Marlene Wagman-Geller

"As far back as I can remember, it was always on my bucket list, even before the term bucket list was coined,
to be a writer. It was a natural progression to want to go from reading books to writing one."
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Stirring Salute (1970)

Stirring Salute (1970)
Jun 11, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
  If asked to list three iconoclastic generals, those who might spring to mind: Napoleon, Patton, MacArthur. The common denominator amongst the names is they all carved out a niche in military history, and all were men. The established paradigm shifted when Anna Hays became the country’s first female general in a ceremony sealed with a kiss.

The Painted Bird

The Painted Bird
Jun 10, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

“I am as clear as the child unborn.”

 

The Rebecca Nurse Homestead (opened in 1909)

149 Pine Street, Danvers, Massachusetts

 

     Witch-hunts are the thread that runs through the tapestry of history. The Romans fed the Christians to the lions; the Nazis consigned the Jews to the crematorium; the United States incarcerated the Japanese Americans. Three centuries ago, Salem targeted those the Puritans had decreed bore the mark of a witch. The importance of the Rebecca Nurse Homestead: it stands as sentry to the consequences of when hysteria and hatred triumph over humanity.

Of Them All

Of Them All
Jun 09, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace (opened 1956)

10 East Oglethorpe Avenue, Savannah, Georgia

“The only way we can kill for a moment our pain is by unselfishness.” Juliette Gordon Low

      “The cookies are coming! The cookies are coming!” so sounds the annual cry that leads to Thin Mints, Tagalongs, or Caramel deLites. Girl Scout cookies satisfy a sweet tooth and supports a charitable cause. Troops around the world take “the midnight train to Georgia” to visit the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace to salute their founding mother.

The Devil's Brew

The Devil's Brew
Jun 07, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

“I believe in being everlastingly on the warpath.” – Carry A. Nation

 

Carry A. Nation Home & Museum (opened in 1950)

209 Fowler Ave., Medicine Lodge, Kansas, the United States

 

            The lyrics to Peter, Paul, and Mary’s folksong was the promise, “If I had a hammer/I’d hammer in the morning/I’d hammer in the evening…” Carry A. Nation’s choice of weapon, as instrument of social justice, was the hatchet.

Little. Frog

Little. Frog
Jun 06, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
At the eye of Solidarity’s storm was Lech Walesa, the leader of a rebellion which struck a shattering blow to the sickle and hammer. However, it was his First Lady in freedom’s fight who created a peephole into their domestic Iron Curtain. 

Set the Night on Fire

Set the Night on Fire
Jun 05, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Cemeteries do not rank high in the hierarchy of romance with the exception of Pere Lachaise in Paris where several immortal couples lie together for eternity: Abelard and Heloise, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Simone de Beauvais and John Paul Sartre. Another tomb with echoes to love is Pere Lachaise’s most visited grave- of rock royalty Jim Morrison. A photograph taken over it features a ghostly apparition, a white figure with arms outstretched- the prince of music bemoaning separation from his cosmic mate. 

Yes-No

Yes-No
Jun 05, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
  A popular seventeenth century nursery rhyme is, “Three blind mice. Three blind mice. See how they run. See how they run. She cut off their tales with a carving knife…” The dark story behind the light-hearted ditty: the three blind mice were Protestant loyalists, burned at the stake by Queen Mary.  A nineteenth century American counterpart is similarly macabre, “Lizzie Borden took an axe/ And gave her mother forty whacks/ When she saw what she had done/ She gave her father forty-one.” If the latter rhyme holds true, Lizzie embodied Shakespeare’s description of King Lear’s daughters, “Sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.”

The Merry Prankster

The Merry Prankster
Jun 04, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

The Summer of Love. Those four words conjure a 1960s moment frozen in an American snow-globe; mythical months in San Francisco when visions of peace, love and harmony hung in the air-interspersed with quantities of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. It also represented a hippie love story, one between the guitarist-troubadour Jerry Garcia and his Mountain Girl.

The Truth (1876)

The Truth (1876)
Jun 04, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
   Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University is one of America’s most esteemed research-based institutions, located in an iconic redbrick campus. But what’s with the unique name Johns? The university and medical hospital come from philanthropist Johns Hopkins.

For Remembrance

For Remembrance
Jun 02, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Dr. Timothy Leary pronounced the paradoxical catchphrase, “If you can remember the sixties you weren’t really there.” Leary was not only there, he was its vanguard, and beside him- his psychedelic pioneer and muse. She was his soulmate who left her Midwest hoping for adventure, which she received in spades-a result of her love affair with an amalgam of the king of Hearts and the Joker.

After the Fall

After the Fall
Jun 01, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Famous playwright Arthur Miller went through life asked what it was like being married to Marilyn Monroe. It was an all too obvious euphemism for the real question: what was it like to have sex with the goddess who went to bed wearing only Chanel No 5? Miller took the answer to his grave but was never loathe to wax eloquent on his last wife after Marilyn, “This marriage makes the past seem worthwhile.”

It is Warm (1880)

It is Warm (1880)
Jun 01, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
    If anyone were ever entitled to indulge in a pity party, it would have been the woman who fate had locked in a world of silence and darkness. Yet, instead of dwelling on her misery, she dedicated her life to the spreading of light. She remains a testament to what a possessor of courage can overcome

Mrs. Blue-Eyes

Mrs. Blue-Eyes
May 31, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
      When one conjures the image of Francis Albert Sinatra, it is of a Jersey crooner with the velvet voice, the bruised romantic with shady Mob ties. The biography of the first modern pop superstar is the stuff of legend, as his second wife Ava Gardner and third, Mia Farrow. However, his fourth wife, like Sinatra’s trademark lyric, lived and loved her way.

The Stolen Hours

The Stolen Hours
May 30, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

In Waiting for Godot two hapless tramps struggle to find meaning in a landscape of existential emptiness. They embody “the dangling conversation,” to pretend to be connected to another, to drown out loneliness waiting in the wings. Their only hope is the enigmatic Godot-who remains a steadfast no-show. But the author, Samuel Beckett, did not suffer such soul-sucking alienation though succor from across the sea. 

The Seven of Us Can't Do (2013)

The Seven of Us Can't Do (2013)
May 24, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Certain books have left their imprint on the face of the world; their authors were god-like in determining the destiny of humanity. Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto changed the socio-political landscape, Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams shed light on the subconscious, and Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species rattled religion’s cage. These 19th century men were the power players whose pages became the dice of destiny. A 21st century woman likewise launched a movement through the venue of words.

The Lady and the Tramp

The Lady and the Tramp
May 23, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Charlie Chaplin’s character of the Little Tramp became an immortal icon for his deft portrayal of man’s tragicomic conflict with fate. The lonely fellow buffeted by life resiliently picked himself up again and again in the hope that the next encounter would turn out better. And what made the man behind the clown stop leaning on his famous cane and throw it heavenward was the love of his lady, whose story has slipped through the crack of time until now.

Where Rosemary Goes...(1968)

Where Rosemary Goes...(1968)
May 23, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
   The ancient Greek games originated in honor of the Gods of Mt. Olympus. After a hiatus of 1,500 years, the 19th century Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin resurrected the Olympics for countries to come together in sports rather than in war. In the 20th century, an American carried on the tradition of sprinkling the physical with the divine.

Any Other Man

Any Other Man
May 22, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

One of the most challenging jobs in the world is that of the evangelist: hand-wrestling the devil over souls. Fortunately, when it came to saving his own, the Reverend Billy Graham had his fellow crusader in Christ, his “soulmate and best friend.”

Beloved Infidel

Beloved Infidel
May 21, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
 F. Scott Fitzgerald pessimistically pronounced, “There are no second acts in American lives.” He based this on his own free-fall: from golden boy of the twenties to forgotten has-been of the forties. What eased the pain of latter years was the purveyor of a poisoned pen.    

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN PEN

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN PEN
May 20, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

  

Bond. James Bond. This was the classic greeting of the most dashing member of Her Majesty’s Secret Service. However, if people knew the biography of his creator, Ian Fleming, they might have thought of him as Bondage. James Bondage. And he was met, lash for lash, by his ladylove.

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