Month: March 2020

The Thing About Today – March 22

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March 22, 2020
Day 82 of 366

 

March 22nd is the eighty-second day of the year. It is World Water Day, a United Nations observance that highlights the importance of freshwater and sustainable management of freshwater resources.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Bavarian Crepes Day, National Goof Off Day, and National West Virginia Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Colony outlawed the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables, even in private homes. Because… Puritan theology.
  • In 1638, Anne Hutchinson was expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent. She was a Puritan spiritual advisor and religious reformer whose convictions – she believed that the local ministers were focusing too much on a “covenant of works” rather than a “covenant of grace” – placed her at odds with the establishment clergy.
  • In 1765, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act that introduces a tax to be levied directly on its American colonies. This unpopular move gave rise to the slogan “No taxation without representation.”
  • In 1829, the United Kingdom, France, and Russia established the borders of Greece via the London Protocol.
  • In 1871, William Woods Holden became the first governor in the United States to be removed from office by impeachment. He was the governor of North Carolina.
  • In 1872, Illinois became the first state to require gender equality in employment.
  • In 1873, the Spanish National Assembly abolished slavery in Puerto Rico.
  • In 1908, novelist Louis L’Amour was born.
  • In 1930, composer and songwriter Stephen Sondheim was born.
  • In 1931, William Shatner was born.
  • In 1941, James Stewart was enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, becoming the first major American movie star to wear a military uniform during World War II.
  • In 1948, composer and director Andrew Lloyd Webber was born.
  • In 1960, Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes received the first patent for a laser.
  • In 1972, the United States Congress sent the Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification. It still hasn’t been ratified.
  • Also in 1972, the United States Supreme Court decided in Eisenstadt v. Baird that unmarried persons have the right to possess contraceptives.
  • In 1976, Reese Witherspoon was born.
  • In 1993, the Intel Corporation shipped the first Pentium chips.
  • In 1995, Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returned to Earth after setting a record of 438 days in space.
  • In 1997, Tara Lipinski became becomes the youngest women’s World Figure Skating Champion. She was fourteen years old.
  • In 2019, Robert S. Mueller III delivers his report on the Russian government’s influence on the election of Donald Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election.

 

In 1975, a fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama caused a dangerous reduction in cooling water levels.

The fire started when a worker used a candle to search for air leaks, watching for the movement of smoke to determine airflow through seals. The candle’s flame was pulled into a temporary cable seal and ignited the foamed plastic that was covered on both sides with two coats of a flame retardant paint as a firestop. The fire spread and caused significant damage to the reactor control cabling in the station.

From the NRC bulletin concerning the event:

The fire started in the cable spreading room at a cable penetration through the wall between the cable spreading room and the reactor building for Unit 1. A slight differential pressure is maintained (by design) across this wall, with the higher pressure being on the cable spreading room side. The penetration seal originally present had been breached to install additional cables required by a design modification. Site personnel were resealing the penetration after cable installation and were checking the airflow through a temporary seal with a candle flame prior to installing the permanent sealing material. The temporary sealing material was highly combustible, and caught fire. Efforts were made by the workers to extinguish the fire at its origin, but they apparently did not recognize that the fire, under the influence of the draft through the penetration, was spreading on the reactor building side of the wall. The extent of the fire in the cable spreading room was limited to a few feet from the penetration; however, the presence of the fire on the other side of the wall from the point of ignition was not recognized until significant damage to cables related to the control of Units 1 and 2 had occurred.

This event later resulted in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission making significant additions to the standards for fire protection through the publication of 10CFR50.48 and Appendix R, and later the NFPA 805 fire protection standard. The event was pivotal in fire protection for the nuclear industry and beyond, including commercial and industrial construction.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 21

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March 21, 2020
Day 81 of 366

 

March 21st is the eighty-first day of the year. It is a big day on the international stage, including World Down Syndrome Day, World Puppetry Day, and World Poetry Day.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National California Strawberry Day, National Common Courtesy Day, National Countdown Day, National Fragrance Day, National French Bread Day, National Single Parent Day, National Corn Dog Day, and National Quilting Day. National Quilting Day is typically observed on the third Saturday in March, and National Corn Dog Day is typically observed on the first Saturday of March Madness.

As a trivial aside, the NCAA has six annual basketball tournaments in March – one for each division, divided into men’s and women’s competitions – but only one is officially known as March Madness: The  NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. The term was popularized by CBS sportscaster Brent Musberger in the 1980s, and Bob Walsh of the Seattle Organizing Committee started the official March Madness celebration in 1984. Of course, the NCAA loves cold hard cash, so they trademarked the term in the 1990s.

Unfortunately for corn dog fans, March Madness has been canceled due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, but you can still enjoy them at home if you can find them in stores. It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world right now, so good luck.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1685, German Baroque composer and musician Johann Sebastian Bach was born.
  • In 1768, French mathematician and physicist Joseph Fourier was born.
  • In 1800, Pius VII was crowned as Pope in Venice, Italy. The church’s leadership had been driven out of Rome during armed conflict, and the ceremony was conducted with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché.
  • In 1844, the Bahá’í calendar began, making this the first day of the calendar and an annual celebrated by members of the Bahá’í Faith as the Bahá’í New Year or Náw-Rúz.
  • In 1925, the Butler Act was made law, prohibiting the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee. It was challenged later that year in the famous Scopes Trial and was finally repealed in 1967.
  • In 1928, Charles Lindbergh was presented with the Medal of Honor for the first solo trans-Atlantic flight.
  • In 1935, Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asked the international community to call Persia by its native name: Iran.
  • In 1946, actor Timothy Dalton was born. He was one of my favorite James Bonds.
  • In 1952, Alan Freed presented the Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland, Ohio. It was the first rock and roll concert.
  • In 1958, actor, filmmaker, musician, and author Gary Oldman was born.
  • In 1962, Matthew Broderick was born.
  • In 1963, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, located in San Francisco, California, closed.
  • In 1965, NASA launched Ranger 9, the last in a series of unmanned lunar space probes.
  • Also in 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
  • In 1970, the first Earth Day proclamation was issued by Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco.
  • Also in 1970, the first San Diego Comic-Con International opened at the U.S. Grant Hotel.
  • In 1980, United States President Jimmy Carter announced a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet-Afghan War.

 

In 2006, Twitter was founded with a missive from Jack Dorsey: “just setting up my twttr”.

 

Twitter is a microblogging and social networking service designed to mimic the Short Message Service (SMS) format. Each post is known as a tweet, following from the definitions of the word twitter as “a short burst of inconsequential information” and “chirps from birds”, and they were initially limited to 140 characters in length. The developers considered the platform to be more of an information network than a social one.

Twitter experienced explosive growth, credited to a presentation at 2007’s South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference, eventually reaching into the hundreds of millions of active users.

Users are known by their handles (usernames) and can mention one another by tweeting those names preceded by an @ sign. Twitter also gave birth to the idea of hashtags, which group discussions by user-defined topics that are flagged by using the # sign. A user’s tweets can be liked, replied to in threads (basically, a collected discussion), and retweeted (basically, shared or automatically copied and credited) to someone else’s audience.

Twitter users can also see trending discussions in local regions and across the globe. Certain users can be granted “verified” status, shown by a special blue checkmark next to their name, in order to limit impersonators.

In 2009, San Antonio-based market-research firm Pear Analytics analyzed 2,000 tweets for content over two weeks and determined that roughly 80% of content on the site was divided nearly equally into conversations and pointless babble. The rest of the tweets were spread across news, self-promotion, pass-along value, and spam.

In 2017, Twitter expanded the character limit to 280 and removed Twitter handles from the overall character count.

Twitter is pretty much the wild west of social media with few sheriffs to keep the peace. I often call it a larger hive of scum and villainy than the Mos Eisley Spaceport.

You can find me there, for better or worse, as @womprat99.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

Culture on My Mind – Moving Pictures in Isolation

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Culture on My Mind
Moving Pictures in Isolation
March 20, 2020

This week’s “can’t let it go” is really just an update on the movie scene.

Box Office Mojo posted a quick note on Tuesday about the state of cinema during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the same day that AMC and Regal announced that all of their United States theaters would be closed for six to twelve weeks, encompassing over 1,200 locations overall. As a result, several films have been either postponed or removed from the upcoming slates. Today’s post is an attempt to capture some of those for you.

  • No Time to Die (James Bond #25) has been postponed to November 25, 2020.
  • My Spy has been postponed to April 17, 2020.
  • Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway has been postponed to August 7, 2020.
  • A Quiet Place Part II has been removed from the schedule.
  • F9 (Fast and Furious 9) has been postponed to April 2, 2021.
  • Mulan has been removed from the schedule.
  • The New Mutants has been removed from the schedule (which is the latest in a series of moves for this once-Fox-now-Disney Marvel film)
  • Antlers has been removed from the schedule.
  • Black Widow has been removed from the schedule.
  • The Personal History of David Copperfield has been removed from the schedule.
  • The Woman in the Window has been removed from the schedule.
  • Antebellum has been removed from the schedule.
  • Run has been removed from the schedule.
  • Minions: The Rise of Gru has been removed from the schedule.

Because of the theater closures, studios are trying to recoup some of their investments while stoking goodwill with audiences. To that end, Universal has announced that they are making recent releases like The Hunt, The Invisible Man, and Emma available On Demand.

Meanwhile, Disney has announced that Pixar’s Onward will be available for immediate digital download and for streaming on their Disney+ platform by April 3rd. This is in addition to the early digital release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the early streaming release of Frozen 2 on Disney+.

Universal’s Trolls World Tour is still scheduled for release on April 10th, but Universal has added an On Demand option for that film as well.

What will be particularly interesting is how these moves affect the film industry going forward, both in how the release schedule gets sorted out and how studios treat their titles with respect to digital availability.

It’s also interesting to me that drive-in theaters are increasing in popularity with the COVID-19 pandemic according to the Los Angeles Times, especially since they had recently been considered a dead cinema format. Social distancing has some benefits beyond killing off the virus.

As a special note, I hope you all stay safe and healthy out there. I know that physical isolation can take a toll, and I hope that you can take some time to touch base with loved ones through video, chat, email, or phone. I also hope you can find time to care for yourselves during these stressful times.
cc-break

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – March 20

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March 20, 2020
Day 80 of 366

 

March 20th is the eightieth day of the year. It is the International Day of Happiness, a United Nations-sponsored day to advance happiness as a fundamental human right. It is also National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day in the United States, designed to increase knowledge and education about the one percent of people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS who are among the American Indian and Alaska Native populations.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as World Flour Day, National Proposal Day, National Ravioli Day, and National Kick Butts Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1602, the Dutch East India Company was established.
  • In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published. This anti-slavery novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery, and it helped lay the groundwork for the American Civil War.
  • In 1915, Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity.
  • In 1922, the USS Langley (CV-1) was commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.
  • In 1928, Fred Rogers was born. He was the creator, host, and producer of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood for its entire run from 1968 to 2001. If you have the chance, learn all about his extraordinary life in the 2018 documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
  • In 1937, author Lois Lowry was born. She won Newbery Medals for Number the Stars and The Giver.
  • In 1948, actor John de Lancie was born. Among other roles, he was Q in the Star Trek franchise.
  • In 1950, actor William Hurt was born.
  • In 1957, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Spike Lee was born.
  • In 1958, actress and producer Holly Hunter was born.
  • In 1963, actor David Thewlis was born.
  • In 1979, actress Freema Agyeman was born. She portrayed Martha Jones in Doctor Who.
  • In 1986, Ruby Rose was born. She portrays Batwoman on the CW show of the same name.
  • In 1987, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the anti-AIDS drug, AZT.
  • In 1999, Legoland California opened in Carlsbad, California. It was the first Legoland outside of Europe.
  • In 2015, a Solar eclipse, equinox, and a Supermoon all occurred on the same day.

 

 

In 2015, a solar eclipse, an equinox, and a supermoon all occurred on the same day.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, effectively obscuring the Sun from an Earth-bound observer’s point of view. Since the Moon is closer to the planet, it appears to be larger than the Sun. This solar eclipse’s totality – when the Moon appears to completely cover the Sun – lasted two minutes and forty-seven seconds, and the path of totality passed over the North Pole. It was the last total solar eclipse visible in Europe until the forecasted eclipse of August 12, 2026.

As mentioned on March 19’s post, the vernal equinox is the day when the duration of night and day are equal and the subsolar point appears to leave the Southern Hemisphere and cross the celestial equator. On the Gregorian calendar, this can occur between March 19th and March 21st, and it typically marks the transition of seasons from winter to spring in the Northern Hemisphere and summer to autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

A supermoon is a full or new moon that nearly coincides with the perigee – the closest that the Moon comes to the Earth in its orbit – so that it looks larger-than-normal to an Earth-bound observer. The proper (technical) name is perigee syzygy, but supermoon sounds cooler for the general populace. The term also comes from astrology. In 2015, the supermoon was a new moon, so it appeared dark in the night sky.

Personally, I think syzygy – pronounced ˈsizijē, meaning a conjuction or pair of connected things – is much more fun to say.

Witnessing all three events at the same time isn’t unusual in of itself, but the confluence of events is fun to talk and learn about, especially if you’re lucky enough to be in the path of solar eclipse totality.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 19

Michael Falkner1 Comment

March 19, 2020
Day 79 of 366

 

March 19th is the seventy-ninth day of the year. It is Kashubian Unity Day in Poland, a commemoration of the first written mention of Kashubians in Pope Gregory IX’s Bull of March 19, 1238. So, who are the Kashubians? They are a West Slavic ethnic group native to the historical region of Pomerelia in modern north-central Poland.

It’s also the vernal equinox, a day when the duration of night and day are equal and the subsolar point appears to leave the Southern Hemisphere and cross the celestial equator. All that science to say, “Welcome to Spring!” Unless you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, then “Welcome to Autumn!”

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Certified Nurses Day, National Chocolate Caramel Day, National Let’s Laugh Day, National Poultry Day, and National Farm Rescuer Day. That last one is typically observed on the third Thursday in March.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1848, Wyatt Earp was born.
  • In 1918, the United States Congress established time zones and approved daylight saving time.
  • In 1928, Irish-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Patrick McGoohan was born.
  • In 1931, gambling was legalized in Nevada.
  • In 1936, actress and model Ursula Andress was born.
  • In 1947, actress and producer Glenn Close was born.
  • In 1955, actor and producer Bruce Willis was born.
  • In 1962, Bob Dylan released his first album, Bob Dylan, for Columbia Records.
  • In 1979, the United States House of Representatives began broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.
  • In 2018, the last male northern white rhinoceros, named Sudan, died. Sudan lived at the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic from 1975 to 2009. After that, he lived at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia, Kenya. He was one of the last three white rhinoceroses in the world, and his death ensured a chance of extinction for the species.

 

In 1863, the SS Georgiana was destroyed on her maiden voyage. The wreckage was discovered exactly 102 years later, in 1965, by teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence.

The Georgiana was reportedly the most powerful cruiser built for the Confederate States of America. She was a brig-rigged, iron-hulled, propeller steamer with room for fourteen guns and over four hundred tons of cargo. After being built in Scotland, she was en route to Charleston, South Carolina to be outfitted and crewed, carrying a cargo of munitions, medicines, and merchandise then valued at over $1 million. She was commanded by Captain A. B. Davidson, a retired British naval officer, and had 140 men on board for the transit.

On March 19, 1863, the Georgiana attempted to run past the Federal Blockading Squadron at Charleston. She was spotted by the yacht America, the first winner of the America’s Cup racing trophy, which alerted the blockade fleet with colored flares. After a desperate chase, Georgiana was sunk by the USS Wissahickon. Captain Davidson surrendered and scuttled the ship before escaping with all hands on land.

Lieutenant Commander John Davis, commanding the Wissahickon, set the wreck afire to prevent guerrillas from salvaging the valuable cargo.

In 1965, E. Lee Spence discovered the wreck only five feet under the surface of the water. She is currently home to various fauna and flora, including coral. Spence recovered sundries, munitions, and medicines valued at over $12 million, but did not locate the rumored 350 pounds of gold that the ship carried. If found, Georgiana‘s value could easily top $50 million.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

Timestamp #195: Partners in Crime

Michael Falkner6 Comments

Doctor Who: Partners in Crime
(1 episode, s04e01, 2008)

 

Only this diet plan can help repopulate a society.

After the introduction of a new electric theme mix, we find Donna Noble walking down the street toward a high rise office building. The Tenth Doctor is also arriving, though he breaks in through a back door instead of the lobby. Both of them are posing as officers from Health and Safety, and they crash a press conference presented by Miss Foster of Adipose Industries.

Penny Carter, a science journalist from The Observer pushes for more details while our heroes independently make their way through the call center, inspect the gold pill-shaped necklaces presented as subscription gifts, and look to the printer for a copy of the client list.

The duo track down separate Adipose clients. Donna chats with Stacy Campbell while the Doctor interviews Roger Davey. At 1:10am every morning, Roger wakes up to the burglar alarm but there’s no movement in the house. The Doctor presumes that the cat flap (but not cat people) has something to do with it. Meanwhile, Donna gets personal with the problem as Stacy’s fat literally pops off into an adorable little blob.

The incident triggers a tracking device in the Doctor’s pocket as Miss Foster initiates full parthenogenesis after Stacy witnesses the creature’s birth. In short, she dissolves into a herd of the little guys who jump out the window. Miss Foster’s security team arrives at Stacy’s house to capture the little guys as Donna and the Doctor search for them in a series of near misses. Neither of them catches up to the security van.

Miss Foster reviews the security footage and figures out that they have a spy in their midst. The necklace that Donna took triggered the event. Meanwhile, Donna goes home and suffers through nagging lectures from her mother. Donna takes her leave and joins her grandfather Wilf as he stargazes with his telescope. The pair are great together, and Donna makes Wilf promise to let her know if a blue box appears in the night sky.

She’s never told her family about what happened at her Christmas wedding, but she knows that she’s waiting for the right man.

On the TARDIS, the Doctor is talking to himself as he analyzes the necklace. He’s a lonely man, still missing Martha.

The pair return to Adipose Industries, both in blue vehicles, and make their way upstairs. Donna hides out in the restroom and waits for the office to close. The Doctor does the same, but in a utility closet in the basement. While Donna waits, she’s interrupted by Miss Foster and her hit squad. They find Penny Carter and take her to the corner office for interrogation.

The Doctor and Donna both follow, one outside on a window washing rig and the other just outside the main entrance…

…and then we come to one of my favorite scenes in the revival era of Doctor Who as our heroes cast their gaze on the pill that gives rise to the creatures of living fat.

Let’s leave this comedy gold to the shooting script:

The Doctor lifts his head up… looking left, to the desk.
Donna lifts her head up… looking right, to the desk.
Then the Doctor looks straight ahead, seeing –
Donna looks straight ahead, seeing –
The Doctor!!!!
Donna!!!??!
Big long moment, both just boggling, open-mouthed. Then, all shot through the glass, in silence, big gestures:

The Doctor: Donna???
Donna: Doctor!!!!
The Doctor: but…what? Wha… WHAT??!?
Donna: Oh! My! God!
The Doctor: but… how???
Donna points at herself! It’s me!
The Doctor: well I can see that!
Donna: oh this is brilliant!
The Doctor: but… what the hell are you doing there???
Donna’s just so thrilled, she waves! Big smile!
The Doctor: but, but, but, why, what, where, when?
Donna points at him – you!! I was looking for you!
The Doctor: me? What for?
Donna does a little mime: I, came here, trouble, read about it, internet, I thought, trouble = you! And this place is weird! Pills! So I hid. Back there. Crept along. Heard this lot. Looked. You! Cos they…

And on ‘they’, she gestures and looks towards Miss Foster.
Who is staring at her. As are the guards. Penny, too.
Donna freezes. Oops.

Miss Foster sics her goons on the duo, so Donna and the Doctor run. They rendezvous in the stairwell and head to the roof where the Doctor rigs the window washing crane while Donna talks about her efforts to track down the Time Lord, the Titanic buzzing Buckingham Palace, and the disappearance of bees.

The Doctor and Donna descend, but Miss Foster uses a sonic pen to sabotage the car and break the cables. The Doctor and Donna dangle during feats of derring-do as he disarms Miss Foster and takes her sonic pen. He opens a window, dives inside, and rushes down to rescue Donna and free Penny.

The Doctor and Donna run into Miss Foster – who is really Matron Cofelia of the Five-Straighten Classabindi Nursery Fleet, Intergalactic Class – and learn about the adipose. She’s been hired by the Adiposian First Family to breed the next generation from the people of Earth after losing the breeding planet. When Foster threatens to kill them, the Doctor uses both sonic devices to stage a diversion.

They rush downstairs as Foster captures Penny and accelerates her plan. After all, the Doctor has notified the Shadow Proclamation of her illegal plan to seed a Level Five planet. The Doctor hacks the building’s induction core while he and Donna discuss Martha, Rose, and Donna’s quest to find him.

A series of miscommunications result in Donna being invited to travel on the TARDIS. Meanwhile, one million customers across Great Britain start decomposing into adipose. The human witnesses look on as the adipose march through the streets toward their wet nurse. As Foster doubles the power of the signal, Donna comes to the rescue with her necklace and disables the inducer.

In the end, ten thousand aidpose walk the streets as Foster’s ride arrives to take them all home.

Hilariously, Wilf is listening to music and looking in the opposite direction as the nursery ship enters the atmosphere.

The nursery ship uses levitation pulses to take the adipose aboard. The Doctor recognizes this and runs with Donna to the roof, refusing to blow up the ship with all the children aboard. Martha has done the Doctor well, Donna remarks. Unfortunately, he knows that the First Family plans to eliminate Foster to cover their crime. Sure enough, they cut the levitation beam and she goes splat.

The Doctor drops the sonic pen in the trash as he and Donna head to the TARDIS. Donna begins pulling luggage from her car – she’s been planning on this since Christmas – but loses her head of steam as the Doctor looks on with a forlorn gaze. He draws a line in the proverbial sand: He just wants a mate.

No, not to mate, Donna! A friend. A traveling partner.

A companion.

Donna agrees and rushes off to leave the car keys for her mother. She finds a trash bin and phones her mother, leaving instructions with a nearby observer.

That observer is Rose Tyler. She vanishes just after Donna leaves.

Donna’s first request is a fly-by over Wilf’s hill. She waves at him as she leaves on her trip through space and time.

After all, she’s finally found her man.

 

This episode fires on all cylinders. The humor keeps an otherwise by-the-numbers plot entertaining – particularly the classic comedy trope of characters missing each other by fractions of a second, just like the companions in The Romans, and the aforementioned miming skit, which echoes the Third Doctor and Jo Grant in The Sea Devils – and Donna Noble’s obvious homage to sneaky investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith is a nice nod. Donna has a bucket load of character development here, and it’s refreshing after the last two companions.

Donna doesn’t want a relationship with the Doctor. She wants an adventure with the Doctor.

And with these two and their amazing chemistry, it’s going to be one hell of a ride.

 

 

Rating: 5/5 – “Fantastic!”

 

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: The Fires of Pompeii

 

 

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 18

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March 18, 2020
Day 78 of 366

 

March 18th is the seventy-eighth day of the year. It is Gallipoli Memorial Day in Turkey, observing a day of remembrance for those lost in the Dardanelles Campaign from February 17, 1915 to January 9, 1916.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Awkward Moments Day, National Biodiesel Day, National Lacy Oatmeal Cookie Day, National SBDC Day, National Sloppy Joe Day, and National Supreme Sacrifice Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1793, The Republic of Mainz was declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann. It was the first modern republic in Germany and would only last until July.
  • In 1850, American Express was founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo. Yes, that Wells and Fargo.
  • In 1865, the Congress of the Confederate States adjourned for the last time.
  • In 1874, Hawaii signed a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trade rights.
  • In 1892, former Governor-General Lord Stanley pledged to donate a silver challenge cup as an award for the best hockey team in Canada. It was later named after him as the Stanley Cup.
  • In 1926, actor and director Peter Graves was born.
  • In 1959, the Hawaii Admission Act was signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It dissolved the Territory of Hawaii and paved the way for the State of Hawaii to join the United States that August.
  • In 1963, actress and singer Vanessa Williams was born.
  • In 1965, Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov left spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, thus becoming the first person to walk in space.
  • In 1968, the United States Congress repealed the requirement for a gold reserve to back its country’s currency.
  • In 1970, actress and singer Queen Latifa was born.
  • In 1989, actress Lily Collins was born.

 

In 1837, Grover Cleveland was born. An American lawyer and politician, he served as the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, the only American president to serve two non-consecutive terms in office.

Cleveland grew up in upstate New York as the son of a Presbyterian minister. He served as the Mayor of Buffalo and the Governor of New York. He led the pro-business Bourbon Democrats, opposing high tariffs, inflation, imperialism, and subsidies as a fiscal conservative. People loved him for his honesty, self-reliance, and integrity, as well as his commitment to classical liberalism.

He won the popular vote for three presidential elections – in 1884, 1888 (which he lost to Benjamin Harrison), and 1892 – and was one of two Democrats (with Woodrow Wilson) to be elected president during an era of Republican political domination spanning 1861 to 1933. His first term in office was successful, but his second was beset by a national depression brought on during the Panic of 1893. By the end of his second term, he was considered to be one of the most unpopular presidents in American history and was rejected by his party.

Regardless, he is still considered to have been a successful leader and is generally ranked among the upper-mid tier of his presidential peers.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 17

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 17, 2020
Day 77 of 366

 

March 17th is the seventy-seventh day of the year. It is Saint Patrick’s Day, as well as the associated Christian feast day, a public holiday in Ireland, Montserrat, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day, National 3-D Day, and World Social Work Day. National 3-D Day is typically observed on the third day of the third full week of the third month of the year. World Social Work Day is typically observed on the third Tuesday in March.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1805, the Italian Republic (with Napoleon as president) became the Kingdom of Italy (with Napoleon as King of Italy).
  • In 1901, legendary composer and conductor Alfred Newman was born.
  • In 1919, singer, pianist, and television host Nat King Cole was born.
  • In 1936, astronaut Ken Mattingly was born. He flew on the Apollo 16, STS-4 and STS-51-C missions.
  • In 1941, the National Gallery of Art was officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC.
  • In 1948, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Brussels. This was a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty, which established NATO.
  • In 1950, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announced the creation of element 98. They named it “californium”.
  • In 1951, actor Kurt Russell was born.
  • In 1955, actor and director Gary Sinise was born.
  • In 1960, actress and singer Vicki Lewis was born.
  • In 1966, the DSV Alvin submarine found a missing American hydrogen bomb, the result of the 1966 Palomares incident, off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean.
  • In 1968, as a result of nerve gas testing by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps in Skull Valley, Utah, over 6,000 sheep are found dead. It certainly was neither the first nor the last weapons test in the state. Just ask the Downwinders.
  • In 1992, actor John Boyega was born.

 

March 17th is Saint Patrick’s Day.

The cultural and religious celebration is observed on the traditional death of Saint Patrick, the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Patrick was a 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop. According to his own story, the Declaration, he was kidnapped at the age of sixteen by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to work as a shepherd in Gaelic Ireland. After making his way home he trained to become a priest.

According to tradition, he returned to Ireland to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity. His efforts against the druids were transformed into the allegory in which he “drove the snakes” out of Ireland.

The holiday generally involves public parades and festivals, Irish traditional music sessions (céilithe), and the wearing of green attire or shamrocks. The shamrocks are credited to a legend in which Patrick used the three-leaved item to explain the Holy Trinity to the Irish. Historically, there were also formal gatherings such as banquets and dances.

St Patrick’s Day parades began in North America in the 18th century but did not spread to Ireland until the 20th century. Typically, participants include marching bands, the military, fire brigades, cultural organizations, charities, youth groups, and so one.  Over time, these celebrations have evolved into a carnival of sorts, linking the holiday to excessive consumption of food and alcohol, which some churches temporarily lift Lenten restrictions to accommodate.

While St Patrick’s Day – or “St. Paddy’s Day” colloquially – is observed worldwide, celebrations are often criticized for public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and derogatory stereotypes. One example of that is wearing leprechaun outfits, which are based on a derisive 19th-century stereotype.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 16

Michael Falkner1 Comment

March 16, 2020
Day 76 of 366

 

March 16th is the seventy-sixth day of the year. It is the Day of the Book Smugglers in Lithuania. Opposing imperial Russian authorities’ efforts to replace the traditional Latin orthography with Cyrillic, Lithuanian book smugglers defied the ban on books written in Latin that was in force from 1864 to 1904. They carried printed matter as far as the United States, becoming a symbol of Lithuanian resistance to Russian assimilation.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Artichoke Hearts Day, Everything You Do Is Right Day, National Freedom of Information Day, and National Panda Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1802, the Army Corps of Engineers was established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.
  • In 1870, the first version of the overture fantasy Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky premiered.
  • In 1898, the representatives of five colonies adopted a constitution in Melbourne, establishing the basis of the Commonwealth of Australia.
  • In 1926, Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts.
  • Also in 1926, comedian Jerry Lewis was born.
  • In 1949, Canadian actor and singer Victor Garber was born.
  • In 1966, Gemini 8 was launched with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and David R. Scott, the first spaceflight both men. It was the twelfth manned American space flight and first space docking with an Agena Target Vehicle.
  • In 1967, actress and producer Lauren Graham was born.
  • In 1971, actor Alan Tudyk was born.
  • In 1975, actress Sienna Guillory was born.
  • In 1995, Mississippi formally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery in the United States. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865, over a century prior to Mississippi’s approval.

 

In 1968, the Mỹ Lai Massacre occurred.

A dark mark on the history of the United States military, the Mỹ Lai Massacre was the mass murder of between 347 and 500 Vietnamese civilians – including men, women, children, and infants – by American soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment and Company B, 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division. Some of the women were gang-raped and mutilated, as were children as young as twelve.

This war crime took place in two hamlets of Sơn Mỹ village in Quảng Ngãi Province, marked as Mỹ Lai and Mỹ Khê on Army maps. The event is referred to as the My Lai Massacre in the United States, but as the Sơn Mỹ Massacre in Vietnam. The soldiers, already stressed from enemy engagements, assumed that the villagers were hiding Viet Cong guerillas. Their gunships engaged several armed enemies in the vicinity, confirming their suspicions. The massacre began soon after.

Initially, three U.S. servicemen who had tried to halt the massacre and rescue the hiding civilians were shunned. Several Congressmen even denounced them as traitors, including Mendel Rivers (D-SC), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

These soldiers – Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr., Specialist Four Glenn Andreotta, and Specialist Four Lawrence Colburn – initially received medals for their actions. Warrant Thompson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, which he threw away due to a fabricated account of the incident. The two specialists were awarded Bronze Stars, but Andreotta’s award was posthumous since he was killed a month later. Thirty years later, all three of the awards were replaced by the Soldier’s Medal, the highest medal the U.S. Army can award for bravery not involving direct conflict with the enemy. Thompson forced the Army to award them publicly.

The incident prompted global outrage when it was made public in November 1969 after an initial cover-up. Twenty-six soldiers were charged, but only C Company platoon leader Lieutenant William Calley Jr. was convicted. Found guilty of murdering 22 villagers despite his claims that he was merely following orders, he was originally given a life sentence. The American public disagreed with the verdict. Even though he was disliked by his fellow soldiers – men under his command had discussed “fragging” him (killing him with a fragmentation grenade) – many people thought that he was made into a scapegoat for the rest of the soldiers who participated. Calley attempted to appeal his case but was denied.

In the end, he only served three and a half years under house arrest.

The Sơn Mỹ Memorial was built in 1978 in the former hamlet of Tư Cung. Survivors and former soldiers from both sides have attended peace ceremonies at the site, but neither diplomats nor officials from the United States have attended.

On August 19, 2009, Calley finally apologized for his actions. Trần Văn Đức, who was seven years old at the time of the massacre, called the apology “terse”. He wrote a public letter to Calley, describing the plight of the remaining survivors and reminding him that time did not ease the pain. That grief and sorrow over lost lives will forever stay in Mỹ Lai.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 15

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 15, 2020
Day 75 of 366

 

March 15th is the seventy-fifth day of the year. It is World Consumer Rights Day, an annual occasion for celebration and solidarity through the promotion of rights of consumers and protesting of market abuses. It is also International Day Against Police Brutality.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Everything You Think is Wrong Day, National Kansas Day, National Pears Helene Day and National Shoe the World Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1783, Commander-in-Chief George Washington delivered an emotional speech to his officers at Newburgh, New York. He was imploring his troops to not support the Newburgh Conspiracy, which appeared to be a planned military coup by the Continental Army. The plea was successful and the threatened coup d’état never took place.
  • In 1819, French physicist Augustin Fresnel was judged as winner of the Grand Prix of the Académie des Sciences for his “Memoir on the Diffraction of Light”. This work verified the Fresnel integrals, accounted for the limited extent to which light spreads into shadows, and eliminated Sir Isaac Newton’s initial objections to the wave theory of light.
  • In 1820, Maine was admitted as the 23rd U.S. state.
  • In 1835, Austrian composer and conductor Eduard Strauss was born.
  • In 1906, Rolls-Royce Limited was incorporated.
  • In 1921, Madelyn Pugh was born. An American television writer and producer, she was well known for her work on I Love Lucy.
  • In 1932, astronaut Alan Bean was born. He was the fourth person to walk on the moon.
  • In 1933, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born.
  • In 1954, the CBS Morning Show premiered with Walter Cronkite and Jack Paar.
  • In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson advocated for the Voting Rights Act in response to the crisis in Selma, Alabama. This was the site of his famous quote to Congress: “We shall overcome.”
  • In 1969, actress Kim Raver was born.
  • In 1972, The Godfather premiered in New York City. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brandon and Al Pacino, the highly regarded film was based on a book by Mario Puzo.
  • In 1977, Eight is Enough premiered on ABC.
  • Also in 1977, Three’s Company premiered on ABC.
  • In 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected as the first President of the Soviet Union.

 

In 44 BC, Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger and his fellow conspirators – Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus, and several other Roman senators – marched to the Capitol following the assassination of Julius Caesar. There was no response to their appeals to the population, who instead fled the streets in fear. Caesar’s body remained in place.

Previously known for coinciding with several Roman religious observances and as a notable deadline for settling debts among Romans, this date became famous for this particular assassination.

Unlike our modern calendar, the Romans did not number days of the month from first to last. Instead, they counted back from three fixed points of the month: the Nones (the 5th or 7th, nine days inclusive before the Ides), the Ides (the 13th for most months, but the 15th in March, May, July, and October), and the Kalends (the 1st of the following month).

The Ides of each month were considered sacred to the supreme deity Jupiter. Jupiter’s high priest, the Flamen Dialis, would lead an “Ides sheep” (ovis Idulis) in procession along the Via Sacra (sacred way) to be sacrificed at the arx.

In addition to this monthly sacrifice, the Ides of March was also marked by the Feast of Anna Perenna, a goddess of the annus – Latin for year – whose festival originally concluded the ceremonies of the new year. It was a day of picnics, drinking, and revelry among commoners.

The Mamuralia also occurred on the Ides of March, which has aspects of scapegoat or ancient Greek pharmakos ritual. This involved beating an old man dressed in animal skins and driving him from the city, presumably to represent the expulsion of the old year.

In the later Imperial period, the Ides began a “holy week” of festivals celebrating Cybele and Attis. On the day Canna intrat (“The Reed enters”) when Attis was born and found among the reeds of a Phrygian river, he was discovered by shepherds. Depending on the narrative, he may have been discovered by the goddess Cybele, who was also known as the Magna Mater (“Great Mother”).

A week later, on March 22nd, a commemoration of Arbor intrat (“The Tree enters”) commemorated the death of Attis under a pine tree. A college of priests called the dendrophoroi (“tree bearers”) cut down a tree each year, hung from it an image of Attis, and carried it to the temple of the Magna Mater with lamentations. A three-day period of mourning followed, culminating with celebrating the rebirth of Attis on the vernal equinox.

Back to that famous assassination…

On the Ides of March, Caesar was stabbed to death at a meeting of the Senate by sixty conspirators. According to Plutarch – and as dramatized by William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar – a seer had warned that harm would come: “Beware the Ides of March.” On his way to the Theatre of Pompey, Caesar passed the seer and joked about the prophecy: “The Ides of March are come.” The seer replied, “Aye, Caesar; but not gone.”

Caesar was assassinated at the Theatre of Pompey.

This ended the nearly 100-year crisis of the Roman Republic and triggered a civil war that would eventually lead to the rise of the Roman Empire.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.