Also, (h/t commentor lamh), let the DVRs be programmed:
President Barack Obama will provide a special introduction to USA Network’s airing of the 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Saturday at 8 p.m.
__
“I’m deeply honored that President Obama will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of To Kill A Mockingbird by introducing it to a national audience,” Pulitzer prize winner and famously media-shy Lee says. “I believe it remains the best translation of a book to film ever made and I’m proud to know that Gregory Peck’s portrayal of Atticus Finch lives on — in a world that needs him now more than ever.”
(If you click over to Paul Constant’s Stranger blog, you can vote for the movie Romney should introduce. I did not know that Mitt once told the NYTimes that his favorite novel was Battlefield Earth… )
Cacti
I figured Romney’s favorite work of fiction was the Book of Mormon.
*rimshot
eugene
Obama’s doing the live long and prosper thing!
He’s a Secret Vulcan, I knew it.
Liquid
I think the real question is — Did one of his staffers tell him to do that or did his sense of humor get the better of him?
Throwing in with the Vulcans would be a burned-at-the-stake offense.
ETA — I’m an idiot…that’s Uhura…I have failed my geek test.
srv
What do you expect from an English Major?
Joey Maloney
Breaking exclusive – Must credit Big Hollywood – secret “Greenie” tape of Obama’s ear-bob procedure discovered! President really IS an alien!
JordanRules
Even though he’s POTUS, knowing he’s a self-identified Trekkie, I can’t help but think how excited HE must be. Love it.
I cannot, literally cannot think of a RomBot corollary.
Liquid
Romney would have to have his fingers taped. He’s that stiff.
eugene
Actually now that I look at it, Harper Lee’s doing the Vulcan salute too. The conspiracy goes deeper than I thought.
Liquid
Maybe we can get James O’ Keefe to “investigate.”
Sly
It has been well documented that Barack Obama is a proud nerd.
Narcissus
Well Obama already spends his spare time “bustin’ up chifforobes” in the wingnut collective Id. Might as well branch out to television.
Liquid
Not identifying Uhura (sans Starfleet pendant) makes me Geek salutatorian. *sigh*
Bago
Over at thestranger they are live blogging Dan Savage’s show on MTV, FYI.
FlipYrWhig
I heard Starfleet ruled 5-4 that the Kobayashi Maru scenario was unconstitutional.
Liquid
@FlipYrWhig
No, The Kobayashi Maru (unwinnable scenario) would be ruled as perfectly legal/sane/IOKIYAR/etc.
Or, in simpler terms: Crossing the Neutral Zone as Dubya would be a bold and symbolic act!!
Crossing the Neutral Zone as Obama would be treason and reason for impeachment.
FlipYrWhig
@Liquid: Touché.
Tony the Wonderhorse
Nichelle Nichols was in line in front of me at LAX 5 years ago, I geeked out so hard my wife was afraid she would run screaming for security.
When I said to her “What a life you’ve lived, and meeting MLK! How did it feel to be asked to stay on Star Trek regardless of how tough it got?”
I will never forget her answer, “Oh, he didn’t ask me!”
May we all find the strength and support she did.
piratedan
geez and all this time I thought the Mittster’s campaign was using Bob Roberts as a model
kdaug
@eugene:
Goddamnit Eugene, that ain’t Harper Lee – that’s Uhura. Pay attention.
kdaug
Oh, and according to Nimoy, all this is old news.
NotMax
Suppose the fringe-y, noxious right will insist that Obama is riding on the coattails of “W” as it he who awarded Harper Lee the Presidential Medal of Freedom 5 years ago.
David Koch
Jon Stewart can be such a douche. He’s whinning that Obama is being mean to supreme court.
kdaug
@Liquid:
…was won.
(We all know who did it.)
BUT – did you know Tiberius was Caligula’s self-exiled great-uncle?
Interesting choice for a middle name.
Tony the Wonderhorse
Kirk was a Roman, the proconsul in Bread and Circuses told him so.
kdaug
@Tony the Wonderhorse:
He also told him he was a horse.
Proconsul’s judgement should be questioned.
Quietly.
PeakVT
According to sources, just after the photo was taken Obama was heard to say, “That one is really going to fuck with the wingnuts’ minds.”
Yutsano
@PeakVT: There’s a picture of Obama giving a speech with the TARDIS in the background. That should be enough to end them round the bend methinks.
Citizen_X
@JordanRules:
“Attention: this is Skynet. We have outlawed humanity. Bombing begins in five minutes.”
Villago Delenda Est
I wonder what Obama thinks about the Ferengi Controlled Infotainment Networks?
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
star wars, star trek, sure it seems all innocent and escapist, but its a gateway to a dungeons and dragons lifestyle. a gateway, i tell ya.
/slipperyslope
palate cleanser:
black flag. tv party
S. cerevisiae
I love that photo. Let your geek flag fly, Mr. President!
Nancy Irving
Man, that is THE most beautiful 85-year-old woman I have *ever* seen.
slag
Obligatory Star Talk radio link wherein Neil DeGrasse Tyson interviews Uhura: http://www.startalkradio.net/?p=44. She talks about how Dr. King kept her from leaving the show after season 1.
Filed under: Stuff I Have No Business Admitting Knowledge of
Nancy Irving
…er, 79-year-old…:)
TheMightyTrowel
@Citizen_X: Win.
WereBear
@Nancy Irving: She was always gorgeous. I guess if you live right, you can stay that way :)
amk
ooohoorah – she’s still hawt.
arguingwithsignposts
Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird is a pretty good documentary about the movie, and the phenomenon, by the way. It’s on Netflix Streaming.
Ben Cisco
I have no words.
Omnes Omnibus
@arguingwithsignposts: It was on Wisconsin Public TV Sunday night.
dmsilev
I knew it! Obama really is an alien! That whole ‘born in Kenya’ thing was cooked up by Obama and his minions to distract people from the REal TruTH! To Serve Man is a cookbook!
Now, where’s my tinfoil hat?
Raven
Joe is humiliating Mika big time.
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev:
“They” took it.
dr. bloor
Nichelle Nichols: still sporting intergallactic babeness to the max.
I can hardly wait for the Wurlitzer to start spewing the message that Obama is turning up racial hatred to eleven by hosting To Kill. Mockingbird. Right-wing ornithology clubs will probably take their whacks as well.
WyldPirate
@Raven:
Scarborough does that shit everyday, Raven. I’m surprised she hasn’t kicked him in the nuts yet.
Raven
@dr. bloor: It’s a major theme every day on the Athens Banner Herald comments.
HeartlandLiberal
I was in high school in Birmingham, AL, when the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” was published. The library of the school refused to add the book to the collection. It was deemed “too controversial”.
Later that decade, The Birmingham Post newspaper refused to carry the comic strip Pogo the week that it ran one of its most classic bits of satire during the presidential campaign when George Wallace and Curtis LeMay were running as a ticket. The comic strip portrayed them as little chicken hawks, riding around as a motorcycle gang in black leather, only they were riding tricycles. Again, just to durn controversial.
If any of you have not seen the film of “To Kill a Mockingbird” with Gregory Peck, you have not seen what I personally rank as one of the top 10 films of all time, ever. You must see it. Besides, how can you not want to see Robert Duvall’s first film appearance, as Boo Radley? Aside form the finest acting Gregory Peck ever produced. And it is in beautiful living black and white film. Everything was black and white then. I don’t think the film would have been as good in color. It focuses the viewer on the film’s characters and messages very profoundly, I think, a brilliant decision by the filmmakers.
And if you think the scene with the mad dog is staged, well, you did not grow up in the South. I saw that scene in real life, only it was my father with his pistol shooting the dog that came into our back yard when I was a mere child.
Someone once remarked that Harper Lee must not have been a very good writer, she never wrote another novel. To which the response was, if you write something like “To Kill a Mockingbird”, you don’t have to.
I rank this book write up there with Mark Twain’s “Adventure’s of Huckleberry Finn”, if you want to start a list of the Great American Novels.
gnomedad
“Playing the race card” from wingers in 3, 2, …
redshirt
All Hail the Nerd in Chief:
Obamaskywalker
redshirt
Also too:
Nichelle Nichols Ebony cover
daveNYC
@HeartlandLiberal:
And lightning didn’t immediately strike them down?
Only anecdote I’ve heard about Harper Lee was that she sent a letter to Berkeley Breathed asking for the artwork from one of the comics he did for the Kill ‘Mo Mockinbird storyline.
PLH in NYC
Okay so he is Vulcan and not Kenyan. That proves he is not fit for the presidency, right? Damn the POTUS shooting himself in the foot like that and giving the country the fodder it needs to start impeachment proceedings. The insurgency almost worked.
Canuckistani Tom
There’s at least one connection between Star Trek and TKaMb
Brock Peters, who plays Tom Robinson, would later have roles in both the Star Trek movies (as Adm Cartwright) and DS9 (As Ben Sisko’s father)
redshirt
@Canuckistani Tom: Cooked a mean jambalaya, yes sir. Space Jambalaya.
Soylent Green
Wingnuts: don’t forget that Lieutenant Uhura spoke Swahili, the official language of Kenya.
slag
@redshirt: Your blog has a good vibe to it.
redshirt
@slag: Thanks! Gallows humor would be the overall theme, but in a fun, light-hearted way!
Lurking Canadian
Well, now that we know the president has access to warp drive technology, there’s no mystery left about how he went back and planted his own birth announcement in Hawaii, is there?
Jerzy Russian
@Canuckistani Tom:
I recently watched To Kill a Mockingbird, and I missed this connection. This is especially bad since we have been watching all of the Star Treks on DVD recently.
redshirt
@Jerzy Russian: DS9 is the best Trek of course. Objectively. The original series is sacrosanct, but dated now.
Trek is finished though too without a complete reboot. JJ Abrams did not provide it IMO!
AliceBlue
@daveNYC:
Here’s another: About fifteen years ago, an Atlanta area elementary school class put together a cookbook of the dishes mentioned in the novel. They sent a copy to Ms. Lee and she responded with a gracious thank you note and a signed copy of her novel for their library.
canuckistani
Nichelle Nichols and George Takei have really been doing more than their fair share at pushing the human race forward. It’s like Star Trek really had an effect on the way people think.
BenA
@daveNYC:
The things you learn from web comments… I love just about everything Berkeley Breathed has ever done. So since you brought him up… I was wondering what he’s done lately. Happened upon his wikipedia entry and learned that he and Douglas Adams were friends… and just about blacked out from the sheer awesomeness of this.
someofparts
But Lt. Uhura was not in To Kill a Mockingbird, right?
Jerzy Russian
@redshirt:
I am really liking the original series on DVD. They fixed up some of the visuals, like when the Enterprise is orbiting a planet the planet would be replaced with one done with modern technology. In a few episodes like Amok Time, they added some neat CGI scenes that you have to watch carefully to see.
The last few seasons of DS9 did kick ass. I missed many of those episodes since I had moved to a place with no TV and I was busy, etc. Also, I never saw most of the last 3 seasons of Voyager, and I was happy to see that they got home.
someofparts
@WyldPirate: Amazing – or, actually, not amazing – how good the show is when Mika runs it and Joe stays home.
Anniecat45
@HeartlandLiberal:
I’ve seen this movie at least a dozen times and I STILL sob out loud when Atticus is leaving the courtroom after the trial.
Jeez, I tear up just thinking about it.
someofparts
@Raven: Small world – I put myself through school proofreading for the Banana Herald.
Mnemosyne
@HeartlandLiberal:
IIRC, Lee has never published another novel, but she still writes every day and apparently it’s in her will that her other writing can be published after she dies.
She has a bit of a Ralph Ellison problem — her first novel was such an instant classic that she is afraid to publish a second one because it would inevitably have been ripped apart.
On the Nichelle Nichols front, a lot of people don’t realize how much recruiting work she’s done for NASA in the past 30 years. I love when people use their powers for good.
ETA: If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the linked article, you can see a picture of the original ST cast visiting a NASA facility in the 70s.
redshirt
@Mnemosyne: That’s one of my fave pictures ever! Disco Bones in front of the Space Shuttle.
FSM I miss the 1970’s!
HumboldtBlue
One of the best pieces I’ve ever read about TKaM is this from Malcolm Gladwell
patroclus
@Anniecat45:
Stand up Miss Jean Louise. Your father’s passin’.
Anniecat45
@patroclus:
Please don’t make me cry at the office.
Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom
I’m loving the vibe in that picture. All that mutual love and respect.
val
@Mnemosyne: Nichelle Nichols recruited several of the Challenger astronauts, IIRC. And astronaut Mae Jemison, the first black female astronaut to travel in space, credits watching Uhura on Star Trek as a child in Alabama for inspiring her career choice. And George Takei is an outstanding human being as well. Both are great convention guests. Yes, I’m a certified (certifiable?) Trekkie. I’ve actually been to several conventions, though not since the early 2000s.
When I lived in the LA area, back in the late ’80s/early ’90s, I got to see Nichelle Nichols on stage. She wrote and performed a one-woman show, “Reflections,” in which she portrayed several iconic black artists, from Mahalia Jackson to Eartha Kitt to dancer Katherine Dunham to Billie Holliday to Lena Horne — I think there were 12 in all. She danced, sang, acted and performed dramatic and comedic monologues. Her collaborator wrote original songs in the style of the different artists. She herself got her start touring as a dancer and singer with Duke Ellington when she was just a young teenager.
Her autobiography is still available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Uhura-Star-Other-Memories/dp/1572970111. It has some interesting bits about her ancestry, her start in show business, and her experiences with racism and sexism in Hollywood, as well as Star Trek stuff.
Ohio Mom
@HumboldtBlue: Thanks for this link. I’m reading TKAMB along with my 8th grader and that piece put into words things that bothered me but couldn’t articulate.
Ohio Mom
@HumboldtBlue: Thanks for this link. I’m reading TKAMB along with my 8th grader and that piece put into words things that bothered me but couldn’t articulate.