The print format of the latest Literary Hatchet (#5) is now available for sale!
At only $8.50, this literary magazine is chocked-full of short stories, poetry, and art.
You can download a copy for FREE at the website of the Literary Hatchet.
You can purchase a print copy at this link!
On Tuesday, August 3rd, at 6:30-7:30 pm, at the Fall River Public Library (basement meeting room), author Richard Behrens will be doing a book reading of his latest work, Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective.
The event is Free and open to the public. The reading is appropriate for all ages.
Light refreshments will be served.
The Pear Essential Players will also be present to introduce their characters for the reenactment scheduled at the Lizzie Borden B&B on the anniversary of the murders, August 4th.
photo courtesy of Lizzie Borden Warps & Wefts
This has to be a record for invoking the name and story of Lizzie Borden, on her 150th birthday no less, in describing current affairs. It is quite the tour de force!
Way to go Bernie!
From The Daily Caller:
Axing economic growth
2:19 PM 07/19/2010Today marks the 150th birthday of Lizzie Borden, the Massachusetts spinster who was accused of brutally murdering her father and stepmother with a hatchet on August 4, 1892. Lizzie’s fame soared during the nationally publicized courtroom drama, the O.J. Simpson trial of its day. Despite incriminating circumstances and inconsistent testimony from the accused, the prosecutors were hampered by their failure to incontrovertibly produce a murder weapon or blood evidence tying Lizzie to the crime, and she was acquitted after only an hour and a half of jury deliberations. Amid widespread public belief in her guilt, Lizzie went on to become an American Folklore legend, her notoriety sealed by the children’s rhyme coined by an anonymous newspaper reporter:
Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.The stock market got whacked last Friday, primarily due to fears of the impact of financial regulatory reform on bank profits. This week, despite the prospect of strong corporate earnings, the indexes remain trapped in a trading range, partially due to investor concerns that pending government actions are going to take a blunt axe to global economic growth. EU countries appear determined to chop spending while simultaneously taking a bigger slice of taxpayer paychecks, and the American political climate has shifted markedly in favor of the deficit hawks. If governments on either side of the Atlantic go through with their stated intention to reduce deficit spending, (and it must be admitted that it’s far from certain that they will) the drag on economic growth is likely to be considerable. Fears of economic contraction continue to grow, and after two years of pundit histrionics over the inevitable return of severe inflationary pressures, public gaze has begun to shift towards the truly frightening prospect of deflation. Macroeconomic headwinds are clearly eroding investor confidence.
That confidence was in recovery mode as the Eurozone debt crisis receded from front pages worldwide, but the European bank stress tests are creating anxiety for some investors. The jury is still out on the results, which are expected at the end of the week, and while observers will be watching closely to see what kind of haircuts are taken for holdings of sovereign debt, it seems highly unlikely that any major banks will be wind up on the chopping block. The muted reaction of European markets in recent sessions is evidence that the whisper numbers are benign and unfortunately, that leaves the potential for downside pressure should those tests unexpectedly reveal serious problems.
In light of those worries, this week’s earnings reports will have to be spectacular to move the market significantly higher. Investors are aware that corporate managers have cut expenses to the bone, and they remain haunted by a lack of topline revenue growth. With trillions in cash still on the sidelines, it is clear that corporate managers and individual investors generally lack faith that the hoped-for recovery will materialize in the near future. Potential rallies will require a significant infusion of those hoarded piles of cash if they are to stand a ghost of a chance at success.
It is said that ghosts inhabit the site of the Borden murders in Fall River, Massachusetts, named by the Travel Channel as the scariest place on earth. In recent years, the Borden home has been turned into a bed and breakfast, allowing those with a taste for the macabre to spend a night communing with the spirits of those involved in the terrible events of that long ago day. Fascination with the Borden murders remains high and Lizzie herself still looms large in American popular culture. Her notoriety has spawned dozens of books, dramas, television shows, and even a musical engagingly entitled “Lizzie Borden: A Musical Tragedy in Two Axe”. Rather than fading into the mists of history, that steady stream of media attention has ensured that more than a century after their bloody occurrence, the murders themselves remain America’s most famous hatchet job.
Bernie McSherry is senior vice president for strategic initiatives at Cuttone & Company.
Happy Birthday Lizzie Borden! Born on July 19th in 1860, you would have been 150 years old today.
The newest issue of the FREE online literary journal, The Literary Hatchet, is online for your reading pleasure.
Please visit The Literary Hatchet to download your free copy today!
In this issue, we offer you wonderful pieces by David Marshall James, Eugene Hosey, Elaine Barnard, Brenda Kern, Mark Sashine, Denise Noe, and Kathleen Carbone. We have poetry by Ada Jill Schneider, Aurora Lewis, Michael Brimbau, Fran O’Donnell, Denise Noe, Lee Glantz, grim k. de evil, and Kat Koorey. Quite a collection, if I do say so myself! Enjoy!
The For Sale sign is gone now. It was removed from the front yard of Maplecroft as quietly as it was placed. The current owner was asking a whopping $885,000 for the place—a price well over market value, regardless of its historic significance.
While I cannot say for certain the house was not sold, I do have lots of experience with Maplecroft’s owner’s fickle nature. Usually, Maplecroft goes on the market yearly, just about the time August 4th rolls around and tourists descend on Fall River for the fabulous reenactment at the Lizzie Borden B&B. I suppose the thinking is that this period of time would be the best chance of selling the house to a Lizzie Borden visitor. Since August 4th is just around the corner, I expect that sign to reemerge and appear once again.
Wonder what the price will be this time . . .
In addition to posting three dust jacket blurbs from the soon-to-be-published book Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River, the curator of the Fall River Historical Society has added yet another Lizzie Borden tantalizing tidbit to their web page. This one is a true mystery.
The clues are thus:
1. an important figure in the life of Lizzie Borden
2. Lizzie never forgot her kindnesses
3. Lizzie held her memory dear
Hmmmm. Who do you think it is?
“The Bank” purchased the old Abbey Grill last year and has now put the structure up for sale. You can purchase it for almost $300,000 less than Maplecroft!
Click on the image to see a larger version of it.
I think, along with former City Counselor Steve Camara, that this would make a great disco! Someone with vision and money, please purchase this great building before it gets demolished for a darned parking lot!
It is on the National Register of Historic Buildings, so there might be federal money in this for you to rehab!
The sign went up today. 306 French Street, the former home of Lizzie Borden and her sister Emma following Lizzie’s acquittal for the murder of her father and her stepmother in 1892, is once again for sale.
Last August, the sale price was much lower. In the $600,000 range. Now it is a whopping $885,000.
In my opinion, the house is over priced by at least $300,000. But then, you are buying a piece of history. So give the owner a call, set up an appointment, and tour Maplecroft (with the intent of purchase, of course). 508-673-8088.
Today’s Fall River Herald News features an interesting piece about graphologist Janice Warren and her interpretation of Lizzie Borden’s character from analyzing her writing.
In summarizing Borden, Warren said she was highly emotional, which could be masked by her staunch pride and perfectionism. Her lofty goals to live among the city’s high society on the hill, combined with her weak self-direction and plight as a woman in a male dominated society set the stage for acute frustration. Her philosophy also appeared to deviate from the accepted norm. “Couple all this with her extreme contentiousness and temper and add her fear of losing her inheritance and ending up in a poor house and the stage is set,” she said.
To see how your handwriting stacks up against the rich and famous, join Warren on Friday, June 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the Christ Church, 57 Main St., in Swansea. The event, a fundraiser for the church’s outreach projects, costs $5. Tickets are available at the door or in advance by calling 508-678-6486.
I, too, analyze handwriting and know that you can only tell the personality of the person at the time of writing, and should not make judgments about the long-term behavior of anyone with graphology. It is best to analyze people you do not know, as the history of a person can play into the reading without one even being aware of it. My most accurate analysis was always done on handwriting where the person was either an acquaintance or a stranger.
I realize that Ms. Warren is an expert and master, so my little talent from years of self-study probably would not come close to her abilities. I am eager to see what she has to say, and look forward to meeting her in person during her talk Friday night. I have much to learn and am particularly fascinated by handwriting analysis as a tool for not only character study, but self-investigation.
The great American opera composer Jack Beeson has died at the age of 88.
This from the Eugene Opera Company blog:
Beeson’s next opera, Lizzie Borden, again based on an American subject, was commissioned by the Ford Foundation for the New York City Opera. Lizzie Borden tells the familiar story with less emphasis on the ax murders than on “the psychological climate that made them inevitable”, according to critic Robert Sherman. In American Opera Librettos, Andrew H. Drummond writes, “This opera has an obvious dramatic effectiveness in which a clear and direct development with tightly drawn characterization leads to a powerful climax.” New York City Opera premiered Lizzie Borden in 1965, and it was produced for television by the National Educational Television Network in 1967 using the original cast. A new NYCO production opened in March 1999 and was telecast by PBS.
A detailed biography can be found at Boosey & Hawkes.
On Saturday, June 5, 2010, Richard Behrens did a book signing and reading of his new book, Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective. It was well attending and book sales were brisk!
If you couldn’t be there, you can now, courtesy of the internet. I have posted the entire reading on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.
If you would like to order a copy of the book, please visit the book’s website here.
A great piece by Deb Allard appeared today regarding the reading and book signing this Saturday of Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective by Richard Behrens.
This Saturday, June 5, 2010, the Fall River Historical Society is hosting a book signing and reading of Richard Behrens’ new book, Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective.
From noon until 2:30. 451 Rock Street, Fall River, MA. Fall River Historical Society. Reading will take place in the garden at 1:00.
From the back cover:
The newest issue of The Hatchet: A Journal of Lizzie Borden & Victorian Studies is now available in print format!
For details on its contents, please visit the Hatchet site.
Order your print copy today, for only $14.95 + shipping, from our print-on-demand partner here!
Here is the Table of Contents from the latest issue (click to see larger images):
