April 3, 2020 • 11 mins
Holly and Tracy talk about selecting subjects for the show while living in strange times, and venture into talk about Emily Dickinson.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, A production
of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to Casual Friday
Chatter Chatter with Polly and Tracy. I'm Polly Fry, I'm
Tracy Vie Wilson. Our first episode this week was kind
of all casual chatter. That's exactly what I was thinking.
(00:23):
It was like, we had casual Friday on Monday. Yes,
uh in talking about this this wild time that we're
living through. But then we got to talk about someone
that you picked out and who is one of the
more charming figures we have talked about in recent history
in my opinion, Yeah, lighthousekeeper Ida Lewis. So I had
(00:43):
a circuitous path of getting to this topic that I
alluded to at the beginning of the episode. This sort
of illustrates how my working life has changed. UM. The
first thing was I had thought about doing UM an
episode on the Athenian Play and I'm I'm not saying
I'll never do that, but so many, uh so many
(01:06):
of our listeners have talked about how stressed out they
have been, and we're so appreciative when we dropped a
playlist of just goofy offbeat stuff. But I was like,
you know, maybe a really stressful episode about a plague
is not where I want to go right now. Like,
I know there's value in talking about the historical context
for things, but there are so many places to get
(01:27):
pandemic news right now, and so many people have told
us about just how phenomenally stressed out they were. I
was like, let's let's do something. Let's find something that
feels positive and uplifting but also seems thematically appropriate to
what we're living through. And that's how I eventually wound
up on Idle Louis. But Idle Louis was not actually
my first choice, which was not the first person that
(01:48):
occurred to me. UM. The first person that I actually
thought about doing was Emily Dickinson, who was not as
solitary as a lot of people think of her UM,
and that was one of the things that I was
I got very excited about this idea of doing an
episode about Emily Dickinson and talking about that that aspect
of her. But then I was like, Amherst is just
(02:12):
down the street, not literally, it's but you know, we
could get in the car and go there. We can't
right now, though, Can I go to Amherst uh, And
I was like, you know, I would kind of rather
do this episode at a time when I can go
um and visit where she lived, because you know, when
I have the opportunity to do that, I really enjoy
(02:32):
doing that. UM. So I said, Okay, I'll put Emily
Dickinson back on the list of things to talk about later. Um.
But then when I got into the Idle Louis episode,
I kept running into situations where I was like, oh,
it really felt like UM. Because I do so much
work at home, Because I do so much work that's
(02:53):
related to sources that are online, I was not expecting
a big disruption in my work. However, Ida Lewis's personnel
record is something that's open to the public. It cannot
be requested right now because the library is closed. The
biography that was written of her in the nineteenth century
(03:14):
that we referenced in the episode is a lot of
stuff of that age has been digitized, and you can
get to it at places like the Project Guttenberg or
archive dot org or something similar. That particular work does
exist on microfiche and as a physical copy in two
different libraries that I can access. The library is closed, though,
(03:39):
so It's just like, this is a case where I
would have had some physical sources I might have gone
to consult, but I sure cannot do that because the
library is closed. I do feel like that's the correct
decision for the library to be closed, but it it
kind of tickled me a little bit that it turned
out that that was the case with this particular episode.
(04:00):
I like that. Um, Again, not to make light of
any of it, but we have been very frank that
we're very fortunate because we can keep doing our jobs
from home relatively uninterrupted, but that somehow it managed to
be interrupted just the same. UM, it's interesting. I have
a question for you, which, UM, let me just ask
(04:20):
a question. Are you and Emily Dickinson person? Uh? I
own a copy of her entire I have a complicated
relationship with Emily Dickinson. Okay, me too, UM trying So
Emily Dickinson is so it tends to be such a huge,
huge part of American literature classes. She gets kind of
(04:44):
shoved on people in high school. And and then also
when you notice patterns in the rhythm of her writing,
noticed them. What song is it for you? Um? Because
I've discovered over the years, I mean it's a simple pattern,
and so everybody has like that thing where they're like
(05:04):
And then it becomes obvious that you can sing every
one of her poems to this song. But I've discovered
that different people have different songs. Yes, you don't want
to know the song if you don't want to never
be able to unhear it, just like I don't know
Skip ahead by thirty seconds. The theme from Gilligan's Island
Oh Mine is yellow Rose of Texas. That also works
both of them. But then the thing is, her life
(05:27):
has been so mischaracterized, um, and there are so many
just wonderful biographies of her that have come out more
recently that have given us a more honest look, UM
at what her life was like and what uh what
happens to her literary legacy after she died, Like I
(05:49):
found all, I found all that really fascinating. I in
a lot of ways feel like she is a kindred spirit,
even though I can't stop myself from singing songs while
I'm reading her poet. I will say I'm not the
hugest fan of her poetry because that sort of makes
it feel a little simplistic to me in a way
that I don't connect to UM. But also I think
(06:12):
it's one of those things where she has been so romanticized.
And we talked about this phenomenon on the show before.
She and her biography and her life story has been
so romanticized that it does the great disservice of completely
including the person that she actually was. So I'm glad
(06:32):
that you're planning an episode because we are Emily Dickinson
MythBuster H. We will keep our fingers crossed UM that
at some points the pandemic has ended, UH and you know,
are the places in Amherst, Massachusetts that are related to
her life will be open for visitors again. And I
(06:52):
will UH coerce my husband into going on a road
trip with me, which is UM actually that that my
I don't know, I don't know what is. I have
not asked him about this at all. He has been
just very accommodating and on board. Various times that I
have suggested some random road trip to go to, usually
somewhere in Massachusetts or an adjacent UH state, to do
(07:14):
some kind of podcast research. UM. He has, he's been
on board. He's been game for all of that. UM.
Possibly because of the like the ubiquity and weird representation
of Emily Dickinson and most people's high school lives. Um,
I don't know if you would be on board for
that one. I could just go by myself. He'd be fine,
that's true. Uh. Yeah, I'm trying to think of any that.
(07:39):
I don't think I have any in the hopper right
now that I'm like, I would like to travel to
go check this out. Well, another place that is not
quite as close to here, but is doable and is
somebody that everybody hit not a lot. A lot of
people have got a lot of request to talk about
Lucy maud Montgomery. I know, I'm Prince Edward Island though
(08:01):
it's just right over there. We can all travel again.
I would like to go to their. Yeah, that's less
of a like a day trip, a bore of a
weekend trip though, right I keep thinking about where I
would want to travel first when all of this blows over,
presuming we may it through and all of the places
I might want to travel are once again open and available.
(08:25):
I mean, I don't know who I'm kidding. I'm going.
I'm getting in the car and going to Disney World
the minute. The minute you have a chance. I also
want to make it clear and just in case anybody
is feeling frustrated, Uh, we understand absolutely that this is
not something that is literally going to just go away
without human beings taking concrete steps to stop it. So
(08:45):
when we say blow over, we don't mean like a
magical ferry is going to make it stop being a pandemic. No,
I mean when we are on the other side of this.
However long it takes to get on the other side
of this with we hope as as little animal yes,
as minimal loss as possible, we hope. Um. Yeah, I
(09:05):
mean I think about I think we're all thinking about
what it's going to be like to resume normal life.
And part of that for me is because I have
been traveling so much. Part of it is, um, like,
where would I travel to just for fun? Initially it's
one of the things that we think about. But yes,
I'm I'm sure there will be somewhere historically relevant that
(09:29):
I will go. I don't know where yet, though, I
will want to probably go everywhere after not not being
anywhere for a while, So we'll see, Yeah, we'll see.
Oh and just in case people are curious, we were
planning to go to Italy in May that is postponed
(09:50):
is postponed, yeah to October, just in case people were like,
whenever it happened to the only trip, that's what happened.
The folks that have booked on it are all aware. Yes, yes, yes. Michael,
who handles all of all of those travels and who
managed our our trip to Paris last year, has been
really great about making sure that everybody's bookings can transfer
(10:11):
over till later in the year and getting that all
ironed out and squared away. Um. So uh universe willing.
We will be in Italy in October hopefully. Um. You
have questions about the cruise to Alaska that we have
advertised on the show as well. That is not something
that Holly and I are personally involved with planning, so
(10:32):
you would need to contact Like, if you're booked on that,
you would need to contact whatever information you got when
you booked that. Yeah, yeah, that's um, we have no
we we are still trying to figure out what is
going on with that as well, so we don't have
any updates there. But in the meantime, everybody continue to
take care of yourselves and stay safe. Stuff you missed
(10:59):
in history classes, a production of I heart Radio. For
more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. H
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, A production
of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to Casual Friday
Chatter Chatter with Polly and Tracy. I'm Polly Fry, I'm
Tracy Vie Wilson. Our first episode this week was kind
of all casual chatter. That's exactly what I was thinking.
(00:23):
It was like, we had casual Friday on Monday. Yes,
uh in talking about this this wild time that we're
living through. But then we got to talk about someone
that you picked out and who is one of the
more charming figures we have talked about in recent history
in my opinion, Yeah, lighthousekeeper Ida Lewis. So I had
(00:43):
a circuitous path of getting to this topic that I
alluded to at the beginning of the episode. This sort
of illustrates how my working life has changed. UM. The
first thing was I had thought about doing UM an
episode on the Athenian Play and I'm I'm not saying
I'll never do that, but so many, uh so many
(01:06):
of our listeners have talked about how stressed out they
have been, and we're so appreciative when we dropped a
playlist of just goofy offbeat stuff. But I was like,
you know, maybe a really stressful episode about a plague
is not where I want to go right now. Like,
I know there's value in talking about the historical context
for things, but there are so many places to get
(01:27):
pandemic news right now, and so many people have told
us about just how phenomenally stressed out they were. I
was like, let's let's do something. Let's find something that
feels positive and uplifting but also seems thematically appropriate to
what we're living through. And that's how I eventually wound
up on Idle Louis. But Idle Louis was not actually
my first choice, which was not the first person that
(01:48):
occurred to me. UM. The first person that I actually
thought about doing was Emily Dickinson, who was not as
solitary as a lot of people think of her UM,
and that was one of the things that I was
I got very excited about this idea of doing an
episode about Emily Dickinson and talking about that that aspect
of her. But then I was like, Amherst is just
(02:12):
down the street, not literally, it's but you know, we
could get in the car and go there. We can't
right now, though, Can I go to Amherst uh, And
I was like, you know, I would kind of rather
do this episode at a time when I can go
um and visit where she lived, because you know, when
I have the opportunity to do that, I really enjoy
(02:32):
doing that. UM. So I said, Okay, I'll put Emily
Dickinson back on the list of things to talk about later. Um.
But then when I got into the Idle Louis episode,
I kept running into situations where I was like, oh,
it really felt like UM. Because I do so much
work at home, Because I do so much work that's
(02:53):
related to sources that are online, I was not expecting
a big disruption in my work. However, Ida Lewis's personnel
record is something that's open to the public. It cannot
be requested right now because the library is closed. The
biography that was written of her in the nineteenth century
(03:14):
that we referenced in the episode is a lot of
stuff of that age has been digitized, and you can
get to it at places like the Project Guttenberg or
archive dot org or something similar. That particular work does
exist on microfiche and as a physical copy in two
different libraries that I can access. The library is closed, though,
(03:39):
so It's just like, this is a case where I
would have had some physical sources I might have gone
to consult, but I sure cannot do that because the
library is closed. I do feel like that's the correct
decision for the library to be closed, but it it
kind of tickled me a little bit that it turned
out that that was the case with this particular episode.
(04:00):
I like that. Um, Again, not to make light of
any of it, but we have been very frank that
we're very fortunate because we can keep doing our jobs
from home relatively uninterrupted, but that somehow it managed to
be interrupted just the same. UM, it's interesting. I have
a question for you, which, UM, let me just ask
(04:20):
a question. Are you and Emily Dickinson person? Uh? I
own a copy of her entire I have a complicated
relationship with Emily Dickinson. Okay, me too, UM trying So
Emily Dickinson is so it tends to be such a huge,
huge part of American literature classes. She gets kind of
(04:44):
shoved on people in high school. And and then also
when you notice patterns in the rhythm of her writing,
noticed them. What song is it for you? Um? Because
I've discovered over the years, I mean it's a simple pattern,
and so everybody has like that thing where they're like
(05:04):
And then it becomes obvious that you can sing every
one of her poems to this song. But I've discovered
that different people have different songs. Yes, you don't want
to know the song if you don't want to never
be able to unhear it, just like I don't know
Skip ahead by thirty seconds. The theme from Gilligan's Island
Oh Mine is yellow Rose of Texas. That also works
both of them. But then the thing is, her life
(05:27):
has been so mischaracterized, um, and there are so many
just wonderful biographies of her that have come out more
recently that have given us a more honest look, UM
at what her life was like and what uh what
happens to her literary legacy after she died, Like I
(05:49):
found all, I found all that really fascinating. I in
a lot of ways feel like she is a kindred spirit,
even though I can't stop myself from singing songs while
I'm reading her poet. I will say I'm not the
hugest fan of her poetry because that sort of makes
it feel a little simplistic to me in a way
that I don't connect to UM. But also I think
(06:12):
it's one of those things where she has been so romanticized.
And we talked about this phenomenon on the show before.
She and her biography and her life story has been
so romanticized that it does the great disservice of completely
including the person that she actually was. So I'm glad
(06:32):
that you're planning an episode because we are Emily Dickinson
MythBuster H. We will keep our fingers crossed UM that
at some points the pandemic has ended, UH and you know,
are the places in Amherst, Massachusetts that are related to
her life will be open for visitors again. And I
(06:52):
will UH coerce my husband into going on a road
trip with me, which is UM actually that that my
I don't know, I don't know what is. I have
not asked him about this at all. He has been
just very accommodating and on board. Various times that I
have suggested some random road trip to go to, usually
somewhere in Massachusetts or an adjacent UH state, to do
(07:14):
some kind of podcast research. UM. He has, he's been
on board. He's been game for all of that. UM.
Possibly because of the like the ubiquity and weird representation
of Emily Dickinson and most people's high school lives. Um,
I don't know if you would be on board for
that one. I could just go by myself. He'd be fine,
that's true. Uh. Yeah, I'm trying to think of any that.
(07:39):
I don't think I have any in the hopper right
now that I'm like, I would like to travel to
go check this out. Well, another place that is not
quite as close to here, but is doable and is
somebody that everybody hit not a lot. A lot of
people have got a lot of request to talk about
Lucy maud Montgomery. I know, I'm Prince Edward Island though
(08:01):
it's just right over there. We can all travel again.
I would like to go to their. Yeah, that's less
of a like a day trip, a bore of a
weekend trip though, right I keep thinking about where I
would want to travel first when all of this blows over,
presuming we may it through and all of the places
I might want to travel are once again open and available.
(08:25):
I mean, I don't know who I'm kidding. I'm going.
I'm getting in the car and going to Disney World
the minute. The minute you have a chance. I also
want to make it clear and just in case anybody
is feeling frustrated, Uh, we understand absolutely that this is
not something that is literally going to just go away
without human beings taking concrete steps to stop it. So
(08:45):
when we say blow over, we don't mean like a
magical ferry is going to make it stop being a pandemic. No,
I mean when we are on the other side of this.
However long it takes to get on the other side
of this with we hope as as little animal yes,
as minimal loss as possible, we hope. Um. Yeah, I
(09:05):
mean I think about I think we're all thinking about
what it's going to be like to resume normal life.
And part of that for me is because I have
been traveling so much. Part of it is, um, like,
where would I travel to just for fun? Initially it's
one of the things that we think about. But yes,
I'm I'm sure there will be somewhere historically relevant that
(09:29):
I will go. I don't know where yet, though, I
will want to probably go everywhere after not not being
anywhere for a while, So we'll see, Yeah, we'll see.
Oh and just in case people are curious, we were
planning to go to Italy in May that is postponed
(09:50):
is postponed, yeah to October, just in case people were like,
whenever it happened to the only trip, that's what happened.
The folks that have booked on it are all aware. Yes, yes, yes. Michael,
who handles all of all of those travels and who
managed our our trip to Paris last year, has been
really great about making sure that everybody's bookings can transfer
(10:11):
over till later in the year and getting that all
ironed out and squared away. Um. So uh universe willing.
We will be in Italy in October hopefully. Um. You
have questions about the cruise to Alaska that we have
advertised on the show as well. That is not something
that Holly and I are personally involved with planning, so
(10:32):
you would need to contact Like, if you're booked on that,
you would need to contact whatever information you got when
you booked that. Yeah, yeah, that's um, we have no
we we are still trying to figure out what is
going on with that as well, so we don't have
any updates there. But in the meantime, everybody continue to
take care of yourselves and stay safe. Stuff you missed
(10:59):
in history classes, a production of I heart Radio. For
more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. H
Stuff You Missed in History Class News
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Tracy Wilson
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