Today is World Bipolar Day! Documentary on Tanaquil Le Clercq - Poems: My New Watch - The New Postage Stamp - John Craig Venter

 Watched a marvelous documentary last night on Tanny the Ballerina. Ironically, at the height of her career she developed polio and was paralyzed from the waist down. She was married to George Balanchine, who you always called Mr. Balanchine.

Never George!

Yessir!

Filmmaker Nancy Buirski discusses her Tanny film here.




Sent the below email to my support group:

Hi everyone,

One of the websites didn't work.

Let's try it again here and then I give up.

I subscribe to THE MIGHTY, which covers many illnesses including bipolar disorder.

An email just came in stating that today is International Bipolar Day. Read the many fascinating stories here.

My friend Rem Murphy is the counter-man at the Roslyn PA post office.

I'd sent him a poem about the Civil Rights leader and activist Dorothy Height.

He liked it and will display it at the post office.

NEW POSTAGE STAMP

Of course I bought it.
Celebrating Black Heritage
let me introduce you to
Dorothy Height.

During her tenure on
earth, which you notice
is the color of ruddy clay,
she was a feminist and
helper of our people of
color.

What that woman would
not do! Fearless, like
Martin and Malcolm, she
was threatened by the
Klan, called every
name ever invented
to bring tears and
self-doubt, but like
an oak in a storm,
Dorothy Height would
not bend.

She wears flowers and
jewels in the postage
stamp, she smiles like
a favorite aunt, and
wears the color purple.

I just bought a spring
wreath for my front door.
Lovely in purple and white.

Wish we could all change
the world like Aunt Dorothy
one footstep at a time.

***

MY NEW WATCH

Thrift shops in our town
vanish like last night's stars

Heavens Treasures with its
dreadful loop of Christian
music bought out Impact Thrift
which was closing

Before that it was Santerian's
a claustrophic store where I'd
drag my kids for brand-new
shoes at quite a discount

Heavens Treasures was bright
and cheery. I need a new watch
I told Toni Ann. The band must
be one I can slip right on
like a debutante's white glove.

She presented
me with a velveteen tray
of men's and women's.

I'll take this, I said, looking
at an expensive Bulova. I spose
there's no point in bargaining,
I said.

It's not a beaut, like Ada's Movado,
rather it is handsome with thick
hands like draft horses and a
second hand - fancy that! - with a
red Cupid's arrow that may strike me
at any moment.

What I am afraid of is Who I will fall
in love with on my way to the library.

***

Ate at Mom's tonight.

We have no food, she said.

All right, sez I, I'll bring you some salad.

I quickly made it as I was starving and wanted to eat, while listening to

Excellent. He's a true risktaker and adventurer. Here he is on Wiki.

He looks terrific at age 70.

Then I remembered he's a year younger than me.

John Craig Venter (born October 14, 1946) is an American biotechnologist, biochemist, geneticist, and businessman. He is known for being one of the first to sequence the human genome^[1] and the first to transfect a cell with a synthetic genome.^[2][3] Venter founded Celera Genomics, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). He was the co-founder of Human Longevity Inc., served as its CEO until 2017, and is executive chairman of the board of directors.^[4] He was listed on Time magazine's 2007 and 2008 Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In 2010, the British magazine New Statesman listed Craig Venter at 14th in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".^[5] He is a member of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Advisory Board.^[6]