The center of the Lagoon Nebula is a whirlwind of spectacular star formation. Visible near the image center, at least two long funnel-shaped clouds, each roughly half a light-year long, have been formed by extreme stellar winds and intense energetic starlight. A tremendously bright nearby star, Hershel 36, lights the area. Vast walls of dust hide and redden other hot young stars. As energy from these stars pours into the cool dust and gas, large temperature differences in adjoining regions can be created generating shearing winds which may cause the funnels. This picture, spanning about 15 light years, features two colors detected by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. The Lagoon Nebula, also known as >M8, lies about 5000 light years distant toward the constellation of the Archer Sagittarius. via NASA https://ift.tt/3dl9Zup
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House on Saturday.
Stefani Reynolds/Pool/Sipa USA
This weekend, as violence and protests over the death of George Floyd shook the country, President Donald Trump called for “law and order.” “We support the overwhelming majority of police officers who are … devoted public servants,” said Trump. “It is essential that we protect the crown jewel of American democracy: the rule of law and our independent system of justice.”
That’s a standard Republican message, and there’s a lot of truth to it. But Trump doesn’t believe in the rule of law. His record shows an uglier pattern: He supports cops when they target people of color. He opposes cops when they target him and his friends.
As president, Trump stayed on this theme. His inaugural address depicted an “American carnage” of “crime and gangs and drugs.” He praisedpolice, especially when they battled MS-13, a Latino gang. He told officers not to worry about protecting suspects from injury during arrests. All along, he assumed that law enforcement was on his side. He bragged that “the cops,” like “the plumbers” and “the truck drivers,” were “the people that like me best.”
But not every cop was smitten by Trump. In 2017, then–FBI Director James Comey refused to clear the president and his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in the Russia investigation. So Trump fired Comey. In January 2019, Trump discovered that the bureau had launched an inquiry into the firing. “Wow, just learned in the Failing New York Times that the corrupt former leaders of the FBI … opened up an investigation on me,” the president tweeted. Trump needed to explain why he, the putative friend of cops, had fired the head of the FBI. So he labeled Comey a “bad cop,” a “crooked cop,” and a “dirty cop.”
None of this was true. But Trump’s smear campaign served three objectives. First, it helped him turn the investigation of himself into an investigation of the cops. “It was an illegal investigation,” said Trump. “We never did anything wrong. The people that did something wrong were the other side—the dirty cops.” On Twitter, he demanded, “INVESTIGATE THE INVESTIGATORS!” He suggested that the “Dirty (Filthy) Cops” should be put “in jail for treason.”
Second, the anti-cop narrative cast Trump as the hero. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he called Comey “one of the dirtiest cops our Nation has ever seen.” Purging Comey and Comey’s associates—essentially, anyone who had investigated Trump—was “one of my greatest achievements,” said Trump, “because we have no place in our country for people like that.”
Third, the anti-cop narrative laid a foundation for reversing the convictions of Trump’s henchmen. “If Comey & the top people in the FBI were dirty cops,” Trump tweeted, “wouldn’t all of these phony cases have to be overturned or dismissed?” When Trump was asked about pardoning Roger Stone—another adviser convicted in the Russia inquiry—he said Stone and Flynn were victims of a “hoax” investigation run by “dirty cops.”
Trump’s attacks on law enforcement culminated in a bizarre commencement address to reformed ex-convicts in February. He was supposed to talk about repentance and rehabilitation. Instead, he accused “dirty cops” of railroading Stone and Flynn. Stone had been convicted of witness tampering. “But the man that he was tampering didn’t seem to have much of a problem with it,” Trump complained to the ex-convicts. “And it’s not like the tampering that I see on television when you watch a movie.”
Still, Trump was happy to praise cops who revered him and shared his resentments. In October 2019, the police union in Minneapolis—where Floyd would die at the hands of four officers—peddled “Cops for Trump” T-shirts on its website. Trump promoted the T-shirts and thanked the police for supporting him and “fighting the Radical Left Mayor.” On Oct. 10, at a nearly all-white rally in Minneapolis, he declared, “Cops love Trump. Trump loves cops.” More than a dozen white officers, including the head of the police union, paraded onstage to shake the president’s hand. Then Trump launched into his next riff: “For many years, leaders in Washington brought large numbers of refugees to your state from Somalia.” The crowd booed.
The past month should dispel any doubts about the racial pattern in Trump’s thinking. On April 30, he accused “dirty, filthy cops” of victimizing Flynn. On May 8, he accused the FBI of tampering with Flynn’s interview records. On May 23, he castigated former attorney general Jeff Sessions for failing to rein in the “dirty cops.” On May 26, he called them “dishonest slime bags.” Then Floyd’s death engulfed the country, and Trump switched sides. He denounced the “THUGS” rioting over Floyd’s death, as he had previously denounced, with an explicitly racial jab at Obama, the protesters after Gray’s death. He warned, in the words of an infamous racist police chief, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” He threatened protesters and rioters with “vicious dogs,” “ominous weapons,” and “the unlimited power of our Military.” At a White House meeting with business executives on Friday, Trump insisted that on the whole, “Our police have been very outstanding.”
There’s no mystery left about the president’s views on cops. He loves them when they’re targeting minorities. But when they investigate him or his friends, he calls them dirty. He’s not interested in order, justice, or the rule of law. He’s not even interested, as a matter of principle, in defending the police. He’s interested in corrupting them.
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Keith's note: Over the past several days media giants such as CNBC and National Geographic have been filing copyright takedown requests on YouTube - which have been granted - against people using their own material that they generated from the launch of DEMO-2 as well as NASA public domain material. National Geographic took this a step further by having NASA's own video taken down, asserting that National Geographic had the copyright on NASA's own footage. This has been going on for days. It is baffling that NASA PAO ever allowed this to happen - much less to continue as long as it has. At a time when global chaos has people focused on other things NASA needs every single amplifier of the value of space exploration that they can get.
Over the last few days our team at NASA has been in touch with YouTube who escalated the issue. We also have been in contact with NatGeo who is committed to releasing the claims for Demo-2 coverage
People react after a tanker truck drove into a crowd peacefully protesting the death of George Floyd on the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River on May 31, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Witnesses said the truck sped toward the crowd beeping its horn as dozens had taken a seat or a knee for a moment of silence. “A truck came. The horns were blaring. It was picking up speed. It was plowing down the highway into the protesters,” Melanie Ramos of Minneapolis told the Star Tribune. “It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.” Another witness said he could smell the fuel and hear it “sloshing around” as the tanker approached. Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington described it as “one of the most dangerous things I’ve ever seen.”
Protesters swarmed the truck and pulled out the driver. Witnesses on social media said that law enforcement pepper sprayed peaceful demonstrators who had rushed out of the scene. There are reports that some demonstrators tried to stop the attack on the driver and several laid on him as protection. Police moved in and took the driver into custody. He was treated for non-life-threatening injuries before being taken to jail. Officials say it isn’t clear whether the driver was injured by the crash or protesters.
Authorities said the truck was already on the freeway before it was closed for traffic about an hour earlier. “I don’t know the motives of the driver at this point in time,” Gov. Tim Walz said. “But at this point in time to not have tragedy and many deaths is an amazing thing.”
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A woman poses as she wears a mask at the makeshift memorial in honor of George Floyd, who died while in custody of the Minneapolis police, following a day of demonstration in a call for justice on May 30, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
CHANDAN KHANNA/Getty Images
Public health officials, as well as mayor and governors, are publicly expressing their fears that the massive protests over the killing of George Floyd will lead to a surge in coronavirus cases across the country. This fear comes at a time when many cities are starting to tentatively reopen for business in the country that has seen more cases and deaths than any other. As of Sunday, almost 105,000 people in the United States had died from the coronavirus.
One of those to speak up about her concern was Atlanta’s mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, who said her worry was at least partly rooted in the fact that the coronavirus has already been disproportionately affecting communities of color. “There is still a pandemic in America that’s killing black and brown people at higher numbers,” Bottoms said as she urged protesters to get tested. “I’m extremely concerned we are seeing mass gatherings,” she added during a CNN interview. “We’re going to see the other side of this in a couple of weeks.”
Officials expressed concern that although some of the protesters were wearing masks at the protests, that was not the norm. And it wasn’t just demonstrators as footage from the protests often showed law enforcement officers going mask-free. In addition, demonstrators were often in close proximity to each other. “There’s no question that, when you put hundreds or thousands of people together in close proximity, when we have got this virus all over the streets … it’s not healthy,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said. “Two weeks from now across America, we’re going to find out whether or not this gives us a spike and drives the numbers back up again or not.”
Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington D.C., joined her Atlanta counterpart in calling on protesters to get tested. “I’m concerned that we had mass gatherings on our streets when we just lifted a stay at home order and what that could mean for spikes in coronavirus cases later,” Bowser said. “I’m so concerned about it that I’m urging everybody to consider their exposure, if they need to isolate from their family members when they go home and if they need to be tested.”
Protesters said that while they are aware of the risks the cause they are fighting for is more important. “It’s not OK that in the middle of a pandemic we have to be out here risking our lives,” Spence Ingram said after marching in Atlanta. “But I have to protest for my life and fight for my life all the time.”
Health experts noted that there are certain things protesters could do to protect themselves and those around them during the protests, chief among them wear a mask. “This can be done in a relatively safe manner by trying to distance yourself and wearing those masks,” CNN medical analyst Dr. James Phillips said. Dr Theodore Long, who is leading New York City’s contact tracing efforts, agreed with that advice. “We strongly encourage anybody who is out in the protests to wear a mask, practice proper hand hygiene and to the extent possible, socially distance, though we know that’s not always going to be feasible,” he said.
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"Today, the groundbreaking partnership between NASA and SpaceX has given our nation the gift of an unmatched power: a state-of-the art spaceship to put our astronauts into orbit at a fraction of the cost of the Space Shuttle. And it's much better. From now on, the United States will leverage the fast-growing capabilities of our commercial sector and the finest pieces of real estate on Earth -- which you need very badly -- to send U.S. astronauts into space. Under NASA's Commercial Crew program, we will use rockets and spacecraft designed, built, owned, and launched by private American companies, at a fixed price for the American taxpayer. Today's launch makes clear the commercial space industry is the future. The modern world was built by risk-takers and renegades, fierce competitors, skilled craftsmen, captains of industry who pursued opportunities no one else saw and envisioned what no one else could ever think of seeing. The United States will harness the unrivaled creativity and speed of our private sector to stride ever further into the unknown." [larger image]
"And in that spirit, today we begin a new era of human space exploration. And the credit goes to dedicated men and women all across this country, to the ingenuity and the hard work of the entire NASA team. America is proud of the men and women of NASA. (Applause.) But for the first time in our history, our astronauts have taken to the skies on a commercial rocket built by America's private sector. So join me in a vigorous round of applause for Elon Musk and the dedicated men and women of SpaceX. Job well done. (Applause.) That's great. Well deserved. (Applause.) Thanks, Elon." [larger image]
"The U.S. success will potentially deprive Roscosmos, which has suffered corruption scandals and a number of malfunctions, of the lucrative fees it charged to take U.S. astronauts to the ISS. "The hysteria raised after the successful launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft is hard to understand," Vladimir Ustimenko, spokesman for Roscosmos, wrote on Twitter after citing Trump's statement. "What has happened should have happened long ago. Now it's not only the Russians flying to the ISS, but also the Americans. Well that's wonderful!" Moscow has said previously that it is also deeply worried about what it fears are U.S. plans to deploy weapons in space. Moscow would not be sitting idly by, Ustimenko said."
"We have created the envy of the world and will soon be landing on Mars, and will soon have the greatest weapons ever imagined in history. I've already seen designs. And even I can't believe it. The United States has regained our place of prestige as the world leader. As has often been stated, you can't be number one on Earth if you are number two in space. (Applause.) And we are not going to be number two anywhere. (Applause.) Nowhere is this more true than with our military, which we have completely rebuilt. Under my administration, we have invested two and a half trillion dollars in new planes, ships, submarines, tanks, missiles, rockets -- anything you can think of. And last year, I signed the law creating the sixth branch of that already very famous United States Armed Forces: the Space Force. (Applause.)"
Keith's note: Today at a media briefing Jim Bridenstine said that there was representation "from both sides of the aisle" at the Demo-2 launch. Yet this is what the President chose to say about Congressional members present at they events:
"Also with us are many members of my Cabinet, including our great new DNI, John Ratcliffe. Thank you,John. Thank you.(Applause.) We have a great friend of mine, a special man, ran a great, great campaign: Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. (Applause.) Thank you, Ron. Thank you, Ron. Your Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio. Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. Leader Kevin McCarthy. Kevin, thank you very much. (Applause.) Great job you do, Kevin. And Representatives Matt Gaetz, John Rutherford, Michael Waltz, Bill Posey, Gus Bilirakis, Daniel Webster, Brian Mast, Elise Stefanik, Bill Flores, Brian Babin, Rodney Davis, Roger Marshall, and Steven Palazzo. Thank you very much, fellas. Thank you. (Applause.) What a great group of people. They're warriors. They're really warriors. They helped so much get this done, and so many other things."
All of the people mentioned are Republicans. No Democrats were mentioned. Apparently they did not make any contribution to the day's events - otherwise they'd have been mentioned, right? Today at a crew conversation from JSC Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and House Science, Space, and Technology ranking member Brian Babin (R-TX) were there. That committee's chair, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) was nowhere to be seen. "Both sides of the aisle?" Just sayin'.
A journalist is seen bleeding after police started firing tear gas and rubber bullets near the 5th police precinct following a demonstration to call for justice for George Floyd, a black man who died while in custody of the Minneapolis police, on May 30, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
CHANDAN KHANNA/Getty Images
Throughout the protests over the death of George Floyd, journalists have been injured and arrested covering the unrest. That trend continued Saturday and there were examples across the country but journalists on the ground in Minneapolis expressed dismay at how law enforcement officials seemed to be targeting members of the media. In the Friday night protests, Linda Tirado, was shot in the left eye while covering the protests in Minneapolis. Tirado, who believes she was shot with a rubber bullet, said she has permanently lost vision in her left eye. “Starting to see a pattern of police targeting the media in Minneapolis,” tweeted Brandon Stahl, a reporter with local NBC affiliate KARE 11. Chris Serres, a reporter for the Star Tribune, wrote that he was “twice ordered at gunpoint by Minneapolis police to hit the ground” and officers warned that if he moved “an inch” he’d be shot and showing his press badge made no difference.
Tom Aviles, a cameraman with CBS affiliate WCCO-TV was hit with rubber bullets and arrested while covering the protests in Minneapolis Saturday night. Video aired by the station showed how police fired at Aviles despite the fact that he repeatedly told them he was with the media. Even though he was getting out of the area as he was told Aviles was eventually pushed to the ground and taken into custody. Aviles continued to shoot cell phone video after he was arrested. He was released later in the evening.
One of the most shocking videos of the evening came from Michael Anthony Adams, a reporter with Vice. Adams tweeted that he was sheltering at a gas station when police entered and despite the fact that he was raising his press credential to the air he was “thrown to the ground” and another cop fired pepper spray on his face while he was “being held down.” Earlier, Adams wrote that a group of police officers “had weapons trained on a group of us” even though everyone held up their press credentials.
Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times posted a video on Twitter in which she says that Minnesota State Patrol fired tear gas at a group of journalists at “point blank range” even though they had identified themselves as press. She also posted a photo of her injured leg.
Michael George posted a video showing how Minneapolis Police fired on a CBS News crew even though they were nowhere near any protesters, all had their badges out and had visible cameras. He also posted a video showing how the crew’s sound engineer was hit with a rubber bullet.
MSNBC posted a video on Twitter showing how police fired tear gas and flash bangs very close to where journalist Morgan Chesky was reporting with a camera crew.
Ryan Faircloth, a Star Tribune reporter, posted photos of his injuries when what appeared to be a rubber bullet shattered a window of his car.
Police hold batons as they stand guard near the 5th police precinct during a demonstration to call for justice for George Floyd, a black man who died while in custody of the Minneapolis police, on May 30, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
CHANDAN KHANNA/Getty Images
On Saturday, top Minnesota officials came out in unison with a clear message: the people who took part in vandalism and other violent actions over the past few days in the state did not live there. At a news conference, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said officials estimated around 80 percent of the people involved in violence were from out of state. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also expressed a similar sentiment: “I want to be very, very clear: The people that are doing this are not Minneapolis residents.” St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter went even further and said all those who were arrested in the city he leads were from out of state. Carter later walked back that statement saying that he had received inaccurate information. “This morning I shared with you arrest data received in my morning police briefing which I later learned to be inaccurate,” Carter said.
The officials were questioned about their claims after journalists wen to look at jail records and found that the overwhelming majority of people arrested in connection to the unrest in Minneapolis had Minnesota addresses. NBC affiliate KARE 11 found that of 36 cases, 86 percent had Minnesota addresses. Fox 9, meanwhile, has a slightly different number but it tells the same story: Of the 45 people arrested, 38 had Minnesota addresses, or 84 percent. Authorities cautioned though that the records don’t always tell the full story because people often give fake addresses.
Regardless of what the jail records say, some one the ground insist that people from outside of the state are joining in the protests. The Star Tribune notes that while Minnesotans have made up most of the arrests, “people from all corners of the country representing a patchwork of ideologies—some extreme—have increasingly turned up as the protests have grown in size and level of violence.”
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A demonstrator holds a sign reading “Stop Killing Us” in front of a police line outside of the White House on May 30, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
ERIC BARADAT/Getty Images
A day of mostly peaceful demonstrations turned into another night of unrest and fury in pretty much every corner of the United States as protests took place in at least 75 cities. Curfews imposed in more than two dozen cities were largely ignored as the National Guard was deployed in at least 12 states amid an effort by authorities to increase their response to the demonstrations that began over the death of George Floyd but have since expanded as an expression of rage at the historic mistreatment of African Americans by police. Police cars and government buildings were set on fire, stores were looted as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators, leading to scenes of urban warfare that were shocking in their size and scope.
A demonstrator kicks a damaged police vehicle in Los Angeles on May 30, 2020.
ARIANA DREHSLER/Getty Images
In Minneapolis, the city where Floyd was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer and where the protests began, things were largely quiet during the day Saturday before the National Guard joined law enforcement officers in using tear gas and making arrests as soon as the curfew took effect. Despite dramatic footage out of the city, as protests raged in much of the country, Minneapolis was calmer in the fifth day of protests than it had been in previous days with few reports of fires and looting that had become the norm. Although dozens of people were arrested, there were no reports of serious injuries as of early Sunday morning.
It was a different story in Philadelphia, where 13 police officers were injured and at least 35 people were arrested as a peaceful demonstration broke up as night fell and gave way to confrontations with law enforcement. Stores were vandalized and looted and police cars were set on fire as police moved in to clear the streets.
In Washington, D.C. protesters gathered near the Justice Department before moving on to the White House, where many clashed with Secret Service and law enforcement officers. Protesters across the city smashed windows and set fire to garbage cans. Determined to avoid the scenes that played out early Saturday morning, Lafayette Park, which is in front of the White House, was blocked with metal barricades.
A firecracker thrown by protesters explodes under police one block from the White House on May 30, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/Getty Images
There were also lots of confrontations between police and protesters in New York City, where many demonstrators were arrested by officers clearing the streets. A video showing two NYPD cruisers accelerating into a crowd quickly gained traction on social media and led to an outraged response by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez. “NO ONE gets to slam an SUV through a crowd of human beings,” she tweeted.
Protesters vandalize a police cruiser in Union Square on May 30, 2020 in New York City.
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
Nearly a third of the 1,669 people that police have arrested since Thursday were in Los Angeles, according to an Associated Press tally. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles county and city late Saturday and activated the National Guard to assist law enforcement as peaceful demonstrations devolved into violence and looting. Clashes were reported among protesters as some tried to stop others from smashing windows and looting businesses.
A demonstrator kneels in front of a Police line in Downtown Los Angeles on May 30, 2020.
APU GOMES/Getty Images
Seattle was another city where peaceful protests turned chaotic as the day progressed. Cars were set on fire, stores were looted as some demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails at police. Two AR-15 rifles were stolen from police vehicles at one point although they were later recovered.
Protesters riot in the streets following a peaceful rally expressing outrage over the death of George Floyd on May 30, 2020 in Seattle, Washington.
Karen Ducey/Getty Images
In Indianapolis, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets peacefully but the situation changed dramatically at night as police fired tear gas to disperse violent protesters. One person was killed and three others were injured early Sunday when someone opened fire at protesters. Police said they were investigating “multiple” shootings that had been reported.
The death in Indianapolis brought the total death toll connected to the protests to at least four since Wednesday. Early Saturday, a man was killed in St. Louis as he got stuck between the trailers of a FedEx trucks that protesters were trying to loot. Meanwhile, authorities were still investigating whether the shooting death of a federal officer in Oakland, Calif. on Friday night was directly related to the demonstrations. “No one should rush to conflate this heinous act with the protests last night,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. A 21-year-old man was also killed Friday night in Detroit and law enforcement officers believe the gunman may have known the victim and used the demonstration as a cover for the killing. And a 43-year-old man was shot and killed outside a pawnshop in Minneapolis that was being lotted Wednesday.
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I’m the new mother of a baby girl who is almost a month old now. I’ve read/heard so many things about how everything would change once my baby was born—how I would feel an overwhelming love for her, my heart would grow, I would only be able to focus on her and would forget everything else, etc.—but I haven’t experienced that. Instead her birth turned out to be almost anticlimactic and kind of surreal. One minute I was pushing and the next I was holding a baby. I thought maybe I’d feel something more once we got home from the hospital and things felt more “real,” but still I feel nothing big.
I mean, my daughter is cute and she’s starting to be awake more and look around, which is fun, but I haven’t had a magical “I’m a mother!” moment. Sometimes I feel like maybe I’m not doing enough with/for her. Like, I’ll usually read a book while nursing instead of gazing lovingly into her eyes. I’ll talk to her and read to her other times when she’s awake, though, and I’m generally enjoying having her in my life. But I’ve heard that some women get so absorbed in their new baby that they forget about their husbands, hobbies—everything—and I still like spending time with my husband when I can, wish I had a little more time for hobbies, and kind of need to keep up on bills and other things, even with a new baby. Honestly, I’ve never been one of those people who just love babies, and I always felt kind of uncomfortable when people asked if I wanted to hold theirs. Because of that, I’ve been impressed with how quickly I got used to holding and caring for my daughter, which maybe sounds silly, but I was relieved and glad.
For what it’s worth, my mom had a lot of miscarriages and infertility issues, so my first trimester of pregnancy was stressful because I was so worried about losing the baby, and I was a little afraid to let myself start looking forward too much in case something happened. I also had a brother who died unexpectedly from a birth defect when he was less than 2 weeks old. But my pregnancy went pretty smoothly until the end of it, when I had problems with blood pressure and had to be unexpectedly induced (as in, I went in for an appointment and left to get my husband and go to the hospital), which was a stressful and sort of awful experience, but both the baby and I came out of it OK, which I know is all that really matters. I think maybe I also feel a little guilty that things went so smoothly for me when it was so hard for my mom and for other people I know (my cousin had to do IVF, my sister’s good friend has been trying to have kids for years but still nothing, and more).
I don’t think I have postpartum depression. I can still laugh at things, I feel fine, and I hate the thought of her getting hurt and wouldn’t dream of doing anything to her myself. Do I love my daughter enough? Is it normal/OK to not have that huge, overwhelming rush of love? I also never had a huge “This is the one” moment with my husband, even though I have no doubts now about my love for him. So maybe this is a similar thing. Still, I feel like I’m missing out on something.
—What Is Love?
Dear WIL,
Many years ago, when I was trying to decide whether to get married, a friend advised me to ask myself a simple question: Is this someone I couldn’t possibly live without? So I tried that thought experiment—but I realized quickly that (although it must have been a good question for her to ask herself before she’d married her husband) this was useless advice for me. Having already lived alone, quite contentedly, by then for over a decade, it seemed to me there was no one I “couldn’t live without.”
I didn’t end up marrying that person (for other reasons), but I kept that knowledge of myself in my pocket when Iater on I did meet the man I would marry. Despite my deep, abiding, and ongoing delight in rom-coms—and despite my childhood obsessive reading of DC romance comics—that was not the way I was going to feel about marriage, I understood.
People experience love differently because we aren’t all exactly the same. There’s a lot of pressure in our culture around how to feel—not just about marriage or about motherhood, but about our parents and siblings … and about grief and anger and ambition and success and pretty much everything human beings have feelings about. It’s easy to feel we’re “missing out” when we don’t feel what we’re told we should. But as you make very clear when you talk about all the things that are in the mix here—your mother’s history, your own child’s birth story, and everything else you mention—feelings are more complicated and nuanced than the version of what one is supposed to feel allows for. I don’t think you’re missing out, and I don’t think she is either. I send my very best wishes to you both.
• If you missed Friday’s Care and Feeding column,read it here.
Should I confront my mother about the fact that she is attempting to rewrite her parenting history? Now that she is in her 60s, my mom has become much more vocal about her beliefs and seems to enjoy fighting with others about them on social media. While I agree with most of what she now espouses, it irks me to no end that she is disingenuous. Case in point: I’ve seen her arguing vehemently with strangers on Facebook that spanking is wrong and stating that “spanking was never done in my home.” Except … it was. My parents were not abusive people, but they did regularly threaten my siblings and me with (and actually perform) spankings, sometimes with our pants and underwear pulled down for an extra humiliation factor. It’s something I still feel resentful about, though I generally have very good relationships with both of my parents as an adult. Another example: Though she is now very pro-LGBTQ, she did teach us when we were children that gay marriage was wrong, that it was against her religious beliefs. While I’m very glad she has evolved on this issue, she now scoffs at the idea that she ever thought differently.
My mother was not a perfect parent, but I do think she was a good one, and I don’t want to damage our relationship. So should I just let this go, or am I justified in pointing out her hypocrisy? It’s really hard to sit by and grit my teeth as I scroll through this stuff on my news feed.
—Fight or Grin and Bear It?
Dear FoGaBI,
I would say that the answer to this question depends on what you hope to accomplish, but I sort of feel that I know what that is. You want an apology. You want her to tell you that she knows she should not have spanked you, that she knows she taught homophobia to her children and now regrets it. You know your mom; I don’t. Is she going to apologize if you ask her to? (And let me say that if you approach her in the spirit of “pointing out her hypocrisy”—and think of this as a confrontation—then chances are she won’t, no matter what she’s like, because most people dig in their heels if confronted. If instead you tell her that you’ve been thinking about your childhood spankings, etc., and wondering how she came to feel differently about them—and other things—it’s possible you two can have a real conversation that culminates in an apology.)
I find myself wondering about a couple of things myself, though. Because you frame your question as a choice between fighting or not, I want to know if you’re itching for a fight. (I’m not saying I’d blame you if you are. I just want you to ask yourself: What would be the point of that?) I want to know if you feel that your memories—the entire experience of your childhood—are being invalidated and mocked. (Again, I get it. That’s a dreadful feeling. It would make me want to lash out.) And then there’s one more thing, and I think it’s important. Do you believe that her current stance does reflect an evolution on her part—that the beliefs she is espousing are sincere? Because if you do, then I would do my level best to bring that energy into your conversation with her.
But if you think she’s only saying these things to perform for social media—or if you think she’s lying to herself as well as to her Facebook friends about who she is (and who she has been)—then I wouldn’t initiate a conversation at all. I would hit those three dots next to her name in your Facebook feed and click on “Unfollow” so that you stop seeing her posts, and she’ll never know. In other words: Think this through before making a decision about how to proceed.
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Dear Care and Feeding,
My 27-year-old daughter is five months pregnant with her first child. I am thrilled, and so is she, but she doesn’t seem to quite understand what having a kid is like. She’s convinced that her child will never talk back or disobey, that parenting will be a walk in the park. I’m worried that it will be a huge shock when she has the baby and realizes that parenting is none of those things. She refuses to listen to me about this. How do I help her mentally prepare?
—Parenting Is Hard!
Dear PIH,
No one wants to hear when they are pregnant about all the things that might not be great about being a parent. She may have unrealistic expectations, or she may just have hopes and dreams. The “shock” of things not going according to plan is part of what being a parent is about. So stop bugging her about this. Like every parent who has ever lived, she’ll face whatever difficulties come up when they come up. I realize that you are eager to remind her of just how difficult she was (and maybe hoping, just a little, that she’ll get back what she dished out?), but if your own hopes and dreams include being involved in your grandchild’s life—and maintaining (or carving out a new pathway toward) a loving relationship with your daughter—I advise you to hold your tongue.
Dear Care and Feeding,
I’m back home after graduating from college, and I’m looking for stuff to do with my younger sister. I’m 21, and she just turned 10. My parents can’t work from home. My mom is working two shifts, and my stepdad is out from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. So it’s just my sister and me for most of the day, and I’m worried about her. She doesn’t go outside very often and spends most of her time on her phone playing Roblox. I can’t judge her too hard because I also spend too much time on my phone and wasn’t a sporty kid either, but I’d like to change things up for her. Do you have suggestions for things we can do while social distancing? Some details: I can’t drive, she hates reading (I am very sad to say), she’s the pickiest eater in the world, and she doesn’t really have chores. We have parks within walking distance, but I’m not sure if they’re open, and I don’t know what we’d do there if they were and it felt safe to go anyway. Any advice about things we could do together (and, honestly, ways to support her as a big sister without acting like I’m her mom) would be very helpful.
—More Like Snore-antine, Am I Right?
Dear More,
What a good sister you are!
I’d start by finding out what interests your little sister besides playing games on her phone. Everyone is interested in something, although—as I have learned even when it comes to people your age—sometimes they don’t know yet what that is. If your little sister has no idea what she likes, is good at, is curious about, or would even just be willing to try, you can help her with that. And even if she does have an idea or two—and maybe no one has ever asked her before?—you can help her discover more things.
In case you don’t remember, let me remind you, though, that 10 (“zeroteen,” as Beverly Cleary wisely called it) is hard. And one of the ways that hardness may manifest itself is an unwillingness to admit to an interest in anything, for fear that interest itself is a sign of childishness. So you may have to be patient and remain cheerful as you keep making offers. Your willingness to do things with her, as opposed to pointing her at them and leaving her to it, will likely go a long way toward breaking down her resistance. So what about learning together how to do some very cool magic tricks (I can recommend an excellent book for that) or learning a dance routine together? If she’s into dance or theater, you can take it further—check out this list of options. How about a book on acting that includes a lot of fun stuff like staging falls and fights (safely) and how to cry on command? Or what about learning to draw together? If your family is willing and able to make an investment of about $60 and your sister is up for it, maybe you two could learn to play ukulele—an inexpensive and relatively simple-to-play instrument—together. Or perhaps you already know how to play an instrument and could teach her (for that matter, think about all the things you know that you might be able to teach her, without any online help). Do you both like to sing (who doesn’t)? How about some karaoke together at home (EVERYTHING is on YouTube now, and you can get a cool mic that connects by Bluetooth to your computer or phone).
As you see, I have lots of ideas. I’ll mention two more, and I’m betting that from there you can start brainstorming on your own. 1) Consider one of the five things she’s willing to eat and make it from scratch together. For example, if PB&J is on that list, how about a super simple recipe for jam and a no-knead white bread? This might inspire her to become interested in trying to make (and even eat?) other things. And 2) I know you’ve said she dislikes reading, but does she also dislike being read to? I’ve known kids who think they don’t like reading who can be enticed into a book when someone starts reading it aloud to them. Maybe she’d want you to continue reading it—say, a chapter a day—which would be fun for both of you if you find the right book, and maybe she’ll get so interested, and impatient to find out what happens next, she’ll decide to read it herself despite herself. Take a look at a list of book series that are proven to work magic on 10-year-olds (and let me recommend a series that’s not on this list but that just recently worked special magic on an 11-year-old of my acquaintance who was previously an avowed nonreader: the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace, my own all-time favorite).
Good luck with this project! I hope you’ll let me know it goes.
—Michelle
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I am a 34-year-old woman in a same-sex marriage. Four years ago, we went through several rounds of fertility treatment. After the third try, we were terrified and delighted to learn that I was pregnant with twins. Unfortunately, I had a lot of complications during my pregnancy and we lost one of the twins. I gave birth to a happy, healthy baby girl. Should we try for another baby, or just be happy with the wonderful girl we’ve got?
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Episode Notes
This week, host Isaac Butler talks to documentary theater makers Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, whose plays include The Exonerated, about the criminal justice system, and Coal Country, about the Upper Big Branch mine disaster in West Virginia. Blank and Jensen explain how documentary theater works, from interviews with subjects to the final product, where actors perform interview excerpts verbatim.
After the interview, Isaac and co-host June Thomas discuss why documentary theater is such a great way to communicate important information to an audience.
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Podcast production by Cameron Drews.
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The Boss, preparing to pitch one of his famous “speedballs.”
Screengrab from the official video for “Glory Days”
Thirty-five years ago today, Bruce Springsteen released the single “Glory Days.” The fifth of a record-tying seven Top 10 singles released from Springsteen’s album Born in the U.S.A., “Glory Days” is a comic reverie about the power of nostalgia to make us laugh instead of cry. It’s funny, touching, rousing, catchy. It’s a nearly perfect pop song.
Nearly. “Glory Days,” unfortunately, includes one extremely incorrect lyric. A line so wrong that it’s bothered me for 35 years. I’m happy to say that finally, for the song’s 35th anniversary, I have solved the error and fixed the song. You’re welcome, American cultural treasure Bruce Springsteen.
Bruce’s songs are among the best-documented in the rock ’n’ roll canon, with decades of amateur and pro historians cataloging his every demo, recording session, and lyric change. So we know a lot about “Glory Days.” We know Springsteen recorded it in May 1982, years before its actual release, during “an extraordinary burst of creativity,” as Geoffrey Himes puts it in his 33⅓ book about Born in the U.S.A. (In those few weeks at the Power Station on West 53rd Street in New York City, Bruce and the E Street Band also recorded “I’m on Fire,” “I’m Goin’ Down,” the album’s title track, and a half-dozen other songs.) We know there was once a fourth verse, less comic and more tragic, about the narrator’s dad who “ain’t never had” glory days, which Bruce wisely cut. And we know that the song was based on a real-life encounter Bruce had in 1973 with an old Freehold, New Jersey, buddy, Joe DePugh, in which the two men drank all night and reminisced about their days playing youth baseball.
You remember the story:
I had a friend was a big baseball player
Back in high school
He could throw that speedball by ya
Make you look like a fool
… Wait a minute. He’d throw a what by ya? A speedball?
I was 10 when I first heard “Glory Days,” and even then I knew that no one who plays baseball or watches baseball calls any pitch a speedball. The pitch that a pitcher throws that is fast is called, obviously, a fastball. It’s the most important pitch in the sport. Everyone calls it a fastball.
Of course, speedball has a whole different meaning: It’s a combination of cocaine and heroin, the very drug cocktail that, three years before “Glory Days” was released, famously killed John Belushi. In the context of baseball, speedball feels a little old-timey, and indeed Paul Dickson’s comprehensive Baseball Dictionary does include a couple of mentions of speedball from 1918 and 1955. Baseball writer Craig Calcaterra may think that justifies Springsteen’s use of the term, but come on. I know the song is about nostalgia for the past, but the halcyon days the narrator of “Glory Days” is referring to are not the era of Dizzy Trout or that of Jim Vaughn and his “buzzer.” The glory days are the 1960s, when high schoolers, like everyone else, called fastballs fastballs.
At first, I thought I would just have to live with this flaw in an otherwise great song. But over the years I couldn’t help but wonder: I’m a professional editor. Shouldn’t I try to fix it? Seeing an injustice in the world, like a pop song approaching perfection but not quite reaching it, isn’t it the honest man’s duty to remedy the situation?
At first it seemed so simple: Replace the odious “speedball” with “fastball,” right? But something else nagged at me. The issue isn’t just that Springsteen misnamed the pitch. It’s that he named the wrong pitch. It’s in the second half of the couplet that the baseball story falls apart:
He could throw that [fastball] by ya
Make you look like a fool
Does whiffing on a fastball make a hitter “look like a fool”? I’d argue no. Especially in high school, any pitcher known for his fastball will have opponents coming to the plate looking for that fastball, gearing up to hit it, and swinging hard. If a pitcher’s great, you’ll still miss, but you’ll be taking big hacks. And when it’s done, you’ll tip your cap that the pitcher was able to blow you away in an honest battle.
“Make you look like a fool” implies subterfuge, trickery. The fastball doesn’t deceive anyone. Now, a curveball is another story. A great curveball freezes a batter, makes him take a silly half swing—makes him look well, foolish. Think of the terrible swings big-league hitters took at Mike Mussina curveballs, the way they shook their heads after a called strike three. Then think how dumbfounding it would have been to face that pitch in high school.
As I listened to “Glory Days” and the decades went by, I realized that the pitch that the narrator’s friend in “Glory Days” ought to be remembered for is his curve. Fastball doesn’t solve the problem. A more extensive revision was needed.
Behold, the new lyrics to the first verse of “Glory Days”:
I had a friend was a big baseball player
Back in high school
He could drop that curveball in there
Make you look like a fool
More accurate, yes. But also, I would argue, a better rhyme! Now I admit I haven’t been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, nor have I won 20 Grammy awards, sold more than 100 million records, or received the Presidential Medal of Freedom—but it seems to me that “by ya” was always no better than a half-rhyme with “player.” Tweaking that line to “in there” gives you an -er sound at the end of both lines.
So now that I had solved the problem in “Glory Days,” the obvious next step was to let Bruce Springsteen know about the change. It’s too late to edit the album, of course, but Bruce has played the song live more than 500 times, and given his energy level, he might play it 500 more, so he might as well let the E Street Band know about the new lyrics. I emailed his publicist and told her I’d like to interview the rock ’n’ roll legend so I could explain how I had fixed one of his most beloved, popular songs. “Unfortunately I am not going to be able to set up an interview with him or to get a comment on this, I’m sorry,” she replied.
Hopefully Bruce will read this blog post, nod his head in agreement, and send an email out to the rest of the guys. At the very least, you know about the new lyrics now. When the time comes that you can finally head back to the well and drink ’til you’ve had your fill, throw “Glory Days” on the old jukebox, kick back, and sing along—with the confidence that finally, now, the song is perfect.
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Keith's note: Over the past several days media giants such as CNBC and National Geographic have been filing copyright takedown requests on YouTube - which have been granted - against people using their own material that they generated from the launch of DEMO-2 as well as NASA public domain material. National Geographic took this a step further by having NASA's own video taken down, asserting that National Geographic had the copyright on NASA's own footage. This has been going on for days. It is baffling that NASA PAO ever allowed this to happen - much less to continue as long as it has. At a time when global chaos has people focused on other things NASA needs every single amplifier of the value of space exploration that they can get.
