Important stuff you should know.

I haven’t posted in this category for a long time ... way back in August when I wrote about Remembering Krakatoa. I’m long overdue, and here’s what you’ve been waiting for. I hope.

Theologian, musician, philosopher and Nobel Prize-winning physician Albert Schweitzer was born on this date in 1875 in Upper-Alsace, Germany. Schweitzer was the ultimate over-achiever. Initially attracted to missionary work, he first earned a Ph.D. in Theology and then toured professionally as a concert organist to put himself through medical school. After earning his M.D. Schweitzer and his wife moved to Equatorial Africa and founded a hospital to treat lepers and victims of African sleeping-sickness. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for his lifelong philosophy that all human life deserves to be respected and loved. He also had one hell of a mustache.

Also ... Marilyn Monroe and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio were married on this date in 1954. Their union lasted 274 days but actually started to fall apart while they were still honeymooning. Apparently DiMaggio, who was clearly no Albert Schweitzer, became insanely jealous that Marilyn was receiving so much attention from men. No kidding ... he didn’t notice this BEFORE he married her?

And finally, on this date in 1943 Franklin Roosevelt became the first president to travel by air on official U.S. business. Already a frail 60 years old, in the midst of World War II Roosevelt flew halfway around the world on a Boeing 314 called the “Dixie Clipper” to meet with Winston Churchill in Casablanca, Morocco. The secret 17,000-mile round trip took four days each way with stopovers in the Caribbean, Brazil and Gambia. Sightseeing in Casablanca included drinks at Rick’s Cafe and a quick mombo with Ingrid Bergman. Nobody lost Roosevelt’s luggage.

I’m going to take an extremely hot shower now because I’m freezing. If that doesn’t work I’ll probably go sit in the closet and run my industrial-size clothes steamer for a while. Seriously, that sentence isn’t really as weird as it sounds. The walk-in closet in our master bedroom is big enough to sleep a family of four and we have a huge upholstered bench in there so we can sit down to put on shoes and socks. Our closet is actually quite a comfortable destination aside from the fact that it has no snack bar or windows. Thank you for reading this.