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KLMNO THE RELIABLE SOURCE Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger
Collegiate confusion
D.C. college undergrad. If this scenario, starring one
P
Mary J. Blige, seemed somewhat improbable early Tuesday, by the end of the day it appeared — well, who knows, maybe possible, someday. But not this year. The buzz started Friday when Blige performed a Central Park concert for ABC’s “Good Morning America.” After the TV cameras stopped rolling — but the Web videographers in the crowd kept going — she told the crowd her big news: “I never got the chance to graduate from high school, but they gave me my honorary diploma the other day. . . . And I got accepted into Howard University for the class of 2014.” She made a similar comment in an interview published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune the following day. True? The news seemed to catch
Howard, the nation’s premier historically black university, by surprise. Early Tuesday, a rep for the school declined to address Blige’s prospects at the school, noting that information about applicants and admissions is confidential. By late in the day, the
icture this: A chart-topping R&B diva, on the cusp of 40, switches gears to become a
university put out a statement suggesting Blige’s comments may have been somewhat premature. They were kind about it, though, praising her “resilience and dedication” to her craft: “We encourage Ms. Blige to continue her studies and welcome her consideration of Howard University in the future. We are happy to work with Ms. Blige on completing the formal process for admission.” A manager for
Blige disputed
that the singer meant to say she had been accepted.
Blige (who, as it happens, is promoting
a new fragrance line these days) has taken a strong interest in education lately. Last week, she spoke at the graduation for an all-girls public school in the Bronx; she also held a fundraiser to sponsor scholarships for its top students. Earlier in June, she was the guest at an N.Y.C. schools ceremony honoring grads who beat the odds to claim their diplomas.
Blige’s collegiate plans are the subject of debate.
MARKUS KLINKO AND INDRANI GOT A TIP ? E-MAIL U S A T RELIABLESOURCE@WASHP OST . COM. FOR THE LA TEST SCOOPS, VISIT WASHINGTONP OST . COM/RELIABLESOUR CE ‘Lost at Sea’: Sailing into the past, glimpsing the present exhibition from C1
to the sea.” The Folger exhibition forgoes
the pretentious, scared-of-their- shadow involutions of the new thalassology (“perhaps we should avoid the Greek-derived term ‘thalassology,’ ” write two of the discipline’s most prominent scholars, because, of course, any- thing Greek-derived is tainted by the Greek and Roman taste for “imperialist ideology”). The Fol- ger curators have, instead, fo- cused on the details of how the sea was experienced in the cen- turies during and after Shake- speare’s life. It was a time when English ex-
ploration and colonization brought ordinary people into ex- traordinary intimacy with the sublime, terrifying and exhilarat- ing waters of the wider world. Laid out in broad chapters, the show covers topics from early at- tempts at scientific navigation, the predations of scurvy, the lives of famous maritime celebrities and the effort to spread English civilization, via the seas, to America and beyond. It ends with a look at Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” and his real- life inspiration, Alexander Sel- kirk, a Scottish sailor who squab- bled with his captain and went ashore to live by his wits in 1704.
FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY Beyond paper
The curators struggle to give both a tactile and emotional sense of the sea in early modern times. A sail, anchor, sextant, bo- sun’s whistle, rope and other fit- tings standard on a sailing ship have been borrowed from the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Va., and from the Sultana, a still-sailing schooner operating
SEEING THE WORLD:Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer’s “The Mariners Mirrour,” possibly from 1588.
out of Chestertown, Md. But a 1592 “poesy ring,” from
the Folger collection, has even more resonance. When a loved one was lost at sea, and the body couldn’t be returned for burial, a ring such as this provided a me- morial of sorts. The ring, made of
DOONESBURY by Garry Trudeau
gold and rock crystal, is in- scribed with a poignant scrap of bad poetry, all the more touching because it is doggerel: “The cruel seas, remember, took him in No- vember.” The danger of the sea is a re- curring theme, and the exhibi-
toric sense of Providence (Eng- land’s ordained destiny was to spread her influence over the globe). For an exhibition at the Folger,
JULIE AINSWORTH/FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY
A replica of the Valencia Mariner’s Astrolabe, circa 1609.
tion argues that religious ideas were as important as primitive science in helping sailors under- stand (and accept) their place on the watery map of the world. Providence assured that no mat- ter what happened on the seas, it was all a part of God’s plan. The preacher John Flavel, represent- ed by a 1698 volume called “Navi- gation Spiritualiz’d,” captured the perpetually parlous condi- tion of sailors, who were “to be Number’d neither with the Liv- ing nor the Dead; their Lives hanging continually in suspense before them.” That line may be an echo of a far more famous expression, sup- posedly uttered by Sir Humphrey Gilbert just before his boat sank in 1583: “We are as near to heav- en by sea as by land.” Gilbert was a powerful proponent of English settlement in the New World, and for many his tragic narrative connected small-scale provi- dence (a sailor’s life was in the hands of God) with a larger, his-
“Lost at Sea” is more than usually rich with objects that aren’t made of paper. The delicate nee- dle of a Venetian compass, made sometime in the late 16th or ear- ly 17th century, still points to the north wall of the Folger building. A medal struck to celebrate the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 reiterates the power of Providence: “Thou God art great and doest wondrous things,” reads its inscription in Latin. A model of the Royal Sovereign, a “giant” ship when launched in 1637, gives a good sense of Eng- lish maritime ambitions.
A different experience
But there are powerful docu- ments as well, including an Eng- lish admiral’s account of the cap- tains under his command, with shorthand evaluations including this one: “Good for nothing.” Two contracts for indentured servi- tude — the only ticket available to many who sought a new life in America — record that in 1683 a 21-year-old woman named Alice Leniell and a 23-year-old man named John Birt committed themselves to four years of near- slave labor in exchange for pas- sage to new lives in the Americas. Today it’s not unthinkable for
a 16-year-old girl to sail the Indi- an Ocean alone, in a bid to get in the record books. GPS and the Internet keep her certain of her location, and in contact with land. Meanwhile, oil, the essen- tial fuel that allows us to hop continents and make what was once a several-days journey into a daily commute, flows into the
CUL DE SAC by Richard Thompson
Gulf of Mexico in great underwa- ter plumes, befouling the sea and slaughtering its inhabitants. And yet the ocean’s bottom, we’re told, is as unknown as outer space, even as we send long ten- tacles down to deplete its re- sources. It’s tempting to say that the ocean remains a source of mys- tery and contradiction, just as it was a place of opportunity and danger in the days of Shake- speare. But clearly something es- sential has shifted in our experi- ence of it. It lost much of the ter- rifying and superstitious power it had during the age of Shake- speare, even if its physical dan- gers were ever-present. The En- lightenment tamed it further, and the airplane allowed most of us to bypass it altogether. Today, thoughts about the sea are all about exhaustion and death. The ocean is being fished out and de- spoiled, and its essential cur- rents (tentatively mapped by ear- ly mariners) may cease to flow if global warming changes water temperatures. The Folger show can remind you of the old power and mystery of the sea, but those feelings have the bitter taste of hollow nostal- gia. We’ve been riding poor Po- seidon for a long time now, and we owe him a lot more respect and at least a little relief from our neglect and greed.
kennicottp@washpost.com
Lost at Sea: The Ocean in the English Imagination
Through Sept. 4. Folger Shakespeare Library Great Hall. 201 East Capitol St. SE. 10a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 202-544-7077;
www.folger. edu/lostatsea.
THIS JUST IN Lindsay Lohan is headed to
jail for 90 days for violating terms of probation in her 2007 drug case. In the hearing Tuesday, Judge Marsha Revel threw out the results of the alcohol detection ankle bracelet, which went off while Lohan was at a MTV Movie Awards after- party last month. The case then centered on the nine court-ordered alcohol education classes that Lohan skipped. “It’s like someone who cheats but doesn’t think it’s cheating if they don’t get caught,” Revel said. A tearful Lohan was ordered to begin serving time July 20 and enter in-patient rehab afterward. More legal hassles: During a break in the hearing, Lohan was served with papers in the courthouse elevator for $17,000 in unpaid bills to an L.A. boutique. George Michael was arrested and released Sunday after he drove his Range Rover into the front of a London photo store, British police said Tuesday. The singer, 47, has a history of
Lindsay Lohan gets jail time.
driving under
the influence and has lost his license once; heads to court again next month. Jackpot! Michael Hastings, author of the infamous Rolling Stone article on Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, has scored a contract with Little, Brown and Co. for a book on the Afghanistan war.
LOVE, ETC. Apologizing:
Levi Johnston to the Palins for telling lies about them. The former fiance of Bristol Palin admitted he “said things that were not completely true” about Sarah Palin and her family after the lovebirds broke up last year, reports People. (No details of what was “not completely” true, however —or what prompted the apology.) Bristol released her own statement Tuesday: “Part of co-parenting is creating healthy and honest relationships between the parents. . . . If a mistake is made the honorable thing to do is to own up to it.” Married: Zack Bolno to Corinne Rabung on Saturday in Bluemont, Va. The Redskins PR head — who did the same job for the Wizards — married the real estate marketing manager in front of former Redskins coach Jim Zorn, former Wizards players Caron Butler and Calvin Booth, former Wizards coach Eddie Jordan and a bunch of local sports reporters.
Levi Johnston
WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010
George Michael’s going to court.
“That was a scary moment for me . . . I had gotten used to the picture of me revealing my ear, looking like Spock’s sister.”
— Tracey Ullman on finally giving up her green card after becoming a U.S. citizen in 2006 — an in-joke for fellow immigrants, required to show their right ears in photos for their work papers. The British-born comic spoke July 4 at a naturalization ceremony for new U.S. citizens at Monticello.
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