Here is your open thread for March 1, 2020.
Today is the birthday of swingin’ bandleader Glenn Miller. Here he is backing Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers:
March 1 is Beer Day in Iceland, a national celebration marking the end of Prohibition in that country. Iceland’s experiment with criminalizing alcohol lasted longer than America’s did, stretching from 1915 all the way up to 1989 — a year after the Sugarcubes played Saturday Night Live. But Iceland has done a better job than America has with commemorating the end of that long failed experiment, turning the event into an annual excuse for parties and pub crawls.
A handful of American bars have taken note of this, trying to cash in with a cheesy commercialized version of Iceland Beer Day or “IBD.” Since I met my wife at an American bar on “Cinco de Mayo,” I suppose I should approve of that idea, but I think it’d be even better and healthier for our democracy if we had our own Beer Day on December 5 every year, giving the 21st Amendment the kind of proper celebration it deserves.
Frederic Chopin was born on March 1. The guy was so good at playing the piano that people are still talking about it 210 years later. It’s the birthday of David Niven, who was so good at being unflappably suave that WWDND? is a question I still find helpful in socially awkward or otherwise fraught situations.
Great American novelist Ralph Ellison was born 107 years ago today. Publishing Mad-man William Gaines was born 98 years ago.
Former Israeli Prime Minister and war hero Yitzhak Rabin was also born on March 1, 1922. He was assassinated in 1995 by a man who was then universally condemned as a violent right-wing extremist. Twenty-five years later, that crazed assassin’s views are described as the “center-right mainstream” of the current Israeli administration.
Corrupt Watergate weasel Robert Bork was born on March 1, 1927. Bork forever disgraced himself following the infamous Saturday Night Massacre of 1973. That was the night that US Attorney General Elliot Richardson resigned rather than complying with President Nixon’s illegal order to fire the special prosecutor investigation Nixon’s crimes. So Nixon turned to Richardson’s deputy, William Ruckelshaus, and order him to fire the special prosecutor. Ruckelshaus also honored his oath of office, refusing to violate the rule of law to please a lawless president. Next in line at the Department of Justice was Solicitor General Robert Bork. Bork looked at the honorable, lawful examples of Richardson and Ruckelshaus — two men who resigned rather than illegally and unconstitutionally abuse their power in service of a renegade president. Then Bork shrugged and fired the special prosecutor — an all-time act of sleazy political cowardice.
Years later, Bork was absurdly nominated to be a justice on the Supreme Court — a job that would require he defend the Constitution he had treated with such utter disregard in 1973. A bipartisan majority of senators voted to reject that insult to democracy. Ever since Bork’s rejection, right-wingers have tried to turn his name into a verb. I think it should be a verb. “Borking” should be synonymous with any act of obsequiously sucking up to corrupt power in clear violation of one’s constitutional duty.
Today is the 77th birthday of Roger Daltrey, who sings the theme songs for the CSI franchise series. Original Starbuck Dirk Benedict turns 75. Director and iconic narrater Ron Howard turns 66 today. So does “Daisy Duke” Catherine Bach.
It’s Jensen Ackles birthday. He’s still only 42, so there’s still time for the world outside of genre fandom to realize how good he’s been in everything he’s done so far. Academy Award-winner Lupita Nyong’o turns 37 today. Kesha turns 33. Justin Bieber, beliebe it or not, is now 26.
March 1 is the feast day of St. David, patron saint of Wales and namesake of a town and several churches here in the former Welsh Tract west of Philadelphia. We celebrate St. David’s Day here in Uwchlan by setting aside time to practice spelling and pronouncing Uwchlan. It’s also the feast day of St. Monan, who may have lived a long and holy life in sixth or seventh century Scotland or may also have been a clerical error by a medieval scribe centuries later.
Finally, on the extremely unlikely chance that anyone is reading this blog in Micronesia, I’d like to wish you a happy Yap Day (belatedly, as you’re a day ahead of North America international-dateline-wise). Hope the Mit-mit went well.
Talk amongst yourselves.
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