Friday, April 27, 2012

Very much not impossible at all. PART ONE

If there was ever a term that creates a variety of emotional responses almost every time it's used, racism is it.   Yet often the word is used to describe such a range of concepts in such a range of circumstances it's sometimes difficult to get much real meaning out of it.     

Is the word used for so many things it has lost most of its meaning other than as an emotional wedge?   Is it good for anything other than as a way to provoke a strong emotional response?    To delve into that, we first have to do what so often the context does not do; we have to define it to mean something at least somewhat specific.


Friday, April 6, 2012

Boo? No, hahhhahaha.

A great number of interesting things happened in 1966.    Beatrix marries von Amsberg, the Houston Astrodome is built, miniskirts are in vogue, Clay beats Cooper in boxing title fights, the Roman Catholic and Angilican churches meet for the first time in 400 years, Indira Ghandi becomes Prime Minister,  China's Cultural Revolution begins, Reagan becomes governor of California, cigarettes get warning labels, Florence floods,  the SR-71 goes into service, Luna 9 lands on the moon, and the Australian dollar makes its debut.    A gallon of gas is 32 cents and a gallon of petrol is 26 new pence.   Houses cost an average 14,200 USD and 3,840 GBP.      

1966 also is the year The Monkees and Star Trek go on TV.   They and others, such as a serious daytime drama about an orphan on her way to research her past and while being the governess to a young boy in Maine.  Her name is Victoria Winters.