Overnight Open Thread ( 11-11-2021 ) – Veteran’s Day Edition Like Old Times Again

Howdy all - I'm back. Just for one night though. So don't be getting any ideas.

Damn I'm rusty at this blogging thing. It involves like work and stuff.

Quote of the Day I

We are not a nation of victims, and neither are we a nation of oppressors. Most of us are just trying to get through the week, pay our bills, and live the best life we can.

-- RS McCain

Quote of the Day II

The woke world is a world of snitches, informants, rats. Go to any space concerned with social justice and what will you find? Endless surveillance. Everybody is to be judged. Everyone is under suspicion. Everything you say is to be scoured, picked over, analyzed for any possible offense. Everyone's a detective in the Division of Problematics, and they walk the beat 24/7. You search and search for someone Bad doing Bad Things, finding ways to indict writers and artists and ordinary people for something, anything.

-- Freddie deBoer in 'Planet of Cops'

Quote of the Day III - Poseidon Adventure Version

Everybody hated something. I hated the heights. Red Buttons hated the water. Stella [Stevens] hated the dirt and so did Ernest Borgnine. Shelley Winters hated being fat and Jack Albertson hated Shelley Winters.

-- Actress Carol Lynley discussing the making of The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

Best Let's Go Brandon Song So Far

Why the Poppies on Veterans/Armistice Day

Wild poppies flower when other plants in their direct neighbourhood are dead. Their seeds can lie on the ground for years and years, but only when there are no more competing flowers or shrubs in the vicinity (for instance when someone firmly roots up the ground), these seeds will sprout.

There was enough rooted up soil on the battlefield of the Western Front; in fact the whole front consisted of churned up soil. So in May 1915, when McCrae wrote his poem, around him bloodred poppies blossomed like no one had ever seen before.

But in this poem the poppy plays one more role. The poppy is known as a symbol of sleep. The last line We shall not sleep, though poppies grow / In Flanders fields might point to this fact. Some kinds of poppies are used to derive opium from, from which morphine is made. Morphine is one of the strongest painkillers and was often used to put a wounded soldier to sleep. Sometimes medical doctors used it in a higher dose to put the incurable wounded out of their misery.

Inflation is back baby! How about 8.6% in October

It's like it's 1979 all over again and our old friends stagflation and misery index have come back to do another round on the dance floor. The only slightly good news is that China seems to have it worse than us...for now.

The Astronomical Grit of Ronald McNair

Ronald McNair was born October 21, 1950 in Lake City, South Carolina, the second of three sons, to Pearl and Carl McNair. His mother was a teacher, and encouraged his love of reading. Ronald's father, Carl was an auto mechanic who never finished high school and always regretted it.

...Ronald learned to read by the time he was three years old, and his father forged his birth certificate so he could start school at age four. From a young age, he was obsessed with science fiction, space, and Sputnik in particular. Even though the house was filled with books, there was one book that Ron didn't have: the one that told him much more about his prized slide rule than the pamphlet that came with it.

In the summer of 1959 he located the book in the Lake City public library. There was only one problem: the library was segregated, and he wasn't allowed check it out. Nine-year-old Ron didn't abide, so he simply refused to leave the library until they let him check out his stack of books. First the librarians called the cops, and then they called his mother.

Pearl McNair arrived to find her son sitting on the checkout counter, his little legs dangling down the side. Since he wasn't causing any real trouble, she proudly stood by her son in the matter, telling the librarians that they ought to just let him check out the books. From that day on, Ron could check out books whenever he wanted.

Ron McNair despite his inferior 'separate but equal' education went on to graduate with a degree in physics and eventually earned a PhD in laser physics from MIT. Along the way he also acquired a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and was accepted into the NASA astronaut program.

He died on the morning of January 28th, 1986 when the Challenger broke up shortly after launch. It would have been his second trip into space.

Sadly most Americans today know all about George Floyd but almost no one remembers Ronald McNair.

Your Handy Oppressed Intersectional Identity

I identify as a crazy-eyed multigender Inuit from space. Which is decent premise for a science fiction short story that might actually get published these days.

Winter is Coming - Time to be stocking up

I know I am. A lot of trend lines are pointing in the wrong direction plus all the current logistical issues and inflation mean that things are likely to get worse before they get better. Given the likelihood of coming military conflict with China and the ensuing embargo I've been stockpiling medicines in particular and other critical consumables with the goal of being able to hunker down without new supplies for 3-6 months. And I'm generally an optimist. But maybe 3-6 months of hunkering is the optimistic view...

A Breakdown of How Pimps Spend Their Money

Statistically not that different from any other type of salesman I guess.

After 270 days you're no longer 'vaccinated'

At least according to some countries in the EU. And coming soon the US is likely to declare that without a vaccine booster shot you're now considered 'unvaccinated' AKA a modern day leper.

Bedcheck Charlie - Using Obsolete Planes for Nighttime Harrassment

How Lucille Ball Saved Star Trek

[Lucille and Desi Arnaz] named their new company Desilu Productions, and it quickly became one of the largest independent production companies in Hollywood. Lucy had a good eye for spotting proposals with mass appeal, and their company was responsible for producing or filming series like The Andy Griffith Show, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and The Dick Van Dyke Show. When Lucy bought her ex-husband's share of the firm in 1962 (they divorced in 1960), she became the most powerful woman in television.

While many series were being shot at Desilu, the studio was in dire need of original programming of its own following the end of The Untouchables in 1963. Herbert Solow, hired to help locate new projects for the studio, brought two notable proposals to Desilu in 1964. One was Mission: Impossible; the other was Roddenberry's quirky sci-fi idea. When Lucy's longtime network CBS said no to Trek, Solow and Roddenberry took it to NBC. Science fiction was alien to the network's schedule, but it ordered a pilot.

...Her support was even more critical when NBC rejected the initial pilot, "The Cage," in early 1965. NBC ordered a second pilot-introducing Shatner as Kirk-which Lucy agreed to help finance, again over her board's objections. Star Trek made the fall 1966 schedule, and the pilot won its time slot (though it later suffered in the ratings). "If it were not for Lucy," former studio executive Ed Holly told Desilu historian Coyne Steven Sanders, "there would be no Star Trek today."

Another unlikely Star Trek fan was Martin Luther King who convinced Nichelle Nichols to stay on the show instead of returning to Broadway. It's amazing how an oddball 60s sci-fi show that was lucky to last even two seasons has had more enduring cultural relevance for half a century than nearly anything else that aired on tv.

Three Words: Elvis' Bedazzled Jockstrap

You're going to click because you have to know.

Google group. That is all.

My pronouns are The Archon/Xe Lord High Master of all Auxiliary Timelines and Vanquisher of the Toilet Spiders (or just Possession Subject to The Archon if you're into the whole racist brevity thing).

And my lo-fi Twitter spew. Which I don't really use anymore because Twitter is garbage.

Tonight's post brought to you by the March 25, 1943 patrol log of the legendary submarine USS Wahoo:

The Wahoo was sunk with all hands in October 1943 in the Sea of Japan. Her wreckage was discovered in 2006.

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please send your overnight open thread tips and scraps to Ace via his Mexican mail drop. Including a dollar helps. Note that the mannequins are for display only. Do not taunt happy-fun ball.

posted by Maetenloch at 09:57 PM

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