Mid-Week Libation: Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Happy birthday to Nina Simone, Lidia Bastianich & Barbara Jordan! Plus 10 cemeteries to see before (or after) you die, Charles Darwin's library, and Amanda Lear shares her iconic looks!

Mid-Week Libation is our weekly curated splash of inspiration and culture! Click above to listen to this weeks’ audio segment!

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Happy Birthday to Nina Simone (February 21, 1933 - April 21, 2003), The High Priestess of Soul!

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10 Cemeteries to See Before (or After) You Die (via Atlas Obscura)

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• 10 Cemeteries to See Before (or After) You Die: Ponder the thin veil between worlds at these beautiful, spooky, and surprising graveyards. (via Atlas Obscura)

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Happy Birthday Lidia Bastianich! (b. February 21, 1947)

• Click here for the full, printable recipe for Chef Lida’s Stuffed Calamari!

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Charles Darwin’s Personal Library Now Online!

An etching of Charles Darwin's study, one week after he died

• See What Charles Darwin Kept in His ‘Insanely Eclectic’ Personal Library, Revealed for the First Time: On the English naturalist’s 215th birthday, more than 9,000 titles from his expansive collection are now accessible online (via Smithsonian Magazine)

• Contents of Charles Darwin’s entire personal library revealed for first time: 300-page catalogue details thousands of books, journals, pamphlets and articles in naturalist’s library (via The Guardian)

• The Complete Library of Charles Darwin (via Darwin Online)

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Amanda Lear Shares the Secrets Behind Her Iconic Looks! (via Vogue France)

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Interesting Artists Born Today: February 21st

Visual Artists:

Today is the birthday of Henry Wallis, Marie Bilders-van Bosse, Mary Eliza Haweis, Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach, Félix Resurrección Hidalgo, Gertrud Staats, Goscombe John, Grace Hudson, Violet Teague, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Jean Dupas, Michael Lenson, Hans Erni, Park Su-geun, Wiktor Tołkin, May Claerhout, Ron Nagle, Ryszard Wasko, Jay McCafferty, Frank Brunner, Sue Coe, Isaac Julien and Verónica Ruiz de Velasco!

Writers, Philosophers & Scholars:

Today is the birthday of Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Clemence Dane, Nirala, Anaïs Nin, Raymond Queneau, W. H. Auden, Claudia Jones, Ishigaki Rin, John Rawls, Pierre Hadot, Erma Bombeck, Barbara Jordan, John Lewis, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Angelamaría Dávila, Lidia Bastianich, Jia Pingwa, Francisco X. Alarcón, Ha Jin, Abhijit Banerjee, Chuck Palahniuk, David Foster Wallace, Gabeba Baderoon and Jonathan Safran Foer!

Musicians & Composers:

Today is the birthday of Carl Czerny, Léo Delibes, Charles-Marie Widor, Andrés Segovia, Scrapper Blackwell, Al Sears, Tadd Dameron, Eddie Higgins, Nina Simone, Sam Mangwana, Akira Sakata, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Corey Harris and Rhiannon Giddens!

Film/TV/Stage:

Today is the birthday of Sacha Guitry, Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya, Sam Peckinpah, Bob Rafelson, Rue McClanahan, Margarethe von Trotta, Roberto Faenza, Tyne Daly, Anthony Daniels, Alan Rickman, Christopher Atkins, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Tituss Burgess, Jordan Peele and Elliot Page!

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This Week’s Words of Wisdom: Barbara Jordan (February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996)

“Just remember the world is not a playground but a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday but an education. One eternal lesson for us all: to teach us how better we should love.” — Barbara Jordan [Source: AZquotes]

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