More Noted Things ...

You, alas, are too young to remember"the Incomparable Hildegarde." I, fortunately, am not. Nearing the end of her prime when I was a child, she died yesterday at 99.

I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces all day through,
In that small café, the park across the way,
The children's carousel, the chestnut tree, the wishing well.

I'll be seeing you in every lovely summer's day,
In everything that's light and gay,
I'll always think of you that way.
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new.
I'll be looking at the moon,
But I'll be seeing you.

You can hear it sung by Rosemary Clooney. Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, and Frank Sinatra also sang it, but"I'll Be Seeing You" was Hildegarde's signature. Farewell, great lady of song.

In case you got lost somewhere in the great Diamond debate, Scott Jaschik's"‘Guns, Germs and Steel' (and Race and the Web)," Inside Higher Ed, 3 August, is a good summary of it.

Leslie Baldacci,"Flower Deliveries to British Consulate Cloaked in Mystery," Chicago Sun-Times, 2 August, explores the strange commemoration of British and Hanoverian troops who died at the Battle of Minden in Germany during the Seven Years War in 1759. Members of the British regiments still celebrate Minden Day by dipping roses in champagne and then eating them. Thanks to Manan Ahmed for the tip.

Maya Jasanoff,"Secret Signals of Lotus Flowers," London Review of Books, 21 July, reviews Gautam Chakravarti's The Indian Mutiny and the British Imagination. We'll expect to hear from Sepoy at Chapati Mystery about this one. Thanks to Irfan Khawaja for the tip.
Update: Er, Sepoy points out to me that he noticed last week.

At Historiblogography, Linus Kafka goes into the woods with Henry David Thoreau and Walter Gropius."I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life ..." said Thoreau."If it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."

I published"An Open Letter to the OAH's Vicki Ruiz and Lee Formwalt" here at Cliopatria and sent them personal copies of it. Inside Higher Ed linked to it and it is featured on HNN's mainpage this week. Still, I haven't heard from them. O, Vicki, Lee, where are you? On the other hand, my post about the"hobbits of Kentucky" had more productive responses from Jonathan Wilson, The Elfin Ethicist and Jeremy Boggs at ClioWeb. Thanks for all the hobbit sightings!

Finally, I enjoyed having coffee yesterday with The Apocalyptic Historian, Lisa Roy Vox, at Caribou in Emory Village. There are often pleasant surprises in store, when you meet virtual friends in person.