Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Born on this day – Georges Lacombe:


Georges Lacombe

Director

August 19, 1902 – April 14, 1990

Born on this day – Ogden Nash:


Ogden Nash


Writer

August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971

Credits:

Poems:

A caution to everybody; A Drink With Something In It; A Tale Of The Thirteenth Floor; A Word to Husbands; Adventures of Isabel; Always marry an April girl; Bankers Are Just Like Anybody Else, Except Richer; Biological Reflection; Celery; Children's Party; Common cold; Crossing the border; Family Court; Good-by Now Or Pardon My Gauntlet; Hard lines; I Didn't Go To Church Today; I'm a Stranger Here Myself; Lather As You Go; Ogden Nash's Zoo; Reflection On Babies; The Baby; The Octopus; The People Upstairs; The Tale of Custard the Dragon.

Books:

Bed Riddance (1969); Candy Is Dandy (1994); Carnival of animals (1950); Collected Verse from 1929 (1972); Custard and Company (1980); Custard the Dragon and the Wicked Knight (1999); Everyone but Thee and Me (1962); Good Intentions (1942); Hard Lines. Simon and Schuster (1931); I'm a Stranger Here Myself (1938 / 1994); Many Long Years Ago (1945); Marriage Lines. Boston (1964); Ogden Nash's Zoo (1986); Pocket Book of Ogden Nash (1990); Private Dining Room (1952); Selected Poetry of Ogden Nash (1995); The Face Is Familiar: The Selected Verse of Ogden Nash (1941); The Moon Is Shining Bright As Day (1953); The Old Dog Barks Backwards (1972); The Tale of Custard the Dragon (1998); There's Always Another Windmill (1968); Versus (1949); You Can't Get There from Here (1957).

Movies and television:

American Masters (2005); Art Carney Meets Peter and the Wolf (1958); Baby Einstein: Baby Shakespeare World of Poetry (1999); Body Electric (2002); Boston Pops in Hollywood (1976); Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals (1976); But Seriously, It's Sheila Hancock (1972); Carnival of the Animals (1984); Columbo (1975); Fellow Travelers (2023); Foodie Love (2019); General Electric Guest House (1951); Hold That Kiss (1938); Johnny Carson Presents the Sun City Scandals '72 (1972); Man of the Year (1953); Masquerade Party (1953–1956); Omnibus / Segment: The Twelve Days of Christmas (1956); One Touch of Venus (1948 / 1955); Phoenix (2014); Pisem, pisem stihove... (1974); Poezija Ogdena Nesa (1970); PogieJoe (2013); The 36th Annual Tony Awards (1982); The Arlene Francis Show (1957); The David Frost Show (1970–1971); The Dick Cavett Show (1968); The Eamonn Andrews Show (1964); The Ed Sullivan Show (1953); The Feminine Touch (1941); The Firefly (1937); The Shining Hour (1938); The Strange Case of Mr. Donnybrook's Boredom (1982); The Tale of Custard the Dragon (1965); The Tonight Show (1956); The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar (1959); The Wizard of Oz (1939); Today (1964); Who Said That? (1949).

Born on this day – Colleen Moore:


Colleen Moore


Actress

August 19, 1899 – January 25, 1988

Credits:

75 Years of Cinema Museum (1972); A Hoosier Romance (1918); A Roman Scandal (1919); Affinities (1922); AFI Life Achievement Award (1984); All-Star Party for 'Dutch' Reagan (1985); An Old Fashioned Young Man (1917); April Showers (1923); Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925); Broken Chains (1922); Broken Hearts of Broadway (1923); Come on Over (1922); Common Property (1919); Dinty (1920); Ella Cinders (1926); Fashion News (1930); Flaming Youth (1923); Flirting with Love (1924); Footlights and Fools (1929); Forsaking All Others (1922); Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films (2011); Gypsy (1968); Hands Up! (1917); Happiness Ahead (1928); Her Bridal Night-Mare (1920); Her Wild Oat (1927); His Nibs (1921); Hollywood (1980); Hollywood: The Gift of Laughter (1982); Irene (1926); It Must Be Love (1926); Life in Hollywood No. 4 (1927); Lilac Time (1928); Little Orphant Annie (1918); Look Your Best (1923); Naughty But Nice (1927); Oh Kay! (1928); Orchids and Ermine (1927); Painted People (1924); Personality Parade (1938); Sally (1925); Screen Snapshots, Series 1, No. 21 (1921); Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 1 (1922); Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 12 (1922); Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 24 (1923); Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 3 (1922); Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 9 (1922); Screen Snapshots, Series 4, No. 2 (1923); Screen Snapshots, Series 4, No. 4 (1923); Screen Snapshots, Series 6, No. 14 (1926); Screen Snapshots, Series 6, No. 15 (1926); Screen Snapshots, Series 6, No. 16 (1926); Slippy McGee (1923); Smiling Irish Eyes (1929); So Big (1924); So Long Letty (1920); Social Register (1934); Success at Any Price (1934); Synthetic Sin (1929); The Bad Boy (1917); The Busher (1919); The Cyclone (1920); The David Frost Show (1971); The Desert Flower (1925); The Devil's Claim (1920); The Egg Crate Wallop (1919); The Huntress (1923); The Lee Phillip Show (1971); The Linkletter Show (1953); The Little American (1917); The Lotus Eater (1921); The Man in the Moonlight (1919); The Merv Griffin Show (1968–1969); The Ninety and Nine (1922); The Nth Commandment (1923); The Perfect Flapper (1924); The Power and the Glory (1933); The Prince of Graustark (1916); The Roy Leonard Show (1971); The Savage (1917); The Scarlet Letter (1934); The Sky Pilot (1921); The Smart Aleck (1920); The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1968); The Voice of Hollywood No. 15 (1930); The Wall Flower (1922); The WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1922 (1922); The Wilderness Trail (1919); This Is Your Life (1960); Through the Dark (1924); Twinkletoes (1926); Voyage a Galveston (1980); We Moderns (1925); When Dawn Came (1920); Why Be Good? (1929); Why Be Good? Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema (2007).

The Praying Mantis, poem by Ogden Nash:


The Praying Mantis

Poem by Ogden Nash.

From whence arrived the praying mantis?
From outer space, or lost Atlantis?
glimpse the grin, green metal mug
at masks the pseudo-saintly bug,
Orthopterous, also carnivorous,
And faintly whisper, Lord deliver us.

Recommended reading:

The Best of Ogden Nash
548 Favorite Poems from America's Laureate of Light Verse


Video by Jack Kost.
2025.

Praying Mantis (2019)
photographs by Jack Kost.


Sound effect credit:
Sounds of Summer
by freesound_community
from Pixabay.

Recommended reading - The Best of Ogden Nash:


The Best of Ogden Nash

548 Favorite Poems from America's laureate of light verse

Edited by Linell Nash Smith.

Published by Ivan R. Dee.
Published 2007.
ASIN: 1566637031
ISBN-10: 9781566637039
ISBN-13: 978-1566637039
Hardcover.

Description:

An outstanding, rare collection of works essential for any definitive poetry library. – Midwest Book Review.

It's been more than thirty years since the appearance of a collection from America's laureate of light verse. Ogden Nash first gathered together an anthology of thirty years of his published works in 1959. In 1973 his daughters gathered more than four hundred of his poems and called it I Wouldn't Have Missed It, a quote from one of his verses. Now more poems have come to light, so his daughters have once again produced The Best of Ogden Nash, the definitive Nash anthology. The poems display the talent of the man whose verse entranced America from the time of the Great Depression until his death in 1971. The Best of Ogden Nash should delight old fans and introduce new readers to a unique talent.

Recommended reading - American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America (2012):


American Grown:
The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America

By Michelle Obama.

Published by Crown.
1st edition.
Hardcover.
Published 2012.
ISBN-10: 0307956024
ISBN-13: 978-0307956026

Description:

The former First Lady, author of Becoming, and producer and star of Waffles + Mochi tells the inspirational story of the White House Kitchen Garden and how gardens can transform our lives and the health of our communities.

Early in her tenure as First Lady, despite being a novice gardener, Michelle Obama planted a kitchen garden on the White House’s South Lawn. To her delight, she watched as fresh vegetables, fruit, and herbs sprouted from the ground. Soon the White House Kitchen Garden inspired a new conversation all across the country about the food we feed our families and the impact it has on the nutrition and well-being of our children.

In American Grown, Mrs. Obama invites you inside the White House Kitchen Garden, from the first planting to the satisfaction of the seasonal harvest. She reveals her early worries and struggles – would the new plants even grow? – and her joy as lettuce, corn, tomatoes, collards and kale, sweet potatoes and rhubarb flourished in the freshly tilled soil. She shares the stories of other gardens that have moved and inspired her on her journey across the nation. 

And she offers what she learned about planting your own backyard, school, or community garden.

American Grown features:

A behind-the-scenes look at every season of the garden’s growth.

Unique recipes created by White House chefs.

Striking original photographs that bring the White House garden to life.

A fascinating history of community gardens in the United States.

From a modern-day vegetable truck that brings fresh produce to underserved communities in Chicago, to Houston office workers who make the sidewalk bloom, to a New York City school that created a scented garden for the visually impaired, to a garden in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, that devotes its entire harvest to those less fortunate, American Grown isn’t just the story of a single garden. It’s a celebration of the bounty of our nation and a reminder of what we can all grow together.

Lisa Gardner, on reading:


I still read romance, and I read suspense. I read them both. And part of it is, I like stories with strong characters, and I like stories where there's closure at the end. And I like stories where there's hope. That's a kind of empowerment. I think romance novels are very empowering, and I think suspense novels are, too.

- Lisa Gardner.