Perhaps foreshadowing Memorial Day, the past couple of days have bee filled with sad remembrance for me. Yesterday I was called to the bedside of my aunt, who died a few hours later. She was 96 and my last living relative of my parents’ generation.
And then this morning, like many here, I was shocked and saddened to learn of the death of the great Gil Scott-Heron. Please go and read Clymenestra’s wonderful tribute diary at that link – there are many wonderful comments there, too. Cabbage Rabbit has also written an excellent diary, Gil Scott-Heron: Message To Rappers.
So tonight I decided to take a little stroll down memory lane to find out what else had happened on this day.
Beginnings and Endings
May 28 was a big one for the artistic community. It is the birthday of a range of artists:
Ian Lancaster Fleming London England, author and creator of James Bond (1908); Papa John Creech, who played with Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane (1917); Gladys Knight, lead singer, of Gladys Knight and the Pips (1944); and Creedence Clearwater Revival founder John Fogerty {1945}.
For politics, it was a bit more problematic. Depending on your point of view, there was someone for everyone to hate, from Joseph Ignace Guillotin, a physician and ,ironically, the inventor of the guillotine (1738) to Betty Shabazz, educator and widow of Malcolm X (1940) to Mr. 9/11 Rudy Giuliani (1944).
Socially, it was a bit more interesting, since May 28 is the birthday of the Native American 1912 Olympic gold decathlete Jim Thorpe (1888). It is also the birthday of Dionne Quintuplets (Annette Cécile, Émilie, Marie, Yvonne). Born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne in Ontario, Canada in 1934, the five girls were the first known quintuplets to survive infancy. It has been said that the girls were treated as a side show and lived in a virtual museum. Of the five, Émilie and Marie are deceased.
Which brings us to those who have passed on May 28, notably: Johann Georg Leopold Mozart Austrian composer, who died at 67 in 1787; Noah Webster lexicographer and creator of Webster's Dictionary, who died at 84 in 1843; and comedian Phil Hartman, who was shot to death by his wife in 1998 at the age of 49. Interestingly, the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated the British throne, died in 1972 at the age of 77, exactly the same date and age as his successor, King Edward VIII.
Happenings
Historically, today was a big day for transportation. In 1818 , the first steam-powered vessel, Great Lakes, was launched. But the big winner was the automobile, since this day in 1937 saw both the founding of Volkswagen and the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco opens to vehicular traffic. Other, less travel-related events include Hernando de Soto landing in Florida in 1539 and Hillary and Tenzing reaching the summit of Mount Everest in 1953. And in 1987 the Civil War warship Monitor was discovered by a deep sea robot.
Science and the Arts also scored on May 28. In 1959, monkeys Able and Baker became the first animals retrieved from a space mission after bing propelled 300 miles (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile. Film was the big winner in the arts, though. On May 28, 1929, Warner Brothers debuted the first all-color talking picture at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City. Ethel Waters, Joe E. Brown and Arthur Lake starred in On With the Show. Then in 1953 the first 3-D (three-dimensional) cartoon premiered at the Paramount Theatre in Hollywood. The production, a Walt Disney creation/RKO picture, was titled Melody.
As is often the case, a lot of the historic action centered around politics. In fact, the First Continental Congress convened in Virginia in 1774. Ironically, alongside this major political accomplishment, the other events of May 28 might justly be considered ignominious: in 1830 Congress authorized Indian removal from all states to western prairie, in 1957 the US perform the first nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site, in 1972 Nixon’s White House "plumbers" broke into Democratic National HQ at the Watergate Hotel and, of course, in 2003 shrub signed into law the $350 billion tax cut, the third largest tax cut in U.S. history, which was one of the principle causes of the current budget deficit.
Sometimes remembering our past isn’t as uplifting as it could be, but Top Comments always are. Before you rush off to check out tonight’s nominees, here is a word from our sponsors. . . .
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Tonight’s Top Comments. . . .
From trashablanca:
Here's a wonderful comment by bobswern in Clymenestra's lovely eulogy to Gil Scott-Heron. Music, like politics, makes for strange, and wonderful, bedfellows.
From
Youffraita:
In Haole in Hawaii's fabulous photo diary, UNDERWATER HAWAII WITH OCTOPUS PORN - A PHOTO DIARY, a funny creepy-crawlie creature-feature thread that starts with begone on the lanai with a Gold Dust Gecko carooms through scorpions, mice and giant primary-colored geckos stealing the TV remote, but NonnyO's reaction to the realities of Hawaiian centipedes was just too funny.
From
Dragon5616:
Are you smarter than a teenager? Republicans aren't as MadGeorgiaDem points out in one of the best diaries I've ever seen: Avenging Angel's top-of-the-rec-list, incredibly well-sourced The Republican Job Creators Myth.
drewfromct offers this reminder about the nature of business in DarkSyde's This week in science post.
From
Guy Fawkes:
smileycreek has a new system for rating the crazies that is Top Comment worthy in kos' Saturday hate mail-a-palooza.
From
commonmass:
Dance You Monster tells us what's happening chez monstre in zenbassoon's What's for Dinner. And I could not resist, nor could we resist.
From
bronte17:
From a NFTT diary that you won't want to miss, NFTT: On the Long Low Road Protecting a Nation by Militarytracy is this poignant comment:
After 9/11 my nation was in traumatic shock. I could see that clearly. And I watched a President and his henchmen take us all deeper into darkness. That part was horrible. And I was coherent enough to see what was happening, but I felt sort of paralyzed. I didn't protest then, I wasn't sure I even should...what sort of message is that making, I wasn't even sure he was sending us into Iraq..... but I watched......and he was. It was just odd and fubar and horrible. It was where we were at though, and under such trauma questioning the leadership is usually the last fight you can win. <We made it. I'm eternally grateful to all the Gods that we did. Many did not, but what they gave they gave in service to their country and as my husband says that can never be pointless, just very very painful.
From
me:
Josiah Bartlett thinks he knows the only two kinds of jobs Repubs create, but sleipner helpfully reminds him of one more area where they have a lot of experience in Avenging Angel's excellent diary, The Republican Job Creators Myth.
In that same diary, which generated a lot of great comments, WheninRome explains (with examples) how biases built into the tax code slam the middle class in favor of the wealthy.
neimann answers the age-ole question: Are Republicans a party FOR sociopaths or a party OF sociopaths? in MinistryofTruth's diary, Brietbart to use SEX SMEAR on Rep. Anthony Weiner.