Baseball has marked the time

Gone...never to return...

On December 14, 1972 at 5:55pm EST we left the moon.

Harrison Schmidt and Eugene Cernan were the last two people to ever walk on the lunar surface, the eleventh and twelfth people ever to do so, spending twenty-two hours and three minutes and fifty-seven seconds outside their lunar lander exploring the moon's surface. Cernan, as mission commander, was the last man to return to the lunar lander, but...

[b]efore Cernan left the moon on the Apollo 17 mission he remembered his daughter in a special way. “I drove the Rover about a mile away from the LM and parked it carefully so the television camera could photograph our takeoff the next day. As I dismounted, I took a moment to kneel and with a single finger, scratched [my daughter] Tracy’s initials, ‘TDC,’ in the lunar dust, knowing those three letters would remain there undisturbed for more years than anyone could imagine.” (source)

Since Cernan and Schmidt left the moon, we have never returned. In three and a half years of missions, we landed Americans on the moon six times before the Apollo program was ended for budgetary concerns, and we have never...ever...not once...left Earth's gravitational pull.

We took the greatest accomplishment that we as a species had ever managed - delivering to another celestial body our best and brightest before returning them safely to Earth - and stopped doing it because it was pricey.

We saw the glory of the universe, took the first step to spreading ourselves beyond where we were born, and we pulled back, we closed the door and seem to be at least politically content to live in our box.

This is a tragedy.

Eugene Cernana's gesture is a beautiful tribute.

Civic Pride!

The Girl and I celebrated her birthday yesterday by exercising our civic duty and voting early. The Butler County Board of Elections was open - as were all Boards of Election around Ohio - from 1-5pm on Sunday. Since The Girl's Tuesday - between days at Oak Hills High School and classes until 6:30 - is a bit ugly, we headed over to voice our opinions in the convenience of weekend voting.

At 1:34 we parked the car and joined the line.

At 2:49 we were back in our car.

It was chilly but sunny and surprisingly heartening to see this many people out to vote. Sure, this campaign has been as negative as any that I can remember. Sure it was a hassle, and it took longer than we had planned for it to, but we got to see a whole lot of people voting, more than we get to on a typical election Tuesday, and everybody was friendly and open to helping the rest of the line out. Election Board workers were there helping everyone get their questions asked and their proper forms filled out.

It was actually pretty heartening. We rock, man! Our system rocks! America frickin' rocks!

By the time we'd left, the line was about thirty or forty feet longer than what we'd encountered when we arrived. I wish the folks luck and good voting.

Oh say can you say?

There's a guy and a flag and another guy reading.

Happy 4th

Enjoy the 4th, folks...a few suggestions...

Take a break and listen to NPR's Sound of Your America playlist.

Check out the most patriotic American ever...

Check a few things off of Nick Offerman's 4th of July to do list.

Learn something about George Washington. (I would embed the video, but it's pretty solidly .)

Grill some serious steak...

Get your hair did for the holiday...

Heck, practice a little political action for the holiday.

Enjoy some fireworks...(I suggest muting the sound on both these videos)





...but remember to be safe out there today, folks...

Thanks, Chris...thanks, Jeremy

PaperMag asked a number of advertising folks to put forth an image with the goal of rebranding America, in the spirit - apparently - of the glory that America is about to become under the leadership of our Great Obama. (In all cynicism, I am thrilled with most of the decisions of our current Commander in Chief though I recognize that he's got a whole lot of work left to do.)

Some of the images are stunning. Others seem to have missed the point and just played nasty.

My four favorites...

Take the next fifteen minutes and listen...then read...

Thanks to Lakes for posting this...I'd link to him, but he's a foul-mouthed ex-pat, so I can't do that...but I'll happily give him a shout out.

Listen...


Then read...