ICYMI - 6 Great Columns From This Week - A Great Video - And A Remind About our Podcasting Channels...
We featured a lot of great, original content this past week. Below are six highlights of columns, one great video from the week, and looking back to Ronald Reagan’s “Evil Empire” Speech OTD in 1983.
This Sunday ICYMI edition is always free for all subscribers and visitors to this Substack page! Thanks for being a part of this look at CA politics!
THIS IS A GREAT COLUMN TO FORWARD TO PEOPLE YOU THINK MIGHT ENJOY OUR CONTENT!
BELOW ARE SIX STORIES FROM THIS WEEK THAT YOU MAY HAVE MISSED!
FOMO? There are half a dozen other items that aren’t highlighted above. But you can read them here.
One Video…
Earlier this week, I recorded a video commentary discussing all this polling in the race for California Governor, as well as some new polling numbers showing the favs/unfavs for Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris…
On This Date in History…
In 1856… L. Frank Baum Was Born…
L. Frank Baum, born May 15, 1856, in Chittenango, New York, was an American author best known for creating the magical land of Oz. The son of a prosperous businessman, Baum tried several careers before finding his calling as a writer, including working in theater, journalism, and retail. His imagination and love of storytelling eventually led him to children’s literature, where he created one of the most enduring fantasy worlds in American culture.
Baum’s most famous work, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was published in 1900 and quickly became a major commercial success. The book sold tens of thousands of copies in its first year and went through repeated printings, praised for its originality and colorful storytelling. Its popularity led Baum to write thirteen additional Oz novels, turning the story into a full literary series. Oz was already a cultural phenomenon well before Hollywood became involved. In fact, the story was adapted into a successful Broadway musical in 1902, decades before the famous film version.
The 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz later cemented the story’s place in American culture, but Baum’s creation has continued to find new audiences long after his death in 1919. In recent decades, the Oz universe returned to Broadway with enormous success through the hit musical Wicked, which explores the backstory of the witches of Oz and has become one of the most successful stage productions in modern theater history. The musical’s central character, Elphaba — the misunderstood “Wicked Witch of the West” — was intentionally named as a tribute to Baum himself, with the name formed from the initials of L. Frank Baum: L-F-B.
This is the first of a few parts — five-minute videos on the life of this man who brought so much joy to so many people - and continues to do so over a century after his passing.
Jon