#popculture27: Helen Wills Moody Dominates the Tennis World, Inspires Art

The Michael Jordan of tennis in the early twentieth century was this unassuming Californian who also had ties to the art world.

by Rich Watson 

In a Hall of Fame career that spanned two decades, Helen Wills Moody had a pretty good 1927. 

The tennis superstar already had two Olympic gold medals on her shelf. But in that year, she won the women’s singles at Wimbledon (the first of four in a row and eight in twelve years) and the US (her fourth in five years), plus the Wimbledon doubles, and began a 180-match win streak.

One could argue that the story of American women athletes in the twentieth century begins with her.

#popculture27: Walt Disney Creates Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

The animation master’s first successful character, made for a different studio—and how his own studio acquired him.

by Rich Watson 

Before Disney, the company, became an entertainment juggernaut, there was Walt Disney, the animator. In 1927, a year before his most famous creation captured the world’s imagination, he achieved his first big success was with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. 

He may not have become as big as the mouse or the duck, but in recent years, he’s made a comeback.

BRW: Behind the Blind 7

Back in January I renewed my library card for the first time in a long time.

As a kid I used the library fairly often. I remember going on class outings there to learn about the Dewey Decimal System and stuff like that. In high school I used the Mid-Manhattan Library, across the street from the main one (the one with the lion statues), for their picture collection. When I lived in Columbus, I used their library to go job hunting and check out DVDs.

Actually checking out a book to read, though, was different. The writing gurus say one needs to read in one’s genre to be a better writer, so it was probably past time to reacquaint myself with the most basic of library uses. I did not expect to have to search through those cards in the small file cabinets to find the book I wanted—remember those? I did, however, need to learn how to use the computer system to check it out.

And now that I’m going to explore historical fiction by other writers, I’ll document it. You’ve already noticed the new “book reviews” page. I’ll update it as frequently as I can, whenever I finish a book. The “writings” page combines my previous fiction and non-fiction links.

Let me know what you think of the changes.