Sunday, March 17, 2024

Photo Finish (Repatriation Redux Edition)

 


As has been observed and commented upon often, those who fought in Vietnam, unlike their World War II counterparts, returned to civilian life with very little fanfare, which can happen when the enemy forgoes an unconditional (or any kind of) surrender. Yet there was a notable exception to this lack of enthusiasm: Operation Homecoming, the 1973 Paris Peace Accords-negotiated return of 591 prisoners-of-war that began on February 12 and ended about two months later. Whether it was because of so many men in uniform coming back to the U.S. in such a relatively short amount of time (unlike non-POW servicemen, whose return from 'Nam was spread out over several years), or because it was a more agreed-upon hellish experience that better fit the requirements of a pro-America morality tale (unlike, say, My Lai); the POWs' repatriation was a major media event, best exemplified by the above Pulitzer Prize-winning picture, titled Burst of Joy, snapped by Associated Press photographer Slava "Sal" Veder on March 17, 1973 at Travis Air Force Base in Salano County, California. 

On the left is USAF Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Stirm, whose plane was shot down over Hanoi in 1967, upon which he was taken prisoner and not released until three days before this picture was taken. Running toward him with arms stretched is Stirm's 15-year-old daughter Lorrie. I haven't been able to track down ages of his other children but suffice to say I think they're all minors and were even more so minors when their father was shot down. That's son Bo Stirm (Robert L Stirm Jr) right behind Lorrie; daughter Cindy, wife Loretta (soon-to-be Stirm's ex as the absence failed to make her heart grow fonder), and lastly son Roger. Upon winning his Pulitzer, Veder made sure that everyone depicted received a copy of the photo.



Speaking of dollar gains, it's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but is it worth a thousand $$$$$$$? We now go to that bastion of capitalism, PBS, for an answer to that question: 



Watching that, I get the distinct impression Lorrie Stirm Kitching never had any attention of selling either the photo or her father's POW mementos. She just wanted to share with us some of that picture's thousand words.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

I.D. Please

 


There's been several posts going back to last summer in which I described the year 2023 as being, or having been, a MAGA-induced horrific one for LGBTQ folks in these United States. Perhaps I should have struck a more positive note and written instead about the resiliency of those same folks in the face of such Proud Boys-Oath Keepers-Trump-DeSantis-Boebert-Greene-Musk-Gaetz-Rowling (yes, she's British but read by Americans)-Putin (yes, he's Russian but a source of inspiration for Republicans)-Hannity-Carlson-Justice Thomas horrors, if the above poll put out by the Gallup Organization is any indication. As you can see, the percentage of Americans who now identify as LGBTQ has risen slightly over the past few years, and now hovers at 7.6% of the population. And "now" does not necessarily mean forever. According to Gallup, If current trends continue, it is likely that the proportion of LGBTQ+ identifiers will exceed 10% of U.S. adults at some point within the next three decades.” Why this increase? Are microplastics in the water supply turning people queer? Or is this the 21st century psychosexual equivalent of the Tennessee Valley Authority, gay power now having reached even the most rural parts of the country? Nobody is saying, but keep in mind this is just people willing to state their sexual orientation or gender identity over the phone to a Gallup pollster. At least as far as sexual orientation is concerned, some people won't admit anything to a pollster, or...



...anybody else.

Whatever the final tally ends up being, whether its 7.6%, 10%, some number in between, or--dare I hope? --some number greater, I suspect it will be the number that it's always been, even if we didn't know it at the time, and not just for America but the world at large.




Saturday, March 9, 2024

Nothing from Nothing Leaves Something

 


There's been much in the entertainment news of late about this being the 12th and final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm (which due to a monetary reluctance to become too entangled with the more elite forms of television viewing, I probably won't see until a couple of years from now) but it's hardly Curb auteur Larry David's first experience in television. Waaay back in 1989--when the above photo was said to have been taken--the standup comedian and a standup comedian friend of his named Jerry Seinfeld got together and dreamed up Seinfeld, the now-legendary "show about nothing," which aired on free TV throughout much of the 1990s. Other than occasionally lending his voice to an only-seen-from-the-back-of-his-head Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, David didn't act on the show but was its producer and head writer for most of its run. Also, Jason Alexander has stated that he basically patterned his George Costanza character after him (David once got back on Curb by playing David playing Alexander playing David.) Just look at the smiles on those two guys in that photo. They know they're about to revolutionize that boob tube mainstay, the sitcom, and can barely curb their enthusiasm.



 



Friday, March 8, 2024

Air Biden

 


Well, I watched the State of the Union address, and can now...



...breathe a little easier.


That said, I think it's best I keep this at hand:



November is still a long way away, and one needn't get complacent.



 

 

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Vital Viewing (Great Depression Stimulus Package Edition)

 


Actress Jean Harlow was born on this day in 1911 (prone to bouts of influenza at a time when penicillin was not yet widely available, she died of kidney failure at age 26 in 1937.) Let's start out with a few home movies:



Watching the above you might get the impression Harlow was a silent film star. In fact, she was a major star of early talkies, as well as a major sex symbol of early talkies. In this scene from 1932's Red Dust, she tries her best to break the ice by talking up dairy products with a major male sex symbol of early (as well as later) talkies, Clark Gable (speaking of which, Gable's behavior at one point probably wouldn't pass a present-day #MeToo test, but keep in mind it's not the present day but 92 years ago):



Red Dust was a drama, though the above scene was obviously one of the film's lighter moments. Now, while I won't pretend it was the first and foremost reason she or later blond bombshells as Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield were such box office draws, Jean Harlow was in fact very good at comedy. Here's a comic scene from another movie that was otherwise dramatic, 1933's Dinner at Eight. I've shown it before (in a post about Marie Dressler, who also appears) and it never fails to make me chuckle:



 Take that, Sam Altman!

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Ice Escapades

 


As you no doubt have heard, the Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled that frozen embryos are human beings. I confess to not having given the matter much thought before, but now that those judges have set me straight, me and my...



...elite team of commandos have taken it upon ourselves to infiltrate...



...this secret freezing facility and rescue any and all embryos before they are forced to endure the unfathomable cruelty of in vitro fertilization!



Of course, we first have to immobilize the evil scientist and his henchmen who run the place.



    




OK, it looks like they're immobilized. Now let's open up that freezer and rescue those embryos!



Um...I'm afraid he doesn't count. His embryonic days are long past.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Smart Art (Eat, Drink, and Be Quarry Edition)

 


French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born on this day in 1841 (he died in 1919.) Let's take a brief look at what's probably his most famous painting, along with a quote from someone who seems intent on combining his screen image with his passion for art:



For over thirty years I made periodic visits to Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party in a Washington museum, and stood before that magnificent masterpiece hour after hour, day after day, plotting ways to steal it.

--Edward G. Robinson



Robinson leaving the museum after a guard noticed him.