March 2009 - Page 2 of 2 - Richard M. Langworth

President Obama and the Churchill Bust – Out

4 March 2009 Comments 0 Comments

James Kirkup reported in the March 2nd Telegraph that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was presenting the President with "a first edition of Sir Martin Gilbert's seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill." ("Seven volumes" was a typo; Sir Martin was short Volume V, but Chartwell Booksellers in New York City helped him out and the full eight volumes were delivered.) So now, effectively, "Winston is Back" in the White House, and President Obama has arguably more Churchilliana than President Bush had.

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Eleuthera Byways: The Queen’s Baths

3 March 2009 Comments 1 Comment

PoOn the Queen’s Highway a few miles north of Gregory Town, about 300 yards before the Glass Window bridge, pull off the road across from a sandy track leading up the hill toward the Atlantic on your right. You can’t miss it: the Ministry of Tourism has recently erected a marker. You’ve arrived at the Queen’s Baths.

Walk up toward the Atlantic as the bush thins out and the sand takes over. Soon the sand thins and you’re walking on bare coral. Watch your step to avoid the uneven surface and pockmarked holes. As you approach the ocean, work your way to the left (north), keeping Harbour Island on the horizon ahead of you.…

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Eleuthera Byways: Edwin’s Fishlake

3 March 2009 Comments 1 Comment

First published in The Eleutheran, September 2008; Edwin’s Turtle Lake Marine Preserve, with a fine new dock and the bottle shack restored in December 2014.

Edwin’s of old

Three miles south of Governor’s Harbour, on the right side at the S-bends as the road plunges toward Palmetto Point, is a large saltwater lake. Passersby who stop to investigate will find the remains of a curious shed built of mortar and beer bottles, the amber, green and clear glass sorted by colour, bottoms facing out. A few yards away, obscured by bush and weathered by the years, was a wooden sign whose words were just legible:

Edwin’s Fishing Lake

Established March 10th 1954

The First Fishlake of the Bahamas

Over 20,000 fish of 32 varieties have

been placed in this lake.…

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“Correrai Ancor Piu Veloce…” Beverly Rae Kimes 1941-2008

3 March 2009 Comments 0 Comments

None who read it will ever forget "Man on Fire!": Beverly Kimes’s biography of Tazio Nuvolari. It was one of those signal experiences when you remember where you were. I read it in galleys on the "Broadway Limited" en route to Chicago: started in Newark and put it down somewhere west of Harrisburg. She wound up with the legend on the great racing driver's tombstone: Correrai ancor piu veloce per le vie del cielo. (You will travel faster still upon the highways of heaven.) "Ah Tazio," she ended: "Godspeed." And that's all that really matters in the end: thoughts of old and good times, which eventually blot out the last sad ones. Ah Bev...Godspeed.

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Albert Finney in “The Gathering Storm”

2 March 2009 Comments 3 Comments

“The Gathering Storm,” a film for television produced by BBC Films and HBO Inc.. Starring Albert Finney as Winston Churchill and Vanessa Redgrave as Clementine. First aired April 2002, 90 minutes.

Churchill films seldom engender unanimity. But everyone who watched the preview, by kind invitation of the British Consul in Boston, had the same reaction. “The Gathering Storm” is really good. Even in a cynical and anti-hero age, filmmakers still can avoid reducing Churchill to a flawed burlesque or a godlike caricature. Except for huge gap in the story line, “The Gathering Storm” is outstanding.…

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