Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

July 25, 1936: after a five-night run, the audience at the Park Theatre in Bridgeport, CT, applauded the closing night performance of Macbeth, produced by John Houseman and directed by Orson Welles for the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) Negro Unit of New York, part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

For Macbeth, Welles cast the actors of the FTP Negro Unit in all of the roles, moved the play’s setting from Scotland to the Caribbean, and changed the witches to Haitian witch doctors.



"Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."
— William Shakespeare. Macbeth. Act 5, Scene 5


July 25, 1946: Operation Crossroads underwater nuclear test Baker.
Target submarines: USS Skipjack (SS-184), USS Searaven (SS-196), USS Tuna (SS-203), USS Skate (SS-305), USS Apogon (SS-308), USS Dentuda (SS-335), USS Parche (SS-384), USS Pilotfish (SS-386).



German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen survived both the Able and Baker nuke tests but was too radioactive to have leaks repaired. It sank 5 months later.

The Baker shot produced so many unusual phenomena that a conference was held two months later to standardize nomenclature and define new terms for use in descriptions and analysis. The underwater fireball took the form of a rapidly expanding hot gas bubble that pushed against the water, generating a supersonic hydraulic shock wave which crushed the hulls of nearby ships as it spread out. Eventually it slowed to the speed of sound in water, which is one mile per second (1,600 m/s), five times faster than that of sound in air. On the surface, the shock wave was visible as the leading edge of a rapidly expanding ring of dark water, called the "slick" for its resemblance to an oil slick. Close behind the slick was a visually more dramatic but less destructive whitening of the water surface called the "crack".

Despite the contamination, the wrecks at Bikini Atoll, including the USS Apogon, have become a site for advanced wreck diving, with depths ranging from 21m to 57m, attracting divers interested in exploring the historical and ecological aftermath of the nuclear tests, though the area remains dangerous due to residual radiation. We really blew the top off of Bikini Atoll, permanent topless!


The Archeology of the Atomic Bomb: A Submerged Cultural Resources Assessment of the Sunken Fleet of Operation Crossroads at Bikini and Kwajalein Atoll Lagoons


July 25, 1961: seven weeks after his first meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and as the crisis over Berlin’s status escalated, President John F. Kennedy delivered a nationally-televised speech urging Americans to prepare for nuclear war by building home fallout shelters. Bunker mania ensued!



Kennedy Asks 'New Start' on Civil Defense
"In the event of an attack, the lives of those families which are not hit in a nuclear blast & fire can be saved-if they are warned to take shelter is available. We owe that kind of insurance to our families-& to our country."


JFK quote: "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality."


July 25, 1972: Shortly after refusing to renew the lease for Binion's Horseshoe casino in downtown Las Vegas, Bill Coulthard, 56, was killed by car bomb. Coulthard was the first resident FBI agent in Las Vegas (1939-45), and a Nevada Assemblyman (1951-55). For being the first he went out with a bang, a huge very messy kaboom.


New lead reopens car bomb mystery

Deadly Negotiations: A Car Bombing and a 100-year lease (Lengthy story with juicy Sin City details with photos and suspected hitman.

Despite the Sin City heat, the case remains icy cold to this day.


The 1980s began with the failure of a 46-cent computer chip causing the NORAD headquarters to mistakenly believe that they were under attack by Soviet missiles. Some 100 U.S. B-52s were readied for take-off before the mistake was discovered.

July 25, 1980: President Carter signed Presidential Directive 59 (PD-59) was a Top Secret document titled "Nuclear Weapons Employment Policy" prepared by the Carter administration and dated 25 July 1980 that contained plans for carrying out an extended nuclear war.

Parts of its contents were leaked shortly after its creation, causing a raging furor about nuclear escalation.


A redacted version of PD-59 has since been declassified and released publicly.

When Carter left office the following January, he said in his Farewell Address that "in an all-out nuclear war, more destructive power than in all of World War II would be unleashed every second during the long afternoon it would take for all of the missiles and bombs to fall." The United Nations held its second Special Session on Disarmament in June 1982. One million people gathered in New York in the largest peace demonstration in history. Cold War rhetoric intensified in the early years of the Reagan Administration. President Reagan called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" in March 1983. Two weeks later, on March 23, he announced plans to proceed with a space-based missile defense system which became known as "Star Wars."

And here we are 40 years later with Star Wars 2.0 - Golden Dome.

Remembering that time William Odom almost got sliced and diced by a helicopter during a COG drill. From the NSArchive:



New State Department History Details Nuclear Targeting and Continuity of Government, 1977-1980 (Document 2A). And, no, the Odom close-call with death is not mentioned in Bill Gulley's 1980 memoir BREAKING COVER.


RIP Francis Ganley who passed away Monday (July 21) at the age of 98. Ganley enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943 and served aboard USS Texas (BB-35), manning one of the battleship's 3” anti-aircraft guns during the invasion of Normandy.


Texas was also a technological testbed: the first U.S. battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns, the first U.S. warship to control gunfire with directors and range-keepers, the first U.S. battleship to launch an aircraft, and one of the first U.S. Navy warships to receive production radar. She was the first battleship in the world to be outfitted with 14-inch guns. The first U.S. battleship to become a permanent museum ship in 1948 and the first battleship to be declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

The only remaining capital ship to have served in both World Wars. Texas is owned by the people of Texas and is officially under the jurisdiction of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

In August 2022 she was moved to a dry dock in Galveston, Texas, to undergo a $60 million repair project. On completion, her new permanent home will be Galveston. As of June 2025, the repair project is still underway, but she has moved out of dry dock and is in final stages of restoration.

Battleship Texas Finds Permanent Home in Galveston


Playing to the tune of Frank Sinatra's Come Fly With Me...


https://x.com/DHSgov/status/1948375711259005130

Criminal
Illegal
Aliens

Coincidentally, spells out CIA and now I have to wonder why DHS makes that particular rhetorical choice. I mean aside from the obvious rendition flight parallels.

"Anywhere But Here" > Celestial Intervention Agency (Doctor Who)

Criminals In Action - now that could apply to both sides.
Criminally Insane Asylum - this too could apply to both sides.
Catastrophic Incident Annex (FEMA)


UK #1 on this day in 1977: Donna Summer - I Feel Love. For Friday night we're going with a Moreno J remix.