Richard Burton Matheson

Richard was born in New Jersey on 20 February 1926. He was raised in Brooklyn, attended university in Missouri, and moved to California in 1951. He has been in the Golden State ever since.

Richard, of course, is a famous writer of science fiction. You might have heard of some of his work: I am Legend, Hell House, and What Dreams May Come. You’ve probably read some of his short stories: “Born of Man and Woman,” “Third from the Sun,” and “The Splendid Source,” among tons of other tales. (Seriously, the guy has written a whole lot!).

The titles might not be familiar, but I can remember reading “Born of Man and Woman” in middle school. It’s the one about the child kept locked in the basement, with a twist ending. It’s quite good. It plays on the emotions and it gets you thinking, which is a sign of good literature.

Richard also wrote episodes (and developed his stories into episodes) for The Twilight Zone. He authored the famous, classic episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (the one with William Shatner on the airplane). Other notable episodes Richard authored include: “The Invaders,” “Mute,” and "Little Girl Lost.”

Long-story short, Richard is quite the influential author. The prolific Stephen King, zombie-master George A. Romero, and vampire-lady Anne Rice have all cited Richard as a major influence, inspiring their work or sparking their interest in vampires or zombies.

And on a personal note, Richard has been married to Ruth Ann Woodson since 1952. The couple have four children, and three of them (Chris, Richard Christian, and Ali) are also writers of fiction and/or screenplays. Must be in their genes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Matheson

Ahhhhh!

 

Richard Nixon Redux

It's been a busy week, so I missed the boat. It turns out that 9 January was Richard Nixon's birthday - and he would have been 100. To belatedly honor that "special" day, here are some photos of America's trickiest, dickiest president.


College Football Nixon

Richard Nixon, Naval Lieutenant

Grumpy Nixon

Happy Nixon

Cha-ching Nixon

Nixon and his Finger

Images of Richard II

Today, January 6, is Richard II's birthday. Since I've already written an exceedingly-long post about him (in 2011), we'll go easy on our brains and just look at some pretty pictures.

The "Westminster Abbey" Portrait, so called because it now hangs in Westminster Abbey. This is also sometimes called the coronation portrait since Richard is showing in the full regalia.

 

The Wilton Diptych, which depicts a youthful Richard even though it was made when the king was an adult.

A 16th-century image. I prefer the other two, and I think they might be more accurate since this one was made some two hundred years after Richard's death.

 

Dicks and Their Churches Part Two

Richard, earl of Cornwall edition.

Richard, earl of Cornwall founded and paid for the building of Hailes Abbey in Gloucestershire, UK.

There is also a small parish church located next to the abbey, which is covered in medieval wall paintings that relate to Richard and his extended family.

Please enjoy! All photographs were taken by me back in 2006.

Hailes Parish Church

Floor Tiles

Heraldry relating to Richard's wives.

Hailes Abbey

Remains of the Abbey church where Richard was buried

 

Dicky Bird

In my travels around the internet, sometimes I hear the phrase “dicky-bird.” I immediately thought, “is that a real bird? I hope not because all the other birds would make fun of it.” Well, it turns out that “dicky-birds” are real, but it’s not an official species name. So in honor of the coming holidays, in which many people will consume some sort of fowl, here’s some info on dicky birds.

According to the always-awesome Oxford English Dictionary, a dicky-bird (or dickey-bird) is “a little bird, such as a sparrow, robin, or canary-bird” in nursery rhyme or “familiar speech.” Dicky-bird is also cockney-rhyming slang for “word.” So instead of saying, “Word up, yo,” you could say “Dicky-bird up, yo.” I bet that would go over well.

According to the OED, dicky-bird appeared in print as early as 1781. It was used fairly frequently in the 1800s, but the dicky-bird entry has not been updated until 1895. I’m guessing the word might not be as common now, at least in its nursery rhyme form. But who knows?

Since dicky-bird can mean “robin,” this (of course) presents the question: is it a coincidence that the original Robin (of “Batman and” fame) was named Dick? It’s widely acknowledged that the Robin costume was inspired by the red-breasted robin (the bird) and Robin Hood. The red of the Robin costume comes from the bird, while the green chain-mail comes from Robin Hood (although people covered their legs a bit more back in the middle ages. I’m just saying.). Anyway, it’s a thought.

There are other dicky-birds out there. One Dickie Bird is an English international cricket umpire. Sadly, Dickie is a nickname that bears no relation to Bird’s real name – Harold Dennis Bird. Alas. I thought he was a Richard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickie_Bird

There is also a Dick Bird, an Anglican priest who died in 2010. Sadly, Richard was only his middle name: he was born Colin Richard Bateman Bird. Dick worked for many years in South Africa before returning to the United Kingdom. He ended his career as Archdeacon of Lambeth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Bird

Finally, there are several Richard Birds out there. A selection for your perusal:

Richard Bird: British actor who lived from 1894-1986 (wow!) Alas, this Richard was originally named “George,” but changed his name after theatre buddies started calling him Dickie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bird_%28actor%29

Richard Ely Bird: an American politician who lived from 1878 to 1955. This Richard was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, but spent most of his life in Kansas. He was primarily a lawyer, but was elected to Congress for one term (1921-3). He was ushered into office on the coattails of Warren G. Harding (ha!). Richard spent the last years of his life in retirement in Long Beach, California, but his body was returned to Wichita, Kansas for burial. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ely_Bird

Richard Bird: a British computer scientist. Born in 1943, this Richard is a professor at Oxford. He does fancy stuff with numbers, and even has a formula partially named after him (the Bird-Meertens Formalism, which has something to do with calculus and programming). Stay smart, Professor Richard Bird! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bird_%28computer_scientist%29

Richard Real Bird: there’s not much about him on Wikipedia, but Richard was once Chairman of the Crow Nation in Montana until he was convicted of embezzlement and fraud. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Real_Bird

Richard Holiday Booze Bash

I can tell it’s the holiday season by the number of alcohol commercials I see on television. Every year, I learn about a new variety. A couple of years ago it was Drambuie, which had advertisements featuring a Scottish man jumping over rooftops. I remember the ad, although I still have never tasted the liquor. Anyway, in honor of holiday parties and all that jazzy, he’s some Richard-themed booze.

Richard Hennessy is the founder of the Hennessy cognac company, although he was originally a mercenary. An Irishman who served Louis XV in France, he founded his distillery on the land the king gave him as a reward. “Richard Hennessy” is also the “top end in the permanent Hennessy range,” selling for well over two thousand dollars on the Whisky Exchange website (http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/selection/richard_hennessy_cognac.aspx). I’m guessing I’ll never taste any of this stuff!

And now some Dick drinks to perk up your holidays. Be sure to make them all stiff!

(all drink recipes courtesy of www.drinksmixer.com)

A Little Dick’ll Do

1 serving

2 oz. George Dickel Tennessee Whiskey

3-5 splashes Mountain Dew

Pour the George Dickel into the glass. Top off with Mountain Dew, and serve.

Dickie Ward

1 serving

2 oz Scotch whisky

1 dash bitters

4 oz ginger ale

1 lime wedge

Pour the scotch, bitters, and ginger ale into a highball glass almost filled with ice cubes. Stir well and garnish with the lime wedge.

Hot Dick

1 serving

2 oz Bailey’s Irish Crème

2 oz Grand Marnier orange liqueur

4 oz espresso (hot)

1.5 oz whipped creme

Pour Bailey's and Grand Marnier into mug. Add espresso. Serve it hot with lots of cream and sprinkle with chocolate.

Richard Grayson Replies

Because Richard Grayson, author extraordinaire, is a cool cat, he generously consented to answer my stupid question: “How do you feel about being named Richard?”

He provided an awesome, long response. Here it is!

“I am fine being named Richard.  It was very common among people I grew up with (born in the early 50s). I was once in a high school class of maybe 35 with three other Richards.  It was very common in my neighborhood among Jews and Italians, the two major ethnic groups.  In college, I had 4 or 5 friends named Richard: most, like me, were Richie, one was Dick.  It became less common among children in the 1970s; generally, it's considered that Nixon damaged the name, but I suspect it just started to sound like an older person's name, as names go in and out of fashion.  (For example, three of my great-grandfathers were named Jacob, Max, and Harry, which are popular names now but not for parents naming babies in the 1950s and 1960s because they seemed, to my parents, like old Jewish men's names [their grandfathers].  So my brothers named for Jacob and Max are Jonathan and Marc, after the Jewish tradition of naming only for dead people, and just using the Hebrew name and not the English name.  I am actually named for my great-great-aunt Rhoda, who was a chemist in the Soviet Union.)

I notice Richard is more popular among my college students again, though mostly among Hispanic (South and Central Americans especially) and Asian (Chinese, Korean) boys.  Cheney probably didn't kill it like Nixon did, because people thought of him as Dick, not Richard. But today, people have much more varied names.  I teach in NYC people from literally 60 or 70 countries, and I've lived in neighborhoods that are very Polish, Russian, Arab, Turkish, Chinese, Bukharian, Tibetan, Moldovan, Nigerian, Bangladeshi, Korean, Cambodian, etc.  So today people have all sorts of names.  In most of my college classes, I would say I probably have never before seen a third of the names in every class. The only Richard I have in a class this term is a Ryzsard.  (Pronounced “Richard.”)

My parents called me Richard, like everyone else in my family although they told me their originally intention was to call me Ricky.  I answer to anything -- Richie, Richard, Rich, Rick, Ricky -- but Dick.  The Robin character in Batman just made it worse, but I never associated myself with being called Dick.  It seemed like another name.  In school up to college and through the early 70s, I was always called Richie by friends.  My old friends call me Richie still, though some have switched to Richard.  I don't like anyone but the people I knew when I was in my childhood, teens or twenties -- old friends -- calling me Richie, and I now think of myself as Richard. I am an old man now.

It is a nondescript, semi-popular Anglo-Saxon name.”

***

Well, Richard is always going to be a mega-popular name on this blog! Huzzah!

Thank you again, Richard Grayson, for humoring me and answering my question. I really appreciate it.