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Posts Archived Under Women
| Missing Mona | By Sarah Latoza
Fri, August 21, 2009, 12:01 am PDT |
"Anybody see the Mona Lisa? She was
hanging there just a minute ago" |
How is it that the most famous painting in the world could simply vanish, its disappearance not noted for 24 hours, and then not be found until nearly two years later? As with most mysteries, the disappearance of the "Mona Lisa" is certainly stranger than fiction.
It was August 21, 1911, when the painting's absence was first noted by Louvre staff. The museum was shut down for a week so that the entire 49-acre facility could be searched. All employees and administrators were ruthlessly questioned by Paris police and many staffers were fired. France's borders were closed and all international shipments were subject to search and seizure. In short, it was the "Crime of the Century" (and offered a convenient distraction from the international conflicts that would evenutally lead to World War I).
When the "Mona Lisa's" disappearance became public, everyone had a theory as to the identity of the perpetrators. Could it be an obsessive American art collector? An angry anti-establishment poet? A foreign conman and art forger? Or maybe it was the world’s foremost artist, Pablo Picasso. Picasso was actually questioned by police after being implicated by his friend and fellow suspect Guillaume Apollinaire, but both were eventually exonerated.
For hunt continued for two years, but the trail went cold. In late 1913, however, Italian authorities arrested a former Louvre employee named Vincenzo Peruggia. Peruggia had been turned in by two local art experts (one the director of the Uffizi Gallery) after he attempted to sell the "Mona Lisa" in Florence. Peruggia's motive was political: he was angered by the plunder of Italian artwork more than a century before during the Napoleonic Wars and was attempting to restore the painting to its rightful homeland. Peruggia was convicted by an Italian court, but served minimal time and eventually returned to Paris. Embarrassed by the publicity surrounding the painting's theft and rediscovery, French art authorities allowed the "Mona Lisa" to tour Italy before she was returned to the Louvre, where she remains to this day.
Even today, the "Mona Lisa" continues to evoke strong emotions. In 1956, two separate vandals attempted to damage the painting by throwing acid and a rock at it. Several years later, the painting was encased in bulletproof glass, which helped protect Mona in 1974, when another vandal tried to spray her with red paint. And just last week, a woman gained publicity (and probably jail time) by hurling a ceramic mug at poor Mona. Meanwhile, the success of the book and film "The DaVinci Code" (as well as other books) has renewed interest in that enigmatic smile (not to mention other features) for whole new generations.
The true story of the theft of the "Mona Lisa" may not be as exciting as something out of "The DaVinci Code," but it is certainly has its own elements that would make any mystery fan proud: scandal, celebrity, politics, and some good old-fashioned detective work.
Suggested Sites...
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Directory categories:
Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci, Le Louvre, Stolen Art, French History |
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Archived under: 1910s, Anniversaries, Art Museums, Artists, Arts, Crime, Criminals, Da Vinci Code, Detectives, Disappearances, Europe, European History, France, History, Images, Italy, Louvre, Museums, Mysteries, Secrets, Tourist Attractions, Women |
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The finished products --
a carnivore's delight
(Photo by jessbess1)
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Two chefs were born on August 15, but one couldn't have reached his television stardom without the trailblazing work of the other. Last week. I celebrated the birthdays of my two favorite chefs -- Julia Child and Tom Colicchio -- by hosting a steak cook-off in my apartment using recipes from each chef.
I usually don't need much excuse to eat steak, but I haven't actually ever made it myself because the smoke alarm system in my studio apartment likes to go off at any semblance of real cooking. For Tom and Julia, though, the risk of smoking out my apartment (from the amount of butter used in each recipe) was well worth it.
Tom Colicchio is famed for his Craft restaurants and steakhouses, and in the past few years, he's reached heartthrob status with fans of the Bravo television show, "Top Chef." His recipe for steak with potatoes, which I actually found in the "Esquire Recipes for Men" (and don’t get me started on that questionable title), calls for hanger steak. But since there's only one hanger steak on each cow (hence driving up the price), I opted for a ribeye cut instead. Tom had me sear the steak in canola oil and baste it with butter and thyme. Think that's overkill? Never. Tom then instructs us to cook bacon in the same skillet and fry the potatoes in the delicious combination of fat.
It seemed like the butter bath in Tom's steak might be hard to beat -- it gave the steak a beautiful, brown crust. But when my three tasters cut into Julia's pan-broiled steak, the decision was unanimous. Julia also had me sear the steak in a combination of butter and oil, but the crowning glory of her steak was a simple pan sauce deglazed with beef broth, white vermouth, and (what else?) unconscionable amounts of butter.
The pan sauce was smooth, beefy, and luxurious. The best part was that it took only about five minutes to make the sauce. We raised our glasses to Julia and Tom -- and to the smoke alarm that miraculously stayed silent through our whole meal.
If you want to have a steak-off of your own, check out Tom's and Julia's recipes for steak au poivre. In Julia's words, "Bon appetit!"
Suggested Sites...
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Directory categories:
Julia Child, Tom Colicchio, Steakhouses, Beef, French Recipes |
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Archived under: Authors, Bacon, Beef, Birthdays, Celebrities, Chefs, Coincidence, Cooking, Eating, France, Homemade, How-To, In Character, Meat, Men, Recipes, Restaurants, Steak, Women |
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The women of the Capital
Punishment roller derby
tournament (Photo
by Michelle Tribe) |
Remember your first pair of roller skates? As you wobbled along, you probably didn't consider the experience a precursor to a future foray into contact sports (aside from contact with the sidewalk, perhaps). For some, it's just a hop, skip, and a roll from the safe sidewalk to the raucous roller rink. The sport of roller derby is making a comeback, and women in particular are lacing up old-fashioned four-wheel skates, donning helmets, and engaging in some serious competition.
The rules of roller derby aren't especially complex: "jammers" score points by passing "pivots" and "blockers." The spectacle of the sport comes mainly from the shoves and spills the skaters endure. A decades-old phenomenon, roller derby grew out of the tradition of endurance races early in the 20th century. The first "Transcontinental Roller Derby" took place on August 13, 1935 at the Chicago Coliseum. Less brutal than the endurance race that, years earlier, had killed at least one participant, this Derby went on for weeks and covered 3,000 miles, the distance from Boston to San Diego.
Since then, roller derby has come in and out of fashion, and public interest in the bouts as spectator sports has waxed and waned. In recent years, more teams and leagues have formed, with an emphasis on community, sportsmanship, and fun. There’s even an upcoming feature film directed by Drew Barrymore that frames a young woman's coming-of-age story around roller derby.
With the known benefits of participation in team sports, and talk of roller sports being included in the Olympics, it may not be far-fetched to see this burgeoning sport playing a role in shaping a girl's future.
Suggested Sites...
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Directory categories:
Roller Derby, Roller Derby Leagues and Teams, Skating Rinks, Drew Barrymore, Women's Sports |
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Archived under: 1930s, American History, Contests, Hobbies, Roller Skating, Society and Culture, Sports, Women, Women's Sports |
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Phoebe Ann Mosey,
aka Annie Oakley |
She could split a playing card through the side with a single shot, advocated for women to defend themselves with firearms, and was adopted by the Sioux holy man, Sitting Bull, who called her "Watanya Cicilla," or "Little Sure Shot." She was Annie Oakley, and she was born this week nearly a century and a half ago.
She become known worldwide for her sharpshooting skills and inspired numerous stage productions, films, and even a TV show. Perhaps the most well known of these was "Annie Get Your Gun," the musical written by Irving Berlin, Herbert Fields, and his sister Dorothy Fields.
Unfortunately, that musical (which was also turned into an Academy Award-winning film) turned Annie from an independent young woman who dug her family out of poverty and shared in an equal partnership with her husband Frank Butler, into a lovesick hillbilly who threw a match just to snag her jealous and overly sensitive rival. Actually, it was Butler who was the love-struck one; he married Oakley inside of a year, and eventually gave up his own performing career to manage Oakley's as she toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
Oakley's road to stardom wasn't exactly smooth, however. At 26, she was challenged by a 15 year-old rival named Lillian Smith, who clashed with Oakley in everything from dress to choice of firearm. Smith eventually left the show, unable to command the same crowds, and Oakley returned. Later, Oakley was slandered by one of William Randolph Hearst's newspapers, with a false story that she had been arrested for stealing (to support a cocaine habit). She spent the next six years suing several newspapers for libel, winning 54 of 55 of her cases. In 1922, she was in a severe car accident with Butler, forcing her to wear a steel brace on her leg. In spite of that, she continued to set records following the accident, although eventually died of pernicious anemia in 1926.
Since Annie Oakley, there have been other women known for their skill with weapons, including numerous fictional ones: Lara Croft, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Xena. But the real-life Annie Oakley was a pioneer and truly in a league of her own.
Suggested Sites...
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Directory categories:
Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Get Your Gun, Women's History, The American West |
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Archived under: 1920s, 19th Century, American History, Biographies, Birthdays, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Celebrities, Cowboys and Cowgirls, Entertainment, Guns, History, Musicals, Old West, The West, Women |
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Lizzie Borden in 1889 --
three years before the murder |
Thousands of American girls grew up jumping rope to the following rhyme:
Lizzie Borden took an axe / And gave her mother forty whacks / And when she saw what she had done / She gave her father forty-one.
A bit grim for the playground, isn't it? Well, maybe not in comparison to "Ring around the Rosie" (allegedly) or "In Flew Enza." And so, numerous children grew up believing Lizzie Borden to be a notorious axe murderer who killed her parents in cold blood.
But did she really commit those murders? Certainly, when Andrew and Abigail Borden were found bludgeoned to death on August 4, 1892 in the small town of Fall River, Massachusetts, evidence pointed to Lizzie and she was arrested. The bad relationship between Lizzie and her parents was well-known, with Lizzie and her sister Emma living in separate quarters from their father and stepmother (their biological mother had died years before). The family had split over changes Andrew Borden had made to his will in recent years, and Lizzie had never gotten along with Abigail. Lizzie had also made an effort before the murders to purchase prussic acid (similar to cyanide) from a local pharmacy, but was turned down. Similarly, she and the family maid Bridget Sullivan were the only ones home during the murder, and Lizzie was actually the one to discover her father's dead body. The hatchet that was supposedly the murder weapon was found in the Bordens’ basement.
But the 1890s were a time of limited technology and forensic science was just emerging as a legitimate field. No fingerprints were taken at the murder scene or from the hatchet. No blood was discovered on Lizzie herself, although a few days after the murders, she mysteriously burned a dress. But this, along with all the other evidence, was purely circumstantial. Additionally, this was Victorian New England, and the all-male jury was probably disinclined to believe a young middle-class woman had the stamina or the will to kill her own parents. She was acquitted after less than two hours of jury deliberation.
In the years that followed, Lizzie tried her best to live down the infamy now linked to her name. She moved out of town, changed her name, and found new friends. No one else was ever arrested or charged with the murders, and it's not likely the truth will ever be revealed. But like all mysteries, everyone has a theory. Alternative suspects include Bridget the maid, angry at her working conditions; Lizzie's sister Emma; and Andrew Borden's (alleged) illegitimate son. Others have supposed that Lizzie killed her parents during an epileptic blackout and was thus unaware of her own guilt. Another theory has Lizzie committing the murders, not out of greed or resentment of her stepmother, but because she was trying to cover up a secret lesbian relationship her parents had unwittingly discovered. There's also the theory that Lizzie killed her parents after years of repressing the childhood abuse her father had once inflicted upon her.
Whatever the truth may be, Lizzie Borden is still assured a place in infamy -– and on the playground.
Suggested Sites...
- Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast - setting of those infamous murders offers accommodations, tours, and a museum. It's also supposedly one of the most haunted sites in America.
- Tattered Fabric - blog devoted to news and history related to the Lizzie Borden case.
- The Hatchet - the Journal of Lizzie Borden studies.
- "Lizzie Borden" - the song that reminds us that "you can't chop your papa up in Massachusetts."
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Directory categories:
Lizzie Borden, Unsolved Crimes, Criminal Justics, 19th Century, Massachusetts History |
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Archived under: 19th Century, American History, Anniversaries, Crime, Criminals, History, Legal Cases, Murder, Mysteries, Mythology and Folklore, United States, Unsolved Crimes, Urban Legends, Women |
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