Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).
Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, and indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself.
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I HAVE WRITTEN on this blog before about my fascination with Antarctic exploration since my childhood ..... and regular readers know of my love of pooties. In tonight's Top Comments, I get to write about both.
YET THE ANTARCTIC STORY I grew to love most was one I did not know about until adulthood - the failed-yet-heroic mission of Sir Ernest Shackleton (photo left) and his Endurance crew (to trek across the Antarctic continent in 1914) yet who made a daring escape on lifeboats after their wooden ship was destroyed by pack ice. One sad note is that Shackleton recommended only 23 of his 27 men for a Royal Polar Medal - and one of those left out was the expedition's shipwright Henry McNish (photo right) who - as a wooden ship's carpenter - had earned the occupational nickname of Chippy.
The Scotsman McNish was an often unpleasant man, whose willingness to challenge Shackleton's decisions undoubtedly cost him the awarding of that medal. In the end, McNish (who died in 1930) cared less about that than Shackleton's decision to put down the crew's dogs ... and McNish's cat, Mrs. Chippy (photo left below, perched on the shoulder of the ship's steward, Perce Blackborow) who - despite being a male cat - was like a wife to Henry McNish. In his bed shortly before his death, McNish was heard to utter, "Shackleton killed my cat". Fittingly, more than six years ago: a life-sized bronze statue of Mrs. Chippy was placed on McNish's grave at Karori Cemetery in Wellington, New Zealand by its sculptor.
But it was McNish's work and decisions that saved the entire crew: as he labored to make the Endurance's lifeboats seaworthy enough to make trips across unstable water - including the decisive (yet harrowing) 800-mile trek that summoned help at South Georgia Island. Numerous historians - while praising Shackleton's leadership throughout the entire mission - nonetheless fault him for this one act of stubbornness. Now over ninety years later, there is a movement by McNish's descendants (and a Scottish Member of Parliament) to seek a posthumous awarding of a Polar Medal for Henry McNish.
AS A FOLLOW-UP to the above: what first brought the Shackleton expedition to my attention was Caroline Alexander's 1998 book Endurance - not a book aimed at historians, but a terrific, not-too-long account written for the general reader: with a multitude of photographs by the ship's Australian photographer, Frank Hurley. If this book is in your public library: you truly won't regret checking it out. Although an Englishwoman, she has lived here in New Hampshire for some time; you only detect her native accent after hearing her speak for awhile.
Caroline Alexander also wrote another book about Mrs. Chi ...well, I suppose she edited the personal diaries of Mrs. Chippy that are also a great supplemental read.
Earlier in the 20th Century, the two names of common knowledge in Antarctic exploration were that of Amundsen and Scott who competed to be the first to reach the South Pole in 1911. Their race became decisive when Shackleton had led a crew that turned back only 97 miles from the South Pole in 1909 when it became clear that going on would have meant their death.
And the saga of Englishman Robert Falcon Scott - reaching the South Pole second after the Norwegian Roald Amundsen and doing it so late that Scott and his party perished on their return when they ran into the cruel Antarctic winter - is one that Alistair Cooke said that as growing up in Britain was quite well-known. I recall reading a condensed version as a child that kindled my interest to this day. But it took the English author Roland Huntford to begin to change the idea that Amundsen was merely lucky and that Scott was unlucky.
By contrast, Ernest Shackleton's 1914 mission - to trek across the entire Antarctic continent - failed, as his ship never reached the continent's shores: but is now considered the most heroic of all, as he rescued all of the lives aboard his ship, despite being utterly alone (and without radio contact) for two years.
And the success of the book "Endurance", I believe, spawned efforts to film more recent documentaries (one on A&E featuring Kenneth Branagh in the role of Shackleton was excellent) and led to an exhibition at New York's Museum of Natural History in 1999 on the voyage - with the (restored) James Caird lifeboat that miraculously reached the South Georgia Island whaling station, rescuing the crew.
Finally, while much of Shackleton's crew were from England and Scotland, there were a smattering of crew members from Wales, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand ... plus one American, seaman William Bakewell from Joliet, Illinois originally (who settled in Dukes, Michigan later in life) who died just a few months before Neil Armstrong's 1969 moon walk. What that would have signified to Bakewell (photo below) ... well, one can only imagine.
The last of the Endurance crew members (Lionel Greenstreet - the ship's 1st Officer) died in ...... 1979 ..... goodness, how the world did change in that span of time!
Now, on to Top Comments:
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From Seneca Doane:
Memo to Newt Gingrich - next time you want to say that Ronald Reagan would have done a better job of dealing with the Muslim community than Obama has done, you might want to check first to make sure that DisNoir36 is on vacation, because he just made you look like a drooling clown. Make that more like a drooling clown.
From sboucher:
From the Insomniac's Vent-Hole diary, the spelling and grammar patrol strikes again in this comment by Man Oh Man.
From alizard:
From the Egypt Liveblog: Sub-Diary #47 - amk for obama has the best short answer I've seen to the question "why is the price of food going up around the world?"
From AnnieR:
From the diary WTF is wrong with Americans? - LeftHandedMan has the best explanation I've seen so far of what we, in the US, are up against.
From annetteboardman:
(Citing the preceding diary, also) - This will probably get me in trouble ... but I really liked this comment from keirdubois ... so here ya go.
From Angie in WA State:
I am recommending this comment by gjohnsit from this diary by gjohnsit because there is no better visual for the answer to "Why aren't things getting any better for Main Street?" than this short quip by gjohnsit in his own diary.
From sberel:
Alec82 highlights a good angle on the Kelley Williams-Bolar story from Akron, Ohio.
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening .......
In today's Midday Open Thread where the subject of the new book by Rumsfeld! was mentioned ... ontheleftcoast enumerates the many lessons learned by his predecessor a few decades earlier, Robert McNamara - and ignored by Rummy - as the point-of-no-return when he jumped the tracks.
And lastly ... Top Mojo - (cskendrick/sardonyx-style) excluding search-identifiable tip jars, first diary comments, Cheers and Jeers and (alas) ... da pooties:
1) It's a "Southern Strategy" writ large. by HylasBrook — 201
2) Frankly, I wonder what you are doing HERE by Captain Frogbert — 150
3) I believe I said that I do by twigg — 128
4) Now we're all by JesseCW — 95
5) Revisionism by twigg — 95
6) Chris Hedges' powerful and concise summary by NBBooks — 89
7) What's your point? by Hrubec — 85
8) And they ask us by kestrel9000 — 85
9) Well, I'm an Okie citizen and have been for 59 by briefer — 83
10) There is no comparison between Egypt and the US by LeftHandedMan — 82
11) The mandate isn't "like taxes" by JesseCW — 80
12) I'm surprised Hillary's by david mizner — 78
13) You're defending the wrong team by Clues — 74
14) twigg by kishik — 71
15) Maybe I missed the part where he invited by LongTom — 71
16) Texas chose a race to the bottom by TomP — 69
17) Related... by Gravedugger — 69
18) Thank you Daily Kos. by Clarknt67 — 69
19) And once again ... by Bronxist — 65
20) I think we are done. by twigg — 63
21) Say Goodbye to Mubarak by JekyllnHyde — 60
22) Don't they teach Shakespeare in Vermont? by senilebiker — 59
23) In other words by rfall — 58
24) Ah Texas. That explains it. by FarmerG — 57
25) He gives a great speech. by nippersdad — 57
26) New Yorker by Hrubec — 57
27) Walking into someone's home by Clues — 57
28) 2700 US citizens, 300 others from 90 countries by ignatz uk — 57
29) It sounds like you don't understand by PBJ Diddy — 55
30) Why should he NOT have contempt for by LongTom — 55
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Top Mojo with no exclusions, no nothing (appreciate the help, sardonyx):
1) For my sanity by twigg — 491
2) Tip Jar by wannabe hermit — 376
3) Tip Jar by Libby Shaw — 242
4) Tips? Flames? by Something the Dog Said — 230
5) It's a "Southern Strategy" writ large. by HylasBrook — 201
6) tip jar by Stranded Wind — 177
7) Tip jar for transcribing that. (n/t) by BruinKid — 176
8) Tip Jar by sortalikenathan — 164
9) editor's tip jar by LaughingPlanet — 162
10) Tip Jar by Ekaterin — 157
11) Frankly, I wonder what you are doing HERE by Captain Frogbert — 150
12) I believe I said that I do by twigg — 128
13) Tip Jar by DeanDemocrat — 123
14) In other news on this date, 2-2-11 at 2 pm EST by Oke — 106
15) Now we're all by JesseCW — 95
16) Revisionism by twigg — 95
17) Great diary - tipped and recced by senilebiker — 93
18) can't we all do the same? by teacherken — 90
19) Chris Hedges' powerful and concise summary by NBBooks — 89
20) What's your point? by Hrubec — 85
21) And they ask us by kestrel9000 — 85
22) Tip Jar by Tahrir — 84
23) Well, I'm an Okie citizen and have been for 59 by briefer — 83
24) There is no comparison between Egypt and the US by LeftHandedMan — 82
25) The mandate isn't "like taxes" by JesseCW — 80
26) Tip Jar by The Big E — 80
27) Tip Jar by nyceve — 80
28) And remember... by Ekaterin — 79
29) I'm surprised Hillary's by david mizner — 78
30) Tip Jar by BlueDragon — 77