As an amateur genealogist, I’m always looking around for new facts about my family. I’ve finally downloaded a copy of the book written in the 1880’s about my mother’s family. I’ve discovered that Samuel F.B. Morse was my second cousin 6 times removed. (1)
I have also discovered that I have something called trigger finger, which at the moment is not painful, only uncomfortable. Apparently it is one of a number of hand complications that may develop in diabetics. Oh joy. If it persists, I can get an injection of steroids into the sheath surrounding the tendon, which normally relieves the symptoms. In some cases minor surgery is needed. The doctor said that if I liked, she could do it in the surgery, or I could go to the Hand Clinic. I told her that since I’m already being seen in the Foot Clinic, I’d rather not have to go to a Hand Clinic as well—one end is enough.
The Gauguin exhibition at Tate Modern is well worth seeing. It’s on until mid-January 2011. If you’re in London, or even in the UK, you should definitely try to get tickets and go to see it. We went on Wednesday, the day before it officially opened, as it was an open day for Tate members. It wasn’t very crowded, thank goodness. I overrode HWMBO’s objections and bought the catalogue. This is the first London exhibition of Gauguin in more than 50 years.
(1) For those who don’t know who he was, he is the gentleman who invented the telegraph and Morse code. (2)
(2) For those who don’t know what a telegraph is, it was the first electrical instrument that was capable of communicating over long distances using Morse code, natch.
The code devised by Morse was for numbers only. The operator was supposed to look up the word corresponding to each number in a sort of dictionary. Alfred Vail added letters and symbols to the code to make it more useful. The resulting Mores-Vail code used for telegraph was slightly different from the International Morse Code used for radio communications.
Curiously, just last night I watched an Anthony Bourdain program about his visit to French Polynesia and his observations about Gauguin. And I just learned that Gauguin worked as a laborer in the construction of the Panama Canal, lasting two weeks before being fired.
I think I knew that about Morse’s original Morse code. In any case, it’s nice to have someone famous in my family tree, even if he is a second cousin 6 times removed.
I like Gauguin; very colourful and very interesting. I should get a print for the wall.