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Sam, Uncle → Global Index  → Persons Index
→ 4.22
The following item entitled "What 'Sam' Means" appeared next to "Speech of Gen. Buncum" on p.2, col.7 of The Texas Ranger of April 28, 1855:
Everybody has read of the peregrinations in this country, recently, of an eccentric individual whom the newspapers denominate 'Sam.' It is evident that this mysterious personage is an indefatigable politician, and very fond of visiting the polls. We have been puzzled for a long time to fix his identity – to discover whether he was Sam Houston, Uncle Sam, or some foreign gentleman of distinction who travelled incog. A few days since, we asked a prominent Know-Nothing – a learned Doctor of the order – to explain the mystery, and he expressed his readiness to comply with out request. Whether he has done so in good faith or not, we cannot say; but here is his explanation, which, at least, is ingenious and remarkable. 'Sam,' he said, takes his name from the initial letters of the following formula:
'Septentionalis Americae Magister;'
that is to say S.A.M. means 'Master of North America.' If this is not the true reading of the riddle, it is good enough to be true. It seems to imply that the aforesaid Sam is the 'coming man' of the United States, whose rule no one shall gainsay. Prehaps, however, he is come already; or prehaps he is only 'coming to come.'
The Latin phrase should actually read 'SeptentRionales Americae Magister' as the adjective 'septentrionales' derives from the seven (=septem) brightest stars of the constellation Ursa Major, which form the asterism known as The Plough (triones=oxen used for plowing), a pointer toward the North Star. Polaris itself is, of course, the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor, from which the Greek term 'arktikos' (=near the bear, northern) derives.
| GI

Scarlet Letter, The → Global Index  → Works Index
Hawthorne, Nathanial. The Scarlet Letter. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1850.
Cit. acc. to the Norton Critical Edition of The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings. Ed. Leland S. Person. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005.
→ 9.29-31  [56]
[56]: "it may seem marvelous, that this woman should still call that place her home, where, and where only, she must needs be the type of shame. But t[T]here is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom . . . !, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime; and still the more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it.
From Ch.5 'Hester at Her Needle' [55-61].
|GI

Strange Interlude → Global Index  → Works Index
O'Neill, Eugene, Strange Interlude. New York: H. Liveright, 1928.
Cit. acc. to Nine Plays. New York: Modern Library, 1932.
→ 5.13-5.14  [681]
[681]: "marsden. (paternally—in her father's tone) You had best forget the whole affair of your association with the Gordons. After all, dear Nina, there was something unreal in all that has happened since you first met Gordon Shaw, something extravagant and fantastic, the sort of thing that isn't done, really, in our afternoons. So let's you and me forget the whole distressing episode, regard it as an interlude, of trial and preparation, say, in which our souls have been scraped clean of impure flesh and made worthy to bleach in peace.
nina. (with a strange smile) Strange interlude! Yes, o[O]ur lives are merely strange dark interludes in the electrical display of God the Father! (Resting her head on his shoulder) Your're so restful, Charlie. I feel as if I were a girl again and you were my father and the Charlie of those days made into one."
From the End of Act XI.
|FM

Sullivan, Ed(ward Vincent) (1901-1974) → Global Index  → Persons Index
Host of CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show (aka The Toast of the Town) from 1948 to 1971, the longest running variety series in television history.
Among the many celebrities appearing on the show, the performances of Elvis Presley in 1956-1957 (Season 8, Episode 51; Season 9, Episodes 6 and 16) and The Beatles in 1964-1965 (Season 16, Episodes 19, 20, 21; Season 18, Episode 1) stand out as television events. Among the more regular guests was also Walt Disney, who was showcased by Sullivan three times in 1956 (Season 8, Episodes 24 and 40; Season 9, Episode 15) and again in 1963 (Season 15, Episode 38).
Sullivan "succumbed to the anti-Communicst hysteria of the early 1950's, allowing blacklisted dancer Paul Draper on his show, then apologizing when conservative critics denounced the appearance. (He continued banning 'blacklisted' acts for several more years.)" (Mike Spadoni, "Biography of Ed Sullivan")
→ 5.24
Episode Guide on TV.com HN