Events will be keeping me away from blogging for the next week or so. Regular postings here at The Strawfoot will resume on July 1st. Wherever you are, enjoy your summer.

I turned forty-five today and must say it feels pretty good. My most memorable birthdays so far have been eighteen, the day I also graduated from high school; twenty-eight, when I finally slayed some ghosts and was making preparations to move forward and on to grad school; and thirty, when I graduated and moved to New York City. Since my fortieth birthday I have received tenure at my institution, gotten married, and witnessed the passing of both my father and father-in-law. Things move on. I have felt middle-aged for some time now–if I were truly at the halfway point that would mean reaching the finish line at ninety–but I feel this birthday firmly places me in the this age group. I have no desire to relive my twenties, and certainly not my teens. At the same time I feel like I am a young middle age, not quite ready or accomplished enough for fifty. I have stronger sense of who I am than I did five years ago. I also have a better sense of where I am going intellectually and otherwise. Overall, not a bad place to be.

When I visit my brother in France our favorite thing to do is sit in a café, enjoy a coffee, and catch up. My brother has lived in Europe for close to two decades now; while its cafés will never go away entirely, I can attest that Europe’s sidewalk establishments are getting fewer and fewer in number. Myriad economic and cultural changes are rendering them, if not extinct, then certainly less relevant. The next’s victim may be Madrid’s Café Gijon, where Hemingway, Truman Capote, and so many others have congregated since the 1880s. The Gijon was where Eva Gardner sometimes hung out after splitting from Sinatra and relocating to Europe in the mid-50s. The cause is more immediate in this instance: the current financial crisis may force the city into selling the portion of the building it owns. We will see what happens.

(image/Roberto Garcia)

General John R. Coffee, soldier in the War of 1812

I have always maintained that the tension between preservationists and developers is more complicated that the good vs. evil narrative we usually hear. Change is inevitable, and individuals have a right to live in the present how they wish. That said, there is another Wal-Mart controversy developing in Alabama that is especially sensitive; the organization hopes to build a store in the small town of Florence that may or may not impinge upon a slave cemetery dating back to the early nineteenth century. The property was originally owned by General John R. Coffee, a veteran of the War of 1812 and friend of Andrew Jackson. Surveys so far have been inclusive and historical records, as one might imagine, are sketchy at best. This is one we will be watching.

(Hat tip Susan Ingram)

Check your C-SPAN 3 listings this weekend for this documentary about the defenses of Washington. We take it as a given that the Confederacy did not capture the capital during the war. It very much might have gone the other way. Tomorrow a friend and I are going to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which I have never been to before. I will take pics. Sunday I will be writing an encyclopedia article. Enjoy your weekend.

…and Abraham Lincoln gave us Facebook.

Here is a reminder of why one shouldn’t believe everything one reads. What is most dismaying is the number of reputable outlets who picked up the story.

[Hat tip Susan Ingram]

I was in Greenwood Cemetery earlier this afternoon. It was a cool, rainy day and there were few visitors even by normal standards. I had reached the part of the cemetery where a good number of Civil War soldiers happen to be buried and, walking up to one, was stunned to see that he had been killed in action on May 5, 1862–150 years ago today. What are the odds of such a thing happening?

Herrick Hayner, Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery

I was not able to find a whole lot about Hayner. The reason, really, is because he died before having a chance to live. Herrick Hayner was born in Troy, New York in 1837. In New York City on New Year’s Day 1862 he was commissioned a second lieutenant in Company H of the 70th New York Volunteer Infantry. The 70th New York was part of the Third Corps at this time, and that May found itself part of General McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign.

Hayner lost his life in Virginia at the Battle of Williamsburg…

Currier & Ives

…and now rests here in Brooklyn near these trees.

This past Monday I was coming up the stairs at the college where I work. When I got to my floor I stepped into the large hallway, where several people were setting up lights and cameras. It was the photographers who come each year to take graduation photos. Actual graduation is still about a month away, but I am always moved when I see this rite of passage every year. The ersatz waiting room was conveniently located next to the soda machine and so at least once a day I headed in that direction seeking refreshment. It was also a convenient excuse to b.s. with the students, dressed in their finest, waiting for their turn to be called. People were laughing and mostly in a good mood, though some seemed pensive, possibly wondering what their future brings. Some of them I have known throughout their student life through having helped them on the reference desk, teaching them in a workshop, or in the classroom. New York City has changed a great deal in the last few decades, and much of that is due to individuals who are new to the city and the country. I remember coming in to teach a library session on a Sunday morning and one of the students telling me that he had come here from Africa several years ago. He drove a cab 40 hours a week and was taking weekend classes at the same time. Another student was a single mother who had returned to school after a long–long–hiatus. These stories are not untypical. The strength and courage of many of them is moving. These were the things running through my mind every time I passed the hallway over the course of the week.

Last week I mentioned the rediscovery of the personal papers of Richard T. Greener. The local ABC affiliate in Chicago now has this footage. The bidding war for these items is going to be fun to watch.

This evening my wife and I watched this documentary produced by CNN about slavery in Mauritania. The film is one component of CNN’s coverage of contemporary slavery in that West African nation that is appearing across the news network’s platforms. Please watch the whole thing.