“When Mary Ann’s labor pangs started November 13, 1833, the birth did not progress as expected. More concerned than usual after the bereavements of the past year, her midwives may have advised sending for a doctor. June, Mary Ann’s oldest boy, was the chosen messenger. As he headed out on the back of a mule hours before daybreak with Joe Hall as his companion, June recalled that in the darkness above, thousands of meteors started raining downward. Baltimore’s papers reported the next morning that many people believed the world was coming to an end. Others were certain the meteors ‘prognosticated some dreadful war.’ Only astronomers seemed unafraid, ‘viewing the phenomenon wonderful.’ The Shower lasted for a full hour. One meteor exploded with a bang over northwest Baltimore, lighting the clouds like a sunrise and leaving a fiery, thirty foot trail.” – My Thoughts Be Bloody by Nora Titone
Edwin Booth entered the world on this day to the fanfare of a great celestial event. It seems only fitting then that on this, the 179th anniversary of his birth, another spacial phenomenon occurred:
On this day, I’d also like to give a continued congratulations to Carolyn Mitchell of The Spirits of Tudor Hall and the Edwin Booth Society for her wonderful work on these websites. Carolyn is a wealth of knowledge about the Booth family and I check her sites everyday to see what’s new with Edwin and the rest of the Booths. I certainly wish I could have been in New York today to visit The Players during the celebration of their Founder.
LincolnConspirators.com 
Awwww….thanks for the kind words. I also order flowers for his grave every year for the past couple of years. I know someone at Mount Auburn Cemetery who takes photos for me so I can upload them to my personal blog. The photo I posted today was actually from last year – it rained over there today so my contact will take new photos for me tomorrow. Can’t wait. 🙂
That’s very sweet, Carolyn. Luckily it’s easy to lay flowers at the grave of Edwin without getting any dirty looks. Not that I would, but giving flowers to his brother would be a different story entirely.
Dave, I really like your new BoothieBarn banner. It looks 3 D.
Thanks Rich. My big computer died and I’m going through Photoshop withdrawl. I’m reusing this image that I created as a wallpaper background. It’s a little bigger than what I normally use for a header and isn’t in sepia tone, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Dave, if you get a new computer, you might consider avoiding Windows 8 unless you like big changes. I have been using Windows 8 for over a year now (I downloaded and installed all 3 of Microsoft’s beta releases), and I am still getting used to it. Most of the time I go back and use Windows 7. There is a huge difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8.
Thanks for the advice Roger. While I like technology, I’m hestiant to upgrade operating systems because I can never find anything after that. My computer that died was still using Windows XP. I use Windows 7 on my laptop and at work so I’ll probably stick with that.
Be sure Dave, like Roger said to tell the manufacturer (especially Dell) that you want WIndows 7 – I got my first “run-in” with Windows 8 this past weekend when I helped a friend set up her new Dell. She had specified that she wanted Windows 7 and they sent the machine with Windows 8! What would have been a simple 10-15 minute setup took over 4 hours because I had to attempt to figure out Windows 8 (had never seen it before) in order to add her files, etc. It’s a multi-windowed nightmare; very, very difficult to find ANYTHING on the computer – and don’t ask me how to be able to figure out HOW to turn off the machine once it’s on! There is no longer a “Start” button…..