Friday Open Forum!

I begin with my favorite John Wayne punch-in-the-mouth clip of all time because I am experiencing increasingly powerful urges to set my Facebook page on fire by directly confronting my Trump Deranged Facebook friends, whose outbursts are getting increasingly hysterical, separated from reality, and depressing.

Do friends let friends make utter fools of themselves in public? Yet I know with near certainty that if I finally do what needs to be done by emulating Cher…

…I will end my days friendless, despised and alone.

But I digress. I am eager to see what my five commenters come up with “in these difficult times”….

13 thoughts on “Friday Open Forum!

  1. “…I am experiencing increasingly powerful urges to set my Facebook page on fire by directly confronting my Trump Deranged Facebook friends, whose outbursts are getting increasingly hysterical, separated from reality, and depressing.”

    You can’t reason someone out of an idea that wasn’t reasoned into. I’d recommend prioritizing your own emotional and mental health.

    I watched the first episode of the new Star Trek series “Starfleet Academy” last night. First scenes: a hungry brown-skinned mother with her cute ‘lil hungry brown-skinned tyke are manipulated by a white male pirate who gave them food but did it by stealing with the mother’s help. During the process, the pirate killed a shuttle pilot. A plea deal goes awry when the Federation judges don’t let the mother off as agreed and send her to a Federation rehabilitation colony (those things are peaceful, contemplative camps as seen in the Star Trek: Voyager pilot episode “Caretaker”) with visitation rights for her son.

    So, a brown-skinned mother and son are separated by the law and the Starfleet officer who made a deal she didn’t have the authority to make and enforce feels bad about it. Especially when the little boy runs off, grows up in harsh surroundings and learns to commit crimes rather than be cared for in yet another idyllic peaceful place where he could have had contact with his mother occasionally.

    I wonder where that plot came from….

    I asked on a fan group if the Federation should incarcerate children with their parents, especially since the rehabilitation camps are hardly prisons as we think of them. Or, if not, what should the Federation do with the children of incarcerated persons if not separating them from their parents? I’ve not gotten a response yet.

    Hot button social commentary crap like this is why I’ve dropped history books this year and have plowed my way through “Murder on the Orient Express”, “The Grapes of Wrath”, “The Great Gatsby”, “Pride and Prejudice”, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, “King Lear”, “The Catcher in the Rye”, “Jane Eyre”, “The House of the Seven Gables”, “Othello” and am now working on “Cyrano de Bergerac”.

  2. I need help. It’s a bit weird though. A friend who is rather a mystic told me that the original Beatle album “Sergeant Pepper” had a dog in front of a gramophone that is an old record label or something from Americas past. He believes it was mysteriously removed (he has a bizarre theory why).

    So some at least who write here likely saw the original album: Did it or did it not have that dog and gramophone on it?? (All the images on the Internet do not have it).

    • It’s possible, if it was a British pressing of the album.

      The image in question was owned by EMI. EMI owned the Parlophone label, on which Beatles’ albums were released in the UK prior to the creation of Apple Music. EMI used that image in a variety of ways.

      It would NOT in all likelihood been on an American issue of the album. Beatles’ albums in the US were distributed by Capitol Records – which was also owned by EMI – but licensing rights to the image in the United States were owned at that time by RCA.

      • My friend believes (perhaps not too seriously) that it was there, but removed by a mystic figure portrayed on the album itself.

        Silliness perhaps when the invasion and occupation of Minnesota stands ahead!

  3. I’m certainly not old enough, so for others who might want clarity around the question, here’s the AI baseline response:

    No, a Beatles album cover itself didn’t feature the famous “His Master’s Voice” dog (Nipper) with a gramophone, but the iconic image of a dog listening to a phonograph inspired Sgt. Pepper’s (with a dog-audible sound) and the dog theme was everywhere in record culture. The Sgt. Pepper’s album famously ended with a high-pitched sound audible only to dogs, a nod to McCartney’s own dog, Martha, fitting the record-listening theme, but it wasn’t Nipper. 

    Key Details:

    No Album Cover Feature: While both The Beatles and Nipper were about music, their imagery never directly combined on a Beatles album cover. 

    Nipper (The RCA Dog): The famous terrier mix listening to a gramophone was the logo for Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA), not The Beatles.

    Sgt. Pepper’s Connection: Paul McCartney added a secret, dog-whistle frequency at the end of “A Day in the Life” on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a fun sound for his dog, Martha, linking The Beatles to dog/music themes.

  4. After belatedly discovering the EA Heroes’ Hall of Honor last week, I pledged to read one a week and post on the Friday Forum. Today I read the entry for Canada Lee (1907-1952), which others can find here: https://ethicsalarms.com/2019/03/06/ethics-hero-emeritus-canada-lee-1907-1952/

    Final summary (from the writeup) of why he deserves the honor:

    “Canada Lee deserves recognition as an important trailblazer for his race, a brave and resolute advocate for racial progress in America, and not least of all, an amazingly versatile, resourceful and talented man. Like the character he is best known for, “Bigger Thomas,” Canada Lee was crushed by the pressures of deep-seated bigotry that crippled his career and destroyed his health. But in his short life, Lee made a real difference in his country, and helped lay the foundation for the crucial changes that were to come.”

    HA comment: At a time when many are bemoaning the current state of our nation (up to and including the actual demise of the country), sometimes looking back can remind us that however halting and zigzag the path, we have actually come a long way! May we get through the current rough path and find new opportunities for re-forming and re-visioning ahead.

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