New York on their first American tour (1964)
• Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart -- went on the first untethered spacewalk (1984)
• "Baby Doc" Duvalier -- fled Haiti for France (1986)

Today's Birthdays

• Frederick Douglass -- abolitionist who escaped slavery (1818-1895)
• musicians -- Eubie Blake (1883-1983), Garth Brooks (43), and David Bryan (43)
• performers -- Buster Crabbe (1910?-1983), James Spader (45), Chris Rock (39), and Ashton Kutcher (27)