Well-Bred & Well-Brewed - podcast cover

Well-Bred & Well-Brewed

Virginia Combs
Ease into the morning with a dose of culture.
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Episodes

August 21st, Wednesday | Count Basie

The date is August 21st, Wednesday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, OR. Today is the birthday of Count Basie, African American bandleader, musician, and composer. Count Basie, born William James Basie in 1904, was tutored by his mother on piano as a child. When his talent surpassed his mother, much like Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s story, his mother scraped money together to send him to private lessons. Never a big fan of school, Basie often picked up odd jobs at the local theater in exc...

Aug 21, 20195 minEp. 87

August 20th, Tuesday | Estonia Breaks Free After a Human Chain

The date is August 20th, Tuesday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, OR. On this day in 1897, Sir Ronald Ross discovered that female mosquitoes transmit malaria to humans . As such today is also known as World Mosquito Day . Sir Ronald Ross had studied all stages of development of the malaria parasite. He therefore was able to recognize the parasite in the gut bacteria of mosquitoes and in their saliva glands. There were already theories that malaria was caused by swamp-like conditions -...

Aug 20, 20195 minEp. 86

August 19th, Monday | Coco Chanel befriends Stravinsky

The date is August 19th, Monday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, OR. Today is the birthday of Ogden Nash, American humorist and poet. Born in 1902, Ogden Nash reports having always enjoyed rhyming. He was known for unconventional rhymes such as rhymes that relied on the mispronunciation of words or rhymes that used two words. Nash moved to New York City a few years after dropping out of Harvard and worked writing car ads for a time. While in New York City, Nash felt gutsy enough to su...

Aug 19, 20195 minEp. 85

August 16th, Friday | The Good, the Bad, and an Australian Poet

The date is August 16th, Friday, and today I’m traveling from Rochester, NY to Portland OR in the USA. Today is the birthday of Wallace Thurman, African American editor and writer. Wallace Thurman was a member of the Harlem Renaissance in New York during the late 1920s. He edited several small newspapers and had relationships with writers and artists such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Aaron Douglas, and Gwendolyn Bennett. He believed that the struggle of African Am...

Aug 16, 20195 minEp. 84

August 15th, Thursday | Samuel Coleridge Taylor

The date is August 15th, Thursday, and today I’m coming to you from Rochester, NY. Today is the birthday of Samuel Coleridge Taylor, African-English composer. His Creole father, Dr. Daniel Taylor was visiting London to complete a course of study. While there his father became involved with a London woman named Alice Hare. When Dr. Taylor’s program had ended he returned to Sierra Leone, leaving behind Alice. Dr. Taylor never knew that Alice had become pregnant and it’s possible even Alice didn't ...

Aug 15, 20195 minEp. 83

August 14th, Wednesday | Inventor of the Blender

The date is August 14th, Wednesday, and today I’m coming to you from Rochester, NY. Today is the birthday of Stephen Poplawski, Polish-American inventor of the blender. Poplawski was born in Poland in 1885 and immigrated to the United States with his family at nine years old. Little is available on his early years, but by 1918 at the age of 33 he had gained enough skills and knowledge to start his own tool company. The following year Poplawski was asked to design a mixing machine for soda founta...

Aug 14, 20195 minEp. 82

August 13th, Tuesday | A Hawaiian Pop Star & a Sharpshooter

The date is August 13th, Tuesday, and today I’m coming to you from Rochester, NY. Today is the birthday of Don Ho, Hawaiian-American musician . Don was born in Hawaii and joined the Air Force in 1954 at age 23, just a few years after marrying his high school sweetheart. Don and his wife Melva moved to California per Don’s job in the Air Force. While there, he picked up an electronic keyboard to accompany his voice. (He had already done a bit of singing as a young man at his Mom’s bar in Hawaii.)...

Aug 13, 20195 minEp. 81

August 12th, Monday | "America the Beautiful" & Gladys Bentley

The date is August 12th, Monday, and today I’m coming to you from Rochester, NY. Today is the birthday of Katharine Lee Bates, American educator and poet. Bates most notably penned the lyrics for “America the Beautiful.” The words were inspired by a hike to the top of Pike’s Peak in Colorado. Bates happened to be teaching a course at a Colorado school for the summer. Bates’s first draft of “America the Beautiful” was jotted down in a notebook between teaching classes. It was first published in 1...

Aug 12, 20195 minEp. 80

August 9th, Friday | Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

The date is August 9th, Friday, and today I’m coming to you from Rochester, NY. Today is the birthday of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, American humanitarian. She is also, of course, the wife of Alexander Hamilton. Elizabeth Schuyler, sometimes affectionately referred to as Eliza or Betsey, was thrown into high society from her birth in 1757. Eliza was born into large Dutch family and it is unclear how many siblings she had since not all of them lived to adulthood. Her family’s prominence in early...

Aug 09, 20195 minEp. 79

August 8th, Thursday | Sara Teasdale's lost love

The date is August 8th, Thursday, and today I’m coming to you from Rochester, NY. Today is the birthday of Sara Teasdale, American poet. Born in 1884 in St. Louis Missouri, Sara was a sickly child and her mother kept her at home. At age 10 she was finally deemed healthy enough to attend school. Despite having entered into a more public existence, during her teens Sara was still fairly solitary. Her mother had built Sara her own suite in the family home and Sara spent most of her time working, sl...

Aug 08, 20195 minEp. 78

August 7th, Wednesday | The Other Kermit and a Spy

The date is August 7th, Wednesday, and today I’m coming to you from Rochester, NY. Today is the birthday of Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy. Born in the Netherlands as Margaretha Zelle in 1876, her lavish childhood fell apart when her father declared bankruptcy in 1889. Her parents divorced and her mother died not long afterwards. Margaretha was sent to live with a godfather. Eighteen and ready for change, Margaretha Zelle answered an ad in a newspaper. A Dutch Army Captain was looking for a wif...

Aug 07, 20195 minEp. 77

August 6th, Tuesday | Why "Bolivia"?

The date is August 6th, Tuesday, and today I’m traveling from Mattapoisett, MA to Rochester, NY. On this day in 1825 Bolívia declared independence. The rumblings of independence began as early as 1808 when the Spanish crown was overthrown. The uncertain times in Spain created room for uprisings across all of Latin America, including Bolívia, which was then known as Charcas. Charcas had an uphill battle. As one of only two land-locked countries in South America, they had to drive out Spanish loya...

Aug 06, 20195 minEp. 75

August 5th, Monday | Father of the Modern Short Story

The date is August 5th, Monday, and today I’m coming to you from Mattapoisett, MA. Today is the birthday of Guy de Maupassant, French author. Maupassant is considered the father of the modern short story. During his lifetime he published over 200 short stories, seven novels, and a poetry collection. Born in 1850 in France, Maupassant was no stranger to family drama. When he was 11, his mother was finally able to separate from an abusive husband. Maupassant, his mother, and his brother moved away...

Aug 05, 20195 minEp. 76

August 2nd, Friday | Two Activists and a Sculptor walk into a bar...

The date is August 2nd, Friday, and today I’m coming to you from Charlton, MA. Today is the birthday of Marianne Weber, German sociologist, writer, and women’s rights activist. At the age of three Marianne was sent away to be raised by her aunt and grandparents upon the death of her mother. Her father and brothers were deemed psychologically unstable by family and would later be institutionalized. After a proper upbringing and education, in 1891 Marianne was introduced to a few distant cousins, ...

Aug 02, 20195 minEp. 74

August 1st, Thursday | Melville's Stormy Start

The date is August 1st, Thursday, and today I’m coming to you from Charlton, MA. Today is the birthday of Herman Melville, American author and poet. Melville’s life started out smooth sailing. He was born in 1819 to loving, doting parents. And they were wealthy to boot. His mother had a vast inheritance as did his merchant father. As years ticked by and the family grew, the Melvilles moved to a bigger house each year in New York City, and maintained two to four servants. The Melville parents enj...

Aug 01, 20195 minEp. 73

July 31st, Wednesday | Atlantic Records was founded by...

The date is July 31th, Wednesday, and today I’m still traveling to Boston, Massachusetts. Today is the birthday of Ahmet Ertegun, Turkish-American founder of Atlantic Records. Ahmet was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1923. His father was a successful lawyer and his mother a skilled musician. She played the piano and a number of stringed instruments and indulged in records. Ahmet and his brother Nesuhi were admittedly spoiled by their unimpeded access to the music from the top musicians and bands of...

Jul 31, 20195 minEp. 72

July 30th, Tuesday | Emily Brontë

The date is July 30th, Tuesday, and today I’m traveling from Portland, Oregon to Boston, Massachusetts. Today is the birthday of Emily Brontë, English writer. Born in 1818 in Northern England, Emily was joyously welcomed. She was the fifth child out of six for a simple clergyman and his wife. Emily’s sister Anne, two years her junior would become her closest confidante. Emily’s early years were plagued with loss: her mother died of cancer when Emily was just three. At six, Emily was sent away to...

Jul 30, 20195 minEp. 71

July 29th, Monday | Tocqueville admires America

The date is July 29th, Monday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, Oregon. Today is the birthday of Alexis de Tocqueville, French politician and historian . Born in 1805 in France, Tocqueville’s lasting mark in history is his work De la démocratie en Amerique or Democracy in America . A typical aristocratic upbringing saw Tocqueville seamlessly enter politics. When Tocqueville was 26, the French Monarchy sent him and a partner to America. They were to study the American prisons and prison...

Jul 29, 20195 minEp. 70

July 26th, Friday | Shaw: If You Can't Beat 'em, Join 'em

The date is July 26th, Friday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, Oregon. Today is the birthday of George Bernard Shaw , Irish-born English writer. He was a noted critic of music, plays, and art during his lifetime, but its his own plays that live on today. Born the youngest of three in 1856 in Dublin, his parents were already drifting apart. His father had married his mother hoping to see some of her family’s wealth; and his mother married his father to escape her overbearing family. It...

Jul 26, 20195 minEp. 69

July 25th, Thursday | Parrish, Franklin, and Chapman

The date is July 25th, Thursday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland Oregon. Today is the birthday of Rosalind Franklin, English chemist and X-ray crystallographer. Besides being instrumental to the discovery of DNA and its double-helix shape, Franklin had a rich life outside of her science work. One thing she enjoyed most was trekking. She would take off on multi-day trips with a backpack full of supplies and hike wherever was convenient. After a particularly stunning trek through the Fre...

Jul 25, 20195 minEp. 68

July 24, Wednesday | A writer or a lover first?

The date is July 24th, Wednesday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland Oregon. Today is the birthday of French writer Alexandre Dumas. Notable titles include The Count of Monte Cristo , The Three Musketeers , The Man in the Iron Mask , The Prince of Thieves (a Robin Hood Tale), and a version of the Nutcracker. It was Dumas’s version of the classic tale that would be adapted into the Tchaikovsky opera of the same name in 1892. Scholars estimate that Dumas’s writing, in total, amounts to abou...

Jul 24, 20195 minEp. 67

July 23rd, Tuesday | A Starry-eyed Gov'na

The date is July 23rd, Tuesday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, Oregon. Today is the birthday of Thomas Brisbane, British-Australian governor and astronomer. Brisbane was born in 1775 in Scotland. After a career in the military, Brisbane served as the 6th governor of Australia in his late 40s, from 1821 to 1825. At the time Australia was called “New South Wales” and large portions of the island remained wild and unexplored by colonists. Halfway through Brisbane’s term as governor, a k...

Jul 23, 20195 minEp. 66

July 22nd, Monday | "Give me your tired, your poor..."

The date is July 22nd, Monday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, Oregon. Today is the birthday of Emma Lazarus , American poet and activist. Verses from her poem “The New Colossus” are on a plaque under the Statue of Liberty. She was born in 1849 in New York City, the fourth of seven children. Her father was a successful merchant and sugar refiner, and the family had the means to educate Emma and her siblings privately at home. She took to poetry at an early age. Having studied the Germ...

Jul 22, 20195 minEp. 65

July 19th, Friday | Alice Moore Dunbar Nelson

The date is July 18th, Thursday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, Oregon. On this day in 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention, also known as the Women's Rights Convention began in Seneca Falls, New York. It was a gathering of women and men and their goal was to come out with a Declaration of Sentiments . Notable attendees included Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Amy Post, Amelia Bloomer, Eunice Newton Foote, and Frederick Douglass. Going into the Convention, there was a question as...

Jul 19, 20195 minEp. 64

July 18th, Thursday | Mandela's Prison University

The date is July 18th, Thursday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, Oregon. Today is the birthday of Nelson Mandela , South African political leader and first president of South Africa. He was born the son of an African chief in 1918, though he did not live like a prince. As a young boy he played out in fields and herded cattle. It wasn’t until he was seven that he attended school – and only because it was a Christian school and his mother was a devote Christian. At his first school he a...

Jul 18, 20195 minEp. 63

July 17th, Wednesday | The Air Conditioner is Born!

The date is July 17th, Wednesday and today I’m coming to you from Portland, Oregon. As the Northern Hemisphere enters the heat of July, it seems appropriate that on this day in 1902 Willis Carrier in Buffalo, NY submitted drawings for what would be the first air conditioner. He determined that, to work, an Air Conditioner machine must do four things: 1. Control temperature 2. Control humidity 3. Control air circulation, and 4. Cleanse the air. Indeed, a large part of how Carrier’s air conditione...

Jul 17, 20195 minEp. 62

July 16th, Tuesday | The First Parking Meter

The date is July 16th, Tuesday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, Oregon. On this day in 1935 the world's first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in the USA. As much as parking meters are an accepted evil of city parking today, the first parking meters were welcomed. The population in Oklahoma had risen with the discovery of rich oil fields, and with people and money came a rise in vehicles. In 1913 the number of cars in and around Oklahoma City was about 3000. By ...

Jul 16, 20195 minEp. 61

July 15th, Monday | The Greatest Etcher of all Time

The date is July 15th, Monday, and today I’m traveling from Bend, Oregon to Portland, Oregon in the USA. Today is the birthday of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn , Dutch artist. He is considered the most important artist in Dutch history, and one of the great visual artists in art history. Born in 1606 in the Dutch Republic, now the Netherlands, Rembrandt was the ninth child of a miller father and baker mother. Rembrandt dropped out of secondary school at the age of 14 to become the apprentice to...

Jul 15, 20195 minEp. 60

July 12th, Friday | The Man who Popularized Photography

The date is July 12th, Friday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, OR. Today is the birthday of George Eastman, American inventor and businessman. Eastman’s tinkering with film and cameras in his 20s led him to develop his own film and start a business that would dominate the industry. Eastman was the first to use roll film in cameras allowing for multiple pictures to be taken in succession without much ado. Roll film would be the precursor to film for motion pictures. The likes of Thomas...

Jul 12, 20195 minEp. 59

July 11th, Thursday | To Kill a Mockingbird...

Today we take a look at To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, and never once out of print! Poem by Effie Smith. The date is July 11th, Thursday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, Oregon. On this day in 1960, the novel To Kill a Mockingbird was released . It was an instant bestseller and was published into ten different languages its second year in print. Since its first publication, To Kill a Mockingbird has won a Pulitzer Prize (1961), been translated into over 40 languages, and is...

Jul 11, 20195 minEp. 58
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