Roger Corman
Can you be a “great filmmaker” but not make great films?
You can if your name was Roger Corman, If you made about 300 movies, and if you helped launch the careers of Jack Nicolson, Robert De Niro, Marin Scorsese, Jonathan Damme, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Ron Howard, Sylvester Stallone, James Cameron, James Horner and scores of others.
In 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Oscar folks) awarded Corman the Honorary Oscar for his “unparalleled ability to nurture aspiring filmmakers by providing an environment that no film school could match.”
Roger Corman gave young, inexperienced actors, directors and other craftspeople a chance when no one else would. The lessons learned on his fast and lean shoots informed the future work of all who trained with him.
I discovered Corman while on a quest where two tracks unexpectedly intersected.
Track one was watching great films. In 1998, the American Film Institute published the first of their many lists – 100 Years… 100 Movies – the greatest American movies of all time. I was intrigued, and had only seen about 35 of the films. So, I decided to see them all. It took me five years, but I watched all 100 of those movies. There is a reason they are on the list. The last one I watched, Amadeus, I dreaded. I mean, 2 hours and 40 minutes of Mozart, seriously? But, just like the others, it was completely worth my time.
Track two is my love of black and white science fiction movies from the 1950’s and ’60’s. I have a very distinct memory of watching one of these on my 12” Admiral TV, complete with bent-up coat hanger for antenna, when I was about 6 years old. (It was Earth vs. The Flying Saucers.) I had been randomly stumbling across examples, but while I was working through the AFI list, I decided to make a more systematic sweep of the B&W Sci Fi genre. This lead me to a rich vein of really crappy, but intriguing movies produced and directed by Roger Corman. I have seen every one of the movies Corman produced and directed – science fiction or not.
For much of his career, Corman worked for American International Pictures. They made mostly second bill movies for drive-ins. They would conjure up a wild title, create a wild poster and if enough drive-ins and movies houses signed up to show it, they would make it…and make it on the cheap. Many times the action on the screen barely matched the action on the poster.
Corman made full length features for $10,000 to $25,000 for much of his career. To keep costs down, he would sometimes shoot two movies at the same time – a trick Robert Zebecks used while filming Back to the Future II and Back to the Future III. Corman claimed to have never lost money on a film.
Despite the financial constraints, Corman produced some noteworthy movies include:The Intruder, marred only by William Shatner’s uniquely odd acting style; The Little Shop of Horrors, shot in 36 straight hours on a borrowed set; The Wild Angels – about the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang and birthed the idea for Easy Rider. He also directed a series of Edgar Allan Poe features including The Fall of the House of Usher.
In his later years, Corman’s legacy was honored by many of his directors by giving him cameos in their movies including Ron Howard’s Apollo 13, Jonathan Damme’s Philadelphia and The Silence of the Lambs, and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part II.
There will never be another Roger Corman. The world has changed in too many ways, but his legacy lives on in celluloid.
Some of my personal favorites include:
The Wasp Woman – The female founder of a large cosmetics company is disturbed that she is aging. Her lead scientist has extracted enzymes from a queen wasp that can reverse the aging process. The woman agrees to fund further research provided she can serve as his human subject. Unhappy with the slow pace of the results, she breaks into the scientist’s laboratory and injects herself with mega-doses of the secret formula shedding 20 years in a single weekend. Unfortunately, while getting younger, she is also periodically transformed into a murderous, wasp-like creature.
Attack of the Crab Monsters – A scientific expedition is sent to a remote Pacific island for research and vanishes. A second expedition is mounted to discover what happened to the scientists of the first expedition. Unknown to them, the island is inhabited by a pair of radiation-mutated giant crabs that not only consumed the members of the first expedition, but absorbed their minds, and now plan to reproduce their kind in numbers and take over the world.
The Creature from the Haunted Sea – a parody of spy, gangster, and monster movies (mostly Creature from the Black Lagoon), concerning a secret agent who infiltrates a criminal gang trying to transport an exiled Cuban general with an entourage and a large amount of Cuban treasure. Eventually the creatures kills almost everyone. The movie ends with the creature sitting on the undersea treasure and picking its teeth.
Gas-s-s-s also known as Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It – a post-apocalyptic dark comedy, about survivors of an accidental military gas leak involving an experimental agent that kills everyone on Earth over the age of 25. The subtitle refers to the Vietnam war quote “it became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”
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Tags: film, horror, Jack Nicolson, Marin Scorsese, Movies, review, Robert De Niro, Roger Corman, Ron Howard
Reading Recap, 2023
My goals for 2023 were:
I want to read a minimum of 35 books,
I want to read at least two classics,
I always want to read really good book about baseball.
One again, I listened to more audiobooks than read physical books. Naturally, there is a good mix of science books on the list. I read a total of 38 books this year. My classics included Pride and Prejudice, The Handmaid’s Tail and A Clockwork Orange. Dispute me, if you will, on what I consider “a classic.”
The best books I read in 2023? I read a lot of good books from a wide variety of genres. In no particular order, here are my top five books this year:
The Handmaid’s Tale
Educated
Uncle Tungsten
The Passenger/Stella Maris
Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany
Here’s the 2023 list of books I read, in order, with comments on each:
The Passenger – This was the second Cormac McCarthy book I’ve read, the other being The Road, and I have questions! Can this man not tie up loose ends in his books? It was very good, but frustrating in the end.
The Lola Quartet – Excellent, excellent. Emily St. John Mandel is a gifted writer.
The Rolling Stones – A rollicking SciFi story by one of the masters of the genre – Robert Heinlein. It’s silly but fun.
Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age – Thank you for writing this book and explaining the why for all the “poor decisions” made by NASA in the early 2000’s. Now, they make sense.
The Handmaid’s Tale – Destined to become a true classic. Mesmerizingly scary. In the 1980’s the whole idea of Gilead must have seemed so far-fetched, but now….It’s almost like watching the news.
The City and the Stars– I rarely reread books, but this is an exception. An excellent yarn by my favorite science fiction writer – Arthur C. Clarke
Moon of the Crusted Snow – A post-apocalyptic story about a community of indigenous people. There are unanswered questions, but not in a frustrating way. Excellent.
Arthur C. Clarke: The Authorized Biography – How did I miss this book? The life story of one of my favorite authors.
Educated – Excellent! The power of family juxtaposed with the power of eduction.
Pride and Prejudice – I read it, but don’t much remember it.
A Clockwork Orange – I tried to read this in high school, but got tired of looking of up words in the glossary. I tried it again as an audiobook and it was very good. Context clues helped unravel the vocabulary.
Salt and Steel: Reflections of a Submariner – I love naval history and this was good.
A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters – A fascinating story told in an engaging way.
The Kolchak Collection – When i was a teen, I loved the two made-for-TV movies and the short-lived show.
Just the Nicest Couple – Nice little murder mystery that keeps you going until the end.
The Voyage of the Beagle (Abridged) – Darwin’s quest for adventure and knowledge.
Harold – This is hilarious! Written by deadpan comic Stephen Wright is follows Harold through one day at school. Creative and funny!
Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany – I wanted to read this before the mini-series began. It is excellent and horrifying.
The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science – By Sam Kean, one of my favorite science writers. It’s good, but not up to his usual high standards. I little bit of a hodgepodge.
Stella Maris (The Passenger, #2) – Finally, some answers!!! This is the companion to The Passenger and McCarthy does tie up many of the loose ends. Thanks for little favors. If you read The Passenger, you have to read this too.
Interplanetary Travel: An Astronomer’s Guide – This was good, but a little dated.
Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice – Who didn’t have a crush on Marsha Brady in 1970? I did and it was interesting to hear what it was like from her side of the camera.
The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World’s Oceans – Better maps of Mars than the bottom of the ocean. As it turns out, it’s easier and cheaper to go to Mars.
How To & What If? 2 – This is a follow-on to How To & What If? Not as good as the original, but still entertaining.
Cinema Speculation – Quentin Tarantino on the movies of the 1970’s. Awesome read for movie buffs.
East of Chosin: Entrapment and Breakout in Korea, 1950 – I have read a lot about this action and I always walk away feeling dizzy for what these men went through.
The Hunger Games – This was outstanding. I watched the movie right after reading this and it does a nice job conveying the story. I don’t generally read series, so this is the end of the Hunger Games books for me, but it was very good.
The Dynasty – Excellent but you have to realize this is from Robert Kraft’s perspective. He’s portrayed as a hero for saving our NFL franchise (Thank you), but as recent events have shown, he’s got a whole PR machine behind him. A great way to relive the Patriots glory years.
Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig – Most people know Lou Gehrig because of his association with ALS or his 2,130 consecutive game streak, but he was a Hell of a ballplayer.
Into the Wild – A young man yearns to live off the land in Alaska – brings few, if any, supplies and starves to death. I spent the whole book thinking “What is wrong with you?”
Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller – I saw his character depicted in The Pacific mini-series and thought I’d read his story. Truly a Marine’s Marine.
The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket – The blurb compared it with The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It is not in that class. it was okay but not what I expected.
Elemental: How Five Elements Changed Earth’s Past And Will Shape Our Future – An okay science book. They don’t say it directly, but the words “organic chemistry” should be somewhere in the title.
October Fury – Excellent book about Naval History during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Diary of an Apprentice Astronaut – I have read A LOT of astronaut books. This was good but not great.
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster – Horrifyingly good. The stuff of nightmares.
See, It Was Like This… A Memoir by Aztec Two-Step’s Rex Fowler – I ordered, and paid for this book a full year before it came out, so I was really excited when it finally arrived. It is a memoir by half of one of my all-time favorite duos. It was okay, not well written, kinda bounced around chronologically. I was pretty disappointed. Two stars.
The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America – If you like baseball, this a a must-read.
Uncle Tungsten – One of the most beautifully-written science books I have ever read. It elegantly conveys the simplicity and complex nature of the periodic table. Just a joy to read.
For 2024, I’m keeping my goals the same:
I want to read a minimum of 35 books,
I want to read at least two classics,
I always want to read really good book about baseball.
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Tags: book-review, book-reviews, books, fiction, reading
Trump Thoughts
- “The American people are tired of seeing Donald Trump get indicted,” Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy recently said. Gosh, maybe he shouldn’t have committed so many crimes while in office.
- If you’re beating a cop with an American flag, don’t talk to me about the “thin blue line,” how you “back the blue,” or how freakin’ patriotic you are. You are a criminal, not a patriot.
- And, speaking of flags, what’s with all the flags? Do people really think that having a flag on their vehicle makes them more patriotic than the next guy? Do they think having 43 flags in front of their home makes them a better American? I don’t get it. I wish some rational person could explain what this is all about.
- Why all the book banning? One of the books that is often on these lists is The Handmaid’s Tale. If you haven’t already, read it. These book-banners are not banning it because of the sex and violence, which are pretty mild, they are afraid of it because of the ideas presented. When you are trying to ban ideas, you are on a very dangerous path.
- How do people who call themselves Christians support a man who cheated on his first wife with the woman who became his second wife, cheated on her with the woman who became his third wife and cheated on her with a porn star, repeatedly lied about it, then cheated on his taxes and campaign finance reports about it? Is there some moratorium on the 7th, 8th, 9th commandments I don’t know about?
- In a related matter, if your church is sponsoring and holding political rallies, you should no longer be allowed a tax exemption as a religious organization.
- If you’ve got a Fu*k Biden sign, sticker or flag on your vehicle or home, I am totally judging you to be classless and ignorant. Find a more appropriate way to express yourself in public.
- If he’s a billionaire, why’s he always, always, always asking for donations?
- I have no use for Mike Pence, but thank God for Mike Pence on that one day.
- It still astounds me that in 2020 the Republican Party did not produce a platform document at their convention. They kept the same document as 2016 which was highly critical of president, Barak Obama. They basically said “We still hate Obama and are good with whatever Trumps wants.”
- Whenever the former president says or tweets someone or something is going to destroy our nation, try substituting the word “Me” for “our nation.” I think you’ll get a more accurate read.
- Finally, if this man is reelected it will be the end of our nation as a functioning republic. We will become a fascist dictatorship.
Filed under: Perspective, Politics, Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Tags: Trump
Reading Recap, 2022
I played it safe in 2022 – throttling back my reading goal from 35 books in 2020 to 20 books in both 2021 and 2022. This year, I more than doubled my goal. Go figure. Having a full year driving to and from work helped pump up that total because I rarely listen to the radio beyond a few minutes of news and traffic. Instead, I listen to books.
For 2022, I recalibrated my goals:
I want to read a minimum of 20 books – Check
I want to read at least two classics – Nope – no true classics on my list this year
I want to read a really good book about baseball – Sorta – See below
I listened to more audiobooks than read physical books. Naturally, there is a good mix of sciencey books on the list.
The best books I read in 2022? This is hard because I read a lot of good books. I usually do a top five, but this year two of those are by the same author, so I added a sixth to the list. In no particular order, here are my top six books this year:
Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
The Stand by Stephen King
A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman by Lindy Elkins-Tanton
The Rise and Reign of Mammals by Stephen Brusatte
Gone So Long by Andre Dubus III
Here’s the 2022 list of books I read, in order, with comments on each.
The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family – Ron and Clint Howard’s joint memoir. It was excellent.
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride – Absolutely horrifying. I’ve been to this part of California and now regret not visiting the area they settled in for their long, harrowing winter. Next time.
How to Astronaut: Everything You Need to Know Before Leaving Earth – I’ve read a LOT of astronaut books. This was a middle of the road effort. There are better.
The Lost City of the Monkey God – Indiana Jones for real, complete with a mysterious disease (read that as curse) for the discoverers.
Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon – This is an audiobook exclusively by Audible. It was amazing.
The Wisdom of Wolves: Lessons From the Sawtooth Pack – I can not look at my little dog without seeing wolf behaviors in her.
The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II – My first and only Harlequin Romance book. I got sucked in by a bookshop in London during the blitz. Predictable but fun.
Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind – Interesting read on how much even a single bone can reveal about a person.
Wait Till Next Year – Doris Kerns Goodwin’s homage to growing up in Brooklyn as a Dodgers fan. Does this count as my baseball book?
Station Eleven – Amazing. The HBO mini-series is also excellent, but different. The book is better.
The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York – This was okay. The experience was marred by the performance of the woman reading the audiobook. She ought to find another profession.
Afterparties – Short stories about growing up Cambodian and gay.
Retirement Planning Guidebook: Navigating the Important Decisions for Retirement Success – Yawn, but necessary. I’m sure I will revisit parts of this in the coming years.
Sea of Tranquility – Equally amazing as the other Emily St. John Mandel book (Station Eleven)
Reverse Mortgages: How to use Reverse Mortgages to Secure Your Retirement – More of a reference book, but necessary.
Nuclear Weapons: A Very Short Introduction – This is more about nuclear proliferation treaties. Disappointing.
The Myths of Meritocracy: a revisionist history anthology – Fascinating. Everything Malcom Gladwell writes is fascinating.
Latitude: The True Story of the World’s Very First International Scientific Expedition – Seriously? A 15-year scientific mission to measure one degree of latitude at the equator. What a trek.
Starship Troopers – Classic science fiction from a master: Robert Heinlein
Science Fiction: A Very Short Introduction – I have little memory of this. I guess that says something.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers – I love both movies. The book was very good.
Every Life a Story: Natalie Jacobson Reporting – This was okay. Interesting but kind of flat. It’s worth reading. A pleasant walk down memory lane for Boston area folks.
Once We Were Brothers – I slogged through the first half of this. Every page was like flipping over a slab of cement. I switched to an audio version and it went much better.
The Stand – At 1,152 pages, reading this book is like a quest. It was excellent!
Tom Swift Inventor’s Academy: Sonic Breach – The Tom Swift books have been reimagined and rereleased again. I have read many of the Tom Swift and especially the Tom Swift Jr books. I read this one to get a flavor for how the new and improved series might appeal to my students.
A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman – An excellent, honest look at a woman’s career in science. It’s so much harder than it has to be.
Like a Rolling Stone – Rock ’n Roll all night long. This is part memoir, part history book and all rock ’n roll. It was great.
Never Panic Early – Another astronaut book. Not great.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – My Attorney advises I should give this a good review.
The Mist – My second Stephen King book of the year. I read this because I am such a huge fan of the movie. This is very good, but even Stephen King agrees the end of the movie is better than the end of the book.
The Films of George Pal – This is like a reference book. Not really what I was looking for but what I want does not seem to exist.
Talking to Strangers – Malcom Gladwell again. Eye-opening.
The Rise and Reign of Mammals – This was excellent. It’s a perfect companion to Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by the same author (Which I read last year).
WBCN and the American Revolution: How a Radio Station Defined Politics, Counterculture, and Rock and Roll – A coffee table book with lots of pictures. I was never a ‘BCN listener but I found the book interesting nonetheless.
Lessons in Chemistry – Excellent. Soon to be an Apple+ TV series.
From the trenches of Korea to the Trench of Mission Control: The life and times of John S. Llewellyn – This was one of the worst books I have ever read. It was blessedly short. It might have made a good article if someone had rewritten the entire thing. Interesting guy, terrible book.
Star Guard – Quick, easy read by science fiction queen, Andre Norton
Hidden Pictures – Horror book I saw recommended by Stephen King. (You think he knows what he’s talkin’ about?) It was very good. Get the hard cover – you need to see the pictures.
This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You – This was okay. It could have been better but our copyright laws make that too expensive to produce.
No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality – Inspiring and saddening. How can you not root for this guy, his amazing family and support system?
Gone So Long – Amazing book. Unlike anything else he’s written (House of Sand and Fog, Townie) I would love to ask Andre Dubus III how he wrote this.
For 2023, I’m upping my goal to 35 books again. The last time I did this, the world shut down. If that happens again, it’s not my fault!
I want to read a minimum of 35 books,
I want to read at least two classics,
I always want to read really good book about baseball.
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Tags: books
My COVID Experience
I avoided it for two and a half years, but sometime around Friday, November 18th I became infected. Of course I didn’t know. I felt fine – normal.
I went on with my daily life which included seeing my new grandson on Saturday the 19th. It was more busy than when we usually visit, so I stayed in the background and did not hold little Milo – as it turns out, that was a good thing. I was infectious and did not know it.
I slept poorly Sunday night and all day Monday, I was tired, had a sore throat and a bit of a head cold. I was concerned enough, that at the end of the day, I tested myself and it came back negative.
I felt worse Tuesday, and seriously considered leaving school early, but decided to tough it out. I arranged for my STEM Club partner to run the club for me so I didn’t have to stay late. After resting I tested again and – Boom – Positive.
Ugh.
So many thoughts rushed through my head at once.
I stayed home on Wednesday – probably the most fun school day of the year (More ugh). Obviously we could not host Thanksgiving so our family made other arrangements and Laura and I were alone – in opposite parts of the house.
I felt lousy all week and weekend long. Stuffy head, runny nose, coughing, sneezing and tired. I lost my sense of smell for a time in there, but could still taste. (Funny how the days blur together)
I still had an appetite for food but my preferences changed. Usually, I reach for the salty snack foods – like nuts and Fritos. But, this week, they did not appeal to me – weird.
Little things like emptying the dishwasher or walking to the dumpster exhausted me. I would get hot flashes when I had done too much and needed to sit and rest often.
I was still experiencing symptoms on Monday, but started seeing improvement.
Today is Tuesday and I’m feeling better than yesterday, so I think I’m over this thing. I’ll head back to school on Wednesday – wearing a mask for five days.
But, I have to say, this is one tough virus. I’ve had five shots to prepare my immune system and it was still a lousy experience.
Never again (I Hope).
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Tags: coronavirus, Covid-19
For us YouTube TV was the answer. We’re paying $54.99 a month to YouTube and $103.83 for our internet. The total of $158.82 is a lot less thank our last internet/cable bill of $243.15.
We’re getting basically the same experience that we did before but for $84 a month less.
That sounds like a win to me!
We have added one premium service that I did not roll into the numbers – we now subscribe to Britbox. We love the British cop shows – lots of plot twists and not so many car chases and shootouts.
Filed under: Technology, TV, Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Okay, we made it three weeks with only streaming services – Apple+, Hulu, Netflix, Prime Video and a host of other AppleTV apps.
We have been stymied about local and national news. We have apps on our Roku TV for live news on Boston channels 10 and 25, but it’s only once a day, with repeats of prior newscasts the rest of the day. We often find ourselves watching a newscast that is 3, 8 or 12 hours old.
For national news, we can not find any live news. The best we have found is ABC Live News streaming service, which has a live broadcast at 7pm, but it’s not the ABC Nightly News – it’s different, fewer but more in-depth stories. It’s good, but not what we’re used to. We can also watch NBC Nightly News on a 24-hour delay. All-in-all, we have felt very disconnected from what’s going on in the nation and the world.
I have been unable to watch any Patriots football. It’s the preseason, so who cares, but the actual season starts soon and I would like to be able to watch my football team. The Red Sox are still unavailable but I could watch the local t-ball games and see a higher quality of play.
Today, I signed us up for YouTube TV. There’s a 7-day free trial, no contract, and they gave us $30 off the first three months. This will cut down our monthly savings from $135 to $65 a month, but that’s still $780 less a year for, basically, the same thing we had.
We also bought three new AppleTVs. Now, every television in the house works exactly the same way and has the same remote. They cost us about $425, so we won’t see any actual savings to our annual television budget for about six months.
I have talked to a LOT of people about this, and the consensus is that YouTube TV, Sling, and Hulu Live represent the best middle ground between only streaming services and getting hosed each month by Comcast/Xfinity.
That’s were we stand for now. If anything changes, I will keep everyone posted.
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Tags: Cord cutting, YouTube TV
Wonder
On a cool, calm August night, I was outside with our dog. As she hunted for the perfect spot, I turned my attention to the night sky, as I often do.
If I’m outside, I’m looking up. I enjoy tracking the stars and planets as they wander across the sky. I have seen the International Space Station pass overhead a couple of hundred times and I’ve seen hundreds of other satellites over the years. Occasionally, I’ll see a meteor blaze out of existence.
The night sky fascinates me, especially the winter sky. The air in winter is cold and still. You can see the stars much clearer on a cold winter night than any night in the summer. I know the winter constellations much better then the ones visible in the warmer months.
But, it was August and I wasn’t finding much to look at. I knew Mars should be low in the eastern sky and after a little searching, I found it, partially obscured by the leaves of a large tree across the street.
As I stood there, now with the dog waiting for me, I noticed Mars was peaking out from between leaves, then becoming obscured by those same leaves. I stood stone-still for about ten minutes watching Mars peak in and out of sight.
As I stood there, I slowly realized exactly what I was seeing. I could see Mars, then I couldn’t. It was there, gleaming ruby red, then it was hidden.
It wasn’t the wind moving the leaves. It wasn’t Mars moving across the sky or around the sun.
I was standing there watching the Earth slowly turn and I felt such a sense of wonder.
I feel this sense often and it’s probably why I became a science teacher. We all know, intellectually, that Earth is rotating on its axis, but to actually stand in the dark and watch it and appreciate it, is amazing.
When I hold a rock that has the footprint of a dinosaur pressed into it, it blows my mind. One hundred million years ago a living thing walked across a muddy stream and left a footprint. It happened so long ago that the mud has turned into solid rock, but it happened. It’s real. The whole idea fascinates me.
It’s this sense of wonder at the natural world that drives my curiosity. I hope I am passing these traits along to my students. It’s my number one goal – to show my students how wondrous the natural world is, to get them excited about how science helps us understand and appreciate the universe and everything in it.
I filled out a NASA form, and now my name is written on a rover on Mars – literally on Mars. My name is written on a robot on that ruby red ball shining between the leaves of a tree in my neighborhood.
Astounding!
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Tags: Curiosity, Mars, Science teacher, Wonder
Foundation Selects New York City Site for Future Donald J. Trump Presidential Library and Gift Shop
The Donald J. Trump Foundation announced today that the future Donald J. Trump Presidential Library and Gift Shop will be sited in New York City.
The Foundation – led by Michael J. Lindell – will be responsible for all aspects of the building, construction, design, and planning processes for the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library and Gift Shop. In the coming months, the Foundation will look to enter into an agreement with the City of New York to develop the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library and Gift Shop on Rikers Island in the East River. Allen Weisselberg, former CFO of Trump organization will lead the construction project once his incarceration is completed
“Rikers Island is an ideal site for the future Donald J. Trump Presidential Library. I know, from 9 to 16 months of personal experience, about the fantastic view of the Manhattan skyline from there,” Weisselberg said.
In the months ahead, The Foundation will begin sketching out plans for the future Library, which will include the library, a museum, a small family plot and programing that will inspire alternate facts and uncivil action. The facility will reflect President Trump’s values and priorities throughout his career in public service, including expanding his business empire, praising white supremacists, and reimagining what citizenship, justice, and dignity might look like under a fascist regime. Accordingly, the Foundation will place a strong emphasis on community partnerships and opportunities for economic development of the Trump brand.
The Donald J. Trump Foundation and The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) will work together in developing the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library and Gift Shop as part of a larger Trump Presidential Network. A satellite facility is planned at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. A tour of the Club will include the storage rooms where classified documents were once stored, and the bathroom and golden toilet where classified documents critical of President Trump were shredded and flushed. In a highly unusual move, the NARA will permit entrance and parking fees to be charged for visiting the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Annex and Gift Shop at Mar-a-Lago.
The Donald J. Trump Foundation will raise all of the funds needed for construction of the project; neither federal, state nor city funds will be used in the construction of the facilities. Most of the funding is expected to come in the form of individual donations from people who can least afford it. When the construction is complete, the Foundation will transfer the Library and Museum to NARA, which will operate the Donald J. Trump Library along with the 14 other Presidential Libraries. The Gift Shops will remain under The Donald J. Trump Foundation control.
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Tags: Trump, Trump library, Trump Presidential Library
The Day I saw a Plane Crash
There are and will be things you can never forget. One of those things happened in 1971, when I was just shy of my 12th birthday.
I grew up near the Quonset Point Naval Air Station in Rhode Island. A big Navy base that, for a long time, had an aircraft carrier home-ported there. I believe the USS Intrepid was stationed there in 1971. Each year, they Navy would put on an airshow. Airshows are a great way to see military and civilian aircraft in action.
There is nothing like the feeling of a powerful aircraft zooming right overhead. The sound is so intense you don’t just hear it, you feel it as the sound reverberates through your body.
In 1971, there had already been one accident. The Blue Angels, the Navy flight demonstration team, were practicing their routine the day before the show. I remember hearing them flying over my school that Friday. During the practice session, one of the planes caught fire. The pilot, Harley Hall, ejected and the plane crashed into Narragansett Bay. The pilot was safe and flew their backup plane in the airshow the very next day. (A few years later, Hall was shot down and killed on the last day of the Vietnam War.)
One of the acts in the airshow was a father and son team that few a pair of World War II era fighter planes, Grumman F8F Bearcats. They flew low and in formation – wingtip to wingtip – as they crossed and recrossed in front of the crowd. Near the end of their show, they made a particuarly low pass along the length of the runway, their wings overlapping just 18 inches apart, and as they passed over some woods at the end of the runway, one wing of the father’s plane buckled and tore off.
The father plowed through the trees and hit the ground with a huge explosion. There was a mushroom-shaped fireball and then lots of black smoke. The pilot, Bill Fornof, was killed instantly. He was just 46.
The 100,000 people gathered for the airshow were absolutely silent, stunned, for a moment, then pandemonium erupted.
And it’s stuck with me all these years. It was one of those things you just can not forget.
Ironically, or prophetically, that was Quonset Point’s 13th annual airshow. Make of that what you will.
Filed under: Aviation, History | 2 Comments
Tags: Air crash, Airshow, Fornof, Harley Hall, Quonset Point
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