The Bangor Daily News from Bangor, Maine • 21

HERTS A THOUGHT "True education makes for inequality the inequality of indivkkjality the inequality of success the glonous inequality of talent of genius for inequality not mediocrity individual superiority not standardization is the measure of the progress of the world" FMi Emmanuel ScheWnq American educator and scholar (1858-1945) lifestyle WWWBANGORDAILYNEWSCOM I MONDAY DECEMBER 14 2009 PAGE D1 To our readers Family Ties by Roxanne Saucier will not appear this week as she is on vacation It will return next Monday Dec 21 raSssei'- a at 9 Propulsive narrative saves Gahagan Douglas bio BY TIM RUTTEN LOS ANGELES TIMES THE PINK LADY: THE MANY LIVES OF HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS by Sally Denton Bloomsbury Press $26 242 pages It is odd how history often bequeaths to us iconic names bereft of personality Helen Gahagan Douglas once a paladin of progressive politics and a congressional stalwart of Franklin New Deal is such a BOOK name To the extent now REVIEW remembered at all as the victim of Richard notoriously dirty 1950 campaign for one of the US Senate seats Sally Pink Lady: The Many Lives of Helen Gahagan does an admirable if sometimes needlessly breathless job of restoring flesh and sinew to a remarkable woman and political personality who stands as a kind of archetype of engaged Hollywood celebrity Helena Andrews writes of the loneliness underlying the 'together' veneer worn by young single urban black women i it 1 'A BY DENEEN BROWN THE WASHINGTON POST Helena Andrews is 29 single living in Washington DC and might be the star of a black and the stylish beautiful and a writer desperately in search of love in the city life appears charmed: The film rights for her memoir Is the New a satirical look at successful young black women living in Washington were purchased before the book was finished Shonda Rhimes the executive producer of is set to produce the film and Andrews will write the screenplay When Andrews pitched the book she described it as part and part and the The book is to be published in June by Harper Collins I am trying to say about single black women in any urban environment is you know them as well as you think you do They may not know themselves as well as they think they Andrews says seated at a restaurant table Her appearance is flawless: She is wearing an ivory blazer and skinny jeans her movie-star eyes glisten with shadow and her hair is cut in a fresh bob Perfect Image is everything And it means nothing book was a time for me to step back and to capture the internal dialogue and the dialogue with girlfriends who are in a quarter-life She is not talking about all young black women but some Revealing a story not oft told Many black women put up an exterior that says is together fine Perfect worry about me Keep it That is the Andrews says on new stilettos Put on a mask of But that image prevalent in both the media and See Andrews Page D2 1 Douglas was born at the turn of the century and died in 1980 She was the New York-raised daughter of wealth and privilege who defied her domineering but loving father and gave up a promising academic career for a successful run as a Broadway actress and later as an opera singer in Europe After the stock market crash of 1929 she returned to the American stage and met and married American actor Melvyn Douglas As a staunch supporter of the New Deal Gahagan Douglas became one of Eleanor Roosevelt's intimates and was elected as second female congressional representative In Washington she became not only a confidante to both Roosevelts but also the lover of an up-and-coming Democratic congressman from Texas named Lyndon Johnson In 1950 Douglas decided to run for the US Senate against a rising young GOP congressman See Douglas Page D2 Helena Andrews author of "Bitch Is the New Black" walks with her dog Miles in Washington DC recently WASHINGTON POST PHOTO BY KATHERINE FREY is not your history book Inquisitive amateur tinkerers built first wireless BY MARK RAHNER THE SEATTLE TIMES SEATTLE Even if a fan of The History Channel you may not have known that for instance the ancient Muslim warlord Khalid bin Walid employed subtle delicate refined mixture of diplomacy negotiation and relentlessly clubbing people in the face with the hilt of his scimitar BOOK until their teeth fell out and they for-REVIEW got how to play the one of the historical figures author Ben Thompson brings to blood red life in his new book (Harper $1699 softcover) subtitled Relentless Onslaught of the Toughest Warlords Vikings Samurai Pirates Gunfighters and Military Commanders to Ever I confronted Thompson in his home about his laugh-out-loud approach to history but not his split infinitives You wanted to meet in a Barnes Noble cafe which is not very badass at all we be in a biker bar? See Thompson Page D2 ART FROM COVERBY STEVEN BELLEDIN I Bangor will have WIRELESS" declared a jubilant headline in the Bangor Daily News on March 8 1906 In an era of miraculous technology that included light bulbs movies and automobiles the Queen City of the East was about to obtain yet another wonder confirming its status on the cusp of progress The wireless referred to wireless telegraphy or radio telegraphy coded messages sent through the air without benefit of wires The technology had been around for a few years but it was still far from perfected or commercially available to everyone Audio transmission or what we think of as radio broadcasting was still more than a decade away although it had been accomplished experimentally will have a wireless telegraph station in the near future" said the Bangor Daily News Heath manager for Northern Maine of the American DeForest Wireless Telegraph Co is in Bangor where he will remain until preparations are made for the installation of the station" Dr Lee DeForest was the tireless inventor who it would turn out was better at science than business A month later on April 6 the See Reilly Page D2 I.