Circus! The Greatest Show on Earth!

The circus is in town! You heard it right! I said, The Circus!
The Ringling Brothers C I R C U S! 

The Greatest Show on Earth!

Come and see it all! Fire breathers, sword swallowers, knife
throwers, lion tamers, biking bears, trape-eeze flyers, high wires,
tightrope walkers, human cannons, stilt men, big cat acts,
human pyramids, balancing elephants . . . bee-dazzling,
spell-binding, trans-fixing!

Daddy, can I sit on your shoulders?

Yes, Siree, Ladies and Gents and all you kids, we even got the
snake girl, the midgets, the fire-breathers, carnival clowns-
and a strong man you gotta see!

That big red clown scares me!

Step right up! Get your tickets ‘fore they’re gone! All for a buck!
I don’t wanna holler, but it’s just one 

dollar! Get your cracker jacks, candy corn, popcorn, corn dogs,
cotton candy – no empty hands or stomachs under our Big Top!

Oh, pink cotton candy, Daddy, p l e a s e !

This way! This way! Fascination, palpitation, gyration- all under one Big Top!  Step right up!
That’s right, folks, we got a show to stop all shows tonight!  Bring out the snake girl, the vanishing act, 

the fire jugglers, the midgets, the fat lady – even the freaks! Mesmerizing, hypnotizing, magnetizing

– see it here! Don’t miss a moment! It’s about to begin!

Look, two seats in the front row just for us!

It’s SHHHOOOWWW TIME!

This week's Guest Blogger, Melissa Foster, has vivid memories when recalling the thrill of the circus.  Growing up in Omaha, 

she went every summer with her family  to the Ringling Bros Big Top Ak-Sar-Ben arena. 

She loved every part — but not the clowns, which scared her. Circuses travel the country by rail. 

In its heyday, the Barnum and Bailey and Ringling Brothers circus was 100 traincars long and 

employed 1200 people.  The circus is considered a tradition 250 yearsold, and was a primary 

venue for entertainment in an age before theatre, movies television, and ultimately, personal 

digital media. The circus was born in Europe in the mid 1700s. These stamps come from the 

US in 1966 and Monaco in 1978. The US Postal Service issued a commemorative set of circus stamps this May, available here. Melissa plans to attend the circus this summer with her family 

when it comes to Colorado.

Anders Zorn and the Woman from Mora

It’s the everyday normalcy about this woman, despite exertion in the midst of rowing, that I love. En route home from a field, perhaps to visit a grandchild, maybe to collect a basket of something useful — I wonder where she heads? Clearly, she is not out for sport. But our heroine rather is navigating the waterways of a country with channels as pedestrian as highways. The talent of the engraver makes the water unquestionably real. Look at the paddle of the oar as it slices from the canal! In the background, a boat full of people contrasts with our protagonist who rows alone. I’ve never tried rowing, let alone for transportation in a cold climate, yet her confident familiarity with the endeavor makes the boat, the oars, the motion look quotidian. This image is taken from an oil panting by Anders Zorn, the Swedish artist who completed this piece “Old Woman from Mora” in 1879. Maybe the image springs from his childhood, for his grandparents raised him on the family farm in Mora. The stamp was etched onto copper plate for reproduction by Arne Wallhorn, one of two eminent engravers responsible for a host of Swedish stamps. Whatever we are striving for, let the effort be as graceful and patient as that depicted here.