What great AMERICAN JOY-GIVER said this? “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. It makes her feel as if she were independent…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”
Give up? That joyous comment was from stern-faced, strident-voiced, hellbent-for-reform Susan B. Anthony. Yes, the fierce, unsmiling woman on the U.S. Mint dollar coin.
I included Anthony in this 2021 roster of 365 American joy-givers because she helped so many females achieve freedoms like the right to vote and the joy of being valued equal to males. But occasionally, her face transformed from grimly determined to a joyful grin. So, along with basketballer Michael Jordan and horse racing jockey Eddie Arcaro, who were also born this week, we are celebrating the famous bicycle enthusiast, Miss Anthony, and others at “The Good Sports Birthday Party.”
Churchill Downs, the Mecca of American horse-racing which hosts the Kentucky Derby each spring, is our festive venue. But for “The Good Sports Birthday Party,” we are having a joyful, relaxing, bicycle ride, not a competition.
Join us…
You sense the joy the minute you enter the party tent in the “Winners Circle.” An American beauty rose in a sterling silver, mint julep cup is at each celebrant’s place setting. HOORAY FOR THE JOY-GIVERS! (Note: The comments attributed to these famous joy-givers come from words they have written or said.)
Please give A ROUND OF APPLAUSE for these American joy-givers celebrating a birthday this week:
Feb. 13—GRANT WOOD, painter of one of the most iconic works of art created in our country, “American Gothic,” and other Regionalist treasures depicting the rural or small-town American Midwest- My personal favorites of his paintings are the smug matrons of “Daughters of Revolution” in the Cincinnati Art Museum. (The Grant Wood Bicycle Trail begins in Marion, Iowa.)
Feb. 14—JACK BENNY (born Benjamin Kubelsky in 1894), comedic entertainer known for his exquisite comic timing with the gift of causing laughter with his pregnant pauses or a single expression, his decades-long jokes of being a miser, playing the violin poorly and continuing to be 39 years old regardless of his real age all, of which are golden, comedy treasures. (You can “google” images of Benny riding a bicycle—cheap transportation and good exercise.)
Feb. 14—RENEE’ FLEMING, one of the greatest operatic sopranos of all time, (raised in Rochester, New York as was another birthday girl, uh woman, Anthony)- Both of her parents were music teachers. Even if, like me, you think opera is not often “your thing,” YouTube her COVID-era concert, “LIVE at Carnegie Hall” and be prepared to have your joy lifted to the rafters. She has 17 Grammy nominations and four wins. During the COVID pandemic, with performance halls shuttered, Renee’ told reporters she was “taking long walks outdoors and riding my electric bicycle.”
Feb. 15—SUSAN B. ANTHONY, social reformer and women’s rights activist who played a pivotal role in the suffrage movement which ultimately led to the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote (1920). Miss Anthony (she never married nor had children) maintained a spartan lifestyle and did not seek personal financial gain from her crusades. The U.S. Postal Service commemorated her valiant and tireless efforts with a stamp in 1936 and the U.S. Mint issued the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin in 1979 (many remain in circulation).
Feb. 16—LEVAR BURTON (Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr.) born in West Germany, the award-winning children’s television host of “READING RAINBOW,” and featured actor as Kunta Kinte in the ground-breaking PBS miniseries “ROOTS” (1977) and as Commander Geordi La Forge in “STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION.” (“THE BICYCLE MAN,” narrated by Tom Matsusaka, is one of the most-popular installments of Burton’s “Reading Rainbow,” (1990); the book tells of an American soldier who visits Japan and performs amazing tricks on a bicycle.)
Feb. 17—MICHAEL JORDAN, professional basketball entertainer and the principal owner of the Charlotte Hornets. Many consider him “The Greatest Basketball Player of All-Time” doing much to popularize the game in the 1980s and 1990s. He is the fourth richest African-American in the U.S. after Robert F. Smith, David Steward and Oprah Winfrey. (Jordan grew up in Washington, D.C. riding his bicycle to every basketball court in the city to learn from the best.)
Feb. 18—LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY, acclaimed artist and designer in the decorative arts best known for his works in dazzling, colorful stained glass- the first design director of his family’s business, Tiffany & Co. (There is a Tiffany & Co. customized bicycle from 1896 in the National Museum of American History. It has a bejeweled monogram and belonged to an Alabamian—Mrs. M.N. Wiley of Montgomery.)
Feb. 19—EDDIE ARCARO, thoroughbred horse-racing jockey, won more American classic races than any other jockey in history and the only rider to win the U.S. Triple Crown twice. (Years before he raced horses, he rode bicycles.)
COMMENTS OVERHEARD AT “The Good Sports Birthday Party” for American joy-givers:
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my basketball career. I’ve lost almost 300 games; 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”—Michael Jordan
“Forget conventionalisms; forget what the world thinks of you stepping out of your place; think your best thoughts, speak your best words, work your best works, looking to your own conscience for approval.”—Susan B. Anthony
“I fly my geek flag proudly. Absolutely.”—LeVar Burton
“Everybody is a work in progress. I’m a work in progress. I mean, I’ve never arrived. I’m still learning all the time.”—Renee’ Fleming
“I’m not out there sweating for three hours a day just to find out what it feels like to sweat.”—Michael Jordan
“All the really good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.”—Grand Wood
“Someone once said that there are probably seven naturally good, singing days in a year, and those are days you won’t be booked. What we must learn is how to sing through all the other days.”—Renee’ Fleming
“I think reading is part of the birthright of the human being.”—LeVar Burton
“You have to remember about seventy percent of horses don’t want to win. Horses are like people. Everybody doesn’t have the aggressiveness or ambition to know himself or herself out to become a success.”—Eddie Arcaro
“God has given us talents, not to copy the talents of others, but rather to use our brains and imagination in order to obtain the revelation of true beauty.”—Louis Comfort Tiffany
“Technique does not constitute art. Nor is it a vague, fuzzy romantic quality known as ‘beauty,’ remote from the realities of everyday life. It is the depth and intensity of an artist’s experience that are the first importance in art.”—Grant Wood
“I don’t want to be somebody who stands still and sings pretty. Each song is a world. Each song is a story. I don’t achieve nearly what I want.”—Renee’ Fleming
“When I give a concert, the tickets sell for five dollars to one hundred dollars, but the five-dollar seats are down front…the farther you go back, the more you have to pay. The hundred-dollar seats are the back two rows, and those seats sell like hotcakes! In fact, if you pay two hundred dollars you don’t have to come at all.”—Jack Benny
“My cranky, old friend, Fred Allen, said that when I play the violin it sounds like the strings are still in the cat.”—Jack Benny
“In a way, being an opera singer is like being a very romantic sixteen-year-old who falls in love with great passion and conviction, every month.”—Renee’ Fleming
“It is my dearest wish to help young artists of our country…and to assist them in establishing themselves in the art world.”—Louis Comfort Tiffany
“In reality, I don’t want to grow up.”—Michael Jordan
“The older I get, the greater power I seem to have to help the world. I am like a snowball—the farther I am rolled, the more I gain.”—Susan B. Anthony
“Once a guy starts wearing silk pajamas it’s harder to get up early.”—Eddie Arcaro
“If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it or work around it.”—Michael Jordan
“I cannot imagine a more satisfying calling than my own: beauty, humanity and history every day, combined with the cathartic joy of singing.”—Renee’ Fleming
“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”—Susan B. Anthony
“All literature is political…For me, literacy means freedom. For the individual and for society.”—LeVar Burton
“Color is to the eye what music is to the ear.”—Louis Comfort Tiffany
“As long as we are engaged in storytelling that moves the culture forward, it doesn’t matter what format it is.”—LeVar Burton
“Alexander the Great, Caesar, Napoleon, all had great moments, but they never tasted the supreme triumph of being a farm boy riding in from the fields on a bulging rack of new-mown hay.”—Grant Wood
“Nothing is hopeless if it is right.”—Susan B. Anthony
“I can accept failure; everyone fails at something. But I cannot accept not trying…I don’t show up to play, I show up to win.”—Michael Jordan
“I’m not interested in retirement. When a jockey retires, he just becomes another little man.”—Eddie Arcaro
“Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you’re a cheese. Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”—Jack Benny
PARTY MENU for “The Good Sports Birthday Party:”
APPETIZERS—Eddie Arcaro “Angels on Horseback” (simplyrecipes.com); also Michael Jordan Hoop Cheese with Susan Bee Anthony Honey (siouxhoney.com)
SALAD—LeVar Burton Rainbow Salad, super-colorful, delicious and nutritious (allrecipes.com)
ENTRÉE—Tiffany & Company’s Blue Box Café Club Sandwich (tiffany.com)
SOUP—Biker Beans (see recipe below)
BEVERAGE—Jack Benny’s Good & Cheap Tap Water (homemade)
DESSERT—The Renee’ Fleming Golden Chiffon Cake (bakepedia.com) with Grant Wood Fresh Hay Ice Cream (greatbritishchefs.com)
PARTY MUSIC:
Benny, who really is a gifted violinist, accompanies Fleming on two songs she performed at the Mass of Thanksgiving during last month’s U.S .President Inauguration: “Ave Maria,” and “America The Beautiful.”
ONE TO GROW ON: To grow your knowledge of the complexity of joy-giving artist Wood, the man and his masterworks, the 2010 biography, “GRANT WOOD: A LIFE” by R. Tripp Evans is a great place to start. Wood presented himself as a plain, simple farmer who was a self-taught painter. In reality, he was classically trained, and during the 1920s in France, he enjoyed a Bohemian, Parisian lifestyle.
At the end of “The Good Sports Birthday Party,” each of the American joy-givers rides a new bicycle, a gift from billionaire Jordan, around the racetrack at Churchill Downs. Then, they toast each other, congratulating the achievements and contributions of each to America. When he acknowledges the compliments, Benny says, “I don’t deserve all this praise, but I have arthritis and I don’t deserve that either.”
Please give A ROUND OF APPLAUSE for these American joy-givers in their birthday week!
BIKER BEANS
(source: recipecircus.com)
This protein-packed recipe is like the lovechild of chili and baked beans and is very popular with long-distance bicycle enthusiasts who often reheat it over a campfire.
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup ketchup
- 1/3 cup Heinz 57 sauce
- 1/3 cup Lea and Perrin sauce
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 red pepper (chopped and roasted)
- 1 green pepper (chopped and roasted)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 lbs. ground beef
- 1 (16 oz.) can Great Northern beans
- 1 (16 oz.) can Pinto beans
Directions:
- Sauté the beef, onions, peppers and garlic.
- Then, add the beans and liquid ingredients
- Stir and simmer (ADD NO WATER) until thick, approximately two hours.
- Refrigerate overnight if cycling tomorrow. Reheat over a campfire on your excursion.
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