Bag of Randomness for Thursday, January 28, 2016

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  • Man, 30-years sure does fly by. I was in the fourth grade and the school didn’t inform the students. That couldn’t happen in today’s world. I walked home from school and the first thing my mom told me was about the space shuttle explosion, and it was so unbelievable to me, I thought she was confusing things. The next morning at school our teacher had a very intimate talk to us which I can still remember, she was extremely compassionate yet didn’t beat around the bush.
  • Reagan was supposed to deliver the State of the Union that night but instead delivered an exceptional speech to the nation from the Oval Office. It was like a grandfather pulling up a chair and saying, “Let’s have a chat.” The “Great Communicator” was at his best when the nation needed it the most. Peggy Noonan wrote that speech, and it was a brilliant move to pull from the poem “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr., ending with, “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of Earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’“
  • Regarding if the crew was alive after the explosion – The cabin hit the surface 2 minutes and 45 seconds after breakup, and all investigations indicate the crew was still alive until then. What’s less clear is whether they were conscious. The cabin hit the water at a speed greater than 200 mph, resulting in a force of about 200 G’s — crushing the structure and destroying everything inside.
    • Wikipedia
      • At least some of the crew were likely alive and at least briefly conscious after the breakup, as the four recovered Personal Egress Air Packs (PEAPs) on the flight deck were found to have been activated. Investigators found their remaining unused air supply consistent with the expected consumption during the 2 minute 45 second post-breakup trajectory.
      • While analyzing the wreckage, investigators discovered that several electrical system switches on Pilot Mike Smith’s right-hand panel had been moved from their usual launch positions. Fellow astronaut Richard Mullane wrote, “These switches were protected with lever locks that required them to be pulled outward against a spring force before they could be moved to a new position.” Later tests established that neither force of the explosion nor the impact with the ocean could have moved them, indicating that Smith made the switch changes, presumably in a futile attempt to restore electrical power to the cockpit after the crew cabin detached from the rest of the orbiter.
  • A 1986 article about recovering the remains of the crew – The remains of the astronauts were all within the rubble, Stock said. Out of deference to the families of the astronauts, the divers would not provide a detailed description of the condition of the remains, which had been in the water for more than a month. The bodies of the seven astronauts aboard were entangled in the wreckage and were not recognizable, divers said.
  • What happened to Christa McAuliffe’s family –
    • Her husband Steven J. McAuliffe remarried and in 1992 became a federal judge, serving with the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire in Concord. Her son, Scott, completed graduate studies in marine biology, and her daughter, Caroline, went on to pursue the same career as her mother: teaching.
  • Brush then floss, or floss, then brush? My dentist says the former because brushing can push stuff back into the spaces between your teeth.
  • The 40 ZIPs in Texas where the most CHL holders live – In total, there are 937,419 active CHL holders in Texas — about 3.6 percent of the state’s population – There’s an interactive map on the link that will help you find where your city ranks and how many have a CHL.
    • The top five on the list are in the cities of League City (4,822 CHL holders), Cypress, Spring, Burleson, and Katy. Loyal reader Ben and his home of McKinney come in sixth.
    • WifeGeeding’s home ZIP code (75771, 1,283) outnumbers mine (75067, 762).
    • For you Decatur folks, you have 1,074.
  • The University of Alabama’s band has a heck of a nice practice field.
  • Something for those of you that may be fan of ‘The Big Bang Theory’s’ Melissa Raunch (Bernadette) – She and her husband wrote a filthy comedy about a former Olympic gymnast. If crude humor offends you, don’t click the link.
  • Buzzfeed – This Historical Statue Looks Like Darth Vader When It Snows – It sure the heck does.
  • Ladies’ Senate: Only female lawmakers show up in D.C. to run chamber after weekend blizzard – Sen Lisa Murkowski (R) – “As we convene this morning, you look around the chamber, the presiding officer is female. All of our parliamentarians are female. Our floor managers are female. All of our pages are female.” Murkowski noted that she and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who was wielding the Senate gavel, hadn’t planned the all-women session. It was, she said, just a coincidence. “Something is genuinely different — and something is genuinely fabulous,” Murkowski said.
  • “An Evening with Lorne Michaels: Live from Dallas, It’s Saturday night” – SNL creator Lorne Michaels to speak at Bush Center about show’s comedic portrayal of presidency
  • This article has an interesting opening line – Police west of Toronto are searching for a pickup truck after witnessing an attempted ATM theft from a strip club that doubles as a church.
  • Florida Department of Transportation is sending 15 trucks to help Washington, D.C. with blizzard clean-up. – All of the deployed dump trucks are wrapped with a message for D.C.’s snow-covered residents and business owners to “visit Florida.”
  • Colorado adding ex-Texas Tech QB Davis Webb – I think it’s weird, but perhaps it’s just part of today’s world, for the kid to photoshop himself in action wearing a Colorado uniform and posting it to Twitter.
  • Vice Sports – What I Paid To Be A Division I Athlete
  • How Food Recalls Really Work – Companies pull 8,000 products off the shelves each year. Where do they go — and how much does that cost?
Posted in Personal | 7 Comments

Sergeant York This and That

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In a conversation last weekend, I confused Audie Murphy (one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II) for the main role in the 1941 film classic, Sergeant York (played by Gary Cooper who won an Oscar for the role), because I couldn’t think of the title. A few nuggets about the Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Sergeant York, the man, and the film, which is worth every minute of your time. Just about all of this is from either IMDB or Wikipedia unless otherwise referenced.

  • He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, taking 32 machine guns, killing at least 20 German soldiers, and singlehandedly capturing 132 others.
  • Premise of the film – A Tennessee hillbilly sharpshooter drafted in WW1 despite his claim to be a Christian pacifist, who ends up becoming a war hero.
  • York refused, several times, to authorize a film version of his life story, but finally yielded to persistent efforts in order to finance the creation of an interdenominational Bible school.
  • The film turned out to be a highly accurate representation of history, mainly because of the studio’s fear of lawsuits. Alvin C. York and several of the townsmen in Tennessee, including the pastor who counseled him, refused to sign releases unless the film was portrayed accurately.
  • Alvin C. York had been approached by producer Jesse Lasky several times, beginning in 1919, to allow a movie to be made of his life, but had refused, believing that “This uniform ain’t for sale.” Lasky convinced York that, with war threatening in Europe, it was his patriotic duty to allow the film to proceed. York finally agreed – but only on three conditions. First, York’s share of the profits would be contributed to a Bible School York wanted constructed. Second, no cigarette smoking actress could be chosen to play his wife. Third, that only Gary Cooper, could recreate his life on screen. Cooper at first turned down the role, but when York himself contacted the star with a personal plea, Cooper agreed to do the picture. At one point.
  • Ronald Reagan was tested for the role.
  • Gary Cooper was initially reluctant about playing a seemingly too-good-to-be-true character. It was only after he met the real Sergeant Alvin C. York that he reconsidered.
  • Alvin C. York himself was on the set for a few days during filming. When one of the crew members tactlessly asked him how many “Jerries” he had killed, York started sobbing so vehemently he threw up. The crew member was nearly fired, but the next day, York demanded that he keep his job.
  • After Gary Copper won the Oscar and gave his speech, he accidentally left the statue on the podium.
  • According to the star himself, this was the first movie Clint Eastwood saw.
  • The American Film Institute ranked the film 57th in the its 100 most inspirational American movies. It also rated Alvin York 35th in its list of the top 50 heroes in American cinema.
  • Despite his history of drinking and fighting, York attended church regularly and often led the hymn singing. A revival meeting at the end of 1914 led him to a conversion experience on January 1, 1915.
  • His company commander and a captain who was a devout Christian cited scripture to have him reconsider his pacifist stance and gave him a 10-day leave to visit home and think it over.
  • In a lecture later in life, he reported his reaction to the outbreak of World War I: “I was worried clean through. I didn’t want to go and kill. I believed in my Bible.”
  • During World War II, York attempted to re-enlist in the Army, however at fifty-four years of age, overweight, near-diabetic, and with evidence of arthritis, he was denied enlistment as a combat soldier. Instead, he was commissioned a major in the Army Signal Corps and he toured training camps and participated in bond drives in support of the war effort, usually paying his own travel expenses.
  • York and his wife Grace had eight children, most named after American historical figures, such as: Woodrow Wilson , Sam Houston , Andrew Jackson, Betsy Ross,  Thomas Jefferson
  • For 37-years, his son gave tours of the Sgt. Alvin C. York State Historic Park.
  • The riderless horse in the funeral procession of President Ronald Reagan was named Sergeant York.
Posted in Pop Culture | 2 Comments