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

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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

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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.

 

 

The Thing About Today – March 14

Michael Falkner1 Comment

March 14, 2020
Day 74 of 366

 

March 14th is the seventy-fourth day of the year. It is White Day in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, and China. It occurs one month after Valentine’s Day, which (in these countries) typically entails women presenting gifts to men, and flips the script by expecting men to give gifts to women.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Children’s Craft Day, National Learn About Butterflies Day, National Pi Day, National Potato Chip Day, and National Write Down Your Story Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1879, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic Albert Einstein was born.
  • In 1885, The Mikado received its first public performance in London. It was a light opera by famous duo W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.
  • In 1900, the Gold Standard Act was ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.
  • In 1920, Hank Ketcham was born. He was the author and cartoonist who created Dennis the Menace.
  • In 1903, Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge was established by United States President Theodore Roosevelt.
  • In 1933, actor Michael Caine was born.
  • In 1948, actor and comedian Billy Crystal was born.
  • In 1951, Jerry Greenfield was born. He is half of the world-famous Ben & Jerry’s ice cream duo.
  • In 1956, Alexey Pajitnov was born. A Russian video game designer and computer engineer, he created Tetris.
  • In 1961, actress Penny Johnson Jerald was born.
  • In 1968, actor James Frain was born.
  • In 1995, astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American astronaut to ride to space onboard a Russian launch vehicle.

 

In 1961, a United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber crashed near Yuda City, California.

What makes this unique is that it was a Broken Arrow event, meaning that the accident involved nuclear weapons, warheads, or components but did not create a risk of nuclear war. Those criteria include events like accidental or unexplained nuclear detonation, non-nuclear detonation or burning of a nuclear weapon, radioactive contamination, loss in transit of nuclear asset with or without its carrying vehicle, jettisoning of a nuclear weapon or nuclear component, and public hazards (actual or implied).

The 1961 incident involved a B-52F that was carrying two nuclear weapons from Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento. The aircraft experienced an uncontrolled decompression that required it to descend 10,000 feet. That decrease in altitude increased the aircraft’s fuel consumption and, reportedly, mid-air refueling could not be accomplished in time.

The crew ejected safely and the aircraft crashed fifteen miles west of Yuba City. The nuclear weapons were released but did not detonate due to their safety interlocks.

Lieutenant Colonel Earl McGill, a Strategic Air Command veteran and B-52 pilot, suggests that the aircrew may have been using dexedrine to overcome fatigue due to a 24-hour flight preceding the accident.

The United States Department of Defense has officially recognized at least 32 Broken Arrow events, the first of which was a Convair B-36 that crashed in British Columbia after jettisoning its nuclear payload.

The term inspired Broken Arrow, a 1996 action thriller directed by John Woo and starring John Travolta and Christian Slater. It is a peak ’90s action film involving the theft of nuclear weapons and the military response to recover them.

 

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 – The Chaos

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Culture on My Mind
The Chaos
March 13, 2020

This week’s “can’t let it go” is a poem that reinforces a favorite quote of mine from James D. Nicoll, a Canadian freelance game and fiction reviewer:

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

The poem in question is called The Chaos, and was composed by Dutch writer, traveler, and teacher Gerard Nolst Trenité. The poem demonstrates the irregularity of English spelling and pronunciation. The first version, published under Trenité’s pseudonym Charivarius, was a 174 line appendix to his 1920 textbook Drop Your Foreign Accent: engelsche uitspraakoefeningen. A version billed as “the most complete and authoritative version ever likely to emerge” was published in 1993 by the Spelling Society and has 274 lines.

I would normally put quotations around this as I did with the Nicoll quote above, but the formatting is important. In particular, words with clashing spellings and pronunciations were printed in italics for ease of reading and analysis.

The Chaos
Gerard Nolst Trenité

Dearest creature in Creation,
Studying English pronunciation,
⁠I will teach you in my verse
⁠Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.
It will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy;
⁠Tear in eye your dress you’ll tear.
⁠So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer,
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it?
⁠Just compare heart, beard and heard,
⁠Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain,
(Mind the latter, how it’s written!)
⁠Made has not the sound of bade,
⁠Say—said, pay—paid, laid, but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,
⁠But be careful how you speak,
⁠Say break, steak, but bleak and streak,
Previous, precious; fuchsia, via;
Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir,
⁠Cloven, oven; how and low;
⁠Script, receipt; shoe, poem, toe,
Hear me say, devoid of trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
⁠Typhoid; measles, topsails, aisles;
⁠Exiles, similes, reviles;
Wholly, holly; signal, signing;
Thames; examining, combining;
⁠Scholar, vicar and cigar,
⁠Solar, mica, war and far.
From “desire”: desirable—admirable from “admire”;
Lumber, plumber; bier but brier;
⁠Chatham, brougham; renown but known,
⁠Knowledge; done, but gone and tone,
One, anemone; Balmoral;
Kitchen, lichen; laundry, laurel;
⁠Gertrude, German; wind and mind;
⁠Scene, Melpomene, mankind;
Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,
Reading, Reading, heathen, heather.
⁠This phonetic labyrinth
⁠Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.
Billet does not end like ballet;
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet;
⁠Blood and flood are not like food,
⁠Nor is mould like should and would.
Banquet is not nearly parquet,
Which is said to rime with “darky”.
⁠Viscous, viscount; load and broad;
⁠Toward, to forward, to reward,
And your pronunciation’s O.K.
When you say correctly croquet;
⁠Rounded, wounded; grieve and sieve;
⁠Friend and fiend; alive and live;
Liberty, library; heave and heaven;
Rachel, ache, moustache; eleven.
⁠We say hallowed, but allowed;
⁠People, leopard; towed, but vowed
Mark the difference, moreover,
Between mover, plover, Dover,
⁠Leeches, breeches; wise, precise;
⁠Chalice but police and lice.
Camel; constable, unstable;
Principle, disciple; label;
⁠Petal, penal and canal;
⁠Wait, surmise, plait, promise; pal.
Suit, suite, run, circuit, conduit
Rime with “shirk it” and “beyond it”,
⁠But it is not hard to tell,
⁠Why it’s pall, mall, but Pall Mall.
Muscle, muscular; gaol; iron;
Timber, climber; bullion, lion,
⁠Worm and storm; chaise, chaos, chair;
⁠Senator, spectator, mayor.
Ivy, privy; famous, clamour
And enamour rime with “hammer.”
⁠Pussy, hussy and possess.
⁠Desert, but dessert, address.
Golf, wolf; countenance; lieutenants
Hoist, in lieu of flags, left pennants.
⁠River, rival; tomb, bomb, comb;
⁠Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rime with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
⁠Soul, but foul and gaunt, but aunt;
⁠Font, front, wont; want, grand, and, grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say: finger,
And then: singer, ginger, linger.
⁠Real, zeal; mauve, gauze and gauge;
⁠Marriage, foliage, mirage, age.
Query does not rime with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
⁠Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth;
⁠Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath.
Though the difference seems little,
We say actual, but victual,
⁠Seat, sweat, chaste, caste; Leigh, eight, height;
⁠Put, nut; granite, but unite.
Reefer does not rime with “deafer,”
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
⁠Dull, bull; Geoffrey, George; ate, late;
⁠Hint, pint; senate, but sedate;
Scenic, Arabic, pacific;
Science, conscience, scientific;
⁠Tour, but our, and succour, four;
⁠Gas, alas and Arkansas!
Sea, idea, guinea, area,
Psalm; Maria, but malaria;
⁠Youth, south, southern; cleanse and clean;
⁠Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion with battalion,
⁠Sally with ally; yea, ye,
⁠Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay!
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, receiver.
⁠Never guess—it is not safe;
⁠We say calves, valves, half, but Ralf!
Heron; granary, canary;
Crevice, and device, and eyrie;
⁠Face but preface, but efface,
⁠Phlegm, phlegmatic; ass, glass, bass;
Large, but target, gin, give, verging;
Ought, out, joust and scour, but scourging;
⁠Ear, but earn; and wear and tear
⁠Do not rime with “here”, but “ere”.
Seven is right, but so is even;
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen;
⁠Monkey, donkey; clerk and jerk;
⁠Asp, grasp, wasp; and cork and work.
Pronunciation—think of psyche!—
Is a paling, stout and spikey;
⁠Won’t it make you lose your wits,
⁠Writing “groats” and saying groats?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel,
Strewn with stones, like rowlock, gunwale,
⁠Islington and Isle of Wight,
⁠Housewife, verdict and indict!
Don’t you think so, reader, rather,
Saying lather, bather, father?
⁠Finally: which rimes with “enough,”
⁠Though, through, plough, cough, hough, or tough?
Hiccough has the sound of “cup”…
My advice is—give it up!

During my research on this poem, several sources noted that the line “Shoes, goes, does. Now first say: finger,” has a rather interesting anomaly since the word does can be pronounced in two distinct ways:

The first, pronounced /dəz/, is the third person singular present form of do. In a sentence: “Watch what that ferret does.”

The second, pronounced /dōz/, is the plural form of doe, a female deer.

Based on reading of the poem, I’m pretty certain that Trenité intended the first form of does, particularly since he precedes it with goes. Either way, it demonstrates Trenité’s point.
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 13

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 13, 2020
Day 73 of 366

 

March 13th is the seventy-third day of the year. It is National Elephant Day in Thailand.

It is also the first Friday the 13th in 2020.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Good Samaritan Day, National Coconut Torte Day, National Earmuff Day, National Jewel Day, National K9 Veterans Day, National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day, and National Blame Someone Else Day. That last one is typically observed on the first Friday the 13th of the Year.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1781, William Herschel discovered Uranus.
  • In 1855, astronomer and mathematician Percival Lowell was born.
  • In 1862, the Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves was passed by the United States Congress. This effectively annulled the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and set the way forward for the Emancipation Proclamation later that year.
  • In 1930, the news of the discovery of Pluto was announced by Lowell Observatory.
  • In 1956, actress and producer Dana Delany was born.
  • In 1969, Apollo 9 returned safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
  • In 2014, Captain America: The Winter Soldier premiered in Los Angeles, California. It is one of my favorites in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

 

This year, March 13th is the first Friday the 13th out of two.

The day is considered to be an unlucky one in Western superstition. It happens at least once annually – it occurs during any month that starts on a Sunday – but can happen up to three times in one year. The last time that three of them occurred in one year was 2015, and the next one will happen in 2026.

The irrational fear of the number thirteen is known as triskaidekaphobia, and the associated fear of Friday the 13th is paraskevidekatriaphobia. The superstition may have started in the Middle Ages, presumably from the biblical story of The Last Supper during which thirteen individuals were present in the Upper Room on the 13th of Nisan (Maundy Thursday), the night before Jesus was crucified (Good Friday).

Historically, there are accounts of both Friday and the number 13 being unlucky, but the combination of the two wasn’t mentioned before the 19th century. Additional fuel may have been poured on the fire with Thomas W. Larson’s 1907 novel, Friday, the Thirteenth, in which a corrupt broker takes advantage of the superstition to panic Wall Street on the same date.

There’s also a popular horror film franchise, Friday the 13th, that started in 1980. Twelve films, one television series, novels, comics, and several video games later, and the icon of a serial killer in a hockey mask has become synonymous with the supposed misfortune of the date.

Ki ki ki ma ma ma…

For what it’s worth, Fridays the 13th have treated me rather well.

The next Friday the 13th will be in November.

 

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 12

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 12, 2020
Day 72 of 366

 

March 12th is the seventy-second day of the year. It is World Day Against Cyber Censorship, an online event held each year to rally support for a single, unrestricted internet that is accessible to all and to draw attention to the ways that governments around the world are deterring and censoring free speech online.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Baked Scallops Day, National Girl Scout Day, National Plant a Flower Day, and World Kidney Day. The last one is typically observed on the second Thursday in March.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1710, English composer Thomas Arne was born.
  • In 1912, the Girl Guides (later renamed to the Girl Scouts of the USA) were founded in the United States.
  • In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi began the Salt March, a 200-mile march to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt in India.
  • In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the nation for the first time as President of the United States. It marked the beginning of his famous “fireside chats”.
  • Also in 1933, actress Barbara Feldon was born.
  • In 1946, Liza Minnelli was born.
  • Also in 1946, voice actor and singer Frank Welker was born.
  • In 1947, the Truman Doctrine was proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
  • In 1968, Mauritius achieved independence from the United Kingdom.
  • In 1984, actress Jaimie Alexander was born.
  • In 1993, North Korea announced that it would withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and refused to allow inspectors access to its nuclear sites.
  • In 1999, former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO.
  • In 2011, a reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melted down and released radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

 

March 12th is also the Aztec New Year, a date that depends on the version of the calendar, but is generally observed at sunrise.

The holiday is observed in some Nahua communities. The Nahua are the indigenous people of Mexico and El Salvador, comprising the largest group in Mexico, the second-largest in El Salvador, and historically present in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The Aztec and Toltec cultures were of this ethnicity. Their language of Uto-Aztecan affiliation is called Nahuatl and consists of many more dialects and variants, a number of which are mutually unintelligible. About 1.5 million Nahua speak Nahuatl and another million speak only Spanish.

To celebrate, ocote (pitch-pine) candles are lit on the eve of the new year. The ocote or ocotl produces a highly flammable and very aromatic resin. Celebrations also include fireworks, drumming, and singing, particularly in places like Huauchinango, Naupan, Mexico City, Zongolica, and Xicotepec. At the end of the celebrations, celebrants burn a flag that represents the year that ended while perfuming the replacement flag.

 

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 11

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

March 11, 2020
Day 71 of 366

 

March 11th is the seventy-first day of the year. It is the Day of Restoration of Independence in Lithuania, celebrating the country’s 1990 breakaway from the former Soviet Union.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Funeral Director and Mortician Recognition Day, National Johnny Appleseed Day, National Oatmeal Nut Waffles Day, National Promposal Day, National Worship of Tools Day, and National Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day. The last one is typically observed on the second Wednesday in March.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1702, The Daily Courant was published for the first time. It was England’s first national daily newspaper.
  • In 1708, Queen Anne withheld Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill. It was the last time a British monarch vetoed legislation.
  • In 1824, the United States Department of War created the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
  • In 1851, the first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi took place in Venice.
  • In 1903, famous bandleader Lawrence Welk was born.
  • In 1946, Rudolf Höss was captured by British troops. He was the first commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
  • In 1954, composer and conductor David Newman was born.
  • In 1956, voice actor Rob Paulsen was born.
  • In 1963, actress Alex Kingston was born.
  • In 1967, actor and singer John Barrowman was born.
  • In 1989, actor Anton Yelchin was born.
  • In 1993, Janet Reno was confirmed by the United States Senate as the first female Attorney General of the United States.
  • In 1997, the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry were launched into space.
  • In 1999, Infosys became the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
  • In 2006, Michelle Bachelet was inaugurated as the first female president of Chile.

 

In 1952, English author and playwright Douglas Adams was born.

Some of his earliest writing was during prep school in 1962, including spoof reviews, short stories, and poetry. After university, he moved back to London with the intent of breaking into television and radio as a writer. He was discovered by Monty Python’s Graham Chapman and began to write for the comedy troupe, becoming one of only two people other than the original Python members to receive a writing credit.

His career stalled as his writing style became incompatible with the current style of radio and television comedy. He took various odd jobs and continued to submit sketches. In 1977, he pitched the idea for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to BBC Radio 4.

He allegedly made the story up as he went, and he developed a problem keeping deadlines. That problem only got worse as he started working in television and writing novels. He wasn’t a prolific writer and often needed help to get moving, but his work was popular and well-regarded. This resulted in his well-known quote:

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

During the development of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Adams began to work on Doctor Who after submitting the pilot script to Hitchhiker’s Guide to them. He was commissioned to write The Pirate Planet, and followed that up with City of Death and Shada. A potential film script, “Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen”, later became his novel Life, the Universe and Everything which evolved into the third Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series. He also served as script editor Doctor Who‘s seventeenth season.

Elements of Shada were reused in his novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and a story he pitched called “The Doctor Retires” inspired Steven Moffat’s The Snowmen for Doctor Who in 2012.

Despite his difficulty with deadlines, Adams wrote five novels in the Hitchhiker’s Guide series, published in 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1992. The series took multiple forms, including print, television, radio, video games, and film.

His other novel universe, the Dirk Gently series, contained two books. He was also a musician who played guitar left-handed and was influenced by Pink Floyd and Procol Harum.

Douglas Adams died of a heart attack on May 11, 2001, at the age of 49. He was survived by his wife, Jane Belson, and his daughter, Polly Jane Rocket Adams.

 

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.