Many of us are familiar with the quote by George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” We may remember his sage advice in a different variation, since quotes, like whispers travelling through children’s’ ears, can be altered, or even restated and credited to another, but the gist has remained the same. If we choose to ignore past events and the lessons surrounding those events, then we will go down the same path of falls, bumps, and in extreme cases, catastrophic disaster. But this famous axiom is not simple to apply, as we discovered in the recent financial debacle of 2008. One reason for the…

The World Shakespeare Festival, the biggest celebration ever of the Bard and his work, begins in the United Kingdom on April 23, his birthday. Produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), the renowned theater company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon in England, the festival is an unprecedented collaboration among over 50 arts organizations from around the world. Offering almost 70 Shakespeare productions, the festival will run through November. What makes the festival extraordinary is the diversity of its productions: There will be performances of Shakespeare plays and other works inspired by Shakespeare’s plays, done in dozens of different languages by professional, semi-professional and amateur actors from dozens of different countries.  Andrew Shuttleworth,…

Elliott Landy From left, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson and Robbie Robertson of the Band in Woodstock, N.Y. More Photos »  Levon Helm, Drummer and Rough-Throated Singer for the Band, Dies at 71 By JON PARELES Published: April 19, 2012 Levon Helm, who helped to forge a deep-rooted American music as the drummer and singer for the Band, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 71 and lived in Woodstock, N.Y.    His death, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, was from complications of cancer, a spokeswoman for Vanguard Records said. He had recorded several albums for the label. In Mr. Helm’s drumming, muscle, swing, economy and finesse…

A list, by floor and location, of those killed in the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995: NINTH FLOOR Drug Enforcement Administration Shelly D. Bland, 25, of Tuttle Carrol June “Chip” Fields, 48, Guthrie Rona Linn Kuehner-Chafey, 35, Oklahoma City Carrie Ann Lenz, 26, Chotaw Kenneth Glenn McCullough, 36, Edmond U.S. Secret Service Cynthia L. Brown, 26, Oklahoma City Donald Ray Leonard, 50, Edmond Mickey B. Maroney, 50, Oklahoma City Linda G. McKinney, 47, Oklahoma City Kathy Lynn Seidl, 39, Bethel Alan G. Whicher, 40, Edmond EIGHTH FLOOR U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Ted L. Allen, 48, Norman Peter R. Avillanoza, 56, Oklahoma City David Neil Burkett,…

Apr 18, 1906 At 5:13 a.m., an earthquake estimated at close to 8.0 on the Richter scale strikes San Francisco, California, killing hundreds of people as it topples numerous buildings. The quake was caused by a slip of the San Andreas Fault over a segment about 275 miles long, and shock waves could be felt from southern Oregon down to Los Angeles. San Francisco’s brick buildings and wooden Victorian structures were especially devastated. Fires immediately broke out and–because broken water mains prevented firefighters from stopping them–firestorms soon developed citywide. At 7 a.m., U.S. Army troops from Fort Mason reported to the Hall of Justice, and San Francisco Mayor E.E. Schmitz…

Theodore Dreiser, Nearly a Passenger, on the Sinking of the Titanic By Nina Martyris | Posted Friday, April 13, 2012 A sketch of American author Theodore Dreiser by Frank Harris c. 1919 Image from Wikimedia Commons Money was Theodore Dreiser’s muse—the dazzling, deforming pivot on which his novels about fallen women and venal businessmen turned. It seems almost karmic, then, that a lack of money saved him from boarding the Titanic. The great novelist was among a handful of prominent persons—including Guglielmo Marconi, Milton Hershey, J. P. Morgan, and Alfred Vanderbilt—who almost sailed on the allegedly sink-proof ship. As with the 9/11 attacks nearly nine decades later, there has been…