Thank you for the many tremendous dispatches over the months and years, Mr. Viking. I will always be your devoted admirer.

I was five and a half. My brother and I were home from school that day, I think both of us under the weather. I was fascinated by eclipses and watched the coverage, either ABC's or CBS's (I'm wanting to think it was ABC's), and frustrated that we weren't seeing an eclipse in the Southeastern United States.

Max Robinson's is a heartbreaking story. Among other things, people figured out that in the satellite feeds you could dial in the live feed from Chicago and watch Robinson, who would sometimes lash out angrily at staffers on-camera. According to Wikipedia, taverns would hold drink specials while the "Max R feed" was…

Frank Reynolds was a solid anchorman but he could never quite keep his feelings in check the way John Chancellor or Walter Cronkite could. Two other things were likely working on him the day Reagan was shot: James Brady was a friend of his, and it's also possible the illness that eventually killed Reynolds was working…

And the March 7, 1970 eclipse as covered by CBS (anchored by the one and only Charles Kuralt), brought to you by Western Electric, the manufacturing and supply unit of the Bell System:
https://www.youtube.com/wat…

Why did that line about the two brothers sound like the last line of the setup to an '80s sitcom just before the uptempo theme song?

Relevant to your last graf: the manual I had to sign on to when I took my present job reminds us that even when we're not actually on the job, we still have an association with the place as employees, and should conduct ourselves as solid citizens. Granted, it's not really going to deter to a committed ideologue…

Nixonland is one of the best distillations of that era I've ever read. Given how much of it we're reliving, it's an important read in these times.

Several things:
- certain world events wore me down to an emotional nub, between the principals' jaw-jacking and the incessant "OMG WE'RE ALL ABOUT TO DIE ANY SECOND NOW BECAUSE IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD" that I was seeing on just about every single platform, and I had to back away for my own sanity
- waiting for the…

The nearest big town when I was growing up had a really good slightly upscale restaurant that, unfortunately, decided to name itself "Knickers." I not only had a little difficulty with the idea of a restaurant sharing a name with that type of garment, but the very thing you mention crossed my mind more than once.

(cuts to Dr. Herman Khan of the Institute For Split-Crotch Panties)

Not to mention at least two ships named HMS Battleaxe, the more recent of which inspired a scene in Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising where the skipper of an American frigate kids said vessel by sending the message "at least we don't name ships after our mother-in-law."

If they don't have it, they're working on it. But use would be certain suicide. To be honest, right now I think Kim Jong-Un is getting exactly the value he wants from the program. He is the center of attention. All the big players in the world are having to deal with him any time he wants to shoot off a missile or…

I keep wanting the whole damned Internet to take a deep breath. I understand the threat and I understand the fear, but I'm seeing just about everybody jump to immediate worst-case scenarios. The reality is likely to play out over a much longer period and will be a lot more complicated. If the Unrestrained-Id-in-Chief…

When you've spent decades living within easy range of mortar fire from the other side of the DMZ you develop a sangfroid about the situation. I can't help wondering how many South Koreans are looking at the world response and saying "yeah, now you know how we feel."

When I was a kid and living in the latter years of the Cold War there was this really simple little prayer I'd pray every night that there wouldn't be a nuclear war. Yesterday I found myself praying it again.

I'm gonna miss a lot of what made this place special. I imagine I'll register an account as a just-in-case, but I can't see using it a lot, and I'm also wondering how much I'll visit anyway. We've had something really special here and I hate to see directives from the corporate overlords change that.

The side of town where I lived had a freestanding Books-A-Million where I'd usually prowl the stacks (it was great for books that were a little off-the-beaten-path) and get the latest copy of Sports Collectors' Digest. Then it was over to the mall, where there was a Waldenbooks on the upper level and a B&N on the…

Upvoted for the Mellow Mushroom reference.

It was about 2004 that some of my students were burning DVDs of their film projects in one of our edit bays and I asked them to make me a set for the archives. They said "sure, just get some blank DVDs." Went to the store and bought some, gave them to one of the students. It was then that I learned about the…