Exedir's Blog (12)

February, 1964.

It was an event, a strange one, but one that turned out to be immensely important, an event that marked the start of a change in much of was, and what was going to happen to a country and the people in it. It was actually a small event, just an airplane and four passengers, but when the plane dropped out of the sky, landed, unloaded its passengers, the earth seemed to shake with screams and shouts, voices and the people with those that said this meant something new,…

It didn't start off that way, certainly not with roman numerals, it was just the Championship Game between the leagues, the National and the upstart American. And in the beginning it was no big deal, until, the National lost to  a brash American league team that  made Joe Namath's boast real, and to some shocking, as the American League's New York Jets, beat the unbeatable National League's Baltimore Colts in what became known as Super Bowl III, changing how the game, the Super Bowl, would…

There are words and phrases that become symbols or shorthand for mixed items and events, and recently the word "Keystone" is but one more example. "Remember the Maine" was a term that inflamed the country to take action against the vestigial Spanish empire, to bring the advantages of democratic nation building but at the price of being made a colony subject to occupation and exploitation. Or better, the emotion of national destiny of what…

And no, it is not raw fish wrapped with rice on a plate.

Sochi is the next Olympic extravaganza that will start in a few weeks. As such, this is a spectacular brought to us by the largesse of the Russian people as expressed by the Russian president, Putin. It has been estimated that as such the Russians have put in $50 billion into their new venue, its operation and security.

And yes, it is all about television and then something about sports and athletes. And no, Pierre de…

We are not yet at one hundred years since August, 1914, the beginning of World War I. We are going to commemorate yet another day when that war ended on November 11, 1918, the 11th day, at the 11th hour, and the start of the Armistice between Imperial Germany and the allies.

Of course, this day, the 11th of November, has been expended to included veterans, our veterans of all wars and those that have served in the military of this country, honorably and with…

It boggles the mind the imagines, voices and events of last week, the third week of April, 2013.

What we all have experienced in that week is now history, that is what time does, and yet, most of us are still experiencing what has happened and will experience it for some time to come.

The span of what occurred as to geography, the nature of the events and how…

So, there is something nasty in the winning, winning or losing with a cause, a fix.

Point shaving, game fixing, nothing new, but the scale, now there is the rub, or rather the boot.

International Football, or soccer to us, may be dirty, very dirty. After an investigation by a international and national police organizations, 680 matches have been marked…

Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun of York;

And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house

In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. (Richard the III, Act I, Scene I)

Has been found, Richard's head and body that is, buried in what is now a parking lot in the city of Leicester in the…

Time usually heals, if nothing else by space, the space between the event and now.

On February 1st, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia was torn apart upon reentry after completing its successful mission to the International Space Station. The crew failed to return home.

The idea of space travel was, is and will be a risky business much like…

It comes every year, Feb 2nd, where the prognostication of a rodent can be taken as sign, a sign that winter will end, more or less.

It also comes as a theme of opportunity and renewal, such as, in Phil Conners; a moment in life to discover the poignancy and beauty of light, jazz piano playing and reciting 19th century French poetry. But then again, that was but…

It is just a number, a big one, but still a number. And yet, it means something else, means about $9 trillion in recovered wealth as the Dow Jones Industrial index has recovered to close at 14000, the first time since July, 2007.

So, do most Americans feel better than they did 5 years ago? Nope, most Americans are still challenged to do better. Then who are the beneficiaries of the recovery? Good question.

Most American corporations are, and the bigger the better.…

There have been some significant NASA events' commemorations recently going back to the start of the American Space Age. And among the great and brave men and women being noted there is a lack of the note of America's first astronaut, well, not a man or a woman but a monkey, a chimpanzee, named Ham, to be more correct.

January 31, 1961(yes, 52 years ago), Ham…