Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Have you seen BIAD's garden?!




March 2, 1965: THE SOUND OF MUSIC premiered. Georg von Trapp, the patriarch of the Trapp Family Singers, was the most successful Austro-Hungarian submarine commander of World War I. He was credited with sinking two Allied warships and 11 merchant ships.



Last December, for the first time ever, nearly 59 years after the film’s release, listen to Christopher Plummer’s ORIGINAL vocals for "Edelweiss" in The Sound of Music. (ICYMI: he was dubbed by Bill Lee in the 1965 film.)





Androla in Labyrinth (1984) by Shusei Nagaoka

Shusei Nagaoka (November 26, 1936 – June 23, 2015) was a Japanese illustrator. He is best known for his music album cover art in the 1970s and 1980s. Artists for whom he illustrated covers include Electric Light Orchestra, Earth, Wind & Fire, Deep Purple, Space, Maze, George Clinton, Kitaro, Rose Royce, Caldera, and Pure Prairie League.

He assisted in the designing of the 1970 Osaka Expo, and was selected as one of the most significant artists in 200 years of American Illustration. He received several awards, along with platinum and gold albums, in recognition of his work. Several books of his artwork have been published, and in 1981 examples of his work were launched into outer space and orbited via the Russian Mir space station.

March 2, 1951: the U.S. Navy launched its first "hunter-killer" submarine USS K-1 (SSK-1) to counter the rapidly growing number of advanced Soviet subs. Jimmy Carter was a member of the crew. Later renamed USS Barracuda, the sub had a huge bow-mounted sonar array.


Fate: Sold for scrap, 21 March 1974.
K-1 Barracuda (SSK-1) (SST-3)


March 2, 1953: A short TIME magazine report on Arthur Godfrey informing his radio audience that he (and Edward R. Murrow) had been pre-selected for World War III broadcasting duties.



March 2, 1991: four different generations of aircraft carriers from Battle Force Zulu steamed in formation after the cease-fire that ended Operation Desert Storm: USS Midway (CV-41), USS Ranger (CV-61), USS America "Don't Tread on Me" (CV-66) and USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71).



Of the four carriers, only USS Theodore Roosevelt remains in service. USS America was scuttled as part of a weapons test in May 2005 and she was the largest warship ever sunk. Former crew members were pissed and wanted to see her instituted as a memorial museum. USS Ranger was scrapped, and USS Midway is now a museum.




March 2, 1990: THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER premiered. The film was based on the Tom Clancy novel published by US Naval Institute Press. The Naval Institute had never published original fiction but decided to take a chance on the unknown Clancy who was working as an insurance agent at the time. One reason why the Navy gave full support to "The Hunt for Red October" is that "Top Gun" actually had been too successful. So many Midshipmen and ROTC students were opting for aviation that the Navy was concerned for the future of the surface and sub communities.

According to the U.S. Naval Institute: After THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER premiered in 1990, people wondered what the Soviets thought about the movie. When three Soviet ships made a historic visit to San Diego, their top public affairs officer wore a baseball cap embroidered with the film's logo. Apparently he was a fan. One ping only.


In 1990 three Soviet Navy ships sailed into San Diego Bay for an historic visit from July 31 to August 4, marking the first such military visit to the West Coast in more than a century and signalling a new era of openness in Russian-American relations.

From the San Diego Tribune, Saturday, August 4, 1990:

Siren’s song is fading fast to distant past

This longer article dated August 1, 1990 from Los Angeles Times will no doubt make you think we are living in an alternate reality right now:

Soviets Put In at San Diego in Historic Visit




R.I.P. Philip Kindred Dick (PKD) died this day, March 2, 1982.