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  HARLEY HAHN NEWSLETTER
           #62

     January 22, 2010

===========================


"Happiness won't make you happy."

 -- Harley Hahn


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Writing+Art: Claudette Bass
===========================

Last week I decided to make a list of all my
friends.

While making the list, I saw the names of many
people I hadn't talked with in a while and I
resolved to get in touch with them, one at a time,
over the next few months.  For some reason, I
started with Claudette Bass, a writer whom I
hadn't talked to in several years.

Before calling her, I searched for her name online
and -- to my surprise -- found out that she had
died almost two years ago.  This saddened me, and
I began to search for her work to see what I
could find.

What I came up with was a lovely poem -- "March
Wind in June"-- that reminded me of one of my
paintings, so I put them together and created a
Web page for Claudette, to serve, at least in
part, as a belated memorial.

"I met Claudette in the late winter of 1976, while
I was traveling in Europe. She had inherited some
money from her mother and was using it to see the
world.  Claudette was an unusual sight, gamely
dragging several pieces of luggage across Europe,
all by herself, to the most unlikely places. ..."

"March Wind in June":
  http://www.harley.com/art/writing+art/march-wind-in-june/

The painting by itself:
  http://www.harley.com/art/paintings/
    a-spoonful-of-medicine.html
=============================================== Martin Luther King and Other Interesting People =============================================== Earlier this week, the United States celebrated Martin Luther King Day in honor of the American clergyman and activist who, since his assassination in 1968, has become an enduring civil rights icon. King's birthday was January 15 and, since 1992, the U.S. has honored his memory by making the third Monday in January a legal public holiday. Over the years, King has been widely honored. (For example, more than 730 U.S. cites have streets named after him.) However, memory fades and, today, most people have trouble remembering King and why his legacy is so interesting and important. "Although the American Civil War legally ended black slavery in America, the prejudices and economic forces left the country with an enduring legacy of discrimination against blacks. As late as the 1950s, the situation of African-Americans was still brutally oppressive..." Interesting People: Martin Luther King http://www.harley.com/people/martin-luther-king.html ================== Interesting People ================== The essay on Martin Luther King is actually part of a larger feature on my Web site called 'Interesting People'. When you get a moment, take a look at the home page, where you'll find a list of people I think are interesting, along with an essay about each one. "An interesting person is one whose life is worth studying for three reasons. First, the person is someone we recognize, someone whose contributions -- for better or for worse -- have had a significant effect on our culture. If we are part of a culture that recognizes such people, we should know something about them. "Second, interesting people intrigue us. We know their names and we wonder about them, so it makes sense to spend a few minutes leaning about them just to satisfy our curiosity. "Finally, interesting people are important to study because doing so has a positive effect on our own lives..." Interesting People: Home Page http://www.harley.com/people/ -- Harley Hahn