www.WrensJournal.blogspot.com

On this date in 1904 Theodor Seuss Geisel, who wrote and illustrated the popular 'Dr. Seuss' children's books, was born.

In 1927, Mr. Geisel married Helen Marion Palmer of Orange, N.J., a teacher he had met when they were studying at Oxford. It was she who persuaded him to give up thoughts of teaching and make drawing a career.

"Ted's notebooks were always filled with these fabulous animals," she later recalled. "So I set to work diverting him; here was a man who could draw such pictures; he should be earning a living doing that."

In addition to serving as her husband's business manager and helping edit his books, she wrote children's books under her maiden name.
From New York Times Obituary, Sept. 24, 1991.


John Wren’s Comment: How often does the right choice of a companion contribute to the success of a person? I just read Team of Rivals about Lincoln, he was much more successful because of his marriage to Mary Todd. My dad was much more successful because of my mother and the influence of her family on him. One of my most vivid memories of the IDEA Café over the last decade is a woman who quit her job as a High School teacher to market her struggling artist husband’s artwork. It worked.


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I love the Internet, it is a marvel… It provides a voice to the formerly voiceless… Anyone can publish their thoughts instantaneously and they are available forever… Reporters now live in fear, a healthy development. Ned Desmond, president of Time Inc. Interactive, in his talk last night about the impact of evolving media technologies on the Catholic believer, part of the Denver Archdiocese Lecture Series.


John Wren’s Comment: I asked Desmond how the Internet had change reporting. He said reporters are now instructed to post information right away, to not wait for final preparation of the article at deadline. Internet news readers demand instant information in small bites. Desmond discounted Wikipendia, “I never cite it,” but I think that would be said by most people who’s paycheck ultimately depends on large printing presses. The big downside of the Internet, in his opinion, is the sharp decline in time for quite reflection for most people, “there is just too much competition from the urgent and the entertaining.” Desmond estimates he sends about 100 emails a day and reads 200+, and that this is typical for the people he knows. To stay abreast of breaking news he reads Netvibes.

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Communications technology makes new forms of church organization possible, and geographically distant congregations can easily join together. Rather than voting with your feet, you may now vote with your mouse, perhaps the most amicable form of religious divorce. Jack Miles, a senior fellow for religious affairs with the Pacific Council on International Policy and a scholar in residence with the Getty Research Institute in his New York Times, A Divorce the Church Should Smile Upon.

Google has been frustrated in its efforts to reach comprehensive deals with major studios and networks to put their video on YouTube. Meanwhile, it is forming partnerships with hundreds of smaller media companies that see value — or at least a valuable experiment — in contributing to the site. New York Times, Google Courts Small YouTube Deals

History is the best antidote to delusions of omnipotence and omniscience, forcing us to a recognition of the fact, so often and so sadly displayed, that the future outwits all our certitudes. Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who died Wednesday, quoted in the New York Times.

Words kill… Grow up… Live out your God-created identity.
Mt 5: 20-48