Marlene Wagman-Geller

      The Red Queen cried out, “Off with their heads!” The Instrument of decollation (decapitations) has gone by various names: in Scotland-the Maiden, in England-the Halifax Gibbet. The Nazis bore it a special fondness. Ironically, the guillotine received its name after the anti-capital punishment physician and ex-Jesuit, Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin.

     Simon and Garfunkel sang of a boxer who “carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down.” The lyric describes Rocky Balboa and the real-life Rocky: Chuck Wepner.

     The Smithsonian is America’s greatest treasure chest, filled with 150 million precious artifacts. Surprisingly, the scientist who willed the museum into existence, James Lewis Smithson, never set foot in the United States. 

    The monologue that introduced the television series Star Trek, “Space: the final frontier. To boldly go where no man has gone before echoes the fascination man has always had with the heavens.”  The men who heeded the siren call of the skies are legendary: Shepard, Glenn, Armstrong, Aldrin. Then came Sally Ride who blazed a cosmic trail when she became the first woman astronaut and shattered the glass dome of the galaxy.

   A lyric from a 1967 song by Arlo Guthrie is, “You can get anything you want at Alice’s restaurant.” Another place to satiate your heart’s desire is at Harrods, the world’s most famous department store. The emporium’s Latin motto is “Omnia, Omnibus, Ubique.” “Everything for Everybody, Everywhere.” For the green wrapped goody-bags we can thank its founder: Charles Henry Harrod.

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.” – Marie Curie

The Maria Sklodowska-Curie Museum

16 Freta Street, Warsaw, Poland

            One is as likely to witness a blue moon, find a hen’s tooth, or catch a glimpse of Big Foot, as it is to encounter a Nobel Prize recipient. Miraculously, one family garnered five of the coveted awards. Two memorial museums are dedicated to Marie Curie: in Warsaw and Paris.

      John Muir, the naturalist who was most at home sleeping outdoors on a bed of pine needles, called the sequoias the “noblest of God’s trees.” The wooden sentries were in their infancy when the Coliseum hosted its gladiator games; their tallest branches would dwarf Lady Liberty’s crown. The spiritual groundskeeper of the Sierra Nevada’s sacred forest: Sequoyah.

     Visitors to the Bronx anticipate Yankee Stadium, -nicknamed the Bronx Bombers- the zoo, and botanical gardens. The invisible tour guide on these expeditions: Jonas Bronck.

Those who wear the tiara capture the popular imagination, as queens exist in an emerald city of gowns, palaces, and jewels, oh my! And when a royal alters the course of world history, the dust never settles on their stories.

Those who wear the tiara capture the popular imagination, as queens exist in an emerald city of gowns, palaces, and jewels, oh my! And when a royal alters the course of world history, the dust never settles on their stories.

In the film Forrest Gump, Lieutenant Dan snarls at Forrest saying, “They gave you, an imbecile and a moron, the Congressional Medal of Honor.” While President Johnson conferred the award for Gump’s valor in Vietnam, an earlier President Johnson conferred the award for a lady’s valor in the Civil War. Dr. Mary Edward Walker was the first and the only woman to have received the Medal of Honor.   

In the film Forrest Gump, Lieutenant Dan snarls at Forrest saying, “They gave you, an imbecile and a moron, the Congressional Medal of Honor.” While President Johnson conferred the award for Gump’s valor in Vietnam, an earlier President Johnson conferred the award for a lady’s valor in the Civil War. Dr. Mary Edward Walker was the first and the only woman to have received the Medal of Honor.   

    In lyrics laden with nostalgia, in Bookends Simon & Garfunkel sang, “Time it was, and what a time it was, it was/A time of innocence/ A time of confidences/Long ago, it must be…” And one of the memories from the 1950s involve Tupperware parties where housewives envisioned themselves as mini moguls. A time when Tupperware and the rotary phone held sway. The ground-breaking plastic marvel sprung full-blown from the mind of Earl S. Tupper.

Chapter # Om (1949  )

     Airports have their own DNA and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, called the “busiest square mile in the world,” has an intriguing one. Passengers needing a zen moment can visit terminal 3’s yoga room, the famished, head to Gate 8 for the renowned Chicago hotdog, paleontologists can migrate to Terminal 1 to gawk at the 72-foot model skeleton of a brachiosaurus. And hovering over the 7,600-acre airport is the shade of Edward H. “Butch” O’Hare.  

     In a bid to dispel February blues-a situation that arose from a lull in sports and wintery weather-André Laguerre, the editor of Sports Illustrated, willed into existence “The Swimsuit Edition.” Soon a burst of Malibu arrived in mailboxes across the nation featuring bodacious babes clothed in Barbie-sized bikinis, frolicking against a backdrop of white sand and azure seas. Then came Megan Rapinoe.

     In a bid to dispel February blues-a situation that arose from a lull in sports and wintery weather-André Laguerre, the editor of Sports Illustrated, willed into existence “The Swimsuit Edition.” Soon a burst of Malibu arrived in mailboxes across the nation featuring bodacious babes clothed in Barbie-sized bikinis, frolicking against a backdrop of white sand and azure seas. Then came Megan Rapinoe.

    Before the first female presidential nominee of a major political party was a twinkle in the nation’s eyes, before there was a female speaker of the House of Representatives, a female attorney general, or a female secretary of state, there was the F.W.O.T.S.C. – the first woman on the Supreme Court-an acronym Sandra Day O’Connor used when she ascended America’s loftiest bench.

A Simon and Garfunkel song describes a boxer who “carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down.” The lyric describes Rocky Balboa and the real Rocky: Chuck Wepner.

       The staccato bark, “Going, going, gone!” followed by the banging of a hammer, signifies the transfer of a coveted object to the highest bidder. The auction house, Christie’s, has made historic sales, some that would have astounded its founder, James Christie.