control alt delete where are the keyboard shortcuts to reboot my day?
I love United States Space History.
The Right Stuff.
Project Mercury.
Balloon trip to the edge of the world.
Apollo.
One of the young technicians wrote of those days something along the line of, “We drank the wine at the rate they poured it.”
In my own small way, this was what it was like at the dawn of the WWW era.
Some folks refer to it as the wild wild west.
It was GREAT and I miss it, but I digress.
Back to the space race.
I love those stories of Neil Armstrong’s first words getting messed up by intereference.
I love how Gus Grissom wanted to name his second spacecraft, ‘[The Unsinkable] Molly Brown.
This after his first space craft sank after splash down.
NASA tried to hold the line and told Grissom that Molly Brown wasn’t appropriate.
Grissom said fine and that he would paint TITANIC on the side of his spacecraft.
NASA gave in but afterwards changed the policy of naming the capsules.
Possibly my favorite story is the one about 24 year old John Aaron and Apollo 12.
The gist of the story is that when launched, Apollo 12 was struck by lightning.
The power surge knocked out most of the data being sent back from Apollo to Mission Control in Houston as well as the data systems on the Apollo 12 spacecraft.
Mission Control watched the rocket go up and the data numbers go wacky.
What NASA saw on their screens.
They were about to abort the mission when John Aaron says over the communications circuit, “Try SCE to Aux and back.”
According both to legend and to the records (written and audio recording), just about everyone in Mission Control and on Apollo 12 said, “What is that?” or words to that effect.
Except for Lunar Module Pilot, Alan Bean.
Alan Bean had taken part in a simulation a year before with the self same John Aaron.
Bean reached out to the spacecraft control panel, located the SCE switch and set it to AUX and back.
The numbers being sent to Houston and the systems on the spacecraft came back online.
The mission continued.
John Aaron, age 24, was described as a steely–eyed missile man.
He had witnessed this problem on that simulation with Alan Bean one year before.
As he himself described it, by chance he was one the simulation at the time.
By chance he saw the error.
By chance he puzzled out why it happened.
And by chance his shift was in Mission Control during the Apollo 12 launch.
John Aaron was at a communications station when the lighting hit and he opened up his mic and said, “reboot”.
Of course he said it the language of the day and for his equipment.
“Set SCE to AUX”
Today he might say, “Hit CTRL ALT DELETE and reboot.”
Looked death in the eye.
Steely Eyed Missile Man.
It could be done back then in 1969.
I can hit all those keys on my computer today.
I can turn any of my so-called devices off and on.
my heart’s memory, to endure, magnifies good eliminates bad
Adapted from, “He was still too young to know that the heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past.” from Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez.
It called to mind this letter written in 1880 by Confederate Veteran, Sergeant Berry Benson of Georgia.
He wrote, “In time, even death itself might be abolished; who knows but it may be given to us after this life to meet again in the old quarters, to play chess and draughts, to get up soon to answer the morning role call, to fall in at the tap of the drum for drill and dress parade, and again to hastily don our war gear while the monotonous patter of the long roll summons to battle.
Who knows but again the old flags, ragged and torn, snapping in the wind, may face each other and flutter, pursuing and pursued, while the cries of victory fill a summer day?
And after the battle, then the slain and wounded will arise, and all will meet together under the two flags, all sound and well, and there will be talking and laughter and cheers, and all will say, Did it not seem real?
Was it not as in the old days?“
Was it not as in the old days?
I did not fight my way through the Civil War they way Sergeant Benson did (and he had quite the adventure and ended up the model for the Civil War Monument in downtown Augusta, Georgia) but I am sure that is NOT as it was in the old days.
Magnify the good.
Eliminate the bad.
Endure.
I am also reminded of a story told by the George Plimpton in the book Mad Ducks and Bears, his sequel to Paper Lion.
Mr. Plimpton described Alex Karras tellng a story about how Karras had got back at Bobby Layne for the years of hazing Karras endured when Layne was quarterback for the Detroit Lions.
Later in the book, Mr. Plimpton ran into Bobby Layne and Plimpton asked Layne about the details of the Karras story.
Layne listened and shook his head.
“Never happened,” said Layne.
Plimpton wrote that Layne looked down for a second then looked back up, caught Plimpton right in the eye with his look,
He grinned.
“Besides, why would I want to remember anything like that for anyway?”
that freedom highway Nobody can make us turn back land made for you, me
The other night before she had to go to bed, my grand daughter asked me to sing the ‘Goodnight Song.”
There isn’t a lot of common overall agreement on anything these days.
You might get 73% of the people to agree that the sun rises in the east.
I beleive however that you could get 100% on my inability to sing.
It is odd as I come from a family of noted singers and musicians.
But not me.
Just not musically inclined.
At least from a performance point of view.
I took piano lessons for 3 months when I was in third grade.
Then the teacher had a nervous stroke and had to give up teaching.
Draw your own conclusions from that true episode in my life.
Later on I discovered I have no natural sense of rythym.
I have to count in the gaps of ‘Hail to the Victors Valiant’ or I will stand up in Michigan Stadium and yell ‘HAIL’ all by myself.
I sing good enough for the grand children and that’s good enough for me.
The Good Night Song is usually Good Night Ladies using an arrangement by a folk song trio named the Limeliters.
You might think it hard for 1 person to sing in three part harmony but when you can’t sing, normal rules don’t apply.
Last night I thought of singing Good Night Irene.
Which led down a trip across Mr. Lincoln’s mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone.
I was thinking what exactly were the lyrics to Good Night Irene?
Which, when you think about it, is a dumb question for a song that goes
“Irene, good night, Irene, good night Good night, Irene, good night, Irene I’ll see you in my dreams”
In my mind I could hear a version of the song sung by the Irish Rovers.
My Dad loved the Irish Rovers.
My Dad loved the Limeliters too.
Which is why we had their albums in the stacks of records next to the family stereo.
But that wasn’t the version I was thinking of.
I was thinking of a version that I heard on TV when I was a kid.
I can’t remember who was watching with me, but it was a LIVE FROM WOLFTRAP program on PBS featuring Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
The more I thought about the more I wanted to see if I could find and I was off to the Information Super Highway.
I was really hoping to find a video of the concert.
It wasn’t the song I really wanted to hear again.
What was on my mind was a story that Arlo Guthrie told before he sang the song.
Mr. Guthrie related how one time during the depression, his father, Woody Guthrie, was out traveling with his band and found himself both in Chicago and out of money.
Mr. Guthrie told how his father and friends walked into a record company and Woody Guthrie and his band made a recording of ‘Good Night Irene.’
It was so good, the record company offered Woody and the band a contract.
Woody looked them there record company fellers in the eye and said, “No Sir! $50.”
Them there record company fellers were quick to hand over $50 for a contract giving them the rights to recording.
“My Dad and his band walked out with the $50”, said Mr. Guthrie.
And then went to 27 other record companies in Chicago.
As a side note, during my daily ZOOM meeting for work, someone asked what concerts everyone one was watching online, mentioning Elton John and the One World: Together At Home Global Special.
I announced I watched Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger from 1978 on YouTube.
The conversation paused for a second and went back to Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani.
As I said, I watched the video but something wasn’t right.
Good Night Irene wasn’t in there.
Nor was another song I remembered.
A song about the folk hero, Reuben Clamso, who defended the New England coast from rogue giant clams.
To this day, at any random moment, I am apt to break out in full voice and the chorus;
Poor old Reuben Clamsoooooooooo Clamso, boys, Clamso Poor old Reuben Clamsoooooooooo Clamso, me boys, Clamsoooooooooooo
Try this if you ever want to get some stares in a mall.
But it wasn’t in the video.
What goes on here I wonder.
Were there other shows?
I looked to the YouTube page.
The user who posted the video wrote;
“I am unsure if this is the complete show or not – I have heard that the original airing was about 90minutes, and rebroadcasts were cut down. This is the only known version that I am aware of.“
The YouTube version is 70 minutes.
There is 20 minutes of the show I remember watching that is missing.
Further down in the comments was this statement,
“This is the cut-down one. The original airing was live, and they cut a couple of tunes. I remember, as a teenager who lived in the DC area, calling up WETA, the station that aired it, and bitching, and I ended up speaking to the actual guy who edited it. He was really nice, and explained that they had to to cut it down to meet something-or-another that the other stations they distributed to needed. Near as I know, the original never existed outside of the original broadcast.”
This is right up there with Hadley’s Suitcase but another time.
Interesting to the point almost beyond belief.
On a random Saturday night in August when I was 18, I watched this show.
A show that, “Near as I know, the original never existed outside of the original broadcast.”
Somehow it stuck in my brain and apparently though I heard it once, I still sing RUEBEN CLAMSOOOOO.
I have a relative who works at that PBS station in Washington and he is going to hear from me about any possible archives.
From working in TV, I know how often this type of request comes in.
“I was on the BOZO show in 1965. Is it possible that your archives …”
Archives?
At a TV station?
Let me say here that keeping reels of film and boxes of video tape is nothing like keeping a copy of the daily newspaper but I digress.
And I will reach out to my cousin in DC.
So I watched Arlo and Pete from 1978.
There were lots of other YouTube clips to watch and sing along with.
And I did.
Two in particular.
They were both from another concert at Wolf Trap and again in August but this time in 1993.
I got chills just listening to the opening chords.
There is so much history behind the song.
There is so much history in the song.
Robert Kennedy was asked once what he would do if elected President.
“Change the National Anthem to This Land is Your Land,” he replied.
For me, that would have put Robert Kennedy up with Thomas Jefferson’s serving ice cream in the White House on my list of worthwhile Presidential acomplishments.
Can you just imagine in it?
Opening a baseball game or a football game with EVERYONE SINGING This Land is Your Land.
Picture an Olympic Medal ceremony where those crazy American’s actually SINGING their National Anthem.
As Big Bill would say, “a consummation devoutly to be wished” but most likely not to be.
I went back to World Wide Web and looked up the complete lyrics to This Land is Your Land.
I came across this verse.
Verse 5.
In the squares of the city – In the shadow of the steeple Near the relief office – I see my people And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’ If this land’s still made for you and me
WHOA.
WAIT ONE MINUTE HERE.
Where did that verse come from.
How had I never seen it before?
Made me think that the ghost of Woody Guthrie came back and added that verse just for today.
My Church just posted a video of how the Cross Pointe Food Bank opened its gates and the cars lined up IN THE SHADOW OF THE STEEPLE for miles.
My wife asked, where do the people without cars go?
The other song I clicked on was Arlo singing Amazing Grace.
I like Amazing Grace.
I like it a lot.
It has kind of become the American Lament De Jure (or is it defacto) for funerals.
Sad to me as I am not sure that a lot the people who sing it understand the Grace they are singing about.
Maybe they do at that.
So Arlo talks about the song and what it means to him.
If you are familiar with Arlo Guthrie half the fun is listening to him just talk.
In this talk about Amazing Grace, Arlo pointed out, back in 1993, how messed up the world was and what a gift that was.
Arlo pointed out that if everything was going well and everyone drove gold plated BMW’s, think how difficult it would be to help someone.
Think how it hard it would be to stand up and make a difference.
Arlo said that with the world so messed up, it was EASY to make a difference.
Again, I had to wonder, did somehow this conversation get recorded and saved to be heard today?
Never in the field of human endeavor can so little be done by so few to help so many.
I tell you one thing, with a 2.2 TRILLON DOLLAR relief package out of the way I NEVER AGAIN WANT TO HEAR SOMEONE ARGUE that the GOVERNMENT can save $4.8 Billion by cutting food stamps.
We ARE the GREATEST COUNTY on EARTH.
Maybe in HISTORY.
LETS PROVE IT!
Near the relief office – I see my people …
Near the relief office – I see MY people!
I don’t want anyone to wonder If this land’s still made for you and me.
And as far as I can do anything about, I will.
Nobody living can ever stop me As I go walking that freedom highway; Nobody living can ever make me turn back This land was made for you and me
instant mystery itall changed, in a moment, twinkling of an eye
Today’s haiku is adapted from the Bible verse, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1 Corinthians 15:52 (KJV)
Many know it as the text to the recitation that precedes the aria, The Trumpet Shall Sound from Messiah by George Frideric Handel.
I never noticed the use of the word, Trump, but I digress.
Today is the anniversary of Handel’s death but that is incidental.
It is also the anniversary of the day when RMS Titantic hit an iceberg.
Best guess is that she hit the iceberg around 11:40PM (ship’s time) and sank at 2:20AM on April 15th.
Two hours and 40 minutes.
160 minutes.
Less time than it takes to watch the movie, TITANIC, made in 1997.
One thing also seems to be clear from survivor interviews.
The scene in the movies where the Captain consults the ships designer (who was making the trip to check on any needed changes or improvements) really happened.
And it happened within 15 minutes of the accident.
The designer, Thomas Andrews, asked for information about the extent of the damage to Titanic.
From the answers he quickly determined two things.
One, the ship was going down and nothing could stop it.
Two, it would take about 2 hours or less.
The Captain and Officers of Titanic knew they had 2 hours to get everyone off.
A twinkling of an eye.
One moment the industrial triumph of the modern age with all the latest features in engineering brought together in one ship is steaming along, fancy free.
The next moment, that ship has become a death trap.
In a moment.
Everyone knows there weren’t enough life boats.
But there also wasn’t enough time.
Again in any of the movies on the disaster, notice that officers are trying to launch the last spare boats as the ship is going down.
Had they had more boats, it is doubtful they would have had time to launch them.
Just as an aside, when RMS Lusitania was torpedoed and sank in 1915, it had twice as many lifeboats as Titanic.
RMS Lusitania sank in 18 minutes and managed to launch six of 48 lifeboats saving about 761 passengers and crew and 1,200 people dead
SS Eastland also had a full set of lifeboats equal to the 2,600 passengers it was licensed to carry in 1915.
But Eastland turned over into the Chicago River in just 15 seconds.
No lifeboats were launched and 844 people drowned just feet from the docks in Downtown Chicago.
Back on Titanic, the Captain and the Officers had to convince the passengers that the modern marvel was a marvel no more.
And they had two hours to get their convincing done.
They had evidence evident to everyone that the ship was going down.
Water was pouring in.
The deck was taking on a pronounced forward slant.
The passengers needed more proof.
There was room for 1,200 people in the lifeboats.
There were 2,200 passengers and crew on board.
In the end, there were only 700 or so survivors.
Psalms 90, verse 4 states:
A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by
In Heaven, one day is like 1,000 years on earth.
That comes out to just over 42 years per hour.
If you live to be 80, you have about 2 of hours of Heaven time to make your mind that all this on God, Jesus and eternity is true.
