Blessed Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko (1947-1984), Polish Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr. He was the chaplain of the Solidarity Trade Union which ultimately overthrew Poland's post-war-imposed communist regime. In 1980-1984 he celebrated “Holy Masses for the Fatherland”, which gathered thousands of people each month. Fr. Popiełuszko was kidnapped and murdered in 1984 by communist agents. His funeral, on November 3, turned into a big patriotic demonstration. He was one of the key figures in modern Polish history and his death was a defining moment on his country’s road to freedom from communist oppression.
Before long they were swapping sonnets. They chose a phrase, the harmless South German greeting ‘Grüß Gott’, to express their secret closeness when they were in company. For them it meant: ‘I am touching you’.
David Constantine, Centres of Cataclysm: Celebrating Fifty Years of Modern Poetry in Translation; from ‘Bertolt Brecht and Margarete Steffin: Love in a Time of Exile and War’
David Constantine, Centres of Cataclysm: Celebrating Fifty Years of Modern Poetry in Translation; from ‘Bertolt Brecht and Margarete Steffin: Love in a Time of Exile and War’
On February 10, 1996, Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in the first game of a six-game match - the first time a computer had ever beaten a human in a formal chess game.
Where are my heroes? Where are you, my children? Where are my own, the curious ones, the first, the original ones? Name me, muse, the immortal singer who, abandoned by those who listened to him, lost his voice. He who, from the angel of poetry that he was, became a poet, ignored or mocked outside on the threshold of no-man's land.
Satirists, be careful. In the 1931 film by Rene Clair “Vive la Liberte” a song says, “Work is freedom.” In 1940 the sign on the gates to Auschwitz said: “Arbeit macht frei.