Mondo Lizzie Borden

In an interesting article on a completely non-Lizzie related matter, about the WWII collection of a former war correspondent for the New York Sun, whose surviving son Terry put together and donated to the Margaret Chase Smith Library Center in Skowhegan, the subject of Lizzie Borden arises.

Robert C. McManus, who died in 2000 at the age of 97, was present for some important events during the war years.

He gathered signatures from crew members on the Enola Gay right after it dropped the “Little Boy” atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Aug. 6, 1945. He was on the deck of U.S.S. Missouri when the Instrument of Surrender was signed by the Japanese on Sept. 2, 1945. He mingled with such historic men as U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as history was being made more than 60 years ago.

Son Terry is the one who brings it up. Out of the blue, there she is.

Terence McManus, a retired union laborer who served in the U.S. Navy and conducted naval intelligence, recalled an unusual life growing up: “When we lived in New Jersey, I used to pass by every day where the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped… Lizzie Borden was my third cousin.”

And so it goes.

Link to entire article from the 30 April 2007 MaineToday.com.

Many of you are familiar with the outstanding work of Neilson Caplain, including his “Lizzie’s Fall River” series in The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies and his regular column LizBits in the now defunct Lizzie Borden Quarterly. As past President of the Fall River Historical Society and a Fall River historian, 94 year old Neil has much to write about the city and the Borden case.

Neil recently broke his hip and is recuperating in a rehabilitation center. He is doing well and is responding positively to therapy. He told me he feels fit and is eager to return home and get back to his writing.

If you would like to send Neil your warm wishes, you can do so by sending cards and messages to his son Ron, who promises to share them with his father. The address is Neilson Caplain, c/o Ron Caplain, 295 Albany Street, Fall River, MA, 02720.

Get well soon Neil!

If you noticed my silence and wondered what was up, it was not because I was still fishing. Mondo Lizzie was experiencing some web problems. The code that was used to construct the site had some issues of compatibility with most Internet browsers and interfered with the viewing experience. In other words, the code broke!

It could not be repaired to my satisfaction so I have instead opted to change to a new design to make Mondo Lizzie more accessible and, hopefully, browser compatible. If you experience any problems, please let me know by sending me a note. A screenshot of what you see as the problem would be most welcomed so I can see what you see. Hopefully none of you will have such issues with this new layout!

I hope you like the new style. I think it makes Mondo Lizzie rather feel like a comfortable room. While I fancied the original design (or else I wouldn’t have selected it), I also got tired of the same old thing and looked forward to a design change. Web sites should evolve as they grow older and design changes are inevitable to accommodate the latest technology and Internet protocols. LizzieAndrewBorden.com is a perfect example of the transformation that takes place as time goes by.

There is even an organization that records the changes in websites and stores them for posterity, called the Internet Archive. They have this extra kewl search engine they label the Wayback Machine. You can enter a web address and see the site change through time. Some sites aren’t revised much through the years, and those are the ones that become obsolete. Modifications are inevetable, but, in my opinion, major alterations must serve a purpose or fix a problem to be viable.

Enough philosophy. Time to talk Lizzie.

Regular contributor to The Hatchet, Denise Noe, also writes for MensNewsDaily.com. She recently published a piece about Girl in the House of Hate by Samuels. I love this title, and like Denise, find the book’s content wanting.

Read her piece Lizzie Borden and the Feminist Frogwash here.