To take us into the wee hours, and in memory of Senator Glenn’s passing, here’s CBS’s original footage of his launch from February 20, 1962.
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[…] Original footage of John Glenn’s launch on February 20, 1962. […]
SiubhanDuinne
I remember that very clearly and vividly (I was 19, and a student at Northwestern). What an exciting time that was!
Godspeed, John Glenn, and thanks for posting the video, Adam.
Major Major Major Major
I have a 16-pound purring beanbag on my lap.
SiubhanDuinne
(My third thread of the day where I got the frist comment. Eat your heart out, Baud.)
Omnes Omnibus
Godspeed, John Glenn.
SiubhanDuinne
@Major Major Major Major:
Scritches to Samwise.
Unless you meant something quite different by “16-pound purring beanbag on my lap.”
Major Major Major Major
@SiubhanDuinne: No, I was indeed referring to His Floofiness.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: You know the names of commenters’ cats?
Mnemosyne
Although I’m sure it was at least somewhat dramatized for the film, everyone’s favorite scene from The Right Stuff helps explain how he and Annie stayed married for over 70 years.
And, of course, he was a strong lifelong Democrat and Democratic politician right through Civil Rights and beyond.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
There’s just no end to my talents.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Doesn’t everyone?
Though I (and ruemara) have actually met and scritched Samwise in person, so we have an actual acquaintance with him now.
(Obviously, we also met Major^4, but no scritches were exchanged.)
GregB
Is a domestic abuse rap-sheet considered a qualification to join the Trump administrstion?
bago
I tweeted leaning against the shell of Friendship 7…
https://twitter.com/bagofmice/status/4951458620
Mnemosyne
@GregB:
More like a requirement.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: @Mnemosyne: Nope, they don’t stick with me. If one dies, I am right up there with there with condolences. I know that feeling. But the day to day? Jebus.
trollhattan
The very rare rolling into the classroom of a TV cart. What, no filmstrip? Gobsmacking stuff to our tiny minds.
Next time that happened was November 22 the following year.
Joe Falco
I got done making key lime cake and spicy cheese straws for a friend’s birthday tomorrow. Currently, I’m sitting in my living room while Mrs Falco and the dog sleep on the couch. Everything is at peace and I’m enjoying the calm.
ruemara
@Major Major Major Major: Sam can’t be 16lbs. He’s a sleek ball of love.
If this thread is free of stupid hug a Trump voter persons, I’d like to propose something. Can we focus on local voting groups in red & swing states as well as maybe talk to well rounded, civic minded types about running for local office? I’m working on one and I want to connect two to three more possible candidates for local offices to local groups. I think that’s our best hope for 2018. Or we could keep trying to reason with people who were pretty much ok with neoNazis controlling America’s nukes.
Mnemosyne
In non-political news, I built a functioning FileMaker Pro database from scratch today all by my lonesome (well, after taking a Lynda.com class). It’s not beautiful, but it does almost everything I want it to do.
Major Major Major Major
@ruemara: That’s how much Sam weighed last time the vet came over.
I like your plan better than Nazi-hugging!
Lizzy L
Godspeed, John Glenn.
columbusqueen
@Mnemosyne: His love for Annie, & hers for him, was absolute. They were going steady by eighth grade–she was his girl always, & he never cared about her stutter. If there were more men like John Glenn, I imagine there’d be a lot fewer divorces in this world.
cmorenc
In our 7th grade math/science class, the teacher brought a b&w television to school so we could watch the launch of John Glenn’s spaceflight in class. The whole thing seemed so wonderfully high-tech futuristic and adventurous at the time, but one detail of the broadcast seems, in hindsight 56 years later, hilariously crude – the graphical display of the progress of Glenn’s three orbits overlaid on a world map. But that was the best they could do live back then.
Omnes Omnibus
@columbusqueen</:
Explicate.
NotMax
Glenn talks about the “weirdest” phase of his training.
opiejeanne
I was 12 when Glenn made that flight, and I remember Cronkite’s comment, but not until I heard it again.
I think we got up early to watch it, before going to school. I may be wrong but it seems it was early morning launch.
columbusqueen
@Omnes Omnibus: Because his devotion & support for Annie was unlimited–that’s not something I see in a lot of men, frankly. My own brother has dumped my sister in law in part b/c of back issues from a car accident that she had, which means she can’t go motorcycling with him now. Pretty shallow, I think; I can’t imagine Glenn ending his marriage b/c Annie couldn’t beat her stutter–quite the contrary.
Mnemosyne
@columbusqueen:
Women can be pretty shallow, too — one of my cousins divorced her husband after he was diagnosed with a severe form of multiple sclerosis and started to deteriorate pretty quickly.
Yes, this is the same cousin who voted for Trump. It seems a behavior pattern that we previously tried to ignore has now come into sharp relief …
Omnes Omnibus
@columbusqueen: Jesus, are you really that dumb? Marriages end for a wide variety of reasons. Initiated by wife or husband. I kindly invite you to fuck off.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Everybody knows Major Major Major Major’s cat’s name, please do try to pay attention.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Lighten up, Francis. I suspect that columbusqueen is going through an adjustment similar to what I had to deal with when I was finally told that, yes, my older brother was in fact fucking his secretary and leaving his wife and two toddlers for her. It makes you re-think everything you thought you knew about that family member.
columbusqueen
@Mnemosyne: Perhaps!
The last time I saw the Glenns was at the Boat House at Confluence Park here in Columbus in Sept. 2011. My matron of honor was staging a mixed sex wedding shower for me & my man there when the Glenns came in for dinner, waving hello to a couple of my friends at the table that they knew. I remember Annie looked rather frail & was using a cane, and how protectively John kept his arm around her.
Mike & I have always kind of felt having them show up like that in the middle of our shower was a bit of a sign or blessing for our own wedding, since they were happy for so long.
Matt McIrvin
Glenn’s flight was before I was born; the first time I saw his name was on a tin globe I had as a kid, which had his three orbits marked out. I wasn’t sure who he was and thought it was some kind of airplane circumnavigation until somebody explained it to me.
Many years later, I happened to see him giving a speech to a nearly empty Senate chamber on a visit to the Capitol. We were also once randomly on the same airline flight from Denver Stapleton to Washington Dulles; I remember the attendants gossiping about him being on the flight while he wandered around in the terminal beforehand.
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: I really don’t care all that much about other peoples cats. I am allergic to all of them. I am trying to make an exception for Valdivia’s cats but it is hard work.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: I’m getting the kid a Huntington membership for xmas(it won’t be surprise since I asked her if she thought it’d be something she find useful).
columbusqueen
@Mnemosyne: Thank you for this. I do tend to believe that the in sickness and in health part of marriage vows actually mean something.
Larkspur
@Omnes Omnibus: Omnes, are you really that mean? Jesus. I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you.
Mnemosyne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Yay! I really like how they’ve re-done the entrance plaza, and the Chinese garden is only going to get more elaborate. We’re waiting for the crowds to die down before we go see the new addition to the American art galleries. They seemed to be acquiring some really interesting Harlem Renaissance pieces but didn’t have the space for them.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, well, I remember being totally in love with and supportive of a wife who opted to bail. The suggestion that most husbands are not supportive of their wives rankles. Sometimes, things are personal.
Jeffro
Just saw the Chiefs hang a big ol’ L on the Raiduhz IN ARROWHEAD no less…whew…it really is better to be lucky than good.
Bucket list mission completion. Next!
Mnemosyne
@columbusqueen:
In my brother’s defense, he and his now-ex wife were deeply unhappy together and had been for some time, so the divorce itself wasn’t necessarily a huge shock. It was that my more-moral-than-thou conservative brother cheated on his wife after making me sit through 50 quintillion rants about the perfidy of Bill Clinton, Adulterer.
cynthia ackerman
@BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah but he has a sixteen pound floof if you know what I mean and I think you do.
seaboogie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Cats being cats, the feeling is likely quite mutual. However, cats being quite contrary – they often befriend the one who ignores them, or gives them a hostile squinty look, in part because a) a squint is non-confrontational and a sign of pleasure in cat lingo, and b) you are not all up in their grill.
My maternal grandmother hated cats, which meant that my childhood cat usally slept on her when she napped on the sofa. They were kind of kindred spirits in a way.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
If it’s not about you, it’s not about you. Like I said, I think columbusqueen is in a very specific headspace that I was in, too.
And, of course, my brother’s big announcement was made right before G and I moved in together and almost wrecked it because I was so freaked out. Luckily, I was able to get over it and realize that G isn’t that kind of guy and we’re still together.
But having to completely re-think your assumptions about a sibling that you were very close to is tough. It’s healed over a bit by now, and I’m able to get along with his new wife (the same former secretary), but I will never be able to view him the same way again.
columbusqueen
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m sorry that happened to you, but I’ve seen a lot more men bail on the ill or older wife than the other way around, & given I practiced divorce law for 20 years, I know whereof I speak.
Omnes Omnibus
@Larkspur: I never married you. And I also have a history. I don’t just comment from a neutral point of view. If you don’t know that history, you should, perhaps, be careful about condemning me for comments that I make on a topic that is that personal.
columbusqueen
@Mnemosyne: This. And b/c his new girlfriend is not only young enough to be his daughter, but is the eldest child of former friends of his who my brother has known since she was 14, I am not going to be cool with this ever. He looks like a damn sleazy predator now.
Larkspur
@Omnes Omnibus: You are right. I don’t know you. I will refrain from commenting on any comments you make, because the comments may come from a personal place, and I truly do not wish to cause pain, discomfort, offense, or anxiety to you or anyone else here. Life is too short.
Omnes Omnibus
@columbusqueen: Okay. Fine. Your experience is what it is. I have stayed well clear of family law for years and years and years for good reasons. Your comment did just hit me in a way that offended. I get that it was not aimed at me, but it still rankled. The offense that was taken is withdrawn.
@Mnemosyne: Everyone has their own headspace. Don’t dismiss mine. The fact that the majority of marriages may end with the walkout of the man does not diminish the trauma if it goes the other way.
Mnemosyne
@columbusqueen:
Not every man has a midlife crisis but, when they do, it’s frequently a doozy. One of the warning signs should have been the day my brother came home with the vintage Z 28 he’d wanted when he was 17. Red, of course,
Omnes Omnibus
@Larkspur: No, if I make a stupid comment about politics or movies, please attack at will. This was something different and, for this, I appreciate your forbearance.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
No one is dismissing your trauma, but we seem to be specifically discussing midlife crisis divorces, which usually are initiated by the man and tend to have a whole lot to do with his inability to face aging. Not the same thing as what happened to you.
#NotAllDivorces
frosty
@seaboogie: Cats. I’ve seen this. I’m allergic and my friend’s cat thinks my lap is the one to crawl in for a scritch. So what the hell, I scritch away!
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne:
LOL
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
As soon as I saw columbusqueen say “brother,” I was like, Been there, done that, have the t-shirt.
Did I mention that I was forbidden to speak to my ex-SIL — the mother of my niece and nephew — for about 4 years because my brother decided it wasn’t fair to his girlfriend for me to continue a friendship with a woman I’d known for a dozen years? Good times, good times.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, in OO’s defense, I guarantee you that there are members of his ex’s family who, like me, will never be able to look at her the same way because of the way she threw him over. So, yes, he was put in the same crappy position that so many ex-wives have been put into.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: Odd indeed.
columbusqueen
@Mnemosyne: Yep. Luckily my bro isn’t dumb enough to pull that BS on me. He knows if he does, things will get ugly. I refuse to turn my back on my SIL after 23 years just because Rob thinks he won’t get any older b/c he’s fucking a youngling. My SIL is basically a very good person & deserves better.
seaboogie
@Omnes Omnibus: Hey OO, speaking as one who is a fan of yours, you do tend to bring some fairly terse points to bear, sometimes rather dismissively. It is easy to respond in kind, and forget that you have your sensitivities too, until your line has been over-stepped.
And on that subject, in a totally bovine and non-divorce related way, let me tell you that when I was tweaking you the other night about your cow centerpiece, I meant to add that waaaaay back in the day, when my late husband and I were “decorating” a rental home, we had a small kitchen with black and white lino. So I decided that the cow motif was “our thing”, and had all manner of cow accouterments, including string lights (think chili-peppers, back in the day). Mea cowpa, mea cowpa…. ;-)
Larkspur
@Mnemosyne: I know that marriages that go wrong are a special kind of hell. I know that because people have told me. I’ve never been married, so I don’t have first hand experience. But I know about familial “exile”, and yeah, it hurts like hell. I was very close to my aunt and uncle, less so to their children (my cousins), but it was still a shock when my aunt and uncle moved out of state, and my uncle had to tell me that I was no longer welcome at the home of my cousin who still lived nearby – he and his wife and their four little children. I loved those kids.
Why was I banished? No reason in particular. My cousin was a remote, self-centered man who ruled his household according to his needs alone, and he just didn’t like me very much, and didn’t wish to spend the five or six hours a year in my presence while we celebrated the children’ birthdays. I was told that his wife felt bad about it. It’s been nearly 30 years and the children are all grown up and I missed it all. Blood is just blood. Ketchup is thicker than water, too. Last year I learned they recently divorced after 35 years. I assume it was painful, because how could it not be? But I don’t know the particulars because I was…what? Banished? Shunned? Discarded? There’s no legal word, because there was no legal bond. It still hurt.
BillinGlendaleCA
OMG, a woman was attacked by a clown.
NotMax
@Larkspur
Discommendated?
seaboogie
@BillinGlendaleCA: ?
Larkspur
@NotMax: That’s pretty good. Actually, I would have appreciated a real ceremony, not to mention someone who was willing (or required? I’m not familiar with the episode) to walk away with me.
SFBayAreaGal
@Mnemosyne: I found FileMaker Pro to be one of the easiest programs to use when building a database.
seaboogie
@BillinGlendaleCA: That is some serious snicker-snackering of the vorpal blade.
Mnemosyne
@SFBayAreaGal:
Yes, but I have no tech degree and learned how to do it from a Lynda course. So yay me!
Keith G
Nice weather we’ve been having.
opiejeanne
@Keith G: It’s SNOWING!! Right now, outside my house in Washington! It’s little feathery flakes but it’s been steady for the last 4 hours so we now have about two inches, and why am I so excited?
Because it’s been nearly 3 years since we had any snow. We didn’t get any snow last year other than one day when it fell for about an hour but didn’t stick, but it was so damned cold later for about a week that we lost plants that are usually ok with the cold; a layer of snow acts as insulation and we didn’t have any.
YAY! SNOW!
PsiFighter37
It’s warm here (relatively speaking) in London…mid-50s and cloudy. Better than the chilly weather that had been setting in NYC.
BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: Snow’s pretty rare up in the Seattle area.
opiejeanne
@BillinGlendaleCA: That didn’t work.
opiejeanne
You’re familiar with this picture, not one bus but two hanging over I-5 in 2008:Snow in Seattle
We’ve gotten some every year of the past seven winters except last year, but we usually have about 3-5 inches. About 5 years ago one storm dumped a foot of snow and we couldn’t get our car out for five days. It was gorgeous, schools and businesses closed, we went for walks with the camera, people played with their kids, snowmen were built and the steep hills were used by sledders; finally someone with a big 4WD had to drive somewhere, so we slithered and slid down our driveway and very carefully followed his tracks into town. Thank God, because we were running out of toilet paper.
The snowplows hadn’t come because they were all in Seattle so our little town had a foot of snow on the roads and very few cars had driven through. It was a bit exciting, even though we had a front-wheel drive and chains.
Now we have a Subaru with all-wheel drive and all-weather tires, so when we encounter snow like that it’s a lot less nerve-wracking.
opiejeanne
@BillinGlendaleCA: This was our first winter in Seattle, in 2010:More fun in the snow
BillinGlendaleCA
We got about a week of snow my second year at the U. My girlfriend lived across from Roanoke Park by the 5/520 interchange and I’d walk across the University bridge from the U and up to see her. That week it was interesting and kind of scary watching Seattle folk deal with the snow on that hill. I have a pic of her and I with the snow falling and the park in the background.
ETA: May have been my 3rd year at the U.
BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: That’s what I’m talking about.
cosima
This is an interesting piece from The American Prospect:
http://prospect.org/article/resisting-trumpism-europe-and-united-states
One of the things that I noticed when we moved back to Scotland was that the divisive rhetoric was creeping in, and it was taking on some of the overtones of US politics, which I found very sad and alarming. Then we had the independence referendum, which was very bitter, and later the Brexit issue, which was bitter, but very diluted here in Scotland (they wanted to leave England, but not the EU, which I still find confusing, but oh well). Anyway, I’m prohibited from participating in politics here, but our youngest was born here, and I fully intend to raise a politically aware & active Scot, as I did with our oldest in the US.
It is horrible to think that I hope that my home country will be a cautionary tale for my adopted country, that the people here will see what comes with apathy & division & prejudice and work to prevent it, while people I care about suffer (not just talking about people I’m related to or friends with).
One of my closest friends here has a brother who teaches at a uni in CA. He drove his 14 yr old daughter to Nevada to canvass for Hillary’s campaign. Now THAT’S what I’m talking about! My parents, with nothing but money & free time on their hands, sat around at coffee morning with their T/P-loving friends, then bitched about it to me on the phone, and did NOTHING. My dad’s nearly 80, and they ride their bicycles for thousands of miles (yes, still), but can’t get off their arses to canvass, can bitch about hypocritical friends, rather than dumping them. I’ve been having this conversation with my parents since GWB era. I look at it as a micro-view of what’s happened in the US that I will work to prevent happening here (without being ‘politically active’ of course).
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: I went from Ft Knox to Ft Lewis when I shipped out to Korea in 1967 and there was a huge blizzard while we waited.
2liberal
my media blackout continues. I like it so far.
Week one; Cole – “we are fucked”, big topic: pence booed at a play
Week two: Cole – “we are doomed” ; big topic: trump called taiwan president
Week three: Cole – “fuck the press” ; big topic – none that i can see
I am avoiding any mention of our upcoming administration and successfully also.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: Who is that good looking young man?
BillinGlendaleCA
Same as the homeless guy in the UCLA cap I posted earlier this year. Dude keeps following me around.
Schlemazel
@SiubhanDuinne:
frist comment? Is that in honor of Sen Frist or the Frist museum?
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: Damn, sure looks different to me. This one’s kinda hot.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Well, it was 30 years ago.
bemused
@Mnemosyne:
Not being able to look at a family member or friend in the same way again after his/her actions leaves us reeling. It’s also similar to what so many are experiencing now discovering friends or family you thought you knew so well voted for Trump and the disillusionment affects multiple family members or friendship groups.
InternetDragons
Thanks for posting that, Adam. I actually got a little misty watching it. I’m one of those science geeks who feels that space exploration represents some of the best, most aspirational qualities of us as a species. And these days, anything that reminds me of those qualities is much appreciated.
Since we’re also doing some ranting about people we know who trash their marriages…I am currently doing what I can to help and support a friend whose soon-to-be-ex-husband has run off with her mother. Ex and mom are happily living in friend’s former house, while friend + 2 small children are struggling to get by in a dingy basement apartment. It’s horrible.
D58826
My Mom always used to say John Glenn could put his shoes under her bed any time
And speaking of heroes – Annie Glenn had a problem with stuttering until her 40’s. She took a course, over came the problem and then went on to become an advocate for those with the handicap and an adjunct prof. in speech therapy. First thing she said the Glenn after completing the course was ‘John pick up your socks’. You don’t have to fly in space to be a hero.
And yet at a Fuhrer event yesterday some in the crowd booed with der Fuhrer mentioned Glenn’s passing. No one can figure out why other than Trump supporters are morons. Trump didn’t do much to rebuke the crowd apparently.