23 July 2020 - Plague Journal Day 133

Micah 6:8
Matthew 15:26-28
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?


There's something special about dogs. They not only bring out the best in us, but they often serve as good examples to us of how we ought to live.
Just a few days ago we were commemorating the first men to walk on the moon. I wonder how many of us recall that the Soviets sent a dog into space on Sputnik 2 - her name was Laika (Лайка if you prefer) - less than a month after they had launched Sputnik 1 and sparked the great Space Race. She was the first living Earth creature to orbit the Earth.
Less well remembered is Otis, the first American dog on the Moon (Luna if you prefer) who was sent there just before Apollo 11 in order to determine the composition of the lunar soil. He found it to be very pleasant to dig in, and reported that finding to Houston with a merry wag of his tail.
Here's some rare archival footage from his exploration. A bit of potentially useful trivia is that the first command issued from NASA to a dog on the moon was a palindrome: "Sit, Otis." Alas, there is no evidence that Otis ever sat - he was too busy expressing the terrier aspect of his heritage.





Otis, a grateful nation sends you its thanks and appreciation. Good dog.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.

20 July 2020 - Plague Journal Day 130 - UPDATED

Micah 6:8
Psalm 136:1-9
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

July 20. To those of us of a certain age, that can mean only one thing: the Apollo Moon Landing.
Yes indeed, I remember sitting on the floor of our living room in front of that big-screen TV (certainly in the 20" range!) watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin kangaroo hop around on the surface of Luna in glorious black and white! (Here's one place where our staying well behind the leading edge of technology didn't really hold us back much - there wasn't a lot of color to be seen in that transmission. The patches on the spacesuits, the US flag, and any pictures of the Earth were the only areas of color we had to fill in with our built-in cerebro-colorizers (that's our imaginations, I suppose).
Anyway, I don't remember ever making this connection before, but July 20 is also my maternal grandmother's birthday. It's odd, but I've never noticed that we landed on the Moon on Grandma E's birthday. Quite a present! (or maybe not - who would have paid attention to her birthday when there were men on the moon?!)

So, celebrate Moon Day responsibly - please keep your trousers at full staff!

UPDATE:
I came across this project today. It's a short film using archival footage of the Apollo 11 mission and then the latest deepfake technology to show then-President Nixon reading the speech that was written in case the mission failed and Armstrong and Aldrin were not coming back to Earth.
Watch it here. It's actually pretty good, and the speech, written by William Safire, was at least excellent. I'm glad I heard it, but I'm gladder I didn't hear it in 1969.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.